The trenches sprawled across the landscape as Zagara spoke of it. "The Bone Trench. This is the only approach to the Terran fortress. I tried to bring my brood through here once before. The Terrans brought their Gorgon battlecruisers from the skies. They strafe us over and over. My brood bled, and died. Along with any hope of pushing the Terrans from Char." Kerrigan had to see the titan of these Gorgons to be sure that what Zagara was talking about was real before she spotted something else, a creation of the old Queen of Blades in cycling out some older strains of Zerg.
"Wait, those are the Scourge Nests. They could bring down a Gorgon... We just need to reawaken them."
"My queen, we should simply race through the trench, not waste time fighting Gorgons." Kerrigan countered as clear as well about her plan, Zagara only seen the feral nature, not the strategic planning of it all. "If we surprise the Terrans, we can make it through with acceptable losses."
"And if we don't, the Swarm dies. You need to learn vision, Zagara. Planning, calculation, cunning." She continued as she made the plan to clear out the Terrans in the trench. "We can use this creep tumor to spawn a tumor near a Scourge Nest. Once it's awake, Warfield's Gorgon is done for." But it wasn't enough of a moment to start expanding out before Warfield took notice of the Swarm and sent his Gorgon.
"My queen, General Warfield has called in a Gorgon. It's headed for our hive cluster!" Kerrigan turned to look at the...
A battlecruiser was not the word now as what she was seeing in the distance was something FAR, FAR greater than any battlecruiser, a titanic ship of guns and batteries lifted off and started to move right for them. "That ship is huge! No wonder Warfield can't deploy two of them into the trench at once."
"He only needs one." One would just be enough in the normal case if that thing was able to strafe everything beneath it and tear through the Swarm with ease as Kerrigan exclaimed, the cluster following her command and mobilizing Hydralisks, Queens, and Roaches for the push forward.
"Hurry, spread creep to those Scourge Nests so we can place a creep tumors by them!"
"That will awaken the Scourge Nest. I hope it is enough to destroy the Gorgon." It would have to be, their ranged fighters had to be massed in the hundreds to even take that mechanical monster out and still come close to losing the fight and Kerrigan was remissed to not have actual Mutalisks available to swarm the ship and riddle it in the very least as Kerrigan clear out the small portion of Terrans closer to them and waited for the Gorgon to come close before she willed a creep tumor to bring the Nest alive. "We have creep tumors by the first Scourge Nest!"
"Awaken! Annihilate that Gorgon!" With that, the Nest buzzed alive as hundreds upon hundred of Scourge flyers soared into the air, slamming into the Gorgon before they could bring their guns upon them and was tore apart in crashing, all died on the now metal tomb. "Perfect! This is the beginning of the end, Warfield!" But it was at a cost as the Scourge Nest was spent as Zagara spoke.
"The Scourge Nest had spent its entire life force to take out the Gorgon." Kerrigan grimaced on how close the ship came before it was destroyed, the Scourge Nests were able to replenish themselves, but the growth would take time, time that was likely too long before Warfield had another Gorgon over the hive.
"We have more. Get the creep tumor by the next one. Move!" They pushed inward with taking ground, clearing out the Terrans and moving up to the higher ground as they also collected the bones remains of Defilers for Abathur as Warfield spoke over the comms.
"Get another Gorgon in the fight!" They continued to rip through the purging Dominion force, liberating more of the Zerg hidden in the remains of their former allies as Creep Tumors started to spread their creep through the trench as the second Gorgon came close before it was blitzed from the sky as Kerrigan praised the swift action of her forces.
"Two down. There's more coming. Spread the creep!" Time was used before the third Gorgon was deployed as more of Warfield's force were losing the battle there.
"Bring in a Gorgon! Crush Kerrigan!" The third was deployed to destroy the Zerg's approach, but all it did was soar over empty grounds of hidden tumors before it was blasted out of the air by a third Nest as Kerrigan exclaimed.
"Another Gorgon down! Keep it up ~ awaken more scourge nests!"
"Call in another Gorgon!" A fourth Gorgon was called into play with Warfield wising up in deploying Ravens to locate the Tumors and have them destroyed before more creep was spread and more Nests were awakened to fight, but Kerrigan and her Hydralisks make the battle much more easier on them as Alice spoke, she being a part of one of the Zerg attack and creep forces as the four Nest was awakened.
"My Queen, the fourth Nest had been awaken and will bring down the Gorgon for you..." Alice was true to her word as Kerrigan tried to get Warfield to surrender.
"Leave this planet to me, Warfield! Don't make it harder on all of us!"
