Author's Note: All right everyone, it's time for the next chapter. This was supposed to have gone up several hours ago, but an unexpected 7 and a half hour work shift did kind of push this to the back burner.
Nevertheless, I managed to get things ready and all that. To Blackhole1, who had reviewed my last chapter and said in the review as to why doesn't the hybrid seem to care about the potential threat Kerrigan poses to him, well don't worry, I had long since thought of that, and know what needs to be said about it.
You'll see exactly what I mean during a confrontation. So yes, for Kerrigan to confront the hybrid is inevitable, but that is still quite a while away before it happens.
Chapter 48
Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location
"Can't you see that the eggheads will need more time before they can determine what the Protoss stones are really for?" Mengsk asked over the communicator screen. "Pressuring them isn't going to change that, Ridgeway."
The general sighed in frustration. His boys were becoming very frustrated at the lack of answers for their actions on Aiur and barely making it out with their lives. Some of them had been satisfied with the answers he had given them, but others had still hoped to get the greater picture right away. Having to wait it out because the Dominion scientists and engineers couldn't analyze fast enough certainly did not sit well.
Personally, Ridgeway felt that the emperor was holding something back. Despite the fact that he was a difficult man to read even by telepaths, the general felt that Mengsk clearly knew more about the Protoss stones than what he let on. After all, his son Valerian was an archeologist, and had been greatly interested in alien artifacts and relics.
Though Mengsk did not share this interest, there was nevertheless the power factor. Ridgeway knew that behind the emperor's intention to unite the whole of the Koprulu Sector under him, there was the desire for power. However, there will always be those who would not be swayed by his politics, Jim Raynor and his rebels being the prime example, and thus Mengsk saw them as a threat to the Dominion. But despite his intellect, the fact remained that Raynor was a soldier, Mengsk was not, and therefore was inferior militarily.
Thus it wasn't surprising to the general that the emperor became interested in alien artifacts as well. Unlike his son however, Mengsk saw them as nothing but weapons that could be used to achieve the greater good, and he had no doubt the Protoss stones his boys had collected on Aiur would be used for the exact same purpose.
Even if the emperor didn't know what they could be used for, there was always the option of acquiring Valerian. Ridgeway knew of the emperor's desire for power was virtually boundless, and he doubted even his own son could make him back down and look in the other direction. If Mengsk didn't fully understand the purpose of the Protoss stones, Ridgeway had no doubt that he would order Dominion troops to bring his son in and get the answers he require.
"I'll do what I can to explain it to my boys again, sir," the general said. "But I doubt they're going to do any more favors until they get a better answer."
"I'll accept that," the emperor said calmly. "That's why your men can stay at the Dominion installation and rest, while I send you a fresh division."
"A new division? What for?"
"Recruiting measures. When Valerian took half the Dominion fleet for the Char invasion, he had also taken a huge share of the Dominion's cryptography experts. I had expected them to return to the Dominion after the battle was over, but they instead chose to side with Raynor and his terrorists. Now the Dominion is running out of personnel to fill the shortages."
"What do you want me to do about that?" Ridgeway asked.
"Raynor's actions on Korhal could never have come to pass had that Confederate adjutant not given them the information they wanted. But Raynor was incapable of getting the data out of the adjutant's head all by himself and needed a decryption expert to make it happen."
"You're talking about Colonel Orlan."
"Very good, general. I had promised Orlan millions of credits if he handed the adjutant over to me instead, which was a hell of a lot more than what Raynor had offered him. Problem was, Orlan had foolishly trusted Mira Han to keep Raynor's men off his back, and Raynor paid her first to turn the mercenary against Orlan. If Orlan had just trusted someone else with the task, none of the riots on the Dominion worlds would ever have happened."
"Then it's a simple smash and grab mission," Ridgeway stated. "Go to Dead Man's Rock, get Orlan, and get out."
Mengsk nodded. "Expect resistance from Mira Han and her forces, general. She had struck a deal with Raynor to keep Orlan alive and on ice, and I'm betting that deal is still in effect right now. She may be a mercenary and would help whatever pays the most, but that just means she would have constant loyalty problems, and I can't have that. Unlike Orlan, Han is of no use to me, so if you get the chance, have her removed from the picture, once and for all."
