Dominion space battle platform Alpha 4. Korhal.

Alpha 4 was just one of the near hundred Dominion orbital battle stations that surrounded Korhal. Emperor Arcturus Mengsk poured millions of credits into making the capital planet of the Terran Dominion as secure as possible. No other terran faction in the sector could afford to put up this many battle stations around a single planet.

Alpha 4 was armed with two Drakken Pulse Cannons and dozens of missile turrets. A small garrison of twelve hundred Dominion soldiers patrolled the station while a group of several hundred non-combatant personnel controlled the guns and other affairs.

The job of all these battle stations was to repel the enemy’s fleet alongside the Dominion Korhal Defense Fleet. As long as the Dominion ships could keep the enemy fleet at bay, the Drakken Pulse Cannons could inflict massive damage on hostile capital ships.

If Jean’s combined fleet just jumped in, they would find the net of battle stations a real challenge.

Fortunately, Jean was well aware of the presence of these stations. Even if Valerian Mengsk was foolish enough to not know anything about them, all the Dominion deserters who joined the prince knew of the challenge. Along with Valerian and Kerrigan, she came up with a solution.

Inside the command center of the station, where dozens of people were monitoring the AI controlling the entire station, one of the men was frequently looking down on his watch. Finally, after several minutes, he seemed to have seen what he was looking for.

“For freedom. For the Crown Prince.” He whispered as he took out something and plugged it into one of the consoles.

Within seconds, alarms blazed throughout the station. The commanding officer of the station quickly realized both the two Drakken Cannons and the missile turrets have gone offline. He ordered the computer engineers to fix the issue, but report came in that the cannons won’t be shooting for a while. The targeting system was scrambled by an unknown virus.

A series of reports from the commanders from other battlestations told the officer it wasn’t an accident. All twelve battle stations at a similar proximity have fallen.

“It’s an attack.” The commander of the Korhal Defensive Fleet, General Carolina Davis, concluded. “Mobilize all fleets. Which fleet is in the air?”

The Korhal Defense Fleet had 96 battlecruisers. Each had thousands of crew members aboard. Expecting them to be ready for battle 24/7 was foolish. All Davis could make sure was that one fleet was always ready for combat. The rest of the ships needed a while to lift off.

“Omega Squadron.”

“Get them to that area now!”

“Yes sir!”

“Sir, we’ve detected numerous warp signals around the compromised battle stations!” Another officer reported.

“That’s expected.” General Davis had a poker face on. “Get me the Emperor. He needs to know about this.”

As soon as the Omega Squadron got into position, so did their foes.

Sixty leviathans started splitting mutalisks, corruptors, and scourges as soon as they were in a position to do so. 250 Umojan battlecruisers were on the left. 80 rogue Dominion ships were on the right.

All of them started shooting at the 12 lone Dominion cruisers. Military class ship plating crumbled almost immediately as every inch of them was under fire. 24 Umojan battlecruisers charged up their Yamato Cannons, and when the rounds were shot out and reached the Dominion ships, they sealed the deal.

All twelve ships, including the Gorgon flagship, were destroyed in just minutes. Tens of thousands of lives perished.

With that obstacle out of the way, the Umojan fleet, the Swarm fleet, and the majority of the rogue Dominion fleet moved forward to face the assembling Korhal Defense Fleet. Meanwhile, a dozen rogue Dominion ships descended on the temperorily crippled battle stations. Instead of blasting the stations of the sky, the rogue ships simply deployed hundreds of dropships. When the Dominion forces tried to resist, they were bombarded and wiped out. The rogue forces in the dropships easily took over control of the battle stations and started turning them around.

At this point, the Korhal Defensive Fleet was already in place, but it was obvious to Davis she wasn’t at the winning side. If the Korhal Defensive Fleet was a mountain, then the impending enemies was a tidal wave. It would take a miracle to hold her ground.

“General Davis, the Korhal Defensive Forces are gathering. I have ordered all Dominion ships to converge on Korhal. Your mission is to delay the enemies as long as possible.”

Mengsk ordered through the hologram.

