Since the incident on Antiga Prime involving planting a Psi Emitter in the Confederate Delta Squadron base, Sweetie has grown increasingly distant from most of the Sons of Korhal members. While she still regularly talks with Raynor and trains with Kerrigan, she has opted to participate in less operations with the rebel organization. Because of this, Raynor and Kerrigan have had to work together more to pick up her slack.
In that time, Raynor has begun to develop feelings for the red-haired Ghost. While Kerrigan has been too busy being useful to Mengsk, likely out of guilt for what she did to Mengsk in the past, perhaps in time she will be able to answer the former Marshal’s feelings.
The time that Sweetie spent between missions has not been wasted. Given the fact that Mengsk was willing to weaponize the Zerg against a Confederate squadron, she figured that this may be his plan to remove the Confederate supremacy from the Koprulu sector. With how dangerous it was to use the Zerg in such a way and Mengsk’s recklessness, it wasn’t hard to imagine that the rebel leader was planning to wipe out a planet with the alien monstrosities. Sweetie has figured Mengsk as the megalomaniacal type who would stop at nothing to lead humanity as he saw fit...if his goal was ruling humanity.
There was no stopping Mengsk at this point, not when she would have to choose between letting the Confederacy continue their schemes of using aliens to control their subjects or letting Mengsk take over the colonies using the Confederates most powerful weapon against them. Sweetie was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Regardless of outcome, Sweetie began to plan for what comes after the upcoming tragedy. Using the database in her quarters, she studied the defenses of Tarsonis to see if there was anything she would need to deal with in order to secure her getaway once she openly declares her departure from the Sons of Korhal. She had already made her decision to get away from the madman once she got the chance. She knew that the rebels were planning to make their move against Tarsonis soon and she needed to be ready to make her move.
Sweetie has kept her own suspicions to herself, especially from Raynor and Kerrigan, because one might risk compromising her plan if he knew and the other was blinded by past guilt to see Mengsk for who he really was. She still planned to tell Raynor when the time was right though.
The Sons of Korhal were holding position a safe distance from the planetary defenses of Tarsonis, the capital world of the Confederacy. With his plan ready to go, Mengsk calls for a meeting before the attack begins, though he did briefly comment about Sweetie finally showing up to a meeting after her time of inactivity. Sweetie did not respond to that. Mengsk began the meeting by stating that the final strike against the Confederacy was close at hand then lets Duke brief everyone about the planetary defenses.
“I’ve defended Tarsonis in over thirty major battles so I know of its defenses inside and out,” Duke began. “There are three primary orbital platforms that serve as staging areas for the Confederate fleet. If we assault the central platform, we should cause enough of a ruckus to allow a small force to break through the planetary defenses.”
Raynor was actually impressed that Duke, who he never saw as someone who would consider a frontal assault, especially after what he said back on Antiga, would actually suggest such a simple plan.
Duke also pointed out that Omega and Delta Squadrons defended the central platform but bragged about his Alpha Squadron being superior to them, to which Raynor rolled his eyes.
Sweetie was not entirely focused on the meeting as her mind was considering the steps of her plans and whether or not Raynor will be a part of them or not. She wanted to involve Kerrigan, but she was also a risk factor in her plans and she didn’t want Mengsk finding out. Thanks to her mind being closed, Kerrigan was none the wiser.
Sweetie was ordered to accompany Duke to attack the central platform of the Confederate fleet, which she didn’t really mind. Since Mengsk wanted the matter deal with swiftly, Duke was to oversee the operation from his battlecruiser: the repaired Norad II that was salvaged after Duke was rescued. A number of prebuilt structures were sent with the General.
While Sweetie was planning before the operation, the Sons of Korhal infiltrated a Ghost academy and liberated the psychics that were not indoctrinated into the Confederacy yet. The rebels also confiscated a number of nuclear warheads for use in the operation against Tarsonis. Sweetie had reservations about using those weapons, especially the environmental damage that could occur from the radiation. Sweetie was forced to suck it up and make use of the nukes when necessary since she wasn’t about to let personal feelings get in the way of her survival.
The operation began when the rebels secured a small platform next to the main platform. There was little to no resistance as a small group consisting of Sweetie, another ghost and a few marines cleared their new staging area.
