Chapter 10
Teamwork
The next morning Raynor woke with a minor headache, a clear sign that he might have drunk a bit too much the night before. He emitted a groan as he rolled over and was greeted by a pleasant sight, Kerrigan lying in bed next to him, her red hair cascading down her back and rippling as she slowly breathed in and out, still fast asleep. He reached an arm around her and she unconsciously slid closer to the warmth from his body as he gently embraced her before giving a quick kiss to her shoulder and climbing out of bed. Apparently Kerrigan had run their clothes through the cleaner before turning in last night which made Raynor smile. It felt like ages since he had worn a clean pair of clothes and noticed that even his boots seemed to have been cleaned a bit. After dressing he headed towards the door with his revolver holstered at his side and made his way up to the mess for a quick bite of breakfast. After chatting with the few other crewmembers there Raynor headed for the bridge to meet up with Horner but was surprised to see Yohan there as well.
"Well hello Chuck. Good to see you moving about so early," Raynor greeted. The older man adjusted his glasses as he turned towards Raynor.
"Who says I slept?" he responded, a slight grin adding a few more wrinkles to his face. "Those artifacts you have down below are something else, I must say."
Horner moved over to join them. "Indeed they are. They were picked up some time ago and according to Stetson they just keep growing. I'm trusting that the two of you won't let your scientific curiosity let those things get out of hand," he said.
Yohan blinked as he responded. "Oh of course not. I know some things shouldn't be pushed to limits while aboard a spaceship where the only thing protecting you from the vacuum is a few steel walls."
Horner nodded as he turned to the commander, "Good to have you up and ready for action, sir. Anything specific you'd like to get underway?"
"Perhaps. See, Kerrigan has this idea of bringing the swarm back under her control. I'm not talking about the few lab rats Mensk had in his facility but the entire swarm. A whole heck of a lot of zerg. And I hate to admit it but I think she can do it."
Horner shook his head vigorously. "It's too dangerous sir. Who knows what a reunited swarm might be able to accomplish. Or destroy."
"You know, the scattered swarms are still out there doing significant damage by themselves as they plunder various planets and just in general rampage about. Perhaps if Kerrigan truly can become a singular leader again it might limit the scattered destruction," Yohan interjected. "It was most likely one of those scattered broods that almost did the Hyperion in."
"That's relying an awful lot on an unknown fact if Kerrigan can control the swarm or not," Horner countered. Yohan began to voice his agreement but Raynor stepped in
"If Kerrigan claims she can do it, then I believe she can. All you gotta do is have a little faith." Horner opened his mouth as if to argue more but instead he let out a sigh and nodded his head.
"This will cause hell among the crew though. We just spent months fighting to destroy the swarm, and here we are saying we're going to return them to the control of the person who almost destroyed us all," Horner said pensively.
Raynor put a hand on Horner's shoulder. "I'll handle the crew. Don't worry about it Matt." Kerrigan walked onto the bridge just then and Yohan excused himself, saying he had promised Stetman to meet him down in the lab. The doctor gave Kerrigan a smile as they passed which she returned and then he disappeared off the bridge. Kerrigan moved on towards Raynor and Horner and planted a light kiss on Raynor's cheek.
"Good morning you two. Getting busy awfully early, don't ya think? Might make a girl jealous," she said playfully.
Raynor grinned. "Nothing to worry about, darling. Matt's first love will always be the ship he's serving. He won't be any competition for you." Horner looked between the two of them and sighed loudly causing Raynor to chuckle. "Alright now that you're awake I think its best we got to work," he said.
Horner, Raynor, and Kerrigan began coordinating transferring minerals over from the Leviathan to the Hyperion. As Horner and Raynor assigned pilots and crew for the dropships, Kerrigan used the communications array to send orders to Izsha aboard the Leviathan and had her set the drones to moving the materials from storage up into the "hanger."
"There's no way I can see this going off without a hitch, sir." Horner eventually commented, "There are simply too many issues between Terran and Zerg to expect not even a single marine to get twitchy," Horner looked annoyed as he perused his list of "trustworthy" crew that had came up far shorter than expected.
Raynor stroked his beard as he thought before responding. "How about I go over first and get things under control? The men are less likely to be spooked if I'm already there and they're even less likely to disobey a direct order when their superior is right there watching."
