In the woods, Jean, Dehaka, and a couple hundred Warden mechancial units were marching. They stopped when they reached an open field.

“There...Yagdra’s pack.” The traitor of his own kind pointed at where a swarm of primal zerg were wandering around aimlessly. At this point Dehaka’s thoughts had went further than merely saving his own skin. If he could use this monstrous girl and her more than powerful forces to destroy all the established packs on Zerus...he, Dehaka, would be able to use the power vacuum to build his own pack after she leaves. Now he was doing this for his ambition.

“Noted.” Instead of sitting in her defenses and waiting for her underlings to bring half dead primal to her, Jean actually lead the assault forces. Perhaps Warden units could take small groups of primal alive, but there was no way for them to capture an entire pack alive while taking few losses. It was a bad trade, and more importantly it was unnecessary. Jean was all about trading efficiently.

“Stay back.” Dehaka walked up as if he wanted to participate in the fight, but Jean him back. She needed Dehaka as a guide, not a fighter. She had more than enough fighters

Dehaka took a few steps back.

“Enter battle position. Move with caution.” The command was as quiet as ever.

Warden units moved out of the woods quietly. Goliaths and SCVs, much more agile than siege tanks and thors, cleared a path for their larger friends. Warden sensors picked up information of the surrounding and allowed the units to make as little sound as possible as they moved into position. Thanks to a lack of scout, Jean’s forces had the element of surprise.

Half the army had left the woods when a loud sound pierced through the sky. A siege tank tried to move across a seemingly solid ground, and the ground just collapsed. The sound of the siege tank hitting the bottom of the hole was more than enough of a warning.

Two third of the primal units looked up in alert. Their more than capable hearings easily picked up the noise. Seeing the now out in the open Warden forces, they growled and charged.

Jean’s eyes twitched as the sea of enemies swarmed up. The primal outnumbered the Warden forces at least 3 to 1. Luckily sometimes number didn’t mean power. Jean tapped her earpiece and said something.

Not needing Jean’s orders, the Warden AIs responded swiftly. The first group of units went into battle formation to cover their comrades behind as they exited the woods. Siege tanks sieged. Goliaths readied their auto cannons. Thor’s aimed their hammers.

The next second three orange energy beams smashed into the charging primal forces. Flesh and blood exploded as three giant holes were formed in the dense primal lines. Even after suffering a terrible defeat at the hands of the Golden Armada these primal weren’t smart enough to learn a lesson. Their battle tactic of stacking their forces closely and using their numbers as an advantage made them extremely vulnerable to orbital strikes.

Jean stared at the now much thinner enemy horde. She had twenty battlecruisers in the air. Faced with no real opposition, their contribution to the battle on the ground was significant. If Jean needed she could order the battlecruisers to just bombard the primal packs to extinction. That would be really costly, though, which was why she still bothered with using ground forces.

Still, despite the heavy losses that were enough to push back a normal army, the primal weren’t shaken. The one advantage, perhaps the only advantage, of being ignorant was that ignorance meant a lack of fear. The death of their own only made them more bloodthirsty. The primal forces moved even quicker.

It merely took seconds for the primal to enter siege tanks firing range, but the Warden flank remained silent for a while. It was when half the primal horde entered range that the tanks fired all at once.

Instantly dozens of Curcio cannon rounds covered the primal formation. Thanks to Warden network, none of the rounds overlapped. Less density meant more coverage, and every primal that moved into range was met with an explosion.

Zerglings and hydralisks were tossed into the air, and when they fell back down they were already in pieces. Their intestines ripped apart. Ultralisks and roaches, on the other hand, weren’t afraid of a single cannon round. Some of the roaches were maimed, but their rapid generation allowed them to drag their battered body toward their foe. Ultralisks merely shrugged off the siege tank round. Their meters of carapace weren’t for show. Even direct hit of a tank round wasn’t enough to go through meters of armor.

But the Warden tricks weren’t done.

Now, despite the initial losses, the primal weren’t doomed. If just a few ultralisks could get into the all ranged Warden lines and distract them for a while, fresh primal reinforcements could overrun the Warden flank. Then again, Jean was too smart to let that happen.

Warden network identified the survivors of the first attack. Most of the plentiful units, like zerglings, were gone. This opened up an opportunity for single unit targeting.

Fifteen thors moved forward to meet the fifteen ultralisks that survived the cannons. Each took a second to lock onto their target. Finally, they opened fire.

Each of the ultralisk was hit in the face by two Thor’s hammer rounds. Carapace was torn open. Blood was spilled. The charging of the primal were taken back for two seconds. They were shook, but they were still alive. Unlucky for them, the Warden thors weren’t firing for the damage. They were doing it for the two seconds of pause.

Two seconds might not be much in life, but in the field of battle it was proven to be quite important. All it took were two seconds for the siege tanks to recharge their weapons again. However this time, instead of a bombardment that favored more coverage, the siege tanks targeted individual ultralisks and roaches. No amount of carapace could protect the units when their inner intestines were reduced to jelly.

When the last ultralisk fell twenty meters away from the mechanical flank, the second half of the pack had entered siege tank range...

The same thing repeated again. For twenty minutes the primal kept on charging, and for twenty minutes they were beaten back. When one primal fell, another took its place. The ruthlessness and stupidity of the primal allowed them to keep up this suicidal charge, but this was no medieval battle. Numbers mattered, but not as much as technology. Theoretically with enough ammunition the Warden forces could keep the primal back forever. No amount of persistency could change that.

When Yagdra collapsed with a several meter wide hole in his head, Jean walked up to the scene of slaughter, knelt down, and closed her eyes. Her hands reached out as blue essence entered her body.

Beside her Dehaka walked up. The primal felt no guilt at all toward the literal layer of dead body that were once his people. Instead, he merely got more respectful toward Jean. Similar to the tal’darim, the primal respected the strongest. Jean was the strongest.

A Warden goliath blocked Dehaka’s advance.

“Let him through.” Jean said with her eyes still closed. The goliath moved aside, giving way to Dehaka.

The girl was literally moaning. Every cell in her body started to absorb energy. Muscles improved. When the blue gas cleared, Jean’s eyes opened with twice the alertness she had before.

Standing up, Jean frowned as her legs literally stepped a hole in the ground. It was completely by accident. She wasn’t even trying, and that was bad. Really bad. She had the strength level of 10 but the control of a strength level of 1. She needed much more practice to fully use this newly gained strength.

Still, practice could wait. The top priority now was to get more essence. Something told her it wasn’t enough. She needed more power. She always needed more power.

“Where is the next closest pack?”