With the security neutralized and the data secured it was now time to start the raid on the comm towers. Raynor and his crew should have started the primary strike on the 'Odin'. The towers closest had to go first, it just wouldn't do to have Raynor walk in to a trap in the last base. The problem with something so simple was that no one could know that the towers had been sabotaged in any way. The fact that they were located right inside the bases in the path of the 'Odin' didn't help at all. In fact, Minea would prefer if the crazy SOB piloting it would stop aiming at her. The explosion that knocked her flat on her back added insult to injury since it shortened out her stealth cloak, rendering her visible to the upset Dominion marines currently trying to fight the gargantuan war machine, the Odin siege walker. Suddenly finding a much easier target they all turned their attention to the ghost, forgetting the massive machine behind them. The pilot of the 'Odin' capitalized on the defenders mistake and fired it's massively over sized T-800 cannons, turning the defenders to mush and sending the ghost flying into one of the nearby buildings.
As Minea picked herself up from the floor she made a silent promise to kill the pilot later, once he was done trying to kill her that is. Any way, the third tower was neutralized and the last two weren't going to destroy themselves. The surprisingly large metal shard pinning her arm to the wall did make a quick exit rather difficult. The 'Odin' pilot had noticed this slight problem and decided that he wanted to know if it could stomp on the building. Minea lashed out with her strongest psychic attack but the distance and the electrical interference made it more or less useless. At the most she managed to make him stop and look for the nearest bathroom.
Finally yanking the annoying metal piece from her arm she got a rather vivid image of the pilot visiting the built in toilet. It was almost enough to make her forget to stop the bleeding. As she didn't carry any medical supplies (this was a quick stealth strike, after all) another solution was needed. Taking out her knife, Minea concentrated hard on the metal blade and eventually made it heat up so much that it glowed white-hot. Applying it to the bleeding wound did cauterize it, but it hurt a lot more then she expected. Now on to the next tower.
Moving with a few broken ribs and a currently useless right arm did slow her down some, but doing it without her cloak had made her progress nearly snail like. Sure, the next tower was just ahead but so was the 'Odin' and it's trigger happy pilot. Peeking 'round a corner, Minea could see several guards who took their jobs way to seriously. They were even patrolling the streets nearby as if something could strike at any time. Of course, that was just what was going to happen but still...
Minea carefully manipulated the mind of the closest marine, making him wander away into the alley. The overzealous sergeant in charge did notice the missing marine and just like Minea hoped, sent a large portion of guards away from the tower, giving her easy access. Walking up to it like she owned it, she removed the data chip and then walked away, leaving no evidence to her presence. They would be otherwise occupied when the 'Odin' showed up to the party, AND Minea didn't want to be here then. She had enough of being used as a target practice to last her a lifetime.
The walk to the last tower was almost devoid of guards. There were a few stray ones here and there but nothing serious. Then a group of Hellions passed her hiding spot and she suddenly knew why the street was empty, several Hellions patrolled the last stretch to the tower, and the crazy drivers rode them like they owned the road. The problem was that the last stretch to the tower had no hiding spots at all, normally not a problem for a ghost but her suit was ruined and she was severely hurt.
The solution was so simple that Minea had to laugh when she dominated the mind of the last Hellion driver and asked him nicely for a ride. The ride was completed swiftly and without incident. Once there, Minea neutralized the tower and then asked the nice, dominated pilot for a ride back home. Which happened to be the 'Loki'. When the driver opened the hatch and let her out, Minea rewarded him for the ride with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to scope him out the next time they met. The very happy driver then left, hoping that his CO hadn't noticed him going AWOL for a date with a girl hot enough to fry a steak on.
Master Sargent Claude had finished the preliminary flight checks and navigation systems. Half of them were only half-way completed and more or less completely useless. If it weren't for the Lt. Commander's stolen data, there would be no way for him to get it space worthy. Not without rewriting it from scratch anyway, and they just didn't have the time for something that ambitious.
