Three years ago
"Lieutenant-Commander!" I rolled my eyes, and pretended not to hear.
"Sir! Lieutenant Ho!" The cadet shouted again, as he ran down the Regalis II's hanger. I sighed and turned around to meet my tormentor.
"Yes cadet?" I said. I stressed the cadet so it became clear I was annoyed.
The cadet gulped audibly, "Sir, the captain wants to see you on the bridge, sir!"
I grunted and walked into the turbo-lift. The cadet jumped just before the lift's doors hissed shut.
"So what's this all about, cadet?"
He winced. "Several unknown ships just dropped into our long-range sensors, sir."
I glared at him. "Really? Well, why didn't you say so, cadet?" Before he could say anything else, I leaned over and punched the lift's controls. "Computer, emergency speed, bridge."
The lift shot up at incredible speed. The cadet collapsed to the floor, but I remained standing. The lift slowed and stopped. As the doors opened, I gave the cadet a disapproving glance. "You should spend more time at the gym, cadet." I stepped out as the doors closed again right behind my ankles, cutting off the cadet's reply. I paused and glanced at the view- screen. Four large Battle cruisers dominated the screen. I looked more closely, and spied a symbol on the nearest of the behemoths.
It was a black eagle of some sort. Below the eagle's claws was emblazoned U.E.D.
The Captain was sitting in his chair, calmly snapping out orders. "Helm, bring us about, roll 30 degrees starboard. Weapons-officer, power up heavy laser batteries, ignite the nuclear reactor. Air Boss, what is our status of the CAP?"
"Captain, we have 36 enemy fighters and 12 unknowns, as well as 4 battle cruisers!" As "Air Boss," the Flight Control Officer had primary responsibility for overseeing all fighter operations, including overall control over the ship's Combat Air Patrol computer. "We are launching all 'Ready-fives' and are currently preparing the other fighters. The Raider, Warhawk, and the Pride of Becker are doing the same." "Ready-Five's" were fighters that were left in the hangar, completely armed and fueled and ready for take off in 5-minutes notice. I stepped up to the captain and gave him a casual salute.
"Lieutenant-Commander Ho reporting for duty...sir."
The Captain returned my salute, but slightly more precise and disciplined. "At ease Lieutenant, as you can see, we have a situation."
"Yes sir, I can see that. Are they hostile?" The Captain frowned and rubbed his mustache. "Well, that is part of the problem. We cannot identify them. And they are out of communication range."
I paused and nodded. "You'd like me to fly into range and find out who they are." The Captain smiled, and pressed a control on his chair. A 3- d map snapped up and plotted the Regalis and our fleet and the unknown ships.
"Correct Lieutenant-Commander. You will go with your entire squadron, identify those ships, and act accordingly." The Captain saluted again. "Good luck Lieutenant-Commander."
* * * * *
I hurried down to the Pilot's briefing room, right outside the hangar bays. All twelve pilots were already there and waiting. I took my seat at the head of the table and activate the holographic projector.
"Alright people, listen up and listen good." I began, taking a deep breath. "We have a new assignment from the man upstairs. We have 4 unknown Battle Cruisers on an intercept course with the fleet. They are out of communication range, so we are to get close and identify them. But we also must be ready, in case their intentions are hostile. Your fighters will be loaded with torpedoes, along with your regular armament. Questions?"
Neta 'Stiletto' Burringer, a female pilot [Raptor 8] raised her hand. "Do the unknowns have fighter support?"
I grimaced, as I replied grimly, "Yes, in fact, there is three squadrons of ships we identified as slightly modified Wraiths. There is also a squadron of larger ships that we cannot identify. Our bonus mission objective is to capture one, but don't take unnecessary risks." I noted that several of my pilots had suddenly paled. "Any other questions?" I asked pleasantly.
Another Raptor stood up, Steve "Wildman" Timmons. "What will Stranger, Talon, and Reaper Squadrons be doing?"
I straightened up. "The other squadrons will guard the fleet, but will be ready to join us in a moment's notice."
