Author's Note: And here's where the story comes into its own. I wanted the two of them to be able to struggle against things together instead of having to trade off rescuing each other constantly. Let me know what you think :)
Chapter 1
Escape
Kerrigan stumbled as yet another explosion rocked the research center. Raynor reached out an armored hand to steady her but she waved it off angrily. "I'm ok Jim, just keep your eyes on the front." Raynor nodded and returned his attention to scanning for any more Dominion patrols. The path they had thus far taken from Kerrigan's chamber was littered with multiple suits of now soulless red armor, some with bullet holes riddling the faceplate while others looked to have been almost ripped apart from an explosion.
Raynor turned a corner with his rifle pointed out in front of him, scanning for any threats before he waved Kerrigan through and the two of them continued making their way towards Raynor's dropship. Suddenly four Dominion marines and a Ghost came around the next corner at a run, not bothering to clear corners like trained soldiers should have been. The squad appeared to be in a hurry to get somewhere and didn't notice the two figures directly in front of them for a few seconds. That time was all it took for Raynor and Kerrigan to unload their weapons into them and put them all down. Raynor stepped forward to confirm their deaths as Kerrigan kneeled down to rifle through the Ghost's vest and collect as much ammo for her rifle as she could. "We're going to be running short on ammo here pretty quick if we don't find a resupply soon," she mentions to Raynor.
"It's just gotta last us to the dropship, darling. That's all." Raynor responded, pulling a mostly full clip from one of the marine's rifles to add to his own stockpile. "If they keep coming like this, we shouldn't have much of a problem."
"That's something that bothers me actually. They were running that's for sure, but were they running to something? Or away from it?" Kerrigan looks up from the dead Ghost as a rumbling passes through the floor, various screams and clicking noises bouncing off the walls from where the Dominion squad had appeared.
"I think you just got your answer sweetheart. Time to move!" Raynor called as he half pulled Kerrigan back to her feet and back down the corridor. The noises continuously got closer and the rumbling louder, the two of them seeming to barely stay one turn ahead. The pair turned a final corner and Raynor spotted a door. Without a word he triggered the opening mechanism and snagged Kerrigan as she started to run past, pulling her into the room with him before shutting the door behind them.
Outside the door the pounding of many feet got louder and louder until it was right outside their door and past, the calls of the creatures making an eerie noise similar to that of a human scream. As the noises finally faded into the distance Raynor turned to Kerrigan with a reassuring smile that quickly faded as he saw her face, sweaty and ashen. "Sarah, what's wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"It was me. They could sense me and they were coming for me. Calling out to me." She looked Raynor in the eyes. "They remember me. I think…I think those were the Zerg I created and wrecked the lower areas with. When I broke the connection they lost their leader since I never provided them a queen and now they're searching for their purpose again." She shuddered. "I won't go back to that. I won't become the Queen of the Zerg again. I don't want to lose myself after I just returned."
Raynor wrapped his armored arms around her, careful not to use too much of the suit's additional strength. "As long as I'm here, you won't have to. I promise." He grinned down at her. "And you know I always keep my promises." Kerrigan managed a smile in return and Raynor turned to open the door but was stopped by his radio.
"Commander, we have a problem." The captain of Raynor's flag ship, Matt Horner, called. "The Hyperion is taking heavy damage and we can't stay much longer. We've recovered as many evacuees as we could, including Valerian, but we can't stay much longer. You need to get out of there immediately." Raynor heard explosions over Matt's voice and muted commands being called.
Raynor clicked his radio transmitter on. "No can do. We're still a ways out from our transport. Get yourselves out of here we'll meet up with you later."
"But sir…" Matt tried to object but Raynor overrode him.
"No buts. Its men like you that will bring this revolution about in the end so we need you to keep as many alive as possible. Don't worry about us, we've been in tighter spots before and gotten out alive. With a few more grey hairs sure but that's not the point."
Raynor heard Matt's sigh over the open line. "Very well sir. Transmitting coordinates for warp jump now. We'll be waiting." Raynor's suit beeped signifying receipt of the coordinates and Raynor nodded.
"Happy flying, son." Raynor broke the line and smiled to Kerrigan before sticking his head out of the doorway to check that the way was clear. Without any Dominion or Zerg in sight, Raynor motioned to Kerrigan and they began trotting towards the hanger again. The two of them managed only two corridors before the rumbling began again, but this time there was no other corridor to cut down. Raynor pulled Kerrigan down behind a bulkhead and wrapped her in his arms. If the Zerg wanted her they were going to have to pry her from the mechanical clutches of his power armor first.
Kerrigan sighed and pushed Raynor back. "I've got this one, sweetheart," she said as she stood back up and her eyes began to glow orange. Suddenly the corridors to their left and right were filled with rushing Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches but not a single one of them seemed to notice the two, not even Kerrigan who was obviously using her psionic powers. After about 15 seconds the two groups of Zerg passed them and Kerrigan's eyes returned to normal.
Raynor looked at her, puzzled. "What the devil did you just do?" he asked quizzically.
"I masked our presence. Made the Zerg think that nothing was here and so they kept going, searching for anything to kill most likely."
"Just how many of these things did you make down here?"
"Yeah…I may have gone a little overboard with making my point." Kerrigan sheepishly responded. Raynor grinned in spite of himself. What a girl. They picked up where they had left off and continued their run to the hanger, finally arriving just as a squad of Umojan marines were knocked flat on their backs by a large Dominion mech.
Raynor rushed over to one of the downed Umojans and helped the soldier to his feet. "What the hell is that?"
