StarCraft: Decent of Justice

Star Craft: Decent of Justice

Prologue

It was quiet in the dark hallways of the Andromeda-class detention facility. Its occupants sat or slept in their cells. Some stared out the windows at the distant planet below, glowing with the lights of cities and freedom. Well, the limited amount of freedom that the government allowed. The government, like all other governments, had its flaws in it, but this one wasn’t really much of a democracy much less a dictatorship. The leader of this government appointed himself as the new emperor of the known area in the recent vicinity. That included this planet as well. The newly rebuild Korhal had suffered greatly under the last government, The Terran Confederacy. The planet had suffered hardships like drought, famine, a few government overthrows, and also being blasted with a thousand nuclear missiles from orbiting Behemoth-class Battlecrusers. To the Confederacy this was a small “Oops.” to them and acted like nothing had happened. To the survivors, however, they looked at the Confederacy as the biggest enemy they had to face, ever. Until recently, the Confederacy had beaten the rebels, known as the Sons of Korhal, in most fights and had thwarted attempts at overthrows on Confederate planets. But, in the end, the Sons of Korhal had won by using a device called the Psi Emitter which drew in a parasitic alien race called the Zerg which attacked everything that moved on a Confederate planet called Tarsonis, the center of the Confederacy’s power. With their main planet destroyed and infested by the Zerg, the Confederacy fell into chaos and quickly broke apart. As soon as the Confederacy broke, the new Terran Dominion came into view as the saviors of the humans and as the best chance to beat back the Zerg and Protoss menace.

The detention facility served not only as an orbital prison, but also as a spaceport for the Terran Dominion ships that came into and left the system. Ships that carried inmates here were usually flanked by a couple of Wraith-class short-range fighters and a few Valkerie missile frigates, as well as a Science Vessel or two. With this small force, as well as the mounted guns on the prison ship, no prisoners could escape the vicinity without being shot down. Looking down at the planet, one could see the thousands of lights coming from cities all across the world. In the cities, thousands to millions of people lived, worked, struggled, and plundered through their lives without the slightest worry of the overhead orbital prison complex housing some of the most feared and hated criminals the universe had ever known.

While the new emperor, whose name soon became known all across the known Terran universe as Arcturas Mengsk, sat on his throne in the city of Korhal, people all across the planed lived in a lie and in shadow while the truth about what actually is going on outside of the Dominion. In actuality, they were losing. Now on the scene was the United Earth Directorate forces lead by Admiral Gerard DuGalle and his friend Vice-Admiral Alexei Stukov. These two men were the front line men for the Earth forces in this sector of the universe.

Sitting on the bunk of a small, dank cell was a fairly young man with messy black hair and a faint gleam in his eyes. His head was down as he pondered the days “Exercise” routine. He was tired and edgy, but this wasn’t different then the cases of the other inmates. He had been here for a few months and had learned about a few of the others. For instance, in the cell next to him, on his right, was a middle aged man with sandy colored hair. He didn’t talk much, but when he did, it was full of confidence and defiance to the Terran Dominion. He spoke of the atrocities that the “Emperor” had committed during his rise to power. He spoke of the horrors of the alien race known as the Zerg and of the brutal killings of men and women on old confederate planets. This man was one to respect. Sometimes he could be heard scratching at the steel-titanium walls with a stolen knife. This wasn’t unnatural. Everyone had stolen a knife when they had the chance. Most of them had been found and taken away, but a few people, like the sand-haired man, kept theirs hidden.

It had been about a week since the last group inspection. Most of the inmates were beginning to show signs of fatigue or sickness, but other than that, they were as gritty and angry as the day they stepped off of the prison transport. The inmate that was stationed in the cell to the left of the sand-haired man stood next to the bars that closed him in the cell. A group of prison guards walked by, one with a digital notepad, looking at each inmate and making small remarks about each one. When they got to the sand-haired man they stopped and all turned to look at him. One of them remarked to the other guards, “Look here boys! Here’s one of the galaxy’s most wanted criminals. Everyone pay your respects to the legendary Jim Raynor!” A bout of laughter rose up from the group of guards as they turned back and walked away. Jim’s neighbor looked through the bars at Jim and asked, “Are you really Jim Raynor?” The man turned to look at the questioner. “Yeah, that’s me alright. Who are you?” He asked. Hesitating a bit, the man quickly replied, “Uh… I’m William Devian. It’s hard to believe that you’re in here Mr. Raynor.” Jim laughed and shook his head. “No need for formalities son. Call me Jim.”

