A mercenary marine collapsed with his upper body gone.

“Tosh’s transports!” Nova, with a stain of red on her armor, looked up into the air and yelled. Above her, a dozen dropships with extra plating, along with half a dozen escorts, made their way toward the holding cells of the prison. Nova knew what it meant.

Tosh was getting away.

“Soldiers, move forward! Get to Tosh at all cost!” Nova knew she couldn’t afford to wait. If she kept on advancing with the current speed, Tosh would be long gone by the time she arrives.

The Specs Ops ghost next to her immediately stand up. A distance away, a mercenary goliath was blasting at the Special Forces. It was the only thing that allowed the mercenary biological forces to somewhat delay the Special Forces ones. Autocannons could pin down the elitist marines.

But that was about to change. The ghost spent half a second to aim before firing a single EMP round onto the goliath. Electric sparks exploded all over the unit and crippled it.

Without the suppressing fire, Dominion elite marines pushed forward and blasted over everything in their way.

Meanwhile, the dropships landed in front of Tosh.

“Move move move!” All the mercenaries and spectres ran inside. Just the number of mercenaries sent to the prison alone was much more than the dropships could hold, but most of them perished. In order to breach the prison ASAP, Tosh forced his men to charge forward without caring about the losses. After Tosh crushed three marines who refused to comply, the rest charged into the hail of bullets like they were made of steel.

Siege tanks shells exploded in the middle of the lines and ripped apart dozens of marines and marauders with every blast. Goliath autocannons ripped through combat shields, CMC armors, and human flesh. Mercenary gauss rifles were deflected by Dominion bunkers while the red marines inside fired back in safety.

If the mercenaries weren’t as elite as they were, if Tosh hasn’t single handedly slaughter more than a dozen Dominion mechanical units and crush at least four bunkers, the rebels would be very dead.

Tosh was the last to enter. When all the ships were packed, they lifted off into the air.

“Shoot them down!” At this moment, Nova and her men arrived. The ghost was heavily injured, the cornered mercenaries launched everything they had at the Special Forces, but she was still standing. The inhibitor chip in her brain ensured that she would value her mission over her own health and safety. Plus, the medical technology the Special Forces had could return her to full health in just hours.

Every single Special Forces unit opened fire, but they were too late. Gauss bullets merely bounced off the rear plating of the ship. One of the Specs Ops ghost fired an EMP round, but the afterburners of the dropships pushed the ships forward at a painstaking speed. The EMP missed by a significant difference.

Nova could only watch as the ships leave. She had a few goliaths under her command, but they were much slower than the stimmed marines and marauders. Following the clanking sound of metal legs hitting metal floor, the three strike goliaths finally arrived, but the transports were already nowhere to be seen.

It was disappointing, but Nova made a last ditch effort. “Admiral Princeton, rebel transports are retreating back to the fleet. Intercept them. This is the first priority!”

She was too late.

The dozen or so dropships entered a rebel battlecruiser. As soon as they were in place, the entire rebel ship warped away, leaving the Dominion with one less fleet and a destroyed prison.

At the end of the day, the rebels came out on top.

Tosh recovered dozens of spectres. If used well, they could accomplish more than an entire fleet. The large assassin would gladly trade the ships he took by force for these covert agents. Jean gained an entire fleet, including one of the most advanced capital ships in all the terran factions. Viper earned Jean’s appreciation. All three got what they wanted.

The Dominion side was the direct opposite. New Folsom Defensive Fleet mysteriously disappeared. The spectres Mengsk sacrificed countless ghosts to capture were freed and would quickly return as enemy combatants. Special Forces took some losses.

More importantly, the New Folsom Prison was destroyed. Countless Dominion troopers were killed in action, but that wasn’t the problem either. What really stung was how hundreds of prisoners were caught in the crossfire.

New Folsom Prison was one of the top secret facilities of the Dominion. You don’t get put there for committing theft. People get placed there when they were so valuable that even the Dominion wasn’t willing to execute them. Given the Dominion’s willingness to execute rebels and traitors without anything resembling due process, this said something.

That was why when Nova walked through Mengsk’s royal palace, she wasn’t exactly happy.

Two lines of Sons of Korhal elite marines were on the side, but they were just the first line of defense. Nova could sense multiple Spec Ops ghosts in the shadow. Despite her being one of the Dominion operatives, she could sense several sniper rifles trained on her.

She wasn’t surprised. The emperor’s personal guards were trained to treat everyone as a potential threat. She would do the same thing if she was on guard duty.

Two marines opened the blast door, and Nova walked into the throne room.

There, behind a large desk and in front of a portrait, sat Arcturus Mengsk.

The Emperor of the Terran Dominion. The man that betrayed Kerrigan and condemned to the fate of the killer of millions. Raynor’s nemesis.

Mengsk spoke with a dark tone. He was past the point of needing to act friendly.

“Nova, you have disappointed me.” He hissed.

Nova wasn’t intimidated. Her neural inhibitor sealed off most of her emotion, leaving an endless sea of logic. She could commit suicide if Mengsk wanted to, and a simple question didn’t frighten her.

“I apologize, your majesty. Tosh has proven to be stronger than I anticipated.”

Mengsk frowned. He knew how capable Nova was. To a degree she was as powerful as Kerrigan, when she was a ghost, of course. She rarely makes mistakes, and if she did she must’ve had a reason. “Explain.”

“Tosh had help. Someone disabled the New Folsom Defensive Fleet, cutting our ship count in half and buying the rebels enough time for the ground forces to break through. If we had two fleets instead of one, the rebels would have crumbled.”

“I don’t want excuses.”

