Following the end of the Battle of Korhal and the death of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, former Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk rose to the seat of the emperor. All the Dominion forces that remained on Korhal pledged their allegiance to their new emperor. General Warfield and the Char Fleet returned to Korhal and merged into the reformed Dominion. Unsurprisingly, General Davis and the fleet of hundred or so battlecruisers she managed to gather from the Dominion planets that survived the Swarm yielded as well. Valerian allowed most of those that surrendered, including both Davis and Warfield, to keep their power.

Of course, there were dissenters. Loyalists of the former emperor continued their attempts to assassinate Valerian, but all of those attempts suffered failure at the hands of Viper and the squad of Warden G-1 spec-ops units that Jean sent to protect Valerian. In one attempt, Nova and four Dominion ghosts who were still programmed to serve Arcturus Mengsk attempted to assassinate Valerian. They were discovered and ambushed. Nova was captured and her fellow ghosts were either captured or killed.

Kerrigan returned to Char and continued to expand her forces. With Mengsk gone, she seemed aimless for a while, but she quickly turned her attention to Amon. The two were inherently opposing because Kerrigan knew Amon controlled her when she was the original Queen of Blades, and after the Keystone, she was no longer under the influence. Being controlled was hardly something to let go.

Jean went back to Umoja and continued to expand her forces. More and more battlecruisers were modified to B-1 and B-2 Warden vessels. The proportion of Warden units in the Umojan army continued to grow. Jean was gradually turning the Umojan forces into Warden forces.

Everything seemed to be peaceful, but there was one battle going on…

Twenty four carriers and one mothership jumped into what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

“Executor, our scouts have located the hostile terran platform.”

“Engage the hostile. Terminate all opposition and destroy the platform.” Delta commanded from the middle of the mothership flagship.

While Jean was dealing with the Dominion, Delta and the Purifier Fleet focused on hunting down Dr. Narud. The disguised servant of Amon himself possessed psionic power enough to challenge Kerrigan at the height of her power. In the original history, the Moebius Corps and the hybrids Narud bred were two of Amon’s sharpest blades.

Delta wanted to terminate both of them before they gained most of their strength.

Narud and the Moebius Foundation was under the protection of the Dominion. After Delta destroyed a series of Moebius platforms with deadly firepower, Arcturus Mengsk sent three fleets to protect the main Moebius platform, which held both Narud and most of the breeding hybrids. The location of the platform was also highly classified. Delta was only able to take down a few minor platforms but couldn’t locate the real prize.

Luckily, after the fall of Korhal, Jean got the coordinates of the platform and sent them to Delta.

A couple of days ago, not long after the death of the emperor, Valerian tried to recall the three fleets that protected the platform, but there was no response. In fact, even during the battle of Korhal, Arcturus Mengsk attempted to recall the three fleets multiple times. None of the attempts worked.

Perhaps these Dominion ships didn't receive the order. Perhaps they have been controlled by Narud and the hybrids. It doesn’t matter. The gain in destroying Narud and hundreds of hybrids was enough to cancel out the loss of three fleets. Jean ordered the hit on the platform with barely any hesitation.

The carriers fanned out and approached the platform.

“Twenty four carriers. One mothership.” Narud whispered as he opened his eyes.

Too soon. The attack came too soon. After he heard Korhal was under siege and its fall was imminent, Narud recognized he could no longer get any help from Mengsk. He didn't hesitate to break his ties with the Dominion and free the dozens of hybrids that have already been created. Once unleashed, these hybrids ravaged through the minds of the Dominion forces securing the platform. Ordinary human beings didn't stand a chance against hybrids. The few ghosts were slaughtered. Within hours, the three Dominion fleets and the tens of thousands of ground forces around the platform were enslaved. They were brainwashed and their allegiance turned from the Dominion to the Moebius Corps.

The fall of the Dominion was unexpected. Its demise cut off Narud and his plan of the massive funding they desperately needed. If Narud was given some time, he could still complete the creation of nearly two hundred hybrids that he has been working on for months. Hundreds of hybrids was an army that could wipe out any hostile ground army.

But now, with just a handful of hybrids and three terran fleets, Narud didn't think he could hold the platform, especially against a protoss fleet this large.

The undercover Xel’naga has heard reports of fellow Moebius platforms being attacked and wiped out by a mysterious yellow protoss fleet, but he didn't think his platform’s location would be compromised. As far as he knew, those coordinates were top secret information. Only Mengsk’s private database held that information. If Korhal fell to the zerg and other terran factions, there’s no reason that protoss fleet can get those coordinates, right?

He quickly realized his mistake.

The three fleets remained within the range of the platform’s orbital defenses. It was a normal thing to do for the side being outgunned. Unfortunately, the Purifier fleet didn't give a damn about that. Hundreds of thousands of interceptors were flung out toward the hostiles like they were free. The Moebius opened fire freely. A fraction of the interceptors fell by the time the interceptors reached the battlecruisers, but the rest struck nonetheless.

Countless laser blasts ripped through the meters of armor of battlecruisers. The weapon system, the warp drive, and the bridge were under the most heavy attack. Laser batteries started blasting, but the number of interceptors they took down was nothing compared to the full interceptor swarm.

Battlecruisers started to fall apart. A Minotaur was the first. Another made the second. A Gorgon was the fifth.

