Raynor had returned to the Hyperion bridge after a brief visit to the lab. He was in a less-than-pleased mood. Sweetie noticed the mood and figured that his interactions with the old adjutant had not gone as he had hoped.
“Did the adjutant have anything useful or can we not even access the info?” Sweetie asked.
Raynor responded with a sigh, “The latter, since I’m registered as a criminal in the adjutant’s databanks, I can’t access the info.”
“Maybe I can give it a try,” Sweetie offered.
“Doubt it. If you’re not registered in the Confederate database, you’re classified as an alien and I’m pretty sure you would get the same access privileges as me.”
“Know anyone who can hack into the adjutant?”
“I think I do. Colonel Orlan at Deadman’s Port can hack into just about anything.”
“Think he’ll do it?
“‘Long as there’s something to hack into, he’ll do it. Say, didn’t someone we know end up gettin’ married last time we were there?”
Matt turned to Sweetie and Raynor, “Please don’t, sir, I already get enough of that from Sweetie.” Raynor and Sweetie shared a laugh at Matt’s expense.
Lyra was in the cantina again playing ‘Lost Viking’ and finally managed to complete it. Now, she was going for the high score.
As she was playing she listened in on the latest news broadcast. This time, Donny was comparing Raynor to Mengsk in his usual bias. He claimed that although they both rebelled against a governmental regime, Raynor was doing so while humanity was at war with the Zerg and Protoss.
Tychus sat at a table talking to one of the crew members and telling them of some of the times when he and Raynor went around the sector robbing trains, mentioning robbing the Shale Express at least a dozen times.
Sweetie went to the lab to see how Hanson was getting along with Stermann. What she wasn’t expecting was for Hanson to get her attention first.
“I heard you wrote a book about your experiences on Tarsonis during its fall. I managed to obtain a copy of it shortly before the book was banned everywhere. Was everything you said in there true? Did Mengsk really unleash the Zerg upon the planet and throw Kerrigan’s life away to them? Is he responsible for the birth of the Queen of Blades?”
“It’s all true, I’m afraid. I had a firsthand experience of the battle of New Gettysburg where Mengsk ordered me and Kerrigan to drive away the Protoss, who were trying to deal with the Zerg. Kerrigan’s signal was lost and we found her over a month later on Char, completely altered. Mengsk even openly admitted to planting enough Psi Emitters on the planet to lure billions of Zerg to the planet. He did all that to eliminate a government. He sent me and Kerrigan on a suicide mission with full intent on getting rid of us because we didn’t like his methods.”
Hanson was completely shocked that she collapsed on the floor. It took her five minutes to regain enough composure to stand back up. Another five minutes was needed for her to think clearly enough to speak again, “That’s the kind of man leading us?! Does he even realize how many lives were lost in that tragedy?! Does he even care about the lives he’s indirectly taken?!” she shouted.
“Publicly, he will say he does. In reality, they were merely stepping stones to pave his way to power. He will pay any price, short of his own life, to get what he wants.”
“My God…” she whispered. “Our Emperor is a monster. No wonder the Raiders hate him so much. He’s even worse than I could have imagined.”
Sweetie left Hanson to sort her thoughts out.
Sweetie had received notice that the Hyperion had just docked at Deadman’s Port to hand over the adjutant to Orlan. Raynor and the Ponies waited a few hours for Orlan to give the word that he finished the decryption. No word came so far. Raynor had a feeling that Orlan was about to do something he wouldn’t like.
A transmission came in from Mira. She alerted everyone that Orlan decrypted the adjutant but planned to sell it to the Dominion and he was planning on paying her to keep the Raiders away from him until the Dominion arrived.
“That’s nice, Mira, but why are you telling me all this?” Raynor asked warily.
“Because I like you and Matthew better than him, of course! Not to mention that your second-in-command is a good friend of mine. Now, match Orlan’s offer in Minerals and I will side with you. Or...”
Sweetie knew where she was going with this, “Yeah I know, I actually will call in that favor you owe me. Since he hasn’t paid you yet, I want you to capture Orlan and return our adjutant to us. You can keep whatever Minerals he scraped up.”
“Aww...I can’t kill him?”
“We may need him in the future, not unless you know a better decryption expert than Orlan.”
“Very well, I will keep him on ice for you and Raynor. I will even do that much for free. By the way, say hi to Matthew for me. Ask him why he never calls.” Matt facepalmed.
“One last thing,” Mira continued, “I forgot to give Matthew his gift last time he was here. Since you won’t be here long though, I’ll just give you the schematics to build them in the future.” Mira had the Vulture schematics uploaded into the Hyperion mainframe.