"She is among the better known mercenary groups," Ridgeway pointed out. "Unlike the regular space pirates, Mira Han's forces are quite sizable and are capable of causing quite a bit of havoc before being put down."
"That's why I'm sending you a sizable division, general. With Orlan on ice, I'm betting most of his remaining forces now have no choice but to join with Ms. Han, which would make her mercenary force even more powerful. They were already far more powerful than Raynor's men when the Zerg invasion began, and I will not have further thorns in my side while I push ahead with my plans."
"What about Raynor's men?" Ridgeway asked. "With Warfield's battle group now on his side, the Raiders are more than just an ordinary terrorist group now. They raided New Folsom, something most of us didn't see coming, and most of the liberated prisoners have joined up with him. Sir, Raynor now has a sizable military force under his command. It's still inferior to the Dominion Fleet, but if he keeps this up, eventually he'll have enough firepower to challenge us."
"His forces consist of a bunch of mercenary cutthroats that kill for money and that's it," Mengsk replied. "The losses on New Folsom was a major blow, but by no means a fatal one. The Core Worlds will simply have to increase their industrial output to compensate. On the other hand, all of the inmates at New Folsom didn't undergo neural resocialization. They don't have the neural implants in them, so Raynor is sitting on one giant powder keg and is too dumb to realize it'll blow soon. Those prisoners have wanted their revenge on the Dominion for years, and if Raynor doesn't do as they say soon, they'll eventually go on their own accord. Only his personal Raiders would still fight for him in such a way, and they're too few in number to make a difference."
Ridgeway nodded, satisfied with the answer. "When will the new division arrive?"
"They're not coming to you, general. You're going to them. I've sent them to Dead Man's Rock, their ships are headed there as we speak. Get on a BattleCruiser and head there. They'll be waiting for you."
Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal
Mengsk was relatively pleased with Ridgeway's actions and responses. He was the type of general who still strongly believed in the Dominion and their intentions for the other worlds in the Koprulu Sector. The same could not be said of the Dominion officer he was speaking to on the communications channel now, however.
Colonel Kim frowned as the emperor gave her the news of the Dominion military operation. "Sir, may I respectfully remind you, the last Dominion operation was also supposed to be just a simple salvage operation. Raynor and his boys interfered and looked where that ended up."
"That thought had not left my mind, Kim," the emperor replied. "However, you seem to miss one important factor: decryption. If it weren't for that, Raynor never would have succeeded. I've already dispatched General Ridgeway to deal with that problem."
"Raynor technically doesn't need Orlan anymore," Kim pointed out. "Warfield's forces have men to do that as well."
Mengsk snorted. "You have no understanding of some of the encryption security measures. Besides, Orlan is the better decryption expert anyway. Before Raynor had intercepted the train and stole the Adjutant, all the Dominion personnel found out was the information had something to do with the battle that had taken place at New Gettysburg, nothing more. It took Orlan to get the rest of the information."
Kim nodded in agreement. Mengsk was right in that aspect, but ever since Raynor's broadcasts on Korhal had been confirmed to be genuine, serious doubts had been planted in her mind about the Dominion government and the noble intentions Mengsk had stated. She had been part of the Confederate Marine Corps when she was young, and had risen to the rank of captain when the Confederacy fell. Despite the immoral and unethical actions of the government, she seriously doubted if the Confederacy really had it within them to go so far as total genocide of the opposing terran factions.
After serving with the Dominion Marine Corps for the last four and a half years, Kim had seen the corruption of the Confederacy from Mengsk's perspective and saw the need for new leadership. Yet she wasn't like the other Dominion officers. Before Raynor's actions on Korhal, most of the Dominion officers were simply to follow Mengsk's orders without question, even if they could not see the greater picture. Kim on the other hand, while obeying such orders, tended to dig a little further in order to find the purpose behind them. It was these actions that had gotten her a better relationship with the Dominion ghosts, who usually regarded the military personnel in the Marine Corps as nothing more than psychopathic savages, incapable of understanding anything except the concept of mass slaughter.
