Hamdar II was the third largest manufacturing planet in Umoja. It mainly produced civilian products. Jean, due to her limited resource, didn't find the need to convert the factories here to Warden manufacturing facilities as well. As a result, the planet was able to remain as it was before the war. The inhabitants weren’t living in an utopia, but they weren’t afraid of their lives either.

This all changed when a fleet large enough to completely surround the planet jumped in.

Narud and Artanis watched side by side in the bridge of the Golden Armada flagship as dozens of carriers melted the planet below. Squads of white Umojan battlecruisers launched a final, desperate attack on the Daelaam, but half their ship count was gone by the time they made it through the web of protoss laser beams. The rest barely survived a round of zealot warp ins.

Orbital cannons fired desperately toward the carriers. Marines and marauders kissed goodbye to their family as they entered their CMC armors and marched into the defenses. Siege tanks entered siege mode. Unfortunately, none of those actions mattered when the Golden Armada simply rained down death from the sky and destroyed everything and everyone on the planet.

Suddenly, Artanis sensed a piece of information being passed on through the Khala. He processed it and quickly turned to Narud.

“My lord, Aiur is under siege. Just hours ago, a fleet of ancient Purifier ships warped into Aiur’s orbit. They destroyed the orbital defenses and have landed on the planet. Executor Selendis is holding the line, but we don’t have sufficient forces back on Aiur to defeat the Purifiers.”

If Artanis was still his true self, he would’ve turned the Golden Armada around back to Aiur the second he got the news. Aiur was the stem of the protoss, and Artanis didn't take it back from the zerg just so he could lose it again. Unfortunately, the hierarch was merely a shell of his former self. He and his people were completely brainwashed. Hell they knew they would eventually be killed by Amon as well, even if they achieved victory, and yet they still fought for Amon regardless of the consequences. Aiur was just like any other planet to them.

Narud thought about it for a while before coming to a conclusion.

“Our enemies are trying to buy time. Our assault on Umoja must have caught them by surprise. We will not be delayed. Continue your task, hierarch.”

Compared to Jean’s near omniscient knowledge, Narud was at a deficit in terms of information. Despite being in the sector since the start of the Brood War, the undercover Xel’naga wasn’t exactly able to know everything about everyone in the sector. He had little knowledge of Jean’s presence, apart from what the Terran Dominion knew. All he knew about the situation was that the Umojans and the Purifiers, and possibly the Dominion, have established some sort of alliance to target Amon. He had no idea the Swarm and the Tal’darim were part of the alliance as well.

When Narud planned the assault, since he had no idea where the Purifiers were, he took the Golden Armada to the Umojans, who were more of a threat than the weakened Terran Dominion.

As far as he could see, the Umojans, one of the three major parts of the alliance, have already been crippled by the Golden Armada. The Purifiers didn't have the forces to stop the Armada, so they tried to attack Aiur and force the Armada to turn around, therefore buying time for the Dominion and the Umojans to rebuild their forces. Narud didn't think the two terran factions could do much even f the Golden Armada did turn around, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

The Golden Armada would continue to go forward.

“As you wish.” Artanis turned to all his underlings in the Khala. “Recall all forces from Aiur. Adjust the rally point of all resource and unit from Aiur to the Armada.” Basically, he was sacking Aiur.

The Daelaam have spent years trying to take back that planet, and now they were giving it up without even trying to defend it. It was painstakingly ironic.

After deploying scouts and phoenixes to wipe out the last of the Umojan survivors, the entire Golden Armada jumped away.

Thirty minutes later, fifty leviathans jumped into the area. All they saw were ship remains and floating bodies. Pieces of rock and soil floated aimlessly in space. They were produced by the purification beams from all the dozens of motherships. Narud wanted to make sure there were no survivors.

“Ahhh. The Kel-Morian Combine.” Narud stated as he looked out the window.

After going on a nonstop planet burning spree for over forty hours, all the major Umojan planets were gone. Jean “tried” to warn those planets of the danger at hand, but all her attempts of communication “accidentally” failed.

After all, it was to Jean’s benefit if the Golden Armada wasted ammunition on random planets that no longer served any purpose to Jean…

Finally, the Golden Armada exited the territory of the former Umojan Protectorate and marched into that of the Kel-Morian Combine.

“My lord, if I may ask.”

“Go on.”

“Why don’t we warp directly to the Terran Dominion? We understand it is part of the alliance that has foolishly stood against our master. We must seize them at once. Aiur has fallen, and our energy storage is depleting by the hour. Our foes are no doubt assembling their forces as we speak. The longer we wait, the more likely our foes will overpower us.”

Artanis was brainwashed, but he was still a decent military commander. He wasn’t blind to the situation, and he certainly didn't like it.

Narud smirked.

“Perhaps, but if the Golden Armada burns the Dominion, what will the rest of the resistance do? What will the Purifier Fleet do?”

Artanis was silent. He didn't see where Narud was going.

“If we crush the Terran Dominion, the rest of the resistance will understand they can’t defeat us, and they will run. This is a large sector, hierarch, and neither the Golden Armada nor the hybrids can track down every single resistance. The Purifiers can simply hide in a corner of the sector and strike us where the Golden Armada is not. It will be a game of cat and mouse.”

