Red Lasers and green spores were exchanged. Purple blood and red mist were spilled. Zerg ships and protoss ships alike were ripped to pieces.

Hundreds of thousands of spores were fired at the Death Fleet every second. They varied in size and origin, but all of them landed on some sort of Tal’darim vessel. Sometimes a shot from a large caliber spore cannon could obliterate a scout. Sometimes a shot from a small caliber spore crawler would land on a mothership and do nothing.

Power fields were projected. At where the power fields of capital ships couldn’t reach, war prisms were deployed. To these transports, this was a suicide mission. Sure, they had phase cannons, giving them infinitely more damage than Daelaam warp prisms, but having the ability to fire didn’t grant them extra shields. These prisms were agile. A few spore crawler shots couldn’t do much, but when spores covered almost all of the space between the Death Fleet and the Swarm, there wasn’t much maneuvering to do.

Thousands of prisms were sent out. When they reached the Swarm flyers, half of the prisms were gone. By the time the prisms entered phasing mode, another half of those remaining were gunned out of the sky.

The prisms that survived quickly deployed thousands and thousands of Tal’darim into the zerg leviathans. Initially, these Tal’darim boarding parties were overwhelmed near instantly, but the Tal’darim poured in endlessly, and eventually the zerg were beaten back. As the situation turned slightly safer, more expensive and more powerful units like ascendants and vanguards were sent in. Both effectively obliterated the resistance.

But both Kerrigan and Ma’lash knew the battle between the Death Fleet and the Swarm was just the background. The Swarm had a lot of firepower, but so did the Death Fleet. It would take them a while to reach an end, and the victor would take heavy losses even if they won. Both the Death Fleet and the Swarm had a lot of enemies. If any one of them lost too much of their fleet, the result could be full extermination.

That was why both sides wanted to use a decapitation tactic. Both wanted to take out the leader of the opposite side. Ma’lash knew it was the only hope the Death Fleet had, and Kerrigan knew, despite how successful her trap was, taking down the Death Fleet would be costly. The social structure of the Tal’darim meant they would fight to the death for their faith.

Thankfully, it also meant as long as she could take out the Highlord, the other ascendants might fall into chaos and disarray, allowing the Queen of Blades to take them out one by one.

That was partly why she took the risk by using her flagship as the spearhead of the Swarm. She wanted Ma’lash to make an attempt to kill her, which would allow her to kill him.

With Kerrigan’s hidden intentions in mind, the leviathan flagship got close enough to the Tal’darim mothership. Ships from both sides steered clear of the enemy flagship in fear of scaring them back. As the leviathan and the mothership came face to face, Ma’lash gave the order to warp in. Before long, over twenty thousand light beams were projected onto the zerg city.

Most of the assault party was made up of Tal’darim, but the twenty figures leading the charge weren’t Tal’darim.

Sharp claws. Blue carapace. Hybrids.

Behind the hybrids, Highlord Ma’lash, Second Ascendant Guraj, Third Ascendant Zenish, Fourth Ascendant Alarak, and Fifth Ascendant Ji’nara formed a line. Their supplicants formed phalanxes behind them.

This was the best of the Tal’darim. This was the very essence of the Forged.

Without a word, the Tal’darim charged forward. Hybrids ripped roaches, hydralisks, and ultralisks apart. Ma’lash was like a walking turret as he unleashed void storm after void storm onto the zerg. Those that survived the plowing of the ascendants and the hybrids were overpowered by the supplicants.

The Swarm could barely delay the Tal’darim.

Ultralisk after ultralisk collapsed at Ma’lash’s feet. As time passed, the Tal’darim moved closer and closer to Kerrigan’s chamber. Any zerg in the way of the protoss, whatever they were, were slain almost the moment they appeared. Every zerg building in the way of the protoss, from the most basic creep tumor to the most advanced ultralisk cavern, were sent crumbling to dust.

Tens of thousands of zerg fell, and the Tal’darim barely took any damage. After all, a single supplicant zealot could melee a squad of elite zerg roaches and win. With the hybrids taking most of the attention and ripping apart most of the resistance, the supplicants advanced steadily.

“My queen. I advise you to retreat.” A broodmother suggested as she sensed the Tal’darim closing in. Every unit on Kerrigan’s flagship belonged to her elite personal guards, but that didn’t allow them to survive void storms or hybrid claws.

“Retreat?” Kerrigan smirked. She stood up from her throne and stretched her spine wings. “Broodmothers, take over command of the Swarm fleet while I personally deal with these Tal’darim.”

Without waiting for an answer from her underlings, Kerrigan made her way toward the frontline. Every zerg she met on her way joined her. When she reached where the Tal’darim were, she already had an army behind her back.

