Raynor didn't take off his gear that night. He spent the night insuring all was operational aboard his battle cruiser. Hours making sure his men were ready for the worst. SCV's scuttled aboard repairing what they could, and Raynor felt his insides tying themselves in tighter and tighter knots. He wasn't one to get jitters without reason. He'd never been so anxious to get to his home world, and even if Mengsk would arrest his on sight, Raynor felt safer trapped in Mengsk's custody then trapped under the jurisdiction of the protoss.
The sun set painfully slowly, and Raynor watched the hours crawl by at a snails pace, and he knew the rest of his troops felt the same way. The conclave was not ready to let them go, and so their escape from Auir would be secret, and Fenix would pay their penalty.
Raynor felt depressed for the first time in months. He had no plans for when they got back, just trying to take this one step at a time, realizing there was a fairly large chance they may not leave Auir ever.
And what if they did? It was no good anyways. They would be surely arrested as soon as they were in range of any of Mengsk's militia, which by now most likely had doubled or tripled. They were probably not wasting any time in destroying all the zerg, which might be Raynor's only advantage. Hiding deep in a zerg hive might be the only way, since the brood's they'd encountered since the fall of the Overmind were all completely inactive.
Fenix came earlier than Raynor had expected, and with a larger escort of scouts circling behind him. Raynor approached the giant dragoon.
"I guess this means we're out." asked Raynor.
"Yes. I've been sent here to keep you from escaping." said Fenix.
Raynor gave out a amused laugh. "Great. Well, we're all packed up here. I see you've brought a fairly large force."
Fenix sighed. "No. More than half are hallucinations."
Raynor looked more upset now. "Great."
Fenix signaled forward a few templar. They dramatically floated forward and started making hallucinations of all the ships. "It might increase our chances of escaping."
"Right." said Raynor. "Lets get moving then."
"The warp gate is up there." Fenix gestured into the sky.
"That's fine." Raynor turned and signaled all the ships to get started. He turned back around and faced Fenix. "Listen, thanks for all your help."
"It is the least I could do for such a brave Terran. You are truly a great warrior. Adun be with you."
Raynor saluted and turned toward his ship. Remembering which one was the real one.
"Hold up a moment." Fenix moved forward. Tiny robotic hands came forward holding a tiny blue crystal. "Take this with you."
"What is it?"
"It's the only way to contact me. Don't try to send any transmissions or the conclave will be alerted. The only one who can hear it is me."
"Right. What do I do?"
Fenix smiled. "Just break it if you need me, and I will reach you as fast as possible."
"I will, and I'll only use it in a dire emergency."
Fenix nodded, and Raynor turned his back, pacing back to his ship. He silently wished to stay with the Protoss forever. The only tolerable one besides Tassadar, treating himself as an equal to all Protoss. The only reasonable ones. Fenix was a great warrior.
*
The now massive fleet of Terran's stayed tight. Raynor's ship had been configured to point out the hallucinations and which were real. The real ships stayed closer to the middle so in the event of attack, they would be the first to go.
They followed Fenix's fleet far from Auir, and it was a long while before Raynor noticed a long tear in space. As they came closer, the tear seemed to widen a bit, enough for the fleet to get through.
Raynor kept all power to scanners, but knew it wouldn't matter even if he spotted a Protoss, for this fleet certainly couldn't outrun them.
"This is as far as we can go,Ó the lead scout said. "En taro adun, terran." The ships parted immediately, leaving the path open to RaynorÕs fleet.
"Alright boys, lets go home."
The fleet bustled with excitement. They were so close. Only a bit longer and they'd be home. Cheers were sounding all through the ships and on the comlink. Raynor felt the fleet starting to speed up, and even let down the sensors a bit to get his ship moving faster. It didn't matter now; Raynor could see how close they were. Just five minutes away till they got home.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
The cheers aboard had become less frequent and much quieter now. The tear the had been growing larger and larger seemed to stop growing in size. The were moving forward, but they didn't seem to be reaching their target.
Raynor tired to keep control of the fleet, but they didn't seem to listen. Many were wildly speeding up, breaking formation. Raynor shouted over the intercom, but his troops were really starting to realize how far they were from home. Fenix wouldn't trick them. Raynor had known the moment he arrived on Auir that Fenix could be trusted above everyone and anyone. Anything Fenix said was law, but as he traveled for longer and longer, his trust started to dwindle.
