Author's Note: Only yesterday I had found another interview involving Christie Golden, author of "Flashpoint". She had admitted in the interview that even after all 3 Dark Templar Saga books and "Flashpoint", it still doesn't really explain if Valerian Mengsk is good or evil, though it's leaning somewhat towards the former. It was said that it's likely as this moment, even the developers still don't know what direction to take him, which is why they kept him vague.

It's exactly this reason why I didn't include him in my fic except for the opening chapters. However, I always felt it would be good to mention him indirectly from time to time. Personally I don't want Valerian to turn out evil because in "I, Mengsk" he swore he wouldn't turn out like his father. Therefore, if we find out he becomes even worse than Arcturus, then he'll have learned nothing after all these years.

And let's be honest, when you have a father that's an evil man and you swear you'll be different than him, and then turn out an even bigger monster than your father, that doesn't really quality as "being different." Being different is supposed mean being better, not worse. He even told Raynor in Wings of Liberty he wanted to be a better man than his father, after all.

This chapter is to show the different styles of ruling between Valerian and Arcturus. Once you reach the second part of the chapter, you'll know what I'm getting at.

As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.

Chapter 78

Velari Province, Aiur

Mohandar watched from his Void Ray as another of Nahaan's Ara Tribe Protoss messengers was sent away. After the Zerg resistance around the corpse of the Overmind had been broken, there had been an increase in activity by the Ara Protoss.

The Dark Templar wasn't fooled by what was happening, of course. Clearly Nahaan had been angered during the Hierarchy meeting that he had been overruled, that the former Queen of Blades would simply be monitored to determine where her loyalties now lie, rather than have her executed on the spot. It was obvious that most all of the other Ara Protoss felt the same way. Thus as the Auriga and Akilae Protoss warriors along with his Nerazim brethren dispersed themselves all over Aiur to hunt down the remaining Zerg creatures, the Ara Tribe Protoss had been using this time to gather their influence on others.

Mohandar knew that Nahaan's insistence that his Ara Tribe have a greater say in the Hierarchy was a deception. The Ara leader wanted to regain control of the Protoss ruling body, and his messengers were meant to pave the way for just that, provided that they could influence enough of the Firstborn.

Fortunately, this had proven to be less than successful, despite the fact that some of the points raised certainly had justifications. Hierarch Artanis had made sure that his Akilae warriors would disregard Nahaan's influence due to the Ara leader's dismissal of Tassadar's actions when Zeratul had encountered him on Aiur. Zekrath had done the same for the Shelak due to the Ara Tribe's disregard for the Xel'Naga prophecy. Tabrenus and the Furinax Tribe did similarly. Only Urun's Auriga Tribe was willing to listen, but they too refused to go to the extremes in believing that Kerrigan was to be executed without any understanding of the Xel'Naga prophecy.

As for himself and the Nerazim tribes, Mohandar still harbored a deep dissatisfaction for Nahaan and his Ara Protoss. Despite the fact that the Protoss Protectorate had unified the Khalai and Nerazim into the Daelaam Protoss, integration had remained a problem. In the case of the Ara Tribe, they were the least welcomed Khalai refugees by the Dark Templar when Aiur had been overrun by the Zerg and the planet had to be abandoned and the Khalai Protoss escaped to Shakuras.

Despite Raszagal's welcoming of the Khalai Protoss to the Nerazim homeworld, Mohandar had been very uncomfortable and suspicious of the Ara Tribe. In the aftermath of the Aeon of Strife, the Ara Protoss became dominant in the Judicator Caste, and it was from there that the Conclave was formed. Even before all of the Khalai Protoss tribes had embraced the Khala, the Dark Templar tribes had seen firsthand of the Ara Tribe's lust for power, control, and dominance. There were those even within the Khalai Protoss that hesitated about embracing the Khala, and while the Judicator Caste continuously told them the Khala would be telepathic union that connected the Protoss in a sea of thought, it was obvious that the Conclave wanted all of the Protoss to be under their rule through the Khala.

When the Dark Templar tribes defied the Conclave and refused to submit, the Conclave saw that the Nerazim disagreed with the Khalai Protoss on fundamental issues. Yet instead of accepting different perspectives, they immediately branded the Dark Templar as traitors to the Firstborn and ordered their extermination. When that had failed, the Judicator Caste ordered all of the Nerazim tribes onto a derelict Xel'Naga ship and expelled them from Aiur.