Horner thought for a minute before nodding agreement. "That could work. If the crew doesn't simply believe you're under Kerrigan's…erm…" he stopped nervously as he remembered Kerrigan was standing nearby. "Sorry ma'm."
Kerrigan simply smiled sadly. "It's ok Matt. I know what some of the crew must think. If I could prove otherwise I would but I simply haven't thought of a way to do so just yet." Horner nodded again as he turned back to Raynor.
"Well sir, your plan might be the only way for this to work assuming the men believe you're in your right mind. I'll admit even I have doubts from time to time." Raynor nodded as Kerrigan spoke up.
"I'll be going over first as well. I have some unfinished business on the Leviathan and I want to be on hand to prevent any Zerg from deciding to poke their head up in the landing bay while the Marines are there. I've already gotten the majority of the resources stacked in the landing bay ready for transport so once that's done I'll clear all the drones out to make things as easy as possible." Horner voiced his agreement and the three of them split off, Kerrigan and Raynor to the docking bay and Horner towards the comm station. As the pair arrived at the docking bay they were greeted vociferously by a large man in an orange jumpsuit. "Raynor! Gawd it's good to see you again, cowboy. Been boring here without you."
Raynor turned towards the voice and a grin cracked his face. "Well well. Rory Swann. Toughest son of a bitch on the ship still not ready to retire?"
"Hell no. We still got an army to equip," Swann responded, clapping his good arm against Raynor's shoulder. "Anyways, I got a surprise for ya. Over here." Swann led the two of them over to a new drop-ship, the mechanics putting the finishing layer of black paint on the sides.
"Well I'll be damned. I didn't think she'd be ready to go already," Raynor said as he took in the Raynor's Raiders logo painted on the side of the otherwise black ship.
"Ready and willing, cowboy. She's been tuned up a bit and we took out some of her cargo space to put in Gauss cannons and a full load of Backlash rockets. It's not an aerial beauty but she'll pack a punch on any landing zone you need." Swann's pride in his team's accomplishment was evident in his voice. Raynor began to voice his thanks but Swann interrupted. "Don't thank me yet chief. We got one more surprise for you." Raynor and Kerrigan shared a look as they followed the chief engineer onto the drop-ship and were pointed towards the cargo hold. Raynor looked and almost laughed. "Damn, son. You move quick." Against the wall sitting in a compartment designed for it was a brand new black powersuit, the visor pulled down and displaying Raynor's typical skull logo.
"It's an upgraded CMC-400 suit with a subspace tracking system onboard that allows us to get your location even if you end up a few systems away. Can't have you disappearing on us for a month or more again," Swann said.
"Trust me, if I can avoid it I will. Thanks, old friend." Raynor clapped his hand on Swann's shoulder. "Now go ahead and get back to work. Kerrigan and I got some business over on the big Zerg so we need you here to make sure the rest of the marines Horner is sending can get over without pissing their pants." Swann chuckled as he left the drop-ship, waving goodbye to Raynor.
"I don't think he trusts me." Kerrigan's sharp tone from behind Raynor caused him to turn around, a quizzical expression on his face.
"What makes you say that?" he asked, earning himself an annoyed glance in response.
"He's equipped a drop-ship with weapons. Not only that but he did it in record time when the only place this ship should be going any time soon is the Leviathan. 'Clear a landing zone' my ass he armed it so you could clear the Leviathan if you came under attack." Kerrigan thumped the suit with a foot. "And this thing, a subspace tracker? He's expecting me to attempt to kidnap you or at the very least for me to manipulate you away."
Raynor stepped forward and gave Kerrigan a quick hug. "Now darling you're reading too much into this. If he didn't trust you why would he have revealed the subspace tracker right in front of you? If he thought you were planning something he wouldn't have told either of us and just used it to follow us if things went wrong." He kissed the top of her head. "Now let's get this bird flying. We got a lotta work to do." Kerrigan nodded grudgingly and moved towards the pilot's seat as Raynor powered up the suit and climbed inside.
