Chapter Nine: Planning Stages
Raynor's Raiders spent the next few weeks on escort duty.
Serena had Raynor protect transport vessels. Most of them were taking marines, mercenaries, and supplies to colonies in need. Now and then, Jim would order elements of the Raiders to descend and shore up defenses. And during that time, Raynor noticed that they seemed to be winning.
It made Raynor suspicious.
The Great War had been one hollow victory after another, each one merely proceeded a greater and worse invasion. That had happened here, several times. But they seemed to have defeated the vanguard and were holding off the second wave.
Well, maybe they were inconveniencing Kerrigan, at least.
Apparently, just knowing that Jim was providing supplies and militia helped morale. Which Raynor found odd; it wasn't like he was going down there himself. Though if nothing else, this gave him the chance to drill up the volunteers who came with them from Mar Sara. Most of them were from the places which didn't have a militia, and even those with one needed training.
And then Serena called a meeting, though she was attending by the hologram. "Alright, I've pulled my strategies up and devised the best one we can use to deal with Kaloth."
"Alright, shoot," said Raynor from his chair. Raynor privately had so many expectations of defeating Kaloth directly at all. In fact, he privately expected the victories to disappear. The zerg to overwhelm them once Kerrigan got serious.
"Our strategy for defeating Kaloth is not to fight Kaloth at all," said Serena. Raynor thought this sounded weird, but he knew her enough not to complain. She had probably wanted them thinking it through.
"That's uh... original," said Matt. "How does it help?"
"It's quite simple, really," said Serena. "Kaloth is a tactical genius, and his armies have total superiority. So if we fight him, we are almost certain to lose.
"So, we won't fight him.
"When confronted with Kaloth, our forces should take on evasive maneuvers. Cede ground, evacuate personnel, and destroy anything we can't take with us. At the same time, we will strike at places where Kaloth isn't.
"We'll hit the worlds he is drawing troops from. Then we'll intercept his reinforcements before they reach him. If we wipe out his armies before they come under his command, it may force him to withdraw. I've already put the word out to Arcturus Mengsk, and he's agreed.
"If all goes well, we can defeat Kaloth without ever having to fight him."
"Well, that sounds as good a plan as we've got," said Raynor. Kaloth had more or less been unstoppable during the Great War, after all. "Matt, how are operations going?"
Matt shifted. "Negotiations with the Dominion are going well.
"We've managed to get the regional garrisons to turn a blind eye to our operations. I've also managed to reroute a number of mercenaries and raiders to places where they'll do the most good. The cash we got from Moebius has also let us purchase a lot more equipment as well."
"There a surplus or something?" asked Tychus, who was the odd man out here.
"From the looks of things, the Kel'Morian Combine has been preparing for this war for a long time," said Matt. "Their industrial capacity has all been geared toward funding the war.
"So far, everyone has been cooperating to fight the zerg. There haven't been any terran on terran conflicts worth talking about. Mira and her mercs are actually giving a discount on fighting the zerg."
"Well, that's a nice change of pace," said Raynor. Things were going way too well here. Raynor had to figure out how the universe was going to screw them over before it happened again.
If he'd learned one thing, it was that the good guys never won without some kind of horrific defeat.
"I don't get it, partner," said Tychus, chewing on a cigarette. "Way I saw it when all this happened, everyone would be backstabbing everyone else."
Raynor wondered how Tychus was going to betray them? His guess was that Arcturus wanted to use Tychus to steer the Raiders against somebody he didn't like. That and get the artifact. Probably to keep Raynor occupied killing Tal'Darim or something.
"It's a bit complicated, Tychus," said Raynor. "Long story short, we dealt with an invasion like this some years ago during the Great War and the Brood War-"
"There is no Brood War, Jim," said Serena insistently. "The 'Brood War' was merely the second half of the Great War."
Raynor sighed. That again? "-fine, whatever, Serena. Anyway, we dealt with an invasion like this and ended up fighting eachother as much as the zerg. Arcturus used chaos to take power. And he wasted a lot of resources overthrowing the Confederacy.
