Home to the New Folsom Prison, the planet New Folsom was a deadly volcanic planet surrounded by two asteroid belts. Any ship that tried to get to the prison would need to survive the countless asteroids first. This was fine for the Dominion capital ships, but it shut off whatever plan the prisoners had of escaping. Larger transports would be spotted by Dominion ships, and smaller ships would be destroyed before they could even reach the facility.
New Folsom Prison was used to keep political enemies of the Terran Dominion. It was under the protection of the New Folsom Defence Fleet, a fleet made up of 1 Gorgon and 14 Minotaur battlecruisers. A ground force of over 10,000 strong secured the prison itself.
Thirty battlecruisers exited warp space a safe distance away from New Folsom Prison. They were out of the scouting perimeter of the Dominion patrols. All of them were modified by their mercenary pilots. The dull fashion of the Confederacy and the Dominion was replaced by sharp and deadly spikes.
Vikings and wraiths were deployed to patrol around the fleet.
Inside the bridge of the flagship, Jean and Viper stood side by side. Viper was in her usual ghost hostile environment suit. Jean, strangely, was in a Dominion officer suit. The military uniform added some spirit to her cute face.
The supposed commander of the fleet, Isaac, stood slightly to the back. His head was held up so other mercenary crew members in the bridge wouldn’t be suspicious, but the man was looking at Viper zealously. If she asked him to commit suicide, he would do it without question. The female ghost’s psionic input made herself a god in front of the mercenary leader.
But Viper didn’t have the time to check out Isaac. She was too busy talking to Jean.
“Are you sure about this operation? I did some research on New Folsom. This is not an easy nut to crack.”
Jean merely smiled and turned to her. “You scared?”
Viper laughed. It was a comforting sound, and a few crew members glanced at her and licked their lips. They immediately turned to mind their own business when she rested her hand on Jean’s chin. “Anything for you, my love, but I still don’t like the idea of you going in there alone. I should be coming with you.”
What a waste of resources. One of the crew members cursed inside.
“Trust me. It’s normal for an inspector officer to arrive alone, but if you come with me, the Dominion officers will start wondering why a random officer has a ghost on her security detail. I don’t have the time to forge an identity for you either.”
“I can go in there cloaked.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We both know the place has god knows how many detectors and ghosts. If it was that easy, Tosh would have done it himself.”
“Speaking of Tosh, do you trust him? I have heard some news about him. Did you know he was banned from Deadman’s Port by the most ruthless mercenaries? How bad does he have to be to be banned by mercenaries that hurt and kill people on a daily basis?”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Tosh needs me.” Jean checked her watch and looked up to see Tosh still wasn’t here. “Let’s go over the plan again. I will enter a dropship and go to the Dominion defensive fleet posing as an inspector tasked with doing spot checks on Dominion ships.” The New Folsom planet was covered by asteroid belts, but the Dominion Fleet was resting in a space platform a short distance away from the prison.
“I will ask to inspect the Gorgons. After I enter the bridges, I will deploy a malware to the computers of the ships via a piece of hardware before returning here.”
“As soon as I am back, the combined forces of you and Tosh will attack. The Gorgon will be under my control, and our fleets will destroy the Minotaurs. When the sky is cleared, our capital ships will move onto New Folsom and bombard the orbital defenses and ground forces. The bombardment will clear most of the defenders, opening up an opportunity for us to deploy our ground forces, clean the rest of the Dominion forces, and free the prisoners.”
“Tosh’s ships will stay outside Meinhoff and hold off any potential Dominion reinforcement. Clear?”
“What happens if your identity is compromised? You will be alone and defenseless.”
“I’ll be fine.” Jean’s watch held hundreds of Warden units and warbots. It wasn’t much, but if Jean needed to, they could hold back the security forces of a battlecruiser as and hopefully buy enough time for her to escape. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell Viper that.
Viper sighed. Jean cupped her hand around her chin and wanted to say something, but suddenly a crew member broke the sweet moment.
“Sir, terran warp signals twelve o’clock.”
The first thing Viper did was turn around and stare at the crew member with furious eyes. The man immediately lowered his head. He had no intention of pissing the brooding ghost off.
Under Viper’s disappointed eyes, Jean walked to a computer and sent Tosh a communication request. It was patched through quickly.
“I told you I can get some ships. 3 Minotaurs and 6 Behemoth.” Jean keenly noticed a drop of blood on his spectre battle suit. Ships, especially capital ships, don’t come for free. Obviously Tosh took it by force, not that it was her concern. “Should we proceed with the plan?”
“Yes. Wait for my signal.” She gave Viper a gentle kiss on the lips before walking out of the bridge. She was heading directly for the hanger, where a Dominion styled dropship would bring her to her mission.
A red dropship approached the Dominion port. It was immediately intercepted by a squad of three wraiths. It was only the familiar red plating that prevented the wraiths from shooting the transport out of the sky.
“Dominion dropship, identify yourself.”
“This is Inspector Evelyn. I have been sent by Emperor Mengsk himself to inspect the defenses of New Folsom.”
With Tosh providing her the Dominion access code, which he gained through whatever method, Jean was able to send the Dominion ships on New Folsom a completely fake identity as well as a fake mission.
Unfortunately, the vessels of the New Folsom Defensive Fleet were in a completely different channel. If she wanted to alter the codes of these ships, she needed a way in first.
