Author's Note: Hey everyone, I would like to show my thanks to everyone who has reviewed my fic. Getting this many reviews is something I greatly appreciate. To show for it, I will give a quicker update this time.

It's not going to be as long as the last chapter, but the last one was never easy to write to begin with. Indeed, I really had trouble last chapter in how to write it without having the council chamber get turned into a slaughterhouse.

To Blackhole1, who reviewed my last chapter and asked if it was my intent for the audience to forgive Kerrigan for her actions during her time with the Zerg, well answering that would require I spoil too much of the story.

Therefore, I ask that you be patient and wait it out: it will be revealed in time.

Anyways, here is the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoy reading it!

Chapter 41

Dominion Base, Bel'Shir

General Madison watched as his lead SCVs submitted the report on the terrazine mining status so far. For the time being, there had been relief. The sound amplifiers had worked to their advantage, and for the past few hours they had been left in relative peace and quiet by the Tal'darim. There were the occasional Protoss that had wandered into the area, but none of them were scouting parties, which means so far they had no idea the Dominion forces were on Bel'Shir at all. Most of the time they had included lone Zealots or Stalkers, but nothing more than that. This had made a lot of his remaining marines quite trigger happy, but fortunately for the general, the few remaining Dominion officers were able to keep their men in check and have them hold their fire.

Should the Tal'darim notice anything out of the ordinary, it would spell almost certain catastrophe. With all of the Siege Tanks and Goliaths destroyed, his remaining armored ground strength consisted only of Hellions, Vultures, and Thors, all of them relatively few in number. The Thors in particular had to remain hidden deep in the jungle with the Command Center and other terran buildings, as it was only there that the jungle foliage was thick enough to successfully camouflage the massive walkers. To compensate for this weakness, many of the remaining Vikings were sent to the surface in their ground modes, their Gatling cannons still a force to be reckoned with against most Protoss warriors.

But it was the Tal'darim air power that caused the biggest headache for Madison. During the initial attempt to harvest the terrazine, the Protoss had brought in enough Scouts and Void Rays that it had forced him to devote the Vikings to a maximum effort to defend the base. As such, most of the remaining mechanical hybrids now suffered a severe shortage of lanzer torpedoes and therefore would be unable to provide the air support necessary should Protoss air power be brought in again. This would leave the task solely up to the marines, but despite all the combat experience, most Dominion marines were still unused to fighting enemy air units without support from Goliaths and Vikings. In fact in most combat situations when neither Dominion vehicle was present, the standard procedure was to wait until they do. This of course made it easy to convince them not to be trigger happy, but old habits are still hard to change.

With regards to the terrazine harvesting itself however, the situation was quite different. For starters, the usage of Ore Loaders was out of the question. Despite their ability to carry vast numbers of terrazine canisters, the massive terran vehicle had a serious weakness in this situation: its engine. It's not so much that the engine is inefficient or anything like that, but they were never meant to be used in mining operations when the factor of stealth was required. Indeed, little thought had been put into its engine design in terms of sound output, and despite the assistance of the sound amplifiers on the waterfalls, Madison knew the sounds of the Ore Loader engine could still be heard from longer distances away, and thus attract the attention of the Tal'darim Protoss nearby. This meant that the SCVs had to carry the canisters all the way back to the Command Center themselves. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for them, but with so little Dominion military strength left, the general knew this would be a cause for concern.

Of course, a far bigger problem was not in actually transporting the terrazine canisters, but rather harvesting the terrazine itself. Although the theory had been proven right in that the ghosts were able to open up the sealed terrazine altars, the results had fallen short of expectations. Madison had hoped that by channeling their psionic energies, his ghosts would be able to permanently open up the altar. In practice however, this was not the case. Apparently the Tal'darim had taken precautions in such a matter as well, and as the SCVs had discovered very quickly, once the seal barrier on the altars dropped, they only had a 15 minute window to collect the terrazine substance from it, before the jewel towers reactivated, and the altar sealed itself back up again.

