Chapter 15: The Invasion of Korhal
Within orbit over Korhal, the calm had quickly turned into a flurry of activity as the sensors detected a huge swarm of enemies incoming. Though the defense fleet had been placed into a state of alertness, this was completely beyond their expectations. It was the largest attack the zerg had ever made in terran space, exceeding even the invasion of Tarsonis. Many broods contributed their forces to the assault, their cerebrates delegating command of the armies to Kaloth, who used the zerg with brutal effectiveness.
The battlecruisers formed into battle lines as their smaller fighters flew out from the hangars. Yamato cannons charged and fired into masses of zerg, killing massive amounts of zerg at once. But still, more zerg fliers came to fill in the gap. The Dominion battlecruisers fired into the mass of fliers, killing scores of them with each volley. But even as they killed them, yet more emerged, followed by the small yet deadly scourge which could take down even the largest of ships.
First, one battlecruiser was hit, its engines exploding when hit by a scourge. No longer able to resist the force of gravity, the burning wreckage fell from orbit and disintegrated in the atmosphere of Korhal. The wraith fighters skirmished with the incoming mutalisks, firing many missiles into the flocks before retreating. But with each attack, several of the wraiths fell after extracting their deadly toll.
As the losses mounted, the order was given for a strategic retreat as the defending armada fell back to the fortified orbital space platforms. The fleet withdrew in good order and the platform defenses helped to hold off some of the zerg. Seeing this, the zerg opted to blockade the platforms and fight any ship that emerged.
Much of the zerg fliers were engaged in keeping the defending fleet bottled up and in the meantime the zerg began landing on Korhal as overlords began disgorging minions onto the ground. Korhal's defense forces were being mobilized to intercept the incoming zerg, but with the zerg landing in so many places, a foothold was soon established as the invading zerg repelled the Dominion's patrols and cleared out a landing zone.
With the first stage of the invasion complete, Kerrigan descended onto Korhal. Stepping onto the dry dirt, she gazed upon the planet. Although the fight in space and the landing had cost quite a few zerg lives to overcome, she was finally here on Korhal. After a few moments of consideration, she decided to activate the communication's device she brought, sending a transmission request to the Dominion headquarters.
She smirked as she saw Mengsk's face appear after accepting the transmission. Behind him she could see various military officers in the command room, all curious as to how the zerg were communicating. Mengsk's eyes widened as he saw who he was speaking to. "Kerrigan…" he muttered.
"Hello Arcturus, it's been a while since we've seen each other. When was it again?" Kerrigan feigned contemplation. "Right, it was on Tarsonis right before you left me to the zerg, believing that you had successfully been rid of me. Well, I have become far beyond what you could have ever imagined. I have risen from a mere minion serving others to a queen ruling over all the zerg. Now, there are none that can stand in my way."
Kerrigan chuckled as she maintained a haughty grin. "Really, I ought to thank you for the opportunity you have given me. And I will deliver my thanks to you, personally."
Mengsk sneered. "I should have just killed you when I had the chance, rather than generously giving an animal like you a place close to me. You will find that the Dominion shall not fall to you. We are the bulwark of humanity and we will defeat all enemies of mankind. Korhal will be where you meet your end."
"Your toy soldiers can't protect you," Kerrigan said. "Your little empire will fall and when you die you will know that you have failed completely. For I am the Queen of Blades, and none can stand against me and live."
"Such hubris," Mengsk said. "You will rue the day you underestimated the Dominion. We will stand triumphant in the end."
"Keep deluding yourself. Your demise is set in stone." Kerrigan peered past Mengsk at the people behind him. "Well, if one of you decides to rid yourself of your pathetic Emperor and deliver him to me, then I shall allow you all to live."
With this, Kerrigan ended the call. Kaloth, who had also just landed, decided to speak up. "Will you truly let the terrans live if they give up your enemy?"
Kerrigan thought for a few moments. "It would certainly be amusing to see Arcturus betrayed by his own men and sent to me wrapped up, bereft of his power and influence. In fact, such a kind gift will entertain me enough that I think I will let them off as they have shown they know their proper place. We need not waste effort on those who pose no threat to us. Besides, there are some out there who might react negatively to a wholesale slaughter of civilians for unnecessary reasons, and I'd rather not have to fight another war after this."
