93 – Making Rounds
"What the hell happened? We ain't seen the zerg in years – why attack Mar Sara now?"
Yuriko concealed her shudder within her armor as she watched events on the bridge play out just like that had in Mann's memories, organic engrams impossibly translated into that of a machine's data banks, twisted and flipped around again through projectors to present a mixture of movie and memory melded together. Though on occasion the lines had differed, on other occasions they had not. It was singularly disturbing as much as it was a relief, to know that certain things were still predictable, knowable, controllable. She'd had a few years to mull over what that meant for her own universe, for the possible future, and while most of the time she preferred not to think about it at all, her own inner control freak was just a little relieved.
Though however much that inner control freak was something inherent to her progenitor, her reaction to the painfully lackadaisical lifestyle of Mann's last incarnation, or something else, she didn't know.
The psychic watched as Raynor slumped into his chair, and slipped away from the bridge. The bridge crew would have things to discuss, things that she didn't need to be bothered with at the moment. Instead, she slipped into an unoccupied storage room and shut the door, withdrawing a small communicator disc and placing it in the center of the floor. It lit up and blinked twice, to which she tapped it once with her foot in response, before a life-sized hologram lit up and displayed Mann himself, this time in a business suit rather than his ridiculous pirate getup.
"Yuriko! How are you doing!"
"I want you to slam the zerg," she answered without warning.
Mann blinked at her.
"Uh…,"
"It's one thing to talk about them in abstract, up close and personal…," she sighed, taking off her helmet and wiping a hand through her hair. "It's something different. I know earlier I said-,"
"Yuriko," his voice was gentle. "I get it. Don't worry about it. I can break Kurtz and the others on them. Wipe out three major pirate groups, block off some zerg, win some good PR for the company to come sweep in and rescue people. Good times for all…except the zerg."
"I…thanks," she sighed, sitting down on a crate and shutting her eyes.
Back on her earth, the number of bodies didn't matter when using psychokinetic burst. She'd wiped out dozens of Russian conscripts at a time, and dozens more of conscripts from the other Soviet nations, with a single one. Torn apart tanks and battleships, though the latter were exhausting to do. And she'd been weaker than Yuriko Omega at the time. Since the Ancient healing device had been used on her, the irregularities and degradation caused by the cloning process had been fixed, she was as powerful as the original had been. For all intents and purposes, save her memories and experiences, she
was the original. Only, because of those essential differences, she wasn't. In power and appearance, sure, but that was it. In the years since then, and with the benefit of her Umojan training, Yuriko was rather certain that she was stronger with a greater repertoire than her progenitor had ever managed to be.
"On the bright side, the original broadcast had it be 'casualties in the billions'," Mann pointed out softly, "Instead, it's just thousands, the vast majority of them MannCo, a small amount of Dominion, and the rest being those too stupid or stubborn to live."
Yuriko paused, eyes opening again as she scrutinized him.
"What was that last part?"
In response, Mann somehow altered his appearance, becoming a white haired and tubby old man wearing flannel and jeans. One that hunched slightly and put more weight on the left leg.
"I ain't never done left my land in all mah years," he screeched with a painfully overexaggereated accent. "Neither did mah paw, or his paw, or his paw-paw!" He snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Ain't there been no storm we ain't weathered, ya ain't taking
me offa mah land, ain't no alien scaring me offa
my-," he was cut off as a zergling leapt onto him, messily killing him with cartoonish sound effects befitting an 8-bit video game.
Yuriko snorted as the image flickered to show Mann standing there once more in his business suit.
"People like that," Mann said calmly, lips twitching. "The ones who refused evacuation because 'it's all a hoax', or 'we'll weather it just fine thank you very much' and so on. I have never, ever, gotten people like that," he shook his head. "But they seem to exist in every universe."
"Perhaps they can't leave due to medical conditions?"
"Maybe. But if we're offering to take their whole kit and caboodle with them, with comped medical services, I don't much take stock in any excuse," Mann shook his head again.
"I suppose you might be right there," Yuriko sighed. "How is Mar Sara?"
"Evacuating just fine," Mann smiled. "We've got plenty of Hercules ships, though they're just altered cargo transports rather than military-grade dropships. We'll have to let the zerg have the planet for now, though."
"Good, good," Yuriko bowed her head. "Oh, the collider cannon rifle works just fine on the zerg. I didn't even have to switch to imploder shots except for the hives."
