Jean walked into the bridge of the Hyperion.

After colonel Orlan, along with half the mercenary High Command, died a terrible death at the guns of an army of warbots, Orlan’s mercenaries almost fell into pieces. Several high level commanders, each holding a group of forces or ships, wanted the entire mercenary Corps for themselves.

That was until Isaac came in and announced he would be the next commander. Orlan’s mercenaries would become Isaac’s mercenaries.

Obviously, almost all of the commanders disagreed. Isaac controlled the orbital defenses and the warbots, but other high ranking officers had far more units. Some of the commanders ignored Isaac while others wanted his head on a spike to show their strength.

That was until six of the most powerful commanders were found dead in their fortress. Viper couldn’t take down Orlan before because he was on an orbital platform protected by an entire fleet, a set of orbital defenses, and an entire army.

But now that the orbital defenses were gone and the soldiers were no longer coordinated because they were divided into nearly a dozen smaller groups, the ghost could easily find her way to the side of the commanders and put her blade through their neck.

The message the ghost sent was obvious. Anyone strong enough to challenge Isaac lost his head. Literally.

Most of the commanders that were left went to Isaac at once and pledged their allegiance. The forces whose leaders were assassinated yielded as well. No one dare take the place of the fallen and keep standing up against Orlan. Who knows when the deadly assassin would strike again.

But there was an exception. Whether he was powered by greed or anger or something else, one of the commanders decided to take the risk. He led his army toward Isaac’s fortress, attempting to take him by surprise.

Turned out that commander was the one taken by surprise. When a sniper round came from a distance away and blasted his head open, he still didn’t realize what happened.

In the end, Isaac, or rather Viper/Jean, found himself with thirty battlecruisers, hundreds of fighters of all sorts, hundreds of warbots, and four thousand ground units. Compared to the army, the tens of thousands of credits Orlan kept in his bank was just a small treat.

That was great, but the matters with the Hyperion were finished, and Jean was needed back on the ship. After a rather heated farewell with Viper hopped on a dropship and retreated back into the Hyperion.

As soon as she could, the girl found her way into the bridge.

“Jean. You’re back.” Raynor looked up and smiled at his most trusted lieutenant. “How’s the port?”

Jean licked her lips and tasted a foreign scent. “Relaxing.” Whether she was talking about the port itself or someone in the port was unknown.

Raynor rose his eyebrows. He has been to Deadman’s Port dozens of times, and even someone as tough as he wouldn’t describe the home of mercenaries and criminals to be relaxing. Still, he quickly left that matter behind as he saw Horner walking up to him.

“Sir, all the equipment and units are in place. We are good to go.” The captain nodded at Jean with a slight smile.

“But where to?”

Jean asked, but suddenly the door of the bridge snapped open. The heavy footsteps notified almost everyone who the newcomer was.

“Ya know, you’re lucky to have me.” Tychus seemed even ruder than before, a fact that Horner didn’t know was possible.

Realizing he attracted all the attention, the man paused, satisfied to see everyone looking at him for an answer. “Remember when I held my ground when negotiating with the Moebius boys?”

“You mean the time that you annoyed one of our richest customers with a high price?” Horner shrugged. “How can we forget?”

“Well, it turns out you’re not as smart as you look.” Tychus smirked. “The Moebius Foundation just contacted me. They offered us 250,000 credits for another artifact mission.”

“Wow,” Raynor was slightly taken back. 250,000 credits could buy a lot of things. A siege tank was just 500 minerals. The exchange rate between minerals and credits, the last time Raynor checked, was one to five. 250,000 credits meant 50,000 minerals.

That was 100 siege tanks.

Raynor remembered seeing a mercenary modified Minotaur class battlecruiser being sold to someone for around 50,000 minerals.

“What’s so precious about these artifacts, anyways.” But the experienced veteran wasn’t knocked out by the large paycheck. Just like with Tosh, he was growing suspicious about the amount of money the Moebius were willing to spend. They were pretty much exchanging a battlecruiser for one of the many pieces of the artifact.

Battlecruisers weren’t cheap. In some distant planets a single battlecruiser could put down any challenge. Mira Han dominated Deadman’s Port with just thirty battlecruisers.

Plus, the Queen of Blades was also after the artifact and the Tal’darim protoss were guarding them. Why is that piece of glowing rock so important?

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Tychus shrugged. Raynor wasn’t surprised. In fact, if Tychus really know anything, Raynor would think he lost his mind or something. The man was never a fan of using his brain.

Nonetheless, the Raiders went on their way. The Hyperion jumped to the coordinates Tychus received from the Moebius Foundation.

As the ship exited warp space and the planet Xil was in sight, Jean remembered something and turned to Tychus. “Why did the Moebius suddenly came to us?”

“From what I heard they sent out a specialized team. Over two hundred mercenaries with a squad of vikings and a couple siege tanks as support.” Tychus tapped his cigarette. “The last time they reported back was after they first landed on the planet and set up the drills. After that, dead silence. I say they’re very dead by now.”

“But who could’ve taken out a specialized strike team so quickly they didn’t even have the time to send out a distress signal?” Raynor started thinking, but turned out thinking was overrated as a transmission request came in.

Matt patched it through.

“More terran thieves!”

Hearing the obviously alien voice, Raynor wanted to cover his face. He knew something with this high of a reward wouldn’t be easy, but he really didn’t want to deal with the Tal’darim.