Kerrigan shrugged. "In any case, I don't expect that any of them will try to take me up on the offer. But Mengsk will squirm as his paranoia creeps in, causing him to think about all of the plots against him and whether or not his subordinates will turn on him."
"A valid psychological tactic," Kaloth noted. "But we cannot neglect the military aspects of this invasion. The battle in space had cost us significantly, but now our forces are consolidating and will soon be able to launch an attack. There are several military installations in the area that could be targeted."
"Those nuclear silos could be an issue," Kerrigan said. "And Mengsk is keeping battlecruisers in reserve. But if we destroy the physics labs before he can mobilize his reservers, he will be unable to power up the battlecruisers' main weapons. Destroying these two objectives will weaken his defenses."
"Then I shall handle the physics labs while you can destroy the nuclear silos," Kaloth said. "Once that is complete we can regroup for the assault on the main city."
"Sounds fine," Kerrigan said. "Let's go."
Kaloth gathered up his army and began moving toward the physics labs. Around the labs were several military bases that were guarding the area. When the zerg came upon the outlying base, they immediately moved to surround it and prevent any enemies from escaping. Inside the base, the soldiers were on full alert and in the bunkers to repel the zerg attack.
Several defilers began spewing out their dark swarm to cover the approach of the zerg army. Despite this cover, the siege tanks continued to fire into the fog, with each explosion killing many of the smaller zerg. For a few minutes, that was all that happened, as the Dominion army shot into the haze, with no visible results. Finally, the zerg burst out of the dark swarm, charging straight at the line of bunkers.
The ultralisks led the charge, and although the tanks quickly redirected their attacks onto the ultralisks, it was already too late to stop them from tearing through the fortifications and breaking through. Defenders were pulled from other areas to plug the breach, and several of the ultralisks were killed. However, zerglings soon began flooding through the gap, dying in the thousands but still killing many of the defenders. The hydralisks forced the marines, now bereft of their walls, to take cover all the while the zerg continued to flood into the base.
The siege tanks were soon overrun and destroyed and the remaining defenders were isolated in small pockets which were then surrounded and destroyed. With the base left in ruins, Kaloth set his attention on the main complex where the physics labs were. There were still two other bases in the area, and he sent some zerg to harass them while burying lurkers in the ground to intercept any reinforcements those auxiliary bases might send to the main complex.
The physics labs were well defended, being a critical military installation. They were surrounded by strong walls and manned by many more soldiers. Once again, Kaloth sent his minions forward under the cover of the dark swarm. Many of the zerg died from the bombardment of the tanks, but still some made it through. The ultralisks assaulted the walls, but the mines buried underfoot toppled the beasts and the soldiers defending the base were able to halt the attack.
After the first attack wave stalled, Kaloth withdrew to avoid further losses, but continued to maintain the dark swarm around the base. Enough zerg could eventually overwhelm the defenders, but it would be quite wasteful. So, another tactic was used. While some defilers died to the bombardment, more were brought in to replace them, and the defilers spewed their plague on the walls. The corrosive spores spread and began eating away at the walls while also forcing the defenders off of the walls.
As SCVs were sent in to repair the walls, but repeated applications of plague affected the SCVs as well, causing their suits to fall apart around them. Seeing this slow process happen, some of the soldiers wanted to sally out from the base and eliminate the source, but the commander knew that leaving would only be a death sentence. There was little to do but watch the walls fall apart as they fell back to a secondary defensive position.
Finally, another attack came and the ultralisks broke through the perimeter, followed by a rush of zerglings and hydralisks. The firebats and marines held the line, burning through the approaching zerglings, but eventually they were killed, either stomped over by ultralisks or killed by the hydralisks shooting from afar. It was only a matter of time before the defenders were overrun and the physics labs were destroyed. The other two smaller bases were destroyed shortly afterwards.
Meanwhile, Kerrigan was leading her attack on the nuclear silos, which were also defended by a series of military bases. A swarm of zerg descended upon the outlying base, coming at it from all sides. While the tanks were occupied firing in every direction, Kerrigan attacked the southern perimeter of the base, destroying the bunkers with a psionic storm. As the zerglings flooded into the gap, the tanks redirected their fire toward the breach in order to stem the tide.
