“Alright, what did the techs find out about Tychus?” Sweetie asked Matt.
“They found a sophisticated transponder in his suit. They say that if the transponder receives the correct code, it’ll shut down all his major organs. That suit is a death trap,” Matt said.
There was only one person who she knew had the motivation to put a man in a suit of armor and put a kill switch in it. This was further believed because no Protoss or Zerg would know the workings of Terran technology and Kerrigan was focused on controlling her brood. Even if Moebius was underhanded, it wouldn’t make sense to draw the suspicion of the Raiders upon themselves.
That left Mengsk. Planting moles into the Raiders fits within his capabilities, even coerced moles would be within his modus operandi.
Sweetie now knew what she had to do. “Where is Tychus now?”
“Only place we haven’t looked is the bridge.”
Sweetie and Matt went to the bridge to find the convict looking into the Hyperion video files. Tychus noticed Matt approach him and turned off the video.
“That’s funny, convict, I don’t recall giving you access to our database,” Matt said.
“Just keeping up on current events, ‘Captain’,” Tychus responded.
Matt moved aside for a moment. The next thing Tychus saw was a charged rocket barreling toward him. The rocket latched onto his suit and sent an electrical charge through it, shutting down any computerized systems. Tychus’ suit became much heavier. “What the hell are you--” Tychus managed to say before a powerful psionic wave assaulted his mind and his vision blacked out.
“You know, I could have you thrown off the ship for discharging your weapon on my bridge. But since it was meant for Tychus, I think I can overlook that,” Matt said.
Sweetie giggled before calling in a stretcher to have him sent quickly to the medical bay.
Inside the medical bay, Sweetie had gathered all necessary minds and means to complete the operation. Hanson was monitoring Tychus’ vitals in case the suit activated its kill switch. Stetmann was monitoring the machinery to make sure everything necessary was in working order.
Tychus was locked into an electromagnetic field to prevent the suit’s systems from reactivating while Sweetie was keeping Tychus’ consciousness locked for the operation.
Into the room came the surgeon for the operation: Lyra Heartstrings. She had been briefed of the procedure that she was about to perform. Since the EM field didn’t affect her powers, she could use her blades to perform the operation.
Deploying her warp and bane blades, Lyra had begun to carefully cut through the armor, piece by piece. She started by cutting off the shoulder armor and cutting into the mechanics beneath. She managed to carefully cut the arms of the suit off to reveal Tychus’ meaty arms. His arms were a bit singed but a Medic was nearby to heal any surface damage.
Lyra went straight to the chest area by cutting into the left side of the armor. So far, no emergency signals were activated. Lyra cut around the midsection and up the right side. Once Lyra cut around the neck of the armor, Sweetie managed to remove the front and back of the armor, revealing that Tychus was not wearing a shirt when the armor was put on him.
With the more dangerous piece of the armor removed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief before Lyra focused on removing the lower section of the armor, doing her best to avoid any ‘important’ areas.
A few hours after the operation and Sweetie had released her hold on Tychus’ consciousness, the convict had woken in a bed in the medical bay. Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra were next to him.
“Urgh...what happened?” Tychus asked.
Sweetie went first. “We found out what your suit was and decided to remove you from it. I suspect it was Mengsk who put you in there and I didn’t want to risk him finding out so I used a Lockdown on your suit and put your mind in stasis while Lyra surgically removed the suit from you.”
Tychus looked at his hand then looked at the rest of his body to find the suit had, in fact, been removed while he was asleep.
Sweetie continued, “We found the signal the transponder was broadcasting to Mengsk and found a way to mimic it. I’d rather he not suspect that his mole had been outed or he will just plant another within our ranks or worse.
“So, what happens to me?” Tychus asked.
“Well, ol’ buddy, you can keep workin' with us and live the glory days a little or if you’re feelin’ particularly loyal to Mengsk, I can toss you out the airlock,” Raynor responded.
“Heh, since I’m free, the deal I made with him is off. Seems I owe the Ponies here for my freedom.”
“Good, cause we’re gonna make you pay back every bit of effort we went through to break you out of that suit,” Sweetie said.
Later, Sweetie, Lyra, Tychus and Raynor were back at the cantina enjoying a drink. Lyra was busy, as usual, trying to beat her high score on ‘Lost Viking’. The crew scrounged around the ship to find Tychus a shirt and some shoes. In the end, all they could find was a maintenance outfit for bulky people like him. “Better than nothing,” they believed.
The news came on with a report about the Queen of Blades and speculations of her origin. Donny and Kate debated about whether it was possible to form an alliance with the Zerg since Kerrigan was an infested human. Another point they made was whether or not they could kill her. Sweetie ignored the news for the most part since they usually don’t have useful information to give.
Raynor tried to grill Tychus for more info on Moebius and the relation between Kerrigan and the Xel’naga artifact fragments. Tychus, unfortunately, had next to nothing since Moebius left him with a ‘no questions asked’ policy. Still, this was enough to leave Sweetie feeling that Moebius was not as legitimate as the public saw them.
