Didn't mean he didn't appreciate the young Emperor, however. Not a fan of dictatorships, but Valerian did seem to be making better strides than his father. According to his word, he was a believer in the Roman principle of senate and Caesar, but only for the temporary measure of war that his father had been elected for, but he did otherwise prefer a democracy without an Emperor and would step down if the opportunity presented itself.
Raynor would see how good his word was, but in the mean-time, was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not like Jim wasn't pretty handy with a cudgel, if junior started taking after his old man. Had to learn from your mistakes some time.
Speaking of which, he was about to correct one of those mistakes – as he and Horner organised the attack on the enemy pirate fleet holding his precious Hyperion captive. That thing had seen him through the war on Aiur, the protoss homeworld – no way he was just abandoning it.
An assault would be easier now than defending a broken ship would have been then. He didn't know if they could crack its computers or its more sensitive and armoured areas (with some nasty surprises Stetmann had installed long ago) – but Raynor didn't want to give them that long to figure it out.
The fleet made the jump. Just a strong advance force, not knowing if they were jumping into a trap.
But when they emerged into normal space, it was clear. Naturally. Not easy to plan a trap in space where the enemy could emerge almost anywhere. The protoss had a knack for it, could just deflect ships out of hyperspace where they wanted, if they knew you were coming. But for humans, you really needed to understand your enemy. And these chaps, probably didn't know him at all, despite all the legend he had kicked up out here. Hurtful on a personal level.
He would have thought they knew enough not to mess with his boys, but that kind of pride was always waiting to be tested.
Matt frowned. "That's strange. I'm picking up the Hyperion's signal."
"That's strange?"
"There's no other signals. No other ships." He looked up. "They're just gone. But there is something else. It seems to be resting in some kind of mass. Maybe an asteroid? I don't know. The echo is all off."