Ma’lash casually ripped a zergling into two with his bare hands and tossed the body back, adding to the mountain of zerg corpses behind him.

“Ahh, the Queen of Blades. I have heard all about you. You are a menacing force. Unfortunately, Amon wants you dead, and his will is my decree.” The Highlord waved his hand, and the tide of red moved forward and smashed into the sea of purple.

“You fools...”

Kerrigan commented as she obliterated a dozen zealots with a single energy wave. A hybrid reaver jumped onto her, but just before the two made contact, the Queen of Blades tilted her body slightly, and the reaver found itself on top of the zerg leader’s spine wings. Covered by a glowing purple psionic energy, the spines ripped the reaver apart. Blue blood stained the purple creep.

But Kerrigan didn’t have much time to enjoy the victory. Before she knew it, Ma’lash’s double bane blades were already on top of her

Kerrigan reacted with her own spines. The purple spines and red blades clashed dozens of times in less than ten seconds. Suddenly, after pushing Kerrigan’s spine wings aside with a heavy slash, Ma’lash formed a ball of red energy and slammed it into Kerrigan.

The Queen of Blades was knocked back, but before Ma’lash could smile, she stood back up. A slight scorch mark was on her chest plating, but that was about it.

Ma’lash’s expression changed. That attack was practically the strongest he could muster. Sure, there were other things he could do, but if this attack didn’t do any damage to Kerrigan, then the other options would likely fail as well.

Unless…

“Warriors of AMon, empower me! Aid me to victory!”

As soon as those words were spoken, every Tal’darim inside the leviathan felt their strength decreasing. In exchange, Ma’lash’s strength amplified as he sensed thousands of waves of psionic energy entering his body.

With renewed strength, Ma’lash regained his confidence a bit. His hands came together and generated a crimson energy beam, directly aimed at Kerrigan.

This time Kerrigan couldn’t be as cocky. The combined power of all the supplicants and the hybrids made Ma’lash much more powerful than before. The Queen dodged to the side. The light beam landed on an ultralisk, melted it, and continued to punch a hole through the leviathan’s inner armor.

Sensing the leviathan’s pained screech through the psionic network and returning to her formal pose, Kerrigan wasn’t too worried. Around her, Tal’darim forces were already losing their momentum. The reinforcement she brought was one of the factors. The fact that Ma’lash took away a large portion of their energy was another.

In addition, abilities like Empower me weren’t that durable. Perhaps Ma’lash could hold this much energy in his body for a few minutes, but there was no way he could maintain this condition for hours.

Ma’lash charged forward once again. His bane blades shined even brighter than before. But this time, instead of getting into the action herself, Kerrigan took ten steps back.

Twenty zerglings and ten banelings took her place.

Even before being empowered, Ma’lash could easily dispose of these zerg, and at the current situation Ma’lash slaughtered these obstacles even quicker. Zerglings were shredded. Banelings smashed into Ma’lash, only to clash with his plasma shield and be melted. Thirty elite zerg units were taken down in a couple seconds. They barely left a trace of their existance.

But within these couple seconds, the Queen of Blades has already retreated behind layers and layers of zerg. Ma’lash found himself staring at a wall of roaches and hydralisks.

Zerg after zerg fell in front of him. Ma’lash slashed and stabbed and blasted and crushed with everything he has got. The dead formed a hill beneath his feet, and that hill was gradually getting higher and higher. To the empowered Highlord, an ultralisk was no different than a zergling. They both could be killed with a single move. All around him, Tal’darim pushed forward with blood and steel. Ascendants were slightly less efficient than Ma’lash, but they were the spearhead of the assault nonetheless.

Two thousand more zerg streamed down a side corridor and smashed into the Tal’darim. One minute later, they were gone.

Kerrigan watched with a straight face as she took another twenty steps back.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, Ma’lash felt his strength leaving him. His body simply couldn’t handle this much power inside. He even stumbled a little from the aftereffect. He was simply exhausted.

Kerrigan saw it. The Queen of Blades even waited for a few seconds to be sure. When she was confident it wasn’t an act, she leaped forward, aiming at the Highlord’s head.

The table was turned. Ma’lash found himself at the mercy of Kerrigan’s spines. It was only the aid of his supplicants and occasionally the other ascendants that kept him alive, but Ma’lash wasn’t satisfied with being kept alive. He wanted to kill Kerrigan, and from the looks of it he has already missed his best opportunity.

Suddenly, Alarak heard something inside the comm. He looked around before saying something.

The next second every Tal’darim and hybrid in the leviathan disappeared in a beam of light.

