StarCraft II

Rise of the Claymore

Hyperion Bridge: 10 Minutes later

The door to the bridge swung open and Raynor, Miria, and Galatea entered. Matt and Tosh were on the bridge with Nova tied tightly to a chair between them.

"Brought ya a present, Mr. Raynor. Hope she was worth all the trouble she put me through," Tosh said.

"Well, I guess that all depends on how willing she is to cooperate," Raynor replied, "and what she knows about the woman who was kidnapped from Talderan."

"Talderan, huh?" Nova repeated, "so you're after little Ms. Clare then."

"How do you know that name!" Miria demanded.

"She told me it. When she woke up after I kidnapped her. Judging by the color of your eyes and hair, I'm guessing you must be one of those super soldier women from Talderan as well. Interesting. I'm guessing you've come to take her home then," Nova replied.

"Then you're the one who took Clare," Miria said distastefully, "where is she!"

"You'd best start talkin' Nova, or I can't predict what Tosh here might do to you," Raynor declared, "where's the Dominion hiding Clare!"

"Emperor Mengsk has ordered that the woman be held on a remote lab on an asteroid just outside the Kandma quadrant. As far as I know, she's still there," Nova declared.

"Okay, I didn't expect it to be that easy. What're you not telling us, Nova?" Raynor demanded.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Raynor. My loyalties still lie with the Dominion, but… I can't just sit by and let the Emperor go through with this," Nova replied.

"Do what? What is Mengsk up to, Nova!" Raynor shouted.

"He's extracting DNA from the woman… in order to make some sort of hybrid Super Soldier, but something went wrong. When he tried to inject the cells into one of our men… he turned into some kind of monster."

"A monster? What're you talking about?"

"An Awakened Being!" Miria realized.

"You know what this is, Miria?" Raynor asked.

"Yes, I do. It's a fate that is all but inevitable to someone who has taken Yoma power into themselves, Awakening. It happens when a warrior loses control of their Yoma power, they end up turning into a monster themselves. In the early days of the Organization which made all of we Claymores, it was almost certain that sooner or later, a warrior would surpass their limit and lose control. What no one knew at the time was that the Organization had discovered a way to minimize the risk of awakening, but had chosen not to implement it, due to the toll it took on the warriors durability. For instance, before I had the procedures implemented to ensure that my Claymore's would not accidentally awaken, Claymore's were able to go for several weeks with very little water, food, or sleep. Now we need to eat, drink, and sleep almost as often as normal humans. The trade off, however is more than worth having to pay to supply my girls with a little extra food, as I'm sure you can guess."

"Interesting, but if you've figured out how to prevent awakening, why would one of the Dominion's test subjects awaken?" Horner asked.

"Since the fall of the Organization a few years ago, no one has made a new Claymore, so the warriors who survived the fall are the warriors who are still currently active. We only add to our ranks when we are discover a hidden Organization facility which has been experimenting on other girls and has turned them into Claymores before we find them, and those new warriors are almost immediately subjected to the procedure to prevent their awakening. You see, when a new warrior is created, even if they're created using Yoma blood that had already been treated, the treatment does not extend to them, and the chances of them Awakening are as high as they were during the days of the Organization. Nova, was the person who was injected with Clare's blood a male?"

"What? Yes, he was," Nova replied.

"I see. Males who are subjected to Yoma blood cannot handle their Yoma power as well as women can. As a result, some males who become Claymores awaken almost immediately."

"And Mengsk is… actually trying to create these things? Is he insane?" Horner exclaimed.

"You have to ask. This is Mengsk we're talkin' about here. He'd do whatever he felt he had to if it meant he got to stay in power," Raynor declared.

"When a person awakens, they become completely uncontrollable, and lose all shreds of their former humanity. They literally become monsters that feed on the flesh of humans. The only cure for Awakening is death," Miria revealed.

"We need to hurry and get to this Asteroid then, sir. Every second counts," Matt declared.

"I know someone… who can help you. You'll need him and his forces if you hope to get into the facility," Nova replied.

"Why would we want any help from you, Nova?" Raynor asked, "for all we know, you could be leading us into a trap."

"I promise you, the man I'm talking about hates Mengsk every bit as much as you do, Commander. In fact, I'm willing to bet you've heard of him. His name is Leon Sanders, and next to you, he's one of the most wanted men in the Dominion," Nova replied.

"Sanders, sir I've heard that name. Leon Sanders is the leader of the 501st Renegades. They used to be an elite battalion of the Dominion army, until they were ordered to put down a case of civil unrest a few years ago by killing all of the civilians in the capital of the problem planet. Rather than carry out the order, Leon and his entire battalion went rouge and eliminated any Dominion strike team that has come anywhere near the planet. They're not as famous as the Raiders, but they're better equipped. Sanders played his hand perfectly and was able to procur the 501st's entire stockpile of weaponry and vehicles, including a powerful Battlecruiser Command Ship known as the White Knight. If he joined up with us, he would make a powerful ally, sir," Matt revealed.

"Sounds like it, but why would you tell us this, Nova? If you're with the Dominion, you sure shouldn't want the Dominions number one and number two enemies joining forces. What's your game," Raynor demanded.

