Author's Note: Blackhole1, you and I talked over PM and you said that our minds tend to think alike. In the 3rd part of this chapter you'll see the similarities of just that. All you have to do is compare it to the 1st part of chapter 64 and 66 of your fic and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 70
Dominion Base, Bel'Shir
Dr. Collins rubbed her temples. Her head hurt from looking over the computer files for so long. The Dominion doctors had sedated private Jenkins, and the marine was fast asleep again in the med bay. With General Madison still out there with most of the remaining Dominion troops, the Command Center was now considered to be relatively quiet given that the general had ordered radio silence to be maintained so that the Protoss here wouldn't intercept any of their transmissions.
Even now, no shots have been fired yet, and that meant that the Dominion doctors here had little to do. She, on the other hand, felt otherwise. Like many of the doctors, Collins wasn't too happy about being left in the dark. Granted few people do, but in situations like this, it was just completely unacceptable. Even General Madison and his troops felt this way, despite their training to take orders without questions from the emperor. The general had already told her that Mengsk would explain the purpose behind the terrazine mining they were doing on Bel'Shir, as well as the jorium they had collected on Redstone III. However to Collins, this did not satisfy her.
Most people knew that the emperor was not exactly an easy man to read, even for telepaths, and that just made it even easier for him to hide secrets from everyone else. It also meant that whatever he says may not entirely be true, or that there's more to the picture than one would think. Most of the Dominion doctors agreed with that, but unlike them, Collins was determined to do something about it.
Some may argue that it was considered to be treason, but she didn't see it that way. It was a simple matter of knowledge, something that the emperor seemed to withhold from everyone else. That was also a concern that Dr. Collins had, where she felt that it was possible that even if the terrazine mining operation here on Bel'Shir proved to be successful, once Madison submitted his report to the emperor, Mengsk still wouldn't tell them the entire story.
Being left in the dark is one thing, but being left in the dark with the Dominion in the state it's in right now is quite another. Collins herself was not pleased with James Raynor had his actions on Korhal. True she did not exactly favor the emperor, but to cause widespread chaos and havoc across the whole of the Dominion while they were in a state of war with the Zerg just made no logical sense to her. Some of the worlds she had visited did show posters of the rebel as their freedom fighter, but his actions against the Dominion have not exactly demonstrated that. Rather, it seemed more like Raynor was trying to drag everyone in the Dominion into the abyss or something. With the Zerg invasion still going on back then, the last thing anyone needed was internal fighting. True, now that the invasion had been stopped, people clearly want answers about their emperor, but at the time Raynor had made the Korhal broadcasts, there was no telling just how much longer before the Zerg would have been dealt with. Mengsk himself had assured the people that with General Warfield in command of the Dominion military, the invasion would be stopped in no time, but despite his boasts, no such thing had happened by the time of Raynor's broadcasts on Korhal.
To that end, Collins felt that the emperor had some embarrassing questions that the media would ask him once he finally made himself public again. Korhal was the most heavily defended Dominion world, and its defenses were so formidable that Mengsk had constantly boasted over the UNN news that anyone foolish enough to even think of infiltrating the planet would be dead long before he could even enter Korhal's upper atmosphere. That James Raynor was able to penetrate down to the planet's surface and accomplish his mission, in the emperor's eyes, should have been considered unthinkable, yet it happened anyway.
Well, that was something she could look into at another time. For now, she wanted to see if clues could be found regarding the purpose behind the terrazine they were collecting. So far the only clue was from the Dominion experiment, Project ShadowBlade.
General Madison had agreed to give her access to the Dominion files regarding the project, it wasn't top secret anymore since he had already told her and the rest of the Dominion doctors about the whole project and the disaster that had unfolded because of it. He would have looked this over more carefully himself, but the general just couldn't spare the time for that. The Dominion marines, Marauders, Reapers, and others needed him and his leadership out on the battlefield, and Madison still had a duty to the soldiers under his command.