When they reappeared inside the mothership, Ma’lash was furious.

“Who ordered the retreat?” He demanded with his blades still ignited in a threatening pose. “I was winning!”

Now, that was obviously a lie, but Ma’lash had to save face. Plus, he was really pissed off. When the warping happened, he was defenseless, and Kerrigan’s spine almost took off his head. It was only due to his modified plasma shield that saved his skin.

“I did.” Alarak stood out. He explained before Ma’lash could say anything. “We reconnected to a fleet beacon in the Sigma Quadrant.”

“I was told it was destroyed.” The good news distracted Ma’lash from his anger.

“It must have been reconstructed.” Alarak said coldly. “We can warp away now.”

“Then do it.” Ma’lash had no idea what happened, but he was more than glad to flee from a battle he obviously couldn’t win. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but he didn’t want to die pointlessly, defeated. He could make a last ditch effort against the Queen of Blades if he didn’t have a choice, but now that he had another choice, he would gladly take that one instead.

As soon as all the Tal’darim warriors were recalled back to the capital ships, the Death Fleet warped away. During the relatively brief ambush, dozens of capital ships were lost, but the essence of the Tal’darim survived.

Inside her ship, Kerrigan groaned as victory slipped through her fingers. This shouldn’t have happened. The broodmother that was tasked with attacking the Sigma Quadrant told her through the psionic network that the fleet beacon was already destroyed. Kerrigan tried to contact that broodmother, and frowned when she didn’t get an answer.

Something was wrong.

Suddenly, she sensed something from Zagara, the broodmother she left to command the zerg forces on Char.

“My queen, I have something unfortunate to report.”

“Are you being hesitant, Zagara?” Kerrigan demanded angrily. She wasn’t in a good mood, and the way Zagara said it made her impatient. “Speak!”

“As you wish, my queen.” Zagara continued. “A small group of terran forces attacked Char. They were aided by the Dominion Fleet. They took the artifact.”

Before she went on to face the Death Fleet, Kerrigan kept her piece of the artifact back on Char. She didn’t want to risk losing it in the battle. As far as she could see, Char was the safest place a zerg could be in. Sure, the Dominion Fleet laid siege to Char, but Kerrigan knew what Mengsk was thinking, and she was confident he wouldn’t order the attack.

What Kerrigan didn’t know was that Ma’lash and the Tal’darim weren’t the only ones who wanted the artifact fragments and were willing to risk everything for it. Narud did as well, and his interest of the artifact went far beyond what Kerrigan imagined. While having her suspicions, the Queen of Blades thought Narud was merely a curious terran researcher who went a little too far. Unfortunately for Kerrigan, Dr. Emil Narud had more influence in the Terran Dominion than she imagined. While he couldn’t convince Mengsk to launch a full scale attack on Char, he was able to, with a few price, convince him to not only allow a small Moebius task force to land on Char and carry out a special mission but also order the Dominion fleet to provide fire support.

A certain spectre led the Moebius charge.

The initial wave of bombardment from the Dominion Fleet caught the zerg by surprise. Unknown to the Swarm, terran ravens have already located where the artifact was. The Dominion Fleet unloaded thousands of shots on the defenders, practically wiping them out. Further bombardment forced the zerg reinforcement back as the Moebius strike team retrieved the artifact.

It was a clean mission. The Moebius got in, got the artifact, and got out. The few zerg survivors that persevered through the bombardment were gunned down.

As the dropships that carried the artifact flew away, zerg flyers tried to pursuit, but they turned around when they found themselves facing the full might of the Dominion Fleet.

The majority of the Swarm was gone. The Dominion Fleet on site outnumbered the zerg. If the terran attacked, they could deal heavy damage. Zagara couldn’t risk provoking them by ordering a pursuit. She could only watch as the terran left with the artifact.

It was ironic. Kerrigan entered the battle wanting to earn herself one more fragment, and she ended up leaving with one less fragment.

But at this point there was nothing the Queen of Blades could do but order a retreat back to Char. She was out of tricks, and her fleet was depleted. Even the Dominion Fleet seemed like a powerful foe. She needed time before she could make another move.

That wasn’t the end to her troubles. As she finally had the time to go over everything, Kerrigan quickly realized she lost contact with dozens of planets between the zerg border and the Umojan border. She needed time to recover.

In this exchange, neither the protoss nor the zerg won. If there was indeed a victor, it was Jean. Throughout the battle, Jean and Delta developed their forces quietly. Delta raided multiple Tal’darim planets, looted the minerals, and used them to build up her own fleet. Jean found herself with thousands of extra Warden units, and she was confident she could convince the Umojans to make more of them. Her connection to the Umojans was also enhanced.