StarCraft Chronicles Episode 16: A Throne Built on the Corpses of Allies

This is a fan narrative rewritten based on the events of the original game. Character emotions, dialogue, and scene atmospheres have been reconstructed, and it contains major spoilers.

The Talons of Betrayal Strike Korhal

For a brief moment, a peaceful current flowed across the ash-gray skies of Korhal. Even before the victory reports of successfully reclaiming the Dominion's capital had faded, Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm began to move stealthily, taking advantage of the allied forces' lowered guard. Mengsk's troops and the Protoss expeditionary force were resting and nursing their wounds at their respective encampments, and no one expected a bloody betrayal to strike so soon.

General Edmund Duke sat leaned back deeply in the command chair of his flagship, the Norad III, wearing a triumphant smile. As he lost himself in thoughts of basking in the glory of Korhal once more by Emperor Mengsk's side, a sudden warning alarm blared sharply in his ears. The red dots filling the radar screen were the Zerg swarms that had been classified as allies, and they were rushing toward the Dominion's orbital defense line at a ferocious speed.

Before Duke could grasp the situation and issue battle readiness orders to the entire fleet, a massive swarm of Scourges slammed mercilessly into the hull of the Norad III. The ship's armor tore open, and the screams of crew members being slaughtered by the Zerg organisms that had breached the interior echoed through the communications network. Seething with rage, Duke ordered the main batteries to fire, but the flagship's power core had already sustained critical damage, spiraling out of control.

On the bridge engulfed in flames, Duke attempted to resist until the very end, crying out Mengsk's name. However, the acidic spit of the pouring Hydralisks ruthlessly melted his old uniform and flesh, and the aging Dominion general met a miserable end in Korhal's orbit alongside the ship to which he had dedicated his life. The massive wreckage of the Norad III became a burning meteor, plummeting toward the surface of Korhal.

At the same time, a horrific slaughter was unfolding in the Protoss camp stationed on the ground. Fenix felt the vibrations transmitting through his Dragoon chassis and stared in shock at the Zerg spore sacs raining down from the sky. Though he had suspected deep down that Kerrigan would betray them eventually, he never imagined she would launch such an all-out surprise attack before the blood of their alliance had even dried.

Fenix immediately rallied his warriors to form a defensive line, but the sheer scale of the Swarm mobilized by Kerrigan defied their imagination. Lurkers bursting from beneath the ground shattered the formations of the Protoss infantry, while Mutalisks blanketing the sky tore through the energy grids, mocking the range of the Photon Cannons. Fenix fought with all his might on the front lines, firing his Phase Disruptor relentlessly to protect his people.

Yet the endlessly surging wave of Zerg threatened to break even the will of the old, weary Protoss hero. As a pack of Ultralisks breached the defensive line, the Zealots guarding Fenix fell one by one in gruesome fashion. Even as he felt his mechanical chassis reach its limits and emit warning alarms, Fenix refused to back down, pouring destructive energy into the legs of the colossal beasts.

Ultimately, dozens of Zerg organisms swarmed over Fenix's Dragoon, tearing away the thick armor plating and destroying the life support systems within. Fenix glared at his enemies without losing his honor as a warrior until his final breath, but his vision blurred the moment sharp claws pierced his mechanical heart. The great hero of Aiur entered his eternal rest amidst cold mechanical debris on the dusty soil of Korhal.

Shattered Trust and Burning Rage

When Jim Raynor's Raiders arrived on the surface of Korhal, they were greeted only by thick smoke and the gruesome remnants of a slaughter. The Dominion base and the Protoss encampment were trampled beyond recognition, with nothing but torn banners and shattered metal debris scattered across the ground. Overcome by a dark premonition, Raynor desperately led a search party toward the center of the Protoss camp to look for survivors.

There, Raynor discovered the smoking, horribly shattered wreckage of a massive Dragoon. It was the chassis of Fenix, the comrade-in-arms he had trusted and relied upon more than anyone else. Raynor collapsed to his knees and placed his hand on the cold, lifeless mechanical armor, hanging his head as he struggled to contain his welling grief and despair. A choked groan escaped through his ragged breaths, and his fists clenched so tightly that they began to bleed.

