Chapter 387: Baiting the Enemy Deep! The Ultimate Weapon: Mothership! A Reversal of Fate!
Sigma Sector, Worldship Battlefield.
Here, under the sweeping force of the Psionic Storm summoned by a High Templar, the Taldarim formation was thrown into disarray, then relentlessly pummeled by a charge of Zealots.
Already disoriented and overwhelmed, the Taldarim forces were swiftly plunged into a crisis of encirclement and annihilation.
Beyond the regular Zealots charging at the front and the Templars commanding the battlefield from the rear, a group of elite Templars wielding war axes surged into the fray.
Unlike High Templars, these elite Templars specialized in close-quarters combat. The war axes in their hands spun like metal cyclones, cutting through the chaos.
On the war-torn field, these Templars carved a bloody path through the Taldarim lines, sending gore and mangled flesh flying in every direction.
Faced with such overwhelming might, the remaining Taldarim forces had no choice but to retreat in a panic, fleeing back behind the still-active rift field.
At the very least, as long as this section's field generator remained intact, the Daelaam troops wouldn't dare charge in recklessly.
But the fleet led by Lokia had already crushed resistance along the way, and their assault was now focused on the second rift field. Once that generator was destroyed, the Daelaam forces would secure another large swath of ground—leaving the Taldarim with nowhere to run.
Watching the frontlines tilt in their favor, Marshal Terrance nodded repeatedly. "I underestimated these Daelaam Protoss. Their tactics may be crude…"
"But effective enough."
Black cat, white cat—so long as it catches mice, it's a good cat.
Initially, Terrance thought Lokia's brute-force assault strategy would end in disaster. But the result was the opposite—the Daelaam offensive had become a steamroller, crushing everything in its path.
"They're more capable than I thought," Paul admitted. The evidence was right there—he couldn't deny the Daelaam fleet's combat prowess. But his tone quickly shifted:
"But now isn't the time to celebrate."
Judging from the current situation, Lokia's forces clearly outmatched the Taldarim troops left behind by Naeon.
But this was still enemy territory. Who knew what hidden cards Naeon had yet to play?
Meanwhile, Lokia had already deployed almost all of their forces and tactics.
It didn't take long before the second rift field generator collapsed, allowing the Daelaam troops to advance even farther across the battlefield.
Leading the charge were Immortals—armored like steel fortresses—at the very front, blasting open a path with their twin-phase disruptor cannons.
The anti-matter shells fired by Immortals tore massive, jagged holes through even the heaviest armored units.
Even the Taldarim's prized Colossus siege crawlers had to temporarily fall back.
And despite similarities between both sides' advanced exo-frames, the ammunition they used differed—resulting in stark differences in overall destructive power.
Meanwhile, the Taldarim's feared Blood Hunters had their stealth disrupted by floating mechanical orbs—massive cybernetic eyes suspended in midair.
These all-seeing sentinels, tracking via psionic waveforms, were the battlefield's ultimate surveillance tools—able to detect even the elusive Dark Templars.
Let alone the Blood Hunters.
Soon, under relentless Templar assaults, the Taldarim garrison was driven back again with massive casualties.
It seemed the tide of battle was truly turning, just as Lokia had predicted—the Taldarim were nothing more than fragile rats, crumbling under pressure.
After securing multiple waves of territory, Lokia grew even more confident in his assessment and proudly ordered:
"Don't stop now. Keep pressing forward. Wipe out these heretical Protoss!"
At this moment, Executor Lokia could already envision his triumphant return and the praises sung of his heroic deeds throughout the Khala.
But Artanis, who had previously fought Naeon's forces firsthand, sensed something was wrong. The last battle with Naeon hadn't been this easy.
This had to be a trap.
"Executor, our fleet's shields are nearly depleted. We should hold position and recharge before the next strike," Artanis advised urgently.
Fortunately, Lokia wasn't a complete fool drunk on victory. Realizing that his warships needed time to recharge their shields, he nodded and replied coolly:
"Alright, we wait… just a bit longer before we crush these degenerates!"
But just as Lokia's orders were issued, Naeon himself appeared near the third rift field generator.