Davis understood. Mengsk was willing to sacrifice every single ship in the Korhal’s orbit to protect the capital world and buy time for reinforcement. Fair enough. But Davis wondered if she could hold out long enough. Plus, even if the Dominion ships could come in, it would be a coin toss if they could save the day. The Swarm + The Umojans + a portion of rogue Dominion Fleet? This was a deadly armada. Even the full might of the Dominion Fleet needed all the ships it could get to seize victory.

“Emperor, it will be a wise decision for you to leave Korhal, just in case.”

Mengsk considered the option but shook his head. “The Umojan fighters have put the entire planet under lockdown. I’m told they are faster than any ship we have. If I try to leave, I will be chased down before I can jump. Stand your ground, general. I will not flee from my enemies.”

The hologram was turned off, but Davis was far from convinced. Still, she had no choice but to fight.

The Korhal Defensive Fleet fell back to four battle stations that were still functioning. Hundreds of capital ships and thousands of corruptors, mutalisks, F-1 fighters, vikings, and wraiths swarmed forward. While the capital ships slowly advanced while firing at the Dominion flank, the fighters were the face to get face to face with the Dominion ships.

Dominion fighters were flung out. Anti-air guns started blasting. Missiles were fired.

As soon as the two sides made contact, the situation was obvious. Whatever Dominion fighters that were deployed were quickly overwhelmed. They fought bravely and fiercely, but this wasn’t the medieval ages. Courage no longer decided the course of battle. Countless red vikings and marauders exploded.

The Swarm, as always, used their numbers. The first line of mutalisks were gunned down by the initial wave of Dominion missiles, but the second line and the third line quickly went past the pieces of zerg flesh and blood and continued the charge. Thousands of glaive worms were flung out at the terran fighters. The expert pilots dodged the best they could, but how were they supposed to dodge when there was a carpet of glave worms in front of them? Some of the fighters tanked the glaive worms with their plating while others burned.

Scourges were more fearsome. These rapid suicide bombers had their eyes set on the battlecruisers. Thousands of them formed a squad as they cornered a ship and started smashing into the armor around their bridge. A fraction was gunned down. A fraction was exhausted at the outer armor. A fraction was blocked by the defensive matrix. But even so, enough scourges burned through the armor on the bridge and sent those inside to an endless voyage through the skies.

While the zerg used their numbers, F-1 fighters were the very definition of efficiency. Dominion vikings and wraiths were blasted out of the sky by missiles while their own projectiles were dodged by the F-1s with impossible angles. It was AIs vs human pilots, and it was the opposite of fair.

A squad of F-1 fighters set their eyes on one of the Gorgon battlecruisers. Unlike most of the F-1 fighters who were exchanging punches with Dominion fighters, these fighters were barely armed. Their only armament was a pair of ion cannons. They were also so much faster than the rest. They charged at their target with no intention of returning.

The Gorgon’s batteries started shooting, but they accomplished little. The captain barely hesitated to use the defensive matrix in a desperate attempt to save the ship and all the crew member on it.

All sixteen F-1 fighters smashed into the battlecruiser almost at the same time. Instead of just falling apart outside the defensive matrix, all sixteen fighters exploded into millions of degrees of heat.

These fighters were suicide bombers. They were armed with enhanced engines and they carried tactical nuclear missiles. As soon as they hit the enemy ship, the AIs set off the nukes.

Nuclear missiles were easily intercepted if they were simply shot at the enemy fleet, so Jean masked them and protect them by placing them inside rapid fighters more than capable of staying alive on the battlefield.

The Gorgon targeted was completely destroyed. All sixteen nuclear missiles burned giant hole after giant hole across the ship, but even if the blast and the exposure to space didn't kill the crew members, the radiation did. Gorgons were designed to handle this much radiation at this close of a distance.

In just five minutes, one third of the Korhal Defensive Fleet was gone. The attackers, on the other hand, were still endless and pouring forward.

“We must fall back!” General Davis didn't give a damn about her soldiers, but she was well aware she was nobody without her forces. “Get Emperor Mengsk online again!”

“Sir, we have lost contact with the capital. It seems the hostiles are jamming our signal.”

General Davis looked out of the window in deep thoughts.