Memories of the countless conversations and battles he had shared with Fenix through life and death flashed through Raynor's mind like a kaleidoscope. That noble warrior, with whom he had shared a true brotherhood transcending the boundaries of species, had now been ruthlessly sacrificed before Kerrigan's greedy ambition. Raynor realized with bitter clarity that Fenix's death was not just the loss of a warrior, but the loss of the last hope and humanity he had strived to protect.

At that moment, a familiar yet chilling voice crackled through Raynor's communicator. It was Kerrigan. She mocked the deaths of Fenix and Duke, coldly declaring that this was the natural end for anyone who dared to stand in her way. The warm tenderness of the woman he had once loved was entirely gone; only the sneer of a monster craving slaughter and dominion pierced Raynor's eardrums sharply.

Staring into the eyes of the Queen of Blades on the communication screen, Raynor completely abandoned any lingering hope for a shred of humanity he had believed might still remain within her. The Sarah Kerrigan he knew had died long ago; the entity before him was merely a demon destined to plunge the entire universe into ruin. Within Raynor's chest, grief transformed into an uncontrollable, coldly burning rage.

Suppressing his boiling anger, Raynor swore revenge against Kerrigan in a low, resolute voice. He declared that one day he would personally end her life, and even if it wasn't tomorrow, he would hunt her to the ends of the universe to make her pay for this horrific betrayal. There was not a shred of hesitation in his voice, only a desperate determination to appease Fenix's soul.

Kerrigan laughed off Raynor's vow as pathetic, stating that she would let him live despite being able to kill him right then and there. She mocked him, saying he posed no threat to her Swarm, and cut the transmission after leaving a cruel curse for him to live out his days suffering in despair. In front of the darkened screen, Raynor bit his lip, repeating to himself that her arrogance would one day bring about her ruin.

Raynor returned to the Hyperion with the few surviving crew members in a somber atmosphere. Leaving behind the ash-stained lands of Korhal, he sat in the ship's cockpit, gazing into the endless abyss of space. His heart had frozen cold with a desire for vengeance, and he silently accepted that the only path left for him was a lonely and perilous journey toward the destruction of the Queen of Blades.

The Kidnapped Matriarch and the Forced Bargain

While deep in meditation inside a secluded temple on Shakuras, Zeratul suddenly felt a horrific sense of severing across the neural pathways of the Void. The presence of Raszagal, the spiritual pillar of the Dark Templar and their great Matriarch, had vanished without a trace. Dumbfounded, Zeratul searched every corner of the temple, but in the Matriarch's chambers, nothing remained except the characteristic decaying creep of the Zerg and the clear signs of a violent abduction.

As Zeratul and the Dark Templar reeled in confusion, a holographic transmission opened to reveal Kerrigan. Wearing her signature cunning smile, she declared that she was keeping Raszagal 'safe.' Blue light flared with rage in Zeratul's eyes, and he threatened to burn the heart of the Swarm to ashes if she did not return the Matriarch immediately, but Kerrigan remained entirely unfazed.

Using Raszagal's life as collateral, Kerrigan forced a brutal bargain upon Zeratul. He was to use the power of the Dark Templar to completely destroy the new Overmind that the United Earth Directorate was controlling on Char. She knew that only the Void energy of the Dark Templar could permanently sever the Overmind's life force, and she sought to use Zeratul's blade to solidify her own dominion.

Zeratul knew all too well that this offer was a trap, and that the moment the Overmind was destroyed, Kerrigan would become the sole, undisputed ruler of the Zerg Swarm. Yet Raszagal was the very soul of the Dark Templar, and losing her meant the ruin of their people. Trapped in a dilemma, Zeratul clenched his fists in agony, torn apart by the violent conflict between the greater good and the safety of his Matriarch.

Just then, Raszagal appeared on the communication screen. In a surprisingly calm voice, she instructed Zeratul to comply with Kerrigan's demands. Zeratul noticed a subtle, alien inflection in the Matriarch's voice and her clouded eyes, harboring a chilling doubt in a corner of his heart, but the sheer urgency of saving her life immediately overwhelmed his reason.

