Disclaimer: I don't own Starcraft or anything associated with Blizzard. Wish I kind of did though. That would be freakin' awesome! Wow, so many reviews in such a short time! Thanks everybody! Glad you like it so far. I'll do my best to keep the ball rolling on this and I'll be sure to take into account some of your suggestions. I can't promise I'll actually do them but I will keep them in mind. Especially since a lot of what you want to see from this story could very well be what I wanted to see. Oh and by the way, most of this will be taking place from Jimmy's point of view. But I think I will switch it up from time to time as needed. But if you're really interested in a different point of view, check out my story Scoundrel. It views things from Tychus' point of view. Not the whole story, but what I think are the important bits. Also one last thing, some of you have noticed that I am crap at editing and spelling. Know any good beta readers? I'm in the market. And as always please read, review and enjoy!
Old Times
The Outlaws
I found myself back at Joeyray's Bar a short time later, still knockin back some more Old No. 8. Joeyray must not have come around here yet cause my glasses and various bottles of alcohol were still on the table when I got back.
Ignoring a rather persistent fly that kept buzzin' around, I downed another glass.
That's when I heard the door open with a metallic wheeze and somebody walked in.
Somebody wearing marine armor by the sound of the footsteps. And I doubt it was one of my boys otherwise they'd have spoken up by now.
A Dominion marine? A bounty hunter? I tensed up and slowly I started to inch my hand toward my pistol in front of me. Careful not to make any sudden moves.
My guest spoke in a filtered voice.
"Y'know, for the most wanted man in the sector, you ain't that hard to find."
Almost got my pistol…
"I had to see it for myself…"
My hand was pretty much grabbing my gun as his helmet hissed open and a voice I hadn't heard in nearly a decade spoke again.
"…Little Jimmy Raynor, the people's hero."
My eyes widened and I almost spun around in surprise. I certainly never expected to see him again. The tension faded from my body as my hand went back to my glass.
"Tychus Findlay," I drawled as I took another drink. "Nice suit."
He came up next to my seat and leaned on the bar. Not caring that he knocked off a lot of empty bottles and glasses.
"Pays to be prepared," he said like it was a matter of fact.
With my glass empty I poured out the last of this bottle.
"I heard they put you on ice. Life sentence. What? They give you time off for good behavior?"
Tychus smirked as he took a long drag of his cigar.
"That's right old buddy," he blew out a rather large cloud of smoke.
"I'm a model citizen now," and crushed the damn fly that had been buggin me under his cigar.
I laughed at his statement. That would be the day.
"So to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Just a friendly business proposition."
Ah good ol Tychus, always with a plan to get rich quick. I grabbed a nearby bottle and shook it to see if it had anything left in it. Nothin.
"Do you even know what the Dominion are doin' out here?"
"I'm gussin' you're about to tell me."
He leaned in a bit. "Diggin' up alien artifacts old buddy. Your boy Mengsk has gone crazy for them."
I smiled as I found a bottle of cognac that I was pretty sure I hadn't got to yet. A smile that faded when Tychus beat me to it. Holding it with just two fingers of his massive gauntlets.
"But I've got a contact who'll pay top dollar for ever artifact we…liberate from the Dominion." He said shaking the bottle for emphasis.
Huh, I'm short of funds and have a chance to fix that and keep Mengsk from getting something he wants, a golden deal. Of course, Tychus always was good at figuring out all the angles.
"I guess I can hardly pass that up now. Can I Tychus?" And you knew that long before you came in here. Didn't you old friend?
"Partners then," he declared as he poured me a glass.
"60/ 40," and tapped the glass toward my waiting hand.
"70/30," I countered picking up the glass. "My way."
His face looked like something halfway between a smile and as he remembered the last deal where someone declared a 70/30 split. I couldn't help but let out a small laugh from the memories.
"Feels like old times already," I said as I held up my glass for a toast.
"Old times," he agreed as we toasted to our new partnership.
"Now that we've got that out of the way," I continued. "Allow me to state as your new partner, that damn am I glad to see you, you son of a bitch."
"Haha! Feelin's mutual ol buddy."
"Call me curious, but how'd you get out?"
Tychus smiled as he leaned back to tell his tale.
"Well, I busted out of my cryofreezer while they were transportin me to New Folsom. Ohhhh, I must've killed at least a dozen guards with my bare hands."
I chuckled at that. Tychus always did like his embellishments.
"Yeah I've heard this one before. But you left out the part where you walked on water, made off with the warden's daughter."
