Chapter 2: A Desperate Defense
Date: unknown location, Koprulu Sector, one month after Broodwar
As the dropships blasted out from the crippled Arbiter, Jim Raynor glanced out the porthole in his dropship. He could still see several hydralisks in the bay slithering around. Mutalisks and scourge flew around the Arbiter, not pursuing.
"Huh." Raynor thought. "I wonder what they think is in there." The seven remaining dropships flew toward the Hyperion and dampened down their engines. The battlecruiser's main hangar bay opened to receive them.
"Sir, it's good to see you. What exactly happened in there?" Horner's voice came in over the comm. Raynor sighed.
"We were ambushed by a brood of zerg. Fortunately, the Wraiths held them off long enough for us to escape. We lost three dropships in there."
"Yes, sir. Come on in. After we've checked everyone's condition, we can decide what to do next."
Kerrigan touched her genetically modified finger to the newly born Hatchery. This structure was the heart of any zerg hive cluster. Should the Hatchery fall, the zerg hive cluster's ability to produce new warriors would fall as well. That was the reason why the Hatchery was surrounded by dozens of sunken colonies and spore colonies, as well as many of the more powerful zerg strains.
Kerrigan completed her inspection and turned to the overlord that floated patiently by her side. "What news do we have of Jim Raynor and his confederates, the Protoss?"
The overlord responded, "Mistress, we have heard rumors of Raynor's fleet drifting between planets, but we have not heard or seen any interaction between him and the Protoss."
Kerrigan smiled. "If they are not united, it will make them so much easier to hunt down. I want a full brood sent to dispatch dear Jimmy. Meanwhile, have two other broods attack the planet of the Dark Templar, Shakuraus or whatever it's called."
"Yes, mistress!" The overlord replied, and flew off to carry out her orders.
e maintance bayrders.rk Templars.raction between him and the Protoss.
Raynor strode down to the maintenance bay on the Hyperion. He was bored and needed something to do. He had decided to work on his Vulture hoverbike.
As Raynor entered the maintenance bay, people glanced at him and shouted out greetings. The bay was filled with mechanics and machine drivers working together to repair their vehicles.
Raynor strode past a line of Goliath heavy assault walkers and came to a stop near his personal Vulture. It was painted green and was equipped with a fragmentation grenade launcher as well as a Spider Mine dispenser with three mines. He took out a spanner from the tool kit he carried in his Vulture and opened the rear engine cover. He carefully eased the spanner in, probing for any anomalies or warped engine parts. Finding nothing, he straightened and walked over to the grenade launcher. He made sure that the launcher wasn't clogged, then dropped the spanner in the toolbox and walked over to the sonic sink. A quick sonic blast cleared his hands of the grime that had stuck to them when fixing the engine.
Raynor was just about to head up to his quarters to take a nap when the Hyperion shook. All of a sudden Matt's voice boomed over the loudspeaker. "We are under attack by zerg forces, possibly an entire brood! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!"
When the loudspeaker fell silent, Raynor was already running up to the bridge. He needed to direct his men. Even though there wasn't much a single Battlecruiser and three dozen Wraith fighters could do against an entire brood. He guessed he just wanted to take them with him.
Horner was already bellowing orders by the time Raynor burst on to the bridge. "I want Inferno Squadron focusing fire on those mutalisks! Shadow Squadron, cloak and shoot down overlords attempting to approach us! We can't let them board!"
"Good job, Matt. I'll take it from here." Raynor said. Horner stood up from the command chair and saluted. Raynor sat down and immediately began issuing orders.
The battle was not going well. Already, the mutalisks were closing in on the Hyperion, despite the efforts of Inferno Squadron to keep them away. The overlords though slow, bulky, and therefore defenseless against the newly upgraded Gemini Missiles of Shadow Squadron, were the only zerg who could detect the cloaked Wraiths, and were spotting for the mutalisks and scourge. Already, Shadow Squadron was down to eight pilots as they attempted to defend themselves and defend the Hyperion.
"Deploy Stalker Squadron to assist the Shadows. Meanwhile, have us come about to utilize all of our weaponry on those zerg." Raynor ordered. The fighter coordinator and the weapons chief acknowledged their orders and set to them. Raynor felt the shift of gravity as the cruiser slowly came about.
Bob Sucesta, now Commander of Stalker Squadron, shot out of the hangar with his squadron on his tail. "Okay, Stalkers, our mission is to assist those Shadows. We need to keep those zerg off them while they shoot down those overlords." The squad acknowledged, and they veered toward the embattled Shadow Wraiths, which were being hounded by a pack of twelve mutalisks. Bob set his finger on the missile firing button and waited. One of the mutalisks twisted away from a laser burst…right into Bob's sights. He pressed down on the firing button. A pair of Gemini missiles streaked toward the mutalisk and detonated, reducing the vile abomination to a cloud of blood and tatters of skin and bone. The mutalisks recognized the new danger. They split, half coming around to engage the new arrivals. Bob changed weapons and fired his lasers rapidly into the approaching zerg. The mutalisks, however, were not without their own weapons. One zerg opened its maw, and launched a yellow projectile at Bob. He jinked left and dodged the deadly projectile. The mutalisk opened its maw again, but was then vaped by a laser burst.
Bob activated his radio. "Nice shooting, Five."
The other pilot responded with a comm click. The other four mutalisks veered off as the full brood slowly came into view.
Bob felt his throat tighten. There were at least twenty more overlords, escorted by three dozen zerg. They couldn't win this fight. He steeled himself and prepared to go out fighting. Suddenly, Captain Raynor's voice came over the radio.
"All craft retreat! Get your butts back into the hangar. We have about a few minutes before those things reach us. Hurry, and we might not be spending the rest of our lives as infested Terrans!"
The Wraiths turned and flew back toward the hangar. Bob was last. He saw the fighter in front of him dock. He prepared to follow, only to see a pair of scourge through his rear sights.
Bob Sucesta screamed. Then, that was the last thing he knew.