Raid on Char

The Raid on Char was a protoss strike on the zerg homeworld of Char during the Brood War, mounted to recover the Khalis crystal from the ground near the new Overmind. The Khalis was one of two artifacts that Artanis, Zeratul, and the protoss refugees on Shakuras needed to activate an ancient temple capable of destroying the zerg that had overrun their world. The raid was carried out by a protoss expedition working alongside Sarah Kerrigan, who had allied with them for her own ends.

Background#

In the aftermath of the Overmind's death and the fall of Aiur, the surviving protoss fled through the last warp gate to Shakuras, the world the Nerazim had made their own. There Matriarch Raszagal welcomed the refugees and revealed that a temple on her world could harness the combined energies of the Templar and the Dark Templar to eradicate the zerg who had spread across Shakuras. Activating it required two crystals: the Uraj, a pure Templar crystal, and the Khalis, which drew on the energies of the Dark Templar.

When Sarah Kerrigan arrived on Shakuras, she told the protoss that the death of the Overmind had freed her from zerg control, but warned that a new Overmind was growing on Char and would soon hold her in its sway once more. Zeratul had little interest in assaulting the new Overmind directly, reasoning that if he could gather the Uraj and Khalis and activate the temple, the zerg would cease to be a threat to the protoss on Shakuras. Kerrigan agreed to help in the search, and Artanis, Zeratul, Kerrigan, and the expedition set out to find the crystals.

The recovery of the Uraj#

The Uraj was located on Braxis, a frozen world recently fortified by the Terran Dominion. Zeratul explained that Braxis had once been a protoss colony called Khyrador, and that the Uraj had been abandoned there amid escalating violence between tribes and never reclaimed. The protoss and terran forces clashed, and with Kerrigan aiding the protoss directly they won through, razed the terran outpost, and established a forward base. Though damage to the Warp Matrix denied them air support, they fought their way to the heavily guarded crystal and overcame the terran base around it, taking the Uraj.

The expedition could not immediately leave Braxis, for elements of the newly arrived UED Expeditionary Fleet had blockaded the world. Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov demanded that the protoss power down and surrender their possessions, and they refused. Artanis, eager to crush the Directorate, was rebuked by Zeratul, who cited the death of the Overmind as a measure of terran strength. Chastened, Artanis led the breakout, targeting the power generators that fed the blockade's turrets and opening a path through.

The strike on Char#

The Khalis was tracked to Char, home of the new Overmind and heavily infested by the zerg. Zeratul had felt the energy of the crystal there before. It lay near a powerful source of psionic energy, which Kerrigan revealed to be the infant Overmind itself. The creature was still weak, and in its weakness it extended that frailty to the zerg who served it. Kerrigan urged a swift strike to seize the crystal, but the path to it was heavily defended by zerg structures. Artanis reasoned that if enough damage were dealt to the fledgling Overmind, its control over the nearby zerg would falter long enough to retrieve the Khalis.

Once the protoss reached the planet, Sarah Kerrigan used her psionic power to seize a small zerg hive cluster, which then fought in concert with the protoss army. The combined force pressed through the defenses, retrieved the Khalis, and escaped the world.

Aftermath#

With both the Khalis and the Uraj recovered, the protoss returned to Shakuras to activate the xel'naga temple. As its energies were channeled, the defenders held back determined zerg assaults until the channeling was complete, then withdrew into the temple to await activation. When the temple fired, a great burst of energy erupted from the ancient structure, altered the surrounding landscape, and obliterated every zerg on the planet.

The alliance between Kerrigan and the protoss did not survive the campaign. While Artanis and Zeratul had been away gathering the crystals, Judicator Aldaris discovered that Matriarch Raszagal had fallen under Kerrigan's control and rose in revolt. The rebellion was crushed, and when Aldaris tried to explain his motives, Kerrigan arrived and killed him. Her interference broke the alliance, but only after she had used the protoss to weaken her rivals among the renegade Swarm.