Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft 2 or anything associated with Blizzard Entertainment or anything to do with Activision (damn money grubbers) either. I think I covered my bases. This ladies and gentlemen, is how I see Wings of Liberty. A great story that wasn't quite told well. Thus, here is my answer to it. Some of the dialogue will be improved upon. (Kerrigan not once, not once mentioning Razagal to Zeratul? Not taunting him about that? Please…) and some of the scenes may be added and/or modified a bit. (Or more than a bit. I mean rain on Char? Rain? Really?) And some of the characters may be expanded on based upon the lore I've researched. (I'm a lore nerd for Starcraft : p) Other than that, this is essentially a novelization of Wings of Liberty. So as always everybody, please read, review and enjoy!

Starcraft 2

Wings of Liberty

Mar Sara

If somebody had told me four years ago that I'd once again be sitting here at Joeyray's drinking a glass of Old No. 8, I would have almost laughed before punching him out. I was in orbit when I saw the protoss burn up the planet. I was sure then that I'd never come back here cause there'd be nothin' to come back to except a dead rock floatin in space.

But I guess a lot can happen in four years, people can recolonize, rebuild, and create a life back out here. And then Mengsk's damn Dominion can swoop in here and make that life into all kinds of hell.

I took another shot of Scotty Bolger's to try and drown the rising bitterness. Didn't seem to help.

The bar was empty, Joeyray said that I could stay here till I was done doin what I needed to do. Even allowed me to put everything I bought on tab. Guy always was nice.

The sunset bathed the landscape in a golden light, damn I gotta say, I've missed Mar Sara a lot these past few years. More than I care to admit really.

Y'know now that I think about it, Mar Sara's always been a turning point in my life. It's where I decided to live and become a Marshall after I quit being an outlaw. Where I married Liddy and settled down with her. Had a kid, then lost em' both.

And then it was here that I met up with Mengsk and Michal Liberty, joined the Son's of Korhal and got into this latest mess.

Now had you told me four years ago I'd be the leader of a revolution against a dictator I helped put into power, I'd have dragged you off to the nearest psyche ward. Life's funny that way I guess.

I came back to Mar Sara for two things. One, was to try and come to terms with some things from my past. I've had a lot of thinking to do, and this revolution of mine doesn't really seem to be goin' anyplace fast. So I figured it was time to come to come back and put things to rest with the past.

Plus I guess Mike helped with that. Little while ago he sent me a transmission, sayin only this, "run from your past and it'll chase you down even faster."

Don't know why he sent that. Anybody who intercepted the message are probably still scratchin' their heads about what it meant. But I guess Mike knew the past was on my mind a lot lately.

So I went to my old house, found the safe that I kept all my memento's in. Vidsnaps of me with the Heaven's Devils, me with Liddy and Johnny, my old marshal's badge, even my wedding ring.

The house was so completely wrecked it was a wonder it survived at all. Even the old swing set Johnny used to love was still here, busted, but here.

I then went to my wife's gravestone, finally said my goodbye's and burned my memento's. All except my marshal badge which seemed to refuse to be burned.

I guess it was a bit liberating. When Liddy and Johnny died, I never really mourned. I threw myself into my work to keep from thinking about it. And then what with the whole deal with the protoss, zerg, the Son's of Korhal, and the Dominion, hasn't been a whole lotta time for dealing with grief.

So that was one of the reasons I came back. But if I'm honest, I doubt I would have done that if Mar Sara didn't have the other reason for comin' back.

That reason bein' that the Dominion was sticking its fingers into something that didn't belong to it. And I don't take kindly to that.

I still had some time to kill so I turned on the tv. Flipping through the channels till I found the news. At first it was local news informing me of exactly what I wanted to hear. Mar Sara's people were gettin mighty pissed at what the Dominion was doin to them. Just right for a little revolutionizing.

I stared back at the table in thought as the news rattling off details. Then it switched to other news, and that only meant one thing. Mengsk.

I opened another bottle and refilled my glass. I was gonna need it.

"…Commemorating the end of the so called, Brood War 4 years ago. Our own Kate Lockwell was on the scene."

"Emperor, the threat of a zerg invasion is still very real, but instead of expanding our fleets you've squandered trillions hunting down has been rebels like Jim Raynor."

Has been huh? Owch. Worse thing is, some days I feel exactly like that. Then came that voice, that swarmy charming voice that should have made me shoot him the second I heard him open his mouth all those years ago.