Raynor pulled his speed up, thinking now they were chasing the tear, that it was some how running away. Had they done something wrong? Why had those scouts left so soon? They should be here to tell us whatÕs wrong.
Raynor's hands dug in his pocket. He felt the crystal Fenix had given him, and in his frustration almost considered smashing the crystal into pieces right there, but not yet. Not just yet.
The intercom was almost quiet now. The resounding noise of how much these brave men and women would drink when they got back had disappeared. Raynor now noticed that some of the ships had gone so far off.
"Sir." a man asked from behind. "I canÕt detect that thing. Should I make contact with Fenix?"
Raynor watched for a few more moments, considering. This would give away their position very quickly, but Raynor also considered it wouldn't be long now till the conclave figured out what had happened, and if something was wrong with the warp gate, they needed Fenix before the attack came.
Raynor saw far in the distance some of the ships starting to disappear. The hallucinations finally dying off.
"How much long do the rest of the hallucinations have?" asked Raynor, not answering the mans first question.
The man pushed buttons on a keyboard. The man's face brightened. "Sir, some of those aren't hallucinations!"
Raynor turned. "You mean?"
"They've reached the warp gate." the man beamed.
Raynor sighed and sat back in his seat. He opened a comlink to all ships. "Alright troops. Some of our men have already reached the gate. We're going home."
The intercom roared again. Raynor smiled widely. There was another beep coming from behind. The comlink opened without touching it.
"Good evening TerranÕs."
A cruel smile covered Judicator Aldaris' face.
Raynor shot up in his chair.
"Well, I had to sit back just to make sure you weren't going to do what I thought you would do. But, to my dismay, you have done what I feared."
The ships alarms went off.
"Protoss Arbiters approaching." sounded the robotic voice.
"Shit." cried Captain Raynor.
"By order of the protoss conclave, I order that you are all under arrest for illegal attempts to leave the planet Auir with secret information."
"What secret information?" asked the corporal behind Raynor.
Raynor sighed. "The location of Auir."
*
"Open all com links." shouted Raynor.
There was a beep, and Raynor cleared his throat into the microphone. "Attention all units. This is Captain Jim Raynor. All ships are hereby ordered to move toward the warp gate at top speed. There are three arbiters approaching which means there could be any amount of ships with them. This is a priority alert signal. Every man for himself. Get yourself to the warp gate as fast as you can."
Raynor closed the link. Immediately some of his flight escorts shot toward the gate, but many loyally stayed beside. A comlink opened from one of the wraiths.
"Captain Raynor. My squadron will not abandon. We will see to it that you reach the gate alive."
"You have orders. Get to that gate-"
"Screw your orders." The comlink closed, and seven wraiths flew at the approaching ships.
"Bloody martyrs." swore Raynor.
His battlecruiser turned. The two hallucinated battlecruisers turned as well. A science vessel came beside the ships.
"I need you to knock out their energy and lower their shields. If they use stasis field we're all gonna be stuck here for a very long time.
The science vessel shot out a tiny missile at the center arbiter. The EMP exploded and hit both following ships.
"Great shot, now get out of here!" cried Raynor at the vessel. It moved to leave, but before it was out of range, Raynor noticed the tiny beams of light circling his ship.
"A defense matrix." sighed Raynor. He turned to the vessel. "Thank you."
Raynor watch it float away. The gate was an indeterminate amount away, but he wasn't going to leave these wraiths behind fighting alone. He turned his attention back to the battle.
"Alright boys. Don't bother cloaking cause they probably have a lot of detectors on them."
"Roger."
The wraiths flew at the center arbiter. Immediately from under the cloaked field missiles fired and tiny interceptors flew out. The seven wraiths spread out quickly and dodged most of the blasts, but the all had picked up three or four interceptors each.
"Charge the Yamato Cannon. Target that center ship."
Raynor watched in horror as more wraiths flew past him to join in the battle.
"Yeeeeehaaaaaaaw!" cried the intercom.
The tiny particles of energy started to gather in front of the ship. The bubble became bigger and bigger, gathering energy. Raynor waited.
"Hold it a little longer." he ordered.
