//------------------------------// // Liberty: Spark of Rebellion // Story: Starcraft: Warriors of Purity // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Sweetie and Lyra entered the Mar Sara system, one feeling a small sense of nostalgia since this world was where her adventure truly began, the other curious about how the world looked especially knowing that she watched Tassadar’s expeditionary fleet incinerate the landscape from orbit. Sweetie’s ship was registered as a mercenary ship with legitimate passcodes to allow them to land at the local Starport. Upon landing, however, the two noticed the Starport was under guard by Dominion Troops instead of the local colonial militia. Since the two of them were wanted criminals for rebellious actions against the regime, Sweetie activated her Cloaking while Lyra activated her Shadow Walking ability. Joey Ray’s Bar was on the outskirts of the city so the two of them had to escape the city and avoid detection by the Dominion guards, taking care to avoid any Missile Turrets in the city. They also avoided killing any guards since that might tip off their arrival to the Dominion in the city and they didn’t want to risk the Dominion having an Orbital Command Center which was a Command Center with the capabilities of a Comsat Station. Thankfully, since Mar Sara was a wasteland type world with little to offer in terms of resources except the usual Minerals and Vespene, security was actually quite low, making their escape from the city much easier. During their trek through the city, Sweetie and Lyra noticed the state of the civilians. They noticed the morale of the citizens were poor and the Dominion looked like they were abusing their authority. As much as they would have liked to help, Taking out troops now would only lead to unnecessary trouble. Once outside the city, the Ponies looked around for a bar where they would find their friend, Jim Raynor. They didn’t have to look too hard to find a structure that had a lit sign that looked bigger than the building itself that said ‘Joey Ray’s’ with an arrow pointing to the door. The two entered the bar to find Raynor paying more attention to the news broadcast which seemed to be about some commemoration of the end of the Brood War four years ago. Mengsk was questioned about his use of resources in hunting down has-been rebels like Jim Raynor. Mengsk replied that Raynor was still a dangerous threat to the regime and would be brought to justice very soon. “It ain’t over till it’s over, you son of a bitch,” Raynor replied to the television, pointing his gun at the screen and shooting it. Sweetie gave a dramatic eye roll at Raynor’s pointless action. “Seriously, what is with you and shooting screens?” she asked. Raynor turned around to address the voice to find himself in good company. “Sweetie!” he said cheerfully. He quickly noticed the other Pony in the room, “I see you brought Lyra too. How have you been?” The Ponies smiled, glad to see Raynor feeling better, although they could both sense the sadness that Raynor had been trying to hide. The three exchanged stories of their activities over the three years that they had been away. Raynor and Sweetie were surprised when they learned that Lyra was a prisoner of a brutal Protoss faction. Sweetie also considered Lyra’s testimony and noted everything she said about the Tal’darim, especially the part about them being blind worshippers of Amon, the name of which was implied to her even if Lyra never uttered his name since they weren't sure if it was time to reveal his identity to Raynor yet. Just from Lyra’s testimony alone told Sweetie and Raynor that the Tal’darim are not a group that can be negotiated with. On Sweetie’s end, Raynor and Lyra were pleasantly surprised that Sweetie had amassed a significant number of Credits, Lyra’s surprise came when it was explained to her what Credits were. The mercenary contracts that Sweetie received were also happily received by Raynor. With that, Raynor, who saw Sweetie’s return as the final bit of preparation he was waiting for, decided to resume their revolution and make a difference that will actually grab Mengsk’s attention. Raynor activated the command console next to him to address the holographic image of his personal adjutant and asked it if his troops were ready. “Your forces are prepared and awaiting your orders, Commander. Uploading tactical data now.” The console displayed numerous images of a familiar location, one that had gone through significant changes over the past few years. “Backwater Station is the center of Dominion logistics on Mar Sara. Destroying Dominion authority here will cripple Emperor Mengsk’s operations throughout the planet.” A building was displayed and indicated as the logistics headquarters of the Dominion on Mar Sara. Since Mar Sara held little importance to the Dominion, Sweetie wasn’t expecting any heavy resistance. For everything she and Lyra went through, she was not expecting the mission to be a challenge,especially