The Fighters Recoil

A long and deathly silenced followed the previous battle. They all knew that another strike was eminent. After holding a breif funereal for the vulture pilots, commander yanoosh built an academy and an Engineering Bay. He was definitely fearing retaliation in the form of lurkers and dark templar. After this he constructed a starport, and feeling sure of himself, decided to expand to the mineral site nearest to him. His veteraned ally decided to finally get higher class units. He built a factory, a communications satellite (these two however referred to it as a "comsat"), Engineering bay, and then a second factory. However he has decided not to expand.

The Orange cerebrate, Zakaran, was obviously scared by yanoosh’s raid. He had not lost his expansion, and began bringing drones with which he would increase his mineral and gas supplies. Many sunkens colonies also morphed at the entrance to the expansion site. With his extra revenues the cerebrate built a queen’s nest and his lair grew into a hive. Then he morphed his spire into that hideous thing known only as a "Greater Spire".

Looking at the surface of the valley, one very telling image could point out what the sinister Protoss commander, Defilias had in mind. One the top of his plateau, all alone, a dark templar stood waiting for his order. A Citadel of Adun and a Templar Archives were operating to make this wicked creation possible. A robotics facility with an observatory were also warping in, and below the cliff the large Protoss army stood guard over a fledgling expansion.

So now the twin Terran force sat full of medics, marines, dropships, and tanks. The Zerg had several dozen mutalisks flapping over his creep, and several dark templar loaded into a shuttle.

Simultaneous Drops

yanoosh decides to take a stab at his opponents, again assaulting Zakaran. A dropship full of marines empties onto the plateau above Zakaran’s full functioning expansion. The dropship then slowly returns to the base to pick up the tanks, but even before they reach each other, Defilias has made a deposit of his own, into yanoosh’s mineral line. He has no turrets, and cannot construct a comsat because of his building placement. yanoosh begs his ally, I-ball, for a scan, and he receives it. Two of the mighty dark templar fall, and with another scan, the remaining two die. But not after killing many scvs.

Now, slightly ruffled, yanoosh commences the ledging on Zakaran’s expansion. Two tanks arrive, siege up, and the creep around the minerals fills with drone blood. The Zerg commander is not scared one bit by yanoosh’s move, and sends down a dozen mutalisks to stamp out the assailants. Without one mutalisk lost, the threat is eliminated.

Again Silence Falls

The Terran commanders ease up and analyze their situation. So far, all the fighting has centered on yanoosh. Neither commanders had expected the Zerg to go full mutalisk. They had decisions to make now. I-ball took this quiet time to expand to his own natural, and stated he would construct goliath. Whereas yanoosh decided to go for wraiths and built a science facility with a physics lab addition. He also began construction of another Command Center within his own base. Definitely seeing to float it to the resource rich island to his left.

Defilias, content to know he had made the only somewhat successful attack this whole game, continued with his plan. He produced more dark templar, and increased his amount of regular infantry. His ally, the Zerg, did not produce much, or change any plans. He continued to produce a few more mutalisks, and ordered more drones to refill his expansion site again.

The Battle Breaks Free

Defilias pointed his shuttle south this time. It speed in, unloaded, and sped out unseen by either Terran commander. The four dark templar along with an observer raced in quickly. No turrets were in the vicinity, so they immediately slashed at the comsat. Before I-ball even had time to respond it was destroyed. Nearly losing his cool, I-ball screams for a friendly scan. He gets it, but not before losing a few buildings, scvs, and some marines.

Zakaran, has now grown tired of waiting for the attack to hit him. He realizes that yanoosh has expanded, and has yet to set bunkers and turrets around the area. He orders his mutalisk fleet to rush in a destroy the expansion site. They run across several marines and medics. The mutalisks cannot kill the marines fast enough, because about half a dozen cloak wraiths join the fray, and although he had overlords present, the Zerg cerebrate could not defeat the Terran defenses. Not one mutalisk made it home alive.

Again the death-like quiet fell across the Dark Temple, but this time it would not last long. Defilias refused to remain the shadows any longer, and yanoosh had more tricks to give. Defilias had stockpiled assorted ground units deep within his base, and a lonely arbiter sat vigilant overhead.