"All right pilots! Step lively, this isn't a pleasure yacht." I finished the Squadron's briefing and dismissed them. I hurried down the hanger with the rest of them to the fighters. I clambered to my own fighter. It was a Wraith. A CF/A-20 model, to be exact. Pulling on my helmet, I waved to the Chief Tech Ted Matthews who was crawling with a bunch of other techs piloting SCVs, who were swarming around the Wraith like bees. He gave me a thumb's up sign, and then yelled something that could not be heard over the shrieking of the fighter's engines. The Chief waved off the other techs and I clambered up the fighter's door, where I paused to look at the nose art. It was a picture of a shadowy cloaked figure surrounded with golden dust, underneath the picture was stenciled "Mr. Sandmann". My code-name. My previous commander had given it to me, though I never figured out why he called me that. There the Chief met me.
"Alright Ted, give me the dope," I shouted to him as I strapped myself in.
"You have full fuel and weapons, as well A.S. Torpedoes! Watch that portside laser, it's been acting weirdly might short out if you use it too much! Good luck, and good hunting sir!" The chief fairly screamed into my ear. When the canopy hissed shut, I wrapped my fingers around the control stick. I engaged the engines and cut the anti-gravity lifts.
The Wraith screamed out of the hanger, joining the other dozen fighters already out. "Alright people, form up! Claw formation!" The other pilot's obeyed and swung into position, forming a three-pronged claw around me. We sped toward the big unknown ships.
One of the Wraith pilots, Flight-officer "Hedgehog" Harpools, in the very front of the formation suddenly sounded a warning. "Tally-ho! I got visual contact on the enemy bogies!" Hedger paused for a second, and then continued. "Many bogies, bearing zero-one-five relative, thirty five klicks out!"
Checking my sensors, I saw that I was now in range of the first Battle Cruiser. I flipped on the Comm. and spoke. "Unknown ships! This is Lieutenant Commander Ho of Raptor Squadron! You are in the territory of the Umojan Protectorate! You are in direct violation of the Clair Article number 13.7 section five! You will identify yourselves or be fired upon!"
There was no response for several moments, then the Comm. crackled, and a VERY arrogant voice fairly oozed out of the speaker. "Lieutenant- Commander Ho, this is Captain Svatte of the ship Ranger, recon team for the main U.E.D 2nd fleet. We have all the right to be in this sector. We have lost.a few ships here, and we WILL find them." At the time, news of the U.E.D. invasion of the Dominion had not reached the farthest worlds of the Umojan Protectorate. I had no idea what this jerk was talking about, and at the time, I had believed it was a bluff.
"Really? I had no idea that the back-rims world was of any significance. And you STILL have not said where you are from Captain." I put an edge into my voice.
Captain Svatte chuckled. "You do not know? We are from Earth and we are here to liberate the colonies, and maintain peace in this sector for the future safety of all mankind!" He spoke in a proud, confident manner. But I still didn't believe it for a second. I gave a long pause, but before I could reply, over the Comm., came uproarious laughter.from my pilots.
"Cut the chatter!" I snapped, though I was quite amused myself. "Is that so Captain? Even if you WERE from Earth, I hardly think they would send the likes of you to conquer us!"
I grinned behind my faceplate as the captain roared with rage. "We.I...grrr.ATTACK! BLOW THEM OUT OF SPACE!!!" He screamed!
"Break formation! Independent action!" I yelled into the Comm., as the big Cruiser's lasers lit up space with incandescent energy. I went into a spiral and dipped and spun, easily avoiding the blasts. "Captain Svatte! You have fired upon Umojan forces in our own terratory! I am now authorized to attack, capture, or destroy your ships! Withdraw, surrender, or be destroyed! The choice is yours!"