since it was said that the Dominion troops were undermanned in terms of military strength. “The people of Backwater Station are known to be anti-Dominion,” the adjutant continued. “But they lack weapons and organization.” Inciting the locals into a riot can be a double-edged sword, while angry citizens can cause a lot of damage, the Dominion troops may panic and start killing civilians. If or when that happens, Sweetie knew that they would need to be extra careful to minimize casualties. Feeling confident in his friends’ abilities, Raynor opted to infiltrate Backwater Station with just him, Sweetie and Lyra. The trio dropped into the area from Raynor’s personal Dropship. “Alright ladies, let’s show the locals that they don’t need to fear the Dominion,” Raynor said. The trio walked past an abandoned checkpoint where one of the vehicles hit the gate while the vehicles behind the one were abandoned. Further ahead was a lone civilian who looked like she had given up hope given the inflection in her voice. She warned the three of them to not go up the road. Near some broken mining equipment were some Dominion troops gathered in one place. Sweetie decided to be the first one to show off by unleashing a psionic explosion that caused the heads of the group to explode. Raynor was once again reminded why Sweetie was not to be trifled with. Just ahead was a device that displayed an image of Mengsk spreading his messages of oppression. Raynor blasted the device in a hail of bullets. “Are you going to do this every time you see Mengsk’s face on some digital media?” Sweetie asked. “We might be able to encourage the citizens to riot if we go around breakin' Dominion property,” Raynor replied. Moving into the town, the trio noticed the buildings and vehicles were all abandoned. A pair of Dominion Marines were in the street looking for civilians. Lyra, with her psionic and void powers greatly enhanced from her time on Slayn, decided to experiment with something. Channeling her void powers, Lyra bound the Marines in a Maelstrom. Raynor was confused for a moment before Sweetie nudged him and knocked him out of his confusion long enough for him to take out the Marines. Seeing the ability at work, Sweetie became curious about it, “Wasn’t that ability usually used by Dark Archons?” “I learned a few new tricks while I was Alarak's prisoner. Among them was the ability to use the powers that Dark Archons use.” “I see…” With a shrug, Sweetie and the group moved onward past some guy who was grieving over his neighbors and family being abducted by the Dominion. Coming upon the plaza, the group discovers a large Dominion force gathering in the area. Not taking chances, Raynor let the Ponies handle the group. Sweetie sniped a few targets which caused them to run around in confusion. When they got the idiotic idea to bunch up and look for a sniper, Lyra deployed her warp blade and bane blade and shredded the Marines apart in one sweep. Raynor continued shooting up Mengsk’s holoboard displays around the plaza while Sweetie used a Mindblast to deal with a group of Marines that stayed out of the action in the main area. The majority of the civilians were in the next area being moved into a transport. The Dominion mentioned a dig site. One of the civilians attempted to flee, seeing this one of the Dominion Marines pointed his rifle at the civilian...before his head exploded from a sniper round. Realizing that his friend was just sniped, he looked around for the sniper before he found his vision to be vertically shifting, one eye looking up and the other looking down. He didn’t even realize he had been vertically sliced in two before his consciousness faded. The transport was equipped with an autogun turret which Lyra slashed off and passed it to Sweetie who jammed it into the front of the vehicle. Raynor got the rest of the civilians out of the vehicle before it blew up. The civilians expressed their gratitude toward Raynor and the Ponies and told them that more were being held prisoner further ahead. Raynor shot up the last two holoboards in the area. With Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra causing a huge mess for the Dominion, the citizens were emboldened to take up whatever they could get their hands on and start attacking the Dominion facility. The Dominion set all of the few guards they had to try to quell the rebellion only to be frozen in place by a Maelstrom, leaving them easy prey as the civilians burnt them alive with molotov cocktails. A pair of the new Viking fighters flew in as a last ditch effort to defend the headquarters. Sweetie locked them down and both Ponies took one out. Lyra unleashed a powerful psionic blast while Sweetie tried out her new Psionic Lash where she unleashed a concentrated burst of psionic energy which had devastating results. With all security taken out, Raynor planted charges all over the headquarters and detonated them, tearing apart the building and sending a message to Mengsk: Raynor and the Ponies are back.