Ultimately, Zeratul had no choice but to agree to the humiliating terms. He extracted a vow from Kerrigan that she would safely return the Matriarch immediately after the Overmind's destruction, and then terminated the transmission. With heavy steps, Zeratul left the temple and gathered his most trusted Dark Templar warriors. Though anger and sorrow warred on their faces, they were fully prepared to lay down their lives to rescue their Matriarch.

Zeratul and his forces boarded their cloaked vessels and set course for the Zerg homeworld of Char. Throughout the journey through deep space, Zeratul could not shake a dark premonition as he recalled Raszagal's final gaze. The fear that her soul might already have been consumed by some dark force gripped his heart, but he forced those thoughts aside, striving to focus on the battle ahead.

As they entered Char's orbit, they were greeted by the glowing red volcanic plains and the horrific stench of the Zerg swarms filling the atmosphere. Into the midst of a chaotic battlefield where UED defense lines and feral Zerg clashed in pandemonium, Zeratul began his descent, cloaked in darkness, driven solely by the single-minded determination to rescue Raszagal. It was the prelude to the most tragic mission in the history of the Dark Templar.

Striking the Heart of Char

The surface of Char was surrounded by layers of UED defense forces and Zerg swarms controlled under the influence of the United Earth Directorate's Psi Disrupter. Zeratul and the Dark Templar melted into the shadows, sharpening their senses as they subtly evaded enemy patrol networks to advance toward their target. Their goal was singular: the heart of the new Overmind pulsing within a massive crater at the center of the planet.

Though the UED's defense lines were formidable, they could not completely halt the stealthy maneuvers of the Dark Templar wielding the energy of the Void. Each time Zeratul's Warp Blade sliced through the air, UED soldiers and controlled Zerg fell silently, until they finally reached the massive tentacles and neural networks surrounding the Overmind. Though the Overmind was still in an incomplete state, the psionic energy it emitted was overwhelming enough to warp the surrounding atmosphere.

Looking up at the hideous form of the Overmind, Zeratul channeled the energy of the Void into his Warp Blade to its absolute limit. The deep green aura radiating from the blade burned fiercely, as if to swallow the red glow of the surrounding lava. Thinking of the sacrifices of his people and the safety of his Matriarch, he leaped in a single bound and drove his blade with all his might into the Overmind's most vulnerable neural core.

The moment the Warp Blade pierced the Overmind's neural core, an ear-splitting, horrific shriek shook the entirety of Char. The Void energy began to destroy the Overmind's life force from its very source, and the colossal mass of flesh convulsed violently before slowly collapsing. The psionic control network the UED had maintained through the Overmind shattered into pieces, and the uncontrolled Zerg swarms fell into extreme confusion, turning on one another.

As the Overmind drew its final breath, Kerrigan appeared on the battlefield as if on cue, flanked by a massive escort of Zerg. She burst into triumphant laughter as she felt the countless Zerg swarms, freed from their previous shackles, instantly fall under her own psionic dominion. Now, there was no one left in this sector capable of controlling her Swarm, and she had truly reborn as the undisputed Queen of Blades.

Zeratul sheathed his blade and approached Kerrigan, his face contorted with rage. He demanded firmly that she return Raszagal immediately, as he had destroyed the Overmind as promised. Kerrigan nodded with a smug expression and summoned Raszagal, who had been standing behind her, to step forward. Seeing the Matriarch seemingly unharmed, Zeratul let out a sigh of relief and reached out his hand to welcome her.

But Raszagal coldly brushed Zeratul's hand aside and stepped back to Kerrigan's side. Looking at Zeratul with vacant, hollow eyes, she declared that serving the great Queen of Blades was her sole joy, and that she would never leave her side. At that moment, Zeratul's heart froze like ice, and he felt as though the very air around him had grown heavy and stagnant.

