Heroes Never Die
Chapter 1: Beauty in Destruction
By: Dark-Elk
The cluster of starships sailed silently through the inky darkness of space. To the people that crewed them, these ships weren't just machines to fight with; after the betrayal of Arcturus Mengsk and Kerrigan, Queen of Blades', resounding victory in the final apocalyptic battle, these wearied warriors had been left homeless and alone, united under the banner of what seemed to be the last honorable man left alive. These starships were all they had left.
"Sir, sensors indicate a medium-sized frigate is in this sector, far off to the port side. Coordinates are. . . 290 degrees port, and they're at about the same level as we are," said the sensor officer of the Hyperion. He turned to look at the man seated in the captain's chair. "No transponder or IFF beacon data. I'd assume it's hostile."
Commander James Raynor sighed in aggravation as he thought out his response to this unwelcome visitor. "Our Wraiths are still deployed, right? How many do we have fitted with cloaking devices?"
"About two squadrons, Commander," said the tactical officer.
"Send them all to deal with this intruder. That should be enough to deal with a frigate that size."
"Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the starship. I'm putting in on the main viewscreen now," the female communications officer said.
The screen blanked out, losing the display of the star field in front of the Hyperion, and instead showing a tall man in a Dominion captain's uniform. "Rebel Commander James Raynor, by order of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, you will surrender your ships and your crew immediately. Failure to comply with this order will be considered hostile action, and we will open fire. Respond immediately."
"We don't take orders from the Dominion, and I'll be damned if I'm going to hand my people over to that traitor. You'll have to take them from us, captain," said Raynor, a wry smile spreading across his face. "I don't think you're in a position to make demands. You have quite a few weapon locks on you. Any movement other than reverse will be considered hostile action, and they will open fire. Respond immediately."
Snickers of laughter spread across the bridge, but were silenced as the Dominion captain continued to stare intensely at Raynor. "Commander Raynor, do you honestly think the Dominion would have sent me so woefully unprepared? You, my friend, are in a similar situation. A half-dozen of my Wraiths are in front of you, and all of them have clear weapon locks as well. If you fire, they will fire. Surrender, Raynor; you've got no other cards up your sleeve."
"You obviously don't know me very well, captain. I've always got another card up my sleeve," said Raynor. He caught the eye of the communications officer and chopped his arm swiftly downward. The officer nodded, tapped a few buttons quickly, and waved back. Raynor turned to look at the screen again, smiling slightly as he watched the captain begin speaking again, but the sound was blocked. "Excellent."
Raynor turned to the weapons officer. "Have the Discovery fire off an EMP shockwave right ahead of us. That should deactivate the cloak on those Wraiths."
"Yes sir, that shouldn't be a problem. Whenever you're ready," said the aging weapons officer.
"Charge our Yamato Cannons, and have the nearest Battlecruiser charge theirs as well."
"Yes sir. The Hyperion is charging her Yamato Cannons, as is the Dallant. Ready to fire on your mark."
"FIRE!" thundered Raynor.
Barely contained maelstroms of nuclear energy streaked from the two battlecruisers, dwarfing the thin EMP missile entirely. The EMP struck first, blossoming into a shockwave of energy that surged outwards in all directions. A half dozen Wraiths decloaked, ripples of energy crackling up and down their hulls as their systems deactivated one by one, including life support. This proved to not be much of a hindrance for the pilots as the twin blasts of energy ripped through four of them, spraying halos of debris that mimicked the path of the EMP shockwave. Massive fragments struck the remaining two fighters, further disabling them.
Cheering broke out amongst the bridge crew of the Hyperion, and Raynor struggled to make himself heard to the communications officer. "Tell our boys to try and take that ship. If they can't, tear it to shreds."
The main screen changed from the captain of the Dominion frigate into a tactical map of the area. The squadrons of Wraiths vectored in on the starship with the fury of a pack of Zerg. Missiles streaked through the darkness, impacting against the weak shields of the frigate. A few broke through, impacting dully on the hull of the frigate. Raynor watched as the frigate started firing haphazardly at the fighters, missing with every shot. The poor bastards obviously had no idea where the Wraiths were. A few more missile strikes from the Wraiths impacted, ripping the weaponry off of the frigate easily. The Dominion ship began moving slowly, as if unsure which direction was correct. It stopped turning shortly as it faced the correct direction, engaged the warp drives, and shot off into the darkness. Raynor frowned slightly. The ship's escape meant that he and his refugees weren't safe in this sector anymore. They needed to take care of this business, and get out of here fast. "Okay, Salvage, get in there and see what you can do. We could use more Wraiths, especially ones with cloak generators."
