“The Tal’darim is going to war with the Swarm?” On the planet of Umoja, in a private mansion, Jean sat with her legs crossed. In a pad in front of her, Delta was speaking.

“We need the Tal’darim to win, but my simulations say the Tal’darim will lose and we don’t have the forces to interfere.”

Even at this point, after all the planning and conquering, Jean’s forces were still limited. Her capital ship count included one Cybros, twenty-seven battlecruisers, and two carriers. Her Purifier mining bases across the sector were already set up, and the first wave of carriers have been started, but these capital ships would take quite a while to complete, especially since the probes on each of those bases were limited and were spread between mining and manufacturing.

These ships couldn’t stand long against dozens of leviathans, thousands of corruptors, and hundreds of thousands of mutalisks and scourges. This wasn’t Jean’s fault. After all, both the Swarm and the Tal’darim had thousands of years to build up their forces, and Jean has had a couple months. Still, just because it wasn’t her fault didn’t mean Jean didn’t have to find a way around this.

“If we can’t fight the swarm ourselves, then we go to someone who can.” Jean tapped her chin. “The Umojans. They took severe losses at the hands of the infested terran. The infestation is put down, but the dead can’t be revived. Every Umojan family has lost someone or knew someone who lost someone. They are scared and angry. I can use this fear and convince the Umojan Ruling Council to launch an attack on zerg territories. It will be a stab in the back. The majority of the Swarm will be at Sigma Quadrant. They will not have enough forces to defend.”

“You can also hire mercenaries. Unfortunately, with their leader dead or heavily wounded, Raynor’s Raiders will not be able to participate in this fight.”

Both Jean and Delta knew Raynor was attacked by someone from his side during the battle of Tyrador IV. They didn’t know it was Viper and they had no idea if Raynor survived, and neither of them really cared. When Jean first arrived, Raynor was important to her plan. She was alone and weak and she needed his forces and influence to build up her own power. However, things have changed. Jean has her own fleet and her own allies. Raynor’s relationship toward Kerrigan and his role in the war against Amon could be useful, but he has become replaceable. He wasn’t worth Jean to risk exposing her own identity to the Dominion to approach.

“Can we contact the Dominion?”

Despite the risks, the Terran Dominion was stronger than any of the Umojan Protectorate, the Kel-Morian Compound, the Moebius Corps, the mercenaries, and Raynor’s Raiders, and maybe all of them combined. If Jean could convince the Dominion to launch an attack on Swarm planets, the Dominion Fleet could no doubt punch through and deal massive damage. After all, they already have a fleet around the planet of Char. Under General Warfield, it had some of the largest ships in the Dominion. Even the Swarm couldn’t take the Dominion Fleet, the Umojan Fleet, and the Death Fleet at the same time.

“Running simulations now.”

Delta stared blankly into a distance. A while ago, she has developed the idea to run simulations on certain topics. For example, when she was talking to Nyon, she took the time to enter all the information she had on the Death Fleet and the Swarm, type them into an algorithm, and run hundreds of simulations on what the result would be if the two forces were to clash. In that case, the Death Fleet would be the one defeated in almost all of the simulations. In this one, Mengsk would refuse to make a move.

It wasn’t a surprising result. Mengsk, to a degree, needed the Swarm. It was the constant threat of the Swarm that convinced the common Dominion people and soldiers to allow Mengsk to hold absolute, unchecked power. Whatever Mengsk did, whether it was taking out his political enemies or increasing military funding by cutting civil ones, could be justified in the name of security. If the Swarm got wiped out, people would demand a cut in military forces and an increase in civil rights. This was terrible for Mengsk’s dictatorship.

“Negative. Simulations suggest Mengsk will not deploy his fleet toward the Swarm. He might even attack whoever attacks the Swarm.”

“Then we will have to stick to the Umojans. You proceed with your plan with the Tal’darim. Hit and run. Never engage the main Tal’darim ships unless you have to.”

“I understand.” Delta stood there for a few seconds. “There is another faction we can use.”

“Explain.”

“The Golden Armada.”

“We have no connection with the Daelaam protoss.”

“It’s worth a try. We can send an unanimous message to the Daelaam protoss. Even if the Daelaam doesn’t send out the Golden Armada, this decision will not hurt our plan.”

Jean nodded.

Once again, Jean met up with the Umojan Ruling Council.