Energy still collected. He wanted to take out an entire arbiter and as many of the ships under it as possible. The wraiths had already lost the element of surprise and were being cut down quickly now.
"Fire!" The Yamato Cannon erupted and fired. The jet of red flew across the sky and struck the center arbiter. Without it's shields up, it exploded and was disintegrated in blue flame quickly. Raynor sighed with relief. "Load another blast." he cried out.
His eyes then widened as the cloaking field dropped eight scouts stood exposed.
"That was a direct attack on a conclave flagship terran!" shouted Aldaris. "You will now suffer the worst punishment under conclave law and by-"
Raynor terminated the comlink to turn his attention back to the battle. He now saw the eight scouts flying toward his ship. The Yamato Cannon needed a little longer.
"Divert power to surface defenses." shouted Raynor. Immediately the battlecruiser erupted in multiple laser blasts, but the scouts were relentless. It wouldn't take them long to be cut down.
"Get out of here sir!" shouted a wraith over the intercom.
"Not without you idiots." shouted Raynor back.
The remaining wraiths left their battle with the arbiters. Only two now remained as they left the range of the ships under the cloaking field, and the arbiters pursued forward. The wraiths few full speed at the scouts, which now stood in a clean semi-circle.
At once they opened fire. The missiles blasted the ships hull and Raynor felt the sudden tinge or pure panic run over him. The ship shook and the lights flickered on and off. They could tear this ship apart before he could reach the gate.
The two wraiths flew in top speed. Well within firing range, Raynor didn't understand what they were doing till it was too late.
"Don't!" he cried.
"Ahhhhhhh!" one cried.
The first wraith flew straight into a scout and they exploded. The second followed suit and rammed another out. Raynor slammed a fist down on his chair.
"Fucking martyrs." he mumbled. There was a long silence in the cockpit aside from the ever-constant missiles hitting the ship.
"Sir, the ship can't take much more. The Yamato cannon is online. We have one of the scouts targeted."
Raynor pulled his head up. They needed out of there fast, and killing one scout wouldn't do it. He glanced at his monitor. The gate was too far to just travel. He needed to get there fast.
"Charge the Yamato Cannon. All power." he said.
"Sir?"
"I said all power, and don't fire till my signal."
The familiar red particles gathered in front of the ship. They were brighter this time, and gathered more quickly. The bubble grew faster and faster. It was much too large now.
"Sir! The ship can't take this!"
Raynor turned in his chair. "I want all power to life support after we fire!" he shouted. Raynor grabbed hold of his chair. The huge red bubble was now almost the size of the ship. He could feel the stress on the hull. The Yamato Cannon shook the cruiser more violently then the scoutÕs blasts.
"Sir!" shouted the man behind him.
"Wait for my signal!"
The lights overhead blinked red now; the lights were flickering. The Yamato cannon was tearing the ship apart. Raynor took one last look around at the cockpit. The men around were looking around, shouting various curses and mouthing 'are you crazy?' too him, but Raynor ignored him.
With one last look back at the corporal, Raynor knew he understood now. The corporal gave him a loyal salute, and Raynor returned. He looked forward at his monitor. The arbiters had stopped approaching now.
In the last moment, Raynor shut his eyes and closed his ears.
His mind drifted lightly through his life, but dwindled for a few moments on a lieutenant. A special ops ghost cockily holding her gun in her hand, and hand on her waist.
Kerrigan.
The Yamato cannon exploded. The entire cockpit shook, and no blast left the shit. The ship flew straight backward away from the semi circle of scouts, and the last missiles did not hit. The ship spun powerless backward away from the protoss force. Judicator Aldaris now understood. "No!" he cried at the last moment.
The ship flew fast and spun back first into the tiny blue tear seconds before it should have closed on the ship. The tear glimmered for a moment, and then closed completely, leaving nothing but clear space. The battlefield was finally silent.
Judicator Aldaris gave an angry look at where the gate was through the screen, but then cracked a smile. "You have only delayed the inevitable terran. Now, you have made things much easier for me."
He was in his Nexus, having watched the entire battle ensue from far away. He got up from his seat, and proceeded down the corridor. As he left the room, a templar waiting outside the door scurried after him.
"Did everything go as planned?"
Aldaris shook his head, but still smiled.
"So the terran got away? Aren't you upset?"
