Even thousands of years after they were wiped out, the Xel’naga still dwarfed even the most advanced protoss technology. The Xel’naga worldship in Sigma Quadrant was the prime example. Despite being destroyed and abandoned for god knew how long, the worldship was still larger than anything both the protoss and the zerg could hold. Even now, the worldship was large enough to hold half the Death Fleet on it.

The last piece of artifact was sealed inside a vault at the center of the worldship. Thousands of photon cannons were warped into the field. Orbital cannons circled around the vault.

All across the worldship, more than two million Tal’darim units, from the most basic zealot to the most advanced wrathwalkers and motherships, readied their weapons. Zealots and slayers formed squares of one hundred by one hundred. Havocs stood in front of every line. Wrathwalkers stood tall. Ascendants stood in front of their supplicant forces. Their body radiated crimson void energy. The full power of the Death Fleet rested in the sky. Bloodshard crystals were constantly placed in maximum power so the pilots could turn on their weapons as soon as possible. Sure, this might increase the risk of the vessels exploding without even meeting the zerg, but none of the Tal’darim gave a damn.

Every single one of these Tal’darim was eager for combat.

They weren’t disappointed.

Forty leviathans exited warp space.

“Those who serve Amon shall ascend into hybrids! Forward! For Amon!”

Highlord Ma’lash drew his blade and screamed. Immediately, the full might of the Death Fleet left the worldship and did a short distance jump. The next second they were in front of the Swarm.

There was no word exchanged. No talk of peace was said and no compromise was attempted. Both side wanted a piece of Keystone fragment from the other side, and neither was willing to give their own piece up.

Corruptors, previously attached to the leviathans, let go of the capital ships and swarmed forward. Hundreds of thousands of mutalisks and scourges poured out of every opening of these leviathans and formed a cloud of purple.

“Go on, my children, and tear them apart. In the name of the Queen of Blades.”

Kerrigan whispered, and the Swarm flyers charged fearlessly at the dark red protoss ships.

Motherships fired with no concern of conserving energy. Terminator beams swiped over zerg units, taking out dozens of them with every move. All of the zerg units present were the best of the best, yet no amount of armor could save them from their demise.

“Warriors of Amon, follow me and seize the enemies’ throne! Your Highlord wants the Queen of Blade’s head!”

Scourges crashed into the mothership. The first one hundred had little effect. The first one thousand...still had no effect. The first ten thousand had some effect, but all the pilot of the mothership did was turn the ship’s terminator beam around, and half the scourges were melted.

The countless queens aboard the leviathans responded immediately, and all the scourges spread out, but that didn’t help either as individual suicide bombers couldn’t break through the mothership’s shield. If they tried to converge and strike a single point, they would be gunned down in a few waves of bombardment.

All across the field the Death Fleet was breaking through. Mutalisks that already got outside the leviathans were gunned down faster than they could be replaced. Scourges were capable of dealing great damage, but they were too fragile.

Leviathans were targeted by the thousands of destroyers in the Death Fleet. These anti-armor vessels were practically designed for this occasion. Corruptors moved to counter them, but they were transformed from the savior to the one that needed saving when the destroyers turned their guns toward them instead.

Countless zerg exploded into balls of flesh every second. Dozens of Tal’darim balls of flame were mixed among the zerg ones, but they were insignificant in terms of numbers. Most of the cases, the Tal’darim flyer’s plasma shield protected them from glaive worms and spores and saved them from demise, at least for the moment.

Zerg units didn’t have such a luxury.

“My queen, we have lost one percent of our light flyers.”

“Deploy reinforcement. Keep the Death Fleet here.” Kerrigan didn’t seem bothered. “Have we located the artifact?”

Along with all the mutalisks, the Swarm launched thousands of overseers. Hundreds of them were shot down every second, but a couple of them made it to their destination, the Xel’naga Worldship. After all, Kerrigan was here for the artifact. Banging the Swarm against the Deatl Fleet was just a side benefit.

“Yes, my queen.”

“Then launch our drop pods.” Kerrigan looked at outside. More zerg reinforcement were sent into the field, and all of a sudden protoss casualties grew. She saw a destroyer getting smashed into by at least fifty scrouges. The shield gave out, and a squad of three corruptors finished the job. Distinctly, she could sense the Tal’darim pilot perishing in the blast.

“But, my queen, our drop pods can’t make it through the Tal’darim fleet. We will lose a significant number of them in the air.” The queen warned.

“With all the flyers, leviathans, and transports, the Death Fleet can’t stop us all. We can reach the ground with acceptable losses. Obey me.”

At this point, Kerrigan was still the cruel, merciless queen who took pleasure in death and betrayal, even if those killed were her own. As long as she could get the job done, she didn’t give a damn about the casualties. It was only when she was turned to human and then back to zerg again did she learn to value the lives of her underlings a bit. As of now, all the zerg were chess pieces to her.

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The Swarm queen had no choice but to obey.

The zerg psionic network delivered the order to every zerg unit in just seconds. Ground units, from the most basic zergling to the largest ultralisk, quickly but efficiently entered drop pods. Some of the drop pods could hold dozens of zerglings. Some were filled with a single ultralisk.

In a single wave, thousands of drop pods were projected at the Worldship.

Ma’lash and the rest of the Tal’darim high command noticed it almost immediately. In a war like this, everyone knew what everyone else was doing. Just like how overseers covered the field, so did observers. While the basic Tal'darim smirked upon the idea of scouting, neither Ma’lash nor the top ascendants were exactly stupid. Observers were deployed even before the Swarm arrived, and they were paying off.

“Intercept them! Burn them in their transports! Make these drop pods their tombs!” The Highlord ordered cruelly.

