General Warfield stood in the bridge. He was dead silent.
A figure stood in front of him. Her armor radiated purple energy. A pair of tactical goggles covered her eyes. A modified C-10 canister rifle was in her grip.
“General Warfield, Emperor Mengsk’s orders are clear. It is your duty as a soldier to obey them.”
Warfield sighed. “The Umojans and the Raiders just helped us take down the Queen of Blades. If we strike them now...”
“Raynor’s Raiders are a group of rebels and traitors, and the Umojans are separatists who only want to backstab the Dominion in the back while we are fighting the zerg. It is your duty to strike them down.” The figure pressed on. “General, it’s an order.”
“Disobeying an order from the emperor is treason.”
Out of the instinct as a soldier, Warfield looked around. The bridge was filled, but not in a good way. The officers, crew members, and security guards loyal to him were forced to leave. Some of them wanted to stay, but Warfield ordered them to depart. He didn’t want these good men to spill their blood at the hands of their own comrades and still be labeled as traitors after that. He knew that was what would happen if he tried to resist.
These soldiers were replaced by soldiers of the Dominion Special Forces. Warfield knew how blindly loyal these Special Forces soldiers were toward Emperor Mengsk, and if Warfield still refused to follow the order, they wouldn’t hesitate to take him down.
Finally, he gave in.
“Fine. Can you clear the bridge now? I need my men to command the battle.”
The figure nodded. “Also, Emperor Mengsk wants Crown Prince Valerian brought back to him. See that it’s done.”
“Prince Valerian is on his own ship, the Bucephalus. He has his own personnel and security forces loyal to him and him alone. I have no control over that ship.”
The battlecruiser Bucephalus used to be Arcturus Mengsk’s flagship, and the emperor wasn’t the type of person who would give his son his flagship and trust him with it to do whatever he wanted. Valerian took the ship by force, and he did so with the backing of an army loyal to him alone. Gotta say, the prince had some tricks up his sleeves. Not everyone was willing to go against the emperor for the prince.
Valerian knew his father’s power and he knew something like this might happen, so he stayed on his own ship. It proved to be a wise decision.
The figure frowned. She paused for a second before continuing. “In that case, send a boarding party, but focus your forces on the Umojans and the Raiders.” She turned and left the bridge. Most of the Special Forces soldiers left, but two marines stayed behind. Warfield knew they were here to keep an eye on him. If he did anything wrong, these marines would no doubt shoot him.
Sighing again, he turned to the crew members who re-entered the bridge.
“Men, prepare for combat.”
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“Sir, the Dominion Fleet is entering assault formation.”
Jean glanced at the Dominion Fleet through the window before turning to her men. “Where are the Raiders now?”
“Our fighters saw twelve Raider dropships retrieving the Raider boarding party and returning to the Hyperion.”
Jean nodded. Her own Umojan transports have retrieved the rest of the Warden boarding party as well, and she saw from the AIs’ memories that Raynor has managed to save Kerrigan. It was only logical to think he brought Kerrigan as well as the Keystone back into the Hyperion. Jean didn’t expect the Dominion officer to turn on the Raiders, but she wasn’t surprised to see Raynor ordering the slaughtering of all the Dominion soldiers. A man powered by love was dangerous.
At this point, her plan was to keep Kerrigan alive and keep the Keystone from falling into Narud’s hand, preventing him from gaining the energy needed to revive Amon. At this moment, the Raiders had both the Keystone and Kerrigan.
She just needed to secure both.
But the Dominion Fleet seemed to have something else in mind.
“All units prepare for battle. Tell the captains to keep an eye on the Dominion. If they make a move, don’t hesitate to retaliate.” Jean ordered. “Get me Ray…”
Suddenly, a series of explosions rang out from the back of her ship. Every crew member shook and some fell. Jean grabbed onto a table and held herself still.
“Report.” Her ice cold voice brought some calmness into the frightened hearts of the crew members.
“Sir, our primary warp drive has been taken out! It seems to be missiles!”
As someone who took out enemy warp drives for fun, Jean did everything she could to keep her own ship’s warp drive safe. A mini-defensive matrix was installed around the warp drive, adding to the protection of layers of armor. She positioned advanced scanners around her entire flagship just to make sure no cloaked enemy flyer could sneak up on her.
And still, this happened.
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“Where did the attacks come from?”
“The attackers are cloaked.” An officer glanced at the scanners. “But our detectors have picked up nothing. They must have some new toys. Sir, we still have our secondary warp drive...”
Another wave of missiles took that out as well.
Jean tapped her earpiece. “Warden Command Unit C0021 take command!”
Under the confused eyes of the officers and crew members, they suddenly lost control of the ship. A mechanical AI took over.
In the background, the AI calculated the projectile of the missiles, which have come into sight after being shot out, and reverse traced where the fighters should be. The AI didn’t know where exactly the fighters were, but that didn’t stop it from turning its laser batteries on the entire area where the enemy ships might be hiding.
In just seconds, six ships exploded into flames. It was already exhausting for them to power advanced cloaking fields and carry modified missiles on the energy source of a single light fighter. Defensive matrixes were simply too luxurious for them.