He seemed a bit put out by that. Embellishing the escape stories was one of his favorite things to do back in the old days.
"Don't you get uppity with me boy. I heard all about you becomin' a big time freedom fighter while I was away."
He gestured around at the admittedly kinda dingy bar around us.
"What happened Jimmy? The war for truth and justice get too much for ya?"
I locked eyes with him. "I ain't licked yet Tychus. And I promise you, Mengsk is goin' down, one way or another."
Don't exactly know how but I'll be damned if I don't bring him down before I die.
Tychus backed down a bit after that. "Alright alright. No need to be hostile. Way I figure it, we got ourselves a few hours before we gotta nab that artifact. And we have a lot of catchin' up to do. Cause I gotta tell ya Jimmy, when I first saw this,"
He pulled a folded piece of paper and set it on the table.
"I just couldn't believe it."
I unfolded the paper and saw a rather familiar face starin back at me. It was my own personal wanted poster. With a reward of 500,000 credits dead or alive for mass murder, terrorism, sabotage, rebellion, incitement, grand larceny, piracy and sedition.
All those false charges aside though, well, granted except for rebellion, incitement, grand larceny and sedition, the thing that really pissed me off was that the face hardly looked a thing like me.
"Come on, I'm better lookin than that," I said in disbelief. Granted, I know that not having a good likeness of me posted everywhere helps me move about without getting reported. But still…
Tychus seemed to get a bit of a good kick out of that though. "As much as I'm usually inclined to inform you just how butt ugly you are Jimmy, in this case you're right. Only thing attractive about that picture is the number underneath it. Way bigger than it ever was for both of us when we were outlaws."
"Yeah well, its all a matter of who you piss off Tychus."
He snorted at that and looked around the bar for some more booze. In the middle of his search, he spotted a new vidsnap of one of the busted vikings from my earlier raid. One of my troops had taken a picture of it, made some copies and gave one to me as a souvenir.
"What's this? This looks recent. This your doin Jimmy?"
"Folks in these parts are ready to fight back against Mengsk. Guess they just needed a little push."
"You still take this whole revolution thing pretty serious then."
"Everyone needs a hobby Tychus," I said sagely.
His reply was a grunt of no comment. Tychus never was one for causes unless he could get somethin' from them. Namely, credits.
I figured this place was a bit too quiet so I made my way over to the jukebox to put on some tunes while Tychus continued to look for more drinks. I was right in front of the jukebox when somethin' caught my eye. A familiar vidnsnap underneath a recent newspaper page.
It was Sarah's picture with a note taped to it.
"Figured you didn't want this just lying around anywhere. Don't worry, I won't add this to your tab. Joeyray."
So he was here earlier. Damn, the man really was a nice guy. I must've left this here when I went out. I ought to be more careful, this picture is…well I know its stupid but it's the only thing in the sector of her when she was still human. And I'm not talkin' about some old Confederate file that the Dominion has of her as a cold blooded government assassin, this picture was the only thing left of her as a person.
The smart thing to do would be to get rid of it. You shouldn't keep reminders of a person you've sworn to kill. But honestly? I just can't bring myself to do it and I'm not even sure why.
Hell, maybe I think if I forget the person she once was she'll really be dead. Ha! Nah that can't be it. The Queen of Blades has already shown that everything that was good about Kerrigan died when she emerged from that chrysalis.
With Tychus finally pourin' us some new drinks, I looked at the picture for a moment before putting it away.
Sarah, sometimes…I think it would have been better it you'd just died that day.
Bad thing to think about someone you cared about, but it didn't make it less true. If she had just died, I could move on, all those people, Fenix , they would all still be alive. Granted, its debatable whether or not we'd all be alive or dead or under the UED's tyranny or not, but still…
I shook myself out of it as I went back to my barstool. Tychus had just turned the tv back on to UNN. Apparently, news spreads fast about my "misdeeds" against the Dominion.
"This is Donny Vermillion, live from the UNN studios on Korhal. We've got a breaking story for you let's go live to our own Kate Lockwell on the fringe world of Mar Sara. Kate?"
"Thanks Donny. Rebel Jim Raynor has reappeared in a big way. He's attacked a Dominion depot near Backwater Station seizing weapons and distributing them to the local populace. The planet is now in full rebellion against the Dominion. Loyal local law enforcement has been trying to capture the rebel, with no success so far. I'll keep you updated on the story as we learn more."
