Sweetie, Lyra and Kerrigan successfully evaded Dominion pursuit and boarded Raynor’s dropship. Kerrigan, who was piloting the ship, engaged the jump drive and headed to where she and the crew of the Hyperion agreed to rendezvous.
The ship arrived at the rendezvous point after the Hyperion and docked in one of the Battlecruiser’s hangars. Once the ship landed and the engines deactivated, Kerrigan, Sweetie and Lyra disembarked and proceeded to the bridge, Kerrigan being more eager in her steps since she wanted to make sure Raynor was safe.
The bridge had a slightly different atmosphere than usual given the presence of the Umojan Marines.
Kerrigan looked around to find Raynor but couldn’t see him anywhere. Kerrigan’s anger grew as her sense of dread grew. She saw Matt and demanded to know where Raynor was. Valerian, who knew that Kerrigan was going to very cross with him, walked over to Kerrigan to give her the bad news.
Kerrigan didn’t take the news well as she began to use her psionic powers to strangle Valerian. Her fury was fueled by the memory of Arcturus abandoning her while associating Valerian with his father. The Umojans moved to protect the prince but ended up caught in Kerrigan’s telekinetic grip.
Sweetie calmly walked over to Kerrigan and spoke gently, “We’ll get him back, Kerrigan. And as much we both hate Arcturus, you more than me, I’d rather keep Valerian around because once Arcturus is dead, the Dominion will need someone to look up to and it’ll be a huge pain in the ass for humanity to scour the sector for someone who won’t just become another Arcturus.”
Out of respect toward the one person, or Pony, that she considered a friend, she let go of Valerian and the Umojan guards.
Suddenly, a fleet of Dominion Battlecruisers appeared around them and forced the Hyperion into a combat situation. Matt was preparing to have the Hyperion jump out of the area, but Kerrigan wanted to wait to see if Raynor would show up. The differences of opinion led Kerrigan to simply leave the bridge and head back to the hangar.
Sweetie prepared to follow Kerrigan to the hangar before she looked at Lyra who was planning on following her. “Lyra, I need you to stay with the Hyperion. If the Dominion end up infiltrating the ship, they’ll need you to help repel them.”
“What? But Bonnie--” Lyra said out of concern.
“No buts. Where I’m going you can’t follow. I already told you my plans in confidence. I need you to make sure these guys survive this war against Mengsk until the end.”
Lyra was hesitant to see Sweetie go. After a few seconds of suppressing her internal turmoil, Lyra relented. She was sad to see her leave, but she had hope that they would see each other again and that the Zerg wouldn’t try to eat her alive.
Sweetie joined Kerrigan aboard Raynor’s dropship and left the hangar just before the Hyperion jumped to an unknown location, the Dominion in pursuit.
Kerrigan flew the ship to a nearby planet in her attempt to find Raynor. While she wouldn’t admit it openly, Kerrigan was grateful that Sweetie chose to help her in her mission to find Raynor and kill Mengsk.
Matt gave Kerrigan one last warning before the Hyperion was out of communication range about the Dominion having sent troops to the planet.
Kerrigan had the ship run a scan of the area where she was planning to land and found the Dominion base along with an old hive cluster. The Dominion had a massive cannon nearly operational. Kerrigan was concerned that the cannon might take Raynor out if he came to the planet.
Kerrigan resolved to head to the hive cluster to build an army to take out the Dominion.
The ship landed near the hive cluster and Sweetie and Kerrigan entered the ship’s hold. The two could sense another presence in the room with them which made Kerrigan anxious. Sweetie recognized the presence and assured her that the presence was not a threat.
To help alleviate Kerrigan’s concerns, Sweetie ordered the presence to reveal themselves. A lone infested human, Ariel Hanson, stepped out of the shadows to reveal herself to her. Kerrigan looked at Sweetie and raised an eyebrow before Sweetie explained Hanson’s situation.
Sweetie and Kerrigan disembarked and left Hanson in the hold for her own protection. Both could tell that the Zerg weren’t feral so Kerrigan telepathically reached out to whoever was controlling the hive cluster, “I can sense a mind controlling this Brood. Who are you?”
“My queen, I am Naktul, a Broodmother. You created us to extend your control of the Swarm. Have you returned to us? And who is the one who accompanies you?”
“I’m not your queen and I haven’t returned. The one you ask about is my friend, Sweetie Drops. You will treat her with the same respect as you give me. I need your Brood to destroy the Terran cannon, right now.”
“Most of my brood is with me. I can send them to you, but it will take time... ”
“Then send them. When they arrive, we’ll tear down that cannon before Jim gets here. Meanwhile, I’m going to prepare this hive for combat. The Dominion would have tracked my ship and they’ll be looking for me.”