I switched to my squadron's channel. "Flight one, on me! Everyone else, pick a nice juicy target, and whack it!" The 3 fighters from Flight- One, flew in a line astern behind me. I dived at the Ranger, well inside the cruiser's ability to fire. Let's face it, big ships weren't meant to hit nimble fast fighters like a Wraith. "Flight one! Release A.S. Torpedoes and pull up!" I released my own two torpedoes. Anti-ship torpedoes were actually small nukes, designed to penetrate a ship's armor and explode with deadly force. Hmm.too bad you only carry 2. Flight one mirrored my movements like the trained warriors they were. Four pairs of warheads streaked in at the Battle Cruiser. They hit and detonated in succession. The first pair slammed into the 'neck' of the cruiser. Armor plates shattered and fiery plasma clung to the ragged crater that the warheads had created. The second pair blasted away the remaining armor, and carved a deeper hole. When the third pair hit, it blasted into the hull of the ship and ignited the oxygen. The last two torpedoes slammed into the opposite armor. Flight one soared away from the doomed ship. If we were in atmosphere, we would have heard the tortured scream of metal as the forward section of the cruiser twisted and tore itself in half. The aft section tumbled end over end, until it's sides' split like a balloon and consumed itself in a great explosion.
While we pulled away from the Cruiser's death throes, I noticed several strange ships. Not sleek and deadly looking like a Wraith, it looked more like a box with wings and engines. Of course it didn't have to look dangerous to be dangerous. It fired a spread of missiles. I was surprised to see the missiles scatter in every direction. That thing seemed to be firing at random! Apparently these invaders [whoever they were!] did not care the least about friendly fire. I shrugged. That would just make our job easier. I keyed my Comm.
"All ships, cloak and engage the.boxy things!" I rolled hard to port as several missiles whipped past my cockpit. So close, I could see "Made on Earth" stamped on them! Hmm.maybe the captain was telling the truth.
I swung around, and found myself on the "six" of the unknown craft. My targeting computer placed a bracket over the target and turned green, signaling a lock. I triggered my pulse lasers. The bolts ripped up armor, and exploded circuitry. Molten metal sprayed off in a mist, and I added a pair of missiles to make the bogie VERY unhappy. The missiles slammed into the ship's flank and exploded, sending it spinning out of control! I rolled out of the way, as the severed wing of the ship came flying at me. The ship was still spinning; it's engines working overtime to put it under control again. Then it exploded in a white fireball, when it's ammo cooked off!
I searched for another target, but a Wraith flashed by dodging laser pulses. The turquoise coloring clearly identified it as one of ours. And the nose-paint of a wicked short dagger with glowing red eyes left little doubt who it was. "Raptor 8! Break left!" I signaled to her, even as I slowed my throttle. Neta made a hard left, and the enemy Wraith followed her.right into my fire. Two missiles smashed into the Wraith's flank, shattering it's portside engine and snapping off a wing. It spun wildly out into deep space, not completely dead but definitely out of the fight.
"Thanks lead!" Neta signaled.
"No problem Stiletto." I replied, turning to see flight-3 rake another cruiser with laser fire and the occasional missile. The ship was aflame from bow to stern, and another cruiser nearby was completely smashed to junk, apparently from multiple torpedo hits. The last Battle Cruiser was heavily damaged, but was driving hard toward the fleet, with several of the unknown bogies out in front.
"All Raptors, hit the last cruiser! All other bogies will be considered targets of opportunity!" I pushed my Wraith to its maximum speed, and came up behind the cruiser. My lasers scorched armor plating on and around the massive engines, but the cruiser was much to well armored for my fighter to damage it. I noticed that the other squadrons had engaged the unknowns, but the bogies ignored them and went after the fleet. Only five bogies actually made it to our fleet of four Battle Cruisers, their barrages of missiles slammed into metal hulls, shattering armor plates, and basically wreaking havoc. The Cruisers ignored the bogies and brought their house-sized laser batteries to bear on the enemy Cruiser. Lasers flashed armor to vapor, and burned deep, tattered, black furrows into the hull. When the bow armor vanished, debris and bodies were vented out into space, expelled by flaming gouts of superheated air. The huge torrents of energy turned the once proud vessel into a floating charnel ship.
I keyed the Comm. "Unknown ships, you have lost the engagement. You cannot escape, power-down and prepare to be boarded. Raptor Leader out." I settled my crosshairs on a bogie and watched to see how they would react.