And he wasn't alone—he had a group of captured Templars in tow, parading them before Lokia's forces like trophies, as if flaunting the Taldarim's might.
Sure enough, Naeon's presence immediately drew everyone's attention. The Daelaam warriors on the field were enraged, eyes locked on him in fury.
Then, Naeon dragged the psionically-suppressed Templar prisoners onto a raised platform and shouted toward the Daelaam fleet:
"Those who offend the Taldarim—no matter how far—shall be slain! This… is your fate!"
With that, the Blood Hunters raised their execution blades—and one by one, beheaded the Templar captives.
That gruesome display ignited the Daelaam's fury like an explosion. Even Lokia erupted with a roar, wishing he could tear Naeon apart with his bare hands.
Watching from behind, Paul finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Naeon had just signed the death warrant for any chance of reconciliation. The Taldarim and Daelaam were now locked in a blood feud—there would be no peace, only total annihilation.
"Kill every last one of those traitors! Leave none alive!"
Before the shields had even fully recharged, Lokia couldn't hold back—he immediately launched an assault on the third rift generator.
Clearly, this was exactly what Naeon had planned: a trap designed to lure the enemy in.
Executing Daelaam prisoners in such a dramatic fashion was meant to provoke Lokia into an impulsive attack.
Naeon had seen it—the Daelaam fleet, after seizing two defensive lines, was already showing signs of fatigue. They were a dying force putting on a strong front.
If he could bait them into another attack, the tide might finally turn.
Still, Lokia wasn't entirely blinded by rage. He hoped to harness this surge of anger to break through one more generator in a single push.
Doing so would skyrocket morale on his side while shattering it for the enemy.
Even if an ambush was waiting, Lokia believed he could overcome it. If they could just kill Naeon, this war would be over.
As both sides' commanders clashed in strategy, the psionic warriors on the ground clashed once more in a brutal melee.
Seeing that the Daelaam fleet had taken the bait and was charging headlong into the trap, Naeon remained calm, even confident. He issued a cold command:
"Deploy the Mothership. Time to make these dogs suffer."
The Mothership was arguably the Protoss civilization's ultimate warship—a weapon of such magnitude it rivaled the Mantle's Approach from the Halo universe.
Capable of rending spacetime, distorting gravity, cloaking, and unleashing devastating psionic storms—it was a doomsday machine.
Even the vast Hyperion Megacorp possessed only three of them.
In the Daelaam's Golden Armada, the core flagship was The Purifier—their sole Mothership. But Lokia's expedition force didn't include it.
Soon, the Daelaam fleet, shields barely functional, charged recklessly toward the third rift generator.
Just as they attempted to repeat their previous tactics, a massive shadow eclipsed the fleet from above.
Everyone looked up.
What they saw was a mobile city nearly five kilometers long—looming like a god over their heads.
It was the Taldarim's ultimate warship: their Mothership.
And it was Naeon's trump card.
"This... this can't be! How could the Taldarim possibly have a Mothership? That's impossible!"
Lokia was dumbfounded. He couldn't comprehend how Naeon had gotten hold of such a ship.
The Mothership was a relic from the Protoss Golden Age. The modern Protoss no longer had the technology to create such a vessel.
By all accounts, there should only be a handful of these ultimate weapons in existence.
Even within the Daelaam's Golden Armada, there was only one: The Purifier.
Entire elite strike groups could be built around a single Mothership—such was its sheer power.
Any Protoss tribe in possession of one could instantly elevate themselves to a regional hegemon.
And yet, the very rebels Lokia had dismissed as rabble now unveiled such a war machine.
It was like a ragtag militia from a backwater planet suddenly pulling out a nuclear weapon.
And worst of all—the Daelaam hadn't brought The Purifier along for this campaign.
Now, Naeon had teleported into the command bridge via warp prism. Seated in the captain's chair, he looked down on the battlefield like a sovereign gazing upon his domain.
The Mothership's appearance marked a complete shift in momentum. All their prior retreats had merely been to drain the Daelaam's strength.
"You pitiful fools... You really think the Khala will lead you to ascension? All you do is sit around chanting in circles."
"Let me help you reach your final destination ahead of schedule!"
