Author's Note: Hey guys, next chapter is here. Just as a heads up on the update for my email problems, it would appear it's mostly fixed, but I want to take it slowly just to be safe. Therefore, for all you guys who were hoping I would now do faster updates, you have to wait a bit longer. Personal life such as emails and the likes come first, not this fic.

For all of you who thought the fighting on Aiur came to an end last chapter, well that's only partially true. You'll see exactly what I mean in this chapter.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.

Chapter 50

Dominion Shuttle, En Route to Tarsonis

Kate Lockwell looked over her staff of reporters and journalists seated at the conference table. "I'm glad to see you have all accepted this invitation."

"You would have fired us if we hadn't now that you're the head honcho," one of them grumbled.

"I'd have done no such thing," the female reporter explained. "This is a very risky move here and I made it specifically clear to all of you that if things went south, we could get caught in the crossfire. Whether you came here to join me or not was completely up to you."

"You don't even know if you're going to succeed in meeting Raynor by doing this," a journalist pointed out. "If the Dominion troops find out we're heading to Tarsonis just to meet the Dominion's biggest enemy, we'll be pretty lucky they don't shoot us on sight."

"I understand your concern," Kate replied. "It is exactly the reason I have called only a small group of the UNN news reporters to undergo this mission. The terran shuttles are only capable of holding up to 40 people after all, and most major events that had been broadcasted by UNN involved hundreds of reporters. Thus it only took little effort to convince the pilot that this was only going to be a small story."

"Even if you had convinced the pilot, you can't fool the Dominion military for very long, Kate. They're headed to Tarsonis just to salvage some military equipment off the planet and that's it. We won't know what the equipment is or does, and the only thing they would say to us is that the salvaged components are classified military secrets, nothing more."

"That's pretty much all I expect them to say," Kate agreed.

"Then what kind of a story would you get this way?"

"The Dominion military consists of people, not mindless drones. They may be trained to obey orders, but they have a conscience just like we do. After Raynor's actions on Korhal, you really think everyone in Dominion military would still believe everything the emperor says and obey his orders without even the slightest thought or hesitation?"

"Even if you're right about that, they'll never admit it to us," another reporter pointed out. "To speak out against the emperor is considered treason and you'd be arrested immediately."

"This time they will have to reconsider," Kate assured. "Every news branch confirmed that the evidence Raynor had broadcasted on Korhal was authentic, which means now the people know that the truth is not just whatever that comes out of the emperor's mouth. That was something I had been trying to do when Donny was still the head anchor. The reports may have been pro-Dominion, but I also tried to explain the other side of the story so that the viewers could decide what the truth really is, but Donny kept cutting me off."

"What did you expect? As long as he was in charge the only non-Dominion news you could broadcast were ones that agreed with the Dominion's perspective completely."

"And that is considered nothing more than mouth stifling," Kate shot back. "Being a news reporter requires multiple voices to be heard, not just the same one over and over again. The emperor promised that the Dominion would ensure people's freedoms, and these actions are contradicting that."

"The freedom of speech concept," the reporter realized.

"How right you are. If he continues to stifle anyone who voices a different opinion of the Dominion, then it will only reinforce the view the people have had of him after the Korhal broadcasts: that he is nothing but a tyrant bent on ruling over everything and not allowing even the slightest bit of independent thought when it comes to different opinions."

"But what about the military? They're meant to deal with civil unrest like this," a journalist spoke up.

"That's where the other main point needs to be addressed," Kate said. "Once and for all, they need to answer one simple question to the people: do they stand behind the Dominion, or do they stand behind the emperor. And for that matter, do they stand behind their choice unconditionally or not."

"What makes you think the Dominion troops will even think of answering that question?"

"Because this is a time of war. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped after what happened on Char, but something tells me this war isn't over yet. Don't forget, the emperor had the Dominion fleet pulled back to defend the core worlds and left everyone on the fringe worlds to fend for themselves. If they could hold off the Zerg alone, great. If they couldn't, it meant nothing to him."

"What are you getting at?"

"Don't you see here?" Kate pointed out. "What if the Char invasion Raynor took never happened? What if the Zerg invasion forces kept coming? Raynor may be good, but he's still just one man, so there's only so much he can do by himself. If that had happened, it would have meant that eventually the Dominion forces would have had to deal with the Zerg themselves. We all know of the Zerg invasion on Tarsonis a few years ago and what they did to the Confederate homeworld. Therefore, I think it's safe to say given enough numbers, they could have also overrun the Dominion core worlds as well."