Although his SCVs were relatively competent workers, the fact remained that the terrazine could not be packaged in the same way vespene could in the Refineries. As such, during the 15 minute window, this was only enough time to only obtain two or three filled canisters before the altar became unavailable to them again. This had led to more and more frequent requests for ghosts to return to the altars to open the seal once more. Unfortunately, this was reaching the point where it was gradually becoming not possible anymore.

As Protoss technology was superior that of the Dominion's, it meant that in order to break the seal and open the altar at all, it required a ghost to use up virtually all of his psionic energy to make that happen. On the other hand, 15 minutes was not enough time for a ghost's psionic energy levels to fully recharge, and thus completely new ghost was required for the task. However while the terrazine altars were all built the same way, the same could not be true in regards to psionic abilities of the ghosts. Indeed, as Madison was quickly discovering based on the reports of his ghosts, all of the ones with a psi index of 5 or 6 had their psionic energies fully drained in order to open the altar, leaving them so greatly weakened as to be incapable defending themselves in any way. They had estimated that in order to open the altar seal and still have enough psionic energy left to spare to defend himself against aggressors, it required a ghost with a psi index of 8 or higher, and Madison knew he had no ghosts like that at his disposal.

As such, it meant he was forced to accept that this harvesting operation was going to be due for a long haul. Each ghost's psionic energy recharge time is different, and with less than a dozen ghosts left, right now everyone was waiting for them to be on their feet again to help out with the altars. After only 25 canisters harvested, the terrazine mining operation has currently been stopped dead in its tracks, well below the 400 to 500 canisters Mengsk had ordered him to collect on Bel'Shir. The longer they stay here, the greater the chances of being discovered by the Tal'darim again, and the general did not want a second massacre on his hands.

Unfortunately, beggars couldn't be choosers, and he had no equipment at his disposal that could allow individual ghosts to recharge their psionic energies at a faster rate, so it had to be done naturally over time. This obviously had made many of the men under his command very nervous. Even the War Pig mercenaries showed signs of anxiety due to the current physical and material weakness, and Madison knew that it was vital for them to keep their cool. As the mercenaries he still had possessed superior firepower, the general knew if they lost their cool, the rest of his infantrymen would follow through very quickly.

Overmind's Corpse, Aiur

The maw of the Leviathans opened up, as hundreds of Zerg flyers poured out of it. Although some were Scourge, many more were cocoons, further reinforcing the Zerg numbers nestled around the Overmind's corpse. Not all of the aerial cocoons morphed into Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Brood Lords. Many of them morphed into Overlords instead so as to better assist the Zerg ground creatures.

Near the Overmind's husk, the hybrid psionically reached out to Overlords, instructing them for their transport duties. This took only minor effort, as the Overseers were instructing the same thing, without him issuing orders at all. Kerrigan had done quite well in evolving the Zerg to becoming more intelligent, and now this was going to backfire on her greatly.

Everywhere he could see, the sky was filled with Zerg flyers. Most of them were in a static position, but the Overlords moved back and forth for their transport role. With millions of Zerg ground minions that had broken out of Antioch, almost all of them headed for their dead master. The same was true for millions more that had been scattered across Aiur, as many had joined up with the Zerg here, realizing this was only location left where their numbers remained formidable. Unfortunately, by the time most of these Zerg had arrived, the Drones had already completed most of the work on the defensive lines leading to the Overmind, and the swarms of Zerglings, Roaches, Hydralisks, Ultralisks, Queens and Infestors moving into position were clearly hindering progress.

Although the transporting of these creatures proved to be a relatively slow progress, the Overlords were nevertheless very efficient workers to the task at hand. They had been diligently working without rest for days on end, reinforcing the weaker sections of the network of defenses surrounding the Overmind. Although not all of the Zerg were fully in position yet, the rate at which they had been mobilizing remained efficient, and the hybrid had no doubt that even with the combined might of terrans and Protoss, they would find extreme difficulty in dislodging the Zerg from this position.

He knew that the Zerg defenses all around the Overmind would have to be strong, as the hybrid was aware that among the main problems here was the presence of the Overmind itself. Unlike the other Zerg creatures, the massive husk couldn't move and was easily seen by all. To that end, there is a limiting factor in terms of flexibility he could exert over the Zerg, as it would take a lot of effort for them to leave their dead master behind. This also meant that the terrans and Protoss had a slight advantage in controlling the flow of the battle. Despite the Zerg defenses to be used to channel them into killing grounds, that element of surprise could only be used so many times over before it would be discovered where most of the killing zones were located.

