While ascendant Nyon was dealing with external and internal threats, Jean Turner was enjoying the freedom she received after the death of all of her superiors. Now that no one could question her motives she could do whatever she needed to do.

“Commander Turner.” In the transmission, emperor Mengsk said slowly. “Good job on the Raynor case. Nova told me how efficient you were.”

Jean looked at Mengsk without any sign of being flattered. “What is it, emperor? It better be about the Hybrids because I am not helping you assassinate your political enemies.”

Mengsk showed no sign of being ignored. “It is about Hybrids. There is a research facility on the Castaner orbital platform that developed Hybrids. I was told they could be a powerful weapon that can bring peace to the Dominion. They could bring an end to the terror brought on by the protoss and the zerg..” He said with a sense of justice, but Jean ignored his act. “After I was being informed I sent a squad of special forces to eliminate the entire lab. They never returned.”

“I don’t see how I am needed in this scenario.” Jean was unmoved. “You have fleets under your command that can burn the entire facility to ashes.”

“True,” Mengsk replied. “but mobilizing large fleets will raise questions. A special force strike team was all I could send secretly, but now I need a way to solve the problem covertly.”

“You don’t want the entire Dominion to know you created a weapon that might destroy humanity.” Jean concluded.

“You can think that if you want. So?” Mengsk understood he couldn’t really lie his way across Jean. The two were the same type of people. Brutal. Merciless. Willing to do anything and everything to reach their goals.

“I’ll do it.” Jane agreed explicitly.

“Leave no survivors.” Mengsk added.

Jean nodded and ended the transmission.

Of course Jean didn’t agree to aid Mengsk out of the kindness of her heart. First, the research center was, after all, a research center. It held the peak of the terran technology. She could find something that would strengthen her mechanical forces from that place. Second, Jean knew she would eventually clash with the Hybrids as her mission was to kill their master. It was much smarter for her to test the water before she clash headon with an enemy she knew little about. She could use the hybrids from the facility as a testing subject to see how powerful they truly were and what measures she could take against them.

Jean’s two battlecruisers warped to the Castaner orbital platform. The platform was designed to be secret, and it seemed completely normal from the outside. The research installation was disguised into a warehouse.

“Hyperion. Prepare a strike team. I’ll lead the assault.” Jean ordered. She programmed AIs of different degrees. The AIs for Hyperion and Beetle were given authority over the AI of goliaths or siege tanks. Jean had a computer in her, but there was always the possibility that she was disconnected or unconscious. Hyperion and Beetle, AIs named after the ships they control, were vice commanders that could take over if Jean herself was compromised.

“Unnecessary risk. Your presence. Dangerous. Not needed.” Hyperion warned concisely.

“It is necessary.” Jean vetoed the objection and walked to the hanger to join a transport. The simply AIs might miss something. The mission was too important.

A few minutes later Jean was standing on the surface of the platform. A variaty of units were behind her. Marines. Marauders. Goliaths. Siege tanks. Even the newest model of ghost AIs that Jean recently developed by diagnosing Tosh’s equipements. Even though it was impossible to create manmade psi users, the research AI developed a body that could power the ghost equipments, like emp and cloaking, with electricity. She was here for a weapon test. Of course, all of the suits were empty.

Two Warden marines walked up and placed a charger on the door. They backed off, and the charger exploded and bashed a hole in the gate. The Warden forces streamed inside.

The facility within was completely in ruin. Pieces of red armor and bodies were scattered all around the ground. Dried blood and gauss shells laid on the ground, reminding Jean about the desperation the local Dominion troops faced before being wiped out by a seemingly invincible opponent. “Where is the Hybrid?” Jean asked Hyperion, who ran a scan on the facility.

“Deeper in the lab.”

Jean waved her hand, and the Warden forces advanced, undisturbed about the scene of massacre. Machines don’t know fear, unless they were programmed to respond to fear.

Jean went even further and reached a wide space. The Wardens spread across the facility. Across a turn she saw pieces of enhanced grey armor and weapons all around. They belonged to the special forces Mengsk sent. They put up a fight, as shown through the drops of blue blood on the ground, but it wasn’t enough to make a difference. Jean ignored the bodies and ordered a marine to collect some hybrid blood. The blood was corrosive and melted through the marine’s armor, but Jean had planned for this as the marine moved the blood to a special container.

The lab contained zerg and protoss specimens, but both races were disabled. The protoss were weaponless and armorless and the zerg were restrained and injected with sedatives. Warden forces, by Jean’s order, executed these specimens.

“Commander. Neutral mechanical units.” A marine warned, and Jean’s eyes were lit and she walked to the side to find a large mechanical beast. Information of the weapon appeared in her eyes.

A.R.E.S.

A.R.E.S. was a powerful weapon developed by the Dominion, armed with 120mm cannon, T82 missile pod, and Napalm burninator. Don’t ask how Jean knew about one of the top secret weapons in the Dominion. A little hacking wouldn’t hurt anyone. The weapon was positioned to protect the lab from accidents, but judging from the fact that the machine wasn’t destroyed the Dominion troops failed to activate the weapon before they were wiped out. Jean silently hacked the unit and ordered it to follow her forces. She also uploaded the diagonisis of the machine to the Warden system.

As the forces continued toward the location the Hybrid was, Jean picked up a variety of gadgets, including specialized grenades, plasma rifles, and chrono rift. With any luck she could reverse engineer all of these weapons and use them in her forces.

Eventually, after walking past half a dozen fields of dead soldiers and killing a brutalisk, the Warden forces reached the room where the Hybrid was in.