But the Moebius held their ground. They were so brainwashed that they saw death as a gift. Crew members remained in their positions until the last moment and died with a smile, not that it made a difference to the entire battle. Marines and marauders inside fractured ships literally leaped out the openings into space and tried to shoot at the carriers with their gauss guns and grenade launchers. To their credit, they took down a dozen interceptors.

As the carriers were caught up with the battlecruisers, Delta decided she couldn’t afford to wait.

Her flagship blinked into the battlefield. Its purification beams started blasting, and the interceptors and mirages it carried joined the battle to accelerate the demise of the Moebius Corps, but the mothership itself moved toward the space platform itself.

“Focus on that protoss capital ship!” Narud could sense a huge wave of energy converging on the mothership. Whatever these protoss wanted to do, it wasn’t good.

All the platform’s orbital cannons turned their attention to the mothership. Shell after shell landed on top of the mothership’s plasma shield and evaporated without a trace. Multiple battlecruisers literally charged toward the mothership with no intention of stopping. Their plan was to simply ram into the mothership and use the kamikaze attack to either destroy the ship or weaken the shield enough for the rest of their brothers to finish the job.

The mothership didn't give the enemies any chance. Tanking all the attacks, the mothership reached and parked straight above the platform. Yellow energy from the crystals powering the mothership were channeled to the bottom of the ship and were poured into the weapon system.

Finally, after a battlecruiser charged into the plasma shield of the mothership and got completely melted, everything was ready.

“Purify them.” Delta said concisely.

The purification beam of the mothership slammed down on the platform. Within seconds, the platform disintegrated. The marines, marauders, and siege tanks on the surface of the platform evaporated. Armor or flesh, everything was reduced to ashes, which were then reduced to basic atoms.

Hybrids lived a little longer, but it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. These foul creatures screeched sharply in the flames and the heat, wanting to destroy someone or something, but there was no enemy as far as they could reach.

The bombardment continued for two minutes. By the time the purification beam was turned off, the platform, along with Narud’s hybrid army and body in the material world, was gone.

Purification...complete.

The Void.

Outside of the material world, the void was the home of the Xel’naga. Its nature of existence made the void deadly to voyagers from the material world. Any terran, zerg, or protoss that set foot inside the void would find himself being ripped apart. A marine would be dead in minutes. A battlecruiser could survive longer, but it was on a timer as well.

After executing almost all of his fellow Xel’naga when they were in hibernation, Amon twisted the void energy and used them to forge armies and armies of Void Shades. Also known as shadows of the void, these entities mimicked the form of units in the material world from all three races. However, inside the void, these void shades could be twice as powerful as their ordinary counterparts. They were faster, stronger, and killing a void shade marine was much more difficult than killing an ordinary marine.

After Xel’nagas were killed inside the material world, they would be revived inside the void. Inside the home field of the void, Xel’nagas could be multiple times stronger than they were in the Koprulu sector.

Narud opened all several dozens of his eyes.

His real form was a giant beast with multiple limbs. His entire body radiated in red and black from the void energy, just like every other entity inside the void. Regaining his mind, he subconsciously growled. Getting evaporated by a purification beam to the face was a stupid way to die. In a fair fight, he was sure he could wipe out an army just by himself, but what happened was everything but a fair fight. The protoss didn't even attempt to land on the platform. All the precious hybrids Narud had died just like those pathetic terran cannon fodders.

But what happened was less important than what he needed to do next.

“My master…” He communicated psionically.

The response was late and slow. Narud could tell the responder was annoyed. This thought made him shiver.

“Narud…” Amon hissed. His real form was half the Void away, but Narud felt like his master was right beside him. “You shouldn’t be here…”

“My master. Forgive me, but there were some...complications.” Narud did his best to make what happened sound better than what really happened. “Our ally in the material world was destroyed. Our platform was ruined.”

Amon’s voice sounded cold and emotionless, but that was what made Narud shiver more. He has seen Amon slaughter the other Xel’naga without a scent of mercy or sympathy. The dark god wasn’t afraid of having the blood of his own kind on his hand. He only let Narud live because he saw some use in Narud. If Amon felt Narud has outlived his usage…

“And my hybrids?” As a practical god, Amon didn't care about his underlings in the three races. Neither the Moebius Corps nor the Tal’darim meant more to him than a mean to an end. He could care less about their demise. After all, his plan was world destruction. Hybrids were a different story. Modeled after Amon himself, hybrids were the warriors Amon really relied on.

“They’re...gone.”

“Gone?” Narud felt the Void around him closing in. His mind turned as he did his best to save himself from his master’s wrath.

“Forgive me, my master! Give me another chance...”

The Void remained silent for a while.

“Your chance is already here.” Instead of giving Narud a slow and painful death, Amon said something that surprised Narud. “I have been scouring through the Khala of the protoss, and I have sensed something...troubling. Someone knows about my plan.”

“What?” This time Narud was really shocked. Even after his defeat at the hand of the Purifier fleet, Narud thought he was targeted because his goons kidnapped templar to turn them into hybrids, not because the protoss knew who he really was or what he really wanted to do. If his real plan got out, he and Amon would be the enemy of the sector. Taking down a united enemy was much tougher than taking down one that wasn’t aware of what was going on at all. “We must act now…”

“I have already acted. While your foolishness costed me my armies, I have made preparations to seize the so called Golden Armada.”

“How may I serve, my master?”

Amon smirked, if giant alien gods could smirk.

“Go to Aiur…”