“Affirmative sir. Please hold on for a second while I verify your identity.” The leading wraith pilot immediately turned from the businesslike tone to a respectful one. An agent sent by the leader of the Terran Dominion himself had a much higher position than a random wraith pilot.
In half a minute, the man accessed the security network and located the corresponding order. “Your identity have been verified, sir, please follow me. I will bring you to the flagship.”
Meanwhile, inside Dominion flagship Valiant, a Gorgon class battlecruiser, Admiral Bradley of the New Folsom Defensive Fleet was notified by one of his crew members.
“Inspector? How come I have never heard of this?” Admiral Bradley was a tall man with grey hair in his fifties. He was a former Confederate general, and he didn’t hesitate to switch sides when it was clear Dominion domination was imminent. As a turncoat, he wasn’t exactly valued by Mengsk. While some generals were living comfortably in core world planets like Korhal, he was sent to be the warden of a prison in nowhere.
Being posted here was boring, and Bradley was certain if his emperor wanted to send someone to him, he would’ve known about it.
“Soldier, bring her to me.” The captain turned to his lieutenant. “Johnson, did we receive orders about this?”
His lieutenant checked something in his computer. “Yes sir. Lieutenant Evelyn of the emperor’s personal staff. It says here that all Dominion personnel on site should fully cooperate with her actions. Sorry sir. I don’t know how it’s been missed before.”
Bradley nodded. “I don’t want to see something like this happen again. As for this inspector, we’ll find out what she is up to soon enough. Lieutenant, go to the hanger and welcome our guest.”
“Yes sir.”
As her dropship landed in the hanger of the Valiant, Jean walked out and was immediately welcomed by an officer. “Inspector Evelyn, I am Lieutenant Johnson. I am here under the order of Admiral Bradley.” He was a young man in his twenties. Jean noticed his heart beat increased when he saw her. “Please follow me.”
Jean nodded. “Thank you, lieutenant.”
Two lines of elite marines who Jean presumed were Bradley’s personal guards followed Jean and Johnson as they walked down the hall of the ship. It was definitely safe inside the battlecruiser, and Jean realized Bradley only sent the guards to show how powerful he was. After all, she was here to inspect the defenses. Bradley wanted to leave a good impression as early as possible.
It took the two ten minutes to go from the hanger to the bridge. On the way, Johnson kept on trying to get close to Jean. The girl learned a whole lot of useless information about the man, like how he had a father at the place of the head of one of the Dominion Fleets and after a few casual years of serving in the safety of the New Folsom Fleet, his father would have a reason to make him a relatively high ranking officer in his fleet. Jean suspected he was trying to get her to sleep with him.
Not surprising, considering Jean was a hot blonde girl. The fact that she was an inspector sent, and probably trusted, by the emperor of the Terran Dominion himself also helped that. If he could get her, he could get both the girl and a potentially powerful political ally.
Jean carefully played the role of a businesslike officer who only wanted to get the job done and get out of there. If Lieutenant Evelyn was real, she wouldn’t be turned to a love puppy in ten minutes.
Finally, they reached the bridge, where Jean saw Admiral Bradley.
“Sir,” She saluted. She was still a lieutenant and he was still an admiral. Some basic respect needed to be in place.“Inspector Evelyn reporting in, sir. I trust you are aware of my mission here.”
“Actually, inspector, I am not sure of your mission.” Bradley moved aside and showed a file on the computer screen behind him. “It says here that you are to inspect the network integrity of my fleet. What does that mean?”
“I will examine the security network of your fleet and make sure it can not be hacked. It means I will need access to the core codes of your fleet, including that of your security network and your ship computers.”
“That’s a lot to ask for.” Bradley frowned. “If meticulously altered, these codes can turn the entire fleet on itself.”
“With all due respect sir, I do believe you have been instructed to cooperate with me.”
Bradley started weighing his options. Deep down he didn’t want to give this girl the codes. It would be like handing the fate of the entire fleet away, but he had no choice. What the girl said the next second made him make up his mind.
“Sir,” Jean walked a step up and whispered into Bradley’s ear. “Sometimes, enemies from the inside are the most dangerous ones.”
Bradley’s mind immediately started wandering. Enemies from the inside are the most dangerous. What does that even mean? Under this circumstance, this Evelyn must have said it for a reason. What is that reason?
Enemy from the inside are dangerous...so they should be dealt with...how…
Through surveillance…
There hasn’t been even an attempt of a prison break on New Folsom in years. Why was this inspector suddenly sent here? The answer was simple. Evelyn wasn’t here to inspect the defenses...that was just her cover...she was here to install something else...perhaps a backdoor…
She was here under the command of Emperor Mengsk, so this must be Mengsk’s decision. If he refuses to obey, he would be standing against Mengsk…
As a turncoat who only joined Mengsk the last possible moment, Bradley knew he wasn’t exactly trusted by the emperor. If he as much as suspects that the Admiral was conspiring against him...Dominion Special Forces wasn’t created solely against protoss and zerg, They were as powerful taking down terran enemies as well. Some would even argue they were better at fighting terran.
“I will give you access to the codes now. Feel free to do whatever you want. I will not intervene. Lieutenant?”
Lieutenant Johnson walked up.
“Show Inspector Evelyn to the tech apartment.” He threw the young man an encouraging look. “Follow her orders without question.”
Johnson smiled and held his hand out politely. Jean thanked Bradley before following the lieutenant out.
This was easier than she expected.
