An hour later, the highway connecting the colonist camp to the starport was starting to get infested by zerglings and hydralisks, and yet Jean refused the suggestion to clean the zerg forces. She needed to complete the mission with minimal losses, and the best way she could do that was by catching a timing and hit the zerg forces with overwhelming firepower before they could be reinforced. The adjacent calculated the amount of time the zerg would need to mine enough minerals and hatch the first group of combat units.
And the estimated time to leave was getting closer and closer.
“Dr. Hanson. How are the conveys doing?” Jean opened another transmission with Hanson. The SCVs were mining out the minerals and vespene gas on the site. These resources were on the command center and would be brought back to the Hyperion to solve the pressing financial issues.
“We are ready to go.” Hanson replied. Jean looked out the command center and saw the soldiers were converging. She nodded. “Commander Raynor, please escort the convoy to the starport. Be careful and minimize the losses.” Or else everything will be for nothing.
“Gotcha.”
The seven transports started to advance onto the highway in a long trail. Marines in both blue and white armor walked along the vehicles. They carried gauss rifles that could punch a hole in a meter thick metal board. Blue armor belonged to Raynor’s Raiders and white armor belonged to the colonists. Along them were firebats in large red armor and medics in white armor. Firebats could roast zerg into a barbecue and medics could heal other soldiers. Raynor stood among his men with a modified grey armor and an enhanced gauss rifle.
“Get this building into the air and fly above the convoy.” Jean ordered. She needed to leave the camp because it is defenseless now and every men have left with the transports, but the last time she checked the Hyperion was still dealing with the corrupters. With limited firepower the corrupters were wounded but alive and fighting. The adjacent obeyed and lifted the command center, allowing Jean to observe the trail of vehicles from above.
A few zerg units were scattered on the highway. As soon as they saw the vehicles, the zerglings and hydralisks swarmed upon the convey, but there was more than enough marine to spread down a wave of lead upon the beasts. Hydralisks were ripped apart by the gauss rifles while zerglings were roasted by firebats. Medics healed the armor of the units wounded by the spines and claws. Everything was going well, but Jean wasn’t satisfied at all.
“Commander Raynor, you have ten minutes until a swarm of zerg reinforcement will arrive. They will not be able to overwhelm you but neither can your forces clean them up quickly.” Jean urged. “I suggest you speed up.”
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“Copy that, kid.” Raynor replied confidently. “Move!”
Suddenly some chaos appeared at the end of the convoy. “What the hell?” Raynor groaned. “Lieutenant?”
“One of the transports have been damaged.” Jean tapped something on the screen. fifty colonists aboard are trapped. They will never make it to the starport on foot. Without any sort of armor they couldn’t keep up with the convoy. “Fifty colonists are trapped. We don’t have time to save them.” She said cruelly.
“What the hell Jean?” Raynor complained loudly as if he was insulted. “I am not going to leave innocent people behind to the zerg! All units! Hold your ground and wait for the colonists. We don’t leave anyone behind!” The entire convoy stopped, and the colonists from the last transport started to walk out of their disabled vehicle as quickly as possible.
Jean’s eyes twitched. She couldn’t understand the rebel commander. If he stayed, the colonists would die anyways because they were too slow. He might as well abandon them now and get to the starport with the rest of the colonists to cut the losses. That was a choice any logical commander would do.
But it wasn’t her call, nor was the infamous rebel leader Jim Raynor a rational commander. She could only stand in the CC and watch as the entire group slowed down significantly. Even though she was technically the commander, Raynor was her boss and had the ultimate loyalty of his men, and he gave a direct order.
A few minutes passed, and the Raiders were still a distance away from their destination. Jean realized what she feared the most had happened. More and more zerg units started to charge toward the convoy. Most of them were gunned down instantly, but as time passed more and more zerg survived long enough and stalled the convoy longer and longer. All of the zerg were blasted into a pile of flesh and bones, but Jean knew it was useless. These zerg were bio weapons that could be mass produced as long as the resources were sufficient. The zerg were endless while the Raiders were running out of ammo. “Commander Raynor, we need to speed up.”
On the ground, Raynor groaned and shot down a hydralisk. He pulled a spine out of his shoulder plate. It didn’t penetrate the metal barrier. “We are doing our best here.” One of the transports was penetrated by several spines and exploded. All fifty colonists were killed instantly. “Damn it!” He cursed, but there was nothing he could do. He was a legend, but he was also human.
On the command center, Jean didn’t say anything as the blue dots that represented terran on the radar was gradually surrounded by more and more red dots that represented zerg. There was nothing she could do. All that was special with her was her tactics, which were rendered useless when she had an overlord above her. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she saw an especially large red dot appeared on the radar and started advancing toward the transports. She saw what the unit was and frowned.
“Ultralisk incoming!” She stated coldly, but these words struck fear into Raynor’s heart. Ultralisks...