While the breach was contained, the zerg quickly shifted their attention to the other areas which had become less defended. With a breakthrough in multiple places, it soon became untenable to defend the base. In a final effort to survive, the defenders went on the attack, breaking out of the encirclement as they fled.
The zerg chased after them, the zerglings overtaking and destroying the slower units as the remains of the garrison ran. Kerrigan was at the front of the pursuit, ripping into any soldier that fell into her grasp as she revelled in the hunt. The rout became an organized retreat when a relief army from the other outlying bases arrived, meeting up with the remnants of the fleeing soldiers and forming new battle lines.
The zerg in the front slowed down upon encountering renewed resistance and waited for the rest of the army to regroup. Then, they descended upon the Dominion army with renewed ferocity. A psionic storm wiped out the center of the army, allowing the zerg minions to break through the gap and split the terrans in two. The zerg soon enveloped the army and destroyed it.
Kerrigan led the zerg to finish assaulting the outlying bases, destroying each in short order. Then, she focused her attention on the central area which held the nuclear silos. Being an area holding critical military weapons, the base was very well defended and it was clear that it would be a tough nut to crack.
As the zerg gathered up for the assault, a portion of the army was destroyed by a nuclear missile. It wasn't the only place hit. Several of the hive clusters were destroyed as well.
Kaloth had been sending reinforcements, some of which had been destroyed in the attack. "Kerrigan, what is happening there? The terrans are already using their nuclear missiles."
"They must have gotten their missiles ready faster than expected and were able to deploy ghosts into position." Kerrigan's tone conveyed some degree of frustration. "I'll send out more overlord patrols to intercept the ghosts, but this will have to be cut off at the source. These losses have already set us back significantly."
Most of the zerg army was still intact and they now moved to attack the terran base from all directions. Several more attempts were made to launch nuclear missiles. In most cases the ghosts were found and intercepted but another missile did make it through. But even then, a multitude of zerg began assaulting the walls.
A section of the wall began to creak before collapsing as Kerrigan focused her psionic powers on pulling down that portion of the defenses. Though the exertion had taken a lot out of her, it didn't deter her from joining in the main assault as zerg began moving into the breach. The defenders began sending their reserves to plug the breach while the tanks whittled away at the zerg. Within the base, another line of defense was set up to hold back the zerg.
Kerrigan was in the base, ambushing small groups of soldiers in the narrow areas between buildings, coming upon them suddenly before tearing into them in melee range. She was conserving her power and the buildings were dense enough to let her avoid most of the bombardment so she only needed to shield herself sparingly.
Just as she was killing another group of marines, Kerrigan sensed a nearby presence. She moved to the side suddenly as the bullet from a sniper passed through where she was moments before. A ghost had been perched on a nearby building, unsuccessfully trying to take her by surprise. Kerrigan quickly scaled the building, avoiding several more shots from the ghost before she finally got to him.
The ghost tried to flee but found himself pinned in place, his own psionic power being unable to break him free of Kerrigan's grip. Once the zerg queen reached him, she didn't immediately move for the kill. Rather, she focused her attention on the ghost and began breaking into his mind. Once she had her new puppet under her control, she departed, leaving the ghost alone.
The ghost began painting the target for a nuclear launch, the location being right where he was standing.
The voice of his commanding officer came over the radio. "Agent X34234A, your request for a nuclear launch has been blocked due to collateral damage it would cause. A nuclear strike here would obliterate the entire base and we would both be dead."
"The zerg queen is in my sights," the ghost replied. "A nuclear strike obliterating the zerg leadership would be more valuable than defending this location."
The commander was silent for a few moments before deciding to call high command.
"General Duke, I have a request to fire a nuclear missile within this base. The zerg queen has been sighted and can be eliminated in this strike," he said. "I request orders for this situation."
"If such a strike can achieve that objective, then you have your orders to carry through with the attack," Duke said.
"For the Dominion," the commander replied.
A mushroom cloud rose over the base, destroying the nuclear weapon stockpile along with large amounts of zerg. Unfortunately, the main target of the attack was long gone.
