Mid-October, the Governor's Palace of Antiga.
After handing over the management of Antiga to Mr. Brown, the administrative officer sent by his father Angus Mengsk from Umoyan, and ordering Rondstein to be the commander-in-chief of the Antiga planet's defense forces, Augustus was Sitting at the desk in the Governor's office, sorting out the belongings he wanted to take away.
Including a thick photo album, a laptop computer, a holster containing a P-20 electromagnetic pistol, and several sets of clothes that had already been sorted.
The photo album records photos of Augustus walking with the people or the army in Turasis, Mar Sara and other places. It is these old photos that cut out the past time.
The computer stores letters from family members. To this day, my mother and Dorothy are still writing letters to Augustus, even if they cannot be delivered in time, they never miss a week. His elder brother Arcturus also often wrote to Augustus, mostly about the current situation of the mines he operated, and occasionally talked about the past Korhal and Mengsk families.
Augustus often read through these letters and read them word for word.
Renault's son John was almost one year old, and his nephew Valerian also grew up into a handsome boy with beautiful blond hair at an amazing speed. This made Augustus think about how time passed so quickly.
John Raynor's psychic talent is rapidly awakening as he grows up, which can't help but worry his family. Fortunately, the Umo Yang Shadow Guards are looking after this child to prevent his too powerful psychic energy from hurting others or himself.
Angus Mengsk, accompanied by Catherine, has established himself in the elected council of Umoyan, regaining his former popularity among his people by actively pursuing policies towards the Korhal.
Nineteen-year-old Dorothy Mengsk won the praise of "Dorothy of Korhal IV" and "The Flower of the Empty Crown of the Mengsk Dynasty" in Umoyan for her beauty, talent, and wisdom.
In order to protect the routes in the Koprulu sector from threats from interstellar pirates, zerg, and protoss, Arcturus established an elite armed force composed mainly of core members of the Sons of Korhal. Arm them with one-fortieth of the money earned in mining.
In addition, Arcturus's mining area extends to the desolate Dinares sector outside the Koprulu sector. In order to transport the quarried crystal ore, high-energy gas, precious metals and other industrial raw materials, Arcturus also established a transportation company across the two sectors. About 800,000 Kehal and Umoyan people moved in Work for him.
But Arcturus realized his youthful ideals, but did not feel any satisfaction from it.
Dr. Hansen of Agria, another territory of Augustus, will report to Augustus every two or three months on the conditions inside. Except for the Chimera pirates and several Camorion pirates who visited Agria Ya, there was no irresistible enemy encountered there.
Agria's remote location in the Koprulu Sector is no longer a crucial factor in curbing its development. Instead, it makes it far away from conflicts and the high-pressure rule of the Terran Federation. The unique natural environment allows agriculture and biotechnology to flourish there. develop.
After selling large quantities of food to the famine-stricken Caymorian Commonwealth, containers bearing the white cross of Agria saved thousands of poor Caymorians.
After Angus transferred part of Korhal's cutting-edge technology to Agria and directed one, the population on the planet has reached 5.6 million people, and the economy is booming.
Some of the emails came from worlds further away, even across the Koprulu sector.
The colonial fleets that escaped from Korhal IV two years ago have all landed on different planets and made contact with Umoyan one after another. Among the remaining five colonial fleets, one fleet jumped into a planet due to a navigation system failure. A single helium white dwarf, more than two hundred thousand people died in the accident, and the rest landed in the planet's only remaining giant planet.
On this planet that the survivors named Ingens - Latin for huge, the dead star was only as bright as the two moons of Korhal IV. The 150,000 people who landed there relied solely on the star's geothermal energy and its vast high-energy gas mines on the planet's surface to obtain light and heat.
The giant planet is very close to Sigmaris, the core world of the Tyranid Federation, so the people who landed there did not dare to call for help and could only live there temporarily. By the time Angus was contacted, the immigrants had been living there for two years and had tenaciously built an underground city based on the ringed volcano.
On that planet, a day is incredibly long, newborns are born without ever seeing natural sunlight, and people there are generally fair-skinned and have a disproportionate number of hair pigments due to radiation from the star. white hair. The temperature in places far away from the city can even drop below minus 140 degrees, so the lakes and seas there are frozen.
To this day, the people of the planet remain loyal to Korhal, seeking help from Angus while working with some of the nobles of Sigmarius' moon world of Valhalla to source resources for survival. Angus has sent support ships to the planet, but they are still on the way.
Another colonial fleet had much better luck. Before they ran out of fuel, they found a habitable planet that was not inferior to Korhal IV. They still named it after Korhal, but the number after the planet was V. .