Nevertheless, even if the terrans and Protoss break through, he could count on the Leviathans to lend their support to the Zerg on the ground. As they were flying Zerg colonies, each of the massive Zerg creatures stored countless Zerg creatures in its body, and was capable of generating larvae without the need for hatcheries. This in turn would compensate should enough terran and Protoss forces break through the defenses and the Zerg hatcheries, lairs, and hives come under fire. And unlike the Zerg buildings, the Leviathans had far more durable carapace, and other than the Protoss Mothership, most enemy fire could achieve little more than minor skin pricks. Their massive tentacles underneath them were equally powerful, capable of tearing apart even the largest warships with only minimal effort.

It was from these Leviathans that the hybrid based his strategy on dealing with the Protoss Motherships. Despite their small size when compared to the Leviathan, they possess immense energy in their planet cracking ability. However, this was only possible to targets beneath the Mothership, and that usually meant ground units. As the Leviathans were aerial creatures, such an attack was only possible if the Motherships fly above the massive Zerg creature, and that was highly unlikely to go unnoticed.

For that reason, the hybrid had ordered the Leviathans to remain in their defensive positions right above the Overmind's corpse, only to leave their places should the tide of battle turn against the Zerg, or if the Protoss call in their Motherships. Once the Motherships were destroyed, the rest of the terran and Protoss forces would be no match for the mighty Leviathans.

Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char

Ulrezaj watched from afar as beams of energy descended on the primary Zerg hive cluster from orbit. Although Duran had protested against the use of the purification technique, the Dark Voice thought differently. The entity had also been interested in Duran's new experiment, where some of the final components to make the experiment a success were located in the hive cluster that now lay before Ulrezaj.

As such, the Dark Archon had assured his master that the Tal'darim Carriers would be used on a very small scale, just enough to burn through enough of the Zerg defenses, while causing only minimal damage to the hive cluster itself. To that end, the Dark Voice had consented to his request, and by now, the first of the energy bombardments have begun.

It was considered a relief by the Tal'darim warriors as well. Despite the fact that combat was glorious to them, the fact remained that they did not possess an infinite amount of endurance. By the time the Carriers had reached high orbit and were in position to begin the energy bombardment, more than half the Zealots had been fully stripped of their plasma shields and were unable to regenerate their psionic energy. Numerous Shield Batteries had been built within the confines of the Tal'darim base, but having Protoss warriors leave the frontline to recharge their shields caused the attack to lose momentum. More often than not, by the time the Zealots, Stalkers, Immortals and High Templars had their shields recharged as they returned to battle, the Zerg defenders had mostly recovered from their initial slaughter. In any case, most of the Shield Batteries' energy cores were now depleted from the continued attritional battle against the Zerg, and most of their hive cluster defenses still held firm against Protoss attacks. Ulrezaj himself led more attacks with Archons, but the Zerg used Infestors to slow down his movement with their fungal growth ability, before Queens moved in to attack his fellow Archons. Although their attacks did little against him, the fact remained that the Dark Archon was vastly outnumbered and was forced to withdraw from the frontline.

To that end, Ulrezaj knew the bombardment was necessary to complete the task at hand. The Zerg could have sent up flyers to the planet's higher orbit to deal with the Carriers, but apparently this was not among their higher thinking in terms of strategy. Their defense tactic had been based on the assumption that their adversary would make either a surface attack or a low altitude aerial attack. As such, the energy bombardments had caught them completely by surprise, and most of the Zerg creatures were incinerated before they even knew what was happening.

Those that saw the danger fared no better, as the sheer intensity of the bombardment overwhelmed them. Zerglings, Hydralisks, Roaches and Ultralisks that had sufficient time to burrow underground were burned to ashes like all the other Zerg ground creatures, while Mutalisks, Overseers, and Corruptors scattered about, desperately trying to avoid the energy beams, only to fly into the line of fire of other energy beams. Most simply couldn't get away in time, as the purification blasts from the Carriers were too vast in scale and the destruction caused proved to be too widely spread.