Suddenly, yanoosh sent another strike against the Zerg forces. This time he had twelve wraiths pound the expansion. Since Zakaran had not made spore colonies, nor had he hydralisks ready, he could not counter attack the Terran fighters. Defilias, however, had many dragoons. The six dragoons sent nearly walk the length of the Dark Temple grounds before being slammed by the vulture mines. Quickly the Protoss commander requests an overlord to find all the mines. But it does not matter, because the remaining dragoons station themselves next to the mineral line of the Zerg expansion, and the wraiths flee over the cliffside without any damage.

Zakaran makes a quick, and futile strike at yanoosh’s base. He sends in an overlord full of eight zerglings. These come face to face with a modest group of marines and medics, and meet their destiny. In retaliation, yanoosh attempts to kill the overlord that dropped the zerglings. With several wraiths, he chases the overlord, and several others into the heart of the Zerg base. They encounter a devourer, hydralisks, and Defilias’s dragoon in the chase that leads all the way to the Zerg’s expansion site. They attempt to retreat, but are gunned down by freshly produced hydralisks. Not one wraith survives.

Defilias Makes His Move

During the wraith raid on Zakaran, his ally sent across this message:
"Here goes nothing"
The wise Protoss commander ordered his arbiter south, towards the heart of I-ball’s base. Upon arrival in the Terran’s backfield, the arbiter stations itself slightly to the right of the Command Center and Recalls a large force consisting mostly of dragoons alongside zealots, archons, dark templar, and one very critical observer. The massive amount of enemy troops causes complete havoc in I-ball’s base. He had some light defenses there, but nothing to stop this. Neither Terran commander had expected this considering they had failed to scout Defilias’s base or make adequate defenses. I-ball loses his cool and makes several key mistakes. He tosses many units from his choke at the force without giving them much control, he even orders his only Science Vessel to place a Defense Matrix on the Arbiter. yanoosh, seeing that his comrade’s plight, sends over a dozen wraiths just when I-ball has a group of marines and medics fight the Recall group. They quickly gun down the arbiter, but the dragoons in turn destroy them. A few retreat to the remaining section of I-ball’s main base. The marines and medics are then killed.

yanoosh desperately wonders where the Protoss’s observer could be. Defilias force is reduced to half a dozen dragoons and a couple of zealots. The force continues to advance and arclite cannons blast into the air. The dragoons fall back, content to peck at buildings while outside the siege tanks’ range. Here Defilias makes a key mistake by allowing his observer to die from turret fire. I-ball’s science vessel checks for any others, and when none are found, yanoosh destroys the remaining Protoss soldiers with his wraith group. Defilias attack, while thwarted has shattered I-ball’s ability to produce any kind of an attack force. He destroyed countless supply depots, two factories, at least two barracks, a science facility, his only academy, engineering bay, armory, and a starport. This left I-ball with several useless add-ons and a barracks. During this assault I-ball floated a command center to the far right island.

The Terrans Extract Revenge

While rather inexperienced in such battles, yanoosh knew this would be a critical point in the battle. Defilias had just made the first ever truly successful assault of the game. However, his troop count would be very low now, and he would have quite awhile until another arbiter would be ready to recall. Thus, yanoosh decided to obliterate the Zerg, Zakaran, without any tricks.

During the long arbiter recall battle, yanoosh had a group of tanks and a large force of infantry stationed outside the Zerg’s natural expansion. He advanced, and ordered his siege tanks to go into siege mode, whereupon they began the destruction of the Zerg’s natural. Wraiths quickly swooped in, baited the hydralisks and dragoons stationed there, and retreated. The defenders were pulverized by the tanks. Then the marines and wraiths rushed in, and killed the overlords, remaining hydralisks, and the hatchery. This would prove to be a very rookie-like mistake by yanoosh. Because the cunning Defilias rushed in a dozen zealots, and demolished the open siege tanks. The marines and wraiths quickly killed those zealots. But then from high above six lurkers ran down, burrowed, and slaughtered the infantry force. After several scans the wraiths attack the lurkers, but give up after killing only a few. yanoosh took the wraiths he had left, and ordered them into the sickening heart of the Zerg infestation. They came across several hydralisks with overlord support, and were destroyed with ease.