“Attack into the Swarm?” Jorgensen rose his eyebrows. This girl talking to him was a special kind of crazy. There were only cases in which the Swarm attacked someone else. Perhaps someone has invaded Swarm territories before and lived to tell the tale, but Jorgensen didn’t think the Umojan Protectorate was qualified to be one of such factions.

“The Swarm is a constant threat over the safety of our people. We have to face them sooner or later, and it is much wiser to face a Swarm whose forces are tied up fighting another alien race than to face the full might of the Swarm alone.”

“You talked about war between the Swarm and another group of protoss, the Tal’darim.” Another senator spoke up. “Is this source reliable?”

“Yes.”

“We don’t have the ships. If we pull too few ships into the expedition, then we will be overwhelmed by the Swarm. If we pull too many ships, then the Dominion and the Kel-Morian will use this opportunity to strike us down.” Admiral Thorn approached this field from a tactical perspective. As a military commander, he understood the benefits of attacking the zerg. In fact, everyone did, but the idea of attacking a menace who has haunted the sector for years was enough to make most people shy away from the most logical option.

“We can send out a small number of ships and buy mercenaries to add to the firepower. Critical planets like Char will undoubtedly be heavily guarded by orbital defenses and the flyers Kerrigan left behind, but most of the other planets will be defenseless. If we take them out, we can greatly weaken the combat potential of the Swarm. Do enough damage, and the Protectorate will be free of Swarm threat for months.” Jean persisted.

“This is a necessary action.”

Jorgensen turned to his fellow senators. “We need a distraction.” He said plainly.

The Umojan political system was as close to democracy as terran factions in this sector get. The common people had a substantial amount of power and voice. While the Warden units did stop the infestation, the Umojan Ruling Council was still constantly criticized for not reacting quick enough and not being able to prevent the massive casualties. At a time like this, a crushing victory against the Swarm could shut most of the questioning voices up.

The senators nodded in agreement, and it didn’t take them long before agreeing with the expedition.

Eventually, the size of the invasion force was set at five fleets, sixty battlecruisers. A fleet of twelve support ships, ravens and science vessels, provided all the technological support the Umojans might need. Six squads of liberators, as well as 20 squads of vikings and 20 squads of wraiths, were added to the mix. An army of thirty thousand strong made up the ground forces. Thirty thousand men was nothing compared to the Dominion forces, whose planetary defensive forces were counted by ten thousands and whose main armies were in the hundreds of thousands, but all of the Umojan units had advanced equipment and weapons that made them as efficient as possible.

Overall, this fleet was nowhere near the strength of the Death Fleet or the Swarm, but it was large enough to function as a blade Jean jams into the back of Sarah Kerrigan.

It took the Umojans a few days to get all the ships and men ready for the expedition. Under Jean’s advice, an army of two thousand Warden units, mostly marines and marauders but also siege tanks, was added to the mix.

After eight mercenary battlecruisers and three thousand mercenaries gave it a final touch, the Umojan Fleet, under the command of Admiral Thorn and with Jean aboard, departed from their homeworld and marched into the gates of hell.

Daelaam airspace. Shakuras.

“Hierarch, we have received a transmission from an unknown source.” A phase smith entered Artanis’ battle chamber and reported.

“Show me.” The Daelaam leader replied, giving a polite nod to the low level engineer. The phase smith gave Artanis a transmission device and left the chamber to the protoss leader himself.

The transmission was from a terran source. An unknown person informed him that the Swarm was at war with the Tal’darim. Most of her forces were gone, leaving her territory vulnerable. If the Daelaam attacked now with the full might of the Golden Armada, the Swarm would be defenseless.

The hierarch closed his eyes and psionically connected to the phoenix closest to zerg territories and issued a command. As the phoenix started moving, Artanis started thinking.

This was too good to be true. Artanis wasn’t convinced. He had no idea where this message came from and what the one who sent this message to him wanted. As far as he knew, maybe when the Golden Armada was busy plundering zerg territories, another enemy fleet would jump in and attack Daelaam territories, which is now made defenseless. This might be a conspiracy against the Daelaam.

Plus, even if this wasn’t a conspiracy against the Daelaam, whoever sent this message was using the Firstborn as a tool. A weapon.

But just because he knew the Daelaam was being used didn’t mean he could just forget about this intel and do nothing. Sarah Kerrigan and the Swarm was a major threat to the Daelaam protoss. The Queen of Blades has the blood of countless protoss on her hands. The Swarm turned the protoss race from the Firstborn of the gods to a bunch of fugitives forced to flee their homeworld. If he had an opportunity to end the filthy zerg race, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“Hierarch,” In the khala, the scout reported back. “the zerg world is clear. I am being pursued by mutalisks, but zerg corruptors and leviathans are nowhere to be seen. I have went through multiple zerg infested planets. It’s the same on all of these planets.”