Thus upon arriving on Shakuras, despite the fact that the Ara Tribe had been little more than a shadow of its former self and its influence on the other Khalai Protoss tribes significantly weakened due to the loss of the Conclave's power base on Aiur, Mohandar had been greatly concerned when it was agreed that the Khalai refugees would be permitted to stay on Shakuras and rebuild until the day comes when Aiur would be reclaimed from the Zerg. Certainly he was far from as benevolent as the Conclave and still saw the Khalai Protoss as his brothers and sisters, but the Ara Tribe had left behind a very bitter impression on the Dark Templar.

Such an impression remained when his fellow Dark Templar brethren had reported to him regarding the Ara Protoss' message in completely disregarding the Xel'Naga prophecy. To Mohandar, this was considered utter ludicrous. To disregard the Xel'Naga would be to go against everything the Nerazim culture and society stood for, and it was the lack of comprehending the Xel'Naga that had caused the Khalai Protoss to greatly underestimate the Zerg during their invasion of Aiur. It was the might of the Xel'Naga with their energies within the ancient temple on Shakuras that had expelled the Zerg presence there, and it was the might of the Xel'Naga that had allowed James Raynor to finally defeat the Queen of Blades.

It was the last point that the Ara Tribe had argued greatly about, and Mohandar had to admit that there had been some justification within their logic. The Xel'Naga prophecy had been discovered from the ancient shrines on the moon of Ulaan, but they had only revealed the existence of the Fallen One and that his actions would break the Xel'Naga cycle, allowing him to consume all light and hope.

On the other hand, Zeratul had made it clear that nothing on the Xel'Naga shrines had said anything regarding Kerrigan. That knowledge had been given to him by Tassadar when he attempted to extract memories from the husk of the Overmind. To that end, Nahaan did have grounds for justification to argue that the prophecy may have little to do with the former Queen of Blades.

Still, Mohandar was upset to learn that Nahaan was disregarding the information provided by Tassadar and declaring that the mighty Protoss hero had gone mad, though he could understand the Ara leader's reasoning.

Prior to his actions in defeating the Overmind, Tassadar had been greatly disliked by the Ara Tribe for his actions in questioning the Conclave's will, associating himself with the Nerazim, and then bringing them back to Aiur. To admit that they were in error was extremely difficult for the Conclave to accept, and this was still true of the Ara Tribe today. It was obvious that Nahaan hoped to prove that the Ara Tribe was still capable of making intelligent decisions and making them swiftly, and that this would allow them a greater influence towards the Daelaam Protoss.

Mohandar shook his head at the thought, and it only proved how little the Ara Tribe had learned since Aiur had been overrun by the Zerg. He then pushed the thought away and turned back to the situation on the ground, where Protoss Zealots and Dark Templar warriors had cleared the last of the Zerg from the Velari Templar School.

Looking at it from afar in his Void Ray, Mohandar immediately thought of the Shakuras Templar Proving Grounds on the Dark Templar homeworld, where warriors of the Templar Caste did battle to achieve their initiation and to become Zealots. The Velari Templar School did similarly on Aiur, but it also featured Protoss mentors that taught Protoss warriors in the way of the Khala.

The school itself was certainly vast, home to numerous temples. According to Khalai refugees, when the Furinax Protoss constructed the school, they had forged an inner temple for teaching Protoss templar warriors, as well as a lower temple hidden within constantly shifting catacombs, where holy Protoss and Xel'Naga relics and artifacts were housed and hidden away from the enemies of the Firstborn.

In the case with the Kassia Crystal that now resided on Shakuras, Dark Templar scholars that examined it concluded it to be a holy Xel'Naga relic, as well as an extremely dangerous weapon if wielded properly. They had confirmed that the Khalai Protoss had believed about the artifact, that it could be used to affect both the Protoss and Zerg in terms of fertility rates. Given the latter's ability to breed so rapidly, this would prove to be an invaluable defense against them.

The Kassia Crystal still resided in the lower catacombs of the Velari Templar School when Aiur was overrun by the Zerg. As the Second Born converged on the school, the High Templar Lekila remained to defend it with her students, but to no avail as they were overwhelmed and were forced to abandon the school. Lekila herself had been injured and her psionic appendages, but her close friend Rihod had arrived in a Mothership and saved her life.

