“Cranmir II. A Daeleem mining base and, most importantly, a ship manufacturing facility.” Assistant’s empty voice ranged through the empty hall of the carrier.

“What are the defenses?” Nyon flicked his fingers in boredom. He was secretly hoping there would be someone strong down there that he could fight and win. The high templar he faced yesterday couldn’t even stand a single mindblast. He felt disappointed.

“I observed one carrier.” Assistant connected to the observers she sent out a while ago. These cloaked spies were extremely useful for commanders.

It had been weeks since Nyon received the message from Jean. Since then he and his ships had been harassing Daeleem outposts and settlements. They would warp onto a planet, send a warp prism to the ground, warp in an overwhelming amount of units, kill or maim the defenders, take what could be taken and destroy the rest, and warp away before enemy reinforcements arrive. All the Daeleem carriers and Nerazim void rays could see were shattered armors, destroyed buildings, and empty storages.

Even though the loot wasn’t much each time, the wealth added up. The most valued price was a carrier that was being fixed in a hanger of a shipyard. Nyon charged in and smashed the high templar before he could enter the carrier and took over the ship. The interceptor projecting part of the ship was contaminated by some sort of zerg projectile, but the warping and plasma shield mechanisms were still functional. Nyon mercifully gave the carrier to a trusted ascendant, who was basically on his knees when Nyon told her about his decision.

Strengthened, Nyon wanted an enemy to show his might, which was why he was disappointed to hear Assistant’s report.

“Only one carrier?” The ascendant groaned in dissatisfaction. He felt one single carrier was not a worthy foe. “This is a major shipyard. What type of fool only send one single carrier to protect it?” Nyon’s fleet consisted of 2 carriers and 5 destroyers.

Assistant frowned, or at least her hologram projection figure of Jean Turner frowned, to show her doubt. “It may be a trap.” The target was just too soft to be true.

“Doesn’t matter. Keep the warp drives ready. We can just escape if it turns out to be a trap.” The plasma shield of carriers could hold on long enough against almost anything for the warp drives to kick in. Of course the void rays may not live long enough to escape, not that Nyon or Assistant cared about a few destroyers. The new emergency warping system that were installed by Assistant’s order could save the ascendants.

The seven ships entered warp space in a blur.

In a Daeleem carrier above Cranmir II, a high templar was meditating in her bridge. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and dozens of interceptors exited the carrier. A second later seven crimson red tal’darim ships exited warp space.

“Target the hanger, the interceptor manufacturing plant, and the warp drive of the carrier. I want that ship in my fleet.” Nyon ordered. “Prepare a squad of warriors for boarding.”

The two carriers launched their own interceptors to fend of the Daeleem ones. Red interceptors tangled with blue interceptors. Destroyers used the anti armor tendency of their destruction beams to the top by ignoring the interceptors and going directly for the enemy carrier. The plasma shield blinked rapidly, struggling to hold on.

Using the costly chance the high templar sent down a signal to the protoss on the surface of the planet. Unfortunately it was pretty much useless. A surprised settlement was no different from a fully prepared settlement in front of a small tal’darim fleet.

“Templar!” A zealot charged into the bridge. She was an apprentice of the high templar.

“Wrap back to Aiur and call for reinforcements!” The high templar ordered loudly. The plasma shield of the carrier have already broken down, and the hanger and warp drive were being targeted. The armor protecting the two spots were being melted rapidly. “The tal’darim are taking out our weapons but nothing else. They intend on capturing the ship.”

“I can fight.” The zealot argued. Running away from battle was a shame that were even worse to the protoss than death.

“No! Go and inform Artanis of this!” The high templar demanded. The zealot stood her ground, but the high templar gave out a psionic order, and a light beam consumed the zealot.

The blue carrier was now defenseless as it was ridden of its weapon and its ability to escape. The high templar watched as a warp prism left the tal’darim carrier and flew toward of her carrier. The flyer stopped above the Daeleem carrier and transformed. Eleven light beams landed in the bridge of the Daeleem carrier.

The high templar didn’t try to attack before the tal’darim could solidify. She knew it didn’t really matter any more. At this moment all she felt was anger.

The Cranmir II shipyard was once protected by around 15 carriers. An entire fleet. Unfortunately recently the zerg swarm had been ravaging through the sector under the protoss control. 20 leviathans randomly jumping through the planets was mind bothering.

What was more mind bothering was the fact that the leviathans unloaded wave after wave of drop pods upon any planet that they came across. If the planets contained protoss, then the drop pods would wipe out the settlement and plant down hatcheries and create settlements. Even if the planets didn’t contain protoss, the drop pods would be thrown down as well. The zerg would slowly but eventually contaminate the entire planet.

This was easy on the zerg part. All the leviathan had to spare was a small group of disposable forces and some drones, and the resources from the planet would do the rest. Unfortunately for the protoss they needed much more time and energy to warp in units and cleanse the planet of zerg presence. In the time it took for the protoss to cleanse one planet the zerg could contaminate ten more.

The efficiency and adaptability of the zerg units was used to its full potential.

Due to this reason Artanis had no choice but to pull away all the ships he could spare and use them to try to chase down the leviathans in groups of three. 14 of the 15 carriers were pulled away, leaving just the female templar and her carrier protecting the shipyard below.

And now she was stuck here. After she was defeated she knew the shipyard she was supposed to protect would be wiped out as well. The high templar felt more shame than fear.

But for now all she could do was ignite her psi blade and wait for the end to come.