The journalist nodded, understanding. "You believe the emperor would have pulled back even further and begun sacrificing the people on the Dominion core worlds as well."

"Korhal is the most heavily defended core world," Kate explained. "But if you recall, before the Zerg invasion began, the emperor had held a press conference to commemorate 4 years after the Brood War. I had specifically asked him why he chose to spent trillions upon trillions of credits hunting Raynor instead of further building up the Dominion fleet in the event of another Zerg assault. He acted as if the Zerg were no longer a threat anymore and the Dominion resources could be used on other matters instead. As a result when the invasion began, the fleet wasn't strong enough to deal with the Zerg."

The female anchorwoman paused for a moment, before continuing, "If the Zerg had begun to overrun the core worlds, would the emperor really have used the fleet to protect his people, or just himself? Because from what I see after all that's happened, he could care less what happened to anyone else in the Dominion, as long as his throne is safe. Therefore, I think the Dominion soldiers need to address matter not only to us by to themselves as well: do they put their lives on the line to protect the people, or just the emperor?"

The news team at the table all gave murmurs of agreement. Kate was satisfied that she had made her point. "This will be the other side of the story we'll try to get should Raynor not show up on Tarsonis. I suggest all of you get some rest now. Unlike the larger ships, this shuttle is only designed for short range warp travel, so it'll still be at least 7 hours before we reach our destination. Once we arrive, I'd imagine it'll be pretty busy for us, so please start thinking of the questions you'd like to ask soon."

Aiur

Jim stood at the entrance of a Protoss Dark Shrine building with Nova. Almost 48 hours had passed since the fighting around the Overmind's corpse had died down. Although not all of the Zerg defenders there were killed, the remaining ones had scattered across Aiur. With this victory, the last major Zerg concentration on the Protoss homeworld had been broken. All that remained were the mop-up operations. Once that is done, Aiur will be fully cleared of the Zerg infestation.

Selected for the purity of form, the Protoss warriors had greater endurance limits compared to their terran counterparts, and there were far greater numbers of them on Aiur. Most of the terran forces, whether it was from his Raiders, Warfield's troops, or the freed New Folsom inmates, were resting, the sheer ferocity of the battle having exhausted them. On the other hand, Artanis was rallying most of the Protoss warriors to finish the job and cleanse the Zerg from Aiur once and for all.

Jim, however, had other plans. While Matt and Warfield were off counting the losses they had sustained in men and equipment, he decided it was time to make good on his promise he had made all the way back on Char.

"I'm not so sure about this," Nova said quietly. "Are you sure this process won't be fatal or anything?"

"That's highly unlikely," the commander replied. "Remember, the Protoss are the masters of psionics here. They've practiced with this stuff for thousands of years, so obviously they have gained plenty of experience to know how it's done. You've fought alongside them to take their world back, I'm sure that'll serve as an example to prove that there are more trustworthy female terrans out there."

"They're still not used to too many of that," Nova pointed out. "Sarah's actions during her time with the Zerg still remains very bitter to them."

"It'll be a long way before they see otherwise," Jim agreed. "But the important thing is that the process is underway."

He then turned his head back to the Dark Shrine. "Meanwhile, I'm a man of my word, Nova. I promised you on Char that I'd see if I can find a way to help you recover your memories, and that promise still stands. It certainly took a while as none of the Protoss were going agree to do it until they got their homeworld back, but by now I'd say they should be able to pull out the time for such a thing."

At this point a Dark Templar de-cloaked in front of him. "Greetings James Raynor. Mighty Zeratul's words have indeed been vindicated when he spoke highly of you and your actions when you had fought alongside him on Aiur in the past. It has been an honor to fight alongside you once more to purge this world of the Zerg in our greatest time of need."

"Aiur is your world, not mine, Ataldis. Your people paid for its liberation with blood. Me and my boys were just glad to help out with it."

"And now you wish for my brethren to help with this female terran in determining her identity?"

"You saw it with your own eyes on the battlefield and how she fought alongside Protoss," Jim replied. "You can say this is still a rare encounter with a female terran, but by now you have to realize they're not all like Sarah when she had been infested. Don't forget, that infestation had been done against her will and corrupted her mind. She wasn't herself when she committed all those atrocities against your people."