"We're on it sir. What do you want us to do with the survivors, assuming there are any?"
Raynor sighed and mentally wrestled with the dilemma before him. He could detail a ship to return the pilots to some backwater Dominion planet, but the Dominion would then gain some valuable knowledge, such as the location of the refugee fleet staging area. Or he could have them killed, assuming the debris hadn't taken care of that for him. He allowed himself to wrestle for a few more seconds, and then thought of what the bastard Mengsk would do if he were in his position. That settled the argument in his mind, and he immediately did the opposite.
"We're going to let them live. Offer them the opportunity to join us, but if they refuse shove them on one of our older Dropships and set the auto- pilot to jump them to the nearest Dominion held planet."
"Confirmed, sir. It appears that one pilot is alive and awake, while vital signs indicate the other is unconscious. The active pilot is hailing us."
"Communications, put it on the main screen. Let's hear what they have to say."
The main screen of the Hyperion blinks on, revealing the image of a sweaty and seemingly nervous pilot. The image begins to waver around the edges and bursts of static cut into the pilot's voice, but most of what he says is audible nonetheless.
"Hailing Commander James Raynor of the Hyperion. My name is Doctor Jonathan Malcom. I'm a Dominion scientist, or rather an ex-Dominion scientist, because I'm defecting. Will you accept my unconditional surrender? Weapons are powered down, engines are nonfunctional, cloaking field offline, and life support is beginning to be a little temperamental."
Raynor sat back in his command chair contemplating this unexpected turn of events. "How is a scientist piloting a Dominion Wraith? And why are you defecting?"
"This entire combat wing was planning to defect, sir. I used my rank to replace the normal pilot of this fighter for this mission. I'm a qualified Wraith pilot; I graduated from the flight academy with honors." He paused to cough and wipe his brow. "We wanted to defect immediately after entering this system, but we were deployed to combat right after we entered. We were trying to best determine how to deal with the change when you opened fire."
Raynor's breath caught in his chest, and his body felt as though ice water had replaced his blood. "Let me get this straight.you were all defecting? Why?"
"Mostly because of something the Dominion is doing that we all disagree with. The Dominion was going to have us quietly eliminated once they completed this project. We felt that defecting might allow you and your men enough time to stop the project's completion."
"Okay Salvage, pick him up and transfer him over to the Hyperion. If his friend wakes up, put him in a holding cell until I get a chance to talk to him a bit." Raynor contemplated his next move while waiting for the reply.
"Roger sir, moving to recover."
Raynor looked out the bridge window as the salvage barge withdrew from the fleet and plodded towards the pair of disable Wraiths. It approached the Wraith containing the unconscious pilot, and began cycling the air locks to bring it on board. A gout of superheated plasma exploded from the engine nacelles of the Wraith, narrowly streaking past the salvage barge. Raynor stood quickly, watching in horror as the Wraith slowly broke apart. "What the hell was that?"
The bridge was quiet for a few moments, and then the distorted voice of Salvage broke the silence. "Apparently one of the engine nacelles went supercritical, probably ionized from the Yamato blasts and the EMP missile. Sort of odd that it took so long to blow, but there really wasn't anything we could have done to prevent it."
Raynor wiped a hand across his face unconsciously, and reopened the comm. channel to Dr. Malcolm. "Doctor, check your engine status. Are you reading any irregularities?"
Dr. Malcolm was silent for a few minutes before speaking. "I'm not showing anything. That must have been an anomaly."
"I'm sorry about this all, Doctor. If you'd talked to us right away, we could have avoided all of this."
"I know. It's too late to change the past." Dr. Malcolm closed the channel with a heavy sigh. Raynor stared into the darkness and shook his head. He turned back around to face his bridge crew.
"Navigation? Once we've got the doctor transferred, I want a complete evacuation of this system. They've obviously known we were here for a while. Let's not be here for their return. We're going to go to the back up staging point. I want us out of this system in three hours tops."
He looked at the weapon's officer. "Drop some mines and debris to screw with Arcturus' fleet. Make sure we don't leave anything behind that could give him information about us."
"I'll be back in a while. I'm going to meet Doctor Malcolm." With that, Raynor walked to the rear of the bridge and turned out into the main corridor that ran the length of the Hyperion, eager to understand this new turn of events.
