Chapter 3: Rapture

Chapter 3: Rapture

Part 3: Conceiving a Plan

The briefing room was especially crowded today on board the Hyperion. Large, ten-foot tall aliens stood in the wake of the humans. The aliens wore bright yellow-golden armor but most of their bodies were uncovered. They had not mouth, no ears, and no nose. Their skin varied in color from pale white to dark purple. As protection, the aliens had special personal shields and weapons on their wrists that could generate burning blades that glowed bright blue. Since the aliens did not have mouths or ears, they used their telepathic powers to speak with each other and the humans. For some strange reason, the aliens' eyes glowed whenever they spoke.

"How do we know you will not betray us like your leader, Mengsk, did." One protoss leader said.

"Calm yourself, Aldaris," and old looking female protoss said, "Raynor has been our ally in the past and he would not commit such an act."

"But Raszagal," Aldaris began.

"Someone of your position will refer to Raszagal as 'matriarch'," an old protoss male said, "We trust Raynor possibly more than we trust you."

"Of course, patriarch," Aldaris apologized, "forgive me, matriarch."

"We don't have time to be arguing if we can trust each other," Jim said, "we should be worrying about finding a place to stay. Once the UED and Science Federation find out that their fleets were destroyed, they'll send larger fleets with greater firepower and more fighters."

"Rapture is all we have," a man said.

"Don't be too sure, Arnabis," Jim said, "We could travel through hyper space back to where Zeratul and Raszagal came from."

"No," Raszagal objected, "We came here to rally the humans and join together. We have a greater problem than your enemies, Jim. A new Overmind is growing on Char and the remaining Zerg on Auir that have rallied together."

"Then we'll go over there and destroy it, I mean it must still be in its youth." Jim said, "It's probably the size of just one tank if it started growing right after Kerrigan killed the old one."

"That is not possible," Zeratul said, "the new Overmind is already the size of three nexus. Or for you humans, four command centers, if not larger."

"But it takes millions of years for an Overmind to reach maturity," Jim said.

"We believe something is speeding its growth," Raszagal said, "and that's not all. The Zerg have recognized a new leader in the Overmind and are protecting it. Our entire fleet wouldn't stand much of a chance against the number of Zerg that cover Char."

"Sir," Arnabis said, "what about the blueprints for the prototype 'Ring' we found when we took the blueprints for the mark III battlecruiser?"

"Those blueprints only graph a small part of the 'Ring' and we don't have the necessary recourses to build even that part."

"What does this 'Ring' do?" Raszagal asked.

"It's a weapon that's supposed to be used to cleanse entire planets of life from far away, without getting close enough for a battle to be held directly over orbit," Jim explained, "but there's no way that we, the UED, or the Science Federation would have enough recourses to finish it in the next hundred years."

"We don't have a hundred years," Aldaris said, "at this rate, the Overmind will reach full maturity and mental power in two years, if not less."

"Which is why we must rally all humans under one banner and unite against this new threat," Zeratul said.

"No," Jim said, "the Science Federation is fascinated by the Zerg and news of this will make them protect the Zerg. And Mengsk definitely won't help us."

"Hey," Arnabis called, "Aren't we forgetting the task at hand? We have to discuss about where we're going to go. We can go back where the Protoss came from, go back to Earth, or we stay here and die."

"Where did you guys come from, anyways?" Jim asked.

"We made refuge on Shakuras, the lost planet of my people," Zeratul said, "we have a single vast base on the surface with an incomplete defense grid that we based off the defenses around human planets."

"I say we go back to Earth and try to assimilate the UED and Science Federation," Arnabis said.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Jim said.

"We have somebody who knows the UED better than any of us. And you befriended him, Jim." Arnabis explained.

"You mean Tychus Findlay?" Jim said.

"Yes," Arnabis said, "I mean Tychus Findlay, the marine, part-time taxi driver."

"Alright," Jim said, "where is he?"

"He's on board one of the mark II battlecruisers," a young officer said.

"Get him here," Jim ordered.

Just as ordered, fifteen minutes later Tychus entered the large briefing room.

"Welcome Tychus," Jim said, "We're planning on going back to Earth and we need you to explain the defense system of the UED."

"Well," Tychus was a little hesitant at first but decided to tell as much as he knew, "I'm just a marine but I know quite a bit about the UED defense system. As you know, the UED controls most of the space grid around Earth and a hole can be planted using your ion cannon. But there are surface bases covering the ground underneath the defense grid platforms. But there is one barren spot that, luckily for us, holds the capital of the UED.

"The capital is protected with small bases around it that have powerful sensor towers. If we destroy the sensor towers quick enough, and in unison, Mengsk should think that there was a system failure of some kind and won't think much of it at first, thinking that it will be up again in a few hours.

"In that time frame of a few hours, if we can knock out outgoing communications and assure that not a single sensor tower is still up, we can launch a full assault on the capital while most of the UED sits oblivious to the attack. We should set up a perimeter around the capital as well, to make sure that no runners try to get word out to the rest of the UED."

"How do you plan on deactivating all outgoing communications in the capital?" Jim asked.

"There's a major hole in the UED communications systems. While all incoming communications are secure in various places in the capital, there are several buildings just outside the perimeter of the capital. If you can destroy each one of these buildings or deactivate it with an EMP, outgoing communications will become foggy and confusing. This will buy us some time to get rid of the final factor that allows the capital to send messages.

"In the air space above the capital there are hundreds of satellites that fly around doing most of the work. If you fly the Hyperion in just outside the sensor range of the capital and activate the gravity well, every single little satellite will come crashing down into the surface or, if lucky, right into the capital itself, causing confusion and chaos."

"That's a good plan," Arnabis said, "but how do we know that the rest of the UED won't send reinforcements as soon as they realize that the space defense grid has been neutralized?"

"We won't have to worry about that," Tychus explained, "Mengsk needs to give the order before a single marine can move towards the capital."

"That's good," Jim laughed, "let's start preparing all ships for hyper space and back to Earth, enemy forces could be here any moment."