Dr. Collins decided to pick it up from where he had left off. The Dominion files had to hold some clues, she just needed to find them. It may not be her area of expertise, but she always felt that maybe if she looked hard enough, she could find something that others hadn't. Maybe it was entirely possible that the clues were staring everyone right in the face, but no one realized that was actually a clue to begin with. That did not seem very likely given the level of skill of the intelligence analysts within the Dominion military, but one could never be sure.
This was what she had been doing for the past few hours, and so far there have been virtually no success. All of the files on Project ShadowBlade were mostly giving her the exact same thing that General Madison had told them in the conference room, about how terrazine had first been discovered, how the Dominion personnel went psycho upon being exposed to it, and how the test subjects in the project also went psycho from hallucinations and such after inhaling the terrazine substance.
The only files left were those regarding the testimonies of the test subjects themselves, but for the most part had been dismissed by the Dominion project personnel. These were the only ones that still might be able to tell Collins about what they were dealing with here, so she clicked on a few of them.
The vast majority of the test subject files still said the same thing about they were experiencing hallucinations and dementia, but one of them was somewhat different than the others: Cole Bennett. The Dominion reports still say that he went psycho, but from his own testimonial words, it looked like he knew what he was talking about. Of all the test subjects, despite the files had said he was the most violent one, he also seemed to be the one who truly believed in the potential of this project and what it could accomplish.
As none of the other files had been helpful so far, she decided that this was the only way left to go. Entering in a few commands on the computer terminal, she accessed Cole Bennett's file.
The information within it amazed her. According to his testimony, he was the primary example in the entire project of how terrazine could actually work. He went on to explain how his psionic powers had been exponentially increased, although it wasn't possible to remove the side effect of the hallucinations completely. Nevertheless, with careful dosages, they would become manageable, rather than be completely driven mad by it.
Personally, given the way she had seen Jenkins react when exposed to even the slightest bit of terrazine, Collins was not very convinced, but she clicked on another one of his files and continued to read.
Bennett further explained that in order to ensure that the test subjects do not act irrationally, another component was needed in addition to the terrazine: jorium. In the testimony, he admitted that an excess of terrazine would indeed cause mental instability, and the same would be true even if terrazine was inhaled in small, controlled doses. The latter would merely take a longer period of time compared to the former, but the outcome would still be the same. The substance known as jorium was vital in order to keep the side effects of the terrazine to a minimum. If taken properly, everyone would be able to properly control the terrazine substance, and this would bring about a new generation of soldiers to the Dominion military.
The female doctor frowned deeply when she read that. Jorium was the very substance that the emperor had ordered Madison to obtain on Redstone III earlier, and now terrazine was to be collected on Bel'Shir. Madison had told her about the amount of terrazine that Mengsk had ordered him to collect, and in comparison to the amount present in Project ShadowBlade, it would be significantly greater.
Yet to her, this still didn't make any sense. All of the Dominion files said that Bennett was completely insane, and this insanity from him and the others was the reason the project had been shut down. Now it seemed as if the emperor was trying to revive it once again.
To what purpose though? She agreed with Madison's conclusion of all this. If loyalty couldn't be guaranteed, what would be the point of increased power? The Dominion's enemies were too long to list already, there'd be no point in adding even more people to the list. Bennett clearly turned against the Dominion, so Collins felt that even if every word of what he said was true, it seemed obvious that others would follow.
There was nothing more on the Project ShadowBlade files, however. This meant that whatever Mengsk was planning, it involved projects other than this one, since nothing here told her anything about how the loyalty problem could be solved, and that would be the most vital aspect of them all.
Dominion Base, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock
Dominion SCV pilots moved in to clear the rubble taken from the Toxic Slums junkyard after yet another demonstration of the Battle Hellions that had been recently delivered to their base. General Ridgeway was still uncertain if the mercenaries here on Dead Man's Rock would truly have the nerve to attack here, as all of the arguments made by Mengsk and some of his junior officers seemed to suggest otherwise.
