Jean stood beside Kerrigan. Thirty minutes ago, Ouros finally informed everyone he was ready...ready to create a new god.

As Kerrigan got mentally ready, Jean remained in silence.

This was it. Countless preparation, betrayal, sacrifice, and death have came together to this moment. This one single battle.

Win, and she would complete her mission. Her future would be bright as day.

Lose, and she would lose everything. Even if she somehow got out in one piece, she would lose her entire fleet, as well as any chance to kill Amon. Her mission would have failed.

Amon knew this as well, which was why he has put in everything he had. Thousands of void shade capital ships surrounded the platform Ouros was on from all directions. Battlecruisers. Motherships. Carriers. Tempests. Leviathans. Behemoths. Each and every one of those capital ships were filled with tens of thousands of ground units. Millions of smaller flyers dotted between the capital ships. The wall of darkness was so thick that it disillusioned even the toughest entity.

Ouros was located on a space platform. A ring of asteroid belt surrounded the platform. During the period of waiting, Jean has already deployed missile turrets, photon cannons, and spore crawlers on those asteroids. Hopefully, they were enough to buy some time against the void shade onslaught.

All the fleets Jean had remained in orbit of the platform. They were divided by factions. The Death Fleet had around 600 capital ships. The Purifier fleet had over 600. Warden fleet 150. The Swarm had over fifty leviathans. 1400 capital ships sounded like a lot, and it was, but against Amon’s armada of over 4000…

In a real fight, the armies of the material world didn't stand a chance of victory, but two things changed the calculations. First, Narud’s betrayal added another three hundred or so ships to Jean’s side. Second, the Void belonged to the Xel’naga, not Amon. In other words, every Xel’naga could fight Amon over control of the void. Narud wasn’t strong enough by himself, but as long as Kerrigan was fully turned into Xel’naga, the two of them should be enough to take the Void away from Amon. Without the Void, Amon would lose his army and his life.

All Jean had to do was buy time.

Armies and armies of ground forces from all five factions formed behind Jean. They were the last line of defense. If the enemies bypassed the fleet, which they certainly would, the ground forces would stand their ground and fight until the last man, which was ironic, because there wasn’t a single human male in the expedition.

Behind Jean was a wall of white. Hundreds of thousands of striders stood in tight formation. S-1s. S-2s. S-3s. 200 G-1s lurked behind Jean. All of the Wardens remained motionless, but as soon as the order was given, they would transform into the most deadly killing machines the sector has seen.

Delta, a distance away to the left of Jean, remained in front of over five million Purifiers. With control over a virtually unlimited amount of planets, and thus resources, the Purifiers multiplied faster than rabbits. Most of those five million Purifiers were legionnaires, instigators, and adepts, but that didn't mean they were easy prey. Immortals, colossi, and disruptors towered over the smaller Purifiers. The wave of yellow was still smaller than the sea of black, but the presence of the Purifiers was still enough to reinstall some hope.

Nyon remained at a position at Jean’s right, surrounded by his own supplicants. The best of the Tal’darim remained behind him. First Ascendant Alarak and Second Ascendant Ji’nara, despite what they might really think, lined up behind their Highlord. Zealots, slayers, and havocs lined up behind their Highlord, alongside with vanguards, wrathwalkers, and armies of ascendants and blood hunters. The Tal’darim forces ranged to over 10 million. Despite all the recent massacres, the Death Fleet was still an entity to be feared.

The Swarm formed around their queen. Broodmother Zagara was in command. Jean didn't know Zagara personally, and she didn't need to. Zagara was loyal to Kerrigan and would do anything to protect her. That was all she needed. The Swarm had the most in terms of numbers, going up to over twenty billion, but most of them were zerglings and banelings. Once the fight starts, that unit count would drop faster than free fall.

Narud’s void shade forces made up the last piece of the puzzle. The Xel’naga was less than reliable, but Jean was able to secure his allegiance by pure force. Even a Xel’naga had to bend the knee when the alternate option was death by a thousand laser battery shots. His army of void shades consisted of two million ground units. It wasn’t much, but every bit counted.