"Perhaps not," the Alysaar admitted. "But there is still much conflict of opinions about her, my friend. Many still believe her actions in helping us against the Zerg here could be simply a method of deception for us to let down our guard against her. She had deceived us in the past, and despite her appearance change, many remain unconvinced that she would be honest to us now. The last time we had trusted her had disastrous consequences for us, so I am sure you can understand why there is so much reluctance amongst the Daelaam Protoss to believe her at all."

"She'll continue to help you in your endeavors even if you continue to believe that," Jim assured. "But right now this isn't about Sarah. I need your expertise to help Nova. After she completed her training, she received a memory wipe that suppressed all of the memories of her previous life. They're still there in her mind, she just can't overcome the suppression by herself. I need to know if you guys can find a way to overcome this difficulty and help her regain those memories."

"I still don't understand how you Protoss would be able to do this with those magic Khaydarin Crystals of yours," Nova said. "All the encounters I had with the Protoss I had only seen them used as a battery source for your buildings and weapons."

Ataldis nodded. "That is how all of the Khalai Protoss have used it, as do most of my Nerazim brethren, young Terra. However, the Alysaar are a special tribe of Nerazim. Unlike our Khalai brethren, the Nerazims have no Preservers of our own as we did not embrace the Khala as they did. As such, we required a different way in which our memories could be stored. This had been done with the usage of the Khaydarin Crystals, and was further enhanced by the energies of Ehlna which altered the crystal to become even more effective at memory storage."

"Zeratul's ihan memory crystal was based on just that," Jim added. "It had allowed me to relive his memories. You saw it yourself, Nova. There was a Khaydarin Crystal core at its center, and it was from it that stored his memories."

"Thus as we have discovered ways to store our memories within the sacred Khaydarin Crystals, we have also learned ways in which how they can be used to uncover memories," Ataldis explained. "This is true even in cases of memories in which one does not fully remember in detail, and this seems to match the situation you are in."

"That's good enough for me," Jim turned to the blond ghost. "Trust him, Nova. The Protoss are mostly rational, he's not going to hurt you."

Nova nodded slowly. "Well you've been right about everything so far, so let's do this."

Without another word she moved forward, entering the Dark Shrine with Jim and Ataldis.

High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock

The Dominion officers all saluted as General Ridgeway entered the BattleCruiser bridge. "General, we have arrived at our destination," one of them reported. "The Dominion ships are currently holding in high orbit over the planet Dead Man's Rock."

"Very well," Ridgeway said. "What is the status on the ground?"

"It's hard to say, sir. Mira Han may not have as advanced weaponry as the Dominion, but she's not stupid either. Her mercenary force may be substantial, but she knows they're no match for us in the event of a Dominion assault. It would seem logical that she has simply scattered or in some other way hidden her forces on the planet, only to be revealed once fighting is imminent."

"You mean to tell me that we can't determine anything from our scanners?"

"We have located scattered traces of her forces on the surface, most of which are just marines and Vultures. But she has one of the largest mercenary fighting forces in the sector, there's no way they'd just vanish all of a sudden."

Ridgeway frowned in confusion. "Now what would she have to fear of the Dominion anyway? She's a mercenary, and all mercenaries are governed by money or other forms of wealth, not governments, morals, or even ethic codes. She'll fight for whoever gives her the highest offer on the contract. It is exactly this reason that the emperor decreed that she is too dangerous to live."

"Then that would explain why she is hiding from the Dominion right now, general. She knows that the emperor seeks to unite everyone in the sector under the Dominion, and she would have none of that. She doesn't like being under the authority of others, and this is exactly the reason why she would have located her HQ at Dead Man's Rock. The place is a haven for crime lords, pirates, and mercenaries. Most people know the planet is outside of Dominion law, and for that matter outside the boundaries of the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate. Almost everyone there knows that the only way to bring it under any faction's control is to launch a full-scale incursion. Even then, the invasion force would have to kill at least half the planet's population before the remainder would even think about submitting to authority."

"It will probably never be worth the resources to do it," Ridgeway concluded. "But that's beside the point. We're not after any of the crime lords or other pirates. We're here to get Orlan, deal with Mira Han, and get off this rock."

"That may not be easy, sir," an officer spoke out. "We are unable to locate the main body of her mercenary forces. Perhaps she has scattered them across the planet. If so, we would have no choice but to spread our forces thinly to locate them. They know this planet's terrain and environment, we do not. She could bleed us very heavily in guerilla warfare."