Unfortunately, with her appendages severed, it also cut off Lekila's psionic link to the Khala. As in the case with the Tal'darim survivors encountered on Aiur, this meant that she had been embraced by the Void, and had left her thoroughly confused. Yet the High Templar Rihod managed to convince her to return to Aiur in order to retrieve the sacred Kassia Crystal and prevent it from falling into Zerg hands. Having remained at the Velari Templar School for so long, Lekila was the only one who knew how to navigate the catacombs in order to read the lower temple that housed the ancient artifact.

It was here that once more convinced Mohandar that the Khalai Protoss were in error to embrace only the Khala and give little or no thought to the understanding of the Void. When Lekila reached the Kassia Crystal, she had discovered that she was unable to remove it from its seal. When the Xel'Naga had forged this artifact, they had sealed it with their own energies, and the barrier was immune to the energies of the Khala. It had been left to the female templar warrior to break the seal using the energies of the Void that she now wielded, and this was clear proof to Mohandar that the Xel'Naga may have created the Firstborn to have an understanding of the Void and its methodology.

It was after this that the combined powers of the Void and the Khala had been shown once more. According to the Protoss survivors on Shakuras, Lekila and Rihod merged together to form an Archon being in order to fend off the Zerg and to protect the Kassia Crystal. However while Lekila had been embraced by the Void, Rihod still maintained his psionic link to the Khala. The combination of Void and Khala energies thus had allowed them to merge into a Twilight Archon, one of immense strength and vastly more powerful than that of the standard Archon that Khalai Protoss templars merge into. It was the Twilight Archon that had allowed the Zerg to be beaten off, and the Kassia Crystal was safely transported to Shakuras.

Yet in the aftermath of this knowledge of the Twilight Archon, the Daelaam Protoss remained hesitant on the merging of such a being. As in the case with Archons and Dark Archons, the Twilight Archon was also a finite being and therefore would burn out like a star after a set period of time. But the far greater danger was the combination of the Void and Khala energies.

The Tal'darim survivors had confirmed the dangers of being cut off from the Khala and embraced by the Void, and it was for this reason that the concept of Twilight Archons remained an uncomfortable subject for the Protoss Hierarchy. It was the same way that the Firstborn loathed to sacrifice valuable templar warriors for merging into Archons despite their immense power.

With regards to combining the Khala and the Void, it was something that the Daelaam Protoss were still reluctant to accept, and he was no exception given the dangers of it.

Still, the Firstborn may not have a choice in the matter given what they had learned regarding the Xel'Naga prophecy. It was obvious that the Fallen One was a being unlike anything they had encountered before, and every possible option at the Firstborn's disposal would have to be considered in order to ensure the Protoss' survival.

Korhal City, Korhal

"I wouldn't get that close to the window if I were you, sir," one of the Korhal City officials suggested to Mayor Kirkwood. "It's just a suggestion, but with the way things are going right now, I think the locals are capable of just about anything."

The Korhal City mayor sighed in frustration, as he turned his head back to look out the window, back to the sight of his ruined city. Only 36 hours had passed since he made the suggestion to his officials on how to salvage the situation, and already there were signs that events in the city were beginning to spiral out of control.

By now, hundreds of protestors had already gathered at the front doors of his tall office building, and more were arriving on an hourly basis. The Korhal City police had to set up barricades to ensure that none of the protestors decide to kick the door down to reach him, though the mob outside was becoming more and more angry with each passing hour. So far, there were no signs that they would all charge forward to reach him on the top floor, but that could all change in an instant. If that happened, Kirkwood knew that the police authorities wouldn't be able to stop such a stampede.

Only a small section of the Korhal City police force was stationed outside the building to act as security for him. The rest had their hands full on trying to make the most out of a bad situation with regards to relief aid to the rest of the city and its population. With such slender supplies at the city's disposal, this was proving to be a daunting task.

Despite Kirkwood's orders to double the security at the city's bakeries, this had proven to be far less effective than he had expected. The laser activated security measures did nothing to stop looters, since all they did was contact the local police. Under normal circumstances, this would have been just fine, but with hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of total starvation, the looters were simply too many for the police to handle. Reports have continuously flooded in that almost all of Korhal City's smaller surviving bakeries have been looted, and this still wasn't enough to deal with the hunger problem. The larger bakeries had been more fortunate, but that was only because the civilians believed that the larger shops would have more improved security measures.