"Allow me to answer with a question miss Lockwell, where did you get such ridiculous numbers? I know very well the threat that the zerg pose to the survival of every man, woman and child of humanity. Though they have not shown themselves for years, they are still out there, waiting to devour and infest us all. But I have not been idle! Trillions have not gone into hunting rebel factions, trillions have gone into improving our armies, advancing our technology in unprecedented ways so that when they do return, we will be ready and we will defeat them, together."

Always did have a way with words didn't you, you bastard. I thought to myself.

"But make no mistake, Jim Raynor still represents a clear and present threat to this Dominion. He is an unscrupulous, lawless revolutionary bent of spreading fear and dissention across the sector in a time when we need unity and order to face the greater threats to our very survival! Remember when the zerg tore through Antiga Prime? When they laid waste to Tarsonis? The zerg have killed trillions of people and Raynor would still have us fight amongst ourselves with such a threat…"

I let Mengsk's rant fade from my hearing as the familiar rage welled up in me. Antiga Prime? Tarsonis? He's the one who murdered those planets! And how dare he use Tarsonis to justify anything!

The thought of Tarsonis brought my eyes to the table again. I had my revolver (I know I know, its outdated, always did have a soft spot for antiques.) some glasses and a vidsnap in front of me. I reached out and turned the vidsnap over.

A beautiful red haired woman with absolutely gorgeous green eyes smiled at me. This was probably one of the few pictures in existence of her when she was still human. And I'd bet all the credits in Koprulu that's it's the only one where she's smiling.

Sarah Kerrigan, former Confederate Ghost, former second in command to the Son's of Korhal. Former friend and almost…something more to me.

I've lost people to betrayal before, hell, almost my entire unit, the Heaven's Devils were wiped out because our superior officer decided to screw us over for credits. And it never got easier. Betrayals like that are unforgivable.

And of course Mengsk's betrayal couldn't have just ended in Kerrigan's death now could it? No the zerg had to take her and twist her into a damn monster. And then she had to go and betray and murder countless people. And all because of that bastard sitting on a throne using the innocent lives he killed to justify whatever he damn well wants to do.

Now the familiar guilt decided to take a turn to mess with ol' Jimmy's head. I should have been there at New Gettysburg. I should never, never have let her go alone down there.

"…I assure you, this criminal will be brought to justice, very soon."

But between feeling anger or guilt, I guess I'll take anger over guilt any day.

I grabbed my revolver and aimed it at the tv. "It ain't over till it's over you son of a bitch."

I fired at one of the smaller tv screens, right smack dab where that bastards greedy heart was and his image faded from the screen.

In hindsight, I suppose that wasn't' exactly the most mature thing to do. Its not easy to get new bullets for this thing. But right then and there, I was too damn pissed off and Joeyray could add it to my tab.

Deciding to be a little more constructive with my anger, I activated a portable adjutant console I brought with me. Its face faded into view and looked at me.

"Adjutant, are my troops ready yet?"

The vaguely female A.I. looked oddly pleased as it gave its report. "Your forces are prepared and awaiting your orders commander. Uploading tactical data now."

"Good. Bout time we kicked this revolution into overdrive."

Oh yeah, it's much better taking anger out on Dominion assholes who aren't on a screen.

"Adjutant, what have you got for me?"

The Adjutant's green face faded as it projected a screen of various Dominion assets on this planet.

"Dominion forces have set up a logistics headquarters in the town of Backwater Station. This has become the hub for all operations on Mar Sara. The Dominion recently pulled troops from out of the city and are now under strength."

"Are the locals cooperating?"

"The people of Backwater Station are known to be anti-Dominion but lack weapons and organization."

Weapons and organization huh? I think I can help with that.

"Prep my ship."

My ship arrived pretty quickly, along with my armor and a platoon of some of my troops.

One of my marines popped his helmet open and grinned. "Bout time sir! We were starting to think we just came to this planet for the sightseeing."

Despite my anger, I couldn't help but grin back. "Ah hell I couldn't do that to ya boys. I know firsthand that Mar Sara ain't much to look at. Even before the protoss gave her a makeover."

That earned laughs all around.

"Heh, nice sir. Your suits in the back, lookin' badass as usual."

My men were in a good mood today. Then again, making strikes against the Dominion pretty much always got them in a good mood. Worked for me.

I walked to the back of the ship, looking a bit like a small child compared to the CMC clad soldiers around me.

Then I reached my own armor. Standing like a black golem out of some old earth legend. Its pitch black paintjob made it stand out from the blue and grey or red and grey of most CMC suits. But what really made this special, was the skull painted on the faceplate.