For the next few days, Jim and Will became close friends. They talked about their histories and about their families. They talked about where they grew up and what they had planned to do before they had been caught. Will had planned to go to school to become a businessman in one of the UED’s larger territories. Jim on the other hand didn’t know what he wanted to do. He said that before he was caught, he had served in the Confederacy’s 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion A.K.A. “Heaven’s Devils”. Before he joined that, his grandfather had taught him many outdoorsman’s skills that later helped him. After his time in the Guild Wars, Jim spent time for insubordination in a prison camp. There he met a marine named Tychus Findlay. After getting to know each other better, Jim and Tychus planned an escape from the camp. But, only Jim got away. Tychus was captured and turned over to the Confederacy.

Jim also talked about his life while he was a marshal on the planet Mar Sara in the Sara system. It was a free system while it lasted. Jim talked about how he managed local law in the wastelands of Mar Sara. He remarked a few times about different criminals that he had caught and had sent to prison. He finished his background of Mar Sara by talking about how it was destroyed by the Protoss. The Protoss had come to that system because of the spread of the Zerg. At the time, no one knew anything about the Zerg. People only really worried about the Confederacy and about outlaws looking for revenge. When the Zerg actually came to the planet and started killing and infesting large groups of people, people started to really freak out. Jim and a group of his men, who all had been captured and sent to prison by General Edmund Duke of the Confederacy after destroying an infested Terran Command Center, were sent down to the planet to retrieve important documents and information from a research center controlled by the Confederacy. Inside, Jim and his men encountered a large number of Zerg creatures that had been held captive there. They had busted out of their cages and had killed a large number of personnel. Jim was fairly vague on a few topics, but Will could tell that he didn’t want to go over them.

It had been a few weeks and things hadn’t been getting better. Will was exhausted almost all the time because of the tough physical labor that the prison execs put the prisoners through. The only time Will could actually relax was when he was talking with Jim. In truth, Will and Jim had been planning and scheming on how to get out of the prison, but it wasn’t just them that were in on it, it was also a small group of Jim’s old group of men, members of Raynor’s Rangers. The basic plan was to knock out the automated gun turrets on the planet facing side of the station. In the weeks during their conversations, Jim and a few of his men had opened up the air vents. The vents lead to different parts of the station and were interconnected to the cells. To get to the turret power station, Jim and Will would both crawl through the vents which were large enough for a person to crouch in and was wide enough to have two people pass by each other. With the knives that they had “acquired” they would cut the power to the turrets and escape aboard a stolen dropship. While in the area of the turret power supply, the small group would raid a weapons storage and take back their CMC-300 standard issue combat suits and their C-14 assault rifles. With these, they would stand a better chance against any resistance in the prison complex.

With the plan all thought out, Jim and Will decided on a date. The operation would begin in three days. That would provide them with the necessary amount of time to prep for the mission. Upon acquiring the dropship, the team would make a brake for the planet. The turbulence would jar them around but wouldn’t shake apart the dropship. Soon, the three days had passed. Jim and Will grabbed a few things that they knew that they needed from the cells and set up their dummies. The dummies were simple pillows shoved under the blankets of the cots that were in the cells. The prison guards weren’t very smart so they shouldn’t notice that the dummies weren’t moving. Jim climbed his way up into the vent shaft and opened the grating that was over Will’s cell. He helped will up and they began to move. The two stopped at each of the cells that held each of the members of Jim’s old group and soon the entire party was moving through the ventilation system.