The psychic transmission ended and Kerrigan began to coordinate the hive cluster. Sweetie walked up to Kerrigan. “Broodmothers, huh? I take it they’re the next generation Cerebrates?”
“In function, yes. But I made these to be capable of self-defense and capable of independent thinking.” Kerrigan gave a smirk. “You didn’t think I was twiddling my thumbs when the threat of Amon was real, did you?” Sweetie returned the smirk.
Sweetie decided to move out on her own while Kerrigan prepared the hive cluster. Spotting a few Marines standing around, she pulled out her rifle and put a bullet in each of their heads before they realized they were under attack.
Naktul mentally spoke again, “When the Dominion arrived, some of my Brood went into caves.They will rejoin us if we can kill the Terran soldiers guarding the cave entrances.”
At the same time, a Dominion patrol checked on the hive cluster and discovered Kerrigan before reporting her location. Heavy attacks were anticipated in the future.
Sweetie discovered one of the caves nearby guarded by a Bunker while a Marine and Firebat harassed the Zerg in the cave. Sweetie charged up a Psionic Lash and obliterated the Bunker while burying the Marines in the remains of the structure. A few headshots put them out of their misery before she did the same to the duo harassing the Zerg in the cave, freeing some Zerglings and a Swarm Queen.
Kerrigan continued luring Dominion to her while Sweetie took advantage of the lack of detection to pick off Dominion camps.
Sweetie discovered an interesting feature with the new model of Hellions: the ability to transform into light combat walkers that appear to have greater offensive and defensive capabilities at the cost of the speed from their previous form.
Naktul informed the two of more cavernous holdouts being guarded by the Dominion. Sweetie dealt with the Dominion harassment teams and released more Zerg from their natural prisons.
Sweetie’s antics had weakened the strength of the Dominion attack waves enough for Kerrigan to send Zerglings and Queens in to assist Sweetie.
It wasn’t long before all Dominion except the force near the cannon were destroyed.
Sweetie moved in to the base near the cannon to check out the defenses there and, much to Sweetie’s disappointment, there were no Missile Turrets, Ravens or Science Vessels anywhere in the base. Sweetie had assumed that any Dominion force would at least consider the possibility of facing invisible enemies.
Sweetie would make the Dominion pay dearly for their oversight of such a detail. She demolished structures and decimated the defenders with her Mindblast and Psionic Lash. She also killed a number of infantry by shooting them point blank in the face without them even realizing it.
The Dominion were spooked and started firing randomly which only resulted in deaths by friendly fire. Sweetie picked off whomever was left.
By the time Naktul’s Brood arrived, Sweetie was already unleashing her psionic power on the cannon. Naktul assisted in its destruction even if she hardly contributed.
Naktul couldn’t get enjoyment out of the destruction because she had nearly nothing to do with it. Kerrigan ordered the fleeing Dominion to be eliminated. Naktul could at least take pleasure in such a command, believing that the Queen of Blades had returned.
Realizing what she just said, Kerrigan fled back to her ship in shame of relapsing. Sweetie chased after her and made it to the ship in time before Kerrigan took off.
In the cockpit, Kerrigan tried desperately to find Raynor on any radio frequency but had no luck. Sweetie sadly shook her head.
Suddenly, a Zergling walked into the cockpit. Kerrigan pointed her gun at it while Sweetie simply watched the spectacle.
The news came on with a sudden announcement that Jim Raynor was captured in a raid before he was interrogated and then executed. Mengsk made a speech to gloat about his victory over his enemies which made Kerrigan visibly furious. Sweetie decided to step in.
“I see Arcturus is still manipulating the media despite that scandal we revealed to the public.”
“Huh?” Kerrigan asked.
“Think about it; Raynor is a popular figure among the colonies. They see him as a heroic figure while thanks to that scandal, Mengsk has a very low approval rating. If the Dominion had killed him, the colonies would be outraged and start their own rebellion which would give Mengsk no end to headaches. If he tried to wipe out those rebels, public opinion would end up viewing Arcturus as a monster and the people would do what they could to flee from his regime, likely to the Umojan Protectorate for protection. It’s a slippery slope when you don’t deal with a charismatic figure like Raynor correctly.
“Mengsk knows this so in the likely case, Jim is probably captured and Mengsk will likely use him as a hostage to make sure you leave him alone. You and I both know that you are the one thing in the universe that he fears the most.”
“So you believe that Jim is still alive?”
Sweetie gently put a hand on Kerrigan’s shoulder. “Positive. For now, we need an army. We need to rebuild the Swarm and take this war to Arcturus so we can finally end him. We will save Jim along the way.”
Kerrigan smiled and wiped away the tears she shed. She sat in the pilot’s chair again and set the ship on a course for Zerg-controlled space.