"My guess is, nobody wants to go through the same thing twice." Maybe Arcturus really needed this artifact? If so, maybe he'd come to collect it in person.
If so, Raynor could board his ship and massacre him. Food for thought.
"In any case, sir, I've been scanning the airwaves," said Matt. "I've gotten a distress signal from a major farming colony called Agria. It seems they're in a lot of trouble.
"None of the other areas are nearly as bad off as them."
"What's different?" asked Raynor.
"Their leadership is less than useless," said Serena simply. "It was founded by the Renowned Terraformer Bernard Hanson. It's one of the primary botanical and wildlife reserves.
"The Magistrate, Ariel Hanson, is an idiot. She pulled funding from her military for scientific pursuits. William Mark went to train the militia as best he could, but it's a volunteer army instead of a draft.
"Hanson ignored my advice and chose to rely on the Dominion. She was quite rude, actually."
Raynor sighed. He'd heard several times about Serena's rivalry with Ariel Hanson. The two had both been major figures in the colonies. Both nominally supported the Dominion. But Serena was a war hawk and regarded the Dominion only as a necessary evil. Ariel had wanted to integrate fully with the Dominion in the hopes of repairing the economy.
"Patch it through, Matt," said Raynor.
Onscreen came the face of a pretty, brown-haired woman. Though there was clear interference. "...any ship receiving this transmission...the zerg are invading Agria...
"...The Dominion abandoned us here ...We're just a small farming colony.
"We've got to evacuate before we're overrun...If you can hear this message, please help us!"
Serena laughed uproariously.
"Damn it," said Raynor. "Can we get there in time?"
"At full speed, we should be able to make it in a day or two," said Matt.
"Leave them," said Serena. "By the time we arrive there, they may all be dead. You'd be better off pursuing Mr. Findlay's artifact. You'll end up fighting Tal'Darim. They've been raiding terran worlds with some success."
Tychus stared. "That's a little heartless, wouldn't you say?"
"It's a simple statement of fact," said Serena. "Mark may be down there, but he has nothing to work with. Agria was warned that its irresponsible spending would lead to its destruction. If we bail them out now, it will set a precedent.
"Pull your weight, or expect no support."
"Serena, we are not abandoning them," said Raynor. "Hanson made some bad choices, but an entire colony shouldn't have to die for it."
"That might be a good argument," said Serena. "If Agria had anything worthwhile to offer us. I just think you could do better as to targets. My sources tell me Redstone is exposed, and a strike there could stem the tide.
"With some preparation-"
And they were done. "Matt set a course for that signal. We'll go help them, however we can."
"Fine, play white knight," said Serena. "See if I care."
"Serena, can you meet with us?" asked Raynor simply.
Serena sighed. "The Medea is up and running, and I've called on my troops.
"I should be able to get there soon enough."
"Great," said Raynor. "Then we've got to go fast. We'll save those folks soon enough."
Serena cooperated, of course.
If you spoke to Serena, she was... intense. Her whole ideology was one of Social Darwinism. One where everyone should look out for themselves and deserved what they got if they didn't. At the same time, she always acted far better than she spoke. Raynor knew she would never have done the things Arcturus did. Even if she and Arcturus agreed on most theoretical subjects.
He needed a drink.
But Raynor reminded himself that right now, he was on duty. And even if he hadn't had a drink in a while, he needed to stay sober. So, over the next day, he made sure to drink only an occasional shot. Quitting cold turkey on alcohol could be as deadly as drinking too much.
He had a problem.
Eventually, they got to Agria. It was green, very green. Raynor could see rolling hills and vast fields, and some mountains. He'd never seen anything this beautiful before now. And even the creep growing across it couldn't destroy its beauty.
"Incoming transmission," said Matt as they arrived.
"Patch it through," said Raynor.