Aldaris stopped in his tracks. He did not look at the templar. "Captain Raynor had just made everything much easier for us, young templar. The conclave will have no choice but to agree with me now."
The templar nodded quietly, and they continued down the hallway together. The smile did not leave Aldaris' face.
The sun set painfully slowly, and Raynor watched the hours crawl by at a snails pace, and he knew the rest of his troops felt the same way. The conclave was not ready to let them go, and so their escape from Auir would be secret, and Fenix would pay their penalty.
Raynor felt depressed for the first time in months. He had no plans for when they got back, just trying to take this one step at a time, realizing there was a fairly large chance they may not leave Auir ever.
And what if they did? It was no good anyways. They would be surely arrested as soon as they were in range of any of Mengsk's militia, which by now most likely had doubled or tripled. They were probably not wasting any time in destroying all the zerg, which might be Raynor's only advantage. Hiding deep in a zerg hive might be the only way, since the brood's they'd encountered since the fall of the Overmind were all completely inactive.
Fenix came earlier than Raynor had expected, and with a larger escort of scouts circling behind him. Raynor approached the giant dragoon.
"I guess this means we're out." asked Raynor.
"Yes. I've been sent here to keep you from escaping." said Fenix.
Raynor gave out a amused laugh. "Great. Well, we're all packed up here. I see you've brought a fairly large force."
Fenix sighed. "No. More than half are hallucinations."
Raynor looked more upset now. "Great."
Fenix signaled forward a few templar. They dramatically floated forward and started making hallucinations of all the ships. "It might increase our chances of escaping."
"Right." said Raynor. "Lets get moving then."
"The warp gate is up there." Fenix gestured into the sky.
"That's fine." Raynor turned and signaled all the ships to get started. He turned back around and faced Fenix. "Listen, thanks for all your help."
"It is the least I could do for such a brave Terran. You are truly a great warrior. Adun be with you."
Raynor saluted and turned toward his ship. Remembering which one was the real one.
"Hold up a moment." Fenix moved forward. Tiny robotic hands came forward holding a tiny blue crystal. "Take this with you."
"What is it?"
"It's the only way to contact me. Don't try to send any transmissions or the conclave will be alerted. The only one who can hear it is me."
"Right. What do I do?"
Fenix smiled. "Just break it if you need me, and I will reach you as fast as possible."
"I will, and I'll only use it in a dire emergency."
Fenix nodded, and Raynor turned his back, pacing back to his ship. He silently wished to stay with the Protoss forever. The only tolerable one besides Tassadar, treating himself as an equal to all Protoss. The only reasonable ones. Fenix was a great warrior.
*
The now massive fleet of Terran's stayed tight. Raynor's ship had been configured to point out the hallucinations and which were real. The real ships stayed closer to the middle so in the event of attack, they would be the first to go.
They followed Fenix's fleet far from Auir, and it was a long while before Raynor noticed a long tear in space. As they came closer, the tear seemed to widen a bit, enough for the fleet to get through.
Raynor kept all power to scanners, but knew it wouldn't matter even if he spotted a Protoss, for this fleet certainly couldn't outrun them.
"This is as far as we can go,Ó the lead scout said. "En taro adun, terran." The ships parted immediately, leaving the path open to RaynorÕs fleet.
"Alright boys, lets go home."
The fleet bustled with excitement. They were so close. Only a bit longer and they'd be home. Cheers were sounding all through the ships and on the comlink. Raynor felt the fleet starting to speed up, and even let down the sensors a bit to get his ship moving faster. It didn't matter now; Raynor could see how close they were. Just five minutes away till they got home.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
The cheers aboard had become less frequent and much quieter now. The tear the had been growing larger and larger seemed to stop growing in size. The were moving forward, but they didn't seem to be reaching their target.
Raynor tired to keep control of the fleet, but they didn't seem to listen. Many were wildly speeding up, breaking formation. Raynor shouted over the intercom, but his troops were really starting to realize how far they were from home. Fenix wouldn't trick them. Raynor had known the moment he arrived on Auir that Fenix could be trusted above everyone and anyone. Anything Fenix said was law, but as he traveled for longer and longer, his trust started to dwindle.
Raynor pulled his speed up, thinking now they were chasing the tear, that it was some how running away. Had they done something wrong? Why had those scouts left so soon? They should be here to tell us whatÕs wrong.
