The Moebius Factor

The Moebius Factor is a StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty mission. Raynor's Raiders helped evacuate the on Tyrador VIII from the zerg.

Background
At the onset of the Second Great War, the hired Raynor's Raiders to acquire alien artifacts. This put the Raiders in competition with Sarah Kerrigan, who also sought them.

The Terran Dominion was criticized for not adequately defending Tyrador.

Kerrigan eventually discovered the Foundation were the ones providing the Raiders with the location of artifacts. The Queen of Blades attacked Tyrador VIII to raid the Foundation's data cores for that information.

Dr. Emil Narud, the leader of the Foundation, summoned the Raiders to destroy the cores before the zerg could capture them.

Race for the Cores
Infested Kerrigan confronted Jim Raynor, but the commander was not intimidated. Narud gave control to the Raiders of their medivac dropships so that they could transport their troops around the city, avoiding most of the zerg. The Raiders saved the scattered remaining mercenary troops of the Foundation, and destroyed the data cores before Kerrigan could find the location of the artifacts. Raynor asked Narud why Kerrigan desired the artifacts that much, the scientist telling him that it was because she feared them as she feared the xel'naga who created them.

The Betrayal
Following the mission, Jim Raynor reminisced about Arcturus Mengsk abandoning Sarah Kerrigan on Tarsonis.

...Who We Choose to Be
Raynor fell asleep in Hyperion's cantina and was awakened after experiencing a recurring bad dream. Matt Horner attempted, with expected lack of success, to counsel the rebel leader against holding on to the past and gave Raynor his old Confederate marshal badge. Horner departed after reminding Raynor that the Raiders needed his leadership.

Conversations after the Mission

 * Main article: Campaign quotations''

Gameplay & Video Walkthrough
The starting base is on the high ground on an island. Use the medivac dropships introduced for the mission to deploy to the rest of the city. Do not neglect base defense while pursuing the mission, use siege tanks to destroy the spine crawlers and keep them stationed with bunkers for defense. Goliaths for anti-air also work well. The main objective is to destroy the data cores before Infested Kerrigan reaches them. Squads of War Pig mercenaries with the occasional Spartan Company goliath will appear on the map when the player approaches the data cores and can be resuced. The player should build four and eventually six medivacs, not only to transport troops to battle but to provide extra healing and extra room for any rescued units.

The first two data cores are not very well protected. The first can be destroyed immediately by flying the marines the player receives to the high ground nearby and destroying it from there. The second core requires a larger force but isn't hard to get to. The third data core can be accessed fairly easily as well but has a larger garrison including several spore crawlers that will attack the medivacs, and possibly brood lords. A nydus worm will erupt while the player is attacking each core, focus fire on it when it erupts to stop the zerg from emerging. Nydus worms also periodically appear outside the player's base, wait for the first wave of units to fall then head out and destroy the worm. This is why destroying the spine crawlers early in the mission is important, so the worms are defenseless.

Do not go after the brutalisk immediately. Attack after building momentum by destroying one or two cores, and rescuing some mercenary squads. Irradiation is useful if science vessels are available; it takes more time but reduces the risk of losing units to the brutalisk.

If the player has the Hercules dropship, they may wish to use a Hercules to transport their army - a single Hercules should be large enough to transport the player's entire army, and it can sustain substantial damage from the zerg defenders to drop them off, especially when moving to the final data core which has spore crawlers nearby. If using a Hercules dropship the player can forego medivacs for medics, as medics are cheaper and heal more efficiently with stabilizer medpacks.



Easter Eggs

 * A night elf hologram can be found at the northeast area.


 * One of the buildings has "Alive Inside" spraypainted on its roof. This is from the zombie film Dawn of the Dead.


 * When rescued, a War Pig will exclaim "marines, WE ARE LEAVING!" The line and its pronunciation are taken from the film Aliens.


 * Of the companies present, a Blizzard billboard can be seen.


 * In the north-western corner of the map a sword in the stone statue can be seen, a reference to Excalibur.