The remaining three fleets landed on different planets. One of them was an ocean world covered with large expanses of liquid water, and the other two were warm rainforest worlds covered with a large number of ancient civilization ruins and ancient Xel'Naga portals. Lost world.
The proportion of habitable planets in the five sectors of the Koprulu sector is much smaller than in other areas of the galaxy, and once you step outside the scope of Koprulu, it is easier to find planets suitable for human habitation - of course, It is easier to discover unknown mysterious ruins and intelligent races that were once protected by the protoss and eventually forgotten by time.
This was great news for Augustus. These colonial worlds were scattered in various locations, far away from the nodes of the Zerg invasion. It will take at least two or three generations for these colonial worlds to develop, but if Augustus wants to rebuild Korhal, the branch worlds from each Korhal IV will definitely send manpower to support the home planet.
In addition to these things, Augustus was still consumed by trivial matters recently. Matt Horner, whom he brought back from the Terrador system, acted very well as a trainee sailor on the Hyperion, learning how to command a battlecruiser behind Renault.
Mira Han and Matt Horner, the female colonels that Augustus favored, were of different sizes. One was in the army and the other was in the fleet. Their only way of communication was radio communication, but Matt never answered Milan's calls. .
While waiting for the rotating vacation, when Milan thought the two of them could finally have a date, Matt always volunteered to work overtime.
As for Egon Steitmann, this clumsy boy often made his teacher, Dr. Francos, turn blue with anger, but his talent would never be diminished by this flaw.
Francos told Augustus how the little boy who was good at communicating with people often cried. He was a bald, unmarried old man who had no choice but to be a father and a mother.
Also, Tychus Finlay always won money in Antiga's casino and was thought to be cheating, and ended up getting into a fight. Renault complained that Antiga couldn't drink No. 8 whiskey but was unwilling to try the expensive liquors in Augustus' wine cabinet. Augustus could only say that he was a wild boar who couldn't eat fine chaff...
When Augustus packed up all the memorable things, Sarah Kerrigan, wearing a dark gray Revolutionary Marine uniform, pushed the door in. Kerrigan's beautiful face was clouded. The last time Augustus When Stuart saw her like this, she was about to pull out her hair and fight with Lisa Cassidy.
"Even if I figured out why you wanted me to stay in Antiga... Augustus." Kerrigan was clearly losing his temper, which was why Augustus had to sort out his things.
"But I don't want to be too far away from you."
"Psychics like you are an extremely special existence to the zerg. Even a PSI level 5 ghost agent is enough to drive the zerg into madness." Augustus recounted that he did not allow Kerrigan to go. Char's reason: "Especially you, you are special...your special connection to the zerg is what they are looking for."
"Sarah, you have read the memory of my conversation with the Cerebrate Sars." He said sincerely: "You know what the Zerg masterminds are thinking."
"It said that as long as you hand me over, the world will be saved, but you refused." Although Kerrigan understood Augustus' approach, her depression and worry about her lover still lingered.
"Of course I will refuse, why do you doubt this? I will never abandon you, even if you are at the center of disaster." Augustus picked up a red butterfly knife from the table, Hand it to Kerrigan.
"Like it?"
"A murder weapon..." Kerrigan took the gorgeously crafted butterfly knife, and the deadly weapon immediately spun in her hands. With the crisp snapping sound and the sound of wind, this deadly weapon The butterfly is so dexterous that it seems like a part of Kerrigan's body.
"You can peel apples with it, honey," Augustus said and kissed Kerrigan on the forehead, which silenced all the latter's complaints.
"Your mission is to follow Warfield to rescue the refugees in Little Atticus and bring them to Antiga. You are responsible for serving as the general's psychic advisor and investigating whether federal spies are mixed among those refugees." Augustus spoke to Kerrigan in a soft voice—a tone that Augustus' men had only heard from members of his family.
"Then all you have to do is wait for me to come back. Don't worry, no one can kill me before I conquer this world," he said.
"But if it's not me, who will protect you?" Kerrigan asked.
"Corporal Faraday's soldiers and ghosts." Augustus said: "After arriving in Char, I will sit side by side with Tassadar, the executioner of the protoss, and act together. If the templars under him also protect Without me, there’s nothing you can do about it, right?”
"You always convince me," Kerrigan said ruefully.
"To boast, this is why I can lead those warriors." Augustus held up his laptop while Kerrigan took the other things for him. As for the power armor and other weapons, they have already been transported to the armory on the Hyperion.
The sun was shining brightly outside the door of the Governor's Office, and a golden-red flag of the Revolutionary Army was fluttering in the wind. The force field of psionic disruptors is still protecting Antiga's capital city of Ansadar. With the efforts of Rory Swann, the force fields of dozens of psionic disruptors have covered major gathering places, military base and farm.