The first, and last, time he saw the Tal’darim was on Monlyth. They were facing an army large enough to make the best of the Dominion Fleet turn and flee, but instead they held their ground and took down countless zerg in the process. Sure, they handed him their piece of artifact the last time, but Raynor doubted it would be the same here.

“More…I guess we know what happened to the first team.” Horner stated the obvious.

“I am Executor Nyon, the Sixth Ascendant of the Tal’darim. You are here for the artifact.”

“Ahh...yeah.” Raynor didn’t see where the Tal’darim was going.

“By all means, come down here.” Nyon welcomed. “We will gladly sacrifice you all to our god.” He backed off and turned the camera and revealed a line of prisoners behind him. They were all captured terran, personable survivors of the mercenary team the Moebius sent here. Raynor counted 12 of them. They were surrounded by hundreds of Tal’darim.

The next second all 12 heads fell down on the ground. There wasn’t any zealot attacking. It was as if they were severed by an invisible blade.

Twelve bodies collapsed as blood shot out. The Tal’darim around the dead cheered as they bathed in the blood of their enemies. Literally and figuratively.

Nyon’s face returned to the computer screen. “They have desecrated the work of god just by setting their worthless eyes on his work. And now you will suffer the same fate.”

Without wasting another second, Raynor immediately turned around to Horner. “Prepare warp drive now. We can’t fight the Tal’darim.” Despite witnessing a massacre, Raynor was extremely logical. He saw hundreds of Tal’darim around the execution, and there was no telling how many protoss there were on the entire planet. Even if they didn’t have a fleet, which was unlikely, the Raiders didn’t have the manpower to break through their ground forces. The Hyperion was powerful, but Raynor wouldn’t wager the life of every Raider aboard for a few thousand minerals.

They needed to pull back and regroup.

Matt nodded, understanding the situation as well. Tychus was slightly unsatisfied. He was willing to take the risk, but he wasn’t the commander.

Jean agreed with Raynor. She wasn’t scared, but striking now wasn’t ideal. It would be better for her to pull back, do some more missions and build up her army, and return here again with a large army and something like a fleet.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.

The ear piercing sound of alarm suddenly rang across the bridge.

“Report!” Horner quickly demanded with a scent of fear in his voice. Training couldn’t make him completely emotionless.

“Main warp drive is disabled!” The crew member replied with equal fear. “We can’t jump!”

Horner almost collapsed. How did that happen? The main warp drive was the primary tool the Hyperion used to travel through the sector. Without the ability to jump, it would take the Hyperion years to get from where they were to Deadman’s Port. The Hyperion had several smaller warp drives, but they were used for short ranged jumps only.

If any hostile flyer approached the ship, then the adjutant would certainly warn him.

“Destroyed?” He asked with a sense of hope.

“Ahh...not quite.” The crew member turned around and saw the enraged look on the captain. He quickly explained. “Scanners show it’s been disabled by a red energy. It’s nothing like what we’ve seen before, but it appears that the containment is gradually decreasing. At this rate, the warp drive will be back online in a few hours.”

“That’s good, right?” Raynor took a slight breath of relief.

“I’m afraid that was just the first step, sir.” Jean, who was looking out the window, turned around.

“Tal’darim ships incoming.”

Behind her and outside the window, a line of crimson vessel approached.

“All crew members enter battle position. Bring all weapon and defensive system online.” Now understanding there was no escape, Horner went into action. “As long as we all do our jobs, we will get out of this alive!”

The entire ship immediately went into action. Infantry soldiers went into their armors and patrolled around the ship, ready for any sign of enemies boarding the ship. Crew members ran to their positions. Their backs were stained wet from sweat, but they were trying to be as professional as possible. They knew if they made a mistake out of fear, they might just endanger everyone on the ship.

“Sir,” Jean walked up to Raynor. “might I suggest something?”

“Make it quick.”

“If we stay back and wait for the warp drive to come online, the Tal’darim will board this ship. Their warping machines means they can easily overwhelm us. Our mech will be useless in these hallways. Our infantry can’t focus fire. The Tal’darim zealots will rip our men apart.”

“What do you suggest?”

“We engage the Tal’darim in a battlefield beneficial for us.” Jean said confidently. “We send our ground forces and land on Xil.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Raynor frowned. “We can barely hold them off and defend the place. Are you suggesting we attack?” He would’ve screamed at her if he just met her, but after all the crazy plans, all of them working, Raynor felt like Jean deserved much more trust from him.

“I am suggesting we defend, but at somewhere else.” Jean dragged Raynor to one of the computer screens. She did an orbital scan on the abandoned Moebius position. “There.”

The Moebius position was overran. Severed bodies, shattered armors, and used bullet shells covered the ground. A few abandoned buildings were, surprisingly, left standing. In fact, Jean even saw a few siege tanks. The bunkers and siege tanks were all abandoned. At least one side of them was cut through by what seemed like a psionic blade.

The pilots and officers inside the buildings and siege tanks were obviously dragged out and slaughtered, but, whether it was to use as trophies or what, the Tal’darim kept the remaining terran tools there. That might open up an opportunity for the Raiders to commandeer them.

The Moebius position was also a great defensive position. Two ramps were connected to a large plateau, and those ramps were the only way for ground units to go up. If Jean could seal those entrances, she had some chance of holding off the Tal’darim long enough for the Hyperion’s warp drive to come back online.

As long as she could drag most of the Tal’darim ground units at the planet, there wouldn’t be as much protoss assaulting the Hyperion from the inside.

As Jean explained her plan, Raynor finally nodded and gave the order.