Thefts between looters were also increasing at an alarming rate. Due to the presence of so many starving people among the looters, the physically stronger ones were exploiting their weaker counterparts with a near unimaginable shamelessness. In many cases, some of the weaker looters couldn't make it back to their ghetto homes in time, and gangs of thugs ended up stealing the bread and other food supplies they themselves had stolen. Other times looters found themselves having easy access to the food supplies, only to be caught in an ambush as other looters jumped on them to steal the loaves of bread.

This led to more and more people to realize that they were going to need guns to protect themselves, and the gun shops in the city were all placed on high alert in the event of looters coming in and raiding them. Kirkwood knew that the hordes of looters with just clubs were already causing enough chaos in the city. If they armed themselves with handguns, he would lose all control.

While pistols were usually meant for the Dominion military, there were still plenty of types for civilian usage. The P30, P100, P180, P220, and Z50 pistols were found in several gun shops within the city, though the P180 was never popular due to it being prone to jamming. The Pulse Pistol was harder to find due to its popularity on colonist worlds, but some of the wealthy people in Korhal City had acquired them as collectibles. The TX2 and T20, despite their unreliability in exploding in the case of the former and jamming in the case of the latter, were still pistols that could be acquired in Korhal City, as was the case with the T10 pistol, which was once the standard sidearm of the Confederate military.

The highest measures were ordered to ensure the security of the gun shops. Even in the aftermath of the Odin incident with half the city reduced to rubble, Kirkwood continuously believed that the local inhabitants would work together to get through this mess. Now, with far too little relief supplies flowing into the city, it was clear that more and more of the people were starting to tear each other apart and looking out only for their own individual needs.

Even families were no longer being held in unity anymore. Only an hour ago, a report had come in that one family had been among the looters, robbing a bakery together. However, in the middle of the heist, they were ambushed by gangs, and the youngest son was left as the odd person out. Yet rather than make any attempt to save their son, the rest of the family simply retreated away to their ghetto homes without even giving their son so much as another thought and leaving him at the fate of the gang members.

The sheer nature of selfishness was spreading throughout the whole city. By now, more and more people were starting to realize that whatever supplies of aid that they receive won't be enough to save them all, and it was now every man, woman, and child for him or herself. There were still those that were doing everything they could to help others out, but it was becoming more and more rare.

This nature was also being reflected in the hospitals across the city. With medical supplies running dangerously low, there were now even reports that doctors and hospital personnel were lying to their patients of the lack of supplies. Instead, they were hording the med supplies for themselves in the event that they would need it in the future.

To Kirkwood, this was considered to be appalling. He had always believed that human nature was supposed to be kind and caring to others, and events in the city were contradicting all of this. But, as one of his officials had grimly reminded him, every person has a breaking point. If the going became way too rough, the entire nature of human characteristics could easily change.

It was a bitter pill for the mayor to swallow, but he knew that the official was right. Kirkwood had been in constant touch with the Korhal City police and requesting reports to monitor the situation in the city, and he could see from their faces that even some of them were starting to realize the hopelessness of the situation. As far as they were concerned, unless massed quantities of relief aid arrived in Korhal City immediately, their actions would do nothing more than delay the inevitable.

For the Korhal City mayor, it was enough. He had promised his people salvation, and he would do everything in his power to keep his word. Turning back to his desk, he pressed a button on the communicator console and opened up a channel with one of the city's chief suppliers.

To his surprise however, the man's face showed relief instead of the usual grimness. "Sir, you're just in time," he announced. "Everyone in Korhal City had been waiting on a miracle, I think it had finally arrived."

"What are you talking about?" Kirkwood asked, confused.

"Less than 15 minutes ago, a massive Dominion Freighter ship just touched down within starport just outside of the city," came the reply. "Aboard the ship are more than 100,000 tons of food, fuel, and medical supplies. According to the ship's captain, they're all to be transported to Korhal City immediately. As we speak the supplies of cargo are already being loaded onto transport trucks and trains, the first of which will be arriving in less than an hour."

The mayor sighed in relief. Finally, after hours upon hours of chaotic reports coming into his office, there was good news. "I'm glad the emperor saw the appalling situation the city was in and increased the supply flow."

The chief supplier frowned. "The emperor had nothing to do with this, sir. I already spoke with the freighter's personnel. None of them were acting by the emperor's decree."

Now Kirkwood looked confused. "Then who gave the order for this shipment? Not that I don't appreciate it, but if the emperor didn't do it, I don't see how someone could go around his back."