Ariel Hanson appeared much the same, with better reception. Scanning his instruments, Raynor saw her colony wasn't anywhere near so bad off as she'd made it sound. It was bad, but he'd seen worse. Still, she probably thought it was the end of the world, so better not mention it.
"Thank you so much for responding to our distress call, Commander," said the woman. "I'm Dr. Ariel Hanson, and I represent the people of the Agria colony."
"Pleasure to meet ya', Doc. You can call me Jim," said Raynor. "What's the situation?
"The zerg have overwhelmed our planetary defenses. The colony is lost," said Ariel. "For the past twelve hours, we've been evacuating people to the nearest starport. But the zerg attacks have become so intense, we can't get any more through."
"If you can guard the highway, we can continue."
Looking at some of the scans, Raynor saw that there were a lot more zerg than he'd anticipated at first. The Medea pulled out of space soon enough. "Don't worry, Doc. We'll get your folks through to that starport safe and sound."
"I pray you're right, Commander," said Ariel. "The zerg are more terrible than I ever imagined."
"Belay that order," said Serena, appearing on the com. "My crew will be launching an attack on the zerg hive clusters once we locate them. Jim, I'd prefer it if you took a defensive position while I exterminate the zerg."
"That isn't possible," said Ariel. "The zerg attacking us now is only the tip of the iceberg. Even more of them are coming now."
"You don't need to worry," said Serena. "If you put up a strong enough right now, you should be able to hold out longer. That will help other colonies by dividing Kerrigan's forces. Once we have more forces available, we can begin retaking Agria.
"A few years of campaigning should be enough to reduce them to manageable levels."
"Manageable..." Ariel paused. "My people aren't warriors! We don't want to spend the rest of our lives fighting a neverending war with these things! We want to escape to somewhere else!"
"Welcome to the Koprolu Sector; you must be new here," said Serena.
"With all due respect, Commander, I've been running the numbers," said Matt. "Agria is right next to several major zerg worlds. Even if we eradicate the hive clusters here, they'll have to leave anyway. I doubt a protracted war would end in their favor."
"How unfortunate for them," said Serena. "My priority is the eradication of the zerg, not coddling Hanson. They have a duty to stand their ground and fight so that the zerg continue to be divided.
"If they cannot be bothered to perform even that duty, I see no reason why I should submit to their leader. Count yourself lucky that I'm going to be killing the zerg in your general area."
"Destroying Kerrigan doesn't matter if we let innocent people die, Serena," said Raynor.
"Oh, on the contrary," said Serena. "Destroying Kerrigan is only meaningless if we leave everyone to die. So long as there is a universe leftover at the end of this, her destruction still has meaning. I made a cost vs. risk analysis on the way here. The people of Agria will be of more value to the sector as a whole if they die in a heroic last stand killing a lot of zerg.
"Get them off-planet, and they'll just spread plague and burden the economy.
"They're worth more as dead heroes than as loose ends. As long as we evacuate any experts and artisans, it'll be no loss."
Raynor paused. This had uh... gotten dark.
Everyone else stared. What made it weird was how calm Serena was during it all.
"When did you become this heartless, Serena?" asked Raynor. "You might as well join the Dominion at this rate."
"The man who was for leaving Duke and his men to die complains about me being heartless," said Serena. She was always calm. "You don't get to stand on morality with me, Jim. You didn't have a problem with what we did on Tarsonis until it affected you on a personal level. And you're no better now.
"If you were watching Mengsk get overwhelmed by zerg on Korhal, you'd kick back, relax and let the civilians die. And that's if you didn't help the zerg along."
"Why you-" began Matt.
"Alright, that does it," said Raynor quickly. "This ain't the time to have it out. The way I see it, we can wipe out the hives and still keep the colonists safe. In fact, Serena attacking the hives probably draw off a lot of the zerg. That'll make our job easier."
"We'll have to cover a lot of ground," said Matt. "But alright, we'll try for both."
"Let's get underway," said Raynor.
He was going to have to talk with Serena about this Social Darwinist streak she had. It was starting to get out of hand. But first they had a colony to save.