"Never, Kerrigan! We earned this planet by tooth and nail! I'm not gonna let it fall to you now!" She scowled on how he was making it hard to just give up and leave, he didn't have to keep his grip on the world, Warfield was indebted to Raynor, the marshal took her as much in short meetings and he knows that Arcturus was corrupt with power and hastily in keeping it all as Zagara exclaimed to the fifth Gorgon being deployed from their hanger bay.
"General Warfield called in another Gorgon, my queen!"
"Lots of bones in that trench, all Zerg. You will be joining them soon enough!" But Kerrigan didn't let that happen as the fifth Gorgon was barraged and it crashed into the trenches of Zerg, to reside with the dead as Warfield growled. "Another Gorgon! You will pay for this, Kerrigan!" He then commanded to keep the Zerg away form the remaining Nests. "Get a strike team to that Scourge Nest before the Zerg activate it!" But it was a vain hope to have as Kerrigan had returned to clear out the Terrans and reclaim the world for the Zerg as the sixth Gorgon barely got out before it was barraged to pieces, several Terrans running form the falling mass as Warfield exclaimed with keeping Char out of her hands.
"I claimed this planet in the name of the Terran Dominion! I'm not gonna to lose it!"
"Oh, I think you are. This is your last Gorgon, isn't it?" The seventh Gorgon was not going to win as Kerrigan breached the satellite base and Warfield gave the order to retreat.
"Pull back! Repeat, all Dominion forces in the trench, retreat! We've lost control!" Warfield then gave his threat to Kerrigan. "Kerrigan, this is Warfield. I know you can hear me. I have a message for you: Bring everything you have. Bring your whole Swarm. I don't want to hunt down stragglers after we wipe you out."
"I will see you on the Dauntless Plateau, old man."
"Don't be reckless..." A whisper slipped past Kerrigan as she silently exclaimed with looking, the Zerg pushing forward.
"What the...?" But it didn't seem like there was anyone else there and the hivemind was among the Zerg, but she felt... someone else either on the planet or broadcasting a short message, but to who exactly as Alice also spoke in joining her, her eyes a bit less of a glossy appearance than before.
"What... who was that, my Queen...?"
"I don't know..." Kerrigan spoke as she continued. "But we have the Dauntless Plateau to worry about right now, move forward while I return to the Leviathan."
"As you wish, my Queen..."
Kerrigan returned to the large creature and looked over all of the landscape, to the Dauntless Plateau as she asked Izsha. "Izsha. When the Queen of Blades... when I commanded the Swarm here on Char. What was I like?"
"You were mighty. You make us cunning and strong, and we knew we would survive forever under you."
"And now?"
"Now nothing is clear, but the Swarm will continue. If you die, we will serve another leader." That would make sense, but Kerrigan didn't want to give up living, not while Jim's Murderer was still breathing.
"I am the leader of the Swarm and if I die, so do all of you. Remember it." Still, it didn't help to feel like, with of the power growing back, she was still just Sarah, not the Queen of Blades anymore.
But she didn't leave it to chance as Zagara spoke about the approach. "That fortress is nearly unassailable. There is only one ground approach and one-"
"It doesn't matter. We're the Swarm, we can sacrifice thousands for each one of their soldiers." It was okay to use rush tactics, the Terrans only had so much while the Zerg now had mountains of biomass to use as Zagara spoke.
"Your strategy against the Terrans was strange. But I understand it now."
"Abathur's changes is bearing fruit. Do you remember what I told you on the battlefield?"
"Vision, is this like cunning?" Kerrigan silently groaned as she spoke.
"No."
"Viciousness?" Kerrigan rubbed her temples before she spoke.
"Abathur. Go to him."
"His work is painful."
"His work will make you understand vision."
"I will go." With that, she departed for the evolution pit before Kerrigan spoke to herself.
"She is learning, but is not grasping the concept. I used timing, strategy, tactics to best the Gorgons, not rush into their line of fire and sacrificed my Swarm to best them." She groaned as Alice sent a message to Kerrigan.
"Warfield holds against us, but his patience is waning as our waves assault their retreating forces, being cut down for the next to follow, we have nearly reached the Plateau, my Queen."
"Excellent, continue harassing them before I return, then I will bring a larger force to bear against Warfield's defenses."
"It shall be done, my Queen." Now Kerrigan could focus on the other presence that echoed with a whisper.
Abathur's tasks as the gene-weaver was good, but no one else should be able to talk psionically to them except in the Swarm as Kerrigan tried to find the source of that broadcast before failing, finding that it was no use, but it was something, the broadcast was broadcasted directed to Char, it wasn't widespread, so whoever it was... they were coming right for Char, but if it was Terran or Protoss, she didn't know quite yet as she rallied her forces for the attack on the General, the old soldier in the trenches...