This post was edited on August 10, 2014, for better spacing and ease of reading.
Kaldir is an icy wasteland of a planet introduced in Heart of the Swarm. Three of the earlier missions revolve around the planet, starting with Kerrigan’s arrival to search for Broodmother Nafash. Over the course of her time there, Kerrigan found that Nafash was dead, destroyed a Protoss colony, and exterminated the survivors ruthlessly when they tried to flee.
However, there are multiple logical mistakes within the missions, and more arise when the StarCraft books are considered. The largest problem is the idea that Kerrigan’s chief motive for destroying the Protoss was to prevent them from sending a warning to Shakuras about her weakened presence that would have brought the Golden Armada of the Protoss down upon her head.
First of all, Kerrigan could not have reasonably hoped to prevent any knowledge of her current status from reaching Shakuras. All Protoss, except for the Dark Templar, share a mental link known as the Khala, which allows them to share their emotions and thoughts with others of their species even across interstellar distances. Incidentally, the very definition of a Dark Templar is a Protoss who has severed their link to the Khala.
In any case, it would be ludicrous for Kerrigan to stop some stray Protoss thoughts passing through a connection that she cannot even perceive. This is an understandable lapse in the story, as the Khala is not explained within the context of any of the StarCraft games, and the developers probably thought that it would only confuse the players if it was introduced.
However, the more serious lapse is seen when the game indicates that the Protoss have no knowledge of Kerrigan’s loss of control over the Zerg. This is a stunning contradiction to what was seen in the original StarCraft, where any Zerg who lost their commanding presence, like a Cerebrate, went immediately and obviously insane, going so far as to slaughter one another.
When Kerrigan was deinfested by the Xel’Naga artifact in Wings of Liberty, she lost control over the Zerg, and the contrast between a controlled army and a horde of lunatic killing machines would surely have been obvious to the Protoss. Finally, Arcturus Mengsk sent out a Dominion-wide news broadcast stating that the Queen of Blades had been defeated, which would surely have been received by the Protoss as well through any kind of monitoring.
Another point to consider is the idea of the Golden Armada. This would supposedly be the death of Kerrigan if it arrived, yet there is no hint of it throughout Wings of Liberty. Admittedly, it probably lacks the power to deal with the full Swarm at once.
However, even as Kerrigan sent away most of the Swarm in her failed attempt to hunt down the pieces of a Xel’Naga artifact, the Protoss still made no attempt to strike at Char and decapitate the leadership of the Zerg. When Kerrigan was deinfested, the Protoss could easily have struck at the remains of Valerian’s fleet during the events of Flashpoint, as it seems that Arcturus Mengsk could track her easily enough, and a lonely Protoss Observer would not have been noticed for some time.
If the Protoss spotted her as she was retaking Char, that would have been yet another opportunity to crush the single greatest known threat to their species by trapping her on the planet. Between Warfield’s forces attacking her and the Golden Armada, Kerrigan would have lacked the strength to triumph, and would have perished soon enough.
There is also the question of why Kerrigan even had to go to or remain on Kaldir for any length of time. If she was simply looking for the Roach and Hydralisk strains to reintegrate into the Swarm, there must have been dozens of other planets to find such common Zerg that did not involve battling the Protoss. If she was looking specifically for Nafash, she could have left as soon as she confirmed that Nafash was dead and taken the remains of her brood with her, all without the Protoss noticing until she was already gone.
Instead, she chooses to fight it out and put her life on the line without a good reason, as this fanciful Golden Armada would apparently be her end if it arrived before she left. Even if she wanted revenge for Nafash, there would be a better time than that for it, such as after she had dealt with Arcturus Mengsk. Provoking the Protoss by exterminating one of their colonies, especially when she gains little from it, would be counterproductive to her goal of getting revenge on Arcturus, as it could easily force her to fight a two-front war.
Part Two will cover some more mistakes, including more detail on the apparent lack of Protoss communications and the absurd flash freezes seen on the planet.
Starcraft 2's Troubles 