"We shall lay down our weapons upon your corpse!"
- Broodmother Niadra and Admiral Urun(src)
The Battle of Adena[1] was a conflict after the One-Day War on the planet of Adena within the demilitarized zone between renegade Terran Dominion forces, the zerg of Broodmother Niadra and the Daelaam under Admiral Urun.[2][3][4]
Background[]
After wiping out the protoss on the Daelaam Ark, Niadra never heard from Sarah Kerrigan again, but swore to continue her final order: exterminate the protoss. However, her forces were small and had little strength, so she left the Daelaam Ark and sought to infest terrans to bolster her forces, specifically looking for those with psionic powers. She laid a trap on the abandoned resource rich world of Adena, waiting for terrans to arrive to reclaim it in the wake of the End War.[3]
Soon terrans did arrive, in the form of Captain Hogarth of the battlecruiser Aethon, and a group of Terran Dominion marines and mercenaries. Acting without orders, Hogarth and Commander Naderi decided to loot the planet's jorium stockpile for themselves, pretending to be acting under the orders of the Terran Dominion to reclaim the base lost there. This was noticed by Admiral Urun of the Daelaam, who took his carrier, Saalok's Eye to observe them and make sure they were keeping to their word, in spite of being wary for their violation of the demilitarized zone.[2]
Course of the Battle[]
When the terran forces landed on the planet, they were immediately set upon by zerg of the Niadra Brood. Niadra sensed among them a psychic, a mercenary named Elms, and sought to claim her for her brood. Meanwhile, she inserted a parasite in the force's Commander Naderi, hoping to unleash the zerg inside the terran's battlecruiser when she was evacuated. However, Urun sensed the infestation and opened fire on her dropship, killing her. This caused Captain Hogarth to open fire on Saalok's Eye, and the protoss returned fire while Urun took a force to the surface to deal with the zerg below. There they met with the marines stuck in conflict with the zerg, who were being aided by the psionic powers of Elms, which warned them of zerg attacks. Urun and Elms came to an agreement, deciding to ally together to deal with the zerg.[4]
Urun laid down phoenix support to thin the zerg lines, but the zerg proved numerous. The terrans and protoss took out a wave of banelings, when Elms sensed a zerg presence in the caves behind them. Hoping to stop an ambush, Elms and her marines investigated the cave while Urun held the line outside. In the caves Elms encountered a group of infestors that attempted to place larva into her, instead getting one inside the suit of Gary. Meanwhile, Urun came face to face with Niadra,[5] and was killed holding the line to allow Elms and her forces to escape. Meanwhile, in space, Saalok's Eye was forced to abandon the system.[6]
While all the protoss ground forces were wiped out, Elms and her group fought their way to the dropship. They contacted Hogarth for aid, but in a bid to cover his illicit actions, left them to die. They boarded the dropship, and despite the efforts of the zerg, they were able to escape the planet—alive, but in the knowledge that they'd never be able to go back to the Dominion.[7]
Aftermath[]
- Niadra's reflections(src)
Niadra's victory was tactically hollow—although she had wiped out the entire protoss ground force, she had failed to obtain her main objective, Elms. Elms and her crew were in poor shape themselves though, as they were now effectively outlaws. They did however have a supply of jorium on the dropship, which they could sell for a fortune. A debris field was left over the planet due to the space battle between the terran and protoss capital ships.
The battle and its aftermath had political repercussions throughout the major powers of the Koprulu sector. The protoss survivors of the battle relayed the events to the Daelaam. Furious at the death of Urun, the Auriga Tribe demanded vengeance against the terrans. Hierarch Artanis resolved to make amends, and the Daelaam indefinitely postponed negotiations with the Dominion. On the Dominion front, Hogarth made a false report that was delivered to Valerian Mengsk, claiming that a mercenary had bribed part of the crew to stop at Adena, and that the conflict had started as soon as they'd reached the surface. He further claimed that there were no survivors. Valerian noted how convenient this scenario was (for the captain), but also despaired at the soured relations between the Dominion and Daelaam. And on Gystt, a mysterious figure explained the events to Overqueen Zagara. She understood the peril the Swarm now faced from Niadra.[7]
To the media, Admiral Matthew Horner reported that the battle was caused by mercenaries, that the zerg present had been feral, and that all had been killed on the surface. In spite of this, the mercenaries supposedly responsible were hunted by the Dominion.[8] The Naderi Memorial Foundation was created in the battle's aftermath, and Captain Hogarth was made a major member.[9]
In order to cover his tracks and find the jorium that was taken from the battle, Hogarth hired mercenaries to hunt down and kill the survivors of the battle. However, through these mercenaries Elms discovered Hogarth was trying to eliminate them.[10]
References[]
- ↑ 2017-12-10, BlizzCon 2017 StarCraft II: What’s Next Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2017-12-10
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Watrous, Valerie (w), Manual, Garcia (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (July 19th, 2017). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 1. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 1 Accessed 2017-07-19.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Watrous, Valerie (w), Manual, Garcia (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (July 19th, 2017). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 2. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 2 Accessed 2017-07-19.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Watrous, Valerie (w), Manual, Garcia (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (September 13th, 2017). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 3. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 3 Accessed 2017-08-13.
- ↑ Watrous, Valerie (w), Manual, Garcia (i) and Javir Mena (c). (December 9th, 2017). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 3. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 3 Accessed 2017-12-09.
- ↑ Watrous, Valerie (w), Manual, Garcia (i) and Javir Mena (c). (January 5th, 2018). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 5. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 5 Accessed 2018-01-07.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Watrous, Valerie (w), Sepulveda, Miguel (i) and Javir Mena (c). (February 3rd, 2018). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 6. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 6 Accessed 2018-02-03.
- ↑ Valerie Watrous (w), Andrés Guinaldo (i) and Javier Mena (c). (December 9th, 2017). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 7. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 7 Accessed 2018-08-09.
- ↑ Valerie Watrous (w), Carlos Rodríguez (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (February 14th, 2018). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 12. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 12 Accessed 2019-02-14.
- ↑ Matt Burns (w), Carlos Rodríguez (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (December 20th, 2018). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 11. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 11 Accessed 2019-01-17.