“Open fire.” Jean said quietly as she saw the enemies approaching in the command center. The entire defense line opened fire, and the power of the AI coordination started to show.

At first the tal’darim warriors didn’t care about the wave of metal. All the projectiles could do was bounce off their plasma shield, but they realized something was wrong. This tal’darim was a vanguard. They were composed of three units, zeolets, slayers, and havocs. Usually havocs would provide protection to the zeolets and slayers while the zeolets charged forward and the slayers fired from behind. But this time the havocs were immediately marked out by the AI as a threat and target fired by siege tanks. The light shield on these machines didn’t stand a chance against the crucio shock cannon of the siege tanks.

The slayers soon suffered a similar fate as the support unit was demolished in waves of flame. In most cases the slayers stayed behind the cover of the zeolets and used their phasing armor to deflect any attack that happened to come their way. If things got too much they could still blink away. This time, however, the AI controlled the terran units so accurately that every slayer would be blasted by a concussive shell that disturbed their blinking before being fired upon by a round of siege tanks. Sometimes the slayers had a chance to activate their phasing armor, but in that case the siege tanks would turn to other targets and wait for the semi-impenetrable shield to wear off. When the shield was gone, so were the slayers.

The zeolets were stuck in an unfortunate situation. Their charges were halted by the marauders and their concussive shells. The AI calculated the location where the shells had to land for the all the zeolets to be disabled. Back on Hyperion Swann and Jean did countless research to make sure the AIs could examine the situation correctly. The slowed zeolets could only stumble as the slayers and havocs were taken down by siege tanks. All the time the marines in the bunkers were unleashing upon them with the effect of stimpack. A single round from the gauss rifle did little to the plasma shield. A string of rounds did few damage as well, but the endless firing of dozens of marines focusing on the first few zeolets was enough. The first few zeolets started to lose their shields. Once the shields were gone, the zeolets were left defenseless and were soon dead.

The last zeolet fell meters before one of the bunkers. Throughout the entire battle no terran unit was hit. Some terran bunkers were damaged, but in exchange 30 zeolets, 10 slayers, and 2 havocs were dead. It was a miracle. Usually the terran needed several times the number to effective fight a protoss. Something like this was unheard of.

In the command center Jean showed no sign of pride. “Prepare for further attacks.” She said as the Raiders were starting to whisper to each other in disbelief. They were elite and experienced soldiers, and that was exactly why they were this shocked. When they first received the AI systems they didn’t think it would be helpful and took it merely as an order. Now they were treating it as a treasure. To a soldier, nothing was more valuable than something that could keep him or her alive longer in the battlefield.

On the other end, tal’darim executor Nyon frowned as the vanguard he sent was demolished. The terran seemed to be prepared for this time. They had heavy firepower and sufficient defenses set up. Doesn’t matter. He had his own heavy firepower, and he trusted he could break the terran defenses himself if he tried. “Prepare for another assault. I will lead this attack myself.”

Captain Eobard sat in one of the bunkers with seven other members of his squad. He was the captain that led the assault force on Monlyth, and he truly respected his young female commander after her wise decision that potentially saved half his man. His faith was only strengthened by the initial success against the tal’darim. But even his faith couldn’t suppress his fear as countless tal’darim assembled just outside the siege tank range. “What the hell? Commander?” Eobard complained and asked his trusted commander via the comm.

“Hold your position.” Jean ordered coldly. “Your AI will make the best move. Just obey them.”

“Yes sir.” Eobard obeyed.

“Commander, protoss warp prisms and scouts approaching. ETA 2 minutes.” In the command center the adjacent reported. The image of several red flyers appeared on the screen.

“It’s a combined effort.” Jean concluded. “The tal’darim commander wanted to use a ground assault to cover their warp prisms. If their warp prisms enter our flank our defenses will be shattered.” She realized what the enemy wanted to do, but that didn’t mean she could stop it. She had several hundred man and a dozen siege tanks and the enemy had thousands of tal’darim with air control. All she could do was use her men as efficiently as possible and make them kill the most enemy before they die. Luckily for her she still had a laser drill.

“Adjacent, upload the control of the laser drill to the AI system.” Jean ordered. “The computer will know how to use them most efficiently.”

Two minutes later, Nyon was standing before the metal wall. As an upper member of the chain of ascension tasked with protecting one of the artifacts Nyon never lacked followers. Thousands of zeolets and slayers were behind him. Hundreds of havocs formed a line. Dozens of vanguards, armed with heavy artillery, stood by Nyon. The ascendant himself was surrounded by two dozen supplicants. They were the guarantee of his victory.

“Let our enemies feel the wrath of the tal’darim!” Nyon lighted his blade and cried, and the thousands of tal’darim screamed and charged at the Raiders. Warp prisms, under the cover of scouts, dashed into the terran flank with all their speed.

And the battle began.