Nevertheless, no chances could be taken. He was not one who was so arrogant to believe that the possibility wouldn't even exist, otherwise he never would have ordered the defenses around the base be constructed. There were obviously signs of resentment towards this, of course. Many of the SCV pilots and engineers felt it was a complete waste of time and energy. After all, the Dominion base on Dead Man's Rock was never intended to be a permanent one, so even if base defenses are constructed, they should be mobile ones, not fixed into position.
The general thought differently. Such views weren't wrong, but that's from the Dominion's perspective. The people of Dead Man's Rock weren't aware of this, so therefore it would be better if they were given a different impression instead. Rather than make it seem as if the Dominion establishment here was only temporary, the citizens here should be made to believe that the Dominion would be here for the long haul, and that the base here would only be the first of many to come, that the Dominion would continue expand from the installation here.
If the people on this lawless world could be convinced that the Dominion intended to permanently settle here, the initial reactions would be obvious. There'd be panic in every city and town, looting, rape, and murder would become common, and there would be the great urge to turn to anyone who could protect them from the Dominion authorities. It wouldn't help them in the long run, but they may not look that far. For the few that would look further down the road, they'd be too busy getting their transports ready to evacuate the planet and settle on some other pirate world to escape the Dominion. As for everyone else on this world, eventually they would have no choice but to accept the inevitable and integrate into the Dominion. That was how it has been in the four years since the Brood War came to a close, where the emperor added more and more worlds in the whole Koprulu Sector to the Dominion empire, though even Ridgeway had to admit that at least some of those worlds were integrated via means that he didn't exactly favor.
For the time being however, he continued to look over the base fortifications from the operations room within the Dominion Command Center. There have not been any signs from the Dominion scanners that there was going to be an attack on the base, but there was still about 45 hours before his offer expired to the people of Dead Man's Rock, and a lot could change within that time. Until the timer clock actually hit zero, Ridgeway knew it would be too risky to take such a chance. Orders were thus issued accordingly, and all of the Dominion personnel on the ground obeyed.
With regards to the Battle Hellions, they were forcing some modifications to the entire defense strategy, but it was something that could be adjusted for relatively quickly. The additional armor plating that had been added to the transforming vehicle had proven to be very effective, as the trials have shown. Unlike the standard Hellion scouting car, in its bipedal form the Battle Hellion was shown to be slightly more durable than the Goliath mech walker. The greater armor did mean there was a significant loss of speed compared to the regular Hellion, and the Battle Hellion was slightly slower compared to the Goliath. Nevertheless, the firing trials and experimentations on the armor plating have shown that its neosteel armor and the newer model infernal flamethrower did much to make up for the deficiencies in the loss of speed once it had transformed into its bipedal state.
The new armor plating now meant that the Battle Hellion could withstand a direct hit from an artillery shell fired from a Siege Tank's 120mm shock cannon and could still keep on fighting. The plating covered parts of the flame fuel tanks, which were mostly exposed on the standard Hellion and therefore could not be so easily destroyed by small arms fire anymore. The firepower from the 35mm cannon on the Stinger jeeps could now no longer make quick work once the Battle Hellion was in its bipedal state, and neither could the 30mm Hellsworn flak cannons on the Grizzly fighter-bombers.
The Battle Hellion's armor was not without its limits, of course. The testing trials had shown that it was still vulnerable to the B2-C Concussion Bombs from the Grizzly, a direct hit from that had clearly been too much for the new vehicle to withstand. The plating around its legs were not as thick as the Dominion engineers had hoped for, and there was a very real risk that a direct hit from a Vulture Spider Mine could blow the leg right off. The armored shielding plates on its arms were large, but the backlash rockets fired from the Banshee missile pods had a slightly scattering effect, and the plates weren't large enough to shield the Battle Hellion from them completely. And those plates certainly could not withstand a direct hit from a Thor Hammer particle beam from the Thor walker. They were the most powerful of the terran ground machines, designed to crush just about that stood in their path, and the Battle Hellion was no exception to this.