"This is Valkyrie 3, acting commander of this squadron, we hear and will comply." Came a weary female voice. I watched as several SCVs and drop- ships emerged from the fleet, and captured the pilots and their ships.
"Alright Raptors, head home."
I was in the debriefing room with the Captain being, well.debriefed. The Captain smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Damaged to the fleet was extremely minor, and the four Valkyries that we captured can be repaired in a couple hours. In fact, our science lab has been studying it, and believes they can reverse-engineer the ships, and we will be able to build our own in a couple days. All is all, a complete success!"
I leaned back in my own seat and grinned a cocky smile. "All in a day's work, sir." I frowned. "Sir, what they said.is it true? Has Earth come to take us back?"
The Captain stroked his mustache. "From our narco-interrogation of the enemy pilots, yes. All evidence seems to point that way."
I groaned. "Earth, man.How can we ever-" I was interrupted in mid- sentence, by the alarm.
The speakers turned on and screamed, "Captain on the bridge! Captain on the bridge!" We got up quickly and hurried in the lift. We shot up to the bridge level and got off. And I froze at what I saw on the screen.
"Protoss!" I exploded!
Enemy Terrans were one thing, Protoss were a different thing altogether!
The Flight Control Officer turned to us as watched his computer. "Sir, we have the ships in range. We count eight carriers and." He trailed off, his eyes disbelieving. "One Battle Cruiser labeled. Hyperion!"
The Communications officer said in a dazed voice, "Sir we are receiving a transmission from [gulp] General Raynor!"
"Put it on screen!" The Captain commanded. "This is Captain Winchester of the Ragalis II, how can we help you sir?" The screen crackled a bit and turned clear, revealing two faces seen only on holo-vids and history books! Several techs in the rear of the bridge gasped.
The General! And standing behind him, Emperor Mengsk! "Greetings Captain, this is General Jim Raynor," He rubbed his hands together in agitated way. "We have a work cut up on us. And we wouldn't mind if you joined us." And so it began..
"Lieutenant-Commander!" I rolled my eyes, and pretended not to hear.
"Sir! Lieutenant Ho!" The cadet shouted again, as he ran down the Regalis II's hanger. I sighed and turned around to meet my tormentor.
"Yes cadet?" I said. I stressed the cadet so it became clear I was annoyed.
The cadet gulped audibly, "Sir, the captain wants to see you on the bridge, sir!"
I grunted and walked into the turbo-lift. The cadet jumped just before the lift's doors hissed shut.
"So what's this all about, cadet?"
He winced. "Several unknown ships just dropped into our long-range sensors, sir."
I glared at him. "Really? Well, why didn't you say so, cadet?" Before he could say anything else, I leaned over and punched the lift's controls. "Computer, emergency speed, bridge."
The lift shot up at incredible speed. The cadet collapsed to the floor, but I remained standing. The lift slowed and stopped. As the doors opened, I gave the cadet a disapproving glance. "You should spend more time at the gym, cadet." I stepped out as the doors closed again right behind my ankles, cutting off the cadet's reply. I paused and glanced at the view- screen. Four large Battle cruisers dominated the screen. I looked more closely, and spied a symbol on the nearest of the behemoths.
It was a black eagle of some sort. Below the eagle's claws was emblazoned U.E.D.
The Captain was sitting in his chair, calmly snapping out orders. "Helm, bring us about, roll 30 degrees starboard. Weapons-officer, power up heavy laser batteries, ignite the nuclear reactor. Air Boss, what is our status of the CAP?"
"Captain, we have 36 enemy fighters and 12 unknowns, as well as 4 battle cruisers!" As "Air Boss," the Flight Control Officer had primary responsibility for overseeing all fighter operations, including overall control over the ship's Combat Air Patrol computer. "We are launching all 'Ready-fives' and are currently preparing the other fighters. The Raider, Warhawk, and the Pride of Becker are doing the same." "Ready-Five's" were fighters that were left in the hangar, completely armed and fueled and ready for take off in 5-minutes notice. I stepped up to the captain and gave him a casual salute.
