“It has been forty minutes. What’s taking her so long?” Viper impatiently circled around the bridge.
On the computer screen, Tosh was equally worried. The only difference was he was worried about Jean for a different reason. “If Miss Turner can’t complete her part, our forces will be crushed by the Dominion Fleet.” He could back off, but if he did he would’ve missed his best chance. After this failed attempt the Dominion would either strengthen the defenses or simply execute all the spectres to keep them from being rescued. The time is now.
“If Miss Turner doesn’t return in ten minutes, we will push the attack.”
“With Jean still aboard?”
“If she doesn’t return before that time, she is likely dead, and the Dominion have realized an attack is imminent. We need to strike before they have too much time to prepare.”
Viper suppressed her urge to strangle the much larger man. “As a fellow ghost, I am rather curious of your decision to send an untrained personnel to infiltrate the enemy lines. You people call yourselves spectres, the next generation ghosts, but all you do is sit back and let others do your biddings.”
“Careful, ghost. I would be more careful with my word choices if I were you.” Tosh took out his dagger and started flipping it around with a speed a normal person couldn’t even hope to follow.
“Don’t threaten me. I…”
“Sir, dropship approaching.”
Viper immediately dropped Tosh and turned to the bridge. A communication request appeared on a computer screen next to her. She pushed the crew member aside and patched it through.
She was relieved when she saw Jean’s familiar face.
“Mission accomplished.” The girl smiled. “I am entering the hangar now. As soon as I’m in, launched the attack.”
“And the Dominion Fleet?” On another screen, Tosh heard the conversation between Jean and Viper. He immediately cut in.
“Neutralized. They will not be a problem.”
Tosh nodded before turning around and started barking orders at his men. A few minutes later, the entire fleet started moving.
As the fleet moved and Jean’s ship entered the safety of the hangar, the girl finally had the time to turn to a computer device. It was connected to the back door she installed in the Dominion network.
She pushed a button.
On the other side, the New Folsom Defensive Fleet responded as quickly as possible. Runners in fighters delivered the orders the old fashioned way as they went from ship to ship, ordering them to prepare for war.
The fleet’s network engineers, hundreds of them in total, were working double time on canceling whatever change Jean made. Jean was good, some would even call her a genius, but the engineers weren’t useless either. As the best of the Dominion, they might be weaker than Jean, but their numbers made up the difference.
The weapon and communication system was already restored. It seemed like Jean went through all the trouble for nothing.
Hearing the report from his men, Admiral Bradley took a breath of relief. He was shaken for a moment, but the situation was already stabilized.
The fleet was ready for battle. All the systems were restored. The orbital defensive system in Deadman’s Port was alerted and in battle position. Ground forces were put on red alert. The mysterious foe that sent this so called Inspector Evelyn has missed the best chance to strike. If they make a move now, they would face a painful defeat.
Then all hell went loose.
In the halls of the ship, unarmored crew members suddenly felt a wave of dizziness overwhelming them. The weaker ones immediately collapsed. They wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. The stronger ones leaned on the walls, struggling for breath.
Inside the bridge, Admiral Bradley collapsed in his seat. He was an experienced commander, but he was also an old man. Under the current situation, his brain was giving up.
A few younger officers in the bridge, upon realizing something wasn’t right, fought off the discomfort and made a diagnosis on the hull of the ship.
What they discovered was horrifying.
“Sir, the life support systems are offline!”
Unlike protoss, whose plasma shields could deflect anything that might be a threat, and zerg, whose powerful bodies could survive some of the most extreme environments in the sector, human beings were vulnerable. Anything from the vacuum of space to the cold of Kaldir could kill them.
The terran used their technology to solve their problem. From the smallest CMC armor of a marine to a several kilometer long battlecruiser, every piece of terran weapons had a life support system. They protected the users from things like radiation and death by suffocation.
This was what was keeping every soul in the fleet alive, and now it was turned off.
“Sir, it’s happening to all our ships! This is not an accident! It’s an attack.”
Bradley’s head grew heavier and heavier. It was as if someone put a ton of metal in his skull.
“Restore it…quickly.” He whispered with all his strength.
“Yes sir!” The unarmored crew members were down, but a large portion of the Dominion units were security forces with CMC armors. The armors had their own life support system that kept the men breathing. Dozens of security forces inside the bridge charged toward the central processor chamber where all the engineers were. If they could get to the tech nerds, they might still be able to restore the sabotaged systems.
Imagine their disappointment when they realized the blast door was closed a while ago. The layer of safety that should’ve kept the enemies out became a trap to seal the friendlies in.
A marine groaned and smashed into the door with all his strength, but the door didn’t even buckle. It was designed to hold off enemy boarding parties. The layer of alloy could withstand hours of gauss rifles and zergling claws. Even the psionic blades of protoss zealots needed a while to get through.
Without heavy weaponry, the marines were useless.
All across the fleet men and women collapsed and choked to their death. Marines lived a bit longer with their helmets shut, but their oxygen tanks weren’t full either. They were on a patrol mission on a battlecruiser. None of them was equipped for this. Their armors merely delayed the inevitable.
For the first few minutes there were still scattered cries for help, but as time passed, the radio went quieter and quieter.
Eventually, it was silent.
Dead silent.
As tens of thousands of lives were taken away by Jean’s tap of a button, the combined rebel fleet made a move toward the orbit of New Folsom.
Jean was already back in the bridge. Viper gave her a gentle kiss to the forehead as a welcome home reward, but that was it. When the ghost parted, she was once again the elite operative. She knew this was no time to be soft. When she gets this job done and goes back to Deadman’s Port, she could be as soft as she wanted to be.
The fleet of thirty nine battlecruisers started dropping in altitude. They were welcomed by the planet’s orbital defense system. Jean hacked the fleet’s security network, but she didn’t have access to the orbital defenses.