Still, virtually none of these drawbacks would matter in the event of a mercenary attack. Most mercenary military equipment were completely outdated, so the weaknesses from the Stinger jeep, Grizzly fighter-bomber, Banshee strike aircraft and Thor walker wouldn't be a problem because the mercs had none of those at their disposal. The Siege Tanks might be as it's been confirmed the militia do have such machines at their disposal, though it was not known in what quantity. Fortunately, the Wraiths, Banshees, and Grizzlies would be able to make short work of them, and many of the pilots have been ordered to target any Siege Tanks they spot on the battlefield in the event of a mercenary assault.
The Vultures were obviously in far greater number, but here too the problem could be easily solved. It was only the Spider Mines that the Vultures lay that presented the danger to the Battle Hellion, not the Vultures themselves. Spider Mines were very dangerous on the battlefield, but they were all designed for defense, not attack. Therefore, in order to lay a Spider Mine close enough to actually attack the Dominion base defenses would require Vultures to get within very close range. By then, the Dominion marines, Marauders, and Goliaths will have had them all shredded with their gunfire.
The improved infernal flamethrower also proved to be a substantial help with regards to contributing to the possible base defense. Their range compared to the Hellion was only slightly longer on the Battle Hellion, but this was compensated by the width spread of the flames. Although some of the Dominion Hellions had their infernal flamethrowers upgraded to Twin-Linked versions which doubled their flame width, the fact remained that they could only be fired in a straight line. On the other hand, the Battle Hellion was able to fire its flamethrower in an arc, thus greatly improving the chances of hitting targets attempting flanking maneuvers.
Similarly, most of the Hellions were not upgraded with Thermite Filaments like the Battle Hellion's flamethrower had been. This meant that the Battle Hellions were capable of incinerating lighter targets much more effectively, and the test trials had proven so. Vultures, Goliaths, Stingers, and Armored Personnel Carriers all had their armor quickly burned through by the Battle Hellions. Obviously this was relatively ineffective when going up against Thor walkers, and the same would more than likely hold true against Protoss Colossi and Zerg Ultralisks, but that wasn't a relevant issue here on Dead Man's Rock.
Some of the Battle Hellions were already being deployed to guard the entrance to the waste processing facility. Although auto turrets and Siege Tanks already covered the only possible path leading to the entrance, a few extra defense measures couldn't hurt. If the mercenaries were foolish enough to keep pressing towards the entrance despite the risk of being cut down by bullets and blown to pieces by artillery shells, perhaps the additional risk of being incinerated alive would get them to think otherwise.
Other Battle Hellions were being deployed to the artificial junk mounds that the Dominion engineers gathered from the nearby junkyard. The mounds would already force the mercenaries to seek alternate routes, but since most of those only lead to other Dominion fortified positions, there was the possibility that the attackers may decide to go through the mounds anyway. They were all positioned in such a way that large vehicles can't go through them very quickly, only infantry can. And with the Battle Hellions guarding many of those corridors, anyone who would be foolish enough try would be reduced to ashes long before they could reach the base entrance.
Just about everything that could be done to fortify the base against the mercenaries was being done right now. Ridgeway saw no reason why the defenses couldn't hold regardless of what those cutthroats threw at them. Hopefully, they wouldn't be so foolish as to gamble everything on the base assault should it come down to that. Once the mercenaries realize the attack had no chance of succeeding, they'll make contact with the Dominion troops and reveal Mira Han's whereabouts.
Transit Center, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis
Jim could see the tensions on everybody's faces right now. Despite fighting together to repel the constant Zerg attack waves, it did not mean mutual cooperation was being shown. It wasn't the first time he sat on a powder keg this big, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Still, the sheer amount of distrust and hatred was clearly having a detrimental effect on the soldiers here.
This was especially true in the resulting silence on the battlefield each time a Zerg attack wave was repulsed, which was exactly the case right now. For the last two and a half hours both his and the Dominion troops had been subjected to three Zerg attack waves. The first two were only probing ones, but the last one that had just been repulsed was on a much bigger scale. From the Vikings and Banshees flying overhead, they reported that the next attack wave would be arriving in about 15 minutes from now.