Raynor's hands dug in his pocket. He felt the crystal Fenix had given him, and in his frustration almost considered smashing the crystal into pieces right there, but not yet. Not just yet.
The intercom was almost quiet now. The resounding noise of how much these brave men and women would drink when they got back had disappeared. Raynor now noticed that some of the ships had gone so far off.
"Sir." a man asked from behind. "I canÕt detect that thing. Should I make contact with Fenix?"
Raynor watched for a few more moments, considering. This would give away their position very quickly, but Raynor also considered it wouldn't be long now till the conclave figured out what had happened, and if something was wrong with the warp gate, they needed Fenix before the attack came.
Raynor saw far in the distance some of the ships starting to disappear. The hallucinations finally dying off.
"How much long do the rest of the hallucinations have?" asked Raynor, not answering the mans first question.
The man pushed buttons on a keyboard. The man's face brightened. "Sir, some of those aren't hallucinations!"
Raynor turned. "You mean?"
"They've reached the warp gate." the man beamed.
Raynor sighed and sat back in his seat. He opened a comlink to all ships. "Alright troops. Some of our men have already reached the gate. We're going home."
The intercom roared again. Raynor smiled widely. There was another beep coming from behind. The comlink opened without touching it.
"Good evening TerranÕs."
A cruel smile covered Judicator Aldaris' face.
Raynor shot up in his chair.
"Well, I had to sit back just to make sure you weren't going to do what I thought you would do. But, to my dismay, you have done what I feared."
The ships alarms went off.
"Protoss Arbiters approaching." sounded the robotic voice.
"Shit." cried Captain Raynor.
"By order of the protoss conclave, I order that you are all under arrest for illegal attempts to leave the planet Auir with secret information."
"What secret information?" asked the corporal behind Raynor.
Raynor sighed. "The location of Auir."
*
"Open all com links." shouted Raynor.
There was a beep, and Raynor cleared his throat into the microphone. "Attention all units. This is Captain Jim Raynor. All ships are hereby ordered to move toward the warp gate at top speed. There are three arbiters approaching which means there could be any amount of ships with them. This is a priority alert signal. Every man for himself. Get yourself to the warp gate as fast as you can."
Raynor closed the link. Immediately some of his flight escorts shot toward the gate, but many loyally stayed beside. A comlink opened from one of the wraiths.
"Captain Raynor. My squadron will not abandon. We will see to it that you reach the gate alive."
"You have orders. Get to that gate-"
"Screw your orders." The comlink closed, and seven wraiths flew at the approaching ships.
"Bloody martyrs." swore Raynor.
His battlecruiser turned. The two hallucinated battlecruisers turned as well. A science vessel came beside the ships.
"I need you to knock out their energy and lower their shields. If they use stasis field we're all gonna be stuck here for a very long time.
The science vessel shot out a tiny missile at the center arbiter. The EMP exploded and hit both following ships.
"Great shot, now get out of here!" cried Raynor at the vessel. It moved to leave, but before it was out of range, Raynor noticed the tiny beams of light circling his ship.
"A defense matrix." sighed Raynor. He turned to the vessel. "Thank you."
Raynor watch it float away. The gate was an indeterminate amount away, but he wasn't going to leave these wraiths behind fighting alone. He turned his attention back to the battle.
"Alright boys. Don't bother cloaking cause they probably have a lot of detectors on them."
"Roger."
The wraiths flew at the center arbiter. Immediately from under the cloaked field missiles fired and tiny interceptors flew out. The seven wraiths spread out quickly and dodged most of the blasts, but the all had picked up three or four interceptors each.
"Charge the Yamato Cannon. Target that center ship."
Raynor watched in horror as more wraiths flew past him to join in the battle.
"Yeeeeehaaaaaaaw!" cried the intercom.
The tiny particles of energy started to gather in front of the ship. The bubble became bigger and bigger, gathering energy. Raynor waited.
"Hold it a little longer." he ordered.
Energy still collected. He wanted to take out an entire arbiter and as many of the ships under it as possible. The wraiths had already lost the element of surprise and were being cut down quickly now.
"Fire!" The Yamato Cannon erupted and fired. The jet of red flew across the sky and struck the center arbiter. Without it's shields up, it exploded and was disintegrated in blue flame quickly. Raynor sighed with relief. "Load another blast." he cried out.