The enemy fighters were down, but Jean knew they were just the beginning.
“Sir, the Dominion Fleet is approaching!”
As the Warden Command Unit returned the control of the ship to the Umojan crew members, an officer suddenly noticed what was going on a distance away.
Jean’s eyes twitched. Fight or flight?
The choice was already made for her.
The Hyperion jumped away almost instantly.
“Launch all nukes. All ships prepare for jump back to Umoja.”
Jean knew, in space, the nuclear missiles couldn’t do much against the Dominion Fleet. They were merely a distraction to keep the Dominion ships occupied for the moment. Their sole duty was to buy time for the Umojans to leave.
Jean could try to make a stand, but what’s the point? The Dominion wasn’t a servant of Amon, at least not completely, and taking them down wouldn’t help with Jean’s mission. She would merely be losing her Umojan ships pointlessly.
“But sir, both of our warp drives are down!”
Jean shook her head, didn’t really bothering to waste time explaining. Instead, she walked to the control panel and pressed a few buttons.
Jean was cautious. Really cautious. Even with two warp drives and countless defense, she installed a hidden warp drive on the ship. It was carefully covered just for situations like this.
The Umojan Fleet obeyed, and hundreds of ships entered warp space. Dominion battlecruisers launched fighters, but the priority of both the fighters and the battlecruisers was the nukes. Hundreds of nukes allowed to explode in the middle of the Dominion could still result in a disaster. This made them too occupied to cut off the path of retreat for the Umojans.
However, just before Jean’s flagship was about to leave, a modified Corvette exited warp space just in the rear of the ship. Its tip slammed into the ship’s rear armor, piercing it.
Dominion troopers poured out.
“Security forces, repel the enemy.” Jean ordered, and squads and squads of Umojan soldiers were directed toward the opening. As they moved, Jean returned to the Command Unit C0021.
“Continue with the warping process.”
“Foreign object in contact with the hull. Consequence unpredictable. Action is unadvised.”
“Continue with warping process.” Jean had to admit the Dominion struck at the perfect timing. A few seconds earlier and their transport would be ripped by Umojan battlecruisers. A few seconds later and Jean’s ship would already be gone. At the moment, all the other Umojan ships were in warp space, and they couldn’t help her in quite a while. She needed to get out now. If she was forced to stay back, she could never outrun the Dominion Fleet.
“Affirmative.”
Jean’s ship blinked several times before disappearing into warp space with the corvette attached to it.
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With the threat of the Dominion fleet gone for the moment, Jean turned her attention to the Dominion boarding parties.
“Soldier, report.”
“Sir, they’re Dominion Special Forces! We are being overun...eh! Where did that come from? Ah!”
The radio went quiet.
Jean touched her earpiece.
“Mobilize all Warden unit aboard the ship and terminate the intruders. How long until the warp drive is back online?”
“Around one hour.”
“Then we will hold for one hour.” Jean glanced at a security camera, which showed Dominion forces advancing down the halls of the ship toward the bridge. Umojan forces did their best to stop the invaders, but they were no match for the best of the Terran Dominion.
Something told her this was going to be a tough one.
At a position next to the first point of impact, the spectre that confronted Warfield was leading the charge.
A squad of Umojan marines leaped forward with their guns blazing. The spectre raised her left arm, and all the bullets were stopped with an invisible shield. With short and precise shots, she executed three marines in just two seconds.
The Umojan captain and three other marines that survived knelt down, covered their bodies with their combat shields as best as they could, and fired blindly into the general direction of the enemy.
The figure smirked and jumped forward. Several gauss bullets that went toward her direction were deflected. In just three seconds, the spectre was on top of the four Umojan soldiers. A purple psionic blade replaced her gauss rifle.
The first Umojan marine, along with her shield, was cut in half by a single slash of the blade.
The second marine screamed and swung his combat shield at the spectre. The spectre stopped the full might of the CMC armor and the weight of the combat shield with a single arm and stuck the psionic blade through the man’s helmet with the other arm.
The captain, a short distance away, pulled out a grenade from his side and pulled off the pin. He was about to toss it out when the spectre lashed out with her psionic energy and held him, along with the grenade, in place.
The fourth marine fired blindly, and was shot in the head by a Special Forces marine.
Under the horrified eyes of the captain, the grenade went off in his grip, reducing him and his armor into several pieces.
“Sir, we have lost contact with the Dominion Fleet at Char. It seems like the Umojan ship warped away.” A Special Forces marine reported. Even someone as highly trained and skilled as he was a bit frightened. Normally, on a boarding mission, being trapped without reinforcement meant death. The enemy could easily overwhelm their trapped enemies with sheer number. It might take a while, but it could only end in one way.
“Doesn’t matter.” The spectre let go of what was left of the Umojan captain, which she was still holding still in mid-air. As her reinforcements gunned down encroaching Umojan forces, she turned on her comm to all the soldiers in the boarding party.
“All units, this is Viper.”
“Push forward toward the bridge. Kill anyone in your way.”
“Whoever the commander of this fleet is, we will kill her.”