Chapter 1: Beauty in Destruction
By: Dark-Elk
The cluster of starships sailed silently through the inky darkness of space. To the people that crewed them, these ships weren't just machines to fight with; after the betrayal of Arcturus Mengsk and Kerrigan, Queen of Blades', resounding victory in the final apocalyptic battle, these wearied warriors had been left homeless and alone, united under the banner of what seemed to be the last honorable man left alive. These starships were all they had left.
"Sir, sensors indicate a medium-sized frigate is in this sector, far off to the port side. Coordinates are. . . 290 degrees port, and they're at about the same level as we are," said the sensor officer of the Hyperion. He turned to look at the man seated in the captain's chair. "No transponder or IFF beacon data. I'd assume it's hostile."
Commander James Raynor sighed in aggravation as he thought out his response to this unwelcome visitor. "Our Wraiths are still deployed, right? How many do we have fitted with cloaking devices?"
"About two squadrons, Commander," said the tactical officer.
"Send them all to deal with this intruder. That should be enough to deal with a frigate that size."
"Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the starship. I'm putting in on the main viewscreen now," the female communications officer said.
The screen blanked out, losing the display of the star field in front of the Hyperion, and instead showing a tall man in a Dominion captain's uniform. "Rebel Commander James Raynor, by order of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, you will surrender your ships and your crew immediately. Failure to comply with this order will be considered hostile action, and we will open fire. Respond immediately."
"We don't take orders from the Dominion, and I'll be damned if I'm going to hand my people over to that traitor. You'll have to take them from us, captain," said Raynor, a wry smile spreading across his face. "I don't think you're in a position to make demands. You have quite a few weapon locks on you. Any movement other than reverse will be considered hostile action, and they will open fire. Respond immediately."
Snickers of laughter spread across the bridge, but were silenced as the Dominion captain continued to stare intensely at Raynor. "Commander Raynor, do you honestly think the Dominion would have sent me so woefully unprepared? You, my friend, are in a similar situation. A half-dozen of my Wraiths are in front of you, and all of them have clear weapon locks as well. If you fire, they will fire. Surrender, Raynor; you've got no other cards up your sleeve."
"You obviously don't know me very well, captain. I've always got another card up my sleeve," said Raynor. He caught the eye of the communications officer and chopped his arm swiftly downward. The officer nodded, tapped a few buttons quickly, and waved back. Raynor turned to look at the screen again, smiling slightly as he watched the captain begin speaking again, but the sound was blocked. "Excellent."
Raynor turned to the weapons officer. "Have the Discovery fire off an EMP shockwave right ahead of us. That should deactivate the cloak on those Wraiths."
"Yes sir, that shouldn't be a problem. Whenever you're ready," said the aging weapons officer.
"Charge our Yamato Cannons, and have the nearest Battlecruiser charge theirs as well."
"Yes sir. The Hyperion is charging her Yamato Cannons, as is the Dallant. Ready to fire on your mark."
"FIRE!" thundered Raynor.
Barely contained maelstroms of nuclear energy streaked from the two battlecruisers, dwarfing the thin EMP missile entirely. The EMP struck first, blossoming into a shockwave of energy that surged outwards in all directions. A half dozen Wraiths decloaked, ripples of energy crackling up and down their hulls as their systems deactivated one by one, including life support. This proved to not be much of a hindrance for the pilots as the twin blasts of energy ripped through four of them, spraying halos of debris that mimicked the path of the EMP shockwave. Massive fragments struck the remaining two fighters, further disabling them.
Cheering broke out amongst the bridge crew of the Hyperion, and Raynor struggled to make himself heard to the communications officer. "Tell our boys to try and take that ship. If they can't, tear it to shreds."
The main screen changed from the captain of the Dominion frigate into a tactical map of the area. The squadrons of Wraiths vectored in on the starship with the fury of a pack of Zerg. Missiles streaked through the darkness, impacting against the weak shields of the frigate. A few broke through, impacting dully on the hull of the frigate. Raynor watched as the frigate started firing haphazardly at the fighters, missing with every shot. The poor bastards obviously had no idea where the Wraiths were. A few more missile strikes from the Wraiths impacted, ripping the weaponry off of the frigate easily. The Dominion ship began moving slowly, as if unsure which direction was correct. It stopped turning shortly as it faced the correct direction, engaged the warp drives, and shot off into the darkness. Raynor frowned slightly. The ship's escape meant that he and his refugees weren't safe in this sector anymore. They needed to take care of this business, and get out of here fast. "Okay, Salvage, get in there and see what you can do. We could use more Wraiths, especially ones with cloak generators."
