“We can hold this.” The Dominion colonel said with some confidence. In front of him, the zerg corpses have pretty much blocked the entrances completely. The Warden units saw this and, for the sake of efficiency, decreased their firepower so it’s just enough to keep the zerg back.
As far as the man could see, the zerg were out of options.
And then Kerrigan happened.
A yellow beam of psionic energy ripped the wall of zerg corpses apart and smashed into the first line of Warden marines. Combat shields and CMC armors were torn to pieces. Warden AIs perished before they could do anything.
That wasn’t the end. The beam, after massacring half a dozen Warden units, bounced and slammed into another group of Wardens. And then another. When the energy wave died down, over thirty Warden units were destroyed. Mechanical bodies were scattered all across the floor.
That was just the beginning. As the Queen of Blades walked through the entrance, she was followed by a literal tide of zerg, who poured in through the openings Kerrigan created.
“What the hell...how are we supposed to win this?” The Dominion colonel was taken back. It was one thing to see a tide of zerg streaming down into a wall of terran steel and get gunned down. It was another to see a single individual slaughtering dozens with a single strike. Plus, the majority of the attack was used to clear the entrance, and just the energy that remained were enough to create more damage than the zerg swarm ever could in a full minute.
Then again the colonel knew he shouldn’t expect any less from the infamous Queen of Blades.
The Dominion officer was taken back, but Warden units weren’t. Their AIs were simply incapable of demonstrating the emotion of fear. The Warden Command Unit accessed the information on the Queen of Blades in the Warden archive, developed a battle plan, and sent the battle plan to every Warden unit on the leviathan.
Twenty Warden marines charged forward and self destructed, wiping out the first wave of the zerg flood. As the suicide bombers cleared the stage, the rest of the Warden marines and marauders focused fire on Kerrigan.
Kerrigan let loose a war cry. Bullets and grenades clashes with her carapace, but they did little damage. Whatever damage they did mended almost immediately. It took much more than a few conventional weapons to kill one of the most powerful beings in the sector.
The Queen of Blades leaped forward. Her spines radiated purple psionic energy. In less than a second, she would land among the Warden rank and let loose a massacre.
That was when, in midair, three railgun rounds smashed into her.
“Uh.” Kerrigan was tossed back by the impact. Three large, gaping wounds appeared on her body. While casual gauss rifles and grenade launchers couldn’t do the job, railguns were much different.
Unfortunately, all the Queen of Blades did was hold her fists tight, and the wounds healed in a flash of purple.
The Warden ghosts reloaded their railguns and fired again, but this time Kerrigan was prepared. As soon as the rounds exited the railgun barrels, Kerrigan dodged to the side. The three railgun bullets reaped three bloody paths through the zerg behind Kerrigan.
“Damn it.” The Queen of Blades swore again. The reaction of the terran units was on point. There was only a one second timing when she was in midair, and it took quite the reflex to use that timing.
She decided to change up her plan a bit. If she couldn’t get close enough for melee, she might just use ranged attacks.
A single beam of psionic energy led to a chain reaction that wiped out another thirty Warden units, marines and marauders alike.
Zerg poured in from behind.
The Warden Command Unit made more calculations and came to the conclusion that Warden units alone weren’t enough to push back Kerrigan. It came up with another plan and turned to Raynor and the Dominion Colonel.
“Assistance required.”
The Dominion colonel nodded. As terrified as he was by Kerrigan’s powers, he knew he had no other choice. His duty demanded him to give his life for the cause. “All ghost squadrons, target Kerrigan. Everyone else open fire!”
Dominion units in red armors reinforced Umojan units in white. Their guns were less effective than Warden units, but they were getting things done nonetheless. Their help made up for the openings formed by the Warden units that fell in combat.
Raiders acted as well as they helped the situation with everything they could.
The Terran Dominion. The Umojan Protectorate. Raynor’s Raiders. The three factions were pretty much always hostile to each other, but now they were on the same side, fighting the same enemy.
Another one of Kerrigan’s blast burnt ten Warden marines, four Dominion marauders, and half a dozen Raiders to crisp.
The Dominion ghosts took action. Dozens of psionically powered bullets smashed into Kerrigan. The Queen of Blades raised her arms and formed a wall, which deflected all the bullets with ease.
Still, that stressed her power.
But the line was already falling. Zerg aggression were getting out of control. A baneling detonated and melted two Dominion marines and wounded one Warden marauder. A hydralisk slashed a Raider marine into two.
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“Fall back!”
A Dominion marine saw a roach charging at him. Knowing his rifle would be ineffective against the beast’s heavy armor, he tried to retreat, but the marines and marauders behind him cut off any chance he had of maneuvering. Faced with no other choice, the marine opened fire, and got melted by the roach’s acidic saliva.
That roach was immediately gunned down by a Warden ghost.
More terran opened fire. At the beginning of the battle, not all six thousand men were fighting. In fact, only the thousand or so on the sides were shooting. The rest were simply waiting and busy getting overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. However, now, with all the losses, all the terran were firing their firearms.
Raynor gunned down another zergling. “Men! Stand your ground!” Screams could be heard all around the battlefield, but Raynor forced those voices out. He couldn’t afford to be emotional. Not now.