Looking around, he could see that the Dominion troops were in a state of greater exhaustion than his own men were in. So far the Zerg attack waves had been just as heavy as the ones his troops had been subjected to 24 hours prior. It would mean that the Dominion troops got the lucky end of the stick that day, as they must have received fewer Zerg attacks. Of course, this also meant that they were not as prepared as his own men were for dealing with the vast numbers of Zerg they had to deal with now.
Casualties had not been very heavy, but fatigue was another matter. More and more requests for air support were being called as the Zerg numbers proved too many for the Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Stingers to handle. Attempts had been made to lay a carpet of Spider Mines in front of the transit station entrance, but the Vultures stood little chance against the massed usage of Ultralisks when they drove out into the open to deploy the mines.
By now, although the entrance approaches were covered in the corpses of Zerglings, Roaches, Infestors, Hydralisks, and Lurkers, their sacrifice had served their purpose. Their actions had allowed the Ultralisks to rip the entrance open with their Kaiser Blades. Now it was wide enough so that the Zerg could no longer be channeled into a bottleneck in order to squeeze through and enter the underground station. This was obviously making the UNN journalists down there extremely nervous, and Colonel Kim had been repeatedly demanding news from the Dominion engineering team about the train status.
Out on the battlefield, Nova had proven her skills once more by leading the Zerg into ambushes for the marines, and despite the fact that the Dominion troops detested her for joining with the Raiders, Jim could see that some were still forced to admit that her actions did save their lives. The same couldn't be said for Warfield's troops he commanded, and this obviously increased his uneasiness about the whole situation.
Many of the Dominion troops were already furious to hear that it was thanks to Mal Kelerchian's knowledge of Tarsonis City that had allowed Raynor to find the exact location of the station entrance in the first place. They too were not pleased with how the wrangler was assisting the rebel in his work. To them, it seemed like Raynor was turning everyone against the Dominion.
"Seriously, colonel," one of the Dominion marines grumbled angrily. "What the hell were you thinking? We had the opportunity to kill the rebel terrorist who's caused the Dominion so much hell for all these years, and you just let him and all his boys walk right into the station."
"We've been over this before, soldier," Kim said, disgusted. "I don't like this any more than you do, and I would have given the order you guys wanted under any other circumstances. But when you have some 20,000 Zerg coming after you, well let's just say it's better to look at the matter of survival first."
"Survival?" another marine seethed, forgetting his military discipline. "Thanks to Raynor and his terrorists, the whole of the Dominion nearly disintegrated after what he did on Korhal! How can you just overlook that?"
"I'm not," she replied. "And the rioting and such have indeed taken a toll on the Dominion. However something tells me Raynor's intentions weren't about genocide. You compare that to what the Zerg can do, I'd say that makes him the lesser of the two evils right now."
"Why do we need his help?" a Marauder grunted. "It was our forces that had invaded Char! If was the Dominion fleet that defeated the Zerg there!"
"You people are full of your arrogance," Jim said, folding his arms. "All you see and hear is what you want to see and hear, and turn a blind eye to the rest of the picture. If you even bothered to pay attention to the news broadcasts at all, you would have known the Char invasion was a combined effort from the Dominion and my Raiders."
"Your Raiders were nothing compared to might of the Dominion! It still is now!"
Raynor rolled his eyes. "That's exactly the reason why so many Dominion troops got slaughtered during the initial invasion stages. All of you had arrogantly convinced yourselves that your military might was unequaled, and you paid dearly for that against the Zerg."
"He's not wrong in that aspect," Kim said quietly. "Prince Valerian had admitted to Raynor's actions during the invasion, and that it was his actions that allowed the Char invasion to succeed in the first place."
"Then that just makes him a weak sympathizer!" another marine shouted. "The Dominion military is the most powerful force in the sector! No one comes even close to our might!"
"Still you delude yourself," Kelerchian spoke up, siding with Jim. "The emperor boasted about the Dominion might when the Zerg invasion began. But answer me this: if the Dominion is so powerful, why didn't the UNN report any Dominion success in driving the Zerg back?"
