Golden Armada

The Golden Armada, known as Amon's Armada while under his control, was a protoss fleet based on Shakuras and the greatest fleet of protoss vessels ever constructed. Its members were predominantly Khalai, and motherships served as its flagships. It was created by order of Hierarch Artanis with the explicit purpose of retaking Aiur, the one cause shared between the Khalai and the Nerazim.

Creation and tensions#

The Golden Armada was created by order of Hierarch Artanis with the explicit intention of using it to retake Aiur, as that reclamation was the only interest shared between the Khalai and the Nerazim. Its construction, however, began to create tensions between the two peoples on Shakuras. The resources demanded by the fleet stretched the world to its limit and threatened holy sites of the Nerazim, while the Khalai, Artanis among them, pursued the reclamation of Aiur with a single-minded purpose. After a training exercise by the Armada caused a collision between a Nerazim transport and a flight of phoenixes that killed twenty-seven Nerazim, hundreds of Nerazim abandoned the fleet, and the risk of open conflict between the factions rose sharply.

In response, a Nerazim extremist named Taelus and his followers seized the Citadel of the Daelaam, hoping to provoke a war that would drive the Khalai off Shakuras. Vorazun and Dark Prelate Mohandar arrived to defuse the crisis, but fighting broke out that killed both Mohandar and Taelus. In the aftermath Vorazun and Artanis met: Artanis promised to be more respectful of Nerazim traditions, and Vorazun promised to commit some of her forces to the Armada's reclamation of Aiur.

The reclamation of Aiur#

After Sarah Kerrigan took the Swarm out of the Koprulu sector to confront Amon, the Daelaam were presented with their opportunity to retake Aiur, the more so because the carnage of the Second Great War had left the terrans unable to interfere. Artanis took the fleet under his command and, after a period of preparation, launched the invasion of the lost homeworld to deal with the zerg that remained upon it. At least one beachhead was established on the surface, where ground forces held off the zerg long enough for a pylon to be deployed and zealots to warp in en masse. As the invasion progressed, the Armada deployed a massive army outside Kherrisan and fought its way in, reactivating the warp conduits there despite resistance from zerg and hybrid and successfully reclaiming the warp network.

Corruption#

The invasion went awry when Amon revealed his presence, corrupting the Khala and forcing Artanis to lead his remaining forces in retreat aboard the Spear of Adun. The Golden Armada itself was corrupted to Amon's will and compelled to do his bidding, including attacks upon the Terran Dominion, which defended itself desperately but lost planet after planet. The corruption had physical effects on the capital ships as well, for exposure to Void energies changed the appearance of the protoss carriers and their crews, with crystal structures jutting from the hulls and from the skin of the protoss themselves. While Artanis's forces were occupied at Ulnar, Amon unleashed the full might of the Armada to eradicate all life from worlds across the Koprulu sector; Dominion forces fought back but multiple systems fell, and Matriarch Vorazun sent out scouts to track the fleet's movements, finding by the time the Daelaam were ready to return to Aiur that the Armada had already devastated the sector.

Recall and liberation#

The Armada was later recalled to Aiur when Artanis attempted to use the xel'naga Keystone to purge Amon from the Khala. Artanis and his allies destroyed the psionic matrix that would have let the fleet instantly warp back to the planet, forcing the Armada to come the long way. When it arrived, the Golden Armada aided Amon's zerg in besieging Artanis's base, but the Hierarch's forces, made up of freed Khalai, Nerazim, Purifiers, and the Tal'darim Death Fleet, held them long enough for the Keystone to charge and contain Amon's influence. With Amon's grip broken, the corrupted Khalai were able to sever their nerve cords and permanently free themselves of his control.

Members of note#

Among the recorded members of the Golden Armada were its commander, Hierarch Artanis; Executor Selendis; Phase-smith Karax; the zealot Kaldalis; and the probe Probius. Before the End War the fleet had already seen action, taking part during or prior to the Second Great War in an operation on Taurus IV, where it bombarded a zerg hive cluster from orbit and warped away the protoss forces on the surface.