"You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen. Terrorist Jim Raynor inciting bloody rebellion among loyal Dominion planets. More details later today. Up next, survivors of Raynor's last attack speak out about the horrors the terrorist monster put them through. Viewers be warned, this interview is not for children or for the faint of heart."
I glared at the screen
"Keep talkin' pal. I'm just gettin' started."
Damn I hated Donny Vermillion, Mengsk's own personal mouthpiece.
"Man, you're not just the most wanted man the sector, you're the most hated too Jimmy."
The anger was back again. Anger at all the slurs and fake charges against me. All the accusations that I routinely go and kill kids or destroy defenseless settlements, women and children. Mengsk has done more damage to my revolution by constantly slandering me than he's ever done with any assault force. Making sure just about everybody hates me. Lucky for me though, too many people remember the good I've done for them. Assassinating me outright could cause ripples and Mengsk is doin' his damndest to avoid that.
"Load up your info Tychus, we've got work to do."
Tychus nodded as he grabbed a small disk and managed to slide it into a slot on my adjutant console. Damn impressive if you ask me with that suits massive fingers.
A display came up of what appeared to be a recording Tychus took before he came here judgin' by the time stamp. It looked like he was scoutin' a Dominion outpost that wasn't too far away from here. A rather small outpost that didn't seem to have anything of interest.
"This old outpost don't look like anything special."
"Keep your shirt on son. Dominion engineers been diggin' out here for months." Then he pointed something out on the screen. "See that crane? They're gettin' ready to move the artifact they found offworld."
I looked at the crane and realized that it went down a very deep shaft. A shaft deep enough to hold ancient artifacts.
"Well I'll be damned."
"See? You gotta have a little more faith Jimmy," Tychus said maybe a little smugly.
"Alright, time to give the Dominion a wake up call. Let's smash that base and haul that baby out of there."
I used the adjutant console to call up my boys. Thankfully, the celebrations hadn't gotten too out of hand yet. They were all still sober and could still shoot and follow orders.
I quickly introduced them all to Tychus and briefed them on the plan. Simply put, the plan was to go in, blow the base to hell, neutralize all Dominion forces in the area, plug the adjutant into the crane, grab the artifact and skedaddle.
Once the makeshift briefing was done, we headed for our dropships and soon enough, I was back in my armor again with Tychus by my side. Damn it really did feel like old times.
I fed the pilots the coordinates to the outpost and they kept the ships nice and low.
We dropped off a couple of klicks away from the base like we did last time and begun to head toward the base. But along the way, we got a rather interesting surprise.
"Commander, the Dominion is attacking te rebel base to the southwest."
Tychus was less than moved. "Good, that'll keep the Dominion off our backs."
"Those folks need our help Tychus. There's no way we're leavin em' to rot!"
Call me crazy, but even before Mengsk left Kerrigan and her strike force to die, the thought of abandoning people to their fate never sat well with me. And after that day, the idea downright pissed me off.
We all double timed it to the base, it wasn't long until it came into view. It was a small base with little a couple dozen rebels defending it. They seemed to be holding out pretty well but the Dominion's nothin' if not persistent. Takin' a closer look, it looked like the rebels were defending some civilians.
That definitely made things a bit more urgent. And besides, we were right behind the Dominion marines anyway. It'd only be rude not to introduce our gauss rifles to their backsides.
We mowed them down quickly and went to check up on the survivors.
One of the marines, the leader by the look of him, signaled his men to lower their guns and came out to greet us as the civilians cautiously came out of the makeshift shelters.
"You guys sure are a welcome sight. We're with ya! Just tell us where you want us."
"Welcome aboard boys," I replied. After this is over, a lot of the rebels on Mar Sara might want to join up with the Raiders for awhile. Rebellion sometimes equals recruitment when you're in the business I'm in.
I couldn't help but smirk a little as that reminded me of when I joined up with the Confederate marines. If I had only know how that was gonna turn out, I wonder if I would've still joined.
Then my smirk faded as I realized I'd have to make damn sure no one too young signed up with me. 18 being old enough to sign up for the military be damned, this rebellion of mine was no place for starry eyed kids hoping for the so called adventure of fighting a corrupt empire.
After makin' sure the civilians would be alright (and doin' my best to to not let the awed voices sayin' "its Raynor's boys or Raynor's the man" go to my head. We gathered everyone up and ith our new reinforcements in tow, Tychus and I led the charge toward the base.
And a few minutes later as we were gettin' closer to it, we all realized it was a damn good thing I had my adjutant plugged into what passed as a sensor grid around these parts
"Warning, Dominion Hellions approaching."
