Chapter 5: the battle for the protoss
Raynor was looking at the time, counting the seconds until the time of the battle. All of his ships and his arranged dropship-siege tank hybrids looked ready. 20 seconds before 1400 hours, he said,
"Ok, boys and girls. All of you open fire at my signal."
Constant radio traffic was ringing in Raynor's ears, but he didn't care, as the Hyperion was now locking on to a group of guardians, yamato gun ready.
10 seconds. "This'd better work." a wraith pilot said. 9 seconds. "All air units have a lock on the enemy." That was Dan Kealer, inside his own battlecruiser. 8 seconds. Raynor said. "To all the arranged dropships' pilots." 7 seconds. "Open throttle towards the planet at full speed at my signal to counteract the shots' recoil." 6 seconds. 5...4...3...2...1.... 1400 hours. Raynor yelled:
"OPEN FIRE! FIRE AT WILL!"
The Hyperion opened fire towards the enemy guardian group in front of it, obliterating it with its Yamato gun. With a little smile, Raynor looked outside to see how the rest of his crew was faring.
The arranged dropships were doing great, their blasts simply tearing the zerg to pieces. The wraiths and valkyries were lethal as well, the mutalisks' wings simply desintegrating at the contact of spread missiles, as the twin ones easily destroyed their bodies. 75% of the blockade was destroyed and Raynor's raiders were destroying all that was left, with the zerg too taken by surprise to do a serious counterattack. Raynor could hear lots of comments like "This is going to be easy" on his radio. Raynor could only agree until he saw what was coming out of the planet at lightning speed.
Scourges, in packs of hundreds, even thousands. Raynor quickly ordered all unoccupied units to take them down. Valkyries went to meet them head on, destroying most of them in bloody explosions with their halo spread missiles. But around fifty of them sneaked past and headed towards the Hyperion. The crew aboard was panicking, desperately trying to shoot them, but they only managed to destroy a dozen, while around twenty managed to take a run towards the wraiths, destroying most of them in explosions of blood and metal. Raynor knew he was dead. He closed his eyes, waiting for the scourges to hit his ship, but anti-matter missiles came out of nowhere and obliterated the scourges. Raynor turned around to see what happened.
A squadron made of corsairs and scouts was heading towards them, destroying all the zerg in its way. From one of them came a communication. The protoss speaking was none other than Zeratul:
"En taro Adun, Raynor. I heard that you were going to attack that blockade, so I thought I could be of help. Are you going to take care of Aiur's blockade afterwards?"
"No." Raynor answered. "Mengsk is doing so right now. I think he's nuts. He's risking to be killed by Kerrigan just to attack a blockade himself. Though it IS true that if my new second in command would have leaded the attack, it probably would have been a disaster. He's way too reckless, but he's one HELL of a fighter."
"Talking about recklessness," Zeratul said in a low voice, "I heard you have young Kalis leading the protoss units of your army. Never have I seen such a reckless being among us protoss. I strongly advise you to supervise him very closely, because if ever he would act without thinking as he usually does, the consequences could be disastrous..."
"Sir!" Lieutenant Kealer interrupted Zeratul. "The entire Zerg blockade is now obliterated. Nothin's left of 'em."
"Good." Raynor answered. He then took his radio and said: "To all non- modified dropships! Head towards the surface of the planet immediately. All wraiths must immediately escort them. I repeat! All non-modified dropships must head towards the planet and all wraiths must escort them." He then turned off his radio and said to the crew,
"Ok, guys. Let's go towards the planet as well. Ready my vulture bike!"
When Raynor arrived on the surface of the planet, he had the Hyperion's cargo doors opened and zoomed out of them with his vulture. He could then see the situation on land.
Protoss units were already doing a serious attack, as Zeratul had taken his dark templar to fight the zerg on land. But unfortunately, the zerg weren't taken by surprise by this assault. It wasn't rare to see a dark templar die in a cloud of smoke, mainly because of the presence of overlords above them. Zeratul said,
"Scouts! Attack the overlords!"
The scouts moved in while the overlords, completely unarmed, tried to run away from the fearsome protoss ships. Unfortunately for them, the scouts were too quick and the overlords were quickly blown away by the protoss' anti-matter missiles.
Raynor's raiders attacked the zerg head on, with Kealer in the front line, Raynor and Kalis by his side.
