“Thank you so much for responding to this distress call, commander. I’m Dr. Ariel Hanson and I represent the people of the Agria Colony.” Dr. Hanson said gratefully. The distress call was a desperate move. When the Dominion garrison on the planet simply left without firing a shot at the zerg, she was already hopeless. Despite praying for help, she was already preparing for a last desperate push to sacrifice some of her people and get the others to safety. The communication from the Raiders was an oasis in the desert.

“Pleasure to meet you, doc. You can call me Jim. What's the situation.” Raynor said warmly. Jean secretly suspected the pretty look of the doctor was the main reason for his kindness.

“The Zerg have overwhelmed our planetary defenses. The colony is lost. For the past twelve hours we’ve been evacuating people to the nearest starport, but the Zerg attack have been so intense we couldn’t get any more through.” Hanson explained. “If you can guard the highway, we can send the remaining groups through every few minutes.”

“Don’t worry, doc. We’ll get your folks to that starport safe and sound.” Raynor replied confidently. Jean bit her lips but didn’t say anything. Even Horner was quiet. This was no place for a lieutenant like her to speak.

“I pray you’re right commander. The Zerg are more terrible than I ever imagined.” Hanson said with a haunted look. The transmission ended there.

“Lieutenant, how do you think we should do this?” Raynor wasn’t blinded by the urge to protect the weak, at least not entirely. He was very aware of the trouble the Raiders were in, and he needed to find a way to minimize the losses the Raiders suffer. He didn’t have a great way to do that. As experienced as he was, he wasn’t necessarily the best commander in terms of tactics. This was why he went to the lieutenant Horner praised of and hoped she wasn’t as ignorant as he was.

“Our units are limited to biological units like marines, medics, marauders, and firebats.” Jean said slowly while thinking at the same time. The fact that she was a member of the Raiders proved to be a giant opportunity. If she could rise up the ranks and build on the already stable foundation of the rebels, she might be able to use the Raiders as a weapon against Amon.

If she wanted to do that, she would need to gain more authority among the Raiders. Even if she couldn’t become the head, she should at least be one of the major decision makers. Missions like these were stepping stones of her ascension.

“I don’t have the exact information of Agria and I can’t come up with exact tactics, but we can try to focus our forces and use all our manpower and firepower to escort all the colonists to the ships in one single wave before the zerg forces can reach a dangerous point.” Jean looked at Horner. “The firepower of The Hyperion can help as well.”

“We have detected several zerg corruptors above Agria. They appear to have escorted the zerg ground forces here. The Hyperion will need to deal with them.” Horner said. “But your idea about pushing in one single wave sounds smart. How do you think about putting them into action yourself?”

“You want me in command of the mission?” Jean asked, surprised. Both Matthew Horner and Jim Raynor were more experienced than she was. The ranks weren’t as strict in the Raiders as they were in the Dominion, but even so a lieutenant commanding the entire operation was odd.

“I need to command The Hyperion and, knowing him, Jim is going to be on the front.” Horner replied, forgetting about the criminal, knowing he wouldn’t get his boots wet without being paid. He also knew Raynor wasn’t the type of person to stay back in the safety of a command center while his men fought and died. Almost certainly, he would be with the marines in the frontline. The small smile from Raynor proved that as well.

“As you wish, captain.” Jean replied, pretending to be nervous. “If I may, captain, may I check on the troops?”

Horner looked down on his watch. “It will take twelve minutes for The Hyperion to jump to Agria. You have until then.” Jumping wasn’t an easy task. Just the calculation need to prevent the ship from charging into a meteorite or a planet took a while. The jumping itself took time as well.

Jean nodded and walked out of the bridge with haste. As she left, both Raynor and Horner looked at the female lieutenant, satisfied.

“What do you think?” Horner said.