"There is no game, Commander. I am… a member of the 501st," Nova declared.

"You're one of the Renegades? You'll forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe," Raynor declared.

"Believe what you want, Raynor, but it's true. When the 501st departed for the Planet Minorant, Commander Sanders ordered me to stay behind and inform the Emperor of his plans to rebel. That allowed me to maintain the trust of the Emperor and I became the 501st Renegades eyes and ears within the Dominion. In fact, Commander Sanders is already aware of the situation involving Talderan, and he's the one who told me to contact you," Nova replied.

"Dat's quite the story, little sista, but you don't think we're gonna fall for dat, now do ya?" Tosh spoke up, "she's told us what we want ta know. I say we get rid of her now." Just then, an alarm went off.

"Sir, we're receiving an heavily encrypted message, and you're not gonna believe this," Horner declared, "the transmission is being sent from the Planet Minorant."

"Minorant? You've gotta be kidding. Patch it through, Matt." The communication screen turned on to reveal a man with spiked black hair that hung down over a solid green headband. He was clean shaven and the shoulders of a set of dark green armor could be seen at the bottom of the screen.

"Marshall Raynor, how good to see you again. We fought together with the Sons of Korhal back in the day, though I'm willing to bet that you don't remember me."

"I'm guessing you must be Leon Sanders then," Raynor declared.

"Please, call me Leon. Ahh, I see you have one of the women from Talderan with you," Leon said glancing in Miria's direction, "I assume you must be looking for the one called Clare. I heard about her from Nova. It seems we've found ourselves in a rather beneficial predicament Mr. Raynor. You want to save the girl, and I want to get her out of Dominion hands. I believe we can help each other."

"Maybe. Why're you interested in Clare?" Raynor asked.

"Mr. Raynor, do I need a reason to want to rescue a lovely young woman from her monsterous kidnappers?" Leon replied, "Nova should have already filled you in on what Mengsk is doing with that woman. I have no desire to harm the girl, but I also can't let Mengsk continue his experiments, or there is no way of predicting how many people will die as a result. Thus, the only option I can see is a rescue mission to get her out of Dominion hands. If this is something that we are both after, then even better. Mr. Raynor, if you will help me pull this off, then I am prepared to step down as commanding officer of the 501st Renegades and turn over its command, along with the vast amounts of equipment and resources that go with it, to you and your Raiders. With what I have at my disposal, Commander, under your leadership, Mengsk will certainly have good reason to fear you. I don't think it's a hard decision, but I'll give you a moment to think about it if you need to."

"What do you think, Matt?" Raynor asked, "should we join forces with Mr. Sanders?"

"I don't think we can afford not to, sir. Thanks to Nova, he knows more about this installation we're going to be invading then we could hope to. Besides, we can't say no to that much equipment. We'd have the resources of an entire Dominion elite battalion. I think we need to go for it sir," Matt replied.

"Your call, Miria. You wanna trust this guy with the life of your friend?"

"We'll take all the help we can get, Commander. I think we can trust Mr. Sanders," Miria replied.

"Please, Leon," Leon replied, "I'm glad to hear you feel that way. However, there is one thing we must accomplish before we can complete our main objective. I'm sending you some coordinates. I'll meet you there and we can discuss the first step of this operation. I'll see you there." With that, the transmission ended and the screen turned off.

"What'll we do with Nova, sir?" Horner asked.

"Let her sit there til we reach these coordinates. If she's really with Sanders, we'll give her to him when we get there. He pushed a button on the communicator and Swann appeared on the monitor, "Swann, you done with the special 'project' I asked you to work on?"

"Just about Hot Shot. Go ahead and bring them girls down here. I'm just makin a few more minor adjustments and I'll be all finished.

"We'll be down in a minute, Swann," Raynor replied turning off the screen, "Miria, you'll wanna gather your girls. I think you'll enjoy this next part.

Hyperion Access Hall D: 4 minutes later

While Miria went to find her girls, Raynor made his way to the armory. As the door swung open into the Armory Access Hall, Kerrigan suddenly materialized in front of him.

"So, where've you been?" Raynor asked.

"Oh, I've been around," Kerrigan replied.

"I take it you were listening in. What's your opinion on this Sander's guy?"

"I actually know him. He was telling the truth, he was part of the Sons of Korhal back in the day. Back then, he was part of an elite group of soldiers known as the 501st. That also happens to be where he got the name for his renegades from. He's… decent. If nothing else, he's an honest man who cares about people. We can trust him."

"Well that's reassuring at least. I'll admit, I'm feeling a little uneasy right now," Raynor revealed.

"I don't think that has anything to do with Sanders. I can feel his presence. He's on board the ship," Kerrigan said calmly.

"He? Who's he?" Raynor asked.

"You'll find out very soon," Kerrigan replied. She was right. No sooner had she spoken then the lights in the access hall began to flicker.

"This looks familiar," Raynor said, "it can't be."

"It can," Kerrigan replied, "and it is."

"Even now, with your humanity restored, your perception has not been dulled, oh Queen of Blades," a familiar voice called from the shadows. Raynor was a little taken aback… as Zeratul, the Dark Prelate, emerged into the light.