"Lieutenant-Commander Ho reporting for duty...sir."
The Captain returned my salute, but slightly more precise and disciplined. "At ease Lieutenant, as you can see, we have a situation."
"Yes sir, I can see that. Are they hostile?" The Captain frowned and rubbed his mustache. "Well, that is part of the problem. We cannot identify them. And they are out of communication range."
I paused and nodded. "You'd like me to fly into range and find out who they are." The Captain smiled, and pressed a control on his chair. A 3- d map snapped up and plotted the Regalis and our fleet and the unknown ships.
"Correct Lieutenant-Commander. You will go with your entire squadron, identify those ships, and act accordingly." The Captain saluted again. "Good luck Lieutenant-Commander."
* * * * *
I hurried down to the Pilot's briefing room, right outside the hangar bays. All twelve pilots were already there and waiting. I took my seat at the head of the table and activate the holographic projector.
"Alright people, listen up and listen good." I began, taking a deep breath. "We have a new assignment from the man upstairs. We have 4 unknown Battle Cruisers on an intercept course with the fleet. They are out of communication range, so we are to get close and identify them. But we also must be ready, in case their intentions are hostile. Your fighters will be loaded with torpedoes, along with your regular armament. Questions?"
Neta 'Stiletto' Burringer, a female pilot [Raptor 8] raised her hand. "Do the unknowns have fighter support?"
I grimaced, as I replied grimly, "Yes, in fact, there is three squadrons of ships we identified as slightly modified Wraiths. There is also a squadron of larger ships that we cannot identify. Our bonus mission objective is to capture one, but don't take unnecessary risks." I noted that several of my pilots had suddenly paled. "Any other questions?" I asked pleasantly.
Another Raptor stood up, Steve "Wildman" Timmons. "What will Stranger, Talon, and Reaper Squadrons be doing?"
I straightened up. "The other squadrons will guard the fleet, but will be ready to join us in a moment's notice."
"All right pilots! Step lively, this isn't a pleasure yacht." I finished the Squadron's briefing and dismissed them. I hurried down the hanger with the rest of them to the fighters. I clambered to my own fighter. It was a Wraith. A CF/A-20 model, to be exact. Pulling on my helmet, I waved to the Chief Tech Ted Matthews who was crawling with a bunch of other techs piloting SCVs, who were swarming around the Wraith like bees. He gave me a thumb's up sign, and then yelled something that could not be heard over the shrieking of the fighter's engines. The Chief waved off the other techs and I clambered up the fighter's door, where I paused to look at the nose art. It was a picture of a shadowy cloaked figure surrounded with golden dust, underneath the picture was stenciled "Mr. Sandmann". My code-name. My previous commander had given it to me, though I never figured out why he called me that. There the Chief met me.
"Alright Ted, give me the dope," I shouted to him as I strapped myself in.
"You have full fuel and weapons, as well A.S. Torpedoes! Watch that portside laser, it's been acting weirdly might short out if you use it too much! Good luck, and good hunting sir!" The chief fairly screamed into my ear. When the canopy hissed shut, I wrapped my fingers around the control stick. I engaged the engines and cut the anti-gravity lifts.
The Wraith screamed out of the hanger, joining the other dozen fighters already out. "Alright people, form up! Claw formation!" The other pilot's obeyed and swung into position, forming a three-pronged claw around me. We sped toward the big unknown ships.
One of the Wraith pilots, Flight-officer "Hedgehog" Harpools, in the very front of the formation suddenly sounded a warning. "Tally-ho! I got visual contact on the enemy bogies!" Hedger paused for a second, and then continued. "Many bogies, bearing zero-one-five relative, thirty five klicks out!"
Checking my sensors, I saw that I was now in range of the first Battle Cruiser. I flipped on the Comm. and spoke. "Unknown ships! This is Lieutenant Commander Ho of Raptor Squadron! You are in the territory of the Umojan Protectorate! You are in direct violation of the Clair Article number 13.7 section five! You will identify yourselves or be fired upon!"
