Raynor and Kerrigan charged into the bridge. A wall of twenty Warden marines was at the door. After what happened with the mercenaries, Captain Horner wasn’t willing to take any chances.
“Sir.”
“What the hell is going on, Matt?”
“Sir, a group of mercenaries went rogue and started attacking us. A squad of war pigs attacked the bridge and killed a lot of good men. Also,” Captain Horner pressed a button, and a videotape appeared on the main computer screen. “you need to see this.”
In the video stood a large man in blue armor. A mountain of bodies was at his feet. Raiders. Wardens. Mercenaries. Ordinary crew and staff members. All of them were ravaged and lifeless.
“Tychus attacked the lab and killed everyone inside, including Stetmann.” He paused. The nerdy scientist was one of the most intelligent people on the ship. Rebellion wasn’t exactly the ideal life choice for the educated, and scientists and engineers among the Raiders was rare. Someone as talented as Egon Stetmann was even rarer.
Raynor held his fist tight. “Damn it, Tychus!” As much as he was annoyed with the young man’s shyness and hesitant way of speaking, he couldn’t help but admit there was a lot of things he couldn’t accomplish without Stetmann. He even played a huge role in putting the artifact to work.
Horner continued.
“This was from three minutes ago. Tychus went to the hanger and took out all the guards. I have sent a squad over, but he managed to escape through a shuttle.”
“We need to leave.” Kerrigan suddenly spoke up. She gave Raynor some time and space to deal with the recent rebellion and losses, but her tactical side demanded her to speak up. “There is no way your friend Tychus is working alone. I have a bad feeling about this. This location is compromised. We need to leave as soon as possible.”
Horner cut her off. “I tried. Tychus sent a squad of rogue mercenaries to the warp drive. They took out the guards. The Warden reinforcement terminated them, but before they died, they managed to destroy enough of the warp drive to keep us from warping away. Swann is fixing the drive, but…”
“But we might not have the time.” Raynor finished the sentence. “We can’t take any chances. All units enter battle position.”
The crew members who survived the onslaught ran to their posts. Mercenaries still loyal to the Raiders, as well as other Raiders, did their best to prepare for combat. Raynor and Kerrigan stood at the bridge with their lips tight.
But the fact is, when someone is afraid of something, that something tends to come true.
Raynor’s heart sank as seventeen battlecruisers exited warp space. Their red plating shouted their allegiance.
“Sir, their ships register as that of the Alpha Squadron. 2 Gorgons. 15 Minotaurs. Commanding officer is Admiral Princeton.” Horner explained. Perhaps the Raiders didn't have information on random Dominion fleets, but the Alpha Squadron was one of the top Dominion fleets. Apart from securing Korhal, the Alpha Squadron was used as a propaganda weapon to demonstrate the Dominion prowess to the people. Everything about it, its ship types and numbers, as well as its commander and its flag, was open to the public.
The Alpha Squadron didn't even bother hiding it. They had confidence they wouldn’t lose to someone just because the enemies had their information.
By the way, the Alpha Squadron, alongside the Omega Squadron, attacked Deadman’s Port, wiped out Jean’s mercenary fleet, and took her prisoner.
Raynor didn't know that, but that might be the last of his concern right now. After all, for the moment, it was one ship with a cripped crew member count against seventy battlecruisers, all armed and ready.
“How long until the warp drive is back online?” He demanded.
“I’m working as fast as I can, cowboy!” The Raider chief engineer replied through the comm. His hands barely stopped as he spoke. “I need more time!”
But the Raiders didn't have more time. The Alpha Squadron struck without hesitation. They have already established communication with Tychus and knew one of their objectives was safe. In other words, they no longer needed the Hyperion to be in one piece. The second objective, Kerrgan, was going to be terminated anyway. Blowing the hostile ship out of the sky was the cleanest way possible.
Yamato Cannons were charged up. Admiral Princeton ordered his battlecruisers to fire in pairs. Whenever two cannon rounds left the chamber, the Hyperion would be forced to use its short ranged jump drives. After the Hyperion got out of the way, two more battlecruisers would shoot.
“Evasive actions on my command!” In the desperate moment, Horner did the best he could. He tried to take or dodge as many shots as possible without using the jump drives. Only when the shots were too close to move away from did he order a jump.
Thanks to his talents, the Hyperion survived with most of its structures intact.
After unloading one round of Yamatos, the battlecruisers started moving forward. Vikings and wraiths were flung out. The laser batteries on the Hyperion retaliated as best as they could, but they were barely able to keep the swarm of Dominion fighters back.
After the fighters picked off the air to air laser batteries, they started targeting the hull and the armor.
Inside the Hyperion, all the Wardens, Raiders, and mercenaries had their weapons and armors ready, but they might never have the opportunity to use them. The Dominion had no intention of sending boarding parties. They merely wanted to blast the Hyperion apart with sheer firepower.
Raynor and Kerrigan exchanged a look, but there was nothing they could do. Even as the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan couldn’t get the Hyperion out of this situation without the Swarm. As a ghost, she could do even less.
That was when someone who could do much more arrived.
Twenty white battlecruisers jumped in a distance away from both the Alpha Squadron and the Hyperion.
“Men and women of the Umojan Protectorate! During the battle of Char, the Terran Dominion betrayed us and stabbed us in the back! While our people gave our lives taking down the Queen of Blades, the Dominion strike teams and assault vessels attacked our rear! They have killed good men and women, and now they will pay the price with their blood.”