“But we will persevere! We will eventually seize the victory!”

“Yet our master doesn’t have the patience!” Narud suddenly declared. “Our master demands for the destruction of this sector, and it is our duty as his servant to bring this to him as quickly as possible, no matter the price.”

He turned around and looked into Artanis’s red, glowing eyes.

“The Golden Armada will become vulnerable, and our enemies will gather in strength, and eventually, our foes will think they have the number to overpower us. They will engage us, and in the heat of the battle, just as they think they win, we will break through their lines and wipe out their fleet. More importantly, we will cut off their retreat. If we wipe out the main fleet of the resistors, the rest would hardly be a problem.“

“Then why didn't we take the bait and warp back to Aiur when the Purifiers attacked Aiur? The attack itself was aimed to bring us back.”

“Perhaps, but if our enemies seized Aiur, they will be more inclined to believe the Golden Armada is weaker than it truly is. It will encourage them to stand and fight...and therefore lead the best forces in the sector to their destruction.”

Narud’s decision wasn’t the smartest tactically, but tactics weren’t his only consideration. After the major screwup with the Moebius, Narud noticed Amon was getting impatient with him. If he dragged this out, even if he was only trying to be safe, Amon wouldn’t be an understanding boss. Instead, he wouldn’t hesitate to take Narud out of the equation and adopt a more aggressive tactic. In the line of work as a Xel’naga, retirement meant death.

Sure, the Golden Armada would pay the price for this risky strategy, but the Daelaam would be slaughtered anyways, along with the Tal’darim, the terran, and the zerg.

Speaking of the Tal’darim, Narud almost forgot they existed. He heard news about how Ma’lash was replaced by a lower ascendant, through a rather unconventional way, in fact. However, neither he nor Amon cared about what the exact way was. From the very beginning, the Xel’naga treated the Tal’darim as tools. Just like people wouldn’t care why their pen suddenly stopped working and would simply replace them with new ones, Amon and Narud were fine with the change of leadership as long as the new leader could carry out the missions nicely.

After Nyon’s ascension, Narud was too busy getting sent back to the void and then planning to stab Jean in the back to get in touch with the Tal’darim. He planned to change that. The Death Fleet could really be a table changer in the upcoming war.

He was right in that regard. What he didn't know was which side the Tal’darim would be on.

“Hierarch,” He turned to Artanis once again. “prepare a fleet. I want you to bring one of my hybrids to Slayn and meet up with the new Highlord of the Tal’darim.”

Warping systems seemed all cool and easy, but it actually needed a lot of preparation. If hybrids wanted to be warped directly onto the battlefield via Tal’darim power fields, there had to be modifications. Unfortunately, all the hybrids with such modifications belonged to Ma’lash and were now dead. This forced Narud to take the more conventional mean of travel.

Speaking of the hybrids, Nyon painted the floor of the Pit of Ascension blue with the blood of the hybrids, but Narud hardly cared. Ma’lash used the hybrids and still lost. It only proved how weak he truly was. It was worth it to sacrifice a few dozen hybrids and get that piece of weakness off the seat of the Highlord.

Artanis complied and ordered his templars to carry out the order.

As twelve carriers departed from the Golden Armada, Narud turned his attention back to the Kel-Morian planet below.

“My lord, our scanners show the planet is unoccupied.” One of the zealots reported in slight confusion. “This is a labeled terran planet, but scanners can’t locate a single terran on the planet. Wait,” He frowned and tapped a few keys. “one of the observers have discovered something...oh, in the name of the Khala…”

“What is it?” Artanis demanded.

“The numbers.”

“Numbers?”

“The life signals...they have reached ten million…all of them have demonstrated zerg characteristics!”

“Shall I deploy a legion of templar?” Selendis asked. She was formerly stationed on Aiur. She was leading the defenses against the Purifiers when she was recalled. The once proud templar had no issue at all with fleeing from her homeworld.

“A legion of templar will be easily engulfed against this many zerg.” Artanis objected. “So will ten.”

Narud remained silent. His mind turned on what this discovery might mean. The zerg have already taken over the planet before they arrived, and they had an army burrowed underground, ready to strike. It was safe to assume these zerg belonged to the anti-Amon alliance as well.

Terran Umojans and Dominion. Protoss Purifiers. Zerg Swarm. All three races have united against Amon.

Good. He, Narud, would wipe all of them out and dominate the sector in a single battle.

The ambush was discovered, but Narud knew that didn't mean the enemies’ plan have completely failed. Just killing ten million zerg could take a while, and if the Golden Armada didn't have too many forces on the ground, whatever army they sent them might even be wiped out. Just like Kerrigan, Narud realized this was a trick that could still function after it was exposed. Discovered or not, the trick could always wear the Golden Armada down.

Thankfully, at least on this point, Narud wanted the same as the enemies. The enemies wanted to weaken the Golden Armada to buy time and prepare for a final confrontation, and Narud wanted to make the enemies believe they could win and throw all their forces into a final confrontation.

Therefore, he was more than eager to go with the plan.

“Purify the planet.” He ordered. “Burn every inch of it to dust regardless of the energy spending.”

And so the Golden Armada went into action.