"Shut your mouth, wrangler! You have no right to speak here! You're the reason why we're all in this mess in the first place! You led the Zerg right to us!"
Suddenly, the marine dropped to the ground, unconscious. Mal turned his head to see Nova unleash a psionic shock that temporarily shut down his brain. "If anyone else speaks like that to him again, you won't have to worry about the Zerg killing you," she said dangerously. "I'll be more than happy to put the bullet in your heads myself."
Kim sighed in frustration. This was clearly not getting anywhere. The hatred circulating around right now was so strong that she almost wished the next Zerg attack wave would come soon. So far, it seems to be the only thing that can unite everyone. The longer they delay the next attack, the more likely it seemed that everyone here was going to end up killing one another first.
"Colonel Kim, please respond," her comm-link suddenly went off.
Immediately she opened the channel. "Dominion engineers, I hope you finally have some good news," she said.
"We do," came the reply. "We finally got the electrodynamic suspensions on the train to a working order."
"What about the thrusters?" she demanded.
"Them too, ma'am. The train is now online and ready for departure at the station. We've already moved Ms. Lockwell and the rest of the UNN journalists onto the train cars."
"Good," Kim said. "We need to get out of here before the Zerg overrun the whole area."
She turned her head to her troops. "Everyone, get underground! The train is ready, so we're out of here!"
"What about Raynor and his boys?" one of the Reapers asked, still looking at the rebel commander with contempt.
Kim thought about this for a moment, before replying, "They're coming with us. Don't argue with me, just let it be for now. I'll explain my reasons later."
Raynor could see the grumbling from both sides as infantrymen all descended underground and headed for the train. Goliaths, Stingers, Vultures, and other military vehicles followed. He let out his breath, sighing in frustration. This ordeal was still far from over.
"Understand, Raynor," Kim said dangerously. "I'm not saving you and your boys for any noble reasons you may think. I'd be perfectly happy to leave you all here and let the Zerg chew you up, but there's just too many of them in the city right now. Regardless of who is the better soldier here at dealing with them, some of us are willing to admit that you've dealt with the Zerg more than the Dominion has, and right now I'm willing to accept that if it'll save my troops. You try anything, and I'll personally bury you and your boys here."
The rebel commander was not fazed. "I'll take that as a compliment, Kim," he said, before turning his head to Nova and Mal. "I know how both of you feel about the Dominion, but right now we need to escape the Zerg. At least try to keep the hostility down."
"No promises, Jim," Nova said. "These Dominion marines really know how to push a girl's buttons."
Mercenary Underground Hangar, Dead Man's Rock
Regular militia troops and mercenaries gathered around the strategy desk in the underground hangar. A portable communicator console had been placed on the top of the desk, with the faces of Matt Horner and Mira Han both on the display screen. Kerrigan gathered along with the other Raiders and mercenary officers, where the last meeting would now take place before the attack on the Dominion base began. Most of the other mercenaries had already loaded themselves onto the Heavy Transports, Planet Hoppers, and Heavy Landers. The Raiders too had done the same thing, most of them were now standing by on the Dropships and Hercules Cargo Ships.
Everyone agreed that the meeting must be kept relatively brief. In less than 43 hours, General Ridgeway's offer was going to expire, and no one knew just how long it would take to defeat the Dominion forces at the Toxic Slums, especially given the fact that the vast majority of Mira's mercenary equipment was outdated, and some were obsolete. The Raiders had much more modern equipment, but in terms of actual numbers, the mercenaries still outnumbered them here on Dead Man's Rock.
Mira explained that she still hoped that the other mercenary leaders elsewhere on the planet would come to their senses and aid them in the assault, especially since there were no assurances that the Dominion wouldn't go back on their word and use the nuclear warheads anyway. However, there were no guarantees that they would do so, and thus the plans had to be made to assault the Dominion installation without their assistance.
"The artificial mounds that the Dominion engineers have set up are specifically designed so that no vehicles larger than a Hellion or a Vulture can get through," the red haired ghost explained. "Those are very lightly armored and can be easily taken out by small arms fire. The only way to go through the mounds quickly is to clear them out of the way."
