“A concubine?! That’s what the Tal’darim think of me?” Sweetie said with an increasingly angry tone. Kerrigan did what she could to calm the furious Pony down. After an hour of venting, Sweetie was able to think straight again.
Sweetie and Kerrigan had destroyed the Psi-Link Spires that originally belonged to the Protoss expedition. While she felt bad about destroying the equipment of the Daelaam expedition, Sweetie couldn’t afford restraint when dealing with the Tal’darim.
Some members of the expedition were held in a nearby cave near the base. When they sensed that the fighting had ended, one of the members was brave enough to exit the cave to find Sweetie and Kerrigan.
The moment she saw the former Queen of Blades, she took a defensive stance in a futile effort to defend herself.
Sweetie walked up to the nervous Protoss, “En Taro Adun. I know what this looks like, but I can assure you that I’m taking responsibility for her actions for the time being. I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause trouble for your people.”
The female Protoss looked at the two warily for a few minutes before she finally relaxed. She said in a wary tone, “En Taro Lyra. I am Lasarra, a scientist of the Khalai caste. Why are you here with the Queen of Blades?”
While she was curious about her marefriend’s name being uttered in one of their salutations, Sweetie decided to hold off on that topic for another time. “Originally, we simply came here to reclaim the Brood stationed here for Kerrigan’s eventual invasion of Korhal. Our mission was complicated when the Tal’darim showed up to attack us and they planned to use your Spires to contact Slayn. In response we had to level your camp since they were using your equipment against us.”
Lasarra mentally sighed, which was still a regular sigh. “The equipment can be replaced, but the Tal’darim still have control over the rest of our camps. They underestimated the Zerg here, they will not make that same mistake. They will likely steal our Shuttles and try to escape to Slayn to warn their people of Kerrigan’s weakened state.”
Sweetie hummed, “If what Lyra said about the Tal’darim is accurate, any who flee from a battle would be executed after they deliver any potentially useful intel. Since Kerrigan is seen by their master as a threat, Slayn will likely send their Death Fleet.”
“If they do, maybe we can find some way to bring the Golden Armada…”
“No, I know the nature of your race. All that would happen is a battle between two fleets with a high chance of Kerrigan getting killed. The future of your race depends on her staying alive.
“Now, since I would like to avoid any surprises, is there anything the Tal’darim can use to escape the moon aside from the shuttles?”
Lasarra thought for a moment. “Well, there is the Ark Ship that our people used to travel here.”
After Lasarra explained the functions of the Ark Ship, Sweetie came up with an idea that might wipe out the entire Tal’darim force. “Sarah, you know of a way you can sneak your Zerg on board the Ark?”
“I can infect someone with a parasitic larva which I can create a Broodmother.”
“Good, find an inconspicuous creature and infect it. We need to sneak the infected creature inside and hope that that will be enough to wipe out the Tal’darim.”
Kerrigan ordered her minions to capture an appropriate creature and bring it to her. Meanwhile, Sweetie asked Lasarra if there were anymore members of her team still under threat from the Tal’darim.
“No, the entire team was left in the caves behind us they were planning to execute us just before the Zerg attacked the area.”
After Kerrigan infected a Lyote and smuggled it aboard the Ark, Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan to plan their next attack.
After having conversations and monologues in the command chamber of the Leviathan, Kerrigan and Sweetie visited Abathur.
Some tortured cries were heard from somewhere. Abathur mentioned that his failed experiments were being converted into biomass for later. While Kerrigan and Sweetie were concerned about the treatment of the Zerg as they died a slow painful death, Abathur revealed his logical nature and lack of empathy or compassion by claiming that killing the failed experiments were a waste of time since they were going to die soon anyway.
Kerrigan’s anger slowly rose toward the evolution master. Abathur tried to calm her by saying that he was not a threat to her, after a brief analysis of what anger is.
After Kerrigan chose a mutation for the Roaches, she retreated to her personal chamber to see if her abilities needed adjustment. Sweetie waited patiently for her return.
During the wait, Sweetie considered her dwindling supply of Lockdown missiles. When she saw Kerrigan throw psionic lightning from her palms, she began trying to recreate that power. After some practice, she was able to produce psionic lightning in her hands. Next, she took one of her Lockdown rockets and disassembled it with her telekinesis. Locating the power source, she held it in a tight grip so her body could get a feel for the level of charge needed to use her psionic power to imitate the Lockdown effect. She used all of her remaining rounds to fully adapt and the process was very painful. Once she had adapted to the charge, she did the same for her EM rounds.
Once Kerrigan returned, the duo returned to the surface to set up a hive cluster near the oddly distant Warp Conduits south of the Tal’darim-held Shuttle Bays.
By the time Kerrigan and Sweetie had arrived, the Tal’darim were already sending commandeered Shuttles to the Warp Conduits. One Shuttle was already near the Conduit warping out. Sweetie stopped the process by focusing her psionic lightning at the same frequency as her Lockdown rockets and managed to temporarily shut down the Shuttle. Its anti-gravity systems remained functional so it didn’t fall out of the sky.
Kerrigan took control of some nearby Hydralisks and had Abathur reclaim the Hydralisk essence for the Swarm.
While the ship was locked down, Kerrigan, Sweetie and the Hydralisks fired on the Shuttle. Sweetie pointed a finger at the Shuttle and launched a psionic bolt powerful enough to disable the Shuttle’s shields. The Shuttle fell apart quickly.
The hive cluster started morphing Hydralisks to assist in the destruction of Shuttles. Sweetie had another Hatchery morphed to increase the number of Larvae to mutate. Swarm Queens and Hydralisks accompanied Kerrigan on her Shuttle hunt.
Sweetie, however, had a different idea. Spotting a nearby frozen hive cluster guarded by Tal’darim Zealots, she took out the Zealots and revived the hive cluster. Once the place was set up defensively, Sweetie morphed a large number of each type of Zerg available and moved against the Tal’darim base while Kerrigan continued on the defensive, sinking two waves of Shuttles by this point.
While Sweetie was pushing against the Tal’darim, she also ordered more Zerg morphed to reinforce her numbers. Kerrigan noticed Sweetie’s strategy and morphed some Zerg from her hive cluster to assist in the attack.
While Sweetie figured that she could have dealt with the Shuttles without wrecking the bases, she also didn’t want to risk the Tal’darim rallying a large force that would pose a threat to her and Kerrigan.
Sweetie weakened the Tal’darim by using her new EM Blast attack and her Lockdown ability, which now used her own power instead of firing rockets. Protoss who had their shields disabled were shot in the head by her rifle.
The number of Zerg were characteristically overwhelming for the Tal’darim and they soon tore into one of the Shuttle Bays, limiting the deployment angles of the Shuttles.
Once one base was destroyed, Sweetie moved on to another base while reinforcements rallied with her. It wasn’t long before the second Shuttle Bay was demolished as well as the third.
With the Warp Conduits lost to them and their forces now ill equipped to handle the Zerg, the Tal’darim retreated to the stolen Ark Ship and prepared to launch.