When Things go Wrong
Chapter 5: Leaving Home
"We've recovered all the artifacts, so why the hell is Mobius contacting us?"
"Apparently they have one last job for us. And Hansen's joining us this time; said something along the lines of 'seeing this through to the end'."
"Well, Sonic's staying on Haven for the next few days, and we have a lot of wounded."
"Damned right."
500 Raiders were wounded in the Blitz attack, 600 on Higher Hope and Collector...well, the numbers were just too high.
Over 2000 men and women attacked that shipyard, and all but 50 were wounded in the fighting.
The Executor was full of wounded and nearly-dead Raiders and Armed Medics.
While the Medics patched up the Raiders and each other, they were not ready to fight for at least a month.
And that was how long it would take to finally refit the Hyperion.
Raynor's Raiders Star Destroyer Executor
When Raynor walked onboard, he saw all of the Hyperion's crew at their equivalent stations. "Executor's ready to move out, sir."
"Mar Sara's in formation."
"All escort vessels ready to move out."
"Set a course for Sera, full speed."
The Executor, 8 ISDs, 2 VSDs, several Minotaurs and the Mar Sara entered warp, heading for Sera at maximum speed.
Unfortunately, a Zergling was on the outer hull.
Surface of Sera: 24 hours later
Sera was a hellhole. For almost a century, the humans of that world had been fighting in two wars. The first were the Pendulum Wars, a war between two superpowers, which lasted 79 years. The second was the Locust Conflict, which lasted 15, and ended less then a year ago. On board the CVS Sovereign, Marcus Fenix sighed. Another fucking nightmare.
"Marcus Fenix to CIC! Repeat, Fenix, Santiago and Stroud, report to CIC."
"I heard you the first time!"
He got up and put on his armor.
"Something's coming."
He looked out a window and saw a large ship, four times the size of a King Raven.
It was a VTOL, so there wasn't an issue with landing.
He ran past Dom's quarters and onto the deck.
Ten heavily armed and armored men and one guy walked out of the bird.
"Looking for the guy in charge."
"I'm Fenix. You?"
"Jim Raynor. You look to be in a bit of a pickle."
"You think?"
"Commander, we have a problem on the Executor."
Raynor nodded and listened to someone from his ship.
"What's up?"
SSD Executor
Shadow fired a full clip into a swarm of Zerglings. "Zerg are onboard the Executor! Repeat, we've been boarded! Kerrigan knows where we are!"
"Damn! Burn the bastards!"
Shadow pulled out his flamethrower-equipped Impaler.
"Come and get me, fuckers!"
Thermite plus flamethrower plus Shadow plus Zerg equals a crazy Phantom having fun.
The Zerglings rushed at him in the normal fashion, and Shadow fired his flamethrower.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BURN, MOTHERFUCKERS, BURN!"
Amy sighed as she added token fire to Shadow's flamethrower with her Naginata.
Didn't do much, but at least she was doing something.
"Problem solved."
"You wish."
CVS Sovereign
"So, you guys are aliens?"
"Well, if you put it that way, so are you guys. You're Terrans. All of you are."
"Raynor, we got a problem! Zerg droppods are inbound, and I don't want to be on the receiving end of those things!"
One of the Raiders spotted something.
"Mutalisk!"
"Shoot it!"
Marcus couldn't describe what it was, but fuck, was it ugly!
"Anya, Dom, get those Silverbacks from storage! Jace, AA guns!"
The Raiders opened fire with their Impalers, but the Mutalisk touched a Lambent Stalk. Imulsion infected the Mutalisk, and it turned Lambent.
"Holy shit!"
"Sonic, where are my Wraiths?"
"We've got bigger issues, Jim! Kerrigan's here, and so's Eggman!"
All of a sudden, dozens of Dominion ships entered the atmosphere: all Acclamator-Class assault ships, with a few Venator-Class Star Destroyers as escorts.
"This is KR-1-5! I got something fucked up on my ass!"
"Viking Alpha Two to KR-1-5: I've got your back!"
"We're evacuating as many people off-world as we can! Raiders, let's go!"
Two Hercules cargo ships took off under the guard of a near-squadron of Vikings and Wraiths. Marcus and the rest of the COG remnants on board watched all three sides fight, but the Dominion was focusing on Raynor's forces rather then the Zerg.
But it wasn't working: the Raiders had more advanced technology then the Dominion for once, and they were taking little or no damage.
Two missiles from a Dominion Banshee hit Sovereign, and Marcus opened fire on the Banshee.
"Die, motherfucker!"
"Sovereign to all KR units: land at Anvil Gate! Get the hell away from here!"
Two Minotaur-Class battlecruisers engaged Dominion ships, and Marcus watched as the Zerg overran Dominion units, but a Yamato shot forced Imulsion into the air, covering both Dominion and Zerg forces, making the latter go Lambent.
