Ascendant Nyon had not had a good time recently. At first he was trusted by Highlord Ma’lash and was tasked with protecting a piece of the artifact. It was an important job. He had thousands of tal’darim and an entire fleet with him. He was among the top ten in the chain of ascension, until he met a certain terran female.

A small group of terran came and attacked the artifact. Nyon had overwhelming forces and overran the terran defenses despite suffering heavy casualties. But just as he was about to wipe out every terran on the planet, he was challenged to a duel. The duel ended everything and put him on this insignificant planet to collect terrazine.

After losing to the terran woman, Nyon’s skills were doubted. Losing in a battle was bad. Losing in a battle with terran was worse. Losing in a battle with a terran female was close to being the worst. But losing in a battle with a terran female and lost the artifact was the worst of all.

After the terran left with the artifact, Nyon was distrusted by everyone. In the days since the loss on Xil most of his followers left him to find a stronger ascendant to follow. The ascendant himself was questioned by Ma’lash himself. The Highlord wasn’t satisfied with losing two pieces of the artifact. Dyges died in combat, so he could only unleash his anger on Nyon. After a painful lesson, Ma’lash took away most of Nyon’s ships and sent him and what was left of his followers to Bel’Shir to watch over the terrazine. Bel’Shir was safe with few risk of facing enemies. In a terran world that would be a swift job, but in the tal’darim society being sent to a place with no battle was a shame. The ascendant Nyon replaced was more than thrilled to be part of the death fleet. Nyon could never forget the mocking look on the ascendant as she left the planet and joined glorious battle.

Nor could he forget the terran female that brought all this shame upon him. Jean Turner. He dreamed of facing her in combat one day and defeating him. He would defeat the girl, and then it her screams he would regain his lost honor. He knew the chances of that happening were low, but he still prayed as it was the only thing he could do.

And then he felt the girl approaching, as if god heard his prayer. He sensed the female landing on the planet with a group of terran forces and established a base. He knew it was his best chance to get his revenge.

Nyon was aware the table was turned. He sensed twenty mechanical units in the terran arsenal that could do massive damage to his warriors. His tal’darim forces were thinned down. All the ascendants that followed him left, whether willingly or under orders from Ma’lash, and they took away all his destroyers and leaving him with no fleet. He lost all his vanguards and had no replacements. Hell he was lucky to not become a vanguard himself. He only had around 500 zeolets, 200 slayers, 50 or so havocs, and a few supplicants, not that the executor would allow the lack of forces stop him.

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“Assemble my warriors. All of them.” Nyon ordered decisively before opening a communication request toward the terran forces. Jean patched him through.

“Jean Turner…” Nyon trailed off with anger in his eyes. “I’ve been waiting for this moment…”

“Executor Nyon.” Jean replied. “We need not be adversaries. We’ll just collect a few cans of terrazine and we’ll be on our way.”

Nyon laughed widely. His eyes were glaring red, literally and figuratively. Jean watched him quietly. “Only one of us can leave this planet alive.”

“You don’t have the numbers to attack our base.” Jean pointed out.

“I don’t need to.” Nyon grinned wickedly. “I know why you’re here. You’re here for the terrazine. You shall not get any.” He closed the comm without waiting for a response.

Jean was expressionless and the screen was turned dark.

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For the next few days the Raiders moved out across Bel’Shir with the fire support of giant goliath walkers that escorted SCVs to terrazine geysers. The tal’darim launched a few attempts to test the water, and the goliaths proved to be powerful. Even though their armor still couldn’t stand against the psi blade of protoss, their firepower was enough to make sure no tal’darim ever get close enough. Jean also requested a squad of 12 siege tanks which she deployed at the geysers, making it impossible for the protoss to attack, The few slayers that could hit the goliaths from far away didn’t do enough damage before being taken down by the autocannons and crucio shock cannons.

In the protoss nexus, Nyon wasn’t depressed at all by the fact that his warriors couldn’t overwhelm the terran. “Assemble all the warriors for one final assault.” He ordered. A supplicant blindly obeyed even though he knew if they attacked the terran could wipe them out.

In the command center, Jean frowned as the tal’darim assembled outside the siege tank range. The zeolets and slayers couldn’t breach the line of steel formed by 12 siege tanks, 15 goliaths, and hundreds of bio forces. Why would Nyon attempt a suicide attack. He was better than this. Jean knew the tal’darim, even angered, wouldn’t lose all his men in a futile assault. He was planning something.

The tal’darim attacked. Zeolets charged at the terran line and slayers blinked forward to open fire. Their phase armor buying them some time to attack before being broken and the slayers perished at the tide of steel. Zeolets were dying by the droves every second. Gauss rifles. Grenade launchers. Autocannons. Cruicio shock cannons. All these terran weapon formed an impenetrable system of death as no zeolet could even get close enough to do real damage. The tal’darim fought bravely, despite all odds. Those that remained with Nyon after his shameful defeat were ultimately loyal to the ascendant. They charged until the end, doing their best to assist their leader even if all they could contribute to the battle was waste more ammo of the terran units.

Jean’s frown only grew deeper and deeper as the tal’darim were slaughtered. She was confused until she heard the adjacent warning her about a small tal’darim force engaged his base and were slaughtering the guards with impressive efficiency.