In space, the leviathans continued to unleash rains of spores on top of their enemies. Rapid firing spore crawlers targeted fighters. Spore cannons fired at the general direction of the Daelaam capital ships.

Daelaam fighters used their speed to maneuver around zerg firing. The protoss pilots were experienced and fearless, but there was just too many firing from the swarm.

The swarm had thirteen leviathans left. Usually leviathans either stayed back and acted as troop carriers or charged in front, using their armor, size, and tentacles to do damage. Leviathans only had tentacles, which were short ranged. Sure, they had bio plasmid discharges, which were more of a zerg Yamato cannon than a regular weapon. Jean found that to be pretty inefficient.

One thing with leviathans was their size. Ranging for kilometers, they could support a large number of static defenses usually seen on planets surfaces. This was why Jean ordered four hundred spore crawlers and thirty spore cannons to be morphed on each leviathan. The leviathan had place for more, but firing spores needed energy. The current amount of cannons was the sweet spot.

Back to the battle, thanks to the ability to move around, all of the spore crawlers and cannons could face the direction of the enemy. A total of 5200 spore crawlers were fired toward the Golden Armada every second. Occasionally some 390 larger, more effective, spores would be unleashed.

This meant even if only one tenth of the spores hit a target, and it took three spore hits to break through a fighter, the Daelaam fighter count would be decreasing by nearly two hundred every second, not counting the damage down by mutalisks, corruptors, and spores from the ground.

In general, the Golden Armada was getting smaller and smaller every second.

Jean watched as twenty scourges clashed into a carrier that stepped too far forward. The plasma shield took all the damage, but a squad of twelve corruptors finished off the carrier in three rounds of parasite spores.

“Jean, ” This was a queen. Queens usually referred Jean simply by her name. It was the style of the zerg. Efficient. “Large number of warp prisms approaching!”

“Shoot them down.” Jean was about to dispatch another group of zerg flyers when the Golden Armada made another round of frontal assault. Motherships, usually protected by the rest of the fleet, led the charge. Carriers moved forward against the opposing spores. Plasma shields shook violently from the attacks. Fighters fired and moved at the same time, doing as much damage as possible before being torn open.

The protoss commander had thrown away any idea of self preservation. They needed to break through now.

The zerg fleet needed everything they had to hold the attack. Spore cannons were forced to support the zerg fleet instead of gunning down the warp prisms. Mutalisks were directed to the front.

Noticing the seemingly dire situation and sensing the warp prisms arriving onto the planet without much losses, Jean was, surprisingly, far from worried.

If things go well, none of the Daelaam landing forces and hybrids would be going back. The more forces the Golden Armada sent to Char, the weaker the Golden Armada would be, and the easier it would be for her to take down Amon.

What she didn’t sense was a warp prism that entered phasing mode near the cave.

“My queen.” Jean called Kerrigan from the psi network. The zerg leader was enjoying a good old killing spree.

“What is it?” Kerrigan casually dropped an arm of a hybrid reaver. Shattered protoss armors covered the ground. Fragments of a warp prism laid a few meters away.

“The Daelaam are launching a full scale landing operation.” Jean reported. “I am sending all the group 1 units into battle to make it look like we will be overpowered very soon. Kill as much enemy units as possible to attract more protoss onto the planet. Just tell me when you can no longer maintain and I will spring the trap.”

Jean classified the swarm units on Char into three groups. The first was on the battlefield and the rest were in the safety of the nydus worms.

“I’d assume this is part of your plan.” Kerrigan suggested as she sensed waves of protoss units being warped in. Some were taken out, but most managed to get to their destination safely. When they arrived, the table was completely turned.

Psi blades melted through zerg carapace. Glave cannons teared open zergling flesh.

A clamp of zerglings, hydralisks, and roaches engaged a warp prism. Unfortunately for the zerg there was a high templar in the field.

The templar held his hands forward, and powerful psi energy started to assemble in the middle of the zerg crowd. A few seconds later this energy turned into a psionic storm and smashed down on the zerg units.

When the cloud cleared, all the zerglings and most of the hydralisks were electrocuted. Roaches survived thanks to their thick armor, but their armor could only do so much when the templar and twelve zealots charged onto them with psi blades raised.

Things like this happened all over the planet. The swarm, ironically, was overwhelmed by the protoss. Zerglings were sacrificed for no result. Hydralisks were shattered before they could fire enough spines. Roaches were overwhelmed by charging zealots. The few ultralisks accomplished something, but they were no match for hybrid weavers.

Kerrigan fought in the front, ripping her way through warp prism after warp prism. A group of elite zerg units fought by her, but their advance was eventually halted when more and more protoss arrived onto Char. If one hybrid couldn’t stop her, how about ten?

Spore cannons were destroyed. Creep tumors burned. Severed flesh stained the purple creep. Protoss forces were converging. It was as if victory for the Daelaam was at hand.

Behind the cave, a large figure solidified from a warp prism. Jean was cautious. The cave held the entire commanding structure of the swarm. If the cave was hit, Jean might survive, but she couldn’t save the queens without showing her secret. If the queens were gone then the swarm would be partially disabled. Thanks to the presence of overlords and the psi link Kerrigan had the zerg units wouldn’t go feral, but Kerrigan wouldn’t be able to issue commands to the millions of zergs on the entire battle.

The zerg structure was like a corporation. Kerrigan was the CEO, but she couldn’t do everything all by herself. She needed lower ranked executives to help her control the basic employees in her company. If the executives were taken out, she would still have the employees, but she could no longer use them as efficiently.

Due to the importance of these queens, Jean had kept a large defense around the cave. All the units were elites. Spines crawlers and spore crawlers were all over the place. Layers of overseers made sure any cloaked unit would be rendered useless.

But now, against this enemy, these defenses had the opposite effect.

The hybrid mastermind’s psi energy washed over the zerg units and structures, severing their command from Jean and gaining their obedience. His zerg essence decreased the resistance from the zerg units.

It wasn’t like Jean was weaker than the hybrid mastermind. Jean was facing the same problem Kerrigan faced before. (Chapter 50: Assassination) She was commanding an entire planet of zerg. Her attention and psi energy was spread out, which meant she didn’t have enough to fight or even notice the hybrid mastermind.

Ordering the controlled zerg units to maintain their position and pretend their loyalty to the swarm, the hybrid mastermind walked into the cave, followed by twenty elite Daelaam zealots.

Jean had no idea danger was walking toward her. All the zerg units on route were controlled. She was still sitting on the ground with her eyes closed, relying on her psi energy to manage the battlefield.