The Zerg ground defenses suffered the same fate. Despite the Zerg Spore Cannons used to open fire on the Tal'darim Carriers in orbit, it made little difference. Indeed, due to the sheer power of their corrosive spores, easily capable of eating through the golden ships' armor, they were the first targets to be fired upon by the Carriers. By the time the Spore Cannons were starting to return fire, about the only ones that remained were the ones located in the hive cluster itself, having been spared destruction on Ulrezaj's orders. Nevertheless, as the Zerg had moved too many Spore Cannons into the hive cluster defensive positions, there were too few that remained in the hive cluster itself to be of any threat to the Protoss ships above. To compound matters, these were considered advanced Zerg structures, which made them much more difficult to be mutated from Drones.

As the energy bombardments continued, the Tal'darim could see more and more chaotic activity occur within the Zerg hive cluster. The hatcheries, lairs, and hives began to supply larvae at a faster rate, desperately trying to replace the losses sustained. The remaining Zerg ground and air units desperately tried to find ways around the bombardment energy beams to withdraw back into their hive cluster, though most had little success in this. And with much of the defenses burned from orbit, the surviving Spore and Spine Crawlers uprooted themselves and began to move deep into the hive cluster to guard the main Zerg structures against the hostile invaders.

At this point, Ulrezaj entered a telepathic state. "Now, Duran, do you see the error in your ways? You had feared that such a move would destroy the hive cluster completely, and you have been proven wrong."

"Very well, dark one," came the reply. "With this purification nearly complete, you are to proceed deep into the primary hive cluster. The components I require will be there."

"What could it possibly contain that you do not possess?" the Dark Archon asked. "Kerrigan may have evolved the Zerg, but you have the very foundations of the Zerg at your disposal."

"Not everything in there is Zerg, young Ulrezaj. Most of what is needed for my purpose will be located in Kerrigan's hive, but you will find something in her hive cluster that you may not expect. It is a sign of the very last humanity that had remained within her after she had become the Queen of Blades."

Aiur

Jim watched from the screen as terran and Protoss forces advanced forward, slowly moving into position for the final assault on Aiur. Virtually all of the Zerg elsewhere on the planet had been killed, only those around the Overmind's husk remain. Once the Zerg here are defeated, Aiur will be free again.

It will not be easy, however. Orbital scans had indicated that the scattered Zerg from elsewhere on Aiur along with those that successfully broke out of Antioch had linked up with the Zerg defenders around the Overmind. Orbital recon scans had indicated that the Zerg were mobilizing their defenses, preparing for an assault. The latest scans had indicated that the total number of defenders around the Overmind had now swelled to almost 700 million, and more creatures were still being bred.

Granted they were outnumbered by the terran and Protoss forces, but the Zerg had the advantage of defending. It was always easier to defend a position than to attack it, and to compound matters, the Zerg numbers could be replaced and replenished much more easily, some of them faster than even the Protoss war machines could be replaced.

Thus now, he and Artanis were planning out the final stages of the offensive on the bridge aboard the Shield of Aiur. The Protoss command Mothership was much larger than other Motherships, almost twice as large as them and more than four times the size of the Hyperion. Nevertheless, it was still considered tiny compared to the three Zerg Leviathans protecting the Overmind's body, and they would be no doubt be the key to cracking the Zerg defenders there.

Jim agreed with the Protoss Hierarch that once the Leviathans are killed, it would be likely that it would be enough to break the rest of the Zerg defenders' morale. How to kill them was a completely different matter. Despite killing the one on Char's orbital platform, it had come at the cost of dozens of Vikings in the air, as well as Goliaths on the ground. Yet Sarah had told him that the Leviathan there was far from ready for battle it has not yet matured, and was only used as a last desperate attempt to prevent the Raiders from destroying the coolant towers. Indeed, after collecting the tissue samples from its remains, Stetmann had theorized that the Leviathan destroyed there was merely the equivalent of a two year old kid, nowhere near the full potential a full grown adult.