The terran held their ground. As more zerg poured in, the advantage in firepower the terran once had was gone. Forced into a melee situation, the losses the terran took in just a few minutes was more than the losses they took in the ten or so minutes before Kerrigan’s arrival.
It was never a good situation when marines were forced to use the bayonets on their rifles to fight with zerglings and hydralisks.
As usual, Warden units were better in the situation. Their programming included what to do against zerg units in melee, and their reflexes allowed them to fire accurately at close range. Without the influence of fear and pain, these Warden units formed the backbone of the defenses.
Raiders and Dominion troopers were less fortunate. They were practically slaughtered.
No longer facing a sea of guns, Kerrigan had more opportunity. Swiftly, she charged into the middle of a group of Dominion ghosts and severed half of them with her bone spines in half a second. The other half backed off and drew their psionic blades, but their courage only extended their lives for several more seconds. Ordinary ghosts, no matter how brave they were, were no match for the Queen of Blades.
A Warden ghost was melted by half a dozen banelings.
Another Warden ghost fired its railgun at the Queen of Blades. The round smashed into her face, but it merely left a blood groove, which disappeared in just two seconds. Kerrigan pulled the ghost in with her psionic power and obliterated it with her spines. Four pieces of the wreckage hit the floor.
But Kerrigan wasn’t satisfied. She glanced at the Keystone container, sensing its increase in energy.
It would be going off soon.
If Kerrigan fled now, she might be able to make it out of the Keystone’s blast range in time. Unfortunately, she couldn’t. If she abandoned her flagship, it would lead to a chain reaction, and the entirety of her personal fleet would be terminated by the terran fleet with ease. She couldn’t allow that. Even if she was willing to abandon her forces, she had no idea if she could get away from this trap in one piece without the backing off her fleet. The terran battlecruisers wouldn’t hesitate to gun her transport out of the sky.
Kerrigan decided to make a go for it as she charged head on toward the direction of the Keystone.
Twenty terran units blocked her path. Twenty terran units were killed or destroyed.
Forty made an attempt. Forty perished.
A Warden Command Unit gave the order, and twenty Warden marines smashed into Kerrigan. The Queen of Blades’ spines started cutting, and unit after unit fell, but as soon as they were struck, the Warden units exploded. The blast caused by the self destruction of their reactors was more than enough to push Kerrigan away from the Keystone.
But that wasn’t enough. In just seconds, Kerrigan was on top of the artifact.
And then the artifact exploded.
A look of shock appeared on her face. She could sense that the artifact was still a distance away from being fully charged. What happened?
Before the battle commenced, Raynor received report from Swann and Stettman that while the Keystone needed a while to be fully charged, it was capable of sending a smaller blast out on command. Raynor had the control of the smaller blast installed into the computer of his armor, and when he saw the need to use it, he did exactly that.
It proved to be a wise decision.
Before Kerrigan could say or do anything, the energy blast swept through her, as well as every zerg and terran in a large radius. The terran were untouched, but every zerg in the radius was set aflame. In just seconds, all of these zerg were reduced to ashes. Ultralisks and zerglings alike died.
Kerrigan screamed in agony, but she was too strong to be killed instantly. Instead, she was merely wounded. The blast wiped out most of her energy and sent her to the ground.
“Take her out! For the Dominion!” The Dominion colonel suddenly sensed a great opportunity. The Queen of Blades just took the full power of the blast, and she was at her weakest point. With a single order, the colonel, along with five ghosts and twenty marines, converged onto Kerrigan with their guns blasting.
One moment they were charging. The next moment a shade of purple swept over them and ripped them into pieces.
A lion, no matter how wounded, was strong enough to kill a horde of sheep.
After slaughtering the terran with her spine wings and psionic energy, Kerrigan knew she needed to back off now. The terran units of all three factions were pushing back the zerg reinforcement, and already Warden units were converging. Kerrigan wasn’t afraid of ordinary biological terran soldiers. Everything about them was vulnerable. Their emotions. Their slow reflexes. But the Warden units were different. They fought with nothing but logic. Even if they were facing certain death, they would rather self destruct than scream and falter.
While the Dominion soldiers and the Raiders were still trying to come to grasp of what happened, the Queen of Blades was already backing off. As she retreated, Dominion soldiers and Raiders subconsciously got out of the way. Their logic told them to go forward and give their lives for humanity, but their bodies simply refused. Not everyone had the courage to charge into certain death, no matter how trained or faithful they were. Plus, death was bad, but dying without getting anything done was even worse.
Only Warden units resisted, but Kerrigan was too fast, and all the Warden did was drop two dozen more bodies.
The zerg were temporarily beaten back, but the terran were pretty much gone.
Raynor counted the amount of terran forces left. Half of the Dominion units were dead, and so was their commander. The Raiders lost over one hundred men, two thirds of them mercenaries. The Warden units were stronger, but they handled most of the fighting as well. Out of the forty eight hundred units, two thousand of them have fallen.
Six thousand terran units entered the battlefield. At least half of them won’t be leaving.
Raynor opened his mouth, wanting to say some words of encouragement, but nothing came out.
“Hold your ground.” He finally ordered. “Not one step back.”
Warden units were repositioned and formed another line of defense. Dominion soldiers and Raiders looked at each other in desperation, but finally they reloaded their weapons and lined up behind the Warden units.
There was no turning back now.
It was victory or death...or maybe even both.