“Reminds me of the younger you.” Raynor replied. He met Horner when they were in the Sons of Korhal. Raynor was the experienced cowboy while Horner was the young officer. When Raynor broke out of the Sons of Korhal, Horner joined him with The Hyperion. Ever since then, Horner remained as the trusted advisor of Raynor and helped him manage the Raiders. It took all his energy to keep the rebels from falling apart.

Horner was a one of the best commanders the sector has ever seen, and the fact that Jean was compared to him was impressive.

Behind the two, Tychus rose his eyebrows, not caring.

The Hyperion used to be the throne of Arcturus Mengsk and the flagship of Sons of Korhal. Even though its luxury infrastructure and powerful equipment were rendered practically useless by the lack of money, the basic parts remained. Among them was the armory.

The armory was the domain of chief engineer Rory Swann. The one armed man was a genius in terms of engineering. He knew all about weapons, from the basic gauss rifles to the top tier starships. Even though the armory was empty for now due to a lack of resources and credits, it could be filled with modified and upgraded gadgets as long as resources were in place.

Jean was quite familiar with Swann. Every Raider was like a family with each other, and the warm hearted man was especially so.

“Hey Swann.” She said as she entered the armory. The marine standing guard at the door nodded at her.

“Jean!” Swann exclaimed, laying a hammer he was wielding down on a stand. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ll be commanding a mission against the zerg. I’m here to see if our chief engineer has something to help me.” Jean smiled and looked around.

Swann frowned, not because of Jean’s demand but because he didn’t have much to answer. To someone like him, it was painful to admit he didn’t have anything, but the fact remained. “I don’t have much to offer. If you get find the credits I can build a few siege tanks, but…” He trailed off.

Jean nodded, not as disappointed as Swann thought she would be. “It’s fine. Just the bio forces should be able to hold the zerg off.”

Swann shrugged, apologizing, as Jean walked out of the armory with her hands empty.

The Hyperion jumped to the space above Agria and unloaded twenty dropships onto the planet before turning around and engaging the zerg corruptors. The Hyperion was probably one of the best ship the Terran technology could yield, but the corruptors were formidable Zerg flyers with astonishing ability against other massive air units and a really tough carapace. Usually The Hyperion could blast them out of the sky with a few Yamato Cannons, but the ship didn’t have that kind of energy storage. If they used a Yamato Cannon, then the next place they would be going would either be Deadman’s Port for more energy or the endless depth of space because the ship no longer had enough power to make a jump. As a result, the top tier Minotaur class battlecruiser could only exchange rounds with the corruptors with its pathetic air to air laser batteries.

The corruptors couldn’t kill The Hyperion because of its size and armor, but neither could the anti air batteries eliminate the zerg flyers easily. These corruptors weren’t the most evolved ones as they came from a small brood, but corruptors were corruptors.

Jean wasn’t in one of the dropships. It was too vulnerable against potential zerg attacks. Instead, she stayed in a command center with dozens of SCVs as the building flew out of the hanger of The Hyperion and toward Agria. Completely made of Neosteel, the command center could keep its occupants safe even if it was attacked by an army of zerg units. Even ultralisks needed a while to break through. Despite how Raynor liked to be in the front and be a hero, she had neither the skill and the weaponry nor the need to do the same thing.

The dropships and the command center reached Agria without being put under fire. The swarm units that assaulted the planet were relatively weak. The few flyers they had were busy exchanging punches with The Hyperion.

As soon as the building hit the ground near a pile of mineral storage, the SCVs poured out and started collecting minerals and bringing them to the command center. They couldn’t be turned to weapons and units immediately, but they could be transferred back to the armory of The Hyperion and be worked on by Swann. There weren’t many resources. In fact, the number of minerals here were so little that the Dominion didn’t even bring them when they left because it wasn’t worth the risk, but to the Raiders these resources were worth the time.

Again, this shows how pathetic the Raiders were. It was a miracle they even stayed alive for this long.

Technically these resources belonged to the colonists, but the Raiders were literally risking their lives to save their ass. The minerals were barely enough to repay the favor.