This wasn't a suit you wore for battle, this was a suit you wore for when you were gonna kill anything in your way.

This suit had served me pretty well in the past and still hasn't failed me.

Through years of practice, I managed to get quickly into the suit and seal it up without too much effort. Firin it up and testing the movements. Perfect.

"Alright boys, lets get this show on the road. Mar Sara was home for me for a long time. And I don't take kindly to the Dominion making itself at home here. So how about we kindly show them the door."

There were whistles roars of approval. Damn, they must have really needed this.

Our dropship flew in low, hopefully under any sensor sweeps until we arrived a few klicks away from the control center. I figured we could pass through the towns and take out any Dominion soldiers keeping the locals under a curfew.

When the ship landed, we all quickly exited the hold.

"All right boys," I called out. "Let's show the locals they don't need to fear the Dominion!"

We ran a few hundred meters toward the entrance to the outskirts of the town. Taking cover to look for any signs of Dominion guard. Nothing yet. In fact, there didn't seem to be anybody around here…

"Keep your intervals wide, your eyes open and your asses covered. Let's move."

Quickly pressing onward, we began to enter the town. There seemed to be signs of an evacuation gone bad. An entire line of vehicles all smashed together in a crash. But there were no bodies in them, not to point out the obvious, but something was wrong.

There were dogs all over the place, lookin for a meal. One of my boys almost shot one as it scurried away. Seeing too many zerglings in one's life tended to make one skittish towards animals of roughly the same size.

It was then that we met our first local. An elderly woman who seemed almost shell shocked from something as she aimlessly wandered around outside of a house. We approached her to make sure she was ok.

"Don't go up that road." Is all that she said before she went back into her house in fright.

We didn't really have any medical supplies or time to make sure she was alright, but we managed to make sure she stayed in what seemed to be her house. She'd be safer in there.

We kept moving and then came up on our first Dominion targets. Two Marines who must have drawn the short stick patrolling wise. Or they were looking for anybody who was still around.

I signaled my boys to surround them, when they were in position I ordered them to open fire. They went down pretty quickly, one of them managing to spot my distinctive skull faced helmet and saying "Raynor…" before going down.

That's right assholes, Jimmy Raynor is back. I thought with no small satisfaction.

Leaving the two dead marines we came up on something that made my blood boil. A holoboard with Mengsk's likeness on it spouting propaganda.

"Dissent will only weaken us in a time when we need unity," the synthesized voiced boomed. On the more positive side of things though, someone had taken some paint and put graffiti that said "Mengsk Lies" on a nearby billboard. Beautiful sight, now to improve it.

"I'm gettin' mighty tired of seeing Mengsk's face. Burn it!"

We all opened fire on and it went down in a gorgeous plume of fried electronics.

But I was just getting started. Finally we reached the main part of the town. And yet still there wasn't a sign of hide nor hair of any of the locals.

"Where is everyone?"

The only reply I got was gunfire as a lone Dominion marine opened fire on us.

He managed to get a hit on my suit but luckily it was a glancing hit. And then he went down hard.

Without a word we quickened our pace as we moved out. All of us wanting to know where the hell everybody was.

We came across another shell-shocked soul who was surrounded by some dead and chard bodies. The only thing he kept repeating was,

"My neighbors…my family…"

I felt a growing dread and sympathy for the poor bastard.

"This is startin' to look ugly."

My boys and I couldn't do anything more for the man so we kept going.

Then my adjutant patched herself into my helmet. "Commander, a large Dominion force is gathering in the center of town."

I kept my head down as I peaked at the town square. Sure enough, a sizeable amount of Dominion troops were there, all well entrenched and outnumbering my boys almost three to one. Attacking them right now would be suicide.

But I just smirked as I waited for the squad of those new Viking flyers to pass overhead.

"Then its time to call in that special delivery we talked about."

That was the signal, high above the atmosphere of Mar Sara, A group of dropships suddenly detached the drop pods that were hooked onto the bottom of each ship. Each pod carried a fresh new platoon of my marines.

I can only imagine what went through the minds of the Dominion soldiers as the pods landed right smack dab in the middle of them all. Crushing a few of them and burning others with their control thrusters. Then my boys came out and the party really got started.

The troops with me didn't need any prompting as we charged into the surprised troops. Firing as we ran and taking them out by the score. One marine managed to take cover and tried to take me by surprise as I got near the sandbags. Fortunately I was close enough to just punch out his visor with one gauntleted fist.