Some might have been terrified of holding carefully miniaturized superweapons on their back disguised as a mere rifle, but Yuriko had watched the years of work that Mann had put into making it a functioning weapon. Unlike before, when he'd been simply smashing technologies together and making them work despite inefficiencies and lack of congruency with sheer power by zpms and his own odd instinctual understanding of them, the rifle on her back was something else entirely. Something he'd actually had to work at to make functional, a wonder of shrinking technologies, teleporters, and zpms mixed with a certain sort of alloy that could survive plunging through a star. The only thing they hadn't been able to test was its effectiveness on the zerg, as doing so would immediately alert the Swarm.
Plus, if anything started to go wrong, it would automatically transport itself away from her just in case it was in the middle of exploding.
"Nice to hear! Especially because I'm pretty sure people would freak out at a vacuum imploder warhead being fired out of your hand-held gun," Mann said, nonplussed. "I would be one of them. It's meant for sniper function, after all."
Yuriko snorted.
"I know, I know," she waved him off. "Still, I just wanted to check in with you, now that we're off Mar Sara. How is the cow doing?"
"And you know I'm happy to hear from you," he smiled at her. "And Dude is just fine. I think she's getting a bit lonely, though, so I'm thinking of maybe getting her a friend or two."
"That's good to hear," Yuriko smiled at the thought of the lazy fat cow that was the third of their universally displaced number.
Some people had dogs. Some people had cats. Yuriko and Mann had Dude the cow.
Sadly, her senses informed her that their time for privacy was coming to an end.
"Sorry Mann, it seems like Raynor has finished talking with the rest of the bridge crew and is wondering where I went. Is there anything else I need to be notified about?"
"Agria's getting hit hard – harder than it should be, if I'm being honest. I think that us repulsing the zerg the first time around pissed them off. If you want to get Raynor to help out, I'm sure it couldn't hurt. Can give him pretty hefty bonus for doing it, if that helps motivate him."
"I don't know if bribing him is the right way to go, Mann," Yuriko crossed her arms.
"Nothing wrong with rewarding a good deed, and the extra money might help keep his crew in line," Mann replied, cocking an eyebrow. "Either way, sounds like you need to get going."
"I'll think about it," Yuriko sniffed as the communicator dimmed.
She then scooped up the communicator disk and quickly returned to the bridge, just in time to hear Raynor speaking.
"-and I don't know where she – oh, there you are Yuriko."
"James," she inclined her head before looking over the far more professionally dressed man next to him. "And you are Matt Horner, of Raynor's Raiders. Nice to meet you," she thrust out a hand.
Horner, to his credit, only hesitated for a second before reaching out and shaking her hand.
"I hear we have you to thank for saving so many lives down on Mar Sara, Ms. Thirteen," he said looking her up and down. "Never heard of a ghost that strong, not for a long time at least."
"I prefer just the general term of psychic commando, not ghost or what have you," she smiled mischievously at him before looking over to the other important member of the crew on the bridge who looked at her most nervously. "And you must be Egon Stetmann! It is a pleasure to meet you," she said warmly, offering him her hand as well.
"Ah, uh, thank you? I…you've heard of me?" The scientist stammered at her before realizing he hadn't actually shaken her hand yet, only then doing so with wary rapidity.
"Of course," Yuriko kept up her smile, even as she cautiously caught a small upward swell of the frankly startling speed of the remarkably intelligent mind before her. "MannCo is always interested in truly bright minds that manage to retain their ethics."
"Hey, woah now," Raynor interspersed himself between them. "Don't you go trying to poach my Chief Technology Officer."
Yuriko chuckled.
Interest, alarm at said interest, self-recrimination, and more blitzed through Stetmann's mind, while Raynor's own was full of a constant flow of suspicion at her mixed with genuine alarm that Stetmann might sell out for enough money. Which, to be fair, she certainly had access to through Mann. The things that Egon Stetmann was apparently capable of were staggering, especially in the short amount of time to do them. The one known as Matt Horner regarded her with remarkable calm, considering what Raynor had told him of her abilities. That did not mean that he didn't regard her as a clear and present threat, of course. He absolutely did, he just also trusted that he'd do his best to go down fighting if it came to it. Ironclad loyalty, there, to Raynor, though it was beginning to rust over at this point.