Viper stood behind Jean in silence.

Zeratul walked up. Neither he nor Jean spoke as the transfer of power started.

Ouros suddenly froze. Traces of yellow essence started flowing out of his multiple eyes toward Kerrigan. Kerrigan’s body floated into midair. Essence started to enter her body and become one with her. Her level of power started to multiply. Jean began to sense a dangerous feeling from her that she hasn’t felt from the Queen of Blades before since her trip to Zerus.

Almost as soon as the transfer of power began, Amon ordered the attack. To Amon, as long as Kerrigan wasn’t gaining power, it was fine for him to stay back and mass up forces. After all, his enemies were limited, but he could get an unlimited number of units. It pays to wait. But as soon as the transfer of power begins, Amon was on a timer.

Immediately, Amon’s armada started to press forward.

Normally, the capital ships would remain in the back and rain down a rain of bombardment on the hostiles, but not this time. Instead, all the 2000 capital ships pushed forward ruthlessly. They still opened fire, but they never paused, not even once.

“Stand your ground!” On the platform, Jean ordered loudly through the comm. In the past, when it comes to large scale air battles, she would use some tricks to even up the odds, but this time, it was purely based on brute force.

The Allied fleet returned fire. There was no attempt made to conserve energy or resource. Every single vessel the Alliance had dumped everything they had at the ocean of void shades. Time warps were thrown down. Lasers, missiles, and spores blasted into the front line of the attackers.

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Almost as if ice was tossed into fire, the void shade fleet melted. Countless ships, along with the millions of ground units inside, were reduced to basic void energy. Even motherships and battlecruisers were just torn apart under the intense bombardment.

Within the first five minutes of the battle, Amon’s fleet has suffered enough casualties that could make most factions in the Koprulu sector crumble.

But this didn't matter. More and more void shade ships continued to push forward. Almost as soon as the first ship was destroyed, another was already in the place of the fallen.

Still, the Purifier Fleet, the Warden Fleet, the Death Fleet, and the Swarm gave in everything they got. Nukes exploded in the center mass of the void shades, taking out countless ships with every strike. Time warps ripped apart the tight formation of the void shades. Purification beams ravaged through the crowd of darkness, melting them with immense heat and energy.

For over twenty minutes since the battle started, Amon’s forces didn't make a single step forward. The rate of fresh units moving forward was almost the same as the rate the units were destroyed.

Viper smiled. Perhaps the situation wasn’t that bad after all. Amon’s forces seemed to be more for show than for function.

Kerrigan’s power continued to amplify. At the same time, Ouros was getting weaker and weaker. The transformation should be done within an hour or so.

“We can hold them.” The female spectre commented casually. Her body relaxed.

Instead of agreeing with Viper, Jean shook her head.

“Get ready. It’s going to be our time to fight soon.”

Unfortunately, Jean was right, as always.

Gradually, the Allied firepower started to drop. Gradually, the energy reservoir of the Allied fleet was getting depleted. They were fully surrounded in a hostile environment with no reinforcement or resupply, and when thousands of ships were constantly firing, the amount of energy needed was astonishing. With the massive damage came a massive cost.

Instead of being constantly held back, Amon’s fleet started to slowly move forward. They were still taking dozens of casualties in terms of capital ships alone every second, but they were moving forward nonetheless.

As soon as it got close enough, the void shade fleet started launching drop pods at the Allied fleet. A handful of drop pods were just easy prey, but when there were thousands of capital ships, and every single one of them launched over a thousand pods...you do the math.

Laser batteries and photon cannons took down most of the drop pods in midair, but the rest landed on the Allied ships. As soon as they were in, the void shades started ripping apart the ships from the inside. Security forces were deployed to stop them.

If that was it, the Allied fleet could’ve held its ground, but things took a nosedive down when Amon’s fleet kept pressing forward...even after they launched the boarding parties.

