The command structure in the terran army was interesting.

In the Dominion forces, the soldiers follow the orders of their commanding officers, who followed their leaders. For example, a captain would give orders to his squad. The captain himself would receive orders from his superior officer, maybe a major. That major would take orders from the commander of the army.

This was inefficient when compared to the zerg and the protoss. First of all, words took time to be said and be heard. Also, if the commander went rogue and passed down a false order, then the soldiers below would follow the wrong orders while believing they were doing the right thing. Also, if the commander was assassinated, then the command of the entire army would collapse. That was one of the reasons why ghosts assassins were so effective.

In comparison, the zerg and the protoss didn’t suffer the same problem. Both races had psychic networks that allowed orders to be passed down from the commander of the highest level to the most basic zergling or zealot in less than a second.

In the swarm, the broodmothers had command over their own brood, but every cell they had was loyal to the queen of blade. The khala meant the protoss were unlikely to commit treason.

As of now, after Dr. Hanson agreed to hand over the command of the militias to Jean, she opened up the comm to the captain in command and told him the change of event. After that, she linked the radio of the captain with that of Jean, allowing the lieutenant to give orders to the captain.

Ten minutes later, the zerg count on the planet has already reached over ten thousand. Most of them were zerglings, but even zerglings weren’t as vulnerable as they appeared. If they could get close enough, their claws could rip open the CMC armor of marines and, with enough strikes, the armored plating of armored transports.

“Sir, should we move out now?” An officer in the command center asked as she saw the zerg count growing. A scent of fear was in her voice. She was brave, but braveness didn’t mean stupidity. The ten thousand zerg units were scattered around the planet, but with the sheer, number there were still a lot of zerg outside the colonist base.

“Not now.” Jean denied. Just as the officer was about to say something else, a voice came in from the comm.

“All armored transports are ready to go.” Dr. Hanson said. She sounded exhausted, but Jean could hear the slight excitement in her voice. The good doctor was quite stressed ever since zerg appeared, and she was more than happy to leave this piece of rock.

Jean pressed a button on the control panel. “Sir, captain Brandon, we are ready to move.”

Captain Brandon was the captain of the militias. He was the typical worker. Hard working and willing to do anything to protect his family and friends, he was one of the primary reasons the militias stood their ground instead of get on a transport and leave the civilians to die.

“About time.” He said loudly and passed the order down to his men. From the hologram projection, Jean could see both the blue Raiders and the white militias moving out. The colonists have already gotten aboard the transports a while ago. All the resources have been harvested and all the SCVs have returned to the command center.

“Adjutant, bring the command center into the air and follow the convoy.” The command center might be the safest place on the planet. The few anti-air units the zerg have, including some hydralisks and individual mutalisks, couldn’t break through the building armor unless the command center parked there for hours and allowed the zerg to unleash on them.

“Affirmative, commander.” Jean felt the metal floor shaking as the command center rose into the air.

The convoy moved swiftly. The twenty transports were in the middle of the road. Marines in both blue and white armor walked along the vehicles. Firebats and marauders, with their heavier armor, were on the outside. The few medics that were available were scattered around the convoy, ready to use their nanobots to heal any wounded comrade. Raynor stood among his men with a modified grey armor and an enhanced gauss rifle.

A few zerg units were scattered along the highway. They were mainly zerglings and hydralisk. Perhaps with enough number they could overwhelm the convoy, but that number wasn’t there. Hydralisks were ripped apart by gauss rifles while zerglings were roasted by firebats. The few dent in the CMC armor the zerg units caused by sacrificing their lives were healed by the medic nanobots. Everything was going well, but Jean wasn’t as satisfied as she was supposed to be.

“Sir, the zerg commander has noticed your presence. A large group of zerg units is moving on your position. They are not enough to overwhelm you, but they are more than enough to delay your footsteps. You need to speed up.” Jean urged.

“Copy that.” Raynor replied confidently. Jean could hear the sound of his gauss rifle firing. She could even here a scent of the screeching of zerglings through the radio. “Move!”

Suddenly, some chaos appeared at the end of the convoy. “What the hell?” Raynor groaned. He couldn’t afford any delay. “Jean?”

“One of the transports have been damaged.” Jean tapped something on the screen. fifty colonists aboard are trapped. They will never make it to the starport on foot. Without any sort of armor they can’t keep up with the convoy. “Fifty colonists are trapped. We don’t have time to save them.” She stated the obvious.

Raynor went silent for a while. Deep down, he was debating. Logically speaking he knew the colonists’ chances of survival was low, but he also knew it wasn’t him to leave the defenseless innocent to die. If he did, he would be no different from Arcturus Mengsk.

“All Raiders, hold your ground! Jean, send the militias forward with the convoy. My boys will buy some time.” The commander finally made the decision.