The marines Horner had organized into the supply runs began filing into the hanger along with the SCVs that would be doing the majority of the manual work. Raynor watched from the side hatch of his ship and was mostly pleased with the choices Horner had made as he watched them load up into the three other drop-ships sitting on the hanger floor. Horner had done his research and the marines were all seasoned and understood that even if orders might be odd they were still orders and they trusted the men they followed to not get them needlessly killed. As the final SCV filed into a drop-ship Raynor shut the hatch and signaled Kerrigan to lift off. The engines revved up and the drop-ship lifted off the hanger floor before it taxied towards the open bay doors and on out into the void.
Kerrigan piloted the ship out into nearby space as the other drop-ships formed up outside the ship. The communication console on Raynor's ship blinked on and they were greeted by a weathered, masculine face. "Captain Doln and squadron 6 reporting for escort service, sir." A Viking slid into view off the port side of Raynor's ship and Raynor shared a look with Kerrigan.
"Can't say we called for an escort, Captain. But I assume the order came from Commander Horner." Raynor replied, hiding his slight annoyance.
"Yes sir. He asked we make sure the first few transport lifts went off without a hitch."
Raynor turned back to Kerrigan and sighed. "Can't fault him for being careless, that's for sure." He turned back to the screen, "The escort is appreciated. If you don't mind though stay at a distance and don't try coming into the hanger. Keep our escape route open if anything…goes wrong."
"Yes sir." The communication link ended and the Vikings took up perimeter positions around the drop-ships as the group headed towards the large Zerg vessel. This was the first time Raynor had seen the Leviathan from the outside, having first been transported up via an Overlord without any windows. He knew it was large but the sheer size of the beast still impressed him and left him wondering how something the size of a small moon could actually be living. As they got closer to the beast his sense of wonder simply grew and he began habitually calculating areas of possible weaknesses to be exploited. He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head but Kerrigan smiled knowingly as if she had read his mind, giving Raynor a sneaking suspicion that perhaps she had. He gave her a sideways look before settling back with a huff which only made her smile more, never taking her eyes from the forward viewports.
As the ships approached the gigantic being the Vikings took up perimeter positions as requested and the drop-ships continued alone. Eventually they came to what looked like a rift in the side of the Leviathan which opened into a small area with another hatch-like rift in the far wall. The exterior rift drifted closed before the interior rift opened, preventing the interior atmosphere from venting into space. Kerrigan led the other drop-ships into the large "hanger" and settled down near the stacked minerals, powering down the engines as the other drop-ships followed suit. Raynor opened the hatch and was first to land on the ground, if you could call it that, and turned to help Kerrigan down but she was already down the back ramp and heading towards the interior of the ship, waving goodbye as she left.
Raynor returned the wave as he headed for the nearest drop-ship to coordinate the loading of materials. Before he was even half-way there a short burst of gunfire rang out from the other side of the hanger. "Hold your fire!" Raynor bellowed, changing direction towards the sound. As he approached he found a marine aiming his weapon at a bleeding tendril sticking out from the wall. "What the hell is going on?" he asked.
"It moved sir. I thought it was attempting to grab one of us," the marine responded, still aiming his rifle at the clearly dead tendril. Raynor walked over and stood in front of the marine's rifle.
"You turned it into swiss cheese and you still think it's going to be fighting back? Lower your weapon, boy," he said. The marine slowly lowered his weapon and stood up from his firing stance before Raynor continued in a louder voice in order to be heard by everyone. "No listen here, we may be on a Zerg vessel, but do NOT treat this as hostile territory. Dangerous territory? Definitely. But hostile? No. Everything here has no intention of fighting at this moment, but any creature will turn into a beast in self-defense. So if you want to get these resources back to the Hyperion and stay in one piece, make sure you don't piss them off."
The marines shared a look before moving into defensive squads, weapons at port arms but ready to be brought up to firing position if needed. The SCVs began their work of transporting the stored resources from the hanger floor and onto the drop-ships. Raynor kept a close eye on the other soldiers but much to his surprise there were no more incidents with twitchy fingered marines. The resources were almost fully loaded by the time Kerrigan returned which caused Raynor to have no end of questions, questions that would have to wait for later as a look from Kerrigan suggested he keep quiet about things for the time being. Raynor looked around and realized that as soon as Kerrigan had reappeared at least one member of each squad of marines kept their eyes on her at all times. If he was seen to be questioning her actions himself they might think something was wrong and would be all the more likely to cause an incident. With a sigh Raynor accepted having to wait and returned to supervising the last few resources being loaded onto his own ship. There was still a hefty amount of resources remaining on the hanger floor but the drop-ships were filled with as many resources as possible. Well, not quite. Raynor thought to himself. No one was interested in staying aboard the Leviathan while the ships were sent back to be offloaded so the SCVs left plenty of room on the drop-ships to carry the men back as well. Raynor let out another sigh before climbing into his own drop-ship and signaling the other ships to head out.
