Jean sat in front of a table in her own room, all alone. She wore a casual black tank top and had her hair scattered on her back. Her fingers tapped on her lips as she sunk deep in her thoughts.
The Hyperion was still in Deadman’s Port. The mechanical gadgets have been purchased and delivered to the armory. Jean hasn’t seen Swann outside the armory since then. Mira delivered the 50 units of mercenary reapers to The Hyperion already. The war pigs were here as well, as shown by the now fully occupied cantine, but the thirty hammer security personnel were still absent.
That was one of the major reasons why The Hyperion was still in the dock instead of on a new mission.
Jean decided to use the free time to go over her plans for the future.
Her final objective was the death of Amon.
Who was Amon?
Amon was a xel’naga. Xel’naga were the creators of both the protoss and the zerg. With almost invincible psionic power and earth shattering physical strength, they were practically gods.
The xel’naga stuck to a belief called the infinite cycle, which encouraged them to travel to different universes and spread life. After the two races, the purity of form and the purity of essence, were created, the xel’naga would no longer intervene what happens in the material world. On one side, this belief allowed the life in the universe to grow without intervention. On the other side, this meant the xel’naga, despite having the power of god, couldn’t use it.
Most of the xel’naga stayed true to their cause, but there was dissent. Amon was the leader of the opposition. In one swift betrayal and supported by some followers, he waged war against those that refused to join him. In the end, Amon was defeated. His body was destroyed and his conscious was sent back to the void. Ever since then, he plotted for a chance to return to the material world.
As a god who lived for millions of years, Amon had countless tricks up his xel’naga sleeve.
First, the Daelaam. The Daelaam protoss, the protoss faction that survived the Brood War, was one of the most powerful factions in the sector. They suffered huge losses during the war against the zerg and the UED, but even with just a skeleton of its former strength, the Daelaam was still enough to wipe out fleets with absolute ease. The Golden Armada, a fleet composed of both Aiur and Nerazim ships designed to retake Aiur, was one of the most powerful fleets in the sector. The Dominion Fleet was like a child against the Golden Armada.
Jean knew from her memory that a while into the future Amon would control all the Aiur warriors via the shared psychic network, the Khala, Daelaam protoss had. A few protoss, including hierarch Artanis, managed to sever their nerve cords and be cut off from the Khala and thus Amon, but most of the Golden Armada fell. In the original history, the Golden Armada would remain as one of the sharpest blades of Amon until they were finally freed in the battle of Aiur.
Second, the Tal’darim. Taken away from Aiur during the war among the xel’nagas by Amon himself, the Tal’darim were a group of fanatics that worshipped Amon as a god.
The Tal’darim were known as “The Forged.” Their social structure was much crueler compared to the Daelaam. The Tal’darim believed in survival of the strongest, and every Tal’darim was a fearless warrior as the weaker ones were already gone. The Tal’darim Death Fleet was as menacing as its name suggested. In the original world, the Tal’darim, under Highlord Ma’lash, would sweep through the sector and spread death and destruction to everyone they came across. That should be ended by a power struggle that ended Ma’lash’s rule and turned the Tal’darim against Amon, but before that the Death Fleet was one of Amon’s top warriors. Given the circumstance and the influence of the dark god, it said something about the power of the Tal’darim.
Third, the hybrids. Since a while ago, Amon sent his xel’naga follower, Narud, into the material world. Narud had several aliases through the Brood War, but for now, he was Doctor Emil Narud, the head of the Moebius Foundation. With the support of Dominion Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk, Narud was able to conduct experiments on combining protoss and zerg powers. The result was the hybrids. Built after the image of the xel’naga, hybrids had a combination of protoss psionic power and zerg physical might. Jean didn’t know how powerful hybrids were in real combat, but she knew damn well a couple hundred mercenaries couldn’t do anything about these beasts.
Fourth, the Moebius Foundation. A research facility, the Moebius Foundation hired its own paramilitary forces, the Moebius Corps. They consisted of both mercenaries and security units. Armed with the best equipment and blessed with the best training, the Moebius Corps was a powerful presence. When Amon broke his cover and launched war on all lifeforms of the sector, the Moebius Corps would fall at the hands of the hybrids they created. Ordinary terran stood no chance against the psionic power of the hybrids as their minds were filled with an ultimate desire for death. Fearless and elite, the Moebius Foundation would join force with other Amon’s forces to destroy the sector.
Fifth, Amon’s Brood. Amon enslaved individual broods that were scattered across the sector after the death of the Overmind. These zerg weren’t as evolved or mutated as the best zerg factions like Kerrigan’s brood. They were weaker in quality compared to Amon’s other followers, but they did have the numbers to make up for that.
Ok. Now that the enemy forces were analyzed, it was time for Jean to check out what she had.
One out dated Behemoth battlecruisers. A couple hundred mercenaries who she wasn’t the commander of. One emotionless girl.
Sounds fair.
Jean started thinking. She needed to do two things: Strengthen herself and weaken the enemy.
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Strengthen herself: Raynor’s Raiders was a good place to start. From what Jean knew, Raynor would come across a lot of allies as he made his way to the final battle on Char. Tosh, for one thing, was a powerful ally. His spectres were corrupted by Amon due to their intake of terrazine and later joined the Moebius Corps, but they should be a powerful group of special forces units before that. Mira Han and Valerian Mengsk were influential as well. Mira had a fleet, and Valerian was Arcturus Mengsk’s son and the crown prince of the Terran Dominion. In the future, he would take over the Dominion after his father’s death at the hand of Sarah Kerrigan. The Dominion Fleet wasn’t as strong as the Death Fleet or the Golden Armada, but they were not for show either. The power of terran technology should never be underestimated.