His eyes then widened as the cloaking field dropped eight scouts stood exposed.
"That was a direct attack on a conclave flagship terran!" shouted Aldaris. "You will now suffer the worst punishment under conclave law and by-"
Raynor terminated the comlink to turn his attention back to the battle. He now saw the eight scouts flying toward his ship. The Yamato Cannon needed a little longer.
"Divert power to surface defenses." shouted Raynor. Immediately the battlecruiser erupted in multiple laser blasts, but the scouts were relentless. It wouldn't take them long to be cut down.
"Get out of here sir!" shouted a wraith over the intercom.
"Not without you idiots." shouted Raynor back.
The remaining wraiths left their battle with the arbiters. Only two now remained as they left the range of the ships under the cloaking field, and the arbiters pursued forward. The wraiths few full speed at the scouts, which now stood in a clean semi-circle.
At once they opened fire. The missiles blasted the ships hull and Raynor felt the sudden tinge or pure panic run over him. The ship shook and the lights flickered on and off. They could tear this ship apart before he could reach the gate.
The two wraiths flew in top speed. Well within firing range, Raynor didn't understand what they were doing till it was too late.
"Don't!" he cried.
"Ahhhhhhh!" one cried.
The first wraith flew straight into a scout and they exploded. The second followed suit and rammed another out. Raynor slammed a fist down on his chair.
"Fucking martyrs." he mumbled. There was a long silence in the cockpit aside from the ever-constant missiles hitting the ship.
"Sir, the ship can't take much more. The Yamato cannon is online. We have one of the scouts targeted."
Raynor pulled his head up. They needed out of there fast, and killing one scout wouldn't do it. He glanced at his monitor. The gate was too far to just travel. He needed to get there fast.
"Charge the Yamato Cannon. All power." he said.
"Sir?"
"I said all power, and don't fire till my signal."
The familiar red particles gathered in front of the ship. They were brighter this time, and gathered more quickly. The bubble grew faster and faster. It was much too large now.
"Sir! The ship can't take this!"
Raynor turned in his chair. "I want all power to life support after we fire!" he shouted. Raynor grabbed hold of his chair. The huge red bubble was now almost the size of the ship. He could feel the stress on the hull. The Yamato Cannon shook the cruiser more violently then the scoutÕs blasts.
"Sir!" shouted the man behind him.
"Wait for my signal!"
The lights overhead blinked red now; the lights were flickering. The Yamato cannon was tearing the ship apart. Raynor took one last look around at the cockpit. The men around were looking around, shouting various curses and mouthing 'are you crazy?' too him, but Raynor ignored him.
With one last look back at the corporal, Raynor knew he understood now. The corporal gave him a loyal salute, and Raynor returned. He looked forward at his monitor. The arbiters had stopped approaching now.
In the last moment, Raynor shut his eyes and closed his ears.
His mind drifted lightly through his life, but dwindled for a few moments on a lieutenant. A special ops ghost cockily holding her gun in her hand, and hand on her waist.
Kerrigan.
The Yamato cannon exploded. The entire cockpit shook, and no blast left the shit. The ship flew straight backward away from the semi circle of scouts, and the last missiles did not hit. The ship spun powerless backward away from the protoss force. Judicator Aldaris now understood. "No!" he cried at the last moment.
The ship flew fast and spun back first into the tiny blue tear seconds before it should have closed on the ship. The tear glimmered for a moment, and then closed completely, leaving nothing but clear space. The battlefield was finally silent.
Judicator Aldaris gave an angry look at where the gate was through the screen, but then cracked a smile. "You have only delayed the inevitable terran. Now, you have made things much easier for me."
He was in his Nexus, having watched the entire battle ensue from far away. He got up from his seat, and proceeded down the corridor. As he left the room, a templar waiting outside the door scurried after him.
"Did everything go as planned?"
Aldaris shook his head, but still smiled.
"So the terran got away? Aren't you upset?"
Aldaris stopped in his tracks. He did not look at the templar. "Captain Raynor had just made everything much easier for us, young templar. The conclave will have no choice but to agree with me now."
The templar nodded quietly, and they continued down the hallway together. The smile did not leave Aldaris' face.