As the dropships unloaded next to the command center, Jean wasted no time and got right to command. The zerg have not completely ripped the highway apart, yet. “Commander Raynor, please lead all combat units to converge at the colonist camp. Stay there until further notice.“ The Hyperion unloaded 20 dropships, which included 190 marines, 18 firebats, 18 marauders, and 14 medics. This was a small squad of relatively elite forces.

The hero marine didn’t mind receiving orders from his lieutenant. “On it.” He replied shortly as the soldiers moved out of the dropships and toward the center of the camp. There, they were joined by marines in white armor. They were the colonist militias. Chosen from the colonists themselves and armed with the most basic weaponry, the militias were, ironically, the ones that stood and protected the colonists while the much more equipped and highly trained Dominion forces fled.

“Adjutant, get me the doctor in charge of this camp.” Jean knew she needed to cooperate with Dr.Hanson to move out in one single coordinated push.

“Opening transmission to Doctor Ariel Hanson now.” The adjutant said mechanically, and Jean looked down to make sure her lieutenant uniform looked straight. A few seconds later the picture of the nice looking woman in white appeared on the screen.

“Dr. Hanson. I am Lieutenant Jean Turner, the commanding officer of the Raiders. I am in charge of getting your people off this planet.” Jean said openly. “But in order to do that, we need to work together. I hope you can let me command your men.” Having two commanders in a battle might be a critical mistake.

Dr. Hanson hesitated. “May I ask why?” She was grateful toward the Raiders as they came to her aid at her most difficult moment, but on the other hand she didn’t want to hand over the fate of his people to someone she just met.

“Forgive my insolence,” Jean said coldly, trying to appear as sentiment and caring as possible, “but you have no experience in battle while I am an experienced officer. A coordinated effort is needed to get your people to safety.”

“What’s your plan?” Dr. Hanson dodged the question by asking another question.

“I will focus all the armed forces and the colonists in one group and bring them to the starport in one wave. Before the armed transports are ready, we will wait in this base.” The only thing keeping the colonists from just going to the ships right now was the lack of armed transports. The colonists, without any sort of armor or transport, could never outrun the swarm. Majorly consisted of women and children, they would be mowed down by the merciless zerg. The few commercial vehicles the colonists had wouldn’t provide much protection either. Only armed vehicles, equipped with vehicle plating and turrets, could bring the colonists to safety. Unfortunately, the zerg invasion came quickly, and the few old transports were dug out and needed some time to be put into action. As for now only two were ready. At least twenty were needed to bring all the colonists over.

“That’s stupid! We need to get my people away as soon as possible. If we wait for all the transports to be ready, then we might be overrun by the zerg forces. We should send out convoys as soon as the transports are ready and try to get people away as soon as.” Hanson replied with slight anger.

“Trust me doctor. According to tactical analysis, it will be at least twenty minutes until the zerg have enough forces to overrun a convey with 350 men as an escort. As long as we move before that, we will be fine.” The colonists had around 100 militias left. “Plus, if you want to send out some colonists to safety before the others, who would you send?”

Dr. Hanson rose her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“The first to leave are more likely to get to safety. Even fools know that. Whoever you send first, the others would wonder why they weren’t the ones chosen.” Jean continued. “There will be chaos.”

This wasn’t a game where colonists would walk onto transports one by one like they were programmed to do so. The knowledge that flesh seeking zerg units were landing on the planet every minute was enough to strike fear into the heart of these peasants. If all the colonists were leaving at the same time, then all those that were peeing their pants could do was sit back and pray they would get to the ships safely. On the other hand, if a part of the colonists could go first while others had to wait, those forced to wait would feel quite unfair by the inequality. Fear could lead to anger, and a group of angry mob in a time like this was less than ideal.

Dr. Hanson realized what Jean was saying. She was inexperienced, not stupid. Finally, she nodded.