The Dominion forces were still keeping an eye on the situation as they continued to fortify Augustgrad. After the nuclear stockpile was destroyed, the zerg had ceased their attacks. But the hive clusters were still active and more zerg continued to gather.
"Sir, it seems that the zerg have not fallen into disarray," an aide reported to Duke. "Even now they are preparing their armies for an attack."
"It seems we couldn't be that fortunate," Duke grumbled. "Well, that base probably would have been overrun anyways. It was worth a shot. How are the defense preparations going?"
"We've been handing out weapons to every man who can shoot and began fortifying the buildings to be holdout points. Those who can't fight are being taken to shelters," the officer replied. "We'll fight the zerg on every street if we need to. The city's perimeter defenses have been brought up to full strength and the bunkers are fully manned."
Duke nodded. "We'll show these zerg that we won't go down easily."
While the Dominion was making their preparations, the zerg were continuing to establish their foothold on the planet as they grew their forces. Then, the zerg began going on the attack.
Kaloth took charge of the assault, maneuvering the zerg armies to strike at Augustgrad's defense in multiple points. The defenders held off each attack long enough for the reinforcements left in reserve to arrive, and when the zerg disengaged and struck somewhere else, the mobile divisions followed suit to shore up the most heavily pressured areas. The well placed terran artillery was able to continually hammer away at the zerg, and the ability of the tanks to reposition themselves allowed them to be where they were most needed.
To an outside observer, the zerg were continually engaging in mass swarm tactics, albeit very well executed ones, which sought to reduce the defenses through attrition. However, after the first few assaults failed, Kaloth was already concerned about this course of action and began making new plans.
Away from the front lines in one of the hive clusters, Kerrigan was waiting beside her cerebrate. Eager as she was to fight, she wasn't going to take the chances of getting involved personally when the enemy was still too strong.
"How do you evaluate our current situation, Kaloth? Their defenses are quite formidable." Kerrigan could see the overall course of the battle and her confidence began to slip as the zerg casualties mounted.
"It is not ideal," the cerebrate replied. "While we may be able to eventually prevail through pure numbers, it would be quite a difficult battle. Victory would be far from assured. But there is another course of action, one that is slightly riskier but which can break this deadlock. We merely need to lure out the terrans to go on the offensive and then we can wipe them out."
"The terrans aren't stupid," Kerrigan said. "General Duke might have first risen up through familial connections, but he was still a competent military commander; that is why Mengsk wanted him. Going on the offensive here would go against tactical orthodoxy, for obvious reasons considering we only want them to do it so we can destroy most of their army. The only way he would order such an attack is if he feels that he has no other choice and he is confident in victory."
"We can feign weakness and draw them in," Kaloth said. "Do you have any other insight into the minds of these terrans?"
"A zerg infestation is a frightening thing for a planet," Kerrigan said. "If unchecked, zerg can eventually grow in number enough to overrun the planet. That is why the military doctrine became either to destroy the infestation early or to abandon the planet when the zerg became too strong. Abandoning Korhal would be crippling to the Dominion and irreparably harm Mengsk's image. That is ample motivation for them to want to wipe out our foothold quickly, but they would have to believe they will likely win such a fight. Minor tricks aren't going to cut it, they would only believe something of substance."
"We can sacrifice an army to give the impression that we have depleted our forces entirely," Kaloth said. "Meanwhile we keep additional minions in reserve, hidden until the right moment. If we keep the main hive cluster underdefended, the terrans will wish to strike a knockout blow."
"They will be scanning the area," Kerrigan reminded. "Simply burrowing our minions won't be enough."
"I am constructing nydus canals between our outlying hives and the central hive cluster. When the terrans attack we can move in our scattered minions in to reinforce the hive," Kaloth said. "The throughput of the tunnels is limited though and it will be difficult to send enough through to defend the hive from a massive attack. If the terrans simply bombard the minions when they emerge, they would never reach sufficient mass. And we cannot put too many zerg in the hive to begin with or else the terrans will not attack."
"I'll defend the hive myself then," Kerrigan said. "If anything, the Dominion discovering my presence will only further motivate them to attack rather than make them too wary. And I have a few tricks up my sleeve to take care of them. You don't need to worry about me Kaloth, I would always be sure to prioritize my own safety."