Making almost no sound at all, the troop moved from level to level till they were at the bottom level. To move down each level, the group went star like, which had each man press against the sides of the vent walls and move slowly down. Once the last man reached the bottom level, Jim called for a halt. He quickly turned around to face the party. “Look people, this is going to be a bit harder than the other levels. This area has a few scattered sound detectors in the walls so keep the noise down.” Jim warned the group. He then turned and continued on, but slowly so not to make a sound. About 500 feet later, Jim again called for a halt, but this time pointed to a grouping of slits of light. Will and the others nodded and moved into a small phalanx position. Jim took his stolen knife and silently slid the blade into a small gap between the “floor” of the shaft and the vent opening itself. Jim pried the opening open and signaled the group to move. One by one, each member of the group climb out of the ventilation shaft and into the hallway. Taking up spotting positions along the hall, each member kept an eye out for any patrolling guards. The beauty of the operation, however, was that the mission took place in the dead of the night.

Once the last member of the group had climbed out of the vent shaft, Jim climbed down as well. There was a door to the right of the vent opening in the ceiling which lead to the main turret power supply for this level. Jim motioned toward the door and moved catlike to the door. With a small grunt, Jim forced the door open. That’s where the trouble began. The door was wired to an automated alarm system. If the door was ever forced open, an electronic signal was sent to an alarm and would sound an alert. This was exactly the case. “Damn! Wasn’t expecting that!” Jim exclaimed. “Hurry and disable the turrets!” Jim added. Will rushed into the room and found the primary power conduit. With a deft swipe of his knife, Will cut through the power cables. Then, turning around, will cut through the secondary power supply. This was important because the turrets would switch to secondary power supply if the primary was ever stopped. Now that both of the power junctions were stopped, Will quickly darted out of the door. Red alarm lights were going off all along the hall. Jim and the others had moved further down the hall and were trying to force open the door to the armory. Will quickly moved over to them and helped to open the door. Once the door was open, everyone moved in, someone hitting the light switch by the door. Outside, the sounds of feet hitting metal could be heard ringing all along the hall. The voices of guards shouting orders were the constant noise that filled the air. Inside, the small group were almost finished putting on their CMC-300 combat armor. These men had been trained thoroughly on putting on their armor in the shortest possible time to be ready for any situation.

Once the group had finished sealing the suits, an automated bio-scanner did a routine check-up of the wearer. Once the lights in the HUD turned green, the men knew that they were set to go. Will was the first to grab his gun. Making sure that there was additional ammunition in the shoulder compartment, Will gave Jim the thumbs up and moved over to the door. As each member of the group finished loading up and stocking up, they took positions behind Will. Jim, last of the group, walked past each of the others and took up the lead. On the count of three, the small task force exploded from the armory and moved down the hall. Behind them small arms fire filled the hall and pinged and ricocheted off of their armor. It was a good thing that their armor was impervious to small arms fire. Guards grouped together at one end of the hall laid out a wall of bullets, but this wasn’t enough to stop the oncoming armored group. The small team burst through the grouping of guards and ran at a dead run toward the docking bay doors. Like they had planned, there was a dropship “waiting” for them in the docking bay. There were assorted technicians in space suits running around doing diagnostics of the ship and making small adjustments to the ship. They all scattered when they saw the group of marines running toward them.

As the marines approached the ship, Jim swore under his breath. The loading ramp was up! “Change of plans, boys! Keep me covered while I open the doors!” Jim yelled over the comm. system. Everyone other then Jim stopped and turned, each drawing their weapons and pointing them toward the entrance. One of the men moved over to the main doors that the group had just come through. He took his gun and shot a few rounds into the base of the door terminal. Sparks jumped up from the base and smoke curled its way upward. Meanwhile, Jim had been struggling to open the door into the dropship. As the hall doors closed with a hiss, Jim finally managed to open the doors. With a grunt, Jim pulled the doors all the way open with the help of the servos in his combat suit. “Doors are open! Everyone who wants to leave had better get in!” Jim called over the comm. Will and the others quickly turned and moved into the main crew area in the dropship and strapped in. Jim moved towards the pilot’s room and sat down. With deft quickness, Jim flipped and toggled different switches. Behind them the ramp slid up into place and the door closed. The instant after the door closed, the cabin pressurized and was ready for launch. Jim, still sitting in the pilot’s chair, hit a button in front of him which was marked “Space port doors” and got ready to take off. Jim throttled the engines and lifted off. The large docking bay doors opened venting atmosphere and debris into space. Jim gunned the engines and moved toward the opening. The doors were now moving open slowly but dead silently. At this rate, Jim thought, we’ll never get out! Jim had two options, the first being more costly then the second. So Jim decided on the second option, the first being waiting for the doors to open all the way. By then, however, members of the staff in the prison complex would have enough time to come and stop the automatic door opening.

