Go back to a few minutes ago, just after the Daelaam armada was stasised and before the suicidal attack.

In her bridge, Nova received a signal and turned to Jean.

“Phase one was successful.”

Jean nodded. Phase one was to use the tal’darim to lure the Golden Armada into a trap. The armada was too powerful to defeat, but she could stall them. If phase two went well, everything would be settled when the Golden Armada exited stasis.

Turning to the computer screen, which was connected to general Warfield, Jean gave the order to strike.

“Proceed as planned.”

Outside Jean’s window the Dominion fleet entered the warp space. The purifier fleet followed. The Warden fleet was the last to go.

In the space near Shakuras, a patrolling corsair, part of the Shakuras fleet, was flying through space. Its pilot suddenly noticed massive amounts of warp signals.

He reached for his comm. Unlike the Khala the Nerazim couldn’t communicate via nerve cords. “Inform the matriarch! I have spotted…”

He never finished that sentence as the Dominion fleet solidified before him. Two of the battlecruisers locked onto the corsair and opened fire. The corsair tried to dodge, but failed.

Despite the death of the scout, the message was passed out. Now wasn’t the medieval ages where infiltration was done by assassinating guards. The moment the corsair fell the Nerazim nexus was notified.

The Nerazim acted quickly. When the combined fleet arrived to near Shakuras the Nerazim fleet was already in the air, armed and shielded.

The Nerazim fleet was, as its name stated, a fleet made up of Nerazim. It consisted of corsairs, oracles, and void rays. Comparing to the Golden Armada it was smaller in both firepower and amount of ships. Sizing around 80 void rays, it was tiny in the face of the combined fleet of around 500 ships.

“Where did they come from? Have you made contact with the Golden Armada?” Vorazun knew that, which was why she ordered her men to contact the Golden Armada as soon as she mobilized the Nerazim fleet, but there wasn’t any response. Units in stasis couldn’t answer calls.

“No, matriarch.”

Vorazun was desperate. The planet below was the last planet of the protoss. It held countless Khala survivors and Nerazim. The amount of infrastructures was astonishing. Anything and everything that survived the swarm was located here. If Shakuras fell, then the protoss, the Khala and the Nerazim, would be homeless and rootless. Of course, that was if there were any survivors.

“Keep contacting the Golden Armada. They’re our only hope. Meanwhile, prepare our warriors for warping. Order the fleet to charge up their prismatic beam and be ready for combat. We must hold the line.”

“Will they even engage us on the ground?” An executor asked. The combined fleet could bombard the ground forces to oblivion from orbit.

“Who said anything about engaging them on the ground?” Vorazun smiled coldly. “We are outgunned and outnumbered. If we want to hold long enough we will bring the fight to them.”

The combined fleet formed a line. The Dominion fleet was in the center. The Warden fleet and the purifier fleet on the two sides. The Nerazim fleet was relatively smaller, which meant the Warden Fleet and the purifier fleet could venture around them and surround the void rays and corsairs from all sides. This was also part of the plan, designed to use the number advantage of the combined fleet to its maximum and be as efficient as possible.

“Yamato cannons target the Nerzaim fleet.” General Warfield commanded. The twenty or so battlecruisers in the front took aim and fired. Giant orange bolts of energy exited the ships. They carried enough kinetic energy to completely obliterate the void rays. But just as they were about to hit the void rays, these Nerazim dark templar vessels blinked and disappeared. The next moment they appeared was much closer before the Dominion fleet. The Yamato bolts were already behind them.

The void rays’ prismatic beams were ready. Filled with the Nerazim’s hatred of the intruders, these weapon fired, and a bright beam smashed into a Dominion Minotaur class battlecruiser in front.

The prismatic beams were designed to destroy large armored vessel, which was practically the very definition of the battlecruisers. The meters of armor melted away like ice on fire. All it took was several seconds for the combined power of a dozen void rays to rip the battlecruiser apart.

A Minotaur class battlecruiser held several thousand people. Everything happened so quickly. None of them escaped in time.

Warfield smashed his fist into a wall in spite.

Jean’s eyes twitched. The Nerazim’s connection with the void made them experts in the concept of space. Stalkers and dark templars could blink with ease, and with some expertise and modification the dark templars piloting the void rays could make them jump a very short distance in a moment’s notice as well. They used this skill to get closer to the battlecruisers and focus fire on one of the ships. The plan was brilliant.

And yet the fall of one ship was insignificant in the entirety of the battle. There were over five hundred capital ships here in the combined fleet, and a Minotaur class was the weakest ship present. If it was a carrier or a Gorgon battlecruiser it would take the void ray much longer. It was only a matter of time before the Nerazim fall apart.

Outside the high speed fighters of the Nerazim, the corsairs, did their best to hold off the vikings, wraiths and mirages of the combined fleet. Void rays tried to melt through enemy ships before they could destroy the void rays. Every second fighters were exploding into a million pieces. Men and women were dying with an astonishing speed, but no one backed off. The combined fleet was made up of fearless robots and loyal soldiers. The Nerazim are fighting for their homeworld and their people. Not one ship from the two fleets ran away.