Zeratul trembled violently in the face of this unbelievable reality. Only then did he realize that Raszagal had not merely been held hostage; she had long since been completely consumed by Kerrigan's horrific mind control, reduced to a mere puppet. The devastating truth that the wisest leader of the Dark Templar had become a slave to the Zerg tore Zeratul's soul to shreds.

A Sorrowful Blade for Liberation

It felt as though Zeratul's world was shattering. Raszagal, who had led the Dark Templar for centuries as a symbol of wisdom and mercy, was now pledging blind loyalty at the feet of the hideous Zerg queen. Zeratul desperately called out the Matriarch's name with despairing eyes, but from her lips came only bizarre, hollow words praising Kerrigan.

Kerrigan wore a sickening smile, savoring Zeratul's agonizing pain. She mocked him, revealing that she had subtly infiltrated Raszagal's mind back on Shakuras to manipulate her, and that every action taken by Zeratul and the Protoss alliance had ultimately played right into her hands. That cruel confession was like a death sentence, ruthlessly trampling the last ember of hope Zeratul had harbored.

Zeratul attempted to channel the power of the Void to lift the shroud of darkness blanketing Raszagal's mind. However, the Zerg corruption planted by Kerrigan had already taken root deep within the Matriarch's soul, rendering it irreversible by any means. It was clear that forcing a severance of the mind control would completely destroy Raszagal's very ego, trapping her in eternal torment.

Floundering in a swamp of agony, Zeratul finally arrived at the most horrific yet inevitable decision. He could not bear to watch the great leader of the Dark Templar degraded as a Zerg slave for eternity. There was only one way to grant her true peace: to destroy her physical form and liberate her corrupted soul. Hot tears streamed from Zeratul's eyes, wetting his rugged cheeks.

With a trembling hand, Zeratul adjusted his grip on the hilt of his Warp Blade. Letting go of the rage directed at Kerrigan, he looked at Raszagal with eyes filled only with profound sorrow. In a moment where not a second of hesitation was permitted, Zeratul lunged like lightning, charging not toward Kerrigan, but toward Raszagal. His movement was so swift and resolute that even Kerrigan failed to react in time, her eyes widening in shock.

In a flash of blue light, the sharp edge of the Warp Blade pierced Raszagal's chest with precision. The Matriarch's body staggered heavily, and a painful groan escaped her lips. As the life force binding her physical form was severed, the psionic chains of Kerrigan that had shackled her mind shattered completely. Zeratul gently caught Raszagal's collapsing body in his arms.

At the threshold of death, clarity finally returned to Raszagal's eyes as she broke free from the mind control. Coughing up blood, she wore a serene smile and expressed her deep gratitude to Zeratul for liberating her from the horrific bondage. Caressing Zeratul's face with a trembling hand, Raszagal left her final testament, entrusting the future of the Dark Templar to him, before slipping into eternal silence.

Clutching the cold corpse of the Matriarch, Zeratul howled toward the heavens like a wounded beast. The echoes of his desperate grief seemed to tear through the red atmosphere of Char. Rather than showing anger at losing her puppet, Kerrigan realized that letting Zeratul live to writhe in the guilt and agony of having killed his own Matriarch with his own hands was a far more cruel punishment. Wearing a wicked smile, she mocked Zeratul and let him go, and Zeratul vanished into the darkness, bearing an indelible wound upon his soul.

An Abomination Conceived in Darkness

Having fled from Char, Zeratul wandered the cosmos in deep grief. During his travels, his ship's radar picked up a faint but bizarre Protoss energy signature originating from an unmapped, dark moon. Doubting that any of his kind could possibly exist in this desolate fringe, Zeratul cautiously landed on the moon's surface while cloaked to investigate the truth.

Hidden beneath the moon's surface was a massive, gloomy, artificially constructed experimental facility. As Zeratul penetrated the darkness and entered the facility, a chilly draft and the blue lights emitted by mechanical apparatuses illuminated his vision. Reaching the end of a corridor, Zeratul witnessed rows of massive stasis chambers, and the moment he confirmed their contents, he could not help but gasp.