The scouting force was soon met with the imposing Norad II above them followed by a number of flying buildings. The transports that initially dropped them off on the platform returned and the rebels were in position to begin the main operation. Sweetie and the ground troops boarded the transports while leaving a single SCV behind for logistics.
As the ships entered the perimeter of the main platform, Duke took notice of some abandoned equipment that was lying around for their flying buildings to link up to. Duke commented about Omega and Delta Squadron’s lack of decorum by leaving equipment behind as sloppy.
Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, the buildings landed near their respective addons while the Dropships dropped off Sweetie and her squad. A Bunker and some additional Marines were built and trained respectively to defend the base until they were ready. A perimeter of Missile Turrets were built along potential attack angles to deter Wraiths and their cloaking technology. A few Siege Tanks were built to fortify the ground defenses.
Sweetie noticed that some of the confiscated Nuclear Missiles were being loaded into the addons that were attached to the Command Centers. As she was doing so, the Ghost that came with her on the mission walked up to her and asked if she knew how to paint targets for the Nuclear Missiles to hit. Sweetie shook her head and said that the term “painting targets” was new to her because her nation’s military science had not advanced far enough to justify using that term yet. The Ghost borrowed her rifle and showed her how to activate the laser targeting feature that sends a signal to one of the Nuclear Silos, the new addons to the Command Centers, to launch its tactical nuke at the “painted” location. She was also informed that she would need to keep still for a few seconds for the target to lock on. With a nod, Sweetie took back her rifle and slung it around her back.
Duke began a preliminary strike with the Wraiths that came with him and attacked an Omega Squadron starport some distance from the main base. At the same time, Duke ordered Sweetie and the ghost to Weaken the enemy’s front lines by aiming a well-placed nuke at some Bunkers. Sweetie sighed and activated her Cloaking and advanced on the Omega Squadron defenses.
Sweetie and the ghost positioned themselves near their respective targets. She activated the laser targeting feature of her rifle and aimed at a Missile Turret. Suddenly, alarms in her communicator went off, stating that Nuclear Missiles have been launched. She saw that the Confederate troops started behaving strangely, as if they were frantically looking around for something. “This seems like something I need ask that Ghost about, or maybe Kerrigan,” she thought. The enemy Marines and Siege Tanks in the area continued their desperate search for something for a few more seconds before the Ghost told her to run away through her communicator. Sweetie sprinted away from the area as two Nuclear Missiles were dropping into the area. The impact was followed by a massive explosion that killed every unprotected Marine and Siege Tank and annihilated the Bunkers and Missile Turrets in the area as well as leaving a mushroom cloud that vanished quickly.
Sweetie and the Ghost retreated to the base camp while a wave of SoK troops advanced on Omega Squadron. Since they had a breather, she deactivated her Cloaking and decided to ask the Ghost her question. “Why were the Confederates acting strangely when I started painting the target?”
The Ghost looked at her and responded. “Ever since Korhal IV was bombarded with nuclear weapons, every Command Center was equipped with a nuclear weapons detector. When the detector goes off it sends a signal to all units under the squadron’s command. For us, launching nukes is very risky as a Comsat Station may try to locate us or a Science Vessel may try to pick up on our location. If we are discovered, we will be in big trouble. Rumor has it that the Zerg and the Protoss have their own methods to tell when a nuke’s been launched.”
“Really?” Sweetie said incredulously. “With all of that advance warning, they could have just run out of the blast area like someone with common sense would instead of frantically looking for two cloaked Ghosts. They could have even tried to scan the area of the marked target with their Comsat Station to find us. Instead, they waste their final moments hopelessly searching for us.”
“To be fair...” the Ghost said. “...soldiers aren’t paid to think.”
Sweetie rolled their eyes and returned to the fray where the rebel forces were burning down Omega Squadron’s base. Their standing forces were overwhelmed by the sheer firepower the SoK brought to bear.
With the Omega Squadron wiped out, The Commander decided to set up a resource base to gather the minerals the fallen Confederates left behind. A defensive perimeter was established to protect the new base.
Sweetie each took her own initiative. She scouted out more of the platform and discovered a small outpost with a significant amount of resources that were not being harvested. Receiving notification that another Nuclear Missile had been loaded, she dropped the nuclear payload on the small outpost, wiping out most of the base. She followed up by calling in some troops to mop up the rest to prepare another resource base.