"Fuck!"
The Zerg would take over the planet, and Kerrigan would have to abandon them due to the Imulsion. "What about Baird, Cole and the guys who sent searching for-"
"Marcus, we're coming in! Your new friends are pulling us the fuck out of here!"
"Get everyone on those transports now!"
The Sovereign took a hit from the closest Minotaur-Class battlecruiser.
The last one to leave the planet was Marcus Fenix, who saluted the old aircraft carrier just before he boarded the dropship.
RRS Executor
"Nova, we need to get the hell out of here!"
"I know that, Matt! But we are not leaving Jim and the others behind!"
The space battle was limited to the Dominion and the Zerg, but the Zerg were, for the first time, losing. The Executor-Class seemed to be built to destroy the Zerg, as none of the Zerg flyers were getting closer then 50 kilometers of the Britannic.
"Last shuttle's on board!"
The 25 ship-strong fleet entered warp, and left the Dominion forces in the dust.
They were on their way back to Haven.
DWS Britannic
"Damn it! We let Raynor get away!"
"No matter, Doctor! We will find that terrorist and kill him in the end."
Eggman wasn't impressed by Warfield.
"Raynor is no common terrorist, General. He don't use terror tactics, he doesn't bomb civilian targets and he is only gunning for Mengsk's head! Use the right terms, Warfield: he is a revolutionary."
The IQ of 300 was finally coming out.
Warfield huffed and turned away.
Technically, Eggman was right: Raynor was a revolutionary.
While he recruited people, they knew the risks and they never backed down.
Better then using criminals and murderers as soldiers.
Haven: 1 month later
The fleet was ready for the final push to Char, and so was a detoxed Sonic.
He was wearing a new set of CMC-700 armor, and he was holding a new weapon: an upgraded version of the Lancer assault rifle from Sera.
It was more powerful then the Impaler rifle without the Gauss coils, and the chainsaw bayonet was more useful then the bladed one from the Impaler.
After some redesigns, the Impaler Mk. IV/Lancer Mk. II was ready for combat.
"How are you guys, Sonic?"
"We are green and very, VERY MEAN!"
Shadow and Rouge looked at their friend.
Sonic was ready for some major ass kicking.
And that scared them.
Sonic had been working with a number of wounded Marines who were ready to get out of the hospitals. In order to get them back into shape, he used a weaker version of CMC-700 powered armor, the CMC-700T trainer subtype, to help them stay in shape.
It gave Sonic the same strength as a normal Terran, as it was designed for Mobian combat instructors. Right now, though, he was itching for combat.
"Good news, boys. We're going to finish the job. We're going to Char and finishing this fight once and for all."
The men weren't happy about Char, but they knew one thing: if they didn't go, they were cowards.
Raynor exposed himself to the same dangers as they did, if not more so.
"I won't order you to go. Hell, I won't even ask you to go. This is a volunteer job only."
Sonic cocked his new weapon and stepped forward.
"Saw that coming."
Then everyone that Sonic had been with since he was sent there stepped forward.
Raynor's cigar dropped to the floor.
"Well, then. Let's get you people into your armor."
Raynor lead the small army into the dropships.
They would win this.
Raynor's Raiders fleet: en route to Char
(AN: Playing in the background is the main theme for Skyrim, Dragonborn)
The whole fucking fleet (from the lowly Wraiths to the mighty Executor and Chronos) was on its' way to the hellhole known as Char.
Shadow and Rouge were on their way to the bridge of the Hyperion, along with Nova and Tosh.
"Dropping out of warp!"
The whole fleet dropped out near Char, in front of an entire Dominion battlegroup.
"It seems Valerian brought half the fucking Dominion fleet with him."
"Prep a dropship; we're going over to the Bucephalus."
Sonic and Raynor walked off the bridge, walking toward the hanger bay.
"Sonic, I want you to stay on the Hyperion."
"No way in hell, Commander. I don't trust a Mengsk worth shit."
"Alright, then."
Terran and Mobian walked onto the dropship and left the ship.
Holy shit, I get my back-ups back for a few days and I start updating the shit that I thought I would never touch again!
Codex:
Lancer assault rifle: A unique weapon, with a chainsaw bayonet. Designed to kill the native Locust on Sera, it was quickly re-purposed by Raynor's Raiders as their standard assault rifle after a number of modifications. It wasted the Zerg on Char and in later encounters with the Dominion, it proved effective.
CMC-700T: The trainer version of CMC-700 powered armor. Due to the smaller size of Mobians compared to humans, and thus lower strength, this version of powered armor was created for Mobian combat instructors. It can be used in combat, but the uses of the armor are limited as it brings strength up to Terran level only, leaving the user unable to use the C-14 Impaler Gauss rifle.
Next time on When Things Go Wrong: The final push to Char.
Ja Ne!