Of course, that wasn’t enough. In the original history, even at the very end when Raynor turned Kerrigan back to human, Raynor’s Raiders was still nothing but a small group of rebels. They didn’t have a fleet. They didn’t even have more than two battlecruisers.
Jean needed to change that. She needed to build her own army and her own fleet. The Raiders was a good place to begin with, but Jean needed to do much more than simply be a lieutenant if she wanted to complete her mission. Granted, in the original history, Amon was destroyed, but Jean wasn’t going to sit back and hope Amon would eventually die.
Jean tapped a piece of paper on the desk.
She needed an army that obeyed the order of her and her alone. She was nobody, so the ideal scenario was for her to stay among the Raiders while secretly turning more and more Raiders from Raynor’s men to hers. That way, the stronger the Raiders become, the stronger her forces would be. In the end, when she needed to, she could make Raynor meet an accident and find herself as the commander of the Raiders.
In order to do that, she would need to make Raynor’s Raiders more and more powerful while climbing up the chain of command herself.
That also reminded Jean of another thing. She held out her wrist and looked down at the silver watch.
The silver watch was the only thing she received from the so-called the Supreme One. It was more than an announcer of her mission. From the memory she received, Jean knew the watch could also function as a storage device.
Apparently, the watch was connected to some sort of private space that only Jean could access. She could throw whatever object she had into her watch and take them out whenever she needed to. Jean glanced at the paper and pointed her watch at it while thinking inside what she wanted. The next second the paper disappeared.
Jean closed her eyes and let her thoughts flow to the watch. She couldn’t see anything, but she could sense what was in her watch. A piece of paper laid there peacefully.
Jean knew the storage space in her watch could be carried with her wherever she went. This universe was just her first stop, and she would eventually leave. When she did, the only units she could bring would be the ones she had in her watch.
The watch could only store non-living objects, so as for now Jean could only use it to smuggle a few weapons, but that might change in the future.
There were a lot of units in this universe that weren’t living. For example, the protoss Purifiers were a group of mechanical units controlled by AI conscious. Jean hasn’t tried before, but there was a reason for her to think they could be put into her watch.
Sure, Jean didn’t have the Purifiers now, but these robot warriors opened up a new path for her: Could she build an army of AIs programmed to obey her? They could be put into her watch and could be taken out whenever she needed to. Plus, she could tell the idea to the rest of the Raider leaders and paint it as a path to victory. One of the Raiders’ problem was the lack of men. Mercenaries were unreliable, and loyal men and women willing to die for freedom were rare and usually unskilled. If the Raiders could build an army of AI warriors, then the only limit to their forces would be the amount of resources they had. They would be like the zerg: As long as the resources were in place, the AI forces would be endless.
Of course, Jean knew things wouldn’t be this easy, but she silently took down some notes in her mind before turning her attention to the second part of her plan.
How to weaken Amon's forces.
First, the Daelaam. Jean knew there was very little she could do to warn the Daelaam protoss. The khala was a part of their religion for tens of thousands of years. If she walked up to a protoss and told him one day the khala would be corrupted, the templar would draw his blades and strike her down for heresy. She had no way of proving her words to Daelaam hierarch Artanis.
However, she could try to warn Dark Prelate Zeratul. Zeratul was a dark templar who first realized Amon’s presence. He was also a friend of Artanis. If she could tell what Zeratul what she knew, he might be able to warn the Daelaam.
Then again, it was possible the Daelaam were too stubborn to listen. After all, the firstborn considered themselves children of god. If that was the case, then the Daelaam would surely become pawns of Amon, and Jean would have no choice but to weaken them as much as possible and destroy them if situation permits.
In the original history Artanis, with the help of the Nerazim, the Purifiers, and the Tal’darim, were able to trap Amon’s presence with a keystone and banish Amon into the void by severing the nerve cord of the templars, but that was hardly possible in real life. The Golden Armada could blast any opposition away before any attempt of resistance could be formed.
The Tal’darim social structure made them deadly, but Jean keenly sensed an opportunity. In the Tal'darim world, the Highlord had all the power. The sense of obedience of lower Tal’darim warriors was even stronger than their loyalty toward Amon. In the original history, after Alarak became the Highlord, he was able to turn the entire Death Fleet against Amon. The millions of years of absolute faith was wiped out as the entire Death Fleet went after Amon.
If Jean could abuse that, she might be able to turn the Tal’darim to her side even earlier than in the original history. Of course, in order to do that, she needed someone on the inside. That might be difficult, but Jean remembered to search for opportunities to accomplish that.
If Jean could find a way to destroy the Moebius Foundation, she might be able to end both Narud, the hybrids, and the Moebius Corps. That was not going to be easy, but it was nonetheless a possibility.
Jean didn’t know an easy way to deal with Amon’s Brood, but an army should be enough.
Of course, all the possibilities and plans Jean listed were nothing but thoughts. She would need an army to put them in place, and in order to do that, she needed to play the part of a normal, trustworthy lieutenant.
As Jean finished her thoughts, the computer screen on a table started to blink. Jean typed a few keys, and the projection of the mechanical adjutant appeared.
“Lieutenant Turner. Your presence is required in the bridge.”
“What is it?”
“The hammer securities have arrived. Commander Raynor is requesting a meeting to discuss the further objectives of the Raiders.”
Jean nodded and started changing.