"I promise you that MannCo won't try to offer him seven figures in credits per month until after Mengsk is dealt with," she said, enjoying how the minds of almost every single crew member on the bridge buzzed with emergent greed at the number.
Only Raynor and Matt did not. Raynor because he already knew the amount of money she was capable of throwing around, Matt because he'd instead immediately focused on what that amount of money could do for their revolution rather than anything selfish.
"Yeah…well…I'll hold you to that," Raynor waggled a finger at her.
"Mmm," Yuriko just chuckled again. "Anyhow, I was actually wondering what's going to happen next? I presume that with The Swarm coming into play, just about everyone's plans have gone out the window."
"The Revolution is not out of the window," Matt insisted, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at her.
"I think we both know that ain't what she meant, Matt," Raynor rolled his eyes.
"Relax, pretty boy," Yuriko huffed, somewhat enjoying how Matt recoiled ever so slightly. "All I want to know is what's next, Raynor."
"Haven't decided yet," Raynor rolled his shoulders as he keyed up the tactical display, showing the Korprulu Sector, and more specifically two blinking lights within it. "We're still trying to figure it out, there are calls coming in from all over, people are panicked."
"The Dominion's pulled back its fleet solely to protect the core worlds," Matt's disgust was audible in his voice, his mind ablaze with earnest and righteous fury that was an interesting contrast to the molten and darker anger within Raynor. "There's a lot of people who got left behind out there…though I hear that MannCo is actually defending a lot of them," he said with respect in his voice.
"We have a lot of clients," Yuriko said as she leaned against a wall, arms crossing under her chest. "Easier to get them when people aren't sure if the Dominion is going to really fight for them. Looks like they were right."
Matt just made a 'hmph' noise as he looked back to Raynor.
"As it is, Commander, the two most major calls I've found are on your display. The first is the colony world Agria, the second…well, your convict friend added in some information."
"Agria?" Yuriko said with seemingly sincere curiosity. "MannCo has a small defense force there, contracted by the colony leader, Ariel Hanson."
Raynor clicked the relevant flickering light, causing the tactical screen to zoom in, while simultaneously bringing up a garbled distress call from Ariel Hansen herself.
"You know about this woman, Yuriko?" Raynor looked back at her.
Yuriko made feigned needing to think about it.
"Daughter of a famous geneticist and a superlative terraformer. Takes after the latter, her father, in terms of altruism. Incredibly intelligent, got her degree on Tarsonis and found Confederate high society disagreeing with her," she rattled off to the slowly widening eyes of Matt and Raynor. "Returned home with her father, leaving her mother on Tarsonis."
A quick flinch from Raynor had her eyes flick to him, old angry memories of the Fall of Tarsonis bubbling up guiltily in his mind. He hated himself for his part in that, even if he'd been tricked into it.
"Of course, then last year pirates attacked the colony last year, seeking its advanced terraforming technology and high quality genetics tech. The Dominion forces on the planet repulsed the pirates…at the cost of many innocent colonists in the crossfire dead at Dominion hands," she continued, feeling the anger in both men grow just that much brighter. "Which is when we contacted her to establish a supplementary defense force that could hopefully protect them better than the Dominion. There was friction, sure, but the Dominion's pulled out entirely."
Yuriko paused then, waiting for them to say something for a few more seconds before continuing.
"Dr. Hanson herself is quite brave. She dove into the crossfire to save dozens of colonists trapped by the fighting who would have died thanks to the Dominion's carelessness."
"That tears it, then," Raynor wheeled on Matt. "Get us to Agria, ASAP, Matt. That artifact'll keep, we ain't got no guarantee the same'll be for Agria."
"Understood sir," Matt nodded before he turned about. "Set coordinates for Agria and warp!"
Yuriko just watched them as the crew went to work before leaving the bridge once more. Even as the ship warped out, she was heading down to the armory and cargo bay areas. It would be a small bit of time before they emerged over Agria, but enough for her to find Rory Swann in the bowels of the ship. Of course, it helped that she could simply look for the mind of another genius that Raynor had managed to get onto his side with a mixture of charisma and their gratitude saving their live. It wasn't like the entire ship was populated by them, but that he had more than one was still impressive on its own.
"Hey, I know you, you're that crazy powerful ghost everybody's been talking about," was the first thing the portly engineer said to her as she entered the cargo bay, his prosthetic arm snapping as he said it.