"YEEE-HAAWWW" Kealer said, after burning a nearby hydralisk's face, "Let's barbecue!" He then burned a zergling to a crisp, a sadistic look upon his face. Kalis, in his zealot uniform, sliced two zerglings' heads in half. He had a sadistic look upon his face. He definitely liked killing the zerg.
Meanwhile, Raynor, in his vulture, stared in awe as an ultralisk headed straight towards him. He immediately started running away from that deadly behemoth, but it continued tailing him. Raynor then had an idea. He planted a spider mine, which blew right under the Ultralisk's belly, killing it instantly. Satisfied of his victory over that ultralisk, he ran over a couple of zerglings. He then used them as a ramp to go straight up in the air towards a guardian which was aiming at Kealer, landing a spider mine right on the guardian's head, gruesomely destroying it in a huge explosion. After landing back on the ground, Raynor then saw something that made him rejoice.
An entire army of zealots and dragoons came to attack the zerg. The zealots rushed to join the battle and engaged them in a shocking rear assault while the spider-looking dragoons crawled in, casting explosive energy over the zerg randomly, hidden safely behind the zealots. The swarm started running purposelessly around in panic, and most of them were easily destroyed. After the battle, a high templar went to meet Raynor. He said,
"En Taro Adun, terran. I am very pleased with the help you have given us. But why did you help us? And also, are my eyes betraying me, or are there protoss warriors among you?"
"Your eyes aren't betraying you." Kalis said. "There are a few of us who have joined this terran's army. He has helped us protoss very much in the past. His name's Jim Raynor."
"You're Jim Raynor?" The high templar said, looking at Raynor, surprised. "I have been spoken highly of you by many. Please consider you and your army as our guests. Of course, we could help you in any way we could."
"Funny you say that." Raynor said. "Cause that's exactly what I want. You see, we..."
But he was interrupted by a communication by Mengsk, "Jim? Are you there?"
Raynor answered, "Yeah. I'm here. What's up?"
"Well..." Mengsk was interrupted by a huge explosion. He continued, "We're in a lot of trouble here. We easily took out the blockade but they had a huge ground army and they ambushed my men. We need reinforcements right now!"
The bearded commander was smiling wryly. Why? No. I could let him fry, like he had let Kerrigan to the Zerg. He mused to himself, a big grin on his face. He blinked and paused for a moment, and slowly, his grin began to fade. He blinked again. "I'm no turncoat.", he muttered inwardly. "Ok." Raynor answered to the com-link. He turned towards Kalis and said, "Kalis! Go tell every one of your units to get ready to go to Aiur. Since we took this side of the interplanetary gate, it shouldn't be a problem to get there. Kealer, go tell your guys to prepare as well."
"Yes, sir." Kalis and Kealer answered before quickly leaving.
"We'll help you." The high templar said. "We want to save our homeland." In a resolute voice that indicated his decision, he sent a powerful psionic message, "KHALAI! GATHER."
"And don't think you'll get rid of me!" Zeratul said. "I care about my ancient homeland as well. Besides, I want to see how Artanis is doing as leader of the Protoss." He added, and then he too reached out. "DARK BRETHRENS, GATHER!"
"All right then, we'll take 'em down together." The relented Raynor finally uttered, and then he simply rode his vulture into the ramp of a dropship that timely landed, having honed into his pickup beacon. The docking claps retracted as the dropship gracefully maneuvered into the air while the Protoss looked on. Soon, corsairs, shuttles and even terran dropships landed together on the surface.
Raynor alighted from his bike and sauntered to a window by the dropship's hull. He looked through it. Seeing thousands of tiny dots flocking towards the nearest space-craft, he said to himself. "This might work – after all." His face plastered on the dropship window, from an external view, grew further and further away as the ship grew smaller and smaller as well. It was until the dropship was reduced to a dot-like firefly in vertical flight. The dot exited the planet and flew into the fleet of battlecruisers in standard orbital formation. Hence, a battlecruiser broke from formation and simply swallowed the dot.
A minute later, hundreds of firefly-like dots exited from the planet as well. And then the entire battlecruiser fleet mobilized and intercepted them anxiously.
"Sir!" Kalis and Kealer said, having just arrived. Kalis continued, "All of my units are ready for departure." Kealer then said: "Same here."
Raynor then said, "Alright, then. Let's go!" After which, the space cruisers stayed in standby for a full-scale fleet hyperspace jump.
