THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

"We're planning on...ruining Mengsk's day." You rubbed your jaw. "Can you two ride a power armored suit?"

Swann nodded. "It's damn uncomfortable, but their internals are made to...to..." His brow furrowed and he blinked as two of the mech-marine armors opened with a whirring clunk, revealing their internals. You piloted two of the other marines over, and they started to pull out the interface system your techs had made to make the suits pass cursory scans and operate properly. Soon, a pile of scrap was laid out before the ground, and there were two suits that were reasonably accessible.

"Ah, this is going to be even more uncomfortable, isn't it?" Swann grumbled, but despite that, he scrambled into the power armor, and you started to close it up in a hurry. Sarah's lips pressed to your ear, her voice very soft.

"And the scrap?"

"I, uh..." you gulped. It became rather hard to think of anything when she was pressing up against you like that. It was electrifying, and bloody embarrassing. You were almost fifty, damn it. Your brain, though, hit on the exact idea. Your fingers worked at the controls, micromanaging the packing up of the scrap into the supply crates. They were heavier, but the material compacted more than you'd expect. Once the suits were closed, you breathed a sigh of relief. "At least this way, I don't have to manage M2 and 3." You frowned, slightly - the UI said that both marines were redline units, non-functional.

"So, we're getting my arm, right?" Swann asked.

"And the bug," Stetmann added.

"If only to keep them from Dominion hands," you said, frowning as you started to maneuver the marines - and were fairly pleased that the two Raiders knew how to keep pace and not wander off on their own. Nightmare memories having to escort civilians through narrow canyons while simultaneously fighting off an Aeon invasion flashed through your mind. You pushed it down as the doors opened and the mech marines stomped into the tech-lab of the Galileo. The room was full of technical gear and equipment for maintenance and engineering. Several men were clustered around a relatively bulky looking disk of hard metal, a laser cutter buzzing into the side of it as they muttered around one another. A muffling thump sound came over the coms, then the microphone for Marine-3 managed to actually click into place.
"-s on? Hello?" Stetmann asked, his voice carrying to you and you alone. You grunted affirmation. "Okay, uh, that's the bug. It was designed to go into the com-array in the center of the command and control, uh, center." He coughed. "The problem, um, is, uh...what is ruining Mengsk's day, exactly? Are you going to blow up, uh, the ship?"

"Broadcast a propaganda message," you said, as you started to pilot M1 towards the side of the room where several other tech items were being kept. A scientist walked over, frowning as he saw your marine approaching the dethatched mechanical arm that, due to its stumpiness and bulk. You hefted it up and started to move to tuck it away into the storage crate - it was getting crampt in there.

"Whoa, what are you doing?"

"Gathering evidence, the prisoners are being shipped off to Khoral," you said, flatly.

"We haven't checked to make sure it's safe - who knows what weapons the rebels hid on it," the scientist said. You turned your armored bulk towards him, and wondered just how intimidating a lowered faceplate on a colonial marine power armored set was. It turned out, quite a lot, as the man blanched and backed off. "Uh, but, of course, you can handle that."

"That too," you said, pointing at the bug. The scientist looked back at it, then sighed.

"We haven't cracked the exterior - but it doesn't have enough energy storage to be too explosive based on our deep scans. I think it might be a compu-"

"I don't care," you said, channeling your inner corporal. You'd never come up through the ranks, but you did have eyes, ears and a brain. The scientest gulped.

A few seconds later, your marines were stomping along. "You're so surly," Sarah said, her voice amused. "And yet, when alone with a beautiful girl, you're very pliable. Curious, is it not?"

"I thought you liked surly," you said, flashing her a grin.

She bit her lower lip. That tiny dimple of flesh on teeth was enough to make you almost drive a mech-marine into a wall - but it was what she said next that made you flush. "And your shoulders," she said, grinning slightly. You shook your head, focusing back on the map, your cheeks burning.

"You left enough teeth marks in em," you muttered.

"What was that?" Swann asked.

"Nothing," you said, coughing.

The command and control center laid ahead. You started to do some mental math. From your primary objective perspective, the main thing you wanted was to just get your program into the broadcast. You'd run it, then evacuate the marines out - that'd get Swann and Stetmann to E1 and they could be punted back to Raynor - either using civilian ships or a quantum teleport with sufficient shielding and distance from Raynor's base. But that'd leave the Raiders without their bug planted: Doing it loud would make the Galileo useless for long term surveillance. Which meant the Raiders would be SOL. Course, how much you actually needed some pissant colonial resistance movement when you were the goddamn United Earth Federation with three ACUs was something that you'd have a hard time answering in a hearing if you were questioned about a mission you failed cause you were covering someone else's ass.

The doors were flanked by a pair of marines. "Authorization?" one asked.

---
HEAT: 5/6
[ ] Bluff yourself into the C&C and do this quietly. (Diff 5 bluff check - heavily overheated)
[ ] Get caught heading into the C&C (Fail, many enemies - but you have Stetmann and Swann on the scene, providing assistance.)
[ ] Write In

Note: You've already used your Kerrigan help. She can help you again in the actual fight, if one were to start, but not now.