"One other thing," Sweetie said, "I want the terms for the agreements to be that either myself or Raynor can make use of the Colonel's skills without the permission of the other. Just in case one of us is unavailable."
Once the terms were agreed upon, with Raynor's acceptance of the terms, the transmission ended.
Later, the adjutant was recovered and Orlan was Mira’s prisoner. While Raynor went to have another chat with the mechanical relic, Sweetie decided to check with Swann to see if he had some upgrades for the hardware.
“What’s up, ranger? Where’ve you been? Got quite a few new pieces or hardware and some upgrades for ‘em,” Swann said.
“So, what do you have for me today?” Sweetie asked.
“I equipped the Diamondbacks with Tri-Lithium Power Cells to increase the range of their cannons and a Shaped Hull to increase their durability. May not seem like much but better than nothin’.
“I found some new upgrades for our SCVs too. I installed onboard assistants into the systems to allow multiple SCVs to coordinate with one another when constructing a building so they don’t interfere with each other’s construction efforts. I also installed extra fusion welders on each SCV to increase their efficiency when they repair buildings.
“As for those metal deathtraps called Vultures (Don’t tell Jim I said that), I could only find upgrades for those Spider Mines they carry around. I installed a microfabricator that allows them to convert minerals into more Spider Mines. I also increased their detection range and blast radius.”
Just when I thought they couldn’t get anymore dangerous… Sweetie thought.
“I also got the Goliath schematics recently and found some upgrades to their targeting systems. Normally, Goliaths can’t attack a ground target and an air target at the same time, but with the new weapon system, that becomes a possibility. The Ares-class Targeting System also lets them lock onto targets from a greater range.”
“Impressive, we certainly got a lot of new stuff lately,” Sweetie said.
“Look forward to what comes next. I got a guy who’s sellin’ me Siege Tank schematics. Don’t have ‘em yet, but soon.”
“I will look forward to it.” Sweetie left the armory and returned to the bridge.
Sweetie felt like she had delayed Tosh’s request long enough and convinced Raynor and Matt to head to Bel’Shir to gather the Terrazine gas.
Raynor, Tosh, Sweetie and Lyra observed an image of Bel’Shir on their screen. Tosh commented that the jungle planet was much prettier than Redstone.
“I don’t like fightin’ Protoss if I can help it,” Raynor said.
“Not just any old Protoss - fanatics called the Tal’darim,” Tosh said.
“I don’t remember any Tal’darim force acting around here. If Executor Nyon is leading this force, he’s a little far from any of the Xel’naga artifacts,” Lyra commented.
“Whaddya know about this Nyon person?” Raynor asked.
“Not much, the guy was considered weak by Tal’darim standards when he lost his mind to Terrazine exposure. He’s unreasonably fanatical to the Xel’naga and believes that guarding artifacts is his divine purpose.”
“Sounds like negotiatin’ is off the table. Lyra, how ‘bout you and Sweetie get somethin’ together and drive the Tal’darim from the area while my boys get the Terrazine.
“Another chance to see the Thestral in action? This I gotta see,” Tosh said.
Sweetie and Lyra had gathered a few Marines, Medics and Marauders by the time Nyon decided to contact the Raiders and demand that they leave.
“Hi Nyon, I’m First Ascendant Lyra. We’re here for your ‘Breath of Creation’ and you’re not stopping us.”
<”Very well. Tal’darim warriors, execute these interlopers and seal away our altars.”>
“I hope you got a plan,” Raynor said.
“I do, just need to wait. In the meantime, get those troops ready,” Lyra said.
Sweetie was glad to see that Lyra was finally stepping up. As they waited for troops to arrive, Nyon’s forces made an attempt to cap an altar. Lyra sensed the presence of Protoss near the altar and locked on to them. The next moment, she lit her horn and teleported to the Probe working on the altar and slashed it in two. Before the escorts could react, Lyra teleported back to Sweetie.
The process continued to repeat until a significant number of Marines, Medics, Marauders and Goliaths were gathered to attack the Tal’darim. They began by attacking the nearby Tal’darim outpost which provided little resistance. The High Templar burst into light by Lyra’s Feedback. Scouts and Void Rays were locked down then shot down. Lyra continued to teleport to enemy Probes and dividing them in two.
Soon, the Tal’darim forces were forced back to the main base. Sweetie and Lyra split their forces and attacked their base from both entrances. Nyon’s forces were unable to properly react to the pincer attack and was soon overwhelmed. With the main base leveled in a storm of bullets, grenades, missiles and psionic blasts, the Tal’darim were forced to retreat.
Seizing the opportunity, the Raiders sent SCVs to every Terrazine altar in the area and harvested them all dry of their gaseous contents. Tosh was very surprised that he would be getting a lot more Terrazine than he asked for.