Naeon sneered at the Daelaam forces below.
Ever since the Protoss ended the Aeon War and began their era of massive interstellar expansion, the Tal'darim—one of the many tribes—were the first to adopt the path of "raiding to develop."
While the other tribes cautiously searched the dark galactic wilderness like hunters, seeking ancient relics to strengthen their civilizations...
…the Tal'darim were the first to think of plundering the resources and populations of other tribes to expand their own power.
It was like hoarding guns while your neighbors hoarded food—your neighbor was your food supply.
The vast majority of Protoss who had lost contact weren't victims of black holes or neutron stars, but were instead abducted by the Tal'darim.
In this process, the Tal'darim even managed to "freeload" a Mothership. After countless modifications, this Mothership had evolved into a far more destructive version, becoming the Tal'darim's core flagship!
When Lokia saw this Mothership silently appear above their fleet, he immediately realized this was the real deal—not some paper tiger bluff.
After all, only a top-tier Mothership could achieve a warp jump of that magnitude.
"All ships, launch interceptors immediately and begin orderly retreat!"
Suppressing the fear and anxiety in his heart, Lokia issued retreat orders to the fleet. The only thing he could do now was use unmanned interceptors to slow down the Mothership...
…buying time for the main force to exit the tear-field. That way, at least the core of the fleet might be preserved.
If they stayed and fought the Tal'darim here within the tear-field, their fate was sealed—utter annihilation, with no remains left behind.
At once, large numbers of unmanned interceptors were launched from various Protoss warships, charging toward Naeon's Mothership without regard for cost.
They gave off the appearance of a desperate suicide attack.
Watching the wave of interceptors rushing forward like a metal tsunami, Naeon merely scoffed and said, "Activate the Starstream Vortex—confiscate all this scrap metal for me!"
"Yes, sir!"
Just as the swarm of interceptors was about to crash into the Tal'darim Mothership, a strange distortion field suddenly twisted space-time in front of them.
All the interceptors were instantly pulled toward the center of the field, completely out of control.
It was one of the Mothership's abilities—Starstream Vortex!
The so-called Starstream Vortex created an intense gravitational whirlpool in a target area, sucking every unit within range into its core.
Visually, it resembled a miniature black hole spontaneously forming, devouring the interceptors while distorting the surrounding light.
At first, the unmanned interceptors tried to resist, but the powerful gravitational force held them in place like the Buddha's palm pinning down Sun Wukong.
Those behind tried to fire plasma beams into the vortex, but their shots were likewise twisted and absorbed, vanishing without a ripple.
Against such a terrifying gravitational vortex, sheer numbers meant nothing.
No matter how many interceptors were sent, they couldn't fill a space so warped by gravity.
With their interceptors neutralized, the Daelaam fleet now had to face the Mothership directly from above!
Once the last of the interceptors had been more or less eliminated, the Mothership went on the offensive. It was time for the Tal'darim to show the Daelaam Protoss what true power looked like.
In an instant, a crimson high-energy beam shot down from the Mothership, striking a Daelaam carrier directly.
The beam pierced through the thick hull with zero resistance—like a hot knife slicing through butter, smooth and effortless.
Even a nearby destroyer behind the carrier wasn't spared—severed in half and exploding on the spot.
Just one shot, and the Daelaam fleet had lost a carrier. The bisected warship crashed down onto the hull of the Xel'naga Worldship.
And the deadly blow didn't stop there. More and more warships fell, crashing into the Worldship's surface.
This was the cruel reality of interstellar warfare: when there's a tech gap between both sides, the result is a clear-cut one-sided slaughter.
No fancy space tactics, no "weak defeating the strong" strategies—just relentless, brutal domination.
Lokia watched the devastation unfold, heart aching, but now was not the time to lose his temper.
He issued retreat orders one after another, hoping to salvage as many ships as possible and find a way out of this death trap.
The Tal'darim Mothership's beam was powerful, but it needed time to recharge between shots. That slight delay gave the Daelaam fleet a sliver of hope.
But before they could breathe a sigh of relief, more Tal'darim ships arrived—among them, the modified Colossi now dubbed Judgment Walkers.
