The child ran and ran.

The corrupted zealot followed. He didn't charge this time. On one hand, he enjoyed the thrill of chasing a desperate prey. On the other hand, he was exhausted. To convince the Allied forces the Golden Armada was weak enough to be jumped on, Narud pushed the Golden Armada to its edge by taking many targets in a short period of time and not allowing his men much break.

Plus, it’s not like the girl could get away.

The girl made her way into an abandoned park. Stumbling past several corpses, she finally tripped and collapsed.

The zealot stopped in front of the girl. He slowly raised his blade.

When it came down, a body hit the floor.

Only it was the body of the zealot.

The girl’s mouth hung open in awe. At the last moment, a blonde appeared behind the zealot, grabbed onto his arm that held the blade, and jammed the blade into the zealot’s body. The zealot’s plasma shield was designed to defend the user again attacks from outside, but it mistakenly recognized the zealot’s own blade as a friendly and allowed it to pass freely. This allowed Jean to take down the zealot with a single shot.

The girl was looking at Jean, but the older woman had no intention of wasting time on her.

In fact, as of the moment, Jean’s plan was a little derailed.

A while ago, thanks to a spectre Viper was able to take prisoner, Jean was made aware of Narud’s plan to sabotage the Dominion defenses, jump in a small fleet, force the Dominion to call for the rest of the Allied for help, and then warp in the entire Golden Armada to wipe out the Alliance once and for all. It took Viper a few tries to brainwash the spectre, and the spectre died right after, but it was worth it.

Jean tried to turn that plan slightly to make it benefit herself. Her plan was to make the Golden Armada jump in voluntarily, destroy it, and take minimum damage to her own forces in the process. Maximize the profit and minimize the cost, basically.

So Jean took the bait volunteerily and stepped out of her fortress. Just like she expected, the spectres ambushed her and “killed” her. Of course, they didn't know of her primal zerg upgrade on Zerus, which gifted her with rapid regeneration and super strength. In other words, a shot to the head wouldn’t kill her, but it was enough to convince the spectres she was dead.

The plan went well until that point. Her “recklessly” decision caused her ship to go down, and her fighters “tried” to delay the attackers, to little success.

But everything went wrong when the spectres shot her. Jean has never really being wounded by a spectre, which was why she didn't know that when the spectre’s psionically charged round entered her body, it did much more damage that she expected. The void energy temperorily fought off her regeneration energy. She could’ve recovered from a normal bullet wound in moments, but the spectre’s bullet knocked her out for a long time.

On the positive side, Narud still considered it favorable to order the attack. On the negative side, when Jean started the trip, she expected to be back in command as soon as the Golden Armada strikes. This way, she could choose when she would resurface and send the Purifier Fleet and the Warden Fleet into action. The prime timing would be when the Golden Armada was severely weakened but was about to break through the rest of the Allied factions. At that moment, Jean’s forces would completely crush the Golden Armada but take little losses. This was why she told both the Purifiers and the Warden forces to hold their position until she gave the order. She considered herself as the only one with the knowledge to determine the perfect timing.

But Jean woke up only now, and the situation was already terrible for the Alliance. The Dominion was being overwhelmed. With the Dominion gone, the Death Fleet and the Swarm would be next. Jean could take on the Golden Armada all by herself, but it would be a costly fight. Thankfully, she woke up just in time.

She took out a back up transmittor from her watch. Her original one was destroyed when her ship exploded.

“All Warden ships, by my command…”

In the air, all the Dominion ships suddenly did a short ranged jump. When the ships exited warp space again, they were in a tight formation. This meant an end to the advantage the Golden Armada was able to gain by sending the entire Dominion Fleet into chaos. General Warfield and Davis have finally recovered.

But was it enough? Narud wanted to make the answer of that a solid “no” with his actions.

The Golden Armada continued to push forward. Only this time, Narud’s flagship was leading the charge.

“Take down that mothership!” Warfield knew the mothership was trying to do something. Following his order, dozens of Yamato Cannons were charged up, but just as the rounds exited the barral, severan Daelaam carriers short range jumped to between the mothership and the Yamato Cannons. The resulting wave of explosions destroyed all the carriers but left the mothership unscathed.

As the mothership got close enough, its crystal blinked violently. All of a sudden, the majority of the Terran Fleet found themselves several times slower than before. Even the laser batteries were firing at the speed of turtles. Likewise, protoss lasers were slowed down.

A viking pilot watched as a pair of anti-matter missiles slowly smashed into his fighter and exploded. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do because of the protoss time warp.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

With most of the defenders crippled, the Golden Armada turned on the few Dominion ships outside the area of effect of the spell. The trapped terran ships couldn’t be attacked, but they couldn’t help their comrades either.

Suddenly, within the blink of an eye, fifty white battlecruisers jumped to in front of the Golden Armada.

The Warden fleet has finally arrived.

At the same time, in Augustgrad, Warden units poured down the streets. S-3s pounded on the phoenixes with both their 330mm anti-air cannons and their javelin missiles. A sea of S-1s opened fire as well. Unlike marines and marauders, their advanced targeting algorithms made sure they would rarely miss. The phoenixes, already dwindled down by the Dominion resistance, were quickly down to their last ships.

Zealots and adepts, who have massacred tens of thousands of terran civilians in a matter of minutes, encountered Warden striders. They had overwhelming numbers, but the Warden fought with extreme dedication. Groups and groups of zealots overwhelmed a S-1, only to find themselves crippled by the explosion that followed. The immortals the Daelaam sent to the ground became prime targets when S-3s transformed into siege mode.

