The Raiders bid farewell to the colonists and Hanson before sending them out in the transports they came here in. Most of the colonists and half the militias left, but half the militias remained. Approximately fifty young men added to the Raiders. That might be the only consolation of the Raiders that fell on the farming planet.

Now more desperate than ever for money, the Raiders jumped to the coordinate Tosh gave them without wasting another second.

“SIr, scanners show this place is clear.” As The Hyperion appeared, Horner glanced at a computer screen before reporting.

The Raiders knew nothing about Tosh. They had no reason to trust him. As far as they knew, the man might be a Dominion agent and the coordinates he gave them might be a trap. As far as they knew, they might exit warp space and find themselves in the middle of an entire fleet of Dominion ships.

Horner made preparations. The defensive matrix on The Hyperion could be activated with the press of a button. When activated, the matrix generator would form a layer of green shield around The Hyperion, protecting the vessel from any foreign attack. Only equipped on the largest terran ships, they might be the difference between life and death. If this was indeed a trap, the defensive matrix could buy enough time for the second item to be utilized.

The second item was a backup warp drive. They jumped here with the primary warp drive and exhausted the device, but the secondary drive could bring the ship to the assigned coordinates, which belonged to Deadman’s Port. The combination of the two should be able to get the Raiders out to safety if this turned out to be a trap. The energy in the ship would be more exhausted than before, but the potential reward was worth the risk.

Just like Jean realized, Horner was a good commander. His cautious and experience were the two things that held the Raiders together at their lowest point.

Now that the scene was safe, Horner let out a breath of relief. If the Dominion fleet wasn’t here before The Hyperion jumped in, then it was almost impossible that they would arrive after The Hyperion was already there. This was because how warp drives work. Warping ships could be detected by ships already in the area, but the warping ship itself couldn’t detect what was on the other end of the jump. In other words, if the Dominion fleet tried to jump in after The Hyperion was already in the airspace, then The Hyperion would detect the warp signals as soon as they started jumping and pack up and run while the Dominion ships were still in warp space.

A transmission request appeared on the computer screen. Raynor pressed a key, and the face of the man that invited them here appeared on the screen.

“Good to see you made it. They call me Tosh. You help me mine the minerals I need, and I’ll make it worth your while.”

“What’s the catch?” Raynor asked suspiciously.

“Well, this place is a little...unstable. The low ground gets flooded with lava every few minutes. Of course that’s where the richest mineral nodes are found, but that’ll be no problem for a big tough guy like you.” Tosh explained in his typical creepy deep voice.

Jean knew why Raynor was suspicious. She saw the reward Tosh promised. In exchange for Raynor giving Tosh a certain amount of minerals, Raynor could have all the minerals left on the planet. Tosh would also pay Raynor a large sum of credit. That was a deal way too good for the Raiders.

Raynor wasn’t foolish enough to think Tosh was an idiot. His action had a reason, and before Raynor found out what that was, he wouldn’t trust the mysterious man.

Jean knew what Tosh was actually planning. A former Dominion ghost betrayed by Arcturus Mengsk, Gabriel Tosh was the head of Project Shadowblade, an operation to use terrazine to enhance ghost powers and turn them into more powerful spectres. Unfortunately, most of his spectres were captured by Dominion forces and thrown into the top secret New Folsom Prison. Tosh was a stealth assassin, not a fleet commander. He was an expert in terms of infiltration and assassination, but he wasn’t exactly an expert in terms of commanding large armies. Thus, he needed someone experienced in the art of war to help him. That person also needed to have an army and wasn’t afraid to go up against Mengsk.

Who was a better choice than the infamous Jim Raynor? Everything the man did, including giving the Raiders countless resources for free, was for that purpose.

Of course, technically she wasn’t supposed to know that, so she remained as quiet as everyone else as the transmission was ended.

“Sir?” Horner looked at his commander for instructions. He was the captain of the ship, but he voluntarily obeyed Raynor.

“I will take a command center and half our boys to the planet below. When we get there, we’ll start mining. Matt, stay in The Hyperion and stay alert. We don’t know what this Tosh guy is up to.”

“What should I do?” Jean asked.

“Stay on the ship and keep your eyes peeled. I might need you to command the soldiers on the ground if things go wrong.” Raynor said as he started to walk out the door. Unlike Agria, this time Raynor could handle things himself, at least for now. There were some zerg, but they were weak and scattered. The broodmother on the planet, if there was one, should be more worried about being attacked rather than attacking. Even if the zerg were foolish enough to make a move, the Hyperion could put down whatever attempt the zerg might try.

Raynor wasn’t worried about the zerg. He was worried about Tosh, and the Raiders he brought were mainly meant to guard whatever trick the man might have up his sleeves. If he could, he would bring all the infantry, but he only had a limited amount of ammunition. Half the men meant twice the durability.

Jean nodded as the commanders moved to their respective positions.

The command center and nearly one hundred Raiders landed on one of the high grounds on the planet. All of the infantry forces were elite soldiers to maximize the battle capabilities of the small army. SCVs poured out and started collecting minerals and returning them to the command center while the infantry patrolled the area. In the air, The Hyperion stared down vigilantly, ready to rain down death, cheap death, but still death, on whatever enemy that might appear.

As Raynor walked out of a dropship, he heard a marine speaking in the comm.

“Sir, unidentified terran forces incoming on the right.” The man hesitated. “There are twenty units of...reapers?” He said, unsure.