The marine shrugged. "We don't know but it's doing its best to prevent anyone from taking off. We're under orders to keep it from destroying anything but without more firepower we're having trouble just keeping it from wiping us out."
Raynor chuckled. "It's your lucky day, son. Firepower has arrived." He glanced over towards Kerrigan and the soldier's eyes followed, only to almost pop out of his head at the sight.
"Isn't she supposed to be locked up? What's she doing loose?" The soldier backed up quickly, half bringing his weapon to bear.
Raynor intercepted the soldier's weapon before it reached chest level. "Easy there, boy. She's on our side, and it'd be a good idea for you to remember that. If you ever forget that, she might not be anymore." Kerrigan simply smiled and then began walking out towards the mech. Raynor shot one more look at the soldier to make sure he wasn't going to do anything stupid and then grinned reassuringly. "Just leave it to us. Get your marines to keep enemy reinforcements off our back and we'll all get out of here alive."
Raynor followed Kerrigan out into the open, where the mech finally spotted the two of them and brought its chain guns to bear on them, opening fire without so much as an introduction. Raynor and Kerrigan dived in opposite directions as the rapidly firing weapon chunked holes out of the ground between them. Kerrigan wound up behind a downed I-Beam and Raynor was behind a flipped over Siege Tank. The mech began walking towards them, the loud thuds from its metallic feet echoing throughout the chamber, even over the sounds of the small arms fire coming from the next room over. Raynor looked around for an advantage and saw a humongous vent fan hanging precariously from the ceiling, the mounts rocked out of position and barely hanging on by its main wire bundle in the middle. He motioned towards Kerrigan and pointed out the hanging machinery, miming a falling action. She nodded and raised her rifle to her shoulder, sighting down the scope. Raynor nodded and repositioned himself so he was a few steps further back before diving out into the open and firing a few rounds into the mech. "Come and get me you son of a bitch!" he called as he sprinted for the other side of the hanger, diving down behind a buckle in the metal plating of the floor as the mech's chain gun opened fire once again, the bullets passing precariously close to his head.
"Sarah! Now!" he called out and a single shot rang out, passing through the mesh of wires attached to the fan, shredding many and leaving only a few still intact. For an agonizing moment Raynor feared the remaining wires would hold but one by one they began to fail as the weight of the machinery pulled on them and they snapped, dropping the industrial sized fan onto the head of the mech, overloading its balance programming and forcing it down to the ground, struggling beneath the weight. Amidst the cheers coming from Umojan soldiers now rushing to their own dropships, Raynor calmly walked over and looked in the cockpit of the downed mech and saw an unconscious pilot, blood seeping from his head from impacting on the dash but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Raynor nodded and walked over to Kerrigan. "Great shootin' sweetheart. Now let's hightail it outta here and meet up with the Hyperion."
They made their way over to a black dropship with a Raynor's Raiders logo painted on the side and Raynor motioned for Kerrigan to precede him onto the ship. She smiled and climbed up the ladder first, pausing at the top to look back down at Raynor who was looking up the ladder. "Pig. You just wanted a good look at my ass. I am a telepath you know."
Raynor just smiled. "Can't blame a man for trying. Now hurry up before we both die of old age."
"Speak for yourself, old man." Kerrigan said fondly as she climbed on into the dropship and promptly took the pilot's seat, getting the engines ready to go.
Raynor set his suit up in the cargo area before triggering the exit mechanism, slowly climbing out of his armor as the ship powered up. Once fully freed he sat himself down in the navigator's chair and looked over at Kerrigan. "You sure you remember how to fly this thing?"
"It's like riding a bike." Kerrigan responded without looking at him, hiding the small smile that played across her face. Raynor chuckled and settled himself in, plugging the transmitted coordinates into the ship's computer. The engines roared to life as pieces of the hanger began dropping from the ceiling and Kerrigan piloted the ship up and into launch position before feeding more power to the engines, leading the charge as several Umojan drop ships followed her out of the collapsing hanger. A few ships were too slow to start, however, and were crushed under the falling debris, sending smoke and screams up into the air as Umojan personal were killed.
Kerrigan kept her focus on flying through falling objects and finally broke out into open air space where the full scale of the assault was finally revealed. The research facility looked like a pincushion from all the drop pods sticking out of it and the hammerhead shapes of the battleships floating overhead almost filled the skyline. Kerrigan and the Umojan dropships kept as far away from the battleships and their anti-air weapons as possible but the Dominion ships launched Vikings to intercept the weaponless dropships and they were forced to turn tail and burn for orbit as fast as they could, trying to climb out into space so they could trigger their warp drives and escape the destruction.
An Umojan pilot's face popped up on the communication screen in Raynor's dropship and Raynor took the call. "We're going to draw them off of you, commander. We may not be of the same nationality but you're the one man that can deal with the oppressive Dominion and free us all from its threat," the pilot said before cutting off communications without giving Raynor a chance to say anything in response. The various Umojan dropships broke off from tailing Raynor's ship and the chasing Vikings split their forces, letting Raynor's dropship have to deal with less incoming enemy fire. Kerrigan's focus on piloting never wavered as she piloted through missiles and other debris, managing to make orbit without taking more than a scratch.
"Hitting the switch. Hold on to your hats." Raynor said as he punched the jump button and the ship hopped into warp, pulling away from the fire and smoke of the ruined research laboratory. Looking over at Kerrigan, sitting back in the seat and breathing heavily, Raynor couldn't help but feel like maybe, just maybe, things were going to go just right for them. Just this once.