Kim had been recruited into the Confederate Marine Corps when the Guild Wars broke out between the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine. While she had seen very little fighting herself in those four years of war, she had not been ignorant of the news of the war events. Nor did she simply swallow everything the Confederate propaganda machine churned out, as she knew there were multiple sides to the story and the truth lay somewhere in the middle. Yet she wisely kept such thoughts to herself, knowing that the laws the Confederacy had set in place meant that speaking out against them meant immediate execution, especially during times of war.
After the Confederacy fell, Kim had done her own share of digging into the conflict to determine for herself what had really caused it in the first place. It was from there that she had discovered the nature of the Confederate government, and why the Kel-Morian Combine eventually chose to rise up against it.
As in many cases with wars, the economic factor was a crucial role in the Guild Wars. Even today, Moria remained one of the richest resource mining planets in the Koprulu Sector and it was no surprise to Kim that the Confederacy constantly wanted more and more of its resources to fuel its own economy. This however had greatly angered the Kel-Morian Combine, as their resources were constantly taken from them, boosting the Confederate high living standards while leaving them to wither on the vine. The Old Families drove the colonial competitors out of business due to their mass wealth, and they had no choice but to join hands with the Confederacy.
Yet the Kel-Morian Combine chose to do no such thing. Instead, they chose to set an example to others that not everyone would simply fold before the Confederates. While the Guild Wars ultimately ended in failure for them, their message had nevertheless been heard. The Umojan Protectorate had been formed on Umoja to defend itself from Confederate tyranny, and Korhal had claimed independence from the Confederacy. Even the Kel-Morians found a way to avoid the tyranny. Due to their resource wealth, they had funded the Confederacy after the war with so much money that the Confederate laws no longer applied to them.
Dominion propaganda constantly blared about the Confederate actions in their nuclear strike against Korhal, and that it was from this action that the Sons of Korhal rebel group was born. Yet while the Dominion public had been kept in the dark about the psi-emitters, the Dominion military was a different matter. Despite only traces of information, the few connections from Dominion ghosts had allowed Kim to piece together the picture of the Zerg and their psionic attraction to ghost brain waves and how the Confederacy used them in the hopes to exterminate the Sons of Korhal once and for all.
Yet even after all these actions, Kim could not bring herself to believe the Confederacy would go so far as to exterminate entire governmental factions. The actions on Korhal may have wiped out most of the inhabitants on the surface, but even the Confederates knew that such actions would inevitably cause more and more people to rise up against them. On the other hand, Mengsk's actions by using the Zerg to kill the Confederacy on Tarsonis seemed to suggest that despite his claims of humanitarian principles, he was even worse than the Confederacy. At least they hadn't tried to hide the fact it was their actions that led to such destruction on Korhal.
The information about the psi-emitters themselves were classified, but from the Korhal transmissions, it would appear they had the ability to attract Zerg to a specific area, just not in numbers that could be handled by the Confederate military. It had been this concept that must have given the emperor the idea of using the psi-emitters on Tarsonis, yet it would seem that no one in the public knew about this.
Now, with the Dominion in shambles after Raynor's actions, Kim seriously wondered if Mengsk was truly suited to keeping his government together. He was a member of the Old Families himself, and like every other Old Family had received vast amounts of wealth before and after the Guild Wars with the Kel-Morian Combine. The Old Families were usually obsessed with power and control over the economy, and Kim felt that this remained the same with the emperor.
"Now, Colonel," Mengsk said, snapping Kim out of her thoughts. "With Raynor silent after what had happened on New Folsom, now is the perfect time to conduct the operation. The salvaging on Tarsonis for that adjutant was not the only piece of equipment I had hoped to recover."
"You're sending me there to recover yet another piece of the puzzle," the colonel stated.
"The Zerg invasion of Tarsonis may have turned the whole planet into a smoldering ruin, but they have no understanding of terran technology. All they understand is once there's no more targets left for them to kill, they'll simply move on to find new victims. Sure some of the terran buildings they might cover up with their biological slime, but that too is only because there are people inside them for the Zerg to infest. If there's no one inside, the Zerg simply walk away."
"So what's so important on Tarsonis that you're sending me there?"
"The Confederates may have been arrogant and egotistical, but they weren't stupid. When it was clear that their world was going to get overrun by the Zerg, they would have stashed away anything they could in the hopes that the Confederacy could rise again and they would use what they had hid to take their revenge. It was exactly the reason why the Dominion promise to the Tarsonis refugees that their world would be restored to its former glory was only part of the bigger picture. A far greater reason was to locate as many Confederate technologies and military secrets so that they could be incorporated into the Dominion."