Now that the important part of his mission was completed, and the 'Loki's' engines powered up and ready to go, he felt like it was safe to go and have a look at the ghost whose job had been to keep the Dominion from learning of the raid. She was currently placed in a Regen-tank, recovering from the wounds that, all things considered, should have killed her. That they were incurred from friendly fire did not help any.
"How is she?" He asked the medic in charge, a woman named Jennifer Doe.
The medic turned to face the man and shook her head. "The girl should have died of her wounds, sir. I did the most important parts like fixing her collapsed chest but the rest will just have to heal on it's own. How she managed to get here on her own is beyond me though."
"She's a Ghost Jen, what did you expect?" he honestly hoped that she wouldn't die as ghost were few and very far apart. Finding one who didn't think the Dominion was god's gift to Mengsk just didn't happen. especially after he got all paranoid and stuff. Now all of them undergoes memory wipes on a regular schedule and are implanted with neural implants, making it even harder to recruit any of them. Losing her would be a severe blow to Raynor's fighting force.
"Well, I did expect her to behave like a human at least. The amount of pain she must have been experiencing would have paralyzed a weaker person. Are all Ghosts this well trained?" She studied the many screens showing how the patient was doing and adding or removing various substances required for the most effective healing. Terran healing techniques had not yet reached the level where an AI could handle them.
Well, to tell the truth, he had no idea as to what her training had entailed but he assumed that it was the same as all ghosts. "I think so, but then again all of Raynor's forces are better equipped then Mengsk so why wouldn't our ghosts be better trained."
The medic just shook her head in amazement and wandered of to tend to the other wounded.
He turned around to check on the Predators who seemed to have found the few marines in his group who had a higher education in technology. They were busy removing their armor and placing the one seriously wounded in one of the unoccupied tanks. "What are you guys doing?"
The marine closest saluted and then returned to his task. "We are removing the active EMP units from inside these Predators sir, can't have them shorting out something important, like the life support or something similarly unpleasant." The marine managed to unplug the EMP and shut it down. Then he started to replace the cables and connectors to their right place in the Predator.
"Why do you even know what to do?" Claude knew that some of those in their group could be considered skilled but to dismantle one of the Predators (who were half zerg/half machine) was far outside their league.
"I...I don't know sir. It's like theres this voice in my head telling me what to do." He scratched his head and picked up a few cables from a box. using those he then began rerouting power from damaged areas to unharmed ones.
Claude turned his head to look at the ghost in the tank. In his mind he could hear a voice quietly whisper to him. It said that everything would be fine and that he could have his marines back once the predators were taken care of.
"Claude, you really need to get back to the bridge right now. The 'Jackson's Revenge' isn't looking to well, sir." The PA nearly made him jump. Darn it, just being in the presence of a ghost was starting to scare him.
"I'm on my way now Jacob." he said into his comm. unit. Turning to the medic he said with a smile he only reserved for the ladies: "We'll talk later, Jen. Just make sure she doesn't die or Raynor'll get pissed." The medic didn't even bother to look at him and only replied with a grunt. She had been with his group for far to long not to have become immune to his charm.
In space above Valhalla a furious battle was taking place between the Raiders fleet and the Dominion one. swarms of wraiths were dissuading any Dominion Vikings from coming to close to either the Hyperion or the Jackson's Revenge. But the battlecruisers in the Dominion fleet just ignored them and continued to unleash their heavy weapons on the two ships.
Matt was pressed hard, making as many tactical moves as he could while still keeping the opponents in the sights of his own guns. "How long until the Yamato is charged again?" he yelled to the gunner.
"Thirteen seconds, Captain."
Matt looked at the tactical readout on the table. "Tell the 'Revenge' to concentrate on that battlecruiser on the far left. it's breaking of and we cant stop them. They are going to tell the Dominion what we are planing and that would ruin our plans."
"Sir, the 'Revenge' just finished charging their Yamato." The ensign who sat at the communications station yelled. They're targeting the fleeing ship right now."
Good, Matt thought. At least they know what to do in a serious combat situation. On the table, the targeted battlecruiser vanished, just as he heard the weapons officer yell that their own Yamato had just finished. "Target the center one now. Fire at will." The Hyperion vibrated a little as the powerful main weapon unleashed it's directed nuclear blast. Another battlecruiser winked out, leaving only three.
