Rory Swann

Rory Swann is a terran and member of Raynor's Raiders.

He's "a big fun guy" who speaks with a New York accent, and has been described as the "soul of the ship". His main task is keeping the Hyperion together in the years since it was stolen from the Terran Dominion and is constantly working on new technology.

Swann has extensive knowledge of technology and units and is quite opinionated on some of them. He has a very favorable view of the diamondback. On the other hand, in disagreement with Jim Raynor, he derides the vulture as poorly designed. He often addresses Raynor as "cowboy" and "hotshot."

Miner
Rory Swann came from a family of tech-savvy miners. His own understanding of technology was even deeper than theirs, however. Instead of leaving and becoming an engineer, he remained in the mining industry.

He opened a mining operation on Meinhoff at considerable cost, but he enjoyed initial success. However, his operation was soon being crushed by ever-rising taxes. Other operations, secretly under the control of Tavish Kerr, didn't face this burden. Kerr was bribing officials to put rival claims out of business through excessive taxes. Swann tried lodging a complaint against Kerr to Combine officials, but all those involved with Meinhoff had been bribed. Kerr had no interest in sharing profits with him either.

Swann started a miner's revolt, claiming independence from the Combine. However, Combine forces arrived and mercilessly crushed the revolt. Swann himself lost an arm, along with many friends, and was only saved because Raynor's Raiders responded to their distress calls. Swann had nothing left, so he joined the Raiders, becoming their chief engineer.

Rebel
Swann worked to keep the Raiders' spirits up during dark times, remembering his debt to Raynor. He often pushed Raynor to fight the Dominion. He came to establish an armory bowling team during his time on the ship and encouraged people to sign up.

Wings of Liberty
With the return of the zerg to the Koprulu Sector in 2504, Swann aided Raynor in his activities. Mostly this involved procuring weapons and technology, along with providing upgrades for both. At other times he took a more direct role, providing support/reinforcements via special ops dropship on worlds such as Xil where a force had been eliminated by the Tal'darim. During the conflict, Swann had to deal with unwanted individuals – Agrian colonists wandering around in his armory and "pirate" Gabriel Tosh, prompting an inventory check.

After the Raiders stole the Odin from Valhalla, Swann reverse engineered the thor schematics from examining it, and made it less expensive to produce.

The Powder Keg
When Raynor allied with Valerian Mengsk in an effort to retrieve xel'naga artifacts that could deinfest Sarah Kerrigan, Swann was concerned, knowing that the Hyperion's crew was composed of individuals who lost family and friends to the Dominion, hated it, and would not look kindly upon an alliance. However, Raynor didn't care, and promptly justified his decision. Such concerns were well founded but Swann found himself defending Raynor against the outbursts of Raiders such as Milo Kachinsky. In the case of Tychus Findlay, the convict and armorer came to blows, Swann no match for a CMC-clad convict, being thrown easily and crashing down on Kachinsky. Raynor intervened however and put the crew at ease, helping Swann to his feet.

Belly of the Beast
During the invasion of Char, Jim Raynor took Swann into the tunnels to prevent the zerg from using the nydus network in the coming assault on the main hive. The engineer carried the seismic charges to flood the tunnels with lava, and an enhanced perdition turret, "Flaming Betty". He felt uncomfortable on the battlefield, much to Raynor and Findlay's amusement.

The Campaign

 * Main article: Hyperion armory

Rory Swann is usually stationed in the Hyperion's armory and oversees researching upgrades.

Game Unit
Swann appears as a hero marauder in the "Belly of the Beast" mission. He is capable of deploying a Flaming Betty, which is useful for keeping zerg at bay.

He has a melee attack, made with his cybernetic arm, in addition to the standard ranged attack.

Achievements
Rory Swann's portrait is available on battle.net for players who complete the Master Mechanic achievement.

Trivia
Swann's overall look and body build is very similar to that of a dwarf from the Warcraft universe. Like dwarves, he has a mining and engineering background.