"The salvaging team on Tarsonis was doing just that, weren't they?" Kim asked.
"Correct, colonel. Initially it was thought the Confederate adjutant would give up some secret military technology, not intercepted transmissions. Had Raynor not interfered, the adjutant would have safely made it to the processing center and everything would have been just fine. Nevertheless, this time it will be different because I have already issued orders to deal with Orlan, so even if by some stroke of misfortune you go to Tarsonis and Raynor's boys happen to interfere again, whatever they can obtain will be useless to them."
Kim nodded in understanding. "I will head to Tarsonis immediately, sir."
"I'll send you a slightly stronger group than what you're used to," Mengsk said. "I'm not convinced Raynor would interfere again, but in the event he does, I don't want a repeat of what happened last time, where his boys were shooting up all the near defenseless trains and looting everything they could salvage from it. You'll have better manpower at your disposal to ensure such a hit and run tactic won't work this time."
UNN Studios, Korhal
Kate looked up from her desk, impressed with her colleague's work. "This is supposed to be classified Dominion information! How did you get your hands on it?" She asked into the communicator screen.
"The Dominion always had a serious weakness when it comes to the lower levels," came the reply. "Their officers may be hard to let information slip their heads, but their soldiers are much more vulnerable. I kept telling you, sometimes it's good to be close to those guys."
"Not for me," Kate grumbled. "Most of the Dominion marines are nothing but homicidal psychopaths taken from prisons. You make the slightest wrong impression and I'm pretty sure they'll put a bullet in your head, no matter what your reputation. I'm just glad they didn't do that to you, Rachel."
"Hey, you'd be surprised what they'd spill once you get them drunk enough at a local bar," Rachel said, smiling. "Was only able to scratch the surface though, they just said they were heading to Tarsonis, nothing more. Getting there won't be easy. That planet is under Dominion quarantine and without proper authorization, Dominion security will simply turn you away."
"I can be very persuasive," Lockwell assured. "After all, I may have announced that UNN will no longer be fully supportive of the Dominion, but that doesn't mean I've completely turned on them. Besides, with the state the Dominion is in now, they're going to need all the positive media coverage they can get to rebuild their reputation."
"Kate, I must protest against you doing this," Rachel warned, frowning. "You told me you wanted to speak to Jim Raynor face to face, but you don't really know this Dominion operation there will really draw him in. What if it doesn't?"
"The guy has to come out of hiding sooner or later," Kate replied. "After what happened on Korhal, I'd imagine he's come too far in his rebellion to stop now, not with the Dominion in this state. All these years the public has only seen the Dominion perspective of everything, and the emperor would silence anyone who spreads a different viewpoint. Before no one could do anything about this because the Dominion had been strong, but now it's been weakened. If the emperor tries what he did in the past now, it'll only reinforce his desire for power and oppression to people's free will."
"But what do you think you can get out of Raynor and his rebel group?"
"I don't know," Kate admitted. "But after what happened on Korhal, it's pretty clear not everyone the emperor has portrayed as terrorists are a threat to humanity. I need to understand why Raynor began this revolution in the first place."
Rachel sighed, seeing her friend had made up her mind. "Then I hope you know what you're doing, Kate. If something goes wrong here, it could cost you a lot more than just your position as UNN's head anchor."
"If my suspicions are right, Raynor is not going to greet me with a hail of lead," Lockwell assured. "I'll let you know once I've spoken with him."
Without another word she turned off the screen and began gathering her belongings. It was time for the UNN news team to head off to Tarsonis. Officially, their story was going to be to learn more about the Dominion salvage operations. Unofficially, Kate hoped to find out what was the driving motive behind Raynor and his quest for rebellion.
Aiur
The flow of battle was now clearly in the Zerg swarm's favor. From aboard the Shield of Aiur, Jim watched helplessly as BattleCruiser after BattleCruiser were torn apart by the massive Leviathan creatures. For all their massive size, they could still out-fly the terran ships, as well as the Protoss Carriers.