Raynor was looking at the time, counting the seconds until the time of the battle. All of his ships and his arranged dropship-siege tank hybrids looked ready. 20 seconds before 1400 hours, he said,
"Ok, boys and girls. All of you open fire at my signal."
Constant radio traffic was ringing in Raynor's ears, but he didn't care, as the Hyperion was now locking on to a group of guardians, yamato gun ready.
10 seconds. "This'd better work." a wraith pilot said. 9 seconds. "All air units have a lock on the enemy." That was Dan Kealer, inside his own battlecruiser. 8 seconds. Raynor said. "To all the arranged dropships' pilots." 7 seconds. "Open throttle towards the planet at full speed at my signal to counteract the shots' recoil." 6 seconds. 5...4...3...2...1.... 1400 hours. Raynor yelled:
"OPEN FIRE! FIRE AT WILL!"
The Hyperion opened fire towards the enemy guardian group in front of it, obliterating it with its Yamato gun. With a little smile, Raynor looked outside to see how the rest of his crew was faring.
The arranged dropships were doing great, their blasts simply tearing the zerg to pieces. The wraiths and valkyries were lethal as well, the mutalisks' wings simply desintegrating at the contact of spread missiles, as the twin ones easily destroyed their bodies. 75% of the blockade was destroyed and Raynor's raiders were destroying all that was left, with the zerg too taken by surprise to do a serious counterattack. Raynor could hear lots of comments like "This is going to be easy" on his radio. Raynor could only agree until he saw what was coming out of the planet at lightning speed.
Scourges, in packs of hundreds, even thousands. Raynor quickly ordered all unoccupied units to take them down. Valkyries went to meet them head on, destroying most of them in bloody explosions with their halo spread missiles. But around fifty of them sneaked past and headed towards the Hyperion. The crew aboard was panicking, desperately trying to shoot them, but they only managed to destroy a dozen, while around twenty managed to take a run towards the wraiths, destroying most of them in explosions of blood and metal. Raynor knew he was dead. He closed his eyes, waiting for the scourges to hit his ship, but anti-matter missiles came out of nowhere and obliterated the scourges. Raynor turned around to see what happened.
A squadron made of corsairs and scouts was heading towards them, destroying all the zerg in its way. From one of them came a communication. The protoss speaking was none other than Zeratul:
"En taro Adun, Raynor. I heard that you were going to attack that blockade, so I thought I could be of help. Are you going to take care of Aiur's blockade afterwards?"
"No." Raynor answered. "Mengsk is doing so right now. I think he's nuts. He's risking to be killed by Kerrigan just to attack a blockade himself. Though it IS true that if my new second in command would have leaded the attack, it probably would have been a disaster. He's way too reckless, but he's one HELL of a fighter."
"Talking about recklessness," Zeratul said in a low voice, "I heard you have young Kalis leading the protoss units of your army. Never have I seen such a reckless being among us protoss. I strongly advise you to supervise him very closely, because if ever he would act without thinking as he usually does, the consequences could be disastrous..."
"Sir!" Lieutenant Kealer interrupted Zeratul. "The entire Zerg blockade is now obliterated. Nothin's left of 'em."
"Good." Raynor answered. He then took his radio and said: "To all non- modified dropships! Head towards the surface of the planet immediately. All wraiths must immediately escort them. I repeat! All non-modified dropships must head towards the planet and all wraiths must escort them." He then turned off his radio and said to the crew,
"Ok, guys. Let's go towards the planet as well. Ready my vulture bike!"
When Raynor arrived on the surface of the planet, he had the Hyperion's cargo doors opened and zoomed out of them with his vulture. He could then see the situation on land.
Protoss units were already doing a serious attack, as Zeratul had taken his dark templar to fight the zerg on land. But unfortunately, the zerg weren't taken by surprise by this assault. It wasn't rare to see a dark templar die in a cloud of smoke, mainly because of the presence of overlords above them. Zeratul said,
"Scouts! Attack the overlords!"
The scouts moved in while the overlords, completely unarmed, tried to run away from the fearsome protoss ships. Unfortunately for them, the scouts were too quick and the overlords were quickly blown away by the protoss' anti-matter missiles.
Raynor's raiders attacked the zerg head on, with Kealer in the front line, Raynor and Kalis by his side.
