A Dominion battlecruiser took a wave of anti-matter missiles to the bottom armor. Terran vehicle plating started to crumble. The captain screamed, trying to get either the warp drive or the defensive matrix online, but neither attempts were successful. Finally, when half a dozen tempests fired a single round of plasma bolts at the battlecruiser, the ship disassembled in mid air.
Thousands of men and women died either in the explosion or from the vacuum of space that followed.
The vanguard of the Golden Armada pushed through the Dominion defenses with ease. Battlecruiser after battlecruiser fell dead. Casualty sky rocketed.
Tens of thousands of Daelaam ground forces were warped onto Korhal’s surface. Dominion security forces were deployed. The corrupted protoss were looking for death, and the terran were defending their homeworld.
Terran and protoss fought and died over every inch of the planet’s soil.
Suddenly, in Korhal’s orbit, two separate fleets warped in. On one side was nearly fifty leviathans, leading tens of thousands of smaller zerg flyer. On the other was a wave of red. A dozen motherships led the charge.
The Swarm and the Death Fleet have arrived. They have surrounded the Golden Armada vanguard from all sides. Immediately, the table was turned. The Golden Armada was the one being outnumbered.
But just before the two armadas could crush down on the Golden Armada, the commander of the vanguard fleet smirked.
“Now!”
The psionic signal cruised through the Khala and reached its meant destination in just moments. The next second, both the Terran Dominion, the Death Fleet, and the Zerg Swarm detected massive amount of warp signals.
They made according preparations.
As the Allied ships turned around the face the oncoming hostile forces, the warp signals were turned into actual ships. Immediately, over seven hundred Daelaam ships warped in.
A thousand Golden Armada capital ships surrounded the Allied forces.
There was no words exchanged. Both side knew there was no chance for compromise, and fighting exploded in an instant.
“Alarak, take on the Swarm! Akshaar, lead the hybrids and take 300 ships and break through the Tal’darim. I want them to pay for their betrayal! Artanis, bring the rest of the Daelaam and crush the terran!”
Narud immediately chose the Terran Dominion as the prime target of assault. Before sending in even the first Daelaam fleet, he gathered whatever spectres he had left and sent them to Korhal. These elite operatives were on a suicide mission as they mind controlled key Dominion personnel and launched assassinations on many Dominion commanders. They were able to cripple the terran forces in the field. The Dominion Fleet simply wasn’t at its prime. Compared to the Death Fleet and the Swarm, it was the weakest spot.
Inside his own mothership, Alarak led his ships and made a move on the Swarm. On the other side, hybrid Akshaar, who barely survived Nyon’s betrayal, was more than happy to seek vengeance now that he had an army behind his back.
The Swarm and the Death Fleet were able to hold their ground, but the same couldn’t be said for the Terran Dominion. General Warfield and General Davis were able to stabilize with the help of their personal fleets, but most of the fleet was in chaos. The firepower of the Golden Armada was simply too much. Battlecruiser after battlecruiser was melted. The Golden Armada cleverly targeted valuable Dominion vessels, like ravens, science vessels, and Gorgon battlecruisers, who were exposed due to the lack of organization by the terran.
Daelaam fighters swarmed over whatever vikings and wraiths the Dominion was able to launch before turning their gaze to the air and air guns on battlecruisers. Despite heavy losses, the protoss fighters were able to disseminate most of the guns on the battlecruisers. Some of the pilots even decided to just ram their fighters into the batteries and take down the objective and kill themselves in the process. Two birds, one stone.
When the fighters were done, armies and armies of warp prisms floated to the battlecruisers. They projected dozens of power fields on every single battlecruiser, pretty much covering the entire ship. The battlecruisers tried to get rid of them, but the fighters have already made sure that would never happen.
Dominion captains weren’t stupid. They knew what the protoss were trying, but knowing it didn't mean they were able to stop it. When the protoss warped in enough zealots, adepts, and high templars to outnumber the terran marines and marauders by ten to one, it was an easy fight.
But, against the odds, the brave men and women of the Dominion didn't give up. In many cases, when the battlecruisers were surely lost, the captains would overload the fusion cores of the ships and let the entire cruiser go up in flames, destroying all the boarding parties as well as the warp prisms and the fighters around the ship. It was the last thing they could do for their kind.
Dominion orbital defenses on Korhal did their best to even the odds, but there was only so much they could do.
“Where is the Warden Fleet?” Valerian Mengsk demanded. The Dominion casualties have already rose to a dangerous point. If the battlefield was on planets like Char, any sane general would’ve ordered a retreat. But they were fighting on Korhal, the homeworld of the Terran Dominion. Abandon this location, and all would be lost. The emperor went through all the forces he could count on to save the day, and Jean’s Warden fleet was the first to come into mind.
“Commander Cassidy’s ship gone down during one of the spectre attacks. We can’t find her. We have to assume she is killed.”
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“Then contact her second in command!”
“Yes sir!”
Valerian looked out the window, where Augustgrad was burning. The first Golden Armada fleet dropped tens of thousands of zealots and adepts into the city. The only mission of these protoss units was to kill, and they were sure damn good at it. The casualty was already sky high when Dominion security forces shot down the warp prisms and gunned down the protoss forces. Valerian couldn’t hear anything from inside his palace, but he could see smoke coming up all over the city.
Even if the Golden Armada was defeated, the price would devastating.