This concerned Raynor greatly, as after looking over the orbital scans, Sarah had confirmed to him that the three Leviathans over the Overmind were fully matured adults, and such Zerg creatures were specifically bred to withstand repeated attacks from the heaviest terran weapons, even tactical nuclear strikes and yamato cannon attacks from BattleCruisers.

Artanis had promised that the Daelaam Protoss had been developing starships that would far exceed the power the Motherships, and reports from Shakuras were coming in that the first was heading towards Aiur right now. As such, the current plan of attack was to inflict only moderate damage on the Zerg defenders. This would give them the impression that the battle is not going as bad as they believe, and thus there would be no need to use the Leviathans. Only when the Protoss starship has reached the battlefield would the attacks increase in intensity, and Artanis had assured Jim that such a weapon would have little difficulty in defeating the Zerg behemoth flyers.

For that reason, it was decided that rather than attacking the Zerg defenders head on, terran and Protoss forces would instead move into a position where the Overmind's corpse would be completely encircled, then close the ring. On the ground and in the air, the forces of both races were now awaiting the order to commence the attack.

Despite the tension problems with terran soldiers and Protoss warriors, both Jim and Artanis agreed that it was better to mix them up in the offensive rather than keep them strictly segregated. After fighting the Zerg for so long, both sides admitted that each possessed weapons in their respective arsenals that would deal with certain Zerg creatures more effectively.

As the Protoss greatly outnumber the terran military forces, it wasn't possible for uniform blending, but neither Jim nor Artanis saw this as much of a problem. From the north, Warfield's elite infantrymen would be backed up by Mohandar and his Void Rays, where they will be supported by Siege Tanks and Colossi, to deal with any heavy Zerg strains. To the northwest, many of the Dominion BattleCruisers will be supported by Urun and his Phoenix interceptors to deal with any Zerg flyers and Scourge, backed up by Ataldis and his Dark Templar brethren to deal with the Zerg ground forces. Selendis's Carriers would strike from the northeast and supported by Wraiths and backed up by the Raiders' infantrymen, as Jim felt he owed the female executor such a favor after what the Raiders had done to her forces on Haven.

On the west flank, Nova will be leading former Dominion ghosts to cut across the heavy concentration of Zerg Virophages, specifically designed to slow down attacking infantry. Once enough had been cleared, the Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators from Zekrath's Shelak Tribe would join in to decimate the Zerg ground forces there. To the east, the Raiders' BattleCruisers would handle the Zerg flyers and head towards the Overmind's husk, supported by the ground warriors of Artanis's Akilae Tribe.

With some of the heaviest Zerg ground forces concentrated in the south, the Mechanical Divisions have been mobilized. Even the Odin heavy walker that Jim stole from Valhalla was present, backed up by the Thors and Colossi. They were further supported by the A.R.E.S. and S.E.T.H. warbots so as to make quick work of the Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks. Tabrenus's Furinax Tribe would fight on the southwest flank, back up by the liberated prisoners from New Folsom, as well as some of the mercenaries Jim had hired during the course of the war.

Finally, to the southeast, Sarah would lead the Raiders' ghosts across the Zerg Spore and Spine Crawler defenses, as no one knew their weaknesses better than her. Vartanil, formerly a Tal'darim, had understood the experience of being corrupted and manipulated, so he and his Protoss warriors would fight along her side. This would also give greater confirmation to the rest of the Protoss that Sarah had indeed changed from her time with the Zerg.

In reserve, Nahaan and his Ara Tribe warriors would be constantly monitoring the battlefield, and would send their warriors to the appropriate positions when necessary. Artanis had instructed most of the Motherships to be positioned in each of the sectors, to lend their assistance if needed. Jim himself had ordered that the BattleCruisers carrying the stocks of dry ice they had confiscated from New Folsom position themselves just out of range of the battlefield, but ready to enter the heat of battle at a moment's notice.

Overall, it was a reasonable balance of forces. Each of the specified sectors were capable of sending their forces to quickly reinforce other sectors if necessary, and Jim had no doubt that such actions would occur during the course of the battle. Nevertheless, both he and Artanis were confident that once the assault began, nothing would stop them from scouring the Zerg off Aiur, once and for all.