Battle of Adena: the ambush that poisoned the peace

The Battle of Adena was a conflict fought after the One-Day War on the planet Adena, an abandoned world lying within the demilitarized zone that separated Terran Dominion and Daelaam territory. It pitted renegade Dominion forces under Captain Hogarth and Commander Naderi against the zerg of Broodmother Niadra, with a protoss force under Admiral Urun drawn into the fighting. The battle ended with the entire protoss ground force dead, Urun among them, and with a handful of terran survivors branded outlaws. Its political fallout froze negotiations between the Dominion and the Daelaam and alerted Overqueen Zagara to the threat Niadra posed to the Swarm.

Niadra's trap#

The origins of the battle lay with Broodmother Niadra, who had wiped out the protoss aboard the Daelaam Ark and then never heard from Sarah Kerrigan again. She swore to carry out Kerrigan's final order regardless: exterminate the protoss. Her forces, however, were small and had little strength, so she abandoned the Daelaam Ark and set out to infest terrans to grow her brood, looking in particular for those with psionic powers.

She chose Adena as her hunting ground. The resource rich world had been abandoned during the conflicts of the 2500s, and after the End War it had been placed inside the demilitarized zone drawn between Terran Dominion and Daelaam territory. Niadra landed her brood on the planet and waited, expecting terrans to arrive sooner or later to reclaim what had been left behind.

The illicit landing#

Terrans did arrive, in the form of Captain Hogarth of the battlecruiser Aethon, carrying a force of Dominion marines and mercenaries. Acting without orders, Hogarth and Commander Naderi decided to loot the planet's jorium stockpile for themselves, pretending to be operating under Dominion instructions to reclaim the base that had been lost there.

The landing did not go unobserved. Admiral Urun of the Daelaam brought his carrier, Saalok's Eye, to watch the terrans and make certain they kept to their stated purpose. Urun distrusted them and knew they were lying about their intentions, but he allowed them to land under his watch, wary all the while of their violation of the demilitarized zone.

The terrans set down at the derelict outpost and located eighteen crates of jorium. Before they could lift them out, a marine named Elms noticed zerg creep spreading through the base. Moments later the Niadra Brood attacked.

The battle turns three-sided#

Niadra sensed a psychic among the landing party, the mercenary Elms, and resolved to claim her for her brood. At the same time she implanted a parasite in Commander Naderi, intending for the zerg to erupt inside the terran battlecruiser once Naderi was evacuated to orbit. Urun sensed the infestation from above and opened fire on Naderi's dropship, killing her before the parasite could reach the Aethon.

Hogarth, seeing his commander shot down, opened fire on Saalok's Eye, and the protoss returned fire. While the capital ships traded blows in orbit, Urun led a strike force down to the surface to deal with the zerg. There his warriors found the marines locked in combat with the brood, aided by the psionic powers of Elms, who was intercepting Niadra's orders and warning her squad of flanking attacks before they landed. Urun and Elms came to an agreement: terran and protoss would fight together or die separately.

The fall of Urun#

Urun brought down phoenix support to thin the zerg lines, but the brood proved numerous. The allied force destroyed a wave of banelings, and then Elms sensed a zerg presence in the caves behind their position. Fearing an ambush, she took her marines into the caves to stop it while Urun held the line outside.

In the caverns Elms encountered a group of infestors that attempted to force larvae into her. She escaped that fate, but one of the larvae got inside the suit of a marine named Gary. Outside, Urun came face to face with Niadra herself. He was killed holding the line, buying the time Elms and her forces needed to escape. In orbit, Saalok's Eye was forced to abandon the system.

Every protoss warrior on the ground was wiped out. Elms and her group fought their way to their dropship and called Hogarth for aid, but the captain, looking to bury the evidence of his illicit operation, left them to die. They boarded the dropship anyway and, despite the efforts of the zerg, escaped the planet alive, knowing they could never go back to the Dominion.

A hollow victory#

Niadra held the field, but her victory was tactically hollow. She had annihilated the entire protoss ground force, yet she had failed to take her true objective, the psychic Elms. The survivors were little better off. Elms and her crew were now effectively outlaws, though they discovered a substantial supply of jorium in the holds of their dropship, enough to sell for a fortune. Above the planet, a debris field marked where the terran and protoss capital ships had fought.

Within hours, the survivors learned from news broadcasts that the battle had been blamed on them and that they had been reported dead. As their dropship drifted, a Dominion battlecruiser appeared nearby and fired warning shots at them.

Political fallout#

The battle's repercussions ran through every major power of the Koprulu sector. The protoss survivors aboard Saalok's Eye reported to Hierarch Artanis that Urun had fallen and that the terrans had violated the treaty and opened fire on them. Furious at the admiral's death, the Auriga Tribe demanded vengeance against the terrans. Artanis resolved to make amends instead, but the Daelaam indefinitely postponed their negotiations with the Dominion.

On the Dominion side, Hogarth filed a false report that reached Emperor Valerian Mengsk, claiming that a mercenary had bribed part of the crew to stop at Adena and that the fighting had begun as soon as they reached the surface, with no survivors. Valerian noted how convenient the account was for the captain, and despaired at the soured relations with the Daelaam. To the media, Admiral Matt Horner reported that the battle had been caused by mercenaries, that the zerg present had been feral, and that all involved had been killed on the surface. The mercenaries supposedly responsible were nonetheless hunted by the Dominion. A Naderi Memorial Foundation was established in the battle's aftermath, with Hogarth made a major member.

The zerg learned of the battle as well. On Gystt, a mysterious figure explained the events to Overqueen Zagara, who understood the peril the Swarm now faced from Niadra.

Hunting the survivors#

Hogarth was not finished with the people he had abandoned. To cover his tracks and recover the jorium taken from Adena, he hired mercenaries to hunt down and kill the survivors, Elms, Yong, and Contreras. The plan turned against him: through those very mercenaries, Elms discovered that Hogarth was trying to eliminate them. Hogarth had by then made the Dominion base on the quiet world of Aspar his headquarters, and after he sent a crew to assassinate the survivors, they struck back, assaulting the base with the aid of Nova Terra and her covert ops crew.