There was no response for several moments, then the Comm. crackled, and a VERY arrogant voice fairly oozed out of the speaker. "Lieutenant- Commander Ho, this is Captain Svatte of the ship Ranger, recon team for the main U.E.D 2nd fleet. We have all the right to be in this sector. We have lost.a few ships here, and we WILL find them." At the time, news of the U.E.D. invasion of the Dominion had not reached the farthest worlds of the Umojan Protectorate. I had no idea what this jerk was talking about, and at the time, I had believed it was a bluff.
"Really? I had no idea that the back-rims world was of any significance. And you STILL have not said where you are from Captain." I put an edge into my voice.
Captain Svatte chuckled. "You do not know? We are from Earth and we are here to liberate the colonies, and maintain peace in this sector for the future safety of all mankind!" He spoke in a proud, confident manner. But I still didn't believe it for a second. I gave a long pause, but before I could reply, over the Comm., came uproarious laughter.from my pilots.
"Cut the chatter!" I snapped, though I was quite amused myself. "Is that so Captain? Even if you WERE from Earth, I hardly think they would send the likes of you to conquer us!"
I grinned behind my faceplate as the captain roared with rage. "We.I...grrr.ATTACK! BLOW THEM OUT OF SPACE!!!" He screamed!
"Break formation! Independent action!" I yelled into the Comm., as the big Cruiser's lasers lit up space with incandescent energy. I went into a spiral and dipped and spun, easily avoiding the blasts. "Captain Svatte! You have fired upon Umojan forces in our own terratory! I am now authorized to attack, capture, or destroy your ships! Withdraw, surrender, or be destroyed! The choice is yours!"
I switched to my squadron's channel. "Flight one, on me! Everyone else, pick a nice juicy target, and whack it!" The 3 fighters from Flight- One, flew in a line astern behind me. I dived at the Ranger, well inside the cruiser's ability to fire. Let's face it, big ships weren't meant to hit nimble fast fighters like a Wraith. "Flight one! Release A.S. Torpedoes and pull up!" I released my own two torpedoes. Anti-ship torpedoes were actually small nukes, designed to penetrate a ship's armor and explode with deadly force. Hmm.too bad you only carry 2. Flight one mirrored my movements like the trained warriors they were. Four pairs of warheads streaked in at the Battle Cruiser. They hit and detonated in succession. The first pair slammed into the 'neck' of the cruiser. Armor plates shattered and fiery plasma clung to the ragged crater that the warheads had created. The second pair blasted away the remaining armor, and carved a deeper hole. When the third pair hit, it blasted into the hull of the ship and ignited the oxygen. The last two torpedoes slammed into the opposite armor. Flight one soared away from the doomed ship. If we were in atmosphere, we would have heard the tortured scream of metal as the forward section of the cruiser twisted and tore itself in half. The aft section tumbled end over end, until it's sides' split like a balloon and consumed itself in a great explosion.
While we pulled away from the Cruiser's death throes, I noticed several strange ships. Not sleek and deadly looking like a Wraith, it looked more like a box with wings and engines. Of course it didn't have to look dangerous to be dangerous. It fired a spread of missiles. I was surprised to see the missiles scatter in every direction. That thing seemed to be firing at random! Apparently these invaders [whoever they were!] did not care the least about friendly fire. I shrugged. That would just make our job easier. I keyed my Comm.
"All ships, cloak and engage the.boxy things!" I rolled hard to port as several missiles whipped past my cockpit. So close, I could see "Made on Earth" stamped on them! Hmm.maybe the captain was telling the truth.
I swung around, and found myself on the "six" of the unknown craft. My targeting computer placed a bracket over the target and turned green, signaling a lock. I triggered my pulse lasers. The bolts ripped up armor, and exploded circuitry. Molten metal sprayed off in a mist, and I added a pair of missiles to make the bogie VERY unhappy. The missiles slammed into the ship's flank and exploded, sending it spinning out of control! I rolled out of the way, as the severed wing of the ship came flying at me. The ship was still spinning; it's engines working overtime to put it under control again. Then it exploded in a white fireball, when it's ammo cooked off!