"YEEE-HAAWWW" Kealer said, after burning a nearby hydralisk's face, "Let's barbecue!" He then burned a zergling to a crisp, a sadistic look upon his face. Kalis, in his zealot uniform, sliced two zerglings' heads in half. He had a sadistic look upon his face. He definitely liked killing the zerg.
Meanwhile, Raynor, in his vulture, stared in awe as an ultralisk headed straight towards him. He immediately started running away from that deadly behemoth, but it continued tailing him. Raynor then had an idea. He planted a spider mine, which blew right under the Ultralisk's belly, killing it instantly. Satisfied of his victory over that ultralisk, he ran over a couple of zerglings. He then used them as a ramp to go straight up in the air towards a guardian which was aiming at Kealer, landing a spider mine right on the guardian's head, gruesomely destroying it in a huge explosion. After landing back on the ground, Raynor then saw something that made him rejoice.
An entire army of zealots and dragoons came to attack the zerg. The zealots rushed to join the battle and engaged them in a shocking rear assault while the spider-looking dragoons crawled in, casting explosive energy over the zerg randomly, hidden safely behind the zealots. The swarm started running purposelessly around in panic, and most of them were easily destroyed. After the battle, a high templar went to meet Raynor. He said,
"En Taro Adun, terran. I am very pleased with the help you have given us. But why did you help us? And also, are my eyes betraying me, or are there protoss warriors among you?"
"Your eyes aren't betraying you." Kalis said. "There are a few of us who have joined this terran's army. He has helped us protoss very much in the past. His name's Jim Raynor."
"You're Jim Raynor?" The high templar said, looking at Raynor, surprised. "I have been spoken highly of you by many. Please consider you and your army as our guests. Of course, we could help you in any way we could."
"Funny you say that." Raynor said. "Cause that's exactly what I want. You see, we..."
But he was interrupted by a communication by Mengsk, "Jim? Are you there?"
Raynor answered, "Yeah. I'm here. What's up?"
"Well..." Mengsk was interrupted by a huge explosion. He continued, "We're in a lot of trouble here. We easily took out the blockade but they had a huge ground army and they ambushed my men. We need reinforcements right now!"
The bearded commander was smiling wryly. Why? No. I could let him fry, like he had let Kerrigan to the Zerg. He mused to himself, a big grin on his face. He blinked and paused for a moment, and slowly, his grin began to fade. He blinked again. "I'm no turncoat.", he muttered inwardly. "Ok." Raynor answered to the com-link. He turned towards Kalis and said, "Kalis! Go tell every one of your units to get ready to go to Aiur. Since we took this side of the interplanetary gate, it shouldn't be a problem to get there. Kealer, go tell your guys to prepare as well."
"Yes, sir." Kalis and Kealer answered before quickly leaving.
"We'll help you." The high templar said. "We want to save our homeland." In a resolute voice that indicated his decision, he sent a powerful psionic message, "KHALAI! GATHER."
"And don't think you'll get rid of me!" Zeratul said. "I care about my ancient homeland as well. Besides, I want to see how Artanis is doing as leader of the Protoss." He added, and then he too reached out. "DARK BRETHRENS, GATHER!"
"All right then, we'll take 'em down together." The relented Raynor finally uttered, and then he simply rode his vulture into the ramp of a dropship that timely landed, having honed into his pickup beacon. The docking claps retracted as the dropship gracefully maneuvered into the air while the Protoss looked on. Soon, corsairs, shuttles and even terran dropships landed together on the surface.
Raynor alighted from his bike and sauntered to a window by the dropship's hull. He looked through it. Seeing thousands of tiny dots flocking towards the nearest space-craft, he said to himself. "This might work – after all." His face plastered on the dropship window, from an external view, grew further and further away as the ship grew smaller and smaller as well. It was until the dropship was reduced to a dot-like firefly in vertical flight. The dot exited the planet and flew into the fleet of battlecruisers in standard orbital formation. Hence, a battlecruiser broke from formation and simply swallowed the dot.
A minute later, hundreds of firefly-like dots exited from the planet as well. And then the entire battlecruiser fleet mobilized and intercepted them anxiously.
"Sir!" Kalis and Kealer said, having just arrived. Kalis continued, "All of my units are ready for departure." Kealer then said: "Same here."
Raynor then said, "Alright, then. Let's go!" After which, the space cruisers stayed in standby for a full-scale fleet hyperspace jump.