Duke went to work by taking down some of the anti-air defenses protecting the Delta Squadron Base. Norad II took some hits from some of the Missile Turrets while a couple were taken out from a distance by the ship’s powerful Yamato Gun.
At the same time, a squadron of Wraiths snuck around the defenses on the south part of the Delta base and attacked a starport to the north of the base. The Wraiths Engaged their Cloaking devices and attacked the Starport while drawing the attention of the nearby Battlecruisers that would have made a ground assault on their base more difficult. The squadron was detected when Delta Squadron used their Comsat Station to scan them which allowed the Battlecruisers to fire on them. However, there were too many Wraiths for the capital ships to handle effectively and ended up crashing onto the platform.
With the Delta base softened up, Duke ordered a ground assault on the base. When enemy Wraiths engaged their Cloaking before defending their base, a Comsat scan was ordered to reveal the cloaked fighters and were shot down.
With Delta Squadron dealt with, the SoK send a small force of Wraiths and attacked some of the orbital defenses and platforms to begin Mengsk’s endgame plan for the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, Raynor and Kerrigan landed on the planet’s surface to begin their operation to clear out some of the Confederate forces and fight their way to the Confederate city of New Gettysburg. They were forced to be strategic in dealing with the already numerous Confederates in the area and had no time to build a base or get more troops planetside. Thankfully, there were a few points where troops were dropped off as reinforcements.
Raynor’s and Kerrigan’s strategy was to lure enemy troops to them by using Siege Tanks to attack each base from afar while the rest of them picked off whoever comes along with the Siege Tanks blasting apart any unfortunate troops that come in groups. Their strategy appeared to work with each base in turn and ultimately the way was cleared to the central district of Tarsonis City.
While all of this was happening however, some of Mengsk’s covert operatives began planting Psi Emitters in key locations. Upon success, each agent reported to Duke about the completion of their objective. Once the last agent had finished planting their emitter, Duke informed Mengsk of the completion of the operation. <“This is Duke, The Emitters are secured and online.”>
Kerrigan was outraged that Duke may have been going behind Mengsk’s back and started planting Emitters without his permission. <“Who authorized the use of Psi Emitters?”> she asked.
<“I did, Lieutenant,”> Mengsk said.
Kerrigan looked at Mengsk’s on screen image incredulously, as if the trust she had in the rebel leader was beginning to crumble. <“What!? The Confederates on Antiga were bad enough, but now you want to use the Zerg against an entire planet? This is insane!”>
Raynor was in full agreement while Sweetie remained silent, keeping her anger in check. Raynor tried to convince Mengsk to abandon this madness and use another humane plan to deal with the Confederacy. Mengsk, however, was not going to back down from his plans and dismissed everyone by simply telling them to carry out his orders.
It was time for Sweetie to do some prepwork to secure her escape route from Tarsonis. With her worst fears about Mengsk soon to be realized, she knew that she would need to get out of dodge and make sure anyone who followed suit could escape with her.
Her studies on the planetary defenses led to the discovery of the planet’s primary defensive weapon: a massive ion cannon. Sweetie temporarily disabled her communicator and tracker while she paid a visit to the weapon.
Inside the massive building that housed the weapon, Sweetie snuck past the personnel with her Cloaking, thanking Celestia that the inside didn’t have any Ghost detection systems. She would occasionally find a storeroom to hide in and disable any security cameras before decloaking and hiding in the shadows in case someone came inside the room for some reason while waiting for her personal psychic energy stores to replenish themselves. Sweetie was silently wishing for a means of cloaking that did not deplete her energy stores. Once fully recharged, she reengaged her Cloaking and continued to the control room of the ion cannon. “For such an important weapon...” she thought “...the security around here is pretty lax.”
Sweetie soon found the weapon’s control room and knocked out any engineers that were working inside. With the control room to herself, she smiled as she began sabotaging the controls and installing a trojan program into the system so that she could remotely control the cannon later when it was activated, just like Kerrigan had taught her.
With her mission complete, Sweetie returned to the Hyperion while feeling a sense of dread that something important was about to happen and she had a feeling that it had nothing to do with Tarsonis.