Suddenly, a wave of red assembled on the horizon. Valerian rubbed his eyes as if he thought he was having hallucinations. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t.
“Sir, a large number of protoss phoenixes is approaching the city!”
“How many!”
“Over...over 2,000.”
Valerian’s mouth hung open. 2,000 phoenixes. What does it mean? 2,000 phoenixes could gun down a battlecruiser in a single run. The amount of damage it could do to the city would be tremendous…
“Tell the security forces to take them down! Get General Warfield online and tell him to deploy fighters to the city now!”
The officers carried out the orders, but Valerian could feel his heart sinking. It was too late. Even if Warfield could scramble enough fighters, by the time they get to the city, the phoenixes, known for their speed, would’ve reaped across the city several times. As for the Dominion security forces…
The emperor clenched onto his fists as the phoenixes reached the city.
“Shoot down these aliens!”
All across the city of Augustgrad, tens of thousands of marines and marauders raised their weapons and aimed at the phoenixes. With a single order, they opened fire.
Tons and tons of metal flew across the sky, but the phoenixes decided to push through with force. Unfortunately for the terran, the speed of the phoenixes meant it was impossible to target one of them down. Without proper targeting, the phoenixes’ shields were impenetrable. Even worse, when the phoenixes flew across, the fired their ion cannons.
Designed to take down enemy fighters, ion cannons mowed lines of blood and gore across the Dominion forces. Get shot in the head, and the head’s gone. Get shot in the limbs, and you don’t even need an amputation. Get shot in the chest, well, good luck to your family in piecing back your corpse.
Even bunkers couldn’t survive the onslaught. A few phoenixes? Fine. The neosteel armor could block their ion cannons. But when two thousand fighters took over a minute to unload on the bunker, well, let’s just say it would take twenty times the armor to have a chance of leaving something behind.
Perhaps the siege tanks had it the worst. They played a crucial role in defending the city from Daleaam landing forces. In fact, they were perhaps the only fire support the terran had that could challenge enemy colossus and immortals. Unfortunately, without the ability to shoot into the air, siege tanks became metal coffins. The crew members inside were ripped to pieces as ion cannon rounds penetrated the upper armor of the tanks and burned their way right through the crews’ bodies.
But the sacrifices of these men weren’t completely in vain. With the contribution of missile turrets, by the time the phoenixes reaved through half of Augustgrad, they were down to nine tenth of their number.
Twenty thors and five hundred vikings and wraiths formed the strongest line of defense yet.
“Death comes to all!” The leading phoenix pilot screamed as six javelin missile smashed into his starfighter and exploded, sending his cruiser to the ground. As soon as his ship hit the ground, it exploded, burning the protoss alive.
At least thirty phoenixes fell, sometimes literally, but the rest of the phoenixes just didn't care as they ran past the Dominion forces while firing. All the vikings and wraiths were gunned down before they could fire their third volley. Thors survived longer, but at the end of the phoenix run, they were gone as well.
The phoenixes continued to ravage through the city. Only this time, they weren’t the only ones.
The Dominion General commanding the defense of Augustgrad realized, in horror, that while his forces were exhausted by the phoenixes, one of the Golden Armada motherships have somehow jumped to the northern end of Augustgrad, where the Dominion presence was nearly gone.
The general’s heart sank as he expected half the city to be burned to crisp by the mothership’s purification beam. He has seen what it could do, and he expected to see it again. Strangely, the mothership did no such thing.
The terran didn't know this, but this mothership’s energy has already been exhausted during all the purification missions against the infested terran. If this mothership tried to purify another planet, it would collapse itself before purifying an ant.
But before the terran could relax, the mothership started to unload units.
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In one end of the city, a family of three cowered in their house. They have been this way ever since the city’s siren started blasting.
The family represented the vast majority of the inhabitants on Korhal. They didn't have a fleet. They didn't have zerg essence in them. They didn't have psionic power. They had no idea why this war was happening, and they didn't care. All they wanted was everything to be over.
They were just a few of the billions of people whose lives Jean has destroyed over less than a year in this world.
Screams started to ring out in neighboring houses. The father reached onto the table and grabbed onto a gun. It was an old fashioned shotgun. It wasn’t even a gauss one. The man doubted he could even crack the glass helmet of a CMC armor with the firearm, but this was his only way to protect his family.
The mother hugged onto her child tightly, as if she could protect her daughter by holding her close enough. There was an obvious trail of tear down her face, but she did her best to keep her daughter from seeing it.
“Mom?”
The daughter suddenly asked.
“Yes?”
“I’m scared.”
The screams stopped. Either their neighbors were dead or the threat was neutralized.
The family prayed it was the second option.
Suddenly, a red plasma blade cut its way through the house’s door.
“Run! Go out through the backdoor!”
The man raised his shotgun and took aim at the protoss zealot, who kicked the door open in one swift move. The man pulled the trigger multiple times, but all the shots bounced off the zealot’s shield.
The zealot smirked before running the man through with his blade.
“No!” The wife cried. The zealot glanced at her. His eyes glared in the pleasure of killing. Swiping his blade to the side and chopping the dying man in half to make it a more painful end, the zealot transformed into a wave of energy and appeared in front of the wife.
At this moment, the mother knew she was a lost cause. Instead of futilely turning around and attempting to flee, she launched herself at the zealot. She knew the more she could delay the monster, the more likely her child could flee.
The zealot ripped her head off.