The rebellious Dark Templar were turned over to Selendis and Zeratul. With the death of their leader, Ulrezaj, the rebels have lost their motivation to act against the Khalai. Although their hatred still remained, they knew that without their leader, they wouldn’t be able to lead any effective attacks against the Khalai.
The remains of the three missing warriors were placed into Dragoons. One among them, a warrior named Eredas, thanked Sweetie and Lyra for their rescue and for protecting them from Ulrezaj.
Deciding to look for their other missing friends, Raynor and Fenix, Sweetie and Lyra informed Zeratul and Selendis that they will remain behind on Aiur to find their missing friends. Zeratul figured that he would be unable to convince them to reconsider, so he honored their request.
Neither he nor Selendis would be able to assist them since they had more important matters to attend to on Shakuras, mainly the trial of the rebels. With their leader dead, it was doubtful that any sympathizers to Ulrezaj’s cause would waste resources rescuing a few henchmen.
The Ponies said their goodbyes to the fleet as they were sent to an area near the last location of the warp gate to Shakuras.
A few hours of walking through dense jungle had been rewarded when Lyra and Sweetie found a fully functional Protoss base. As they approached the base, the Protoss guards looked at them with suspicion for a moment before they recognized them. They were curious about why they were on Aiur. Lyra requested to see Praetor Fenix and Jim Raynor to whom the guards quickly escorted the Ponies.
When Fenix and Raynor saw the girls, the two of them were as curious as the guards. “What are you two doin’ here?” Raynor asked.
“We were originally here on a mission to retrieve a few injured Protoss in stasis cells surrounded by a few renegade Broods,” Sweetie responded. “We also encountered a few Nerazim that were bent on revenge against the Khalai and Lyra killed the leader by landing on his neck with her hoof.” The last part made Fenix laugh hard. “Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to find you guys.”
Raynor shrugged. “Well, make yourselves at home. We got no end to the excitement ‘round here.”
The four of them began exchanging stories of their adventures on Aiur and Shakuras respectively. The guys spoke of their various conquests of the Zerg hive clusters while the girls talked about their quest for the Uraj and Khalis crystals that were used to purge Shakuras of renegade Zerg.
However, when Lyra got to the part about fighting against some faction called the United Earth Directorate, Raynor immediately went pale. “What the hell is Earth doin’ here?”
“I’d like to know that too,” Sweetie said. As much as she would like to know the intent of the UED, she would need more information about them before she could draw any conclusions.
“If my old Earth history lessons were worth anything, they have a strong desire to bring order to all facets of humanity, even the people who were sent away from Earth over two centuries ago. If their philosophy is still followed, they are likely here to establish dominance by taking out the current dominant faction and that’s Mengsk and his Dominion. What I don’t know is how they plan to safeguard humanity while the Zerg are around.”
“What if they try to take control of the Zerg?” Lyra asked.
“No, there’s only two things that can control the Zerg that I know of. One is Kerrigan and I doubt they even know of her existence. The other is the Overmind and that thing’s dead.”
That’s when it hit Sweetie: the UED does know of a way to control the Zerg. If everything that Raynor said holds true, then the UED will eventually make a move against the infant Overmind.
~”To be slaves to the Terrans would be an even greater disgrace than to be slaves to Amon,”~ said the elder Overmind.
Sweetie knew that action had to be taken against the UED. If they conquered the sector, she and Lyra would have no end to troubles in the future.
“Seems we have a common enemy, perhaps a truce is in order,” mentally spoke a familiar voice, one that she had hoped not to hear for a while longer: Kerrigan. Raynor, Fenix and Lyra behaved as if they received the message as well.
“What do you want, Kerrigan?” Sweetie mentally responded.
“If you are willing to assist me, I have a plan to dismantle the UED operations in the Koprulu Sector.”
There was no guessing what Kerrigan wanted from this. She wanted full control over the Zerg Swarm. Sweetie had to make a tough decision and neither option had desirable outcomes. The only thing that held any influence on her decision was the importance of Kerrigan living long enough to fulfill her role that the elder Overmind had given her.
“Does she seriously think…” Raynor spoke up but was interrupted by Sweetie’s mental response.
“Alright, we’ll go with your plan...for now. What do you need us to do?”
“Huh, would have thought that you needed more time to consider. Very well, I need you to go to Korhal and rescue Arcturus. The UED is about to begin its push against Augustgrad”
“I thought you wanted him dead?” Sweetie asked.
“Oh, I do, but he has something I need to bring down the UED”
With a sigh, Sweetie closed the psychic link. “Looks like we’re about to do something that neither of us are gonna like.”