"We're on it sir. What do you want us to do with the survivors, assuming there are any?"
Raynor sighed and mentally wrestled with the dilemma before him. He could detail a ship to return the pilots to some backwater Dominion planet, but the Dominion would then gain some valuable knowledge, such as the location of the refugee fleet staging area. Or he could have them killed, assuming the debris hadn't taken care of that for him. He allowed himself to wrestle for a few more seconds, and then thought of what the bastard Mengsk would do if he were in his position. That settled the argument in his mind, and he immediately did the opposite.
"We're going to let them live. Offer them the opportunity to join us, but if they refuse shove them on one of our older Dropships and set the auto- pilot to jump them to the nearest Dominion held planet."
"Confirmed, sir. It appears that one pilot is alive and awake, while vital signs indicate the other is unconscious. The active pilot is hailing us."
"Communications, put it on the main screen. Let's hear what they have to say."
The main screen of the Hyperion blinks on, revealing the image of a sweaty and seemingly nervous pilot. The image begins to waver around the edges and bursts of static cut into the pilot's voice, but most of what he says is audible nonetheless.
"Hailing Commander James Raynor of the Hyperion. My name is Doctor Jonathan Malcom. I'm a Dominion scientist, or rather an ex-Dominion scientist, because I'm defecting. Will you accept my unconditional surrender? Weapons are powered down, engines are nonfunctional, cloaking field offline, and life support is beginning to be a little temperamental."
Raynor sat back in his command chair contemplating this unexpected turn of events. "How is a scientist piloting a Dominion Wraith? And why are you defecting?"
"This entire combat wing was planning to defect, sir. I used my rank to replace the normal pilot of this fighter for this mission. I'm a qualified Wraith pilot; I graduated from the flight academy with honors." He paused to cough and wipe his brow. "We wanted to defect immediately after entering this system, but we were deployed to combat right after we entered. We were trying to best determine how to deal with the change when you opened fire."
Raynor's breath caught in his chest, and his body felt as though ice water had replaced his blood. "Let me get this straight.you were all defecting? Why?"
"Mostly because of something the Dominion is doing that we all disagree with. The Dominion was going to have us quietly eliminated once they completed this project. We felt that defecting might allow you and your men enough time to stop the project's completion."
"Okay Salvage, pick him up and transfer him over to the Hyperion. If his friend wakes up, put him in a holding cell until I get a chance to talk to him a bit." Raynor contemplated his next move while waiting for the reply.
"Roger sir, moving to recover."
Raynor looked out the bridge window as the salvage barge withdrew from the fleet and plodded towards the pair of disable Wraiths. It approached the Wraith containing the unconscious pilot, and began cycling the air locks to bring it on board. A gout of superheated plasma exploded from the engine nacelles of the Wraith, narrowly streaking past the salvage barge. Raynor stood quickly, watching in horror as the Wraith slowly broke apart. "What the hell was that?"
The bridge was quiet for a few moments, and then the distorted voice of Salvage broke the silence. "Apparently one of the engine nacelles went supercritical, probably ionized from the Yamato blasts and the EMP missile. Sort of odd that it took so long to blow, but there really wasn't anything we could have done to prevent it."
Raynor wiped a hand across his face unconsciously, and reopened the comm. channel to Dr. Malcolm. "Doctor, check your engine status. Are you reading any irregularities?"
Dr. Malcolm was silent for a few minutes before speaking. "I'm not showing anything. That must have been an anomaly."
"I'm sorry about this all, Doctor. If you'd talked to us right away, we could have avoided all of this."
"I know. It's too late to change the past." Dr. Malcolm closed the channel with a heavy sigh. Raynor stared into the darkness and shook his head. He turned back around to face his bridge crew.
"Navigation? Once we've got the doctor transferred, I want a complete evacuation of this system. They've obviously known we were here for a while. Let's not be here for their return. We're going to go to the back up staging point. I want us out of this system in three hours tops."
He looked at the weapon's officer. "Drop some mines and debris to screw with Arcturus' fleet. Make sure we don't leave anything behind that could give him information about us."
"I'll be back in a while. I'm going to meet Doctor Malcolm." With that, Raynor walked to the rear of the bridge and turned out into the main corridor that ran the length of the Hyperion, eager to understand this new turn of events.