"If you are sure of yourself, then we shall proceed with this plan then." Under Kaloth's direction, the zerg forces continued their assault. Only some of the newly spawned zerg reinforced the assault in order to preserve the illusion that everything was being put into the attack. Little by little, the zerg forces were whittled away, though they inflicted considerable damage on the defenses.
Then, a counterattack came from the Dominion and the remaining zerg forces were shattered, with the remnants fleeing back to the hives. The Dominion army regrouped before embarking on a full attack on the zerg. They carefully scanned the area as they approached the hive in a careful and methodical manner, wiping out a few groups of burrowed zerg that could have ambushed their forces on the way there.
The area where the hive cluster was located was a flat plain which did make the position vulnerable, but as the siege tanks began setting up within firing range, some SCVs began quickly putting together bunkers on the spot, relying on the prefabricated pieces they had brought along.
As the Dominion army began entrenching themselves, zerg began emerging from the hive cluster while the defilers deployed dark swarm to obscure the area. Although it was unclear what was beneath the haze, it was clear that the zerg were launching some kind of attack and the tanks simply began indiscriminately firing into the area.
Beneath the cover of the dark swarm, the zerg army was moving. The shots from the siege tanks killed some of the smaller zerg, but most of the ultralisks were able to survive. Kerrigan rode on one ultralisk, using her powers to deflect the few shots that came close. As the zerg advanced, the defilers continued to lay out the dark swarm in front, until a few lucky shots killed some of the defilers.
The zerg could have waited for more defilers to be brought up, but by now they were close enough to the terran army that the subterfuge was no longer needed. The ultralisks charged out of the haze straight into the Dominion's prepared battle lines. Several of the bunkers were uprooted, but as the soldiers focused their fire on the attackers, even the mighty ultralisks began to fall.
A crackle of energy filled the air as Kerrigan gathered psionic energy above her before sending it down at the group of siege tanks gathered in the center of the terran army. The tanks were well defended from any conventional attacks, but this wasn't something they saw coming. The psionic storm tore through the tanks, leaving only wrecks behind.
The display of power had quickly grabbed the attention of Dominion soldiers who quickly began shooting at the zerg queen. The ultralisk Kerrigan was riding quickly died under the assault, but Kerrigan herself had cloaked and slipped away as the other zerg sacrificed themselves to cover her retreat.
The rest of the zerg assault force were still gathered under the dark swarm that was constantly being produced by the defilers, but the Dominion's army soon encircled it. They could detect that no zerg were burrowing out, but the area within the haze remained obscured. The zerg assault had done significant damage, but many of the zerg had died and now they were cornered. The order was given to eliminate the zerg by any means necessary.
The dark swarm was doing its job in hiding the zerg, and without the tanks the easy option of just bombarding the zerg was no longer available. Still, there were other options available and terrans had the ingenuity to adapt to difficult circumstances.
The marines and goliath walkers first began indiscriminately firing into the haze, and while they couldn't see anything, enough metal filled the air to hit their targets. The shrieks of dying zerg validated this approach, but soon fell silent as the zerg burrowed just beneath the surface.
Next, teams of firebats backed up by marines were sent in to clear the area and eliminate the defilers, which would have to unburrow to continue producing the dark swarm. This was a dangerous job though as burrowed zerg were everywhere, and with the soldiers unable to see more than a few feet in front of them, any fighting would be done in close quarters. Each ambush of zerg would inflict some losses, whiting away at each group. The lurkers proved exceptionally deadly and difficult to root out.
Even more concerning to the soldiers was when entire groups went missing at once. Under the cover of the haze, Kerrigan was enjoying cutting loose and slaughtering the groups of infantry that approached. The deaths of her minions informed her of the locations of the enemies and she could simply move from one group to the other, killing them with trivial ease.
The operation was quickly turning into something out of a horror movie, but the Dominion had their own deadly killers up their sleeve. Cloaked ghosts wandered throughout the area, searching for any defilers to eliminate. Without any overlords overhead, the common zerg were unable to detect the ghosts even when they sniped a defiler surrounded by other minions. A few ghosts did meet their end though when they unfortunately stumbled upon the one predator in the haze who was even deadlier than them.