After being revived on Zerus, Jean returned to the Protectorate. Thankfully, during the time she was gone, Stukov remained loyal to Jean and Delta. As a result, even when Jean was missing in action, the high ranking Umojan officials continued to obey Jean’s last commands. The Umojan Fleet remained vigilante. The Umojan factories continued to pump out Warden units.
As soon as Jean returned, she regained control. She loaded up twenty battlecruisers of freshly assembled Warden units and led them to the location of the Hyperion via a backdoor she installed in the Warden tactical network.
She came in just in time to save the day.
All twenty battlecruisers started engaging the Alpha Squadron. Admiral Princeton dispatched most of his ships to fend off the Umojans. The pressure on the Raiders dropped drastically.
The Umojans weren’t as defenseless as the Raiders. Instead of desperately trying to shoot the Dominion fighters out of the sky, the Umojans utilized a full system of fighters and capital ship bombardment. The Warden network installed into every battlecruiser and every fighter made sure the human pilots knew where friendly projectiles would be seconds before these projectiles landed. This minimized the friendly fire.
The Dominion weren’t bad either. As one of the top fleets, the Alpha Squadron held its ground. Great losses were taken on both sides.
“Send in our troops and take that rebel ship.” At this point, Admiral Princeton could no longer afford to play it cleanly. They no longer had the overwhelming firepower to take down the cockroach of a ship, and as costly as it would be, he needed to send in boarding parties.
The Alpha Squadron was equipped with tens of thousands of men, and a significant portion of them were soldiers. Unfortunately, most of the battlecruisers that held these troops were tied up with the Umojans, and the single Minotaur trading punches with the Hyperion only had several thousands men aboard. The captain sent in all of them.
Fortunately for these boarding parties, most of the Hyperion’s guns were picked off. Unfortunately for them, they had something much more deadly than guns to deal with.
Sarah Kerrigan entered the field. The recent days have been exhausting for her, both physically and mentally, and she knew she needed to let off some steam. After giving Raynor a kiss, she grabbed onto a C-10 canister rifle and started going from landing site to landing site.
“It’s Kerrigan! Take her down!” In front of a drop pod, a marine captain screamed as he was shot in the head. Four marines in the same drop pod raised their weapons and pulled the trigger like crazy as they realized who the attacker was.
They lasted two seconds.
The former Queen of Blades slaughtered her way through drop pod after drop pod. It was hardly a challenge for her. Without massive numbers, heavy weapons, and psionic support, the marines and marauders needed a miracle to stop her. It was only the fact that the Raider forces were severely weakened during Tychus’ rebellion that kept the boarding parties from getting crushed instantly.
Inside the bridge, Horner checked at the scanners. The Minotaur they were facing was well equipped, but the Hyperion used to be Mengsk’s flagship. Even though the Hyperion was battered and bruised, the two were still at a similar level.
“Sir, we should be able to hold this…”
Suddenly, a transmission request appeared on the screen.
“Sir, it’s the Umojan Fleet.”
“Patch it through.”
Just like Raynor and Horner expected, Jean’s face, once more disguised, popped up.
“Commander Raynor. Captain Horner.” She acknowledged. “The time is limited so I’ll spare you the courtesy. I am here for the Xel’naga Keystone.”
Raynor frowned. He was happy the Umojan Fleet jumped in and saved the day, but he knew at the back of his mind that the Umojans were a separate political and military faction. Their interest was largely unknown.
“Why do you want it?”
Something must be up with the Keystone. Tychus went through great trouble to steal it, and now Jean was here with an armada. Raynor knew the Keystone purified Kerrigan, but now the Swarm was leaderless and scattered across the sector. Last time he heard, the main zerg fleet, commanded by Broodmother Zagara who managed to flee back to Char with a small squad of survivors, was pinned down by General Warfield. There was no desperate need for the Keystone.
Jean knew she shouldn’t tell the truth.
“My sources in the Dominion told me about an operation to mobilize their agents onboard the Hyperion and steal the artifact. I don’t know why, but I do know the Dominion backstabbed me and almost killed me, so I need to deny whatever plan they have in mind.”
Raynor frowned. Even now, he didn't want to give Tychus out to someone like Jean. But he and his Raiders didn't have the power to track down Tychus and make him pay for his crimes, and there was no way the commander of the Raiders would let someone whose hands were stained in Raider blood to run free.
“His name is Tychus Findlay. He has the artifact and he got into a shuttle and fled. It was thirty minutes ago.”
Jean nodded. Unfortunately for her, when she was back with the Raiders, she didn't have as much resource and technology as she does now. She was able to plant down a homing beacon and an administrator overriding system, but that was pretty much it. She couldn’t exactly see or hear what was going on inside the ship.
She turned back to the entire Umojan security network.
“All units, track down a blue Raider shuttle. If you identify the target, report in and do not engage.”
“Yes sir!”
The battle on the outside continued. Fighters exploded. Battlecruisers gradually lost their armor. Eventually, one of the Dominion battlecruisers was so ravaged by Umojan fire that it was forced to warp away. The modified warp drives allowed the crew members to get their vessels out of this mess whenever they needed to.
One ship became two, which became three, which quickly became half a dozen. Eventually, it was clear to Admiral Princeton that victory was getting further and further away.
But his honor didn't allow him to fail so miserably. Sure, it was 8 against 20 + 1, but it was hardly an excuse for one of the best Dominion fleets.
He decided to make one last effort.
“All ships, move toward the Hyperion and take it out! For the Emperor! For the Dominion!”
Of course, the actual orders were much more complicated than a single sentence. Three Dominion battlecruisers remained in their ground and tried to buy as much time for the rest of the fleet as possible. Meanwhile, the other five battlecruisers advanced toward the Hyperion.
Thrusters to maximum.