“Our fighters are mixed with the zerg. We don’t have the firepower.” Nuroka replied coldly. He wasn’t afraid of reminding Ma’lash of his mistakes. “We need to hope the warriors on the ground can hold the zerg back until we achieve victory.”

Ma’lash suddenly thought of something. He smirked viciously and turned to Nuroka.

“First Ascendant.” He whispered quietly, and Nuroka suddenly had a bad feeling about this. “As the second smartest protoss in the Tal’darim, you certainly understand the importance of the artifact fragment on the ground below.”

Nuroka frowned. Ma’lash was...complementing him? This is bad.

“In that case,” Seeing no response from Nuroka, Ma’lash continued. “First Ascendant, I order you to return to the Worldship with your supplicants and defend it at all cost. Abandon your position, and I will have your head.”

“How dare you…” Nuroka’s eyes widened in rage. For a moment he wanted to strangle Ma’lash.

Ma’lash’s command sounded like a legitimate order, but it wasn’t. In the Tal’darim world, strength meant a lot of things, including armies, weapons, and higher social status, and the best way to show his strength would be making conquests in battle. This was a perfect opportunity. They were fighting against a powerful enemy to protect the work of god. Every Tal’darim was watching, and those who fought bravely would be rewarded by utter glory.

But at this time, Ma’lash was ordering him to return and defend the artifact. Defend! As important as the mission was, the common Tal’darim warriors wouldn’t care how long he protected the artifact for. They would only wonder how many zerg Ma’lash has slain and how many ships he has taken. When the battle ends, Ma’lash would return home as a hero while his greatest competitor would get nothing. It would pretty much eliminate Nuroka’s ability to challenge Ma’lash.

Even at this point, the Highlord was still seeking to protect his power.

Yet Nuroka couldn’t do anything but obey. Ma’lash issued the order as the Highlord, and it was a valid one. If he said no, his reputation would be damaged even more.

“As you wish, Highlord.” The First Ascendant emphasized on the word ‘Highlord’ before turning and leaving.

Ma’lash nodded in satisfaction. He turned and glanced at Third Ascendant Zenish, who dodged his glance. The Third Ascendant was a supporter of Nuroka and therefore a threat to Ma’lash, and the Highlord wondered if he could make the Third Ascendant fall in battle, but he quickly decided it wasn’t his top priority.

“Prepare to project power fields!” He turned to the ascendants. “Return to your ships and ready your supplicants. As the strongest among the Tal’darim, we will spearhead the charge on the leviathans. The victor will be rewarded by Amon himself and the loser will lose everything. May the strongest live!”

The Ascendants nodded and warped away in beams of light.

When Nuroka reached the ship, the first wave of the zerg drop pods has landed.

The leviathans launched nearly two thousand drop pods in just the first wave. On average, each of them had twenty zerg inside. This meant forty thousand zerg. Despite the mutalisks’ attempt to provide some cover, half of these pods didn’t make it past the Tal’darim flyers. After all, apart from their speed, these transport pods were completely defenseless. A single scout could blow it up with the first pair of torpedoes and a single phoenix could take it down in a couple seconds. When what was left of the pods emerged from the smoke, the field of battle was already covered by clouds and clouds of floating zerg. Most of these zerg were still alive, thanks to the zerg’s nature of radiation resisting, but without gravity, they simply floated around aimlessly. Occasionally an ultralisk would slam into a scout or a baneling could smash into a phoenix and make a scourge jealous, but most of these ground units were doomed to fall.

Meanwhile, the rest of the pods that survived the fighter onslaught found themselves facing a sea of orbital defenses. Orbital cannons took out several pods at once. The zerg inside didn’t even have a chance to fly around as they were obliterated along with their transports.

As the pods got closer, photon cannons started unleashing. The bright projectiles lit up the dark sky and took out a drop pod with every two shots. They were weaker and less accurate than orbital cannons, but their number made up the difference. When a thousand photon cannons were firing at once, even if only one fifth of them hit their target, at least one hundred pods were destroyed with every round.

Thankfully, the zerg didn’t have to take this kind of abuse for long as the pods finally hit the ground. Not-so-thankfully, the ground wasn’t exactly safer than the air.

Zealots charged into the drop pods before the units inside could come out. Following the sound of blades igniting and cutting through carapace and flesh, the zealots would emerge, fewer in number but victorious. The zerg inside these pods were the lucky ones. At least they had a chance to fight back. One of the drop pods barely hit the ground before it suddenly exploded. On the ground, an ascendant flickered his fingers in boredom.

What were left of the landing parties tried their best to put up a fight, but that was why Nuroka came in. The First Ascendant let off all his frustration and hatred against Ma’lash onto the Swarm. Backed up by thousands of elite zealots, slayers, ascendants, and blood hunters, the First Ascendant launched himself into a group of hundreds of zerg. A couple drop pods landed at a remotely close area, and the units inside were able to wipe out the squad of zealots that approached and establish somewhat of a defensive position. A couple drones, fatter than normal ones, even mutated into spine crawlers.

But the effort of these zerg was futile. Nuroka himself charged into a hydralisk and cut it into four pieces. A spine crawler poked forward, but Nuroka merely took a step back and dodged the shot capable of ripping a marine into two with a single attack. Having missed, the spine crawler tried to retreat, but Nuroka swiped his blade, and the spine part of the spine crawler was cut clean off.

As the spine crawler collapsed and died, Nuroka’s eyes turned purple, and a wave of destructive energy wiped over the area in front of the First Ascendant. Every zerg in the vicinity was ripped apart.

Supplicants followed on and cleaned the floor.

The first wave of Swarm, roughly 400,000 of them, were slaughtered to the last, but was that the end?

The answer was a solid no. In fact, it was just the beginning.