Aw hell!
"Take cover!"
We had barely managed to get into cover when two Hellions came screamin' down the path. Using their flamethrowers as they passed by.
Great, that's all I need. Firebats on wheels.
The Hellions overshot us on their first pass but they were comin' around for another go.
"Hit em!"
We opened fire at the Hellions, concentrating on the one in front. Some of the shots must have gotten through the armored windshield cause it veered off and crashed.
The second one was almost on us though, and our armor might be tough, but flamethrowers can still cook a guy alive in em.
Thinking quickly, I threw myself on the ground and started firing at one of the tires on the Hellion. Those tires are built to take a lot of punishment, but I doubt even the protoss could invent a tire that's gauss rifle proof.
The vehicle spun out of control and crashed in a flaming blaze.
"Hot damn!"
I got up and brushed some of the dirt off my armor before signaling my men to head out.
But then we nearly ran headlong into a bunker filled with more Dominion marines.
"Damn," bunkers are hard as hell to clean out without explosives. But then I got an idea.
"Alright boys, keep givin' em something to think about. Tychus and you two, you're with me. We're goin' to back to those Hellions."
While most of my boys kept the Dominion on their toes, my group ran back to the destroyed Hellions. Both of their flamethrowers seemed mostly intact. Even better, the tanks for the flamethrowers seemed to be nearly full and the Hellion that had its cockpit shot out, could still be driven.
"I've got an idea." I outlined my plan to my troops who seemed to be torn between being impressed and wondering if I'd been drinking too much again. We quickly took out the tank from the Hellion that was flipped over, but then we went to the second one and with the strength our suits granted us, managed to carry the Hellion back to where the rest of my boys were holding the line.
I gave them a brief explanation and they nodded. We fired up the Hellion's engine and using some duct tape to keep the steering wheel locked and a large rock, to push the gas pedal down, we created ourselves an improvised bomb. Several of my boys still held the Hellion just above the ground, as soon as they dropped it, it would speed off in a straight line and hopefully hit the bunker in a blaze of glory.
"Alright boys, give us some cover. Ready…now!"
My boys opened up on the bunker with their rifles, doin' their best to hit the portholes of the bunker, as they did that, the ones holding onto the Hellion walked out from behind the cover and when they were sure they had aimed it right, set the Hellion down and got the hell back into cover.
The Hellion sped off like a missile and did everything that I hoped it would. Blew up in a huge blaze that gave the marines inside the bunker somethin' to think about besides my troops.
"Go, go, go!"
We charged it, rifles still blazing. In one of my hands I held my rifle and the other I had the tank of flamethrower fuel. When I got close enough to the bunker I threw the tank in there and shot it, igniting a huge inferno inside the bunker. And that wrapped that up nicely.
Apparently Tychus thought so too as he came up to my side.
"Nice job cleanin' out that bunker Jimmy. Between your boys and my skills, we are gonna go a long way together."
I smirked at that and had to admit, he was probably right. Tychus might look like a muscle bound thug, but he was a lot smarter and a lot deadlier than people usually gave him credit for. And my boys have fought in battlefields all over the sector, they knew how to fight. Almost ten years later and we still make a good team.
With nothin' else standin' between us and the base, we hit the base hard. Rigging stuff to blow left and right, freein' locals who were forced to work as miners, demolishing a small Hellion factory, even used the adjutant to hack into the barrack's hover pads, makin' it lift off and fly miles away with a lot of Dominion soldiers still inside. It'll take them awhile to figure out how to land again.
After that, it was all a matter of moppin' up any stragglers left and securin' the crane. Once we were sure that we were all clear, I plugged the adjutant into the crane controls.
"Crane controls accessed. Decrypting security overides…crane control established."
Tychus smiled in triumph.
"Beautiful. Now let's reel that sucker in and get out of here."
The crane brought the artifact up and I got my first look at it and I gotta say, as soon as I saw it, I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. Its looks weren't anythin' special, just a black roughly triangular shape with cool blue lines on it. But despite not lookin like much, somethin' still seemed…almost wrong about it. Definitely not a protoss relic of any kind that I've seen before.
I had a bad feelin' about it, but deliverin' it to Tychus' buyers would get me credits that I desperately needed for the Raiders. And besides, Mengsk wanted it. That was all the reason I needed to keep it away from him.
We loaded the artifact up onto a transport we grabbed from the base and hightailed it the hell out of there.