Jean brought forty Warden battlecruisers with her to Zerus. These forty battlecruisers met no resistance as they landed in an opening on the forest planet. Without a central command, the primal zerg had no chance of deflecting the landing, not that any planetary defense would be effective at all. Random mutalisks and guardians were no match to forty capital ships.

Upon arrival, terran mechanical units left the battlecruisers in four lines and started building a defensive formation. SCVs constructed automated bunkers that had mounted turrets. Warden siege tanks entered siege mode and stared at any potential enemy that were foolish enough to come and storm the base. Positioned in the ideal position according to tactical AI calculations and connected in the same central network, the Warden forces were as efficient as possible. It would take at least ten times the primal zerg to storm the base.

Goliaths, thors, and siege tanks, piloted by AIs, started to sweep through the surface of the planet. Any primal they met were immediately gunned down and brought back to where the battlecruisers landed. There, they would be fed to Jean.

In a cave, Dehaka licked his wound, which was both physical and metaphorical.

The alliance he put together was a disaster. Two weeks ago under his persuasion, most of the primal packs on Zerus came together and stormed the protoss camp. Despite the recent defeats the Daelaam suffered, they weren’t weak enough to be defeated by a few hordes of mindless primal. The attack was a crushing defeat for the zerg. One of the pack leaders was killed, and all leaders were wounded to a certain degree. Even Dehaka himself took an immortal cannon to the face. The primal units were down to one third of their former numbers. It was truly a heavy blow to the packs.

As a result the cause of this tragedy didn’t receive much appreciation from the pack leaders. The leaders wouldn’t dare to go after the primary cause, the Golden Armada, again, but they wouldn’t hesitate to let off some steam on the secondary cause, which was, unfortunately, the one that rallied them together on the attack and promised them a successful battle. Dehaka. When the attack was obviously a disaster, even Dehaka was smart enough to know the primal leaders wouldn’t welcome his return with open arms(claws). That was why he turned and ran into the woods during the chaos of the defeat instead of returning to the primal alliance.

Luckily the foreign invaders left the planet a few days later. Turned out Dehaka didn’t even need to rally the attack on the Daelaam. The pack leaders could’ve just hid for a few days and sacrificed a few pawns and would still be nice and fine...Of course that realization only increased their hatred for Dehaka. If it wasn’t for him and his foolish suggestion they wouldn’t be wounded at all and most of their important units would still be alive. To Dehaka the departure of the protoss was only the beginning of his nightmare. Now there were several angry pack leaders outside that would be more than happy to feast on his essence. He had no choice but to stay in a cave and heal, hoping one day all the pack leaders that wanted him dead would be dead due to some reason and he would, once more, be free. It was a wild hope, but that was all Dehaka could do. He had no forces and no power to stand up against the primal packs. If only he had his own pack...

As he was deep in his own wild imagination, Dehaka heard some noise from outside. He immediately got alert. Life as a fugitive was not easy. If there were some primal zerg outside then he would need to eliminate them before even one of them could escape and get the news of his presence to their leaders. As strong as he was, or as he thought he was, Dehaka didn’t think he was strong enough to take on a single pack leader and an entire pack, much less several packs at the same time. As he stood up his thoughts flew to building his own pack again. If he could have an army of primal under his command…This time, thought, he quickly recovered and looked at the approaching creatures.

What he saw wasn’t exactly a primal zerg.

A squad of five metal beasts navigated their way through the forest and was closing in on the cave. Dehaka wasn’t that smart, but he was smart enough to know those metal creatures weren’t his friends. Not wanting any trouble and in no desire/condition to fight, Dehaka kept his wounded head low and retreated deeper into the cave, hoping the potential enemies were here for a walk and nothing else. Maybe they couldn’t find him. Maybe they would just glance around and then turn and leave.

Frankly speaking the cave Dehaka hid in was a good hiding location for a runaway. The cave looked abandoned on the outside. Such caves were more than plenty on Zerus. Very few people would bother checking it out. Even if Dehaka was noticed and the primal somehow surrounded the cave, Dehaka could always hold the line. The pursuers advantage in number would be taken out of the equation by the position of the cave. This was almost the ideal location. Of course, the cave didn’t have an alternate exit, but if he was cornered likely he wouldn’t have any chance to escape.

Yet the discreteness wasn’t enough to save Dehaka from the Warden goliaths. In order hunt down primal as efficiently as possible, one of the five goliaths was armed with a radar. Perhaps a cave was enough to keep the primal away, but it did nothing against the terran technology.

The goliath squad leader, the one carrying the radar, sent out a signal through the Warden network while the other four goliaths approached the cave. Their heat version were turned on. Dehaka’s form was brighter than ever.

The louder and louder sound of metal machines stepping on solid ground was enough to tell Dehaka he was founded. The problem with a lack of exit was...well...there wasn’t any exit.

Back against the wall, Dehaka took action. The primal, savage side of him took hold. Growling, Dehaka charged out into the open.

If Dehaka was the primal pack leader he was when he met Kerrigan in the original history, he could destroy the five goliaths with absolute ease. Yet he wasn’t. The Dehaka now was merely a primal zerg with slightly higher intelligence than other pack leaders. He was stronger than normal primal units, but not by much.

The four goliaths opened fire. Warden AI immediately analysed the armor and hitpoint of Dehaka and identified how much damage they needed to do to maim him but keep him alive long enough for Jean to consume him.

Dehaka’s wild growl was immediately turned into a pained cry as four pairs of twin cannons hit him in the chest. His carapace did the best it could, but it simply wasn’t enough. Warden goliaths went into the ideal position and were able to all fire at once. Flesh and blood covered the ground as Dehaka was punched back by the full impact of the terran arsenal.

Pushed back, the primal knew he needed to do something, but then he realized the problem with having claws and only claws. The downside of only having a melee attack was fully demonstrated in this situation as Dehaka had no way to really attack the goliaths. For nearly an entire minute Dehaka tried to move forward and was constantly pushed back by auto cannon rounds. One step forward, two steps back. When the beast finally collapsed in a pool of his own blood, disabled but alive, twenty SCVs arrived outside the cave, along with two more squads of goliaths.