He didn’t even consult Jean, but that didn’t annoy the girl. Instead, she merely passed down the order.

The formation changed. The wave of blue stopped their steps and turned around without any hesitation. Firebats formed the frontline with their flamethrowers raised. Marines knelt down and formed two firing lines, allowing them to fire at the enemies as quickly as possible. Marauders covered the flanks with their grenade launchers ready. Raynor stood among the marines.

The militias looked at each other, shocked by the determination of a group of strangers to protect innocent lives. They were used to the Dominion forces who oppressed the colonists when the situation was peaceful and fled with the first sign of trouble. The idea of an army protecting the innocent without considering the losses or gains was heartwarming.

Jean’s eyes twitched as she realized the situation. Some would call Raynor’s action stupid while others might think the man was brilliant. If he did things the “clever” way, like the Terran Dominion did, he would never outmatch Mengsk. As an established power with control over thousands of planets, Mengsk could easily crush Raynor if the latter did things the logical way. Instead. Raynor chose another route. By protecting the innocent and saving those the Dominion abandoned, Raynor became a clear contrast of Mengsk. Those mistreated by Mengsk would think of the Raiders as their first option. Mengsk’s enemy would go to Raynor to seek an alliance. This way, Raynor at least stood a chance against the iron fist of Mengsk.

Coincidently, the old Jean was attracted to the Raiders with the same method.

If Jean didn’t have the memory of the events in this universe, she might even think Raynor was not the depressed cowboy he appeared to be but was instead a cold calculating mastermind pretending to be a soldier of freedom to gain power and influence.

The wave of zerg that followed the convoy along the highway slammed into the wall of blue.

Cheap and always in plentiful numbers, zerglings were the hounds of the swarm. Their claws could tear open CMC armors and their carapace could make sure they could stay alive for a few gauss bullets. Their small wings made them even faster as they charged their way through the rain of steel. The first layer of zerglings was pushed back by the impact of marine gauss rounds. The beasts growled as purple blood stained the grey ground, but there was a reason the zerg didn’t remove the pain receptors of their units. Instead of turning around and fleeing like normal animals, the wounded zerglings charged forward with twice the speed, and they kept on charging until a bullet found its way in either their head or their legs. Even if they were maimed, they kept on doing everything they could to move forward, whether it was by crawling or by some other way.

If that was just for the first dozens of zerglings, then it would be menacing but still manageable. What made things even worse was that this frenziness wasn’t a surprise. When the first zerglings collapsed, another wave of zerglings followed the footsteps of their comrades as they literally stepped on the dead zerglings and leaped forward.

Some of the Raiders turned white even as they pulled on the trigger. A large portion of the Raiders were consisted of soldiers that were with Raynor since he was a marshal on Mar’Sara. They were the best of the best. The backbone of the Raiders, these men and women have survived the worst battles the sector has ever seen. The wave of fearless zerg was nothing compared to the might of the swarm on the scorched field of Char.

But not all of the Raiders were as experienced as these men. Some of the Raiders joined during the period of relative peace. The worst enemy they met were the Dominion soldiers, and that said something. The Dominion forces were like children compared to the swarm.

“Hold your ground!” Raynor saw the hesitation in the eyes of some of the Raiders. He knew he couldn’t let this fear develop. If one man ran, ten would follow. He struggled to scream through the gunshots. “Behind us are twenty transports filled with civilians! Innocent people! If we run, they die!” He paused for a second. “We are not the Dominion! We don’t leave the innocent to the zerg!” A scent of fury appeared in his voice.

In the command center, Jean tapped her face, thinking. There was a reason Raynor was one of the top enemies of Mengsk. The man didn’t have an army, but he himself was stronger than an army. Just his presence made Mengsk seem like a clown. As long as he lived, the people would be reminded of how cruel Mengsk was. The abuse of media might be able to paint Raynor as the devil, but the people weren’t stupid, at least not all of them.

Just like Jean expected, the soldiers that were shaking were overwhelmed by a new surge of strength. A wave of responsibility and honor took over them. Their hands were still shaking and their face were still covered by sweat, but none of them were backing off.

After around eighty dead zerglings, the first zergling finally clashed with the terran line. If it was a marine, then the zergling might be able to do something. Unfortunately for that zergling, it was a firebat.

The zergling launched itself onto the armor of the firebat, but even its claws could merely create a small hole on the heavier CMC armor of the firebat. The firebat grinned inside his armor as he slammed the dual arm-mounted flamethrowers on the zergling, knocking it over. Pointing the flamethrower at the zerg, he pulled the trigger.

“Flame on!”