“I understand, Warrior, warp back to safety now. You have completed your mission.”

“By your orders, hierarch.”

Just to be safe, Artanis sent out several other groups of scouts, including dark templars in cloaked corsairs. The result was the same. Zerg worlds were getting more and more empty, and a few dark templars reported seeing Tal’darim forces massing around the Sigma Quadrant around an abandoned Xel’naga worldship.

There were few factions in this sector that deserved the full attention of the Death Fleet, and the Swarm happened to be one of them.

“Summon the twilight council.” The hierarch finally ordered. “I have something to say.”

Char.

Above one of the largest leviathans in the zerg fleet, Kerrigan watched as the last of the Dominion bases on the ground was overwhelmed. Bunkers were set aflame and were torn apart before they could burn down. Siege tanks fired futilely, dropping dozens of zerg with every shot, but they simply didn’t have the numbers to change the outcome of the battle. Dropships, hercules, and medivacs evacuated what was left of the ground units, but they were intercepted by large numbers of mutalisks and corruptors. What was left of the Dominion vikings did their best to push the zerg back, but even these fighters were constantly bombarded by spore crawlers on the ground. Countless terran flyers exploded into balls of flames in the air.

It was a full retreat by the Dominion. It didn’t take long before the Dominion fleet collected what was left of the Dominion ground forces and warped away back to safety.

Kerrigan laid back on her throne. Even from orbit, she could hear the screams of the men on the ground. Those screams soon quieted down as infestors crawled around, turning the dead Dominion soldiers into infested terran units.

“My queen, I don’t understand.” Behind Kerrigan, Zagara spoke up with the signature screeching voice of zerg queens and broodmothers.

“Speak.” Kerrigan was in a good mood, and she was willing to enlighten her foolish child. After all, it made her seem smart.

“Char is a fortress. The terran have no chance against us, but this attack was already the fourth attack the Dominion has launched against us. We repealed them all four times. Tens of thousands of terran were killed. These terran don’t stand a chance against us, but they are still attacking. Why? Is it because the Dominion commander is foolish?”

Kerrigan smirked. “I have heard a lot about General Warfield, and he might be the smartest commander in the Dominion. He is anything but foolish.” She paused as if remembering something. “But he is loyal, and he is trusting.” She stood up. “Warfield is the commander here, but Mengsk gave the orders to attack.”

“I don’t understand. Arcturus Mengsk is the leader of the Terran Dominion. Why would he sacrifice his own soldiers for no reason?”

“No reason? That’s where you’re wrong, Zagara. No matter how foolish it seems, Mengsk always has his reason.” Kerrigan’s eyes turned cold as she remembered her past experience with Mengsk. “Within a few hours, every news broadcast in the Terran Dominion will be talking about the successful attack the brave troopers of the Dominion launched on Char. Although the Dominion forces were eventually forced off the planet, they fought bravely and killed countless zerg. This would be one step closer to the extermination of the zerg threat.”

“Those who were sent here to die will be branded as heroes. Their sacrifice will inspire the rest of the Dominion to give themselves for the cause, Mengsk’s cause. Young men and women will join the Dominion military. Anyone who questions Mengsk will be deemed traitors and backstabbers. Mengsk can justify the expensive army and fleet he maintains and the heavy tax he placed on the people to support these forces. The people will believe Mengsk is protecting them, and they will obey his every command.”

Zagara remained silent for a minute. “I don’t understand.” She repeated.

“Good.” Kerrigan stood up. “If you do, I might have to kill you. I can’t allow a conspirator in the Swarm.” She suddenly lost interest with this conversation. “Is my fleet in place?”

“Yes, my queen. Eighty leviathans are in place. We need only your command.”

“Very well. All leviathans, set the coordinates for Sigma Quadrant.” Kerrigan’s eyes turned purple as she psionically issued the order. As all the leviathans complied, the Queen of Blades turned to Zagara.

“Zagara, you will remain here on Char. I don’t think Warfield will make a move on my absence, but I am still leaving one tenth of the Swarm here. If anyone attacks, pull back to Char and use its orbital defenses to fend off the intruders. As long as Char is in our hands, I can rebuild my army in a few days.”

Zagara bowed down.

“Your wish is my command, my queen.”