The whole campaign to bring order to the Koprulu sector had taken a sudden and tragic downturn for the old decorated officer of the United Earth Directorate. Sure, the campaign began without a hitch. They conquered Braxis, they defeated the Dominion Armada, they even breached the defenses of Augustgrad.
What caused the situation to begin to deteriorate was the discovery of the Psi Disrupter. He should have listened to Alexei. The two of them had been through much together. Sure, he was twelve years older than him, but he still had wisdom that he lacked. Why did he let someone like Duran come between him and his friendship? Why did he let his self-righteous pride get the better of him?
Unfortunately, DuGalle had little time to lament over his mistake that cost the life of his best friend. The UED still had a job to do and he would see it done. Since Mengsk and Raynor were nowhere to be found, he would have to move the agenda to its next phase.
DuGalle ordered the garrison on Braxis to keep the Psi Disrupter at full power while the rest of the fleet headed to Char to claim the Overmind in the name of humanity.
After escaping the UED pursuit, Sweetie, Lyra, Raynor, Fenix, Mengsk and Duke took some time to relax after their ordeal. Well...most of them anyway. Mengsk and Duke were on edge about having his enemies all around him and little means of self-defense.
However, the troubles never cease. Everyone received a psychic transmission from Kerrigan. She had informed everyone that the UED had successfully taken control of the Overmind on Char and were controlling some device called a Psi Disruptor. She also said that she had a plan to defeat the UED.
Fenix was skeptical of anything Kerrigan might plan because he knew that her ultimate objective was absolute control over the Zerg. Raynor was also suspicious of her motives.
Sweetie however, had her own agenda to pursue and since the UED was in the way of that agenda, she decided to help her. Everyone else begged Sweetie to reconsider, even Lyra. But Sweetie stood firm with her decision.
Thinking it was time to let Lyra in on her insider information, Sweetie took Lyra to an isolated room when she usually wanted to keep information private from others. With the usual wards in place, Sweetie began to explain herself, “Sorry that I haven’t told you about what I’ve been thinking lately Lyra. I really have been trying to find the opportunity to tell you and decided that this would be as good of a time as any.”
“What’s going on Bonnie?” Lyra asked.
Sweetie began recounting everything from the attack on the original Overmind until now: How she was infected by a parasite that contained the remnants of the Overmind’s consciousness, how it told her about the history of the Swarm, about Amon, about Kerrigan’s importance to the future of the Universe and about the threat that the UED poses if they stay in control of the Zerg as well as the grim consequences if Kerrigan were killed.
Lyra didn’t want to believe many of the things that Sweetie told her, but she knew that Bon Bon would never lie to her unless it was to protect her from a truth that she couldn’t handle. If she wanted to lie to her, she would have come up with some that would actually give her some reassurance. On the other hand, her marefriend was infected with a parasite in her brain. She had no way of knowing whether or not the Overmind was controlling her in some way. On the other other hand, Lyra has not found Bon Bon behaving any differently than how she usually did. She always was one to tell others what to do, especially her. Since she couldn’t know for certain, she placed her faith that Bon Bon knew what she was doing and that she was still her usual self.
After she finished thinking about it, she smiled at Sweetie and gave a look of determination. “So what’s the plan?” Lyra asked. “You know she may try to kill one of our friends again.”
Sweetie smirked at Lyra in return. “Oh, I know she will try. Amon may have twisted her personality, but she has also become quite predictable, at least for me anyway. The only one who would be desperate enough to cut a deal with Kerrigan would be Mengsk. He wants his kingdom and she wants her Swarm. I’m sure that once Mengsk gets Korhal back, she will strike soon after that. It’s the perfect opportunity and she usually chooses those times which makes her easy to predict.”
“So that time with Aldaris…”
“Yup, I had Aldaris gather what intel he could on Raszagal. I felt Kerrigan’s presence in the Matriarch’s mind and I needed Aldaris to confirm this for me while we were looking for the crystals. Shortly after we breached the UED blockade on Braxis, I received a transmission from Aldaris to tell me that he found the proof we needed to prove that Kerrigan was planning something behind our backs. Knowing that the perfect opportunity would be when he was about to blab his findings to everyone, Aldaris and I came up with a plan to start a fake insurrection where I would hide in plain sight as one of Aldaris’ clones and when she was about to strike, I sniped her and sounded the alarm to close her window of opportunity. I even took control of the Lurkers that accompanied her to make sure that she didn’t try to go around us.
