An hour later, Hyperion.

Jean Turner sat in the cantine of the battlecruiser, all alone. A cup of water was on the table before her. She closed her eyes and went over what happened back in the field.

An ultralisk appeared on the battlefield and charged toward the convoy. She knew the presence of such a beast might be a possibility that they couldn’t afford, but according to the plan the convoy could get off Agria before any real zerg threat could appear. There was nothing that marines medics and firebats couldn’t solve. Unfortunately her noble commander had to slow down for the sake of those pathetic colonists.

It was a disaster. The gauss rifles could barely penetrate the plating of the beast. Firebats couldn’t even get close enough. One slice of the monster cut half a dozen soldiers in half with no hope of salvation. A step from the beast turned the transports into metal graves. The Raiders held on with astonishing will, but they were overran. In the end the Hyperion came to their rescue and fried the ultralisk with its laser batteries, but most of the Raiders were dead and only one transport survived. It was a meatgrinder.

The door to the cantine opened, and a man walked in. It was Raynor. He quietly walked to and sat by Jean.

“We lost 157 elite men and saved 70 practically useless colonists.” Jean reported matter of factly. She didn’t feel any disgust or fear when she watched the soldiers being massacred, nor is she feeling any pity or anger now. “If we left some of those colonists behind, we would’ve come out of this battle a winner. Now our rewards can hardly compensate for our loses.”

Raynor took out a wine bottle and took a sip. He stared off into the distance. “Once upon a time I was a marshal of the Confederacy. Local people were massacred by the zerg, so I led my boys and put them down for good. I did it to protect my people, but the Confederacy put me in jail. Turned out they were experimenting on zerg. They caused the death of all those people.”

Jean was a good listener.

“I realized the Confederacy didn’t care about the people, so I joined Arcturus Mengsk and his rebellion. I thought he would be a good leader. I was wrong.” Raynor took another sip. “That man unleashed the zerg on the Confederacy and killed billions of innocent to achieve his own goals. He’s a monster! He left Sarah!” Raynor slammed the table. Jean didn’t falter. In fact she stared at the sadden Raynor with a sense of pity. He seemed so pathetic. A while after not having any emotion, she was somewhat enjoying this thing that she saw as a curse. She was efficient and powerful. More importantly, she felt invincible. At least she wouldn’t be broken by the loss of a loved one. Not if she didn’t have a loved one.

“And so I turned away from Mengsk and created the Raiders. I want freedom for the people. Mengsk treated the people like tools, and so I stood against him. For my entire life I have been fighting to protect the innocent. This concept of freedom is the only thing tying the Raiders together.”

“We don’t have the technology of the protoss, nor do we have the number of the zerg. Hell we don’t even have the menacing fleet of the dominion. All we have is the willingness to fight to the last man for what we believe in.” Raynor said steadily. Jean could see why the man rose from a marshal to a leader. He might seem broken and dunk by his past, but when needed to be the man was a flag for the justice. No wonder his Raiders could always make a comeback no matter how heavily hit they were.

Raynor wasn’t done. “But freedom has its price. What happened back there, it was terrible, but those men sacrificed to protect the innocent.” He stared into Jean’s eyes. “They died for a cause. The least we can do is to make their death not be in vain. You are a great commander, Jean, but you need to adapt to the way of the Raiders.”

Jean stared at her cup of water and thought about it for a while. She finally looked up. “I understand, but I will nonetheless do what has to be done to save the people.” She told the truth, sort of.

A few hours later Jean walked into the bridge. The resources on Hyperion was depleted. The resources she collected on Agria could barely supplement the loses. In order to solve the financial problem, Raynor’s criminal friend Tychus gave out the news that the Moebius corps offered a reward to anyone that could find an artifact from a group of Protoss fanatics on Monlyth. Raynor didn’t want to start a war with the protoss, but his financial problem forced him to make a decision. Like he said, freedom has its price.

Now the four were checking the Protoss defenses on the planet. There were a large amount of protoss stalkers, zeolets, and sentries down there. Jean even saw an ascendant archive, which suggested the existence of ascendants which could do massive amount of damage. It was a tough nut to crack.

“There it is, Jimmy, just like the Meobius said, easy money.” Tychus said casually.

“It is hardly easy.” Jean rained on his parade. “Protoss units are known for their strength. I am afraid these protoss are especially so. Look at their weapons and armors.” She pointed at the dark red fashion of the Tal’darim. “These warlike fanatics will stop at nothing to stop us from stealing their sacred artifact.” Tychus threw Jean a meaningful look.

“Wait a sec. What the?” Raynor frowned as the screen suddenly showed zerg drop pods hitting the ground. Zerg organisms protected the units within from being crushed to pieces. As the debris clear, countless zerg climbed out of the holes created by the drop pods. They converged and advanced upon the protoss guardians. The red protoss bravely charged toward the zerg and ripped their frontline apart, but they were few in number compared to the zerg. The plasma shields were broken by the endless waves claws and spines of zerglings and hydralisks. The armor of the protoss could barely protect their masters from being torn apart and vanishing into thin air. The psi blades of zeolets and particle disruptor of slayers, as well as the protoss’s willingness to fight till the end, brought many zerg down, but they were quickly replaced by other zerg. The stream of brown consumed the random red dots and advanced toward the protoss shrine which held the artifact.

“What are the zerg doing here?” Raynor asked.

“Apparently the same reason as us.” Jean said quickly. “We can’t fight the zerg or the protoss, but we can use the opportunity as they fight to make a surprise assault on the shrine and grab the artifact. If we act quickly, we can get out of there without being dragged into a formal battle. The longer we wait, the less time we have.”

“You’re right.” Raynor said. “Mobilize the forces. We’re going in”