"According to the people I spoke to, they're under orders from his son, Prince Valerian. Apparently the young prince was not exactly pleased with the way his father was treating the people in Korhal City, and was acting way too slowly to help the local population. He decided to take matters into his own hands instead."

Kirkwood nodded in understanding. "Tell the freighter boys that I owe the prince a debt of gratitude. These supplies are just what I need to stabilize the situation in the city and prevent everything from falling into total chaos."

"Sir, if I may, I'm beginning to think the young prince would make a far better ruler than his father," the chief said. "The emperor came to Korhal City with the promises of relief, and barely anything happened. Now according to the ship's captain, Prince Valerian heard the exact details of the appalling state of Korhal City only a couple of hours ago. Look how quickly the relief aid supplies arrived."

"I'm with you on that one," Kirkwood agreed. "It just shows that the Dominion logistics system is capable of working extremely fast when it has to. Now I seriously wonder why the emperor didn't do the same thing like his son did."

"I don't understand this either, sir. James Raynor's actions right here in the city had already did a number on the emperor's reputation. You'd think if he would want to people to stand behind him, he would act in their best interests. Granted, his definition of best interests may be different from ours, but I don't exactly see how letting the whole city starve to death would be helpful to him and his reputation."

"What about his son Prince Valerian?"

The man shrugged. "From what I got out of the ship's personnel, it would seem that the young prince wants to be a better man compared to his father. If so, he's certainly driving that point home with the supplies he's given us today."

"Well if nothing else, he's certainly earned my support," Kirkwood replied. "Unlike the emperor, he actually took action instead of just making speeches and promises, none of which the emperor delivered on."

The chief supplier frowned slightly at that. "It's funny you should bring that up, sir. That's one of the warnings I did get from the ship's captain for these supplies. He warned us that we have to stretch the supplies out for as long as possible because there is no telling when the next Freighter can arrive."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, he may be the Crown Prince of the Terran Dominion, but Prince Valerian's power and authority still has its limits. His father is the emperor and the supreme ruler of the Dominion, and that means he can still overrule his son's decisions."

The mayor frowned deeply. "So you're saying it might be possible that other cargo ships could be on their way to Korhal City right now, but since this is being done behind the emperor's back, if he finds out about this he could countermand those orders and turn the Freighters away."

"It's why I recommend we have to proceed under the assumption that the supplies we have right now may be the last we get for quite a while and plan according to that," the chief said.

Kirkwood nodded in agreement. "When the emperor was here, I had informed him that we needed a minimum of 25,000 tons a day. Do you believe there's a way to bring the minimal requirement even lower?"

"Possibly, but even if I could, the supplies here will only be a temporary reprieve. No matter how you carve it, I'd give it at most a week before they run out."

"Maybe so, but at least now we have some breathing space," the Korhal City mayor said. "For the time being, you just concentrate on getting the supplies into the city. I'll take care of how to distribute them."

"And what will happen when they run out?" the chief asked.

"I've already told the locals that if the situation doesn't improve, I'll ask for aid from the other cities on Korhal. The supplies here will give them hope, and I have no intention of letting that hope disappear the moment the supplies are gone."

Without another word Kirkwood shut off the communicator. He had a great deal of planning to do to get the city and its people in high morale and confidence again, but he would rise up to the challenge.

Waste Disposal Facility, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock

Another Dominion Reaper fell to the ground in his own pool of blood. Sarah watched as the Reapers around him slowly bled to death, some of them more painfully and more agonizingly than they should be.

Instead of prolonging their agony, she put bullets in their heads with her C-20 Canister Rifle to ensure that their deaths came quickly. She knew that by now most of the Dominion infantrymen in the toxic waste processing facility were already dead, as she could pick up on very few thoughts with her telepathy.

Still, the red haired ghost was not going to take any chances. To concentrate solely on the mission of disarming the warheads here wasn't exactly made easy by the state the building was in.

After being abandoned for so long, Kerrigan was surprised that it was still holding itself together without any form of maintenance. Given the pitiful state of just about every building she had come across since arriving on Dead Man's Rock, she had gotten the impression that few buildings could survive more than a month, regardless of how much maintenance was done on it. Clearly far greater efforts had been made when it came to constructing this particular facility.

Of course, such efforts still had their limitations given the resources available to this lawless world. As she traversed deeper underground into the building, she could see more and more cracks on the walls. Other places were leaking radioactive and toxic waste from the ceiling. Water pipes were broken or had completely burst, and almost all of them were leaking contaminated water.