Lyra was in awe of Sweetie’s deductive skills and her cleverness. The meeting between the two took a passionate turn for the rest of the time within the room.
Lyra and Sweetie returned to the group to get the gist of what happened while they were away. Apparently, their meeting with Kerrigan was cut short by some emergency that was going on on her side. The last thing she said though was to meet her at planet Braxis.
Just being near Braxis was giving Sweetie a headache. She quickly realized that the Psi Disrupter was no joke. In such conditions, she couldn’t use her ability to control Zerg.
Kerrigan soon arrived with someone neither the Protoss nor the Ponies had met before. While the person showed that he had a small sign of infestation, Sweetie and Lyra saw that he had a familiar aura about him that they remembered sensing on Aiur: powerful and malevolent. The Ponies were uncertain if anyone else could feel the aura, but kept the knowledge to themselves for the time being.
Kerrigan started complaining about the Disruptor making things harder on her as she struggled to keep her minions in line. Raynor responded with a mocking comment then demanded why Mengsk had to come along.
“Are you still suspicious that I’ll kill him for abandoning me to the Zerg? I’ve gotten over it, Jim. We can’t afford to let petty hatreds jeopardize our plans for the UED,” Kerrigan said.
Sweetie interjected, “If you’re gonna tell us what your plan is, you should at least come up with a better lie, Kerrigan.”
“Oh? And what makes you think I’m lying?”
“Because you and I are alike in quite a few ways. If I were in your shoes, I’d be making Mengsk’s life a living hell until the one night comes where I show up in his bedroom to shoot him in every non-vital area on his body until he slowly bled to death.”
Everyone was stunned by Sweetie’s comment. Kerrigan was the first to recover where she started laughing. When she was finally able to stop, she spoke, “Wow Sweetie Drops, you can be quite dark sometimes. Fine, I’ll admit that I still want Mengsk dead. But I’m willing to wait until the UED is no longer a threat before I start planning my revenge.”
“At least you’re honest about it,” Mengsk quipped.
Kerrigan turned her attention to Mengsk, “Arcturus...I presume your trip here was pleasant?”
“Get to the point, Kerrigan.”
“Aww...I was hoping to chat. It’s been awhile.”
“Not long enough.”
“I need your Psi Emitters, Arcturus. Thanks to the Psi Disrupter that you’ve never been able to find, I can barely control my minions. I need your Emitters to gather enough Zerg to launch an assault on the Psi Disrupter. In exchange, I’ll help you liberate Korhal from the UED.”
“What assurances do I have of you fulfilling your end of the bargain?”
“The fact that your fate will be one of two things: a throne or a little eight by eight cell.”
“Still as persuasive as ever. All right, I’ll lend you some Emitters but this had better be worth it.”
With Mengsk convinced, Sweetie began to go over the plan. Raynor would send his Raiders to take out the primary power generator for the Psi Disrupter. Mengsk would send an SCV to lure feral Zerg to him and hope to find some Drones for Kerrigan to build a hive cluster so she can take out the Psi Disrupter.
Once the power generators were located, Raynor launched a moderate force that crushed the guards around the generator. Sweetie observed the events from the Hyperion and she was surprised at how weak the defenses were near the generators. Raynor evacuated his group and the operation moved to phase two.
One of Mengsk’s SCVs lured some Zerg to him so that Kerrigan could control them. With some Drones, she built a hive cluster near the UED base guarding the Disrupter. The SCV also lured in some particularly strong variations of Zerg, including Hunter Killers which were enhanced Hydralisks, Devouring Ones which were enhanced Zerglings and a Torrasque which was an enhanced Ultralisk.
Once all feral Zerg in the area were collected, the SCV pilot, who could not hide his anxiety, requested immediate evac and was taken away from the area.
Once she had a strong force ready, Kerrigan began to overwhelm the UED garrison and slaughter everyone guarding the Disrupter. By claws, spines and blades, the large device was torn apart and the UED had lost their biggest advantage.
With the Psi Disrupter destroyed, the time had come for Kerrigan to fulfill her end of the bargain.