As the exterior "hatch" of the Leviathan parted and the drop-ships left the beast, the Vikings took up an escort perimeter again and the group headed back to the Hyperion, fully loaded with resources and men ready to put those resources towards repairs. As they arrived back in the hanger Raynor say that the other two drop-ships that had been resource gathering at nearby planetoids had returned so Raynor decided to sit the remaining supply runs out and trust the marines to handle themselves. Raynor dropped the bay door of his drop-ship and clomped down the ramp in his powersuit, Kerrigan coming down not far behind him. Nearby techs began to move in on the ships to begin the unloading process and Raynor saluted Swann as he oversaw the operation from above on a catwalk. Swann retuned the salute before turning his attention back to the unloading process and Raynor turned towards Kerrigan.
"Now then, how about a few drinks so we can discuss where the hell you went, leaving me with all them trigger happy gun-nuts," he asked playfully.
Kerrigan slapped a hand against his armor and made a ringing noise. "You're the biggest gun-nut of them all, so don't give me that," she said with a smile. "But a drink does sound good right about now. Had an…interesting experience talking to Abathur and I'd like to hear your thoughts on what he had to say."
Raynor grumbled something about not caring what that spindly bastard had to say but Kerrigan simply laughed and led him towards the cantina. Before they'd made it half-way down the corridor Raynor's suit let of an alert, saying he had an incoming message. "Raynor? It's Horner. We have a problem, sir. You might want to come see this on the bridge."
Raynor acknowledged the message and turned towards the bridge. "Sorry darling. Looks like drinks will have to wait."
Kerrigan shrugged. "Apparently. Let's go see what he wants." The two of them headed off to the bridge and arrived to see a flurry of activity taking place, Horner calling orders to repair techs as he prioritized systems for repair. "What's going on here?" Raynor asked as he approached the commander.
Horner turned to the holographic sensor display as it flickered to life and a repair tech crawled out from under the machinery. "Good work, ensign. Go help Tara over on weapons controls if you will." The tech nodded and moved off as Horner rounded the table to the other side, inviting Raynor and Kerrigan to step forward. "On our last supply run one of our drop-ships had to emergency leap into warp as a Zerg swarm appeared at the planet the crew had been working on. Some of our SCVs didn't make it back to the ship in time…" Horner paused before continuing. "Anyways, I had our repair chief focus on repairing sensors and not too long ago we managed to get our long range sensors back online and started tracking a large group of Zerg moving about the nearby systems, exploring and ransacking before moving on to the next target, almost as if they're searching for something. They've been exploring in a grid-like pattern, and eventually they will find us here. And with our warp drive still down we're limited to sub-warp speed, meaning we'd never escape them if they found us. Our current estimate is they'll reach this sector in about 12 hours, 15 at the most."
Raynor nodded before using the internal intercom to call down to the hanger bay a gruff voice answered the call. "Swann? How long do you think until repairs are done now that you've got the materials?"
The line crackled as Swann thought for a minute. "At least a full day, possibly more. We've got the materials, sure but there's a hell of a lot of damage done and without the ability to dry-dock a lot of the repairs have to be done in space-walks which are always more time-consuming. If you got me a good repair station I could have things done in an hour, but as it is that's not gonna happen."
Raynor nodded even though he knew Swann couldn't see him. "Alright thanks. Prioritize weapons and the defensive matrix. We might have incoming soon." Swann acknowledged and cut the line as Raynor turned back to Horner. "Well son, looks like the fight's coming to us again."
"Aye sir, let's hope we're ready for it," Horner responded.
"No, let's make sure we are," Raynor countered and he, Horner, and Kerrigan began hashing out a battle plan involving the first ever Terran-Zerg combination defense.