After we were done, my new troops gave a cheer.

"Thanks for the assist. We're with ya Raynor!"

I nodded my thanks and we started to continue on our way. Blowing up more holoboards and taking out more patrols.

Still searching for everybody through what could now be called a ghost town.

Until we found them

"Finally! There's the locals."

We kept a low profile as we assessed the situation. An armored transport with armed guard. It looked like they were loading up people by the dozens.

My hand clenched in anger as I listened in with my helmet's enhanced hearing.

"You'll all be givin a meal when you reach the dig sight." The leader by the looks of him. Dig sight?

However before I could think of what they were digging up, my attention went to a civilian at the back of the line.

"My brother went off to the mines last week. He disappeared!"

My blood ran cold with what I knew he was about to do. Damn it man just wait a moment for us to get into positon!

But he tried to run anyway and they gunned him down easily.

That was the last straw. "They're shootin civilians! Move in!"

And then we were on them. Shooting up the armored transport and giving the Dominion troops more holes to breathe out of.

After everything that could shoot at us was down, we got the prisoners out of the transport and blew it to hell.

"Mengsk has a lot to pay for…" Making prisoners of damn good people, people who I helped out as a marshal. Sometimes I swear if I ever get my hands on that bastard, I'll beat him to death instead of just shooting him. Or hell, maybe I could feed him to a pack of zerglings, an inch at a time.

I popped open my visor to get some fresh air and a lot of the locals started laughing in relief as they recognized me.

"Well I'll be damned. Thanks Raynor, shoulda known you wouldn't forget about us."

"There's more people still being held up ahead." Another one said.

"I'll see to them." I promised her. Then I signaled two of my troops to escort the locals back to town while the rest of us went into the base.

The Dominion must really not have given much of a crap about this planet, because there were few guards to watch out for the prisoners. Me and my boys quickly took em out and got the prisoners out of the and we also busted open some weapons caches.

As I tore the door off one of the prisons, another old friend of mine looked at me and smiled.

"Marshal Raynor. Been awhile since we've seen you around these parts."

"Figured I'd stop in and say hello to everybody." I quipped back.

I then had my troops pass out some weapons to everybody.

From there it we did what we did best. Raised some hell.

"We're with ya Raiders!" One guy called out and the rest responded with a cheer as my troops and I took the lead in storming the base.

My raiders and me took out every surprised Dominion soldier that came out to stop us while the locals pretty much just blasted everything else in the base.

"This is a restricted area! You insurgents are under arrest!"

My reply to the Dominion bigshot was to shoot out the nearest speaker.

Finally we got to the logistics center, just as a squad of marines and two vikings took up defensive positions.

"Take cover!"

The vikings began to shoot at us first. Pinning us down behind cover. Luckily, the locals managed to take cover too and in fact, it looked like they were sneaking around behind the Dominion forces…

And that's exactly what those magnificent bastards did. Snuck up behind the vikings and started throwing grenades by the dozens.

The viking is a tough machine, but I don't care how much armor you have on ya, if a couple dozen of grenades are thrown at ya, you will feel it.

Plus it had the added benefit of making the marines and the other viking turn around. Big mistake.

"Hit em!"

We burst from our cover guns blazin. Mowin down the rest of the marines and hitting the last viking in the joints where hopefully it would cause the most damage.

I didn't need to worry though, my new impromptu army already took care of most of them. Now it was just a matter of destroying that last building.

"Burn it boys!"

There are very few things in the sector that can withstand a constant barrage of explosives and gunfire coming from over a hundred angry locals. This building was not one of them.

The cheer that went up from everybody put all the others to shame. People were climbing up on the remains of one of the vikings and shooting guns in the air.

"We can beat them!" one woman kept shouting.

I smiled a little. A smarter man would have used this victory to stock up on his own resources. Those weapon stockpiles could come in handy. But I figured they needed them more than I did.

"Now you've got the weapons and the resources to do it. Remember, Mengsk can only control you if you let him."

Like I let him four years ago…

The cheering rose into the sky and made me feel a little better. I'd just liberated what used to be my home, a place where a lot of good folks made their livin.

I left some of my troops to party and help out a little longer. As for me? I headed back to Joeyrays alone. Cause despite this victory, as much as it mattered to me, I wasn't nearly as happy as I should have been. Mengsk was still on his throne and I was no closer to kicking him off of it then I was before. And Kerrigan was still alive, biding her time until she decided to come back to kill us all.

I needed a drink…