"Our Sloth bulldozers can take care of that," one of the mercenary marines stated.
Sarah shook her head. "Your dozers aren't meant to operate on the battlefield. You may have replaced the dozer blades with cannons, but the bulldozer's armor itself is still too weak."
"The best mercenary equipment for this task would be your Confederate Avenger aircraft," Franklin said. "Here, accuracy isn't too important, so the rocket pods will do just fine for the task."
"We'll use the Kel-Morian Hellhounds to deal with any marines on the ground," Mira explained from the display screen. "It'll provide a path for the rest of the ground troops to reach the base entrance quickly."
"Once you reach it, I recommend the mercenaries wait until the Raiders bring in the heavy artillery," Matt pointed out. "According to Kerrigan, the Dominion put Siege Tanks to cover the entrance. You may have tanks of your own, but they're irreplaceable if destroyed."
"What about the Dominion air support?" another mercenary asked.
"The Hellhounds can deal with the Grizzlies," Franklin explained. "The 30mm Hellsworn flak cannons they have were designed to engage in ground targets. They can shoot at aircraft too, but not very effectively. If your Hellhounds can't handle it, the Wraiths and Vikings will take care of the job for you."
"Whatever Dominion BattleCruisers are at the base will also be dealt with by us," Matt added. "I don't see them using it, but you never know. If it becomes too much, we'll also throw in our Goliaths to handle the job. The Raiders' Goliaths have all been upgraded with the Multi-Lock Weapons System, allowing it to fire its autocannons and hellfire missiles simultaneously. Your mercenary ones may not have that, but as long as they can provide missile support, it should all work out."
"The Dominion infantry on the ground should not pose too great a threat," his wife reminded her mercenaries. "Remember, they're comprised of regular soldiers, we on the other hand have at our disposal of War Pig marines, Hammer Securities Marauders, and Devil Dogs Firebats. These guys have had far more combat experience compared to the Dominion troops."
"The Raiders BattleCruisers will also provide support against the Dominion Thors," Sarah added. "There's not much anyone can do against an artillery barrage from one of them, so as long as we coordinate the strikes, we can eliminate that threat."
"What if some of them are guarding the waste processing facility?" Franklin asked.
"If we can penetrate deep enough into the Dominion base, my forces will deploy their Siege Breakers," Mira answered. "Their Arclite Shock Cannons will keep shelling the approaches to the facility and hopefully that'll be enough to draw the Thors out, where they can be squished by your BattleCruisers."
"Try to keep damage to the processing facility to a minimal," Matt warned. "We don't know where exactly the Dominion have the nuclear warheads placed in the building. If they're being kept deep underground, then it's not a problem. But if they kept them close to the surface, one stray artillery shell could set them off."
"Then it's settled," Franklin said. "Once the assault on the Dominion base begins, we'll all try to lure as much of the Dominion forces out into the open. That should prevent us from going into the radioactive and toxic areas that the engineers set up as further defense for the base. Once they stop falling for that trick, their numbers will hopefully have thinned out enough for us get things done with minimal casualties."
He glanced at the mercenaries, before continuing, "One way or another, all I can say is that there's a very real possibility that the mercenaries may have to endure less than acceptable casualty levels, but it's the only way. The Dominion troops must be led away from the processing center or they have to be bled to death there. Once that's taken care of, Kerrigan will go in there and disarm the nuclear warheads."
Seeing no objections from anyone, Mira spoke up. "Remember, whatever happens today, the hope is that it'll be beneficial in the long run. The Dominion must not be allowed to bring Dead Man's Rock under their control. As mercenaries we usually tend to our own business, but we also have an obligation to protect our independence. If that means we have to work with people we aren't comfortable with, then so be it. Now, let's get this show on the road."
The mercenary officers there saluted their commander on the screen, before dispersing and heading towards the transport ships. Sarah, Franklin and the other Raiders did the same. Within a matter of minutes, the first of the ships' engines roared to life, and Raider and mercenary transport and combat ships took off from the underground hangar and into the sky.