Judgment Walkers looked similar to traditional Colossi, but their weapons had been swapped from thermal lances to charged burst projectiles, giving them the ability to destroy warships.
Their destructive power rivaled even that of the Yamato Cannon.
When one such glowing projectile struck another Protoss carrier, whose shields were already nearly depleted, it burned through the hull effortlessly...
…instantly igniting internal fires and wreaking havoc inside. The carrier's combat systems were crippled, teetering on collapse.
The Tal'darim launched an even fiercer assault, and under the Judgment Walkers' bombardment, that carrier eventually fell apart and crashed onto the Worldship.
Two other Void Radiance Ships met the same fate, collapsing in flames under concentrated fire. The remaining escort and destroyer ships were effectively useless—mere decorations.
Now, only Lokia's flagship remained on the battlefield.
At this point, the Protoss mothership had just launched a few interceptors in a final counterattack, while slowly retreating.
But against the Judgment Walkers, those few drones were meaningless. A single volley swept them all away.
Meanwhile, other parts of the Daelaam forces—still recharging shields—were unable to enter the tear-field and provide support.
They could only watch helplessly from the outside.
Without fully recharged shields, entering the tear-field would mean instant molecular disintegration.
Just as the Judgment Walkers prepared to focus fire on the last remaining Daelaam warship, brilliant beams suddenly shot out from the distance.
Before the Tal'darim could react, the lead Judgment Walker was struck in the head and obliterated like a block of tofu hit by a bullet.
It was a Lunar Spear Strike from the War Moon of Megacorp.
Now that Naeon's hand had been revealed, it was the Megacorp's turn to take the stage!
"Their Starstream Vortex field isn't much stronger than our gravity wells. Maintain safe distance and maneuver for advantageous positions."
From close observation, Terrence had already figured out most of the Tal'darim Mothership's abilities.
Since this was all the Mothership could do, it was time for their forces to shift the tide!
"Megacorp Sixth Expeditionary Corps, full assault—GO!"
At Terrence's command, the massive Megacorp space fleet disengaged their cloaking fields and appeared out of thin air on the far side of the Xel'naga Worldship.
Every Protoss warrior on the battlefield was stunned by the sight.
Especially Lokia—he hadn't even noticed when the Megacorp fleet had arrived.
Had he not witnessed it with his own eyes, he would've assumed the human ships were still en route.
The Tal'darim forces looked up and saw three colossal ships standing proudly in space like gods, looking down on every lifeform present.
The Wanderer Dreadnought, War Moon, and Infinity Night—each one was several times larger than the Tal'darim Mothership!
The largest, War Moon, spanned a staggering 200 kilometers in diameter.
"Are those ships... even real?!"
Staring at the gargantuan ships and the densely packed cruisers and escorts, Lokia recalled how he hadn't taken a close look at the human fleet back on Bysel.
Only now did he finally grasp how massive the Megacorp warships truly were.
For a moment, his memory flashed back to the first time he laid eyes on the Spear of Adun.
That ultimate doomsday ark, nearly 100 kilometers in length, had always been his idea of the peak of cosmic engineering.
But to think that humans could build ships even larger than that—it was simply inconceivable.
The technological starting point between humans and the Protoss was worlds apart. By all logic, they shouldn't be capable of constructing ships like these. Not even 2-kilometer-long flagships, let alone five.
In the human world, a 2-kilometer warship was already an elite luxury flagship!
Lokia couldn't understand how they managed it—but to Megacorp, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
After all, all of these weapons and technologies had been freeloaded.
Unlike the utterly stunned Lokia, Naeon—who had already witnessed the Megacorp fleet's power firsthand—was now starting to panic.
Back on Bysel, it was the Megacorp fleet that had single-handedly dismantled the defensive orbital system he had painstakingly constructed.
That battle had forced the Tal'darim into an emergency evacuation, fleeing to this derelict Xel'naga Worldship.
In that battle, Naeon had lost nearly all of his Void Radiance Ships.
Now, seeing this powerful fleet once again before him, the painful memories came flooding back.
Even with his Mothership, he felt little sense of security in the face of the Megacorp's overwhelming firepower.
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