"WE ARE TARGETED!" the radar operator yelled and out of the view screen, Matt could clearly see one of the battlecruisers charge it's own Yamato. Though the Hyperion's armor could take massive amounts of punishment, surviving a point blank Yamato was far beyond it's capabilities.
"Brace for impact" he yelled and grabbed hold of the railing of the table. Then he could see several shots rip through the ship, rendering it inoperative and out of sheer good luck the Yamato imploded, completely destroying it.
"Raiders be warned, we are joining you in the 'Loki' so please don't shoot us. but it looked as if you needed some help. Matt couldn't believe his luck, now they had the upper hand on the Dominion fleet. They turned tail and tried to flee but didn't get far as both the 'Revenge' and the 'Loki' fired their canons, destroying the last two ships.
"Good work everyone. Now we need to leave before we loose our moment of opportunity. 'Loki' and the 'Revenge' will jump to Zero and prepare for deployment, I'll take the Hyperion down and pick up Raynor and the 'Odin' so we can get this show on the road." Matt started issuing orders for the Hyperion to land at Raynor's base. The two other ships spun up their warp drives and jumped away, leaving the Hyperion alone.
Once the 'Odin' was snuggly tucked away in the biggest cargo bay and the remaining Raiders had boarded Matt told the navigator to jump to Tarsonis. with careful planning and a bucket of luck, they could deal a critical blow to Mengsk and his Dominion.
Raynor just looked at his very happy Chief Engineer as the squat old man positively danced around the feet of the newest addition to their armory. Now he could spend his time doing what he did the best, namely re-engineer it into something that the Raiders could utilize more easily and a lot cheaper then this monstrosity. At least he would stop pestering Raynor for more funding for his many pet projects. Granted most of those turned out to result in something awesome and devastating for anyone on the opposite side.
"Easy there, Swann. I don't want to have to carry you to the med-bay because you had a heart attack." Raynor yelled jokingly at his friend. "I'll be fine Hotshot, you just worry about keeping us alive and I'll give you new toys to play with."
Raynor entered the Bridge and sat down in his chair. Matt was talking with some of the crew and then walked up to report. "Sir, we sustained some bad injuries fighting off the Dominion fleet. We'll need to stay out of sight later so we don't end up fighting the Tarsonis armada. The Hyperion wouldn't survive very long in any kind of engagement." He then motioned to the holo-table and continued. "I have managed to secure a way to deliver the 'Odin' with Tycus as the pilot. It cost us a lot of credits but now we have front seats for the show."
"Easy there, Matt. We need to be careful here if we want to make it out alive." Raynor observed the UNN towers they needed to raid in order to deliver their finishing blow to Mengsk political career. They would need to capture three towers to get the message out to as many planets as possible. And there were a lot of military bases between the towers making their job harder. He sighed, nothing short of a perfect surprise attack and a lot of luck could turn this endeavor from turning into a bloodbath with the civilian population stuck between them. This needed to be carefully planned.
Near the Zero Deep Space Station, the two ships exited warp space and approached the dock. The station manager, a former SCV pilot from the confederate SpecOps unit ZERO observed the heavy damages on the closest one. He knew that one like the back of his hand, the other one further out was new but it still carried a few scars. "Darn that Raynor," he muttered to himself as he walked towards the docking bay, "can't he play nice with his toys once in a while?"
A/N
I don't feel as if this chapter managed to convey what I wanted to tell, namely what I think Raynor should have done during the Engine of Destruction mission. Why would he only take one of them and then (Optionally) destroy the other. For lore and game play reasons I can understand it, Raynors Raiders consists only of some 40 raiders plus any mercenary groups hired, but still, just leaving an ultra powerful experimental battlecruiser to the Dominion is asking for trouble later down the road. So this is my take on it. One group does the 'steal the Odin' thing and the other goes for the 'Loki'. aaand now Raynor has two powerful toys to play with.
ps. Tell me if I'm messing this thing up as badly as I think I am.