I searched for another target, but a Wraith flashed by dodging laser pulses. The turquoise coloring clearly identified it as one of ours. And the nose-paint of a wicked short dagger with glowing red eyes left little doubt who it was. "Raptor 8! Break left!" I signaled to her, even as I slowed my throttle. Neta made a hard left, and the enemy Wraith followed her.right into my fire. Two missiles smashed into the Wraith's flank, shattering it's portside engine and snapping off a wing. It spun wildly out into deep space, not completely dead but definitely out of the fight.
"Thanks lead!" Neta signaled.
"No problem Stiletto." I replied, turning to see flight-3 rake another cruiser with laser fire and the occasional missile. The ship was aflame from bow to stern, and another cruiser nearby was completely smashed to junk, apparently from multiple torpedo hits. The last Battle Cruiser was heavily damaged, but was driving hard toward the fleet, with several of the unknown bogies out in front.
"All Raptors, hit the last cruiser! All other bogies will be considered targets of opportunity!" I pushed my Wraith to its maximum speed, and came up behind the cruiser. My lasers scorched armor plating on and around the massive engines, but the cruiser was much to well armored for my fighter to damage it. I noticed that the other squadrons had engaged the unknowns, but the bogies ignored them and went after the fleet. Only five bogies actually made it to our fleet of four Battle Cruisers, their barrages of missiles slammed into metal hulls, shattering armor plates, and basically wreaking havoc. The Cruisers ignored the bogies and brought their house-sized laser batteries to bear on the enemy Cruiser. Lasers flashed armor to vapor, and burned deep, tattered, black furrows into the hull. When the bow armor vanished, debris and bodies were vented out into space, expelled by flaming gouts of superheated air. The huge torrents of energy turned the once proud vessel into a floating charnel ship.
I keyed the Comm. "Unknown ships, you have lost the engagement. You cannot escape, power-down and prepare to be boarded. Raptor Leader out." I settled my crosshairs on a bogie and watched to see how they would react.
"This is Valkyrie 3, acting commander of this squadron, we hear and will comply." Came a weary female voice. I watched as several SCVs and drop- ships emerged from the fleet, and captured the pilots and their ships.
"Alright Raptors, head home."
I was in the debriefing room with the Captain being, well.debriefed. The Captain smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Damaged to the fleet was extremely minor, and the four Valkyries that we captured can be repaired in a couple hours. In fact, our science lab has been studying it, and believes they can reverse-engineer the ships, and we will be able to build our own in a couple days. All is all, a complete success!"
I leaned back in my own seat and grinned a cocky smile. "All in a day's work, sir." I frowned. "Sir, what they said.is it true? Has Earth come to take us back?"
The Captain stroked his mustache. "From our narco-interrogation of the enemy pilots, yes. All evidence seems to point that way."
I groaned. "Earth, man.How can we ever-" I was interrupted in mid- sentence, by the alarm.
The speakers turned on and screamed, "Captain on the bridge! Captain on the bridge!" We got up quickly and hurried in the lift. We shot up to the bridge level and got off. And I froze at what I saw on the screen.
"Protoss!" I exploded!
Enemy Terrans were one thing, Protoss were a different thing altogether!
The Flight Control Officer turned to us as watched his computer. "Sir, we have the ships in range. We count eight carriers and." He trailed off, his eyes disbelieving. "One Battle Cruiser labeled. Hyperion!"
The Communications officer said in a dazed voice, "Sir we are receiving a transmission from [gulp] General Raynor!"
"Put it on screen!" The Captain commanded. "This is Captain Winchester of the Ragalis II, how can we help you sir?" The screen crackled a bit and turned clear, revealing two faces seen only on holo-vids and history books! Several techs in the rear of the bridge gasped.
The General! And standing behind him, Emperor Mengsk! "Greetings Captain, this is General Jim Raynor," He rubbed his hands together in agitated way. "We have a work cut up on us. And we wouldn't mind if you joined us." And so it began..