"I have no intention for it to come to that," the general replied. "She isn't stupid. We may only have a single division at our disposal, but Han knows that even if she is able to beat us off the planet, we'll just return with an even bigger force. Besides, if she spreads her forces out, they too will be individually weaker than if united all together, and she has to be smart enough to know that."

"So what do you think she could be doing down there?"

"My gut feeling is she's stuffed almost all her forces in the scan-shielded areas. If that's the case, that leaves only two possibilities: Deadman's Port and Paradise. The former is the planet's main settlement, and the latter is the only other large settlement on Dead Man's Rock. All the other places are only small towns and villages in comparison, and those areas wouldn't have the available technology advanced enough to build scan-shielded materials."

"So we're just going to go down there and search?"

"No," Ridgeway answered. "As you had just pointed out, they know the world's terrain, we don't. If we go down there, she'll be able to identify the Dominion troops on the planet's surface right away and will make adequate preparations. By the time we get even a rough idea of where she is, Han will have moved all her troops out of the area."

"Do you have a better idea, sir?" the officer asked.

"Just one," Ridgeway said. "Han's mercenary group isn't the only one down there on the planet. There's got to be thousands of them, if not more. I'm pretty sure not all of them are loyal to her. Even if they are, their loyalty is little more than a contract, something than can be renegotiated at any time."

"I'm not following you."

"I spoke with the emperor about this, and he agreed that the mercenaries down there would have a far better idea of where Han is. All it takes is a little incentive for them to give up that location to us. That's why a Dominion cargo ship will be arriving in 72 hours to our location to provide us with just what we need to make that happen. For now, we sit back and wait it out."

Mercenary Outpost, Dead Man's Rock

Mira listened to the report from one of her mercenary officers as she toured their small outpost. It had been pretty much what she had been expecting, but that didn't make the picture any less grim.

"Are you 100 percent sure the Dominion ships are orbiting the planet?" she demanded.

"I've checked it multiple times, as you requested," the officer answered. "I don't get it, this planet is a lawless world, and the Dominion force in orbit isn't strong enough to handle all the mercenaries here all at once. What are they here for?"

"Me, to be specific. I'm guessing it's in the name of revenge," the mercenary leader answered. " I helped Raynor to defeat Orlan and get the adjutant, so whatever information it had fell into their hands. We all saw the news reports of the Dominion worlds rioting after Raynor broadcasted the message on Korhal, so I'm betting that was the information the adjutant had."

"And the Dominion feels that since his Raiders only got that adjutant to your help, they're here to kill you so you can't meddle in their affairs anymore," the officer finished.

"Right you are," Mira replied. "Don't forget, I'm a wanted woman in 12 different systems, each one of them wanting my head on a platter. Most of them of course are pro-Dominion, I just didn't expect they'd actually show up here to make it happen."

"So what do we do? Our forces are substantial now that we've added Orlan's mercenaries, and the Dominion ships don't seem to be too many in number. We should be able to drive them off, just give us the order to mobilize our ships."

"That'll condemn everyone in this organization to death!" Mira seethed. "Even if we succeed, we'll have to take appalling losses. Meanwhile, the Dominion will come back within just a few days and kill us all!"

"Well we can't just keep hiding. The Dominion has more advanced technology than us, they're going to find us eventually. We're lucky right now their ships haven't made any moves to enter the planet's atmosphere, but you know they will sooner or later. You expect us to just hide from them until they get bored and go home?"

"Of course not," Mira answered, clutching her fist in frustration. "I never should have told Raynor that I'd keep Orlan on ice for free. I should have stuck a price tag on there, no matter how small."

"Well other than him, I don't see any other way out of this," the officer pointed out. "We've got the largest and strongest mercenary force on the planet, the other organizations are no match for the Dominion ships up there. If they feel threatened by the Dominion troops, my gut feeling is they'll tell them of your whereabouts if the Dominion will leave them alone. The only way out is to contact Raynor and his Raiders. He said he may need Orlan someday, and entrusted you with keeping him alive should that happen."

"So all we can hope is that Orlan is still useful to him to save our necks," Mira sighed. He was right after all, and deep down she did hope to see Matthew again. So without another thought she gave him a curt nod. "Get on the communications channel and sent a transmission to the Hyperion. I want Raynor and his Raiders found immediately."