With the engines working at top capacity, Jim threw the accelerator into full, after yelling “Hold on to your stomachs!” to the others. With uncanny precision, Jim tilted the craft until it was vertical to the ground and slipped out from between the still opening doors. Automated gunfire rained down on the large ship as it sped away from the station. Warning lights were blinking on and off in the cockpit as Jim maneuvered through a field of flying metal. Just when Jim thought he was out of range of the turrets, yellow proximity lights began to flash. The ship had taken an almost direct hit to one of the main engines. Cursing under his breath, Jim flipped on the comm. “Looks like we’re in for a bit of a rough decent into the atmosphere boys! Hold on to something!” He warned.

It took about half an hour to reach the upper atmosphere of the planet Korhal, but they made it. The team was especially lucky that they had managed to pick up a specialized dropship. This dropship, unlike the others, was made to resist the friction of reentry into a planet’s atmosphere. Other models of dropship would have cooked the passengers and the crew alive during reentry unless stored in a battlecruiser.

It took even longer to reach the stratosphere of the planet. By now, everyone in the passenger hold had been shaken and jarred until their teeth rattled. But each man held steady. They knew that this was their shot at freedom and a chance to get to a better place. Up in the cockpit, Jim saw a fairly large city up ahead and decided to set the craft down in a rocky gorge. As soon as the ship touched the ground, Jim unstrapped himself from the chair and moved back into the passenger hold. “Alright boys, this is our stop. Everyone out.” Jim said with a smile. The men quickly undid their restraints and got up. Will and one of the men, whose name was Marcus Anthony, moved to the door and opened it so that everyone could get out. Jim, however, moved back into the cockpit and opened up one of his shoulder compartments and pulled something out. He placed it on the dashboard and hit something on it. Then Jim turned around and exited the ship.

The group was a few miles away from the city when night fell. In the distance the sounds of life and activity grew ever louder as they neared it. Above and behind them the stars had come out to play their ever changing game as the twin moons crested different hills. The ground took on a silverish hue and the city glowed in the night. As the group walked in the tall, swaying grass a wolf loped by them. It was completely oblivious to them as it stalked its prey in the silent night. Suddenly, from behind the group, a large flash followed by a massive sound of an explosion jumped into the night sky. Most of the group stopped and turned to look at the flames lapping at the rocky gorge walls that they had exited a while ago. Jim, Will, and Marcus were the only ones who had not turned to look at the destruction. Soon the flames died down and all was quiet again. Overhead, police flew by in their cruisers to check out what had just happened. Jim opened a comm. channel with the group. “Let’s move it people. Double time it to the nearest starport so we can get off this rock.” And with that, the comm. went dead.

Perhaps an hour later, after passing through an industrial portion of the city, Jim and his men arrived at a large starport on the upper level of the city. It was a good thing that they had stolen Dominion combat suits. If they hadn’t, they would have been discovered and sent back to the orbital prison. The group had gotten a ride from a local who totally supported the Dominion. On the way to the starport, Jim made up an excuse that they needed to get to the front line for an urgent mission for Emperor Mengsk. After giving the man some money, the group moved toward the staff entrance to the main terminal. They planned to sneak aboard an interplanetary transport and get out of there.

Jim and the group found a ship that was leaving for a distant colony name Dras’ Guntah in the Darltain system. Darltain was the largest planet in that system. Jim knew of it because that was where his ship was, The Hyperion. Jim was unfortunately on one of the planets when Dominion forces came and captured the group with him. Jim told the second in command aboard the Hyperion to orbit one of the moons until he got back. Now he was returning to his ship and would take full command of it again. Soon, he would begin operations of gathering a fleet together and making a move to take back Darltain from the Dominion…