Hyperion bridge.

Raynor and Tosh stood and watched as Jean and the forces landed on Bel’Shir.

“There’s something you need to know.” Tosh suddenly said. “It’s about that pretty lieutenant of yours.”

“Jean?” Raynor asked without batting an eye. “What about her?”

“As you know, I am psychic, and sometimes I can sense the thoughts of others.” He saw Raynor’s body tensing and knew he might have understood him wrong. “Don’t worry. I’m not strong enough to read minds. As far as I know only the queen of blades can read minds with ease. No. But I can sense the emotions of someone, especially when they get anxious and emotional. It comes in handy. Helps me fight my enemies. But when I was around Jean I couldn’t sense anything from her.”

“What’re you trying to say?” Raynor asked impatiently. He didn’t enjoy talking about someone like Jean behind her back.

“I am saying your friend might not be who she appears to be. She might not be the compassionate and self sacrificing girl that you knew about.” Tosh continued. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but I don’t like her. She is hiding something. I can sense it.”

“Jean is a good girl. She might be pessimistic and sometimes cruel, but that doesn’t make her a conspirator. She’s just good at concealing her emotion. That’s all.” Raynor defended. He didn’t want to imagine the girl might have another identity. It would be a betrayal. He couldn’t bear that.

“That’s possible, except the part when I mentioned the tal’darim.” Tosh kept going. “On the outside she appeared worried and even scared, but I didn’t sense any true feeling from her. It was as if she didn’t care at all. I don’t know about you but if someone almost killed me I’ll be slightly worried to fight him after a few days. But Jean felt nothing.”

“Are you saying Jean is what, suicidal?” Raynor asked in disbelief.

“Maybe she planned the duel with the protoss to get into your mind. Anyhow, I suggest you take some precautions, Mr.Raynor, just in case.” Tosh suggested darkly while flipping a small silver blade up and down.

Raynor was silent for a while as he stared at the Raiders being deployed on the planet surface. “Tosh, did you know the Dominion used inhibitor chips to control the ghosts and ensure their loyalty? Mengsk didn’t trust the operatives and chose to use technology to force them into obedience. The trust that connected the members was lost, and gradually the Dominion was turned from a justified uprising against the confederacy to a corrupt government even worse than the confederacy..”

Tosh looked at Raynor. “I knew about the inhibitor chips. That’s one of the reasons I turned against the Dominion.”

“Mengsk was worried the ghosts might betray them, and so he took away their freedom. It is who he is.” Raynor said deeply. “The Raiders are all brothers and sisters. If I am worried about Jean and develop countermeasures against my own brothers and sisters, then how would I be different from Arcturus?” Tosh tried to make a rebuttal, but Raynor denied him the chance. “The Raiders are based on trust. We trust each other with our life and that’s where our strength comes from. I want you to keep that in mind Tosh. You will want to if you intend on continue your work with us.” He threatened the deadly spectueur.

Tosh was solid for a while, as if he would take Raynor down any second. But then he grinned. “I respect your call Raynor. I’ll keep this in mind.” He turned and left the bridge. As soon as he left the bridge, his smiled disappeared and he tapped his comm and whispered cruelly. “Keep an eye on the girl. If she does anything suspicious, put her down and make it look like the protoss did it. I will not let my plan be jeopardized.”

On the surface of Bel’Shir, an invisible figure obeyed and moved.

Jean looked at the units tab in the command center. The things were very different here from Xil. The Raiders used the credits they gained in previous missions and purchased twenty goliaths. Not only so, due to lack in drivers and other reasons, all the goliaths were piloted by AIs programmed by Stetmann. These AIs were programmed to distinguish friends and enemies and fight with maximum efficiency. These AIs were not only better than human pilots, but their tendency of machines also allowed their commanders to give orders that would be frowned upon if given to human soldiers, like carrying out a suicidal mission or charging into banelings to prevent their detonation in a ball of bio. There were twenty goliaths in total. A fearsome force.

Apart from the goliat squadron was a squad made up of the fifty or so men that survived Xil. Surviving the onslaught from the tal’darim, they were the best of the best. They also had a blind belief in Jean after how she saved them from what seemed like certain death. She was their hope, and all of them owed their lives to her. These men would turn on Raynor himself if they had to. True, Raynor was the hero, the legend, but that was it. He never led them to victories and risked his life for them, even though he would if needed to. The seemingly weak girl, however, did.save their lives.

Raynor saw that, but instead of treating it as a threat to his command of the Raiders like any other leader, he put all those men together in an elite guardian squadron and gave them enhanced weapons and armors to make them as powerful as possible. They only had one task, and that was to protect Jean and prevent what happened on Xil from happening again. Raynor knew Jean had skills extremely valuable to the Raiders, and he wanted to protect her as much as he could, whether it was for himself or for the Raiders. As for the risk, he trusted her, and that was all that mattered. Jean named the guardians the Wolfpack.

Wolves were ultimately loyal to their leader and were slick, patient, and cold calculating creatures.

Apart from the Goliath Squadron and Wolfpack, there were hundreds of marines and marauders. Jean didn’t bring any medic because no medic could save a soldier severed in half by a psi blade. All of the units had computers in their armor that could maximize their damage.

Jean looked at the units she had and knew it was an army she could win a battle with. What happened on Xil would be reversed, and this time her mission wasn’t merely defeat the tal’darim guardians. No, it was something else. Something much more important to her plan of defeating Amon...