Battle of Korhal (Planetfall)

"I am the Swarm. Armies will be shattered. Worlds will burn. Now at last, on this world, vengeance shall be mine. For I am the Queen of Blades."

- Kerrigan leading the zerg

The Battle of Korhal was the final battle of the Second Great War. Valerian Mengsk convinced Sarah Kerrigan to limit civilian casualties. Raynor's Raiders and Kerrigan successfully accomplished the shared goal of overthrowing Emperor Arcturus Mengsk.

Background
"Inform the broodmothers. The Swarm moves on Korhal. At last, Mengsk will suffer for his crimes."

- Kerrigan prior to moving into the Korhal system

By the time of the battle, the zerg had already inflicted heavy losses on the Dominion, including the defeat of its forces on Char,, the destruction of Skygeirr Platform (a Hybrid Breeding Program base), and the rescue of Jim Raynor from the Moros, whom Mengsk had hoped to use as a bargaining chip against Kerrigan.

Before departing to the Korhal system, Kerrigan contacted Raiders members Matt Horner and Valerian Mengsk, informing them of her intentions. She knew that invasion would result in heavy loss of life and collateral damage, and knew that the terrans would need Valerian as a leader in the aftermath. He requested that she make landfall outside the walls of Augustgrad, so that there would be time to evacuate the civilian population. It would make the invasion more difficult, but Kerrigan acquiesced to his request. With that settled, the Swarm departed for Korhal.

Opening Moves
"Dominion forces, this is your emperor, Arcturus Mengsk. Korhal is under attack by the Zerg Swarm. Our special weapons lab has been destroyed, our defenses stripped. Any fleet that can hear my voice, return to Korhal. The seat of human power is under assault. Come, men. Defend your home."

- A transmission sent by Emperor Mengsk to the Dominion Armed Forces

The Swarm arrived in the Korhal system, leviathans taking up positions around Korhal. Kerrigan ordered that her forces to, for the time being, stay out of range of the planet's defenses. From Korhal Palace, Mengsk sent out a recall order for any Dominion Fleet unit to return to the system. His words were heard, and Dominion forces began converging upon the Korhal system from all over the Koprulu sector. In response, Kerrigan ordered Broodmother Kilysa to move her leviathans to form a blockade around the system, and destroy anything coming into it.

Thus, that left the issue of actually landing on the planet. Kerrigan knew that Korhal's orbital defenses would kill millions of zerg before any of them made landfall, but as Zagara pointed out, the Swarm was numberless. Kerrigan agreed, stating that even if only a fraction got through, it would be more than enough to take out the defenses from the ground. To this end, Kerrigan ordered Abathur to develop a weapon that could take out the defenses. His solution was the bile launcher. He assured her that he could develop it in time.

With preparations made, the Swarm engaged Korhal's orbital defenses. Leviathans moved forward, and sacs were sent towards the surface. The battle had begun.

Planetfall
Kerrigan had underestimated Korhal's planetary defense however. Millions of Zerg were killed in orbit before they even made contact, the Zerg that did made it were finished off by Dominion forces not long after. Because of this, the Primal Queen of Blades personally landed upon Korhal to secure the bio-launchers and a foothold.

After building her forces, Kerrigan began to destroy the planetary defences enabling the Swarm to sent more Zerg onto Korhal. During the battle, Kerrigan destroyed the gates of Augustgrad, so that Zagara could lead her brood into the city. After mopping up the remaining Dominion forces, Kerrigan also led her force into the city starting one of the most savage fights in the Second Great War.

Battle of Augustgrad
Heavy fighting took place in the Augustgrad as Dominion forces tried to hold off the endless waves of zerg which came streaming down in sacs from the Leviathans. As more zerg landed, the Dominion set up a siege tank line to hold back the zerg ground forces, while vikings and battlecruisers tried to intercept the airborne zerg. Their efforts proved to be futile as ultralisks and nydus worms tore their ways through the defenses, in the process knocking down Mengsk's massive statue; the symbol of his reign. Mengsk's air defenses didn't do much better, as the Swarm's fliers shot down as scores of vikings and battlecruisers. The downed ships crashed all over the city, causing massive damage.