The Battle Is Decided

The combatants again take a long silent break in the action. Defilias and yanoosh are functioning about the same level. While Defilias has not even been so much as touched by either Terran so far, yanoosh has one more expansion than the Protoss commander. I-ball is still in complete disarray, after the attack, one remaining starport of his burnt due to excessive damage incurred. He had two functioning mineral supplies now however, and was quickly rebuilding his bases. The Zerg cerebrate Zakaran, was probably in the worst state of all those in the area. He had no mineral supply and was gathering from his natural long range. He had s small attack force of a dozen hydralisks and about five lurkers. None had any evolutions. He also only had one hatchery, the hive at his main base.

Then, without warning, an scv of yanoosh’s, stationed at the island expansion, gazes helplessly at the sky above. He sees an arbiter approaching. Because yanoosh had just lost his wraith fleet, there was no way he could retaliate. The arbiter recalled a troop force and quickly smashed the expansion. It was not such a great loss though. There were only a handful of scvs, a command center, and one supply depot there.

Defilias is not near done with yet. Seeing the complete ease with which he destroyed the Terran expansion, he sends another arbiter into the back area of yanoosh’s main base. Surprisingly the Terran commander is completely unprepared for this. The arbiter recalls at the point just south of the gas extractor. yanoosh immediately reacts by bringing every unit he has to fight the recall force. This is similar to the group that attacked I-ball’s base earlier, but much larger, and with several observers and an archon.

The force quickly plows through the base, killing several key buildings first. A science facility is the first of which to burn down. yanoosh attempts to save his starports by floating them away, but to no effect. Even several well-placed tanks and newly trained wraiths cannot stop the Protoss onslaught. The recall force quickly levels the base, with minimal losses.

It still seems, however, that the marines, medics, and other light defense at yanoosh’s original expansion cannot be destroyed by the remaining recall force. That is, until the Zerg cerebrate sends in a few guardians. Wraiths attempt to shoot them down, but the Guardians retreat to the safety of a spore colony, whereupon the wraiths are destroyed.

The other Terran commander, attempts to help by sending a large force of marines. Little did they know their enemies had plans for this. Before I-ball can respond, lurkers that were burrowed, slice his force of marines apart with their deadly spines. Even after a quick scan the marines still cannot break through. I-ball knows his fate is now sealed as dark templar and guardians destroy the last remains of yanoosh’s base.

I-ball’s Fate

yanoosh was dead, but I-ball believed he could still persevere. He had to large resource areas he was mining, and had reconstructed several important buildings at his main. The Protoss commander was still working out of his only expansion, and the Zerg had never re-expanded, content to gather minerals long range. Perhaps a quick strike on the Zerg could level things for him?

This did not matter however, when many dragoons came marching down I-ball’s original expansion. They, along with zealots and dark templar destroyed all I-ball had rebuilt, and sent him scurrying to his last resort, his island base. While the original inhabitants of this area were finishing off his main, I-ball had nearly filled his island with turrets. Guardians slowly came down to destroy them, uncontested, but this would not be the case. Due to bad control of his forces, Zakaran lost many a Guardian to turret fire, and I-ball used his many scvs to keep each turret alive. He could not last much longer. Defilias recalled a small force, and Zakaran ordered many lurkers to be transported over. The inhabitants quickly razed the remainder of the Terran threat.

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Now if one ventures to the placed known only by its code name "Dark Temple" you see nothing at all. The minerals are stripped, and no Zerg creep or Protoss warpgates even exist there. However, if you examine the ground enough when the light is good, you can see the destroyed remnants of a base, where the Terran tide was turned back, and never returned.

Commander I-ball survived the battle, and is now known to be hirable as a mercenary commander for any price. His ally, yanoosh, was never seen or heard from again. The Terran commanders have seen to it that any record of his existence within their ranks be eliminated.

No Terran was ever recorded returning to the area named "Dark Temple" again, and many see it now as being disadvantageous compared to the opponents they may face there...