The mothership in the air was in huge trouble as well. Thirty S-3s took aim and started tearing away at the mothership’s shields. The mothership moved to fight back, but when it did, one of the S-3s suddenly transformed, and a large missile appeared at its back armor.

It was a tactical nuclear missile.

At this close of a distance, against a target this large, it was impossible to miss. The nuclear missile smashed into the mothership and exploded. The mothership’s shields were already peeled away by the S-3s. When the nuke went off, the mothership was nearly defenseless. For one thing, the explosion severely damaged the ship’s crystal, which was the source of the ship’s power. When the crystal was gone, so was the ship.

The Warden Fleet opened fire. It was completely outgunned by the Golden Armada, but the C-1s managed to solve that problem by a clever usage of the fleet’s nuclear arsenal. Instead of firing the nukes with the aim to do damage, the C-1s fired the nukes and exploded them between the two fleets. This way, the resulting explosion forced the Golden Armada bac and bought more time for the time warp to wear off.

Also, it bought time for new help to arrive.

“Jean? This is Delta. The Purifiers are here.”

Jean called in the Purifier Fleet after she woke up. At around the same time the Warden Fleet got into battle, the Purifier Fleet was in as well.

The Purifier Fleet jumped in behind the Golden Armada, cutting off their only retreat. Consisting of 800 capital ships, it was barely smaller than the Golden Armada, which has already taken dramatic losses. Delta stood tall in the mothership in the middle.

“Purify our foes!”

The order sent the Purifiers into a frenzy. Immediately, a sea of yellow fighters charged toward the Golden Armada. Piloted by mechanical purifiers, these fighters quickly dove in on the Golden Armada fighters that have come to intercept. Purifier carriers took on Golden Armada carriers while Purifier motherships took on their Daelaam counterpart.

The presence of the Purifier Fleet completely changed the situation. Jean has had the Purifier Fleet for months, and she barely used them. The only times when she used them were in missions where they wouldn’t be opposed, like to take down Aiur. Jean did so on purpose because she knew the Purifiers could be relied on. Throughout all those time, the Purifiers only grew stronger and plentier. As of the moment, it returned Jean’s investment by being an entity strong enough to defeat the weakened Golden Armada.

At this point, Narud knew things were really wrong, but the bad news didn't stop there.

The Tal’darim fleet under Alarak has been tasked with taking down the Swarm, but compared to all the intense fighting between the Terran Dominion and the Golden Armada and the Death Fleet and Akshaar’s forces, the battle between Alarak’s fleet and the Swarm was mild, to say the least. Neither said was aggressive enough to send boarding parties or try something fishy. But Narud didn't think much of it. On one hand, he was focusing on the Dominion. On the other, he knew Alarak’s forces were weaker than those of the Swarm, which was why all he wanted Alarak to do was distract the Swarm, which he seemed to be doing rather well.

In Alarak’s flagship, the “rogue” Tal’darim suddenly felt his transmittor buzzing. He answered it.

“Alarak, now is the moment to strike.”

The voice belonged to Nyon.

Alarak nodded and turned off the transmitter, but instead of giving the order immediately, he paused for a second. He has been tasked by Nyon to pretend to surrender but in reality remain loyal to him, but he wasn’t one of Narud’s mindless pawns. He had his own concerns and objectives.

If he followed what Nyon ordered, then he would remain beneath Nyon for god knows how long. Alarak didn't want that. He had ambitions. He wanted to be the Highlord of the Tal’darim just like any other ascendant. On the other hand, if he suddenly betrayed Nyon.

But just as he was thinking, he heard the sound of a void blade ignited.

He turned around and saw a blood hunter in front of him.

“First Ascendant.” The blood hunter whispered. “The Highlord has given you an order.”

Immediately, Alarak felt chills down his protoss spine. How could he forget this? Who was Nyon? He was a Sixth Ascendant who rose to the place of the Highlord in less than a year. How could someone that smart not think about the possibility of him turning before allowing him to leave with an entire fleet? The blood hunter was obviously sent by Nyon to ensure Alarak did his part, and there was no way he was the only fail safe.

“Indeed.” Alarak replied.

Alarak’s Tal’darim forces disengaged the Swarm, who didn't even pretend to pursue. The crimson ships turned around and faced the Golden Armada. Before the Daelaam could do anything, the Tal’darim attacked.

A dozen carriers were immediately taken down. The Tal’darim charged forward and met little resistance from the unsuspecting Daelaam. Most of the carriers behind the Tal’darim were those whose energy and shield have been exhausted. Narud ordered all the energy to be loaded to the engine and had all the carriers loaded up with Daelaam warriors. The plan was to use them as boarding ships and get as many forces onto the enemy ships as possible. The Tal’darim’s sudden betrayal put these troop carriers under more fire than they could handle. All twelve of the destroyed carriers were fully loaded with zealots, adepts, and immortals and colossi. All of them died away with the ships.

Even worse, now that they were no longer blocked, the Swarm dove down into the heart of the Golden Armada. Leviathans roamed around the field freely, firing its spore cannons and spore crawler rounds at any Daelaam presence within range. An endless wave of corruptors attacked and overwhelmed individual carriers and isolated the rest. Even the best carrier could stand tall when tens of thousands of scourges crash into its hall, and those scourges were followed by hundreds of corruptors.

Within moments, the mighty Golden Armada was surrounded and dissected. Its ships were out of energy and shields, and the Allied forces were encroaching from all sides.