Four Drakkhen Pulse Cannons slowly took aim. They were strong enough to threaten capital ships. Missile turrets and Anti-air batteries, in comparison, were less effective, but they were in plentiful numbers and were spread all around the platform. They weren’t powerful enough to threaten the battlecruisers, yet they could gun down any transport the rebels send out. The rebel fleet needed to take down most of them before making a move on the prison itself.
But if they do that with the old fashioned bombardment, Dominion reinforcements would likely arrive before that.
Thankfully, the rebels had an expert in prison breaking. Tosh spent years planning for this breakout, and something as crucial as the orbital defenses were already taken into consideration.
Four of Tosh’s Behemoth battlecruisers descended against the hail of missiles and occasional pulse cannon rounds. One of them was mortally wounded in the process. A Drakken Pulse round found its way to the ship’s fusion core, which exploded and ripped the entire ship into countless fragments. Thousands perished, but neither Jean nor Tosh cared about the losses. The rest of the battlecruisers got into firing position. A line of missile pods were opened up in their bellies.
“Now!” Inside the bridge, Tosh ordered loudly. He was so close to accomplishing his goal…
Twelve nuclear missiles exited the battlecruisers and started flying toward the orbital defenses. Some of the missile turrets retaliated, but they simply weren’t enough. One of the nukes was intercepted midair.
That left eleven nukes.
Before long, eleven mushroom clouds rose from the ground. When the smoke cleared, most of the missile turrets, batteries, and one of the Pulse Cannons were gone. Tosh has did his research, and all of the nukes were fired in such a position so that they would destroy as much orbital defenses as possible without endangering the prison itself.
Three of the Drakken Pulse Cannons were still standing, but they were alone. Five dozen vikings were unleashed and quickly overwhelmed the cannons, which were designed to take down capital ships, not agile fighters.
When the ground was cleared, hundreds of dropships and drop pods were launched toward the prison.
Meanwhile, in the command center of the New Folsom Prison, Nova glanced at the scanners, which showed the rebel fleet ravaging through the missile turrets and pulse cannons.
After making the deal with Raynor, she and her special forces came here. Their purpose was not only to keep Tosh from reaching his spectres but also delay him long enough for Raynor to take out his base. Unfortunately, this job seemed even more difficult than she imagined.
“Sir, the orbital defenses are done.”
A ghost walked in. He looked similar to any other Dominion ghost, but he was not just any ghost. He was a Specs Ops ghost. The best in the entire Dominion, he could easily take on a spectre and win. There were thousands of ghosts in the Dominion, but there were only a couple dozens Specs Ops ghosts. A squad of them was worth an entire battlecruiser. Mengsk only sent them out because Tosh was a legit threat to his safety.
“Have we resumed contact with the fleet?”
“Negative. All of the scouts we sent have been shot down. We have no idea what’s going on up there, but if the rebel fleet is already in orbit...we should plan for the worst, as unlikely as it is.”
Nova had a few agents in Deadman’s Port, and she was able to come up with a rough estimate of the strength of the rebel fleet. According to tactical analysis, as long as Admiral Bradley didn’t make a fatal mistake, the Dominion fleet should come out on top. If the rebel fleet tried to force its way onto the prison, it will attacked by both the orbital defenses and the fleet. Nova wouldn’t even need to wait for the Raiders to do their job to take down Tosh.
But look at the rebel fleet now. They don’t seem to have fired a single shot. But how’s that possible? It’s not like the defensive fleet would simply let an entire fleet of rebel ships get past without even trying to stop them, right?
“Should we call in the Alpha Squadron?” The Specs Ops ghost asked.
Emperor Mengsk’s order was to make sure Tosh couldn’t leave New Folsom, and Nova made according plans. This prison was a bait. When Nova confronted Tosh, she was telling him his only opportunity to attack the prison was now. She knew he would come.
Now all she needed to do was keep him from running. Even someone as well protected as Mengsk didn’t want to be constantly threatened by a bullet from a distance away everytime he goes out of his palace. An elite rogue killer who wanted him dead was a deadly threat.
The plan was to lure Tosh and his allies to attack the prison. The New Folsom Defensive Fleet and the orbital defense systems would retaliate but would ultimately be held off by the rebel fleet. The rebel ground forces would land on the prison and be held back by the Dominion security forces.
And then Nova would call in the Alpha Squadron, a fleet made up of two Gorgons and 15 Minotaurs. With the help of the Defensive Fleet, the Alpha Squadron would wipe out the rebel fleets. Knowing Tosh, Nova knew the spectre would get in the field himself, which meant he couldn’t get away the first sign of trouble.
With the rebel fleet down and the Dominion fleet securing the skies, Tosh would have no way to go. That would be when her Dominion Special Forces would come in. Reinforcements from the New Folsom Defensive Fleet and Alpha Squadron would arrive as well. The combined power of the Dominion ground forces would wipe out every rebel on the ground of the prison.
Tosh was a powerful spectre, but against dozens of ravens, several Spec Ops ghosts, an army, two fleets, and Nova herself, he wouldn’t stand a chance.
It was a carefully crafted plan, but Nova didn’t expect it to go wrong in the first step. The New Folsom Defensive Fleet should’ve at least pretended to be protecting the prison and should’ve held back at least a large portion of the rebel fleet.
It didn’t take the best ghost in the entire Dominion to realize something was seriously wrong.
At this point, tactically speaking, the wisest decision would be calling in the Alpha Squadron and secure the prison, but Nova was thinking more than tactically. Alpha Squadron’s presence would likely scare off the rebels, and it would be god knew how long before she could get another opportunity to take down Tosh.
“That’s a negative. Tell Alpha Squadron to maintain current position and wait for further orders.”