The cargo bay was remarkably empty save for her ride, though Yuriko supposed that as a good thing for her. On the other hand, it just exemplified how threadbare Raynor's Raiders really were. She'd noticed that for a revolution trying to take on the vast strength of the Dominion, they really only had the basic marine and medic, and many of them with suits of CMC armor less advanced than those of the Dominion. They had the personnel, at least, for other things, based on the mind's she'd read on her way down. Pilots, mechanics, and so on, just without the gear to properly utilize their skills.
Time to change that.
"Scuttlebutt moves fast," she replied as she came closer, "Yuriko Thirteen," she offered her hand which Rory firmly shook.
"Rory Swann, Chief Engineer of the Hyperion," he grunted, eyes roving all over her as he did so.
Contrary to what it might have looked like, Yuriko could actually tell and marvel at how focused the engineer's mind was on not her body, but what her body carried. The magnetically locked armor panels on her ghost suit, obviously advanced nature of said environmental suit, and of course the rifle she still carried on her back. He was wholly focused on the technological aspect, mind whirring about like a series of thumping gears and cogs compared to the near-aimless lightning storm that was Stetmann. She could also see that he was intensely curious about the super vulture, whose bubble shielding had kept anyone from getting close enough to do more than look at it while resisting scanners and sensors alike.
"That…is some fancy stuff you got there," he said as the handshake ended and he stepped back, hands going to his hips. "Plus that crazy bike of yours, apparently. What is all that, Umojan?"
"Proprietary to MannCo, actually," she smiled brightly at him.
"Ah, dang, and lemme guess, you guys've got licensing fees out the wazoo," he groaned, leaning back to rest against the railing as he said it.
"Oh, we don't license out any of my personal equipment," Yuriko shook her head, gesturing over herself and then over towards where the super vulture – currently not in stealth mode – still hung slightly off the ground. "Or that, unfortunately."
"Course not," the engineer said sarcastically. "Why give out plans on the vulture that's three times the size of regular vultures, has a laser cannon, grenade launchers, a bubble shield that doesn't even look like Protoss, and stealth capabilities?"
"Exactly," Yuriko nodded sagaciously. "Of course, since we're heading for a planet with a MannCo force on it, I figured I could give out
something, though."
That caught Rory's attention like few other things could.
"Oh yeah? I've heard about MannCo. They can throw around some serious cash when they have a mind to it."
"Indeed," Yuriko produced a data stick. "Or, in this case, schematics."
Rory reached forward with remarkable alacrity as she held it out, only to delicately take it into his flesh-hand as she gave it up without struggle.
"Schematics? So, you heard we took some computer damage, huh?"
In a manner of speaking, yes, but she didn't need to tell him the specifics. Not that she specifically knew them either, only that the Raiders had been reduced to quite a basic arsenal. Hardly the grand army that they would later purportedly gather to themselves.
"Your arsenal has been quite reduced, correct? Well, if we're going to help MannCo, MannCo will help you," was her answer instead.
Rory squinted at her before inserting the data stick, downloading the files on it into the main fabricators of the Hyperion. Then he began reading just what was being put onto the Hyperion's systems.
"Holy hell," he coughed, mechanical arm snapping with his heightened emotions, "You…how did…," he sputtered as began tapping his way through the files. "I ain't even heard of some of these things before. What the hell is a MULE? Or...hang on, goliaths,
diamondbacks…how did you get any of these?"
Yuriko just gave him an earnest bow of respect.
He had fought against unfair oppression, and though his rebellion on Meinhoff had failed, she could not fault his spirit nor his reasoning.
Also, her bowing to him just confused him. Which amused her.
"These are upgraded schematics too!" He shouted after her after she'd turned to leave, his voice and mind now thick with suspicion. "All this to make sure we help save some MannCo guys?"
"Why, of course Mr. Swann," she smiled back at him.
He did not trust mercenaries, not even a little bit. It was a brilliant red flare of suspicion amongst the overwhelming desire to examine the schematics she'd given to him, a distrust that he'd held for just about his entire life. MannCo, at the very least, had the benefit of being on average far more finely dressed than most 'dirty mercs' as he'd normally think of them.
"…we'll…all right then, I guess," he trailed off, brilliant mind sputtering in confusion for the first time in a long time.