“Least the Hyperion has a cantina,” Raynor quipped.
The Hyperion held high orbit over planet Korhal close enough to observe the situation in Augustgrad but far enough that they didn’t catch the attention of the UED.
The UED had begun a preemptive assault on the outskirts by targeting some important components of Mengsk’s arsenal. Keeping important targets in a less guarded area than the main city was a major tactical blunder in Sweetie’s opinion.
Based on their movements, the UED didn’t want to waste time dealing with both of Mengsk’s poorly placed assets and focused on destroying his nuclear silos. The UED simply advanced on the city while allowing Mengsk’s fleet of Battlecruisers to power up.
Another curious thought from Sweetie, “Why would the UED not destroy the Physics Labs too? Sure, Augustgrad’s defenses were formidable, but keeping the Battlecruisers powered down may have made the attack easier for them in the long run.”
The crew of the Hyperion continued to observe the events on Korhal. Just as Sweetie figured, Mengsk’s Battlecruisers were quite a nuisance. A significant number of Ghosts also kept the UED at bay for a while by locking down their mechanical units. Siege Tanks sniped the UED ground troops from afar.
Sweetie figured that the UED would probably overcome the city’s defenses, it was only a matter of time. In the meantime, she would need to make preparations to save Mengsk once his final defenses were breached.
“Fenix, have some Arbiters ready.” Sweetie said. “When the opportunity presents itself, I want them ready to engage a Mass Recall on us and Mengsk’s ship.”
“Are we really sure we want to do this?” Fenix asked.
“As much as I’d rather see Mengsk writhe in a cell, we can’t have the UED trying to mess with forces beyond their comprehension. As things stand, with the Dominion under siege, the only one who could amass enough forces to challenge the UED would be Kerrigan. The Protoss are still reeling from the Zerg invasion of Aiur and Shakuras and Mengsk’s media propaganda has marginalized Raynor’s reputation to the point where we could never rally the Humans of the sector against the UED. We simply don’t have any other options at this point.”
“Agreed, though I am having terrible premonitions about my future.”
Time marched on and the UED was slowly gaining ground against the Dominion defenders. Soon, the UED was at the foot of Mengsk’s palace. Sensing his defeat, Mengsk and Duke made an escape attempt aboard the Battlecruiser, Norad III.
The UED anticipated the attempt and surrounded the ship with a squadron of Wraiths and the Aleksander. Mengsk opened a channel to the UED in an attempt to parley with them.
“This is it!” Sweetie called. “Move in and assist Norad III.”
On their way, the group aboard the Hyperion listened in on some open transmissions.
<”So, the elusive Arcturus Mengsk at last.”> DuGalle said. <”I was hoping to speak with you before we finished our business here. I am Admiral Gerard DuGalle, and I must commend you, sir, for holding back our advance for as long as you have. You are indeed a worthy opponent.”>
<”My thanks to you, sir.”> Mengsk responded sarcastically. <”But you must know that your victory here means little to me. It might have taken me a while, but I did overthrow the Confederacy. I’ll overthrow your rule as well.”>
<”That seems unlikely, sir, seeing as how you’ll be publicly executed along with the rest of your ranking officers.”>
<”You wouldn’t dare!.”>
<”Hah! The man who crowns himself ‘Emperor’ speaks to me of daring? You have far outlived your reputation ‘citizen’ Mengsk. Captain, prepare to take the Emperor into custody.”>
“You’ll have to postpone those plans, gentlemen.” Raynor said to Mengsk and DuGalle.
The Hyperion, along with a squadron of Scouts opened fire on the Wraith squadron, allowing access to Mengsk’s flagship.
<”What? Who are these intruders?!”> DuGalle spoke with surprise in his voice.
<”Jim Raynor and Sweetie Drops...What the hell are you two doing here?!”>
<”I’m pullin’ your ass out’ve the fire, Arcturus.”> Raynor said angrily. <”So shut up and sit tight. Make no mistake about it; we’ve got a serious score to settle, but right now a mutual acquaintance of ours wants you alive.”>
Sweetie orders the distant Arbiters to engage a Mass Recall. The feeling of being ripped away through space felt similar to when a unicorn teleported, at least according to Lyra.
When the ships reappear near the Arbiters, the Hyperion transmits the coordinates to Aiur to Norad III with a demand that the ship accompanies them. The Protoss fleet made sure that the Norad III crew complied before the ships engaged warp drives to Aiur.
Sweetie had a feeling that the UED was not going to give up the pursuit so easily.