On the ground, Viper watched in horror as void shade carriers, battlecruisers, and even leviathans smashed into their material world counterparts. She watched with her own eyes as two void shade carriers rammed into a Tal’darim carrier. The plasma shield did its best to protect the hull of the vessel, but as the two void shade carriers kept on grinding forward, the shield was eventually worn out. Without the shield, the two void shade carriers just crushed the Tal’darim one with brute force. The Tal’darim ship did its best, but by itself, neither its interceptors nor its batteries could take down the two hostile carriers quick enough. At the last seconds, the pilot was forced to self destruct the ship, taking the two other carriers down to the graves with him.

The worse part was that Amon’s forces had a decisive advantage in numbers. They lost hundreds of ships during the first twenty minutes. They lost another hundreds while charging forward with their kamikaze strategy. The Allied Fleet suffered minimal losses in comparison. Even so, with the terrible trade, Amon’s forces still greatly outnumbered the Allied Fleet.

The Wardens and the Purifiers fought with cold, deadly calculation. The Death Fleet fought with courage and ruthlessness. The Swarm fought without giving an inch of ground.

Doesn’t matter. Amon’s fleet fought with numbers, and they were winning.

At the same time, Jean started getting bad news.

“Creator, the Warden Fleet has lost 54 capital ships. We no longer have the numbers to maintain a net of fire.” This was a C-1 Unit.

“Jean, the Purifiers have lost 104, make that 106, ships. My flagship has gone down. We can no longer keep their fleet away.” Delta.

“The Death Fleet needs reinforcement.” Obviously, Highlord Nyon. The fact that he was actively asking for help should how desperate the situation was.

“The Swarm will not give in!” Zagara.

“Creator, our batteries in the asteroid belts are taking damage. Calculations suggests they will be fully destroyed in five minutes!”

“Creator, hostile fleet is descending on your location! Calculations suggest they will launch landing parties and assault your position.”

“All ships, delay their ships no matter the cost. Do everything you can to keep them from having air control. As for their landing parties...we’ll deal with them.”

Without another word, Jean tapped her watch. The surface of her body started blinking. Gradually, a white suit appeared on her. It had a white helmet that fully concealed her head. A comm system was installed in the helmet, as well as special visors capable of detecting cloaked units. A blue crystal was at the chest area of the armor. It acted as the power source of the armor. On the back was a plasma shield generator similar to the ones of protoss zealots, only they were stronger. Two short white sticks were attached to the belt. Apart from that, the armor covered every inch of her body.

Jean grabbed onto the two sticks and pressed a button. Two white plasma blades appeared.

The armor was the result of combining Purifier and Terran technology. After her trip to Zerus, Jean became a special presence. She didn't really have any psionic power, like ghosts or Kerrigan, but her physical strength, reflex, and regeneration was off the charts. This meant she was really difficult to kill. On the other hand, although she could rip siege tanks apart with her bare hands, she wasn’t the most efficient killing machine ever seen.

To solve that problem, Jean commissioned the development of this armor. Its plasma shields could keep her in combat condition longer while her physical strength allowed her to close in on the enemies quickly and deal with them via her plasma blades, which didn't require psionic power to be used. For air enemies, she had two modified particle disruptors, similar to Delta’s, that were designed as handguns.

In most battles, Jean preferred to stay behind in her flagship and command her forces. This was the case when she was with the Raiders and this was the case during the two Battle of Korhal. After all, it wasn’t the job of a commander to charge into the frontline and act as a common foot soldier. No. Commanders were supposed to stay behind and mind the greater picture.

But this time, things have changed. There wasn’t much commanding to do. Plus, nowhere was absolutely safe. Amon’s forces were pushing in from all sides. Her Warden flagship might be more dangerous than on the ground. Even Delta’s flagship has fallen.

Plus, to Jean, it was victory or death. There was no longer any point for self conservation. Who knows, perhaps her presence might be the difference between victory and defeat.

This time, Jean was willing to get her hands dirty.