Kerrigan strode back up back to the 'helm' of the Leviathan and spoke to Izsha of what the plan is. "Inform the Broodmothers. The Swarm moves on Korhal. At last, Mengsk will suffer for his crimes." She then sent a message to the Hyperion as the Zerg shift toward the destination of Korhal. "I'm going to Korhal. It's time."
"Why are you telling us this, Kerrigan?" Alex linked up via comm when he felt the pulse as Kerrigan explained.
"There will be ruin. Destruction. Millions could die amid the chaos." Her tone turned to the young prince of the Dominion. "Valerian, your people need a leader."
"You're right, Kerrigan, they will." He breathed as he spoke back. "If I'm to be that leader, I will ask only one thing for you. Bring your Swarm down outside the city. That will give us time to evacuate." Kerrgian voiced a bit of doubt to Valerian as to why make it harder for her.
"Korhal is going to be the most difficult battle of my life, and you're asking me to make it harder?" After a moment, Valerian answered.
"I am." Kerrigan paused as well before smirking.
"I was wrong about you, Valerian. You're not like your father. I'll give you your chance. Make the most of it." The link cut as the Swarm moved to attack the core of the Dominion, jumping away to the planet that was the heart of Mengsk's empire...
Without number, the titans of the Zerg Swarm warped over the Korhal, great fleets now turning their guns on the behemoths, but they were few, limited, and the Zerg sent hundreds of flyers to destroy the meager defenses beyond the reaches of the planet side defenses as Izsha spoke as the entirety of the Swarm jumping in. "My queen, the Swarm has assembled above Korhal. The Broodmothers await your command."
"Tell them to hold position in orbit. Stay out of range of the planet's defenses." That left the returning fleets to be a problem as Izsha spoke about them.
"Dominion fleets are converging on our position. Terran troops are arriving from all over the sector." To this, Kerrigan reached out to a familiar ally to give her orders.
"Broodmother Kilysa, hear me. have your leviathans form a blockage." Some of the leviathans shifted to intercept as Kerrigan continued. "Kill anything coming into the system. Nothing will stop us. Korhal is mine." Kerrigan left the link as she stared out to the world below as Zagara came over in awe at what was to come.
"I have never seen as many Terrans. They are pulling everything back to defend this world."
"Their orbital defenses will kill millions of us before we even hit the ground."
"The Terrans have no chance. We are numberless. We are the Swarm." As much as Kerrigan wished to agree, Mengsk was no fool and those orbital defenses would slow down or cripple the Zerg before long as she headed down to the Pit for some ideas of how to handle the defenses on the surface.
"I need a weapon to destroy Korhal's orbital defenses and I need it fast."
"Can modify virophage sequences. Would concentrate bile, expel as projectile." That could work and Virophages were just as strong as an Ultralisk so it would take a beating, but the question was now time as the Queen of Blades inquired.
"Can you get it working in time?"
"Survival of Swarm dependent on evolution, iteration. Trust process, trust sequences. Swarm will not fail." That helped her a great deal as she returned back up to Izsha drawing her attention to something that may have been the source of the Dominion's return in force.
"I sense a broad frequency emanating from the palace in Augustgrad." Kerrigan reached out to hear the same as she mused.
"Yes. I sense it too. I can hear..."
"...Dominion forces, this is your emperor, Arcturus Mengsk. Korhal is under attack by the Zerg Swarm. Our special weapon lab has been destroyed, our defenses stripped. Any fleet that can hear my voice, return to Korhal. The seat of human power is under assault. Come, men. Defend your home."
"Trapped like a rat in a cage, aren't you, Arcturus?" Kerrigan mused as she turned back to the battle at hand, the orbital defenses held against the Swarm, but it also allowed the Swarm a chance to drop in some terrifying numbers...
It was the moment of truth as Izsha spoke. "My queen, your leviathan are in position."
"Unleash the Swarm."
"We will lose countless drop-pods in the opening moments."
"We're sending millions. Even if only a fraction get through... It'll still be more than enough to take out these orbital defenses from the ground." And just like that, a hailstorm of Zerg bio-pods hurtled down to Korhal, many getting destroyed by flak and fire, but many more hit the ground as the first bile launcher made planetfall.
"A bile launcher has broken through the orbital defense network." But it was quickly destroyed in its mutating form by nearby Dominion troops as Izsha informed. "Dominion ground forces have secured this area. Our bile launchers cannot survive without support."
"I'm going to handle this personally." The Dominion base looked up as a bio-pod hurtled to the ground and tried to scatter in vain as Kerrigan landed and unleashed a maelstrom of psionic power, destroying the base and freeing it up for the drones that came with her. "Send in all the drop-pods. They should be centered around this region." The hive started to grow as Kerrigan finished. "Alert me the moment one breaks through. I'll make sure the launcher survives." The cluster grew before long as Izsha informed her queen as to where the first bile launcher would land.
"The first bile launcher and its escort are entering Korhal's atmosphere."
"Show me where it will land."
"It will arrive here, my queen." The location was the same as the initial bile launcher, so she had to protect that as well as the other launchers as they land, but Arcturus Mengsk didn't seem all that pleased with the return of Kerrigan.
"You've made a grave mistake. Setting foot on my world, Kerrigan. I will deliver you and your Swarm back to whatever hell you crawled out of." Kerrigan didn't say a thing as the hell that she was in was on account of HIS actions and the Swarm was born from the hell born from Amon's creation of the hive mind, so he had no power now as Izsha updated.