Carolina Davis was a conflicting character. She has been with Mengsk since when he led the rebels of the Sons of Korhal against the wicked Terran Confederacy. She has been one of his most trusted generals after the Terran Dominion was established. She might not be as talented or well liked as General Warfield, but she was certainly more trusted. Mengsk knew he could trust Davis with his dirty deeds but couldn’t do the same thing with Warfield. That was also why Davis was in the supposedly safe environment of Korhal when Warfield was all the way at Char.

In the original history, after Kerrigan killed Arcturus Mengsk and Valerian Mengsk took over the throne and commanded the Terran Dominion, General Davis pledged her allegiance to him but, behind his back, created the terrorist group the Defenders of Man in an attempt to force Valerian to resign. Eventually, her attempt failed and she was executed by ghost operative Nova Terra, who was serving Valerian at the time.

Was she loyal to Mengsk? Maybe. She talked about Arcturus Mengsk every other sentence when talking to Valerian or Nova. But if she was really faithful, then in the original world, why did she stand by and do nothing when the Swarm seized Korhal? There was no doubt Mengsk summoned her and whatever fleet she was commanding at that time to abandon her mission and return to Korhal. No other mission was more important than the emperor himself. Then where was she?

The answer was simple. General Davis realized Korhal was already lost and Mengsk was as good as dead, so she didn't bother to throw herself and whatever forces she had away. Instead, she pretended to be loyal to Valerian and only exposed her true intentions when she was sure she could win.

Perhaps she was loyal to Arcturus, but she was more or less using the emperor as a political asset.

Asking her to die for Mengsk was like asking Jean to die for Raynor.

“Order the Alpha Squadron to clear a path. Jump all ships to Rendevous Point India.”

“But, sir! That will leave Korhal to the hands of the zerg!” One of the officers objected. Davis turned to him and stared into his eyes.

“You have received an order, soldier. Obey it.”

“But...yes sir.”

The Korhal Defensive Fleet started moving. The Alpha Squadron was still commanded by Admiral Princeton. After the raid on the Hyperion, the Alpha Squadron was portrayed as the hero of the Dominion. Arcturus Mengsk was true to his promise and poured resources and manpower into the fleet, not only returning it to its former strength before the raid but also much stronger.

For quite a while, Admiral Princeton was glad he took the mission.

But now, with the full might of the Swarm smashing down on the Squadron, Admiral Princeton has given up all hope. Kerrigan heard the Dominion propaganda as well and knew the Alpha Squadron was the Dominion Fleet that took the life of her loved one.

When the Alpha Squadron moved forward, Kerrigan, without any thoughts, moved several leviathans out of their former position to make sure they couldn’t get away.

This left a part of the combined fleet flank open. Seizing the opportunity, the rest of the Korhal Defensive Fleet, barely thirty battlecruisers and hardly any fighters, jumped away.

The Alpha Squadron was left to die, and they did die. At their last moments, the Dominion ships were so fully surrounded by leviathans and corruptors and mutalisks that they could barely budge.

The battlecruisers fell one by one. Finally, the flagship Admiral Princeton was in was the only one left.

Kerrigan smirked in bloodthirst.

“Take it out.”

The corruptors and leviathans started pushing on the flagship. Armors screeched and crumbled under the brute force. The crew members screamed as they were crushed as well.

It was a gradual and painful death.

Valerian frowned. “What the hell, Kerrigan?” The plan was to wipe out the entire Korhal Defensive Fleet, not merely maim it.

Kerrigan smirked. “I don’t answer to you, Mengsk.”

“We should proceed with the plan. What’s done is done. Arguing now is pointless.” Jean cut in.

The Swarm turned and warped away to hunt down Dominion fleets from all across the sector. The Umojan Fleet and the rogue Dominion Fleet remained behind and started picking out the battle stations one by one. Valerian’s fighters and transports flew around the battlefield and picked up survivors from all sides. The Dominion survivors were imprisoned for further decision from Valerian.

The capital ships continued to move from battle station to battle station. Some Drakken Pulse Cannons fired back, but by themselves they weren’t enough. The battlecruisers either blasted the battle stations out of the sky with Yamato Cannons a safe distance away or simply tanked the cannon shots and sent down drop pods.

Everything was coming together for the assault on Korhal.