On the planet of Shakurus, a light beam dropped down on the wrap zone, and a figure gradually solidified. The zealot guarding the warp zone went up. A female zealot emerged out of the light beam. “Quick, I needed to see the hierarch…”

A few minutes later...

“Hierarch! Cranmir II is under attack from a tal’darim fleet! They have 2 carriers and 7 destroyers.” The zealot said with haste. She was worried about her mentor.

Artanis’s eyes twitched. Cranmir II was one of the shipyards that provided ships for the Golden Armada. It contained 3 unfinished carriers. It would be a disaster if these carriers were lost to the tal’darim.

This never should’ve happened. He positioned 15 carriers to defend the planet. Even if the Death Fleet arrived the carriers could defend long enough for the Golden Armada to arrive.

But now these ships were dispersed to hunt down the zerg infestation. After an incident where three pursuing carriers that were chasing one leviathan got lured into a trap that left two carriers destroyed and one wounded Artanis had no choice but to put the carriers into groups of ten. Among the 500 carriers, 300 of them were put into groups of ten and sent out chasing the leviathans while 200 were either left on Shakurus to protect the protoss homeworld or dispatched to guard key locations. 30 small fleets might seem to be a lot, but across a sector with thousands of planets it was not enough. The zerg were the ones running away, and in a world where warping system was this advanced the protoss could never respond quick enough. The zerg were the ones that decided whether or not to engage the protoss.

Artanis was an experienced commander, but never before had he faced such a...cowardly and unhonorable strategy. What was worse is that this strategy was working. His forces were overall unsuccessful in dealing with the swarm.

“Hierarch?” The zeolet asked hesitantly. Artanis recovered from his thoughts.

“Selendis, lead 5 carriers to Cranmir II and take out the tal’darim thieves.” The protoss commander ordered. Selendis nodded and walked away. She had a battle to win.

Two tal’darim zealots charged toward the high templar. They were willing to ignore the danger in exchange for a chance of ascension. Killing a high templar would be a great boost to the social status of the zealot that completed the task.

But then again if this was such an easy task then the effect wouldn’t be so impressive.

The high templar held her right hand out, and one of the zealots, the zealot on the left, screamed as red flares exploded out of him. He fell on the ground and perished. The feedback ignited the zealot’s psi energy and ended his ascension.

The other zealot on the right wasn’t frightened. Instead he charged and vertically slashed down on the templar. The high templar ignited her right blade and took a small step to the side, dodging the red blade, and punched the zealot in the face. The psi blade punched through the plasma shield and melted a hole in the zealot’s skull. The body vanished before things could get real ugly.

“Impressive.” Nyon casually commented, not angry at all. Those zealots chose to strike, and they were dead because they were weak.

The high templar pointed her blade at Nyon. “You may win this battle with your trickery, tal’darim, but eventually the Golden Armada will destroy you. Your fate is sealed.” She said as if it was a fact. The strength of the Golden Armada was in every Daeleem’s heart.

Nyon smirked and ignited his own blades.

At the exact same second both the ascendant and the high templar charged. The two met for a brief moment in the middle and then separated into two sides of the bridge.

Nyon grinned and turned off his psi blade. Behind him, the high templar collapsed and faded away, becoming one with the khala.

As the high templar died for her cause, 1000 tal’darim units were warped onto the surface of the planet. They fiercely charged toward the Dealeem ground forces…

Nyon walked over the layers of broken weapons and armors of the Daeleem forces. Broken zealot armors were everywhere. Destroyed immortals, dragoons, and stalkers were ripped to pieces.

The Daeleem put up a good fight after the tal’darim took out their air support. Using the structure of the facility and Nyon’s need to take over the carriers on the ground, the Daeleem fought from hallway to hallway, not giving away a piece of land without a good fight. Nyon faced the same problem the Daeleem carrier faced on Astras. He had superior air control, but he couldn’t use it to bombard the Daeleem.

In the end even with the superior manpower and excellent control the tal’darim lost over 150 units. Most of them were zealots and slayers. Most of the dead were taken down by superior ranged attacks that instantly killed the units, not allowing them a chance to fall back and replenish the shields. All 500 Daeleem units died fighting.

At a certain point the Daeleem planned on destroying the three carriers in the hanger. Luckily for the tal’darim Assistant foresaw that and sent a strike team to secure the carriers. All three were officially placed into tal’darim possession.

Three more ascendants knelt down to show obedience as they were given control to the three carriers, and Nyon found his fleet including more carriers than destroyers…

The five carriers and three destroyers rose into the air and all the tal’darim warped back onto Nyon’s flagship. Nyon was about to give the order to leave when he saw five blue carriers exiting warp space.

Selendis’ eyes shined fury as she sensed from the khala that all the ground forces didn’t live to see the reinforcements. “These tal’darim filth.” She groaned despisingly. As an honorable templar she had a strict hatred toward the power driven tal’darim. From her point of view the tal’darim were worthless honorless cowards. They had no code. They had no sense of honor.

“Wipe them out.” The noble templar ordered with haste.

At the same time Nyon gave a very similar order, and the two small fleets engaged.