"The bile launcher about to land. It will be vulnerable for a short period." The bio-pods descended on the location before the bile launcher landed with a pair of Spine Crawlers ready for the defenses as they rooted in as Izsha confirmed the need for the launchers. "The Dominion's Drakken defense network is destroying most of our bile launchers in orbit."
"Which means we can't afford to lose the ones that get through." The Dominion pushed, but they were just not enough to kick Kerrigan's Swarm out and put the Bile Launcher at risk as it finished its mutation and started to hit the cannons across the outskirts, damaging some and freeing up room for more bile launchers to land as Zagara brought Kerrigan's attention to the gates into the city, doing so would divide the Dominion's attention as her brood land and invade into the city, it also would give the impression that all of Augustgrad was in danger and provoke a better evacuation effort out of Valerian and Matt.
It also helped to have backup as Kerrigan sensed it coming. "I sense... Alice, what are you doing here?" In the upper portion, Alice landed with a lesser psionic shockwave, but it still ripped through the guarding Thor like tissue as she spoke.
"I preserve to serve you, my Queen, I will aid in the battle." Kerrigan didn't say anything against Alice as she wanted to deploy her services elsewhere in the city, but... having two leaders taking on the Dominion and keeping them occupied was a good idea as she agreed.
"Very well, let's keep the Dominion out of the way for our Bile Launchers to root."
"Of course, Broodmother Zagara also wishes that we destroy the gates into Augustgrad, allowing her host to enter the city and spread." Kerrigan looked to the titanic gates and mused. The Dominion would think that a single force would be easy to handle, but in destroying the gates, Zagara could spread out the brood, pull the Dominion elsewhere and give reason to Horner and Valerian to evacuate the city in the face of the Zerg.
"Good thinking. We'll break the gates open when I have time." Time was on their side as they moved up and destroyed what they could and setting up defenses for the Launchers as Mengsk tossed lives away to drive off the Swarm, but they had come to put an end to HIS reign as the Zerg Swarm grew and grew further and further before a fifth and final Bile Launcher made planetfall and the Zerg cannons laid waste to the Drakken Defense Cannons as Izsha spoke.
"Korhal's defense cannons have been destroyed. The Swarm is gathering on the surface." The sky darkened with the pods of hundreds of Zerg as Kerrigan commanded, Zagara's brood having been let in at three different points to spread the fear and attack.
"Destroy the Dominion bases! Drive them into the city!" Within moments, the Dominion were driven back, their structures and defenses toppled to the thundering horde of Zerg at the Queen's command before they broke and started to fall back to Izsha's voice.
"Dominion forces are in full retreat."
"Izsha, have my Broodmothers deploy their forces. Zagara, move your brood further into the city. Take up positions around the palace."
"Yes, my queen." Kerrgian peered up to the palace that stood as the heart of Mengsk's empire and voiced as she headed back as the Leviathan broke through and allowed her abroad once more.
"It's time to dethrone the emperor..."
The numbers swarmed out and while the Dominion had found a few entrenched positions, those wouldn't protect them for very long as Kerrigan looked out across the growing swarm on the surface as the orbit still contested with the Terran vessels as Zagara strode to her side. "Your revenge is close, now. Nothing can stop it."
"Don't underestimate Mengsk. He is by far the most cunning enemy we've ever faced." She closed her eyes before speaking again. "If I should fall, you must take the Swarm from Korhal."
"Flee? This is not the way of the Zerg."
"Yet it is my will." Kerrigan voiced as she continued. "You will obey my command, and take the Swarm to seek our true enemy. Find Amon, destroy him before he can enslave the Swarm again."
"As you command." The Broodmothers were free, but Kerrigan didn't want to risk it just yet as the next was Izsha as she spoke, all of the ideas and plans of the invasion failing hovering past Kerrigan's prodding as Izsha spoke.
"There are so many ways to fail, I feared we would not make it to the surface. But we did. You have made us so powerful. But when you have your revenge, will you leave us?" Kerrigan shook her head as she voiced her opinion to be on the other end.
"I am one with the Swarm, Izsha. If we survive this fight, we have even greater battles ahead. We will face them together." The next to converse with was the former UED vice-admiral as he started it out with peering to the palace.
"Here you are, at the enemy's doorstep. It is almost over."
"I don't think it will be that simple. It never is with Arcturus. He thinks around you, that one. He knows where you'll walk before you do."
"But you've been part of so many of his plans - as accomplice or victim. I am sure you learned a trick or two, yes?" Kerrigan hummed the same to Stukov's idea and wished that after all this time, after everything she had been through, she would be able to outdo Mengsk before long.
"I did. We'll find out very soon if I was a good student." She did converse with Zagara again, but it was based on the isolation of the Terrans from one another, something that Kerrigan didn't want to think was right as that would make them just as controlled at the Zerg or even the Protoss, but she dismissed it while Dahaka and Skorch were ready to join the fight, but Kerrigan told them to not, the Primal Zerg were the unaltered essence of the Swarm and had not the Hive Mind, even if Mengsk didn't find a countermeasure against them, Kerrigan wanted them to be used as a surprise tactic, not a horde strike.
It wasn't long before she glanced out ot the palace where Mengsk likely sat in waiting for her death or his demise as she spoke. "You sit in that palace like a spider at the center of its web. But your web is falling apart around you, Mengsk." But before that, she had a gene-weaver to see as Abathur spoke.
"Queen of Blades on the cusp. Swarm strong, powerful. Have one final evolution to weave into Swarm to further chances."
"Which one?" Kerrigan asked and there were a few, but Abathur's selected vessel was not for the light of hearts, it meant the end of whole divisions, summed up in one word.
"Ultralisk."