Sleeping inside the stasis capsules were creatures grotesquely fused from the noble physical structure of the Protoss and the hideous organic tissue of the Zerg. It was a horrific blasphemy against the laws of nature, a 'Hybrid' forcibly woven from the essences of both species. Placing his hand on a capsule, Zeratul felt a bone-chilling terror from the malevolent and overwhelming psionic waves radiating from these monsters.

Just then, a familiar figure stepped out from the deep shadows of the facility. It was Samir Duran. He greeted Zeratul with an arrogant, transcendent composure entirely different from his time serving as Kerrigan's minion. Zeratul immediately drew his Warp Blade and warned him to cease Kerrigan's evil plot at once, but Duran let out a mocking laugh, replying that he did not serve the likes of the Queen of Blades.

The truth flowing from Duran's mouth far exceeded Zeratul's wildest imagination. Duran revealed that he was neither a mere human nor an infested Zerg, but an entity who had been called by countless names over thousands of years. He declared that he served a colossal, ancient master sleeping in the far abysses of the universe—one whom even Kerrigan dared not approach—and that this Hybrid experiment was merely a part of his master's grand design.

Duran's presence was unlike any enemy Zeratul had ever faced. Deep within his eyes lay a chilling abyss, as if he were contemplating the end of the universe itself. Duran arrogantly prophesied that the Hybrids on this moon were but a fraction of the numerous test subjects, and that before long, Hybrids scattered across the cosmos would awaken, dragging all living things into a cycle of ruin.

At this horrific apocalyptic declaration, Zeratul felt an uncontrollable rage and swung his Warp Blade at Duran. Yet just before the blade could sever Duran's neck, his form dissolved like smoke, vanishing into thin air. Only Duran's bizarre laughter echoed through the facility, ringing in Zeratul's ears, while the Hybrids inside the stasis fields continued their ominous pulsing.

Zeratul emerged from the facility bearing a crushing, indestructible despair. He sensed that a colossal shadow of darkness destined to consume the entire universe was approaching, making even his grief over losing Raszagal feel like a luxury. Shouldering the heavy duty of warning his people of this horrific truth, he began a lonely flight into the dark abysses of the unknown universe.

The Great Clash at Omega

Atop the Omega Platform, a massive space station orbiting Char, Kerrigan stood alone, savoring the approach of a colossal storm. Her psionic senses clearly registered the ripples of three massive fleets warping through space. As all the enemies challenging her dominion finally gathered in one place, a cruel smile spread across her lips.

Slicing through the pitch-black void, the Dominion fleet led by Mengsk, the Protoss expeditionary force commanded by Artanis, and the remnants of the UED fleet under Admiral DuGalle appeared simultaneously. The three factions, who detested one another, had formed a temporary alliance solely to eliminate the absolute threat of the Queen of Blades, opening fire on the Omega Platform from all directions in a fierce offensive.

Lasers and antimatter missiles poured from hundreds of Battlecruisers and Carriers, lighting up the skies of Char as bright as day. The allied forces' coordinated assault was precise and lethal, rapidly breaching the Zerg's outer defense lines with relentless firepower. Driven by a mixture of vengeance against Kerrigan and a desperate struggle for survival, this massive onslaught seemed poised to overwhelm the Swarm.

Yet, standing at the apex of the platform with arms wide open, Kerrigan unleashed the true wrath of a Zerg Swarm now fully unified and freed from the Overmind's control. From the surface of Char and across its orbit, countless Scourges and Mutalisks rose like black clouds, swarming the allied fleets. It was a storm of sheer, overwhelming numbers that rendered tactics and strategy utterly meaningless.

The first to show signs of collapse was Mengsk's Dominion fleet. The armor of the Battlecruisers melted under the corrosive acid sprayed by massive Defilers, and Zerg organisms that breached the hulls slaughtered the crews. Mengsk hurled curses at Kerrigan over the communications network, attempting to fight to the end, but as his flagship's damage reached its limit, he was ultimately forced to order a humiliating retreat.

The Protoss fleet under Artanis, holding the right flank, fared no better. Though Interceptors launched from the Carriers carved through the Zerg swarms in streaks of light, they were gradually overwhelmed by the endless tide of enemies that kept coming no matter how many were slain. Artanis made the painful decision that further sacrifice would only lead to the extinction of his people, and withdrew from the battlefield with his surviving ships.