The first zergling was immediately lit on fire. Flesh and muscle evaporated under the immense heat. The zergling screamed as it collapsed. The smell of barbeque covered the air, not that any terran had their helmets open to smell it.

“Medic!” Standing above the roasted zergling, the firebat yelled. The next second a green light beam landed on his body. Nanobots ran down his armor and located where the fracture was. They went to work, and in just a few seconds the hole the zergling put in place was nowhere to be seen.

The few medics the Raiders had were extremely valuable. Horner spent quite the money in Deadman’s Port to purchase the needed gadgets. Luckily, they proved to be worth their price. If they weren’t there, then the Raider formation here would be half its current size.

The death of one zergling was nothing in the course of the entire battle. More and more zerglings smashed into the firebats. All of them were roasted, but the dead were immediately replaced by fresh zerg units. Despite all the bullets and grenades and flames, it was as if the swarm formation didn’t even shrink, not even a little.

The zerg may not be the strongest combatants, but their numbers covered that problem.

After losing half their number, hydralisks got into position as well. Spines were sent flying over the smaller zerglings and into the terran lines. As soon as the first wave hit, Raynor heard a wave of screams. The firebats’ enhanced armors saved their user’s lives, but the marines didn’t share the same luck. Their standard CMC didn’t stand a chance against the zerg ranged units. When someone was killed instantly, no amount of healing could save them.

Raynor saw a marine shot in the head by a single spine. The projectile went through the helmet and only stopped as it was halfway through the poor soul’s head. From the part that came out of the back of the armor, Raynor could see dots of white and red. The commander was too experienced to turn and vomit, but his darkened look showed how the man really felt.

Marines and marauders returned fire toward the hydralisks. Luckily for the terran, there was only a small number of hydralisks present, and they were focus fired down. When they were gone, the biological forces could easily gun down the melee zerglings in relative safety.

Raynor head-shoted another hydralisk when he heard Jean speaking in the comm.

“Sir, the colonists have reached the starport. Three transports were taken down, but most of the colonists got out alive. Zerg reinforcements are arriving. You need to move now.”

Raynor nodded. “Maintain formation and fall back!” The problem was there weren’t any fresh terran reinforcements to provide cover, so the Raiders needed to move back while maintaining their suppressing firepower. This was easier said than done, and with one misstep the planned retreat might turn into a full scale flight.

The Raiders moved slowly and orderly. The elite soldiers again showed why experience was such an important factor. They moved slowly but steadily, continuously laying down an endless wave of gauss rounds on the swarm units. With them as an example, the less experienced were calmed down as well.

Suddenly, Raynor had a terrible feeling. He turned around and saw a wave of green approaching.

Green...zerg units have purple carapace. Why would he see green zerg?

And then Raynor realized what they were.

“Sir! Banelings approaching!” Jean’s high pitched voice confirmed Raynor’s guess.

“Banelings! Spread out!” Raynor screamed on the radio. “Marauders! Firebats! Engage the banelings! Marines, target on the banelings!”

Banelings were suicidal zerg units. Evolved from zerglings, they had sacs full of acid. Their sole purpose was one explosion. That was it. One explosion and they die. Considering the efficient nature and the relative costliness of banelings, the only reasonable conclusion was that the effect of the single explosion was enough to make up for the cost.

This said something.

A single banelings could spray acid over a dozen clumped up marines. The acid could melt through the armor and, needless to say, human flesh. Firebats and marauders were better, considering the thickness of their armor, but even they would be heavily wounded.

Right now, the terran forces were formed in a tight formation for the sake of maximum firepower and minimum surface area and therefore contact with zerglings. This was good against zerglings, but it was practically the ideal target of banelings. Just one baneling could melt through a squad of marines and break a hole in the tight formation.

The biological forces didn’t need a warning from their commander to take action. The experienced knew the power of banelings the hard way. Even the less experienced learned about the banelings in their training. Instantly, except for those been attacked by zerglings, every terran unit turned their muzzles at the green creatures.

Under the metal hail, the banelings were picked off one by one. The acid sacs, upon being broken, spilled acid all over the zerglings around the banelings, earning a wave of pained growls.

As the green gradually disappeared, Raynor took a sigh of relief. The swarm units here weren’t the most evolved. Their banelings were crawling, not rolling. If they had centrifugal hooks and were rolling, like the banelings in Kerrigan’s personal brood, the Raiders wouldn’t receive the same success.

The Raiders kept on moving, leaving a trail of dead zerg behind them. A few men died, but others continued the footsteps of the fallen. They were about to reach the starport when the ground suddenly started to shake.

“What the…” Raynor frowned. The sound was familiar. He suddenly started cursing as he realized where he heard the sound before. “Oh shit…”

“Sir, ultralisk approaching!”

For a minute, Raynor really wanted Jean to shut up.