The sheer stench was overpowering, even more so than when she had infiltrated the Dominion base in the Toxic Slums. Sarah was thankful for her mask that covered her whole face so that she didn't have to inhale much the toxic fumes.

The same could be said for the Dominion soldiers that continued to resist her, despite their small numbers. Given the twisting narrow corridors, it wasn't possible to place Goliath walkers in the facility as they would have absolutely no room for maneuver. Some of the corridors were much broader, but most of the ones Sarah had come across had also caved in, and it was obvious that this was something the Dominion had no intention of risking.

The marines were of no match to her. They were trained to fight on the frontlines, and had virtually no experience in dealing with ghost operatives. In most cases she needed little more than her combat knife to sneak up from behind them and slitting their throats. Other times they did block vital corridor junctions, but a simple psychic attack was more than enough to permanently fry their brains and clear the way for her.

Still, they had one factor on their side. Being deep underground, Sarah could receive no signal from her radio and therefore could not call for reinforcements. She would have to handle this alone, but the Confederacy had trained her for such missions. Nova told her that the Dominion Ghost Program did the exact same thing, and this was also one of the reasons that most ghost operatives were loners, with no attachments to anyone.

Not that this detachment was a good thing, as far as Sarah was concerned. Even while she was still training with Nova on Haven, Sarah had seen how attached the blond ghost had become to the Raiders. Nova had told her about how she fought alongside them against the Dominion on Valhalla to steal the massive Odin heavy walker, and then later on Korhal where Jim's actions had greatly weakened Mengsk's position on the throne. She told her about how she fought alongside the Raiders to retrieve the last Xel'Naga artifact fragments, and then finally on Char against the Zerg.

Yet while she was happy for Nova in settling in with the Raiders, by thinking of Jim's actions on Korhal suddenly made her blood boil as the thought of Mengsk came to the front of her mind. It was him that had done all of this to her. She had fought alongside him in the belief that he would bring freedom to the Koprulu Sector. She had dedicated herself to the Sons of Korhal and to overthrow the Confederacy that tormented her for years. Yet in the end, Mengsk had simply abandoned her to the Zerg at New Gettysburg without even blinking.

It was only then that she began to realize that he was not the savior that she believed he would be. He betrayed not only her and Jim, but all of humanity when he turned back on his promise and become the very evil he swore to destroy. Now, however, with her mind cleared of the Zerg infestation, Sarah knew that she would be able to confront him. And this time, she would dedicate herself to see that Mengsk would be brought to justice.

Whether she would be doing this alongside the Raiders was another question, and as far as she saw it, it only yielded very pessimistic answers. Even though she had fought alongside them to clear the Zerg from Agria, and then later from the Overmind's corpse on Aiur, the factor of distrust, misunderstanding, and hatred remained, and she didn't need to read their minds to know that. Even now, although they were all working together to deal with the Dominion here on Dead Man's Rock, it was obvious that the Raiders were not comfortable trusting her.

Granted, as she had picked up on the crew members on the Hyperion as they were on their way to Dead Man's Rock, there were those that were glad that she and Jim were together again, but others were concerned that she was making their commander too delusional. Kerrigan couldn't blame them, given all that had happened when she was the Queen of Blades.

She shook her head and pushed those thoughts aside. That was something that could be dealt with at another time. For now, she still had a mission to complete. Focusing her mind once more to the task at hand, she continued to move forward until she reached a set of large doors. They appeared to be malfunctioning, but that posed no problem to her. Channeling her psionic powers, she telekinetically pushed the doors open, allowing her access into the room.

The Dominion engineers didn't even have a chance to draw their sidearms as Sarah squeezed the trigger on her rifle. Within a few seconds, all of the engineers fell to the ground in a pool of blood, their bodies riddled with bullet holes.

The lights in the room flickered weakly as Sarah finally saw the container with the nuclear warhead marking and she breathed a sigh of relief. Both of the Apocalypse Class nuclear weapons were still here, the Dominion weren't able to get them out of the base in time.

Without another thought she put down rifle and began to lift the container lid. Once she disarmed these nukes, everything would be finished here.

However as she fully opened the container, Sarah's eyes widened in shock and horror.

The container opened to reveal two smaller containers housing the nukes. However only one of them still held its content, the other one was empty. The second nuclear warhead was gone.