Mengsk, realizing that his forces could not defeat the Swarm through conventional means, activated the Psi-destroyer which destroyed any zerg that came into contact with its field. The Psi-destroyer began annihilating the outlying zerg broods, forcing the Swarm to pull back. At the same time, a Dominion force launched a counterattack as a distraction to prevent the zerg from dealing with the Psi-destroyer.

Kerrigan, however, has predicted this scenario and unleashed her trump card; the Primal Zerg of Zerus. Since they lacked a psionic-connection in the first place, the primals were unaffected by the Psi-destroyer's field. Dehaka and his pack infiltrated the orbital platform housing the destroyer and destroyed the device's power couplings, thus disabling the field from the inside. With the field down, Kerrigan personally led her forces through the Dominion forces protecting the Psi-destroyer and destroyed its central hub. Meanwhile, Zagara and Stukov succeeded in defeating the Dominion counterattack and pushed the enemy forces into the Imperial sector of the city.

Attack on Korhal Palace
With the Psi Destroyer destroyed, all that was left to do was to attack Mengsk's palace itself. After consulting with her lieutenants for one last time, Kerrigan and her forces arrived in the Imperial Sector, hellbent on reaching Mengsk's palace, which was guarded by his elite troops.

Shortly after the battle began, Raynor and his Raiders unexpectedly arrived aboard the Hyperion to assist Kerrigan while Horner and Valerian continued to handle the civilian evacuation. After securing a foothold, Raynor and his troops fought alongside Kerrigan and her forces, and together they battled their way through staunch Dominion resistance, gradually pushing ever closer to the palace.

While Kerrigan and Raynor managed to penetrate the city's inner defenses, the other zerg forces didn't have so much luck. Zagara's brood, Stukov's infested terran forces, and Dehaka's pack could not breach the Dominion's entrenched positions, preventing them from assisting their queen. Kerrigan intervened and destroyed the entrenched positions one by one. The combined zerg forces then poured into the sector, annihilating all Dominion units in their paths.

During the battle, Mengsk made several attempts to stop Raynor and his Raiders, first sending in Sky Fury Squadron, and later Alpha Squadron to destroy the Hyperion. Kerrigan and Raynor foiled both attempts. As a last resort, Mengsk unleashed the Odin upon the Raiders. Despite the Odin's tremendous power, it too fell before the combined might of the Raiders and the Swarm.

Finally, with the entire sector cleared of Dominion forces, Kerrigan and Raynor assaulted the palace itself. Dominion drop pods landed right in front of the palace gate and released elite troops who made a desperate last stand to protect their emperor. The zerg and Raiders annihilated these last defenders and destroyed the palace gate. Leaving Zagara in charge of the Swarm, Kerrigan entered the palace alone to deal with the Emperor.

The Queen vs. the Emperor
While Kerrigan fought her way to the top of the palace and tore her way through Mengsk's bodyguards, Mengsk calmly watched her from his surveillance cameras and casually smoked a cigar.

When the Queen of Blades finally arrived to face off against the Emperor, the two exchanged banter before Mengsk revealed that he still had one more trick up his sleeve: the Xel'naga Artifact. Using a remote disguised as a cigar lighter, Mengsk activated the Artifact, which unleashed torrents of energy, incapacitating Kerrigan.

Just as Mengsk gloated at Kerrigan one last time and prepared to finish her off, Raynor appeared fully-armored and knocked Mengsk to the ground, smashing the artifact's controller in the process. He then aimed his pistol at Mengsk but upon seeing Kerrigan stand up, he decided to let her have the kill. Kerrigan impaled Mengsk with her wings and brutally smashed him into the wall. After Mengsk gave his last taunt, Kerrigan infused him with psionic energy and caused him to explode violently, destroying his office and seriously damaging the entire palace.

Aftermath
With Mengsk dead, Kerrigan has finally achieved her revenge. She thanked Raynor before departing from Korhal with the Swarm and she set out to find her true enemy; Amon, the fallen xel'naga, and his hybrid army. The city was left heavily damaged by the attack.

Following the death of his father and the departure of the zerg, Valerian assumed the throne and became the new Emperor of the Dominion. He immediately went to work rebuilding the Dominion, and enacted new laws to eliminate the corruption and abuse of power that had occurred during his father's reign. These reforms included abolishing forced military conscription and slave labor. He also reorganized a number of his father's secret projects, such as Project Blackstone.