The area shrouded in the dark swarm was shrinking as the combination of infantry teams and ghosts began killing off defilers. As the dark swarm receded, some zerg caught outside were picked off and killed, and ones that were burrowed were detected. But the news of more zerg movements soon came to the attention of the Dominion. Two zerg armies had begun approaching from behind. They had been burrowed in the ground some distance away, far enough to avoid being scanned during the initial Dominion's attack. Meanwhile, zerg arriving through the nydus canals grouped up in the hive cluster and readied for an attack.
The situation was dangerous, and Duke recognized that the zerg had gotten close enough that a full retreat would still result in substantial losses. So, he decided to take the gamble and ordered the army in the field to hunt down and kill Kerrigan. If that was achieved, the operation could still be a success.
Most of the reserve troops were then sent into the dark swarm to root out the rest of the zerg. Heavy losses were sustained as the goliath walkers had difficulty dealing with zerglings unburrowing beneath them and the remaining lurkers had even more targets to attack. But there were too few zerg remaining and too many terran soldiers.
Eventually, the zerg within the area were eliminated and the haze dissipated. But Kerrigan was still nowhere in sight. Scans were immediately performed and revealed that the zerg queen had burrowed deeply into the ground, at least a dozen meters below the surface. After having taken the time to dig down so far, Kerrigan simply relaxed and through the eyes of her minions remotely observed the terrans ineffectual scrambling around above her. They didn't have time to bring in excavation equipment nor did they have the firepower to just blast away the dirt fast enough. The terrans had killed quite a lot of zerg in their attack and such a loss would normally be considered painful, but Kerrigan was more than pleased with the trade she obtained.
When the zerg armies converged, the Dominion's assault force was wiped out. While they still held considerable soldiers in reserve as to not leave their defense completely unmanned, the loss of manpower along with the loss of so many tanks marked a significant loss.
With the tide now turning in her favor, Kerrigan decided to leave yet another taunt for Mengsk as she called him again. "Now you see just how pathetic your little soldiers are, Arcturus. You'd best start preparing for your funeral."
"You think you have won just because you have destroyed one army?" Mengsk uttered calmly. "You will find that we still have much will left in us."
Kerrigan sneered. "Please, I just destroyed your largest group of elite soldiers. What could you possibly do now?"
Suddenly, Kerrigan paused as Kaloth informed her of an attack being launched by militias coming from the outlying settlements on Korhal. The attacks had been making some progress, destroying some outlying hive clusters while most of the zerg were sent to fight the main terran attack force.
"Something wrong?" Mengsk asked snidely.
"Only a minor nuisance," Kerrigan said through gritted teeth. "You know, you are just sending those men to their deaths. How many bodies will you hide behind?"
"The people of the Dominion gladly lay down their lives to protect humanity from the zerg," Mengsk said. "Their sacrifices will not be in vain."
Kerrigan ended the call, with her frustration already beginning to build with the recent developments. Meanwhile, Mengsk evaluated the situation and could see the damage that would befall Korhal.
He turned to General Duke. "Are we able to obtain reinforcements from the colonies?"
"We'd have to strip most of the colonies of their fleets and garrisons if we are to scrape together a large enough force to make a difference here," Duke replied. "Many of those worlds would be dangerously vulnerable if there was to be an attack. We might as well be giving them up to whoever wants to take them."
"The attack is already right here," Mengsk said. "We don't have any other options. There is only one thing left to do. Contact Admiral Dugalle."
The call didn't take long to be patched through as it seemed that the admiral was already prepared to speak.
"The Dominion is in need of aid as Korhal is under attack by an overwhelming force of zerg," Mengsk said.
"Although you had not accepted our earlier offer of aid, the Directorate is generous and will extend to you another opportunity," Dugalle said. "Should you submit yourself and the Dominion to the rightful government of mankind, we will of course defend loyal terran colonists against the aliens."
"You ask for fealty in a time like this?" Mengsk said through gritted teeth.
"It is the natural course of things," Dugalle said. "Humanity must be under one banner if we are to survive. As Earth was the birthplace of mankind, so shall it be it's prime guardian."
Mengsk stood silently for a few moments as he thought through his options. Finally, he answered. "Very well then. The Dominion shall fight under the banner of humanity."