Despite the hopes that the Motherships would be able to rain fire upon them from above, no such thing happened. Although only a fraction of their size, the Zerg flyers had excellent eyesight and were able to quickly spot the Protoss capital ships. With a single swipe of their tentacles, the Leviathans were able to knock an entire Mothership right out of its flight trajectory. Most were lucky enough to survive such a blow, but were in no position to continue fighting. Reluctantly, Artanis was forced to give the order for the Motherships to fall back.
The situation was no better on the ground. Despite their immense firepower, the Prometheus hybrid walkers were no match for the Kraken beasts, and a direct hit from one of their tentacles was enough to send the flying war machine spiraling out of the sky. The Exussumers fared better, but their arm thermal lance beams were insufficient to permanently cripple the beasts. Only their psionically powered chest energy beams were strong enough, but using such a weapon had completely backfired. As the Leviathan tentacles had extremely long reach, there were many cases where the moment an Exussumer walker's chest opened up, one of the Leviathans would uncoil one of its massive tentacles and launch it right into the exposed core, causing the cybernetic walker to explode, and killing terran and Protoss ground troops unfortunate enough to be nearby.
"Jim, do something!" Sarah's voice came over the radio. "These guys are tearing everyone apart down here!"
Jim opened a channel to the Hyperion via the Protoss communications channel to Matt Horner. "Matt, deploy the cargo now! We don't have time to wait until the conditions are just right!"
"I've already issued the order sir," Matt responded. "They're already dropping the dry ice we confiscated from New Folsom as we speak. But even then you can't expect the effects to happen immediately. You have to hold out a bit longer."
Raynor pounded his fist on the console in frustration. He knew Matt was right, but that didn't make it any easier. The Krakens and Leviathans were tearing apart everything that moved down there, and while the Krakens were slow enough to allow most of the terran and Protoss forces to safely retreat, the fact remained that the assault towards the Overmind was proving to be a complete catastrophe. With the Leviathans tearing apart just about any ship that came across it, their air support was being gradually neutralized.
At this point, the Protoss console suddenly blinked, and Artanis rushed over to it, hoping it was the news he had been waiting for.
"Hierarch, this is Tabrenus," the Furinax leader's voice came over the intercom. "The pride of the Furinax's creation has arrived on Aiur, it is ready for your command."
"Not one moment too soon," the Protoss Hierarch said, relieved. "Target the Zerg Leviathans immediately! We must regain our advantage!"
"It will be done, Hierarch."
Suddenly, from out of the sky, Jim saw a bright flash of light, nearly blinding him. From what he had seen on Haven, it seemed very similar to the Purifier Mothership's energy discharge, but this one was far more massive in scale and intensity. It shot down straight out of the sky and engulfed one of the massive Leviathan creatures.
What happened next, defied everything Jim had known about the might of the Protoss military, and now realized their technology had evolved to a new level in dealing with the Zerg menace.
The power of the energy discharge was so intense, the massive Zerg Leviathan was literally blown in half, and as the halves fell towards the ground, another energy beam struck, setting the frontal half of the beast ablaze and quickly reduced its hardened carapace, exposing flesh and bone beneath and incinerating it.
All of the fighting suddenly stopped on Aiur as the massive Protoss vessel came into view. It was like nothing Jim had ever seen before.
"James Raynor," Artanis said proudly. "You now bear witness to the ultimate symbol of Protoss might. I give you the Bisu Sowilo: The Divine Light of the Khala."
Author's Note: For those of you who don't remember, the ship at the end of the chapter had been mentioned all the way back in chapters 23 and 24, where I had said that the Protoss were working on a vessel that would be vastly more powerful than the Mothership. This is now taken in the formof the Bisu Sowilo ("The Divine Light of the Khala" is just the ship's name, the unit itself is still called Bisu Sowilo).
For those of you who may be wondering why I had chosen this name, I had turned back to ancient mythologies to come up with names.
"Sowilo" is Germanic Mythology, which means "Light/Sun".
"Bisu" is Egyptian Mythology, which means "Defender of all that is good".
Thus by combining the two terms and putting it into the Protoss standards, it stands for "Guardian of the Light", which I consider it quite fitting for the Firstborn, especially given their mentality in seeing themselves as the defenders of all creation.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.