Aiur.

What was left of Amon’s forces were assembled near the overmind’s corpse.

The Daelaam were barely 1/100 of their former strength. The Golden Armada consisted of two motherships and two dozen carriers. The time when five hundred capital ships roamed around the sector to crush any opposition was gone. Ever since she could Jean had been cutting down the Daelaam number with every chance she had, whether it was starting a war between the Golden Armada and the swarm, starting a war between the Golden Armada and the tal’darim, destroying Shakuras, or eventually commanding the battle of Char. Her work had paid off. The Golden Armada Amon corrupted was merely a shell of its former being.

Random groups of feral zerg were scattered around Aiur. These units were left from the overmind’s armada and were set loose after the overmind perished. They had outdated essence and mutations, and their units were weaker than their swarm counterparts, but they still had the numbers. Amon took over their control and used them as cannon fodders.

The tal’darim, those loyal to Amon, not Alarak, stood by and watched their leader zealously. Amon had promised to promote them, all of them, to hybrids. This act of strengthening them was seen as a gift. The tal’darim loyal to Alarak retreated back to Slayn and fortified the planet, as if they were done with Amon and Jean.

Some hybrids were still on Aiur. Their numbers had been demolished as well. Jean had nuked the largest hybrid developer, the Moebius Foundation, to ashes. Some hybrids were still in Amon’s army as they were either produced earlier or were produced in other sites, but their numbers were dropping. In the battle of Char, many hybrids were ripped apart by the swarm. Those that survived were converged here.

This ragged tagged force was here not only to cheer for their master’s formal arrival to this world, but also to protect Amon’s rebirth. While merging, there was little Amon could do to protect himself. His psi power would be limited, and his control of the host would be insufficient to use the host’s body in battle.

“Your forces are weak.” Jean scanned the army and turned to Amon. “If the swarm hits now…”

“You need not worry about me. This place is impenetrable. ” Amon turned to the overmind’s form and rose his head. The next second the void energy within the zealot left the warrior’s body and moved toward the giant body. Without Amon, the zealot collapsed and faded away. It’s original mind was already consumed. Yet the loss of a mere zealot was ignored. In the air as Amon’s conscious met with the overmind’s body, they started to merge.

Jean signed and whispered a line of random letters and numbers. “DHS291.” It was so quiet that even the blood hunter beside Jean didn’t hear her, but something heard her, and it took action.

If someone was carefully scanning Jean now, they would sense a signal coming out of the girl. But all of Amon’s followers, even the vigilant Selendis, were too attracted with their master’s change. Seeing their leader rise to the height of his power was much more important than watching over a girl who would die a few minutes later. Plus, what could Jean do? Despite being defeated, Amon’s followers had thousands of units left on this planet. Even if none of them moved and Jean was given a psi blade it would take her years to kill them all. Even if she somehow disabled the units, the void shards, positioned all around the planet and heavily guarded, could keep Amon alive. As long as Jean could’t stop Amon, even if Jean could survive this and escape it would only be a matter of time before she was captured again.

Across the sector, a red terran fleet blinked and disappeared. A distance behind the terran fleet, a yellow purifier fleet blinked and disappeared.

The merging process continued for around half an hour. Finally, with one ear/mind piercing cry, the overmind’s corpse stood up.

As soon as the corpse moved, an endless wave of void energy poured from the void onto Aiur. Ground turned. Mountains fell. The once beautiful Daelaam homeworld was turned to an environment even worse than Char. Daelaam and tal’darim forces bathed in the comfort of the void while Jean coughed, getting weaker.

“Bring me the essence.” Amon, having entered his new body, demanded. The overmind and the protoss were already here, and now the only thing necessary was the zerg essence. The two blood hunters behind Jean pushed her forward, and that was when things changed.

An explosion occurred in orbit. Sound couldn’t pass through space, but most of the units on the ground had psionic energy. They sensed it, and when they looked up, they were surprised to see what had happened.

Two fleets had appeared in space. The first was a terran fleet. Its red plating showed it was with the Dominion. The second was a protoss fleet, but it was unlike anything from the Khalai, Nerazim, or tal’darim style. It was yellow, and it was completely mechanical.

The Purifiers have arrived.

The two fleets almost covered the stars. Even from the ground it seemed like a sea of red and yellow. Selendis silently counted a thousand capital ships and god(Amon) knew how many fighters and support ships.

Now this was a fleet.

Tasked with securing Aiur from orbit, the Daelaam Golden Armada did their best to fight, and die, for their master. They did their best to return fire, but the once invincible fleet was no more.

Nearly a hundred phoenixes, fire in their eyes, charged at the combined fleet. They were met with not just ten times but rather twenty times of enemies. Thousands of mirages and another several hundred vikings and wraiths hit. The few phoenixes and scouts fought bravely and with honor, but neither bravery nor honor could save them from the fate of being overwhelmed and destroyed.

When the fighters were gone within the first minute of the fight, it was the turn for the capital ships. Daelaam motherships and carriers, along with some tal’darim destroyers, attempted to force their way toward their foe.

They burned.

A thousand capital ships and ten thousand fighters unleashed their wrath on several dozen targets. Laser batteries, missiles, torpedoes, laser beams, purification beams, everything in the terran/protoss arsenal was tossed at their enemies. At this point no amount of shield could save those ships from a fiery death.

The destroyers went down first. These support ships had the least defenses. The two tempests that survived all the hell and horror the Golden Armada went through before followed the terrible fate. The carriers held a bit longer, but one by one their crystals exploded and their shields went to pieces.

The motherships were the last to go. They got close enough and lived long enough to make one swipe at the combined fleet with their purification beams, but that was it. Shields were gone. Armor were gone. Ships were gone.

The Golden Armada was gone.

On the ground, Amon’s followers, whether it was the tal’darim, the Daelaam, or the hybrids, were completely shocked by the turn of event. Where in the world did this giant fleet appear, and how did they know when to strike?

As they were consumed in utter surprise, a figure appeared beside Jean. She handed Jean a small device. Jean smiled softly. Finally.

Selendis suddenly had an odd feeling. She turned her head and found Jean holding something. A female figure wearing a terran stealth suit was standing beside her. Selendis didn’t need to use her brain to know something was wrong.

“Stop her!” The female templar screamed desperately.

The two tal’darim guards beside Jean reacted quickly, but the ghost was quicker. She didn’t even bother with weapons. All she did was punch with her fists, and somehow the punching force of the bare fists of a terran female was able to go through the shield and the armor of two blood hunters. The two tal’darim looked down on their shattered body in disbelief, as if wondering what happened, before fading away.

The entire planet was covered with Amon’s forces, but neither Jean nor the ghost was here for a fight. At the same time they tapped the device and, under the raging eyes of a morphing Amon, disappeared in light beams.