Doctor Narud sat in his seat, deep in thought.

Out of nowhere and with absolutely no warning, the Terran Dominion sent three fleets to blockade the base planet of Moebius planet. This type of militray movement could only originate from the command of one man.

Arcturus Mengsk.

And the only thing that could turn the Dominion against the Foundation was that those ignorant fools realized who he really was and what he was up to. The chance of that happening was low, considering how easily fooled they were, but that was the only possibility. Now Narud had to face the problem of two dozen hostile battlecruisers before his front door.

Narud wasn’t worried about himself. As a xel’naga even if he was killed here, which was unlikely due to his powerful psi abilities, he would live on in the void. What he was worried of is his mission. Narud created the Moebius Foundation to develop hybrids to aid his master, Amon, in his war against life. If he was sent back to the void, then all researches and production would be obliterated. Amon would lose his best weapon when he came back to life and he would not be happy about it.

Unfortunately even a xel’naga like him couldn’t survive twenty Yamato cannons to the face. Psi units were powerful, but they weren’t invincible. The queen of blades, the strongest individual in the sector for a while, wouldn’t be much of a threat without the swarm. A couple battlecruisers could deal with her. It was her ability to control and lead the swarm to victory that made Sarah Kerrigan the top enemy of the Dominion. Similarly, if Amon had no Golden Armada, no Death Fleet, no hybrids, no Moebius Foundation, no mercenaries, and no zerg forces, he would meet a quick end.

This was the same thing of Narud. He knew he could fight the queen of blades herself and maybe even win, but if he charged out there right now he would literally evaporate before thousands of laser batteries.

Narud glanced at a certain project on his computer screen and flirted with the idea of unleashing the beast, but then he decided now wasn’t the time.

Suddenly a young lieutenant walked into the room. Narud refused to use adjudents because he considered these machines untrustworthy. As a xel’naga he could manipulate human minds and draw to their desires, but machines were, in a certain sense, incorruptible. The xel’naga preferred to use human pawns to carry out his will. He enjoyed watching them struggle, for it only support the cause of his master.

This young lieutenant, for example, was a loyal young man who believed the Moebius Foundation was besieged by rogue Dominion warships and emperor Mengsk’s reinforcements would be here any minute.

“Doctor.” The lieutenant greeted loudly. “The mercenary ships that we hired from Deadman’s port is arriving. Rogue Dominion fighters are after them.”

“How many ships?” Narud asked quietly, not caring. He remembered posting a bounty in Deadman’s port and promising a huge reward, but that wasn’t his top concern.

“50 Vikings and 20 wraiths.” The lieutanent replied. “With their aid our chances will grow.”

“Order them to fall back onto the planet.” Narud commanded. The mercenaries would likely be intercepted by the Dominion and most of them would likely fall. Still, a few was better than nothing, not that he countered on them to win the battle.

On top of the planet, 70 fighters were approaching the planet. They had sharp platings and pointy blades extending out of their sides. The only use of these blades in space was to hopefully frighten the enemies. It wasn’t like they could stab other vikings. All the fighters were painted grey, which stood for mercenaries. Dominion was red and the Raiders were blue. The Warden forces were painted black for the sake of cover, not that camouflage could do anything. Moebius forces were yellow.

The Dominion fleet, under Jean’s suggestion, put up an act of attempting to stop them but were too slow. Eventually the mercenaries entered the firing range of the planetary defenses and the pursuers were forced to back off in spite.

In his seat Narud frowned as the mercenary fighters got to the planet without a scratch. It was successful. Too successful. The common soldiers might be fooled by the excellent tricks the mercenaries did to avoid taking damages, but as a xel’naga he knew better. Those Dominion vikings and wraiths weren’t even trying to hit the mercenaries.

Something was wrong.

Narud closed his eyes and focused his psi energy on the mercenary fighters. With a psi level almost as high as the queen of blades he sensed something strange within the belly of the wraiths. Something dangerous. Something that made him feel threatened.

Narud’s eyes snapped open. “Shoot down those fighters!” He ordered loudly. Whatever was in those fighters could potential send him back to the void. “Launch all fighters! All batteries open fire on those fighters! Go go go!”

The young lieutenant scrambled out of the room.

Captain Edward sneaked another glance at the wraiths beside them. The wraiths were faster than vikings and much more agile, but they made sure to maintain the position behind the cover of the vikings.

His mission was to escort these wraiths to as close to the planet as possible, and as soon as the signal was given he and his men were ordered to turn around and run, leaving the wraiths behind. Tactically speaking Edward didn’t see how 20 wraiths could damage a well fortified planet, but he didn’t really care. Why would he? As long as he got payed he didn’t care if his boss sent someone not him to die. The wraiths weren’t part of his crew. In fact these wraiths were merely positioned with him before the mission and were completely mysterious for the entire trip here. The only thing the mercenary pilots knew about those fighters was that they were piloted by brilliant pilots and those pilots were very quiet. The only conversation they had were regarding the mission.

Edward was fine with that. He knew from experience the more he knew the more dangerous he was. All he wanted was to get paid.

Suddenly the comm between him and the captain of the wraiths was opened. “Captain Edward.” The captain of the wraiths was a male with mechanical voice. “Our cover is blown. Move on to plan B.”

“Copy that.” Edward nodded and opened up comm to all the viking pilots. “Get ready for some danger boys. It’s going to be a rough journey.”

On the ground hundreds of missile turrets and ground to air batteries poked their heads out. Their computer locked on to the hostile fighters and opened fire.

Blazing batteries and hissing missiles from the ground brought lines of destruction to the skies. Dozens of vikings rose from the ground and moved to meet the mercenary vikings.

Edward responded quickly. He turned his fighter and flipped to the side, and a missile went by his fighter’s belly and smashed into a viking from behind. Endless laser batteries forced the mercenaries to use everything they had to have a chance of surviving. One misstep, and the fighter would be gone and the pilot would be dead.

In merely seconds at least 10 vikings had gone down, and the Moebius fighters were closing in.

The skilled captain unleashed a pair of torpedos on an enemy viking and tilted to the side to avoid the burning mess the enemy viking had been transformed to. Using the brief second he glanced at the mysterious wraiths. He needed them to be alive to complete the mission.

What he saw was astonishing.

Among the 20 wraiths only 1 of them fell. All 19 others were alive. They made tricks that only the most skilled and daring pilots dared making. Sometimes a missile or a laser was just meters away from the fighter, but somehow the meters made all the difference and the fighter survived with a stunning move. All the while the wraiths were advancing.

Edward silently admired the inner strength of the wraith fighters. Even the bravest and more experienced pilot would shake slightly by such close calls, and that slight shake would result in a direct hit, but none of the wraiths shook. The only wraith taken down was because it was covered by a dozen projectiles from all side. It was as if these pilots were machines...

The Moebius command responded quickly as the ground defenses failed to achieve results, and 2 squads of vikings were dispatched to halt the wraiths. These vikings were merely getting started when 19 pairs of Gemini missiles darted toward the vikings. Some of them had a chance to dodge, but the missiles simply followed the vikings as they moved. When vikings turned so did the missiles. When vikings dived so did the missiles. In the end of the first round the 24 vikings only had 5 survivors...and then the second round came...

As the vikings burned and the pilots died, the wraiths kept on going toward the planet...