Raynor touched his gauss rifle and walked forward. A distance away, twenty men in jetpack moved toward their position with incredible speed. Leading them was a man with dark skin and snake-like hair. Unlike his followers, he didn’t have a jetpack, but he had no problem keeping up with his bare foot. He wore a thin layer of specialized suit and carried an AGR-28 gauss rifle on his back.

“Raynor.” Tosh said with a wide smile. “You boys look good. How do you like my reapers?” He pointed at the men behind him.

Reapers were specialized terran infantry raiders. Ideally, they were armed with jetpacks, stimpacks, combat drugs, KD-8 charges, and G-4 cluster bombs. The heavy masks covered their bloodthirsty expression.

Reapers were the worst of the worst. Crooks and criminals, they were seen among mercenaries and pirates more than they were seen in standard armies. However, there was a reason almost all the terran factions in the sectors had a reaper corps. The evilness of the reapers was only matched by their skills.

Reapers were hit and run units. In a face to face fight, a single marine could gun a single reaper down. However, in most cases, you would never find a line of reapers exchanging bullets with a line of marines. The reapers would run as far away as possible when the marines were ready, and they would return when the marines were scattered and relaxed. Their P-45 gauss pistols could take a few marine’s heads off. When the standard troopers gather together and seek retaliation, the reapers would disengage immediately with their jetpacks and stim packs. If the condition permits, the reapers would throw out a few KD-8 charges and blow their enemies’ formation up. The few unlucky victims that were bounced toward the reapers would be picked off mercilessly.

When they were facing buildings, reapers would unleash destruction with the G-4 cluster bombs. Even if they were injured, combat drugs could boost the regenerative potential of the reapers and return a wounded man to full health in just seconds. There were side effects, not that reapers lived long enough to see them. In extreme cases, reapers that ran out of ammo could even melee enemy units. Usually that didn’t end well, but that was beside the point.

Every reaper was a bad-ass, and mercenary reapers were the best of the best. By the looks of it, the reapers behind Tosh weren’t normal mercenaries either.

Raynor knew that as well as he opened the visor of his helmet. “They look solid.” He turned his attention back to the task at hand. “My boys are working on the minerals right now.”

“Good.” Tosh nodded, not really caring. He was after much more than a few mineral clusters.

Raynor bit his lips, but he couldn’t help but to raise the question that has been bothering him for quite a while. “I don’t get it. You have the coordinates of this planet. It’s not hard to hire a group of SCVs in Deadman’s Port. Why do you need us?”

“I’m banned from Deadman’s Port. A few local mercenaries thought I was too dangerous.” Tosh dodged the question, and Raynor couldn’t help but wonder what type of person would be considered too dangerous by Deadman’s Port mercenaries who were, in many cases, the meaning of danger.

“You didn’t answer my question.” He repeated.

A reaper behind Tosh groaned impatiently. Raynor was unmoved. Tosh was mysterious and his reapers were deadly, but his men weren’t for show either. His marines might not be as skilled as the reapers, but they had five times the number. Plus, the Behemoth battlecruiser in the air could deal with a few infantry units with ease. If this mystery remained, Raynor felt like he was putting the lives of his men at risk.

Tosh glared at the impatient reaper, and the man backed off. Raynor swore he saw a sense of fear from the man. Not showing any emotion, Tosh turned back to Raynor.

“I have heard a lot about you, Raynor. You are one of the most determined enemies of Mengsk.” He smirked at the emperor’s name. “It just so happens that so am I.”

“You purpose an alliance?” Raynor rose his eyebrows.

“I’m just helping a brother out,” Tosh flicked his fingers. “and one day, I may need a favor from a brother as well.”

He was hinting of something, something Raynor didn’t know, but the reason Tosh gave was enough to support his actions. Raynor didn’t trust Tosh completely, but he didn’t ask any more question as the mining continued.

For the rest of the mission, the SCV worked in peace. Occasionally they would need to retreat to high grounds because of the lava, but that was hardly a problem thanks to the sensors of The Hyperion. The zerg on the planet didn’t make any resemblance of an attack. Finally, thirty hours later, every mineral within the two hundred kilometer radius was collected. A portion of them was given to Tosh while the others were stored in the Raider command center. The building was filled up and dropships had to be used to ferry the minerals to The Hyperion.

In one sentence, the Raiders were rich.

With money in hand, Raynor’s depressed frown was turned to a wide grin. “Do you need a transport?” He looked at Tosh and his reapers and proposed generously.

“Don’t you worry about us. I have everything planned.” Tosh smiled. “You don’t need to mine off everything from this planet. You can’t. The Kel-Morians spent years and the planet is still covered in gold.” He paused and looked at Raynor meaningfully. “The Kel-Morians that mined here were silenced, permanently. You and I are the only two people that know the coordinates of this place. I will remain quiet about this, so you can return here whenever you need cash.”

Raynor was truly impressed by Tosh’s offer. Redstone held hundreds of thousands of units of minerals. From what Tosh told him, ever since it was discovered, the planet had been mined off for decades, and yet only a small portion of the minerals it held was taken. If the Raiders could establish an outpost here and continuously mine off it, they would have a permanent source of income.

That amount of minerals could build up a fleet, and by giving Raynor the coordinates of the planet and promising him not to tell anyone about it, Tosh was pretty much giving Raynor a fleet.

If Tosh gave that amount of resources to Raynor, what could he possibly want in return?

“Why are you so generous?” The rebel commander couldn’t help but ask as his men started entering the transports.

Tosh grinned. “I will contact you when I need you.”

“Fair enough.” Raynor nodded before going on a dropship. As the Raiders left, Tosh watched the ships with a wide smirk.