“With all due respect, your majesty, that was not an excuse. We need to take down Tosh, and his ally can be a threat. We need to take down the ally first before we can make a move on the spectre.”

“Speaking of the spectre,” Mengsk stood up and circled around Nova. “I hope you can explain your deal with Raynor.”

“I can. Tosh’s battle base, Avernus Station, is located at a territory between the Terran Dominion, Umojan Protectorate, and the Kel-Morian Combine. The Dominion Fleet can’t attack without risking to start a full scale war, and the Dominion can’t afford a war with the Kel-Morian and the Umojan. I needed someone with no tie to the Dominion and capable enough to take down a heavily guarded battle station. Raynor had both the ability and the incentive to do that.”

“Raynor is an enemy of the Dominion and a traitor to humanity. Conspiring with him is treason.” Mengsk’s expression was blank. There was no hint of what he was really thinking. In the shadows, the sound of rifles clicking made Nova turn slightly.

“I was tasked with terminating Tosh. I was merely following your orders.”

Mengsk remained there for a few minutes before finally nodding.

“You did good, but not good enough. Tosh must die.” If the people of the Dominion could see the emperor now, they would be overwhelmed by shock. The comparison between a wise, caring leader and someone who condemned another human being to death was quite drastic.

“The rebel fleet has retreated. Faced with both the fleet and the battle station at the same time, even Raynor can’t seize the platform. The spectre will have an army of elite spectres and an entire fleet. He will not hesitate to use them against me. You talked about his ally. What do we know about him and how can we destroy him.”

“The entire New Folsom Defensive Fleet mysteriously disappeared. We have no idea what happened, but reports came in that an officer from the fleet requested confirmation on a royal inspector….sent by you, your majesty.”

“I have never sent anyone to New Folsom.”

“Correct. This mysterious inspector must be connected to the attack. She might be an agent of Tosh. In fact, she might be the ally.”

“She?”

Nova tapped something on her wristband, and Mengsk saw an image sent to his personal PC. He opened it.

The image showed a blonde woman in a Dominion uniform. A fleet officer sent it to the emperor’s personal crew when confirming Jean’s identity.

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know, but I will find out, and when I do, I will hunt her down, find out her connection with Tosh, and terminate her.”

“Wait.” Surprisingly, Mengsk suddenly stopped Nova. “You said she somehow made the entire New Folsom Fleet disappear.”

“Yes your majesty.”

“How?”

“That is still unknown.”

“In that case, track her down, but don’t kill her. Take her alive and bring her to me.” Mengsk tapped Jean’s image. “She might be useful. If she can take down an entire Dominion fleet, she can also take down a Kel-Morian fleet or an Umojan fleet.”

“Yes your majesty.”

The rebel fleet exited warp space near Deadman’s Port.

“A mission well done, you have my thanks, Miss Turner.” Tosh’s face appeared on the comm. Even he couldn’t hide a smile.

“Miss Turner. I like that.” Viper grinned. She didn’t care about Tosh and his mission, but she was glad Jean was unharmed.

Jean smiled as well. “Now what?”

“I have received report from my boys back in Avernus Station. The Raiders have launched an attack, but my orbital defenses kept his ship back. I need to retreat and push them away. The Dominion also did something to my spectres. I need time to get them back to fighting shape.”

“So you’re leaving? I thought you promises to join Jean.” Viper frowned. As much as she didn’t care about Tosh, she wasn’t going to see Jean being tricked into risking her life for nothing.

“I will regroup and meet you when I’m ready, but as an act of friendship, I am sending you some gift.”

“Sir, friendly transports approaching.”

“Check it out.”

A squad of transports entered the hanger of Isaac’s mercenaries’ flagship. A dozen marines approached carefully. In the cover, a large army of security forces were armed and ready. Tosh’s men were allies, but there was little, if not none, honor among thieves. They might be fighting side by side one minute and be killing each other the next.

They were relieved when they found twenty unmanned mech.

“Sir, the transports unloaded twenty vehicles. They seem to be...diamondbacks.”

“Diamondbacks?” Viper rose her eyebrows.

Diamondbacks were first designed by the Terran Confederate. They possessed a pair of eviscerator rail guns, which were capable of punching through most armored enemies and could be fired while the diamondback moving. Its mobility earned it a place in the arsenal of multiple factions, including the Dominion and Mira’s Marauders. Jean remembered seeing a report of a group of diamondbacks being stored at New Folsom. Tosh must’ve acquired them at some point.

Jean didn’t see these mech when Tosh and his spectres left, so she imagined Tosh discovered the diamondbacks while attacking, ordered a few transports to the prison, and brought the diamondbacks away when the fight was still going on.

The twenty diamondbacks could be of great use. It was certainly enough to allow Jean to temporarily lose the support of Tosh.

“Fine, but when you are ready to join me, you know where to find me.”

“Very well, Miss Turner.” Tosh nodded and closed off his comm.

“I don’t think he’ll come back. He used you to get what he needed, and now you are no longer useful to him. Someone like Tosh has no honor.” Viper noted as the mercenary fleet started returning to Isaac’s platform.

“Perhaps,” Jean nodded. She wasn’t foolish enough to think Tosh would serve her just because of a deal. Then again, they had a common enemy. As long as the Dominion stood, they were still allies. Plus...“but who said I didn’t use him?”

Viper’s eyes widened. At that end of the day, Jean didn’t really come home empty ended.

She had the ships of an entire Dominion Fleet. She had twenty diamondbacks. She even made a name for herself by taking down a heavily defended Dominion prison. A lot of people would want to hire her for certain jobs.

It was hard to say who used who.

“Come with me,” Jean grabbed onto Viper’s hand. “I’ll show you something.”