As the Dominion and the Protoss retreated, only the UED fleet led by Admiral DuGalle was left isolated on the battlefield. Kerrigan concentrated all the firepower of the Swarm toward the UED fleet, and massive space beasts began to tear apart the battlecruisers, which had lost their defensive lines, like scraps of paper. DuGalle's fleet resisted desperately, but it was slowly sinking amidst the waves of Zerg that surrounded it from all sides.

Watching the final UED ship erupt in flames and explode, Kerrigan let out a roar of victory atop the Omega Platform. Having utterly crushed the alliance of the three factions, she now stood as the absolute ruler of the Koprulu Sector, with no rivals left. Against the backdrop of space littered with the torn corpses of her allies and the wreckage of destroyed ships, the dark throne of the Queen of Blades was complete.

The Admiral's Last Will and the Queen of the Swarm

The UED flagship Aleksander, having barely escaped Char's orbit, drifted through space in a wretched state. More than half of the ship was destroyed, leaving it without power, while sparks flew alongside warning alarms in corridors throughout the vessel. The few surviving crew members fell into a despairing silence, their hopes of returning to Earth shattered long ago.

Admiral Gerard DuGalle sat alone in his dark, quiet quarters, staring blankly into space. His ambition, which had once driven him to set out proudly to bring the glory of Earth to the Koprulu Sector, had now become a heavy shackle of absolute defeat, choking the life out of him. His home planet of Earth, tens of thousands of light-years away, felt as distant as an unreachable mirage.

In DuGalle's mind, the memory of his most horrific mistake loomed like a ghost. The moment he had been deceived by Duran's lies, betraying and sending his lifelong friend Alexei Stukov to his death, pierced his heart like a sharp dagger. The bitter guilt that his own arrogance in ignoring Stukov's warnings had ultimately led the entire expeditionary force to ruin weighed heavily upon him.

With a heavy hand, he pulled an old-fashioned fountain pen and paper from his desk drawer. Instead of using state-of-the-art digital devices, he wished to leave his final thoughts in ink. Thinking of his beloved wife Helena, whom he had left behind on Earth, DuGalle began to write his last will with a trembling hand. The ink spreading across the paper was deeply stained with the sorrow of a defeated commander and irreversible regret.

In his letter, DuGalle confessed to all his failures. He wrote down the devastating truth: that it was not the enemy who had killed Alexei, but his own foolishness, and that not a single ship of the UED expeditionary force would return to Earth. He begged his wife not to forgive him, admitting that the responsibility for this entire tragedy lay solely on his own pride, before completing his final words of farewell.

The moment he set down his pen, a chilling screech of metal friction echoed from beyond the thick armor plating of the Aleksander. Kerrigan had never intended to let them escape alive, and Zerg swarms were already breaching the ship's outer hull, pouring inside. As the death rattles of the crew and the roars of the beasts reached the very door of his quarters, DuGalle quietly closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

DuGalle picked up the pistol resting on his desk and slowly aimed it at his temple. Just as the door splintered open and the hideous claws of the Zerg emerged from the darkness, a single, cold, dry gunshot shattered the silence of the captain's quarters. The life of the great admiral came to a miserable end in a foreign sector of space, and the UED expeditionary force vanished forever into history.

At the same time, Kerrigan stood alone on the surface of Char, gazing at the starlight adorning the night sky. Every enemy that had threatened her had been destroyed, and the massive Swarm breathed solely according to her will. In the Koprulu Sector, swept clean by the fires of the Brood War, only deep darkness and silence remained, and the Queen of Blades looked down upon the cosmos from her lonely apex, welcoming the beginning of her long reign.

Verified Sources

Blizzard Official StarCraft Chronicles

StarCraft: Brood War Official Game Introduction

Official Story Direction and Reference Images of the Remaster

Blizzard's Kerrigan Lore and Official Appearance Data

StarCraft: Brood War Official Download and Remaster Purchase