Sweetie went to the lab to check out their newest acquisition. The Overmind’s protests had intensified a little ever since the Monlyth fragment was recovered. It made sense to Sweetie since it said that the artifact as a whole could take in essence. She would need to be careful around the artifact since she was not willing to have the Overmind ripped from her head, not with all the knowledge it still had to give.
Before Sweetie left the lab, Hanson stopped her to give a request, “I was hoping you could hear me out. I’ve been keeping contact with the Agrian refugees. Refugee populations from across the sector have been using the planet Meinhoff as a staging point. But with so many people in close proximity, an epidemic of some kind has started sweeping through the camps.”
“Any idea what kind of disease they’re dealing with?” Sweetie asked.
“All they said was that there was some kind of growth covering the buildings and twisting the forms of the refugees.”
“Sounds like they are being exposed to Zerg hive spores. They infest whomever they come into contact with and the infection spreads like a disease.”
“Any means to cure it?” Hanson asked.
“Scientifically, no. The virus adapts to any attempt at a cure. We thought the Protoss had one once, but we never heard whether the cure stuck or not. We could only assume it didn’t and he was killed. Still, we’ll deal with it. We will have to burn the infection before it spreads any further though.
“I understand.”
Sweetie left the lab to go see if Swann had any new tech.
“Hey Swann, we’re planning to go to Meinhoff to deal with a Zerg virus outbreak. Got anything good?”
“Ugh...Meinhoff...hate that place. But yeah, I can recreate those Hellions you saw on Mar Sara. Should be good down there. I even installed an extra nozzle for their flamethrowers for a wider burn. I also invested in some thermite to make them very dangerous to groups of Zerglings or in this case, infested people.”
Sweetie returned to the bridge and convinced Raynor to set course for Meinhoff.
Once orbiting Meinhoff, Sweetie discovered that the planet itself had an extremely fast rotation compared to other worlds. This likely meant that the planet would have a very short day and night cycle. A discovery on the surface showed that the infested were extremely sensitive to the nearby star. This left Sweetie to wonder how it was possible for Zerg to have such a crippling weakness on a planet where the star shines on the surface every few minutes. And secretly wishing Celestia were with her to keep the star in one place and make the mission much easier.
On the surface, the Raiders established themselves in the center of a refugee town called Jorgenton. Being in the only area in the town that wasn’t infested was one thing, being in the center of town surrounded by infestation was another.
The base had three chokepoints and one was blocked by debris. Firebats, Marines and Medics took up positions at the other two points. While defenses were being set up, Sweetie and Lyra spent the scant few seconds scouting the infested areas.
It wasn’t long before night came. Grotesque looking colonists began emerging from the infested structures and shambling their way toward the central camp. The infested were begging anyone around them put them out of their misery. Sweetie and Lyra obliged and sliced and blasted the miserable colonists.
Coming across various infested buildings and nothing nearby looking for their invisible forms, the Pony duo started tearing into the buildings. They also got reinforcements from Sweetie taking control of some of the infested who started clawing away at the infested buildings. Sensing this, the other infested started attacking their treacherous brethren.
The star soon appeared from the horizon and burned any infested that were exposed to the light. Sweetie and Lyra received word that a fast-moving attack group of Reapers and Hellions started engaging the southern districts of the town. Lyra started unleashing powerful psionic blasts that annihilated buildings. Sweetie called in Siege Breakers to blast more buildings to rubble.
Seeing Lyra’s power, Sweetie began feeling a little jealous of her marefriend’s powers. While Lyra could fight a horde of enemies on her own at this point, Sweetie still had to rely on mercenary contracts and other conveniently available resources such as Nukes and Zerg to get by. Perhaps the Overmind was right, she may end up seeking the might of the Swarm at some point in the future. While not today, she was beginning to consider seeking a new form of power that Terran ingenuity could not provide.
Night came again. The attack squadron went back to base. Sweetie and Lyra focused their attack in the eastern parts of town. During their attack, they found Marines that were infested by the Zerg virus. This variety still carried their rifles.
Another Zerg they found was also a new strain. This one had a massive body that walked on six smaller legs. The abdomen was large and swollen and the front was layered with segments of chitin. Upon close inspection, the swollen sacs were filled with infested Marines. The Overmind told Sweetie that the new strain was assimilated recently and was called an Infestor. They carry their own supply of infested Marines for their own protection.
Since the creature appeared to be a specialist, Lyra turned its own bio-energy against it with a Feedback and the creature violently ruptured.
Sunrise came again. Sweetie and Lyra headed through the southern parts of the town to find that it had been cleared. The attack squad, bigger than before, hit the north part of town.
In the western parts of town, Sweetie discovered, through her detection ability, a burrowed Zerg that appeared to be another of those infestors. By pointing the creature out, Lyra used another Feedback that had the same results as the first one.
Night came again. This time, with nobody retreating, the attack squadron focused on burning down the last of the infested buildings in the town.
With the town all but destroyed, the surviving colonists evacuated Meinhoff to seek a world to call their own, hopefully.
Sweetie, Lyra and the Raiders returned to the Hyperion, their grim task done.