A group of revolutionary army generals are waiting for Augustus, including Edmund Duke, Jim Raynor and Tychus Finley of the Alpha Squadron. As for Mar Sara Governor Pryor, Harnak Hunk and other generals of the Demons of Heaven were sent by Augustus to other nearby planets to rescue the refugees there.
Originally, Antiga Prime, as the center of the Zerg invasion wave, had always been considered by Tarsonis's military analysts to be the most dangerous place in the universe after Cha Sara and Mar Sara. However, after the psychic disruptor was put into use From then on, this place turned into a gap in the vast sea of worms sweeping across the Tyranid Federation.
Antiga Prime suddenly became a safe refugee settlement and transit center from a planet destined to be destroyed by the zerg and protoss. A large number of people were being transferred to Antiga by the revolutionary army from the land ravaged by the zerg. .
Even without Augustus, those revolutionary army generals who had already been able to take charge of their own affairs could still complete this work. The current situation is that with the swarm of insects ravaging the territory of the Tyranid Federation, the Federation fleet and the Revolutionary Army are trying their best to save people.
However, the Federation only wants to stick to important planets and is unwilling to care about the life and death of those underdeveloped and remote worlds, because they can re-establish such worlds at any time. What Augustus's revolutionary army did was what the Federation was unwilling to do, and rescued those seemingly worthless refugees.
During this period, Augustus put the goal of "rescuing as many refugees as possible" above overthrowing the federation. This man who had received compulsory education understood the principle of winning the hearts of the people and winning the world. He was familiar with the art of dragon slaying and the art of killing dragons. Theory of Kings.
Augustus never claimed to be a savior, he was just doing things that the ruling class of the Terran Federation was unwilling to do.
"The shuttle is ready, Marshal." Tychus, who was wearing a Revolutionary Army uniform one size larger, said to Augustus: "Hell, I'm the only one among these people who thinks you must be crazy. There are bugs everywhere." Tiga is not over yet, now you have to run into the flame world of death in Char."
"Those people are also crazy, as if running to a ghost place full of zerg and lava is something to be happy about. During the Kailian War, the Federation and the Kaimorians were about to blow up Char with nuclear bombs. "
"But you still followed." Duke glanced sideways at Tychus with his viper-like triangular eyes: "I am the only one who is loyal to the marshal and takes the initiative to ask for a fight."
"That's great, old man." Tychus complained: "No one is stopping you from doing this. I hope you won't trip over your left foot and fall into the steaming lava lake."
"I'm not that old yet, man," Duke shot back, "I hope you don't end up with your head in the Antiga bitch's crotch."
"Shut up, gentlemen. There are people who are willing to pay a few credit coins to listen to your quarrel. Maybe there are people who are willing to reward you with a few bananas." Augustus said and turned to talk to Kai behind him. Regan says his final goodbyes.
Augustus kissed Kerrigan gently goodbye, eliciting a flurry of flirty whistles from the soldiers.
"Good." Hanak clapped his hands and praised.
"We will meet again." Augustus stroked Kerrigan's red lips with his fingers: "By then, I must have found a way to kill the swarm master and the brain worm."
"I hope everything in this world is as you expected it to be." Kerrigan kissed Augustus again.
"Then I hope there will be peace in the world." Augustus said with a smile.
At this time, several propaganda airships were floating in the sky above the Governor's Palace, and the sharp-edged Protoss fighter planes with blue tail flames spouting from their tails were gradually moving away on the ring highway in the main city of Ansadar.
"Come on, sir, I've had enough of the sand and red earth of Antiga," Tychus said to Augustus.
As Augustus boarded the shuttle and slowly rose into the air, he could see the city below divided by highway loops and maglev train tracks. It was morning at this time, and people in Ansadar were walking on the pedestrian streets in the city. People going to work or school took the newly opened maglev buses.
People have adapted to a life where the threat of the zerg has gone away. After a while, men will have time to drive their cars and take their families on vacation as before. Even the park in the center of the city was renovated by Swann's men and replanted with flowers and grass.
The city of Ansadar, which shines bronze in the sun, is definitely not grand among the many cities in the Tyranid Federation, but to Augustus now, its value is even more than that of the wealthy and prosperous Lord Tarsonis. city.
Putting aside those annoying class conflicts, the world where people live and work in peace and contentment is the world that Augustus expected.
The shuttle flew safely into space and entered the docking orbit of the Hyperion. As the shuttle slowly drove into the dock, Augustus could also see several Mammoth-class and Hercules-class transport ships passing through Antiga's atmosphere, full of refugees from other planets.
This means that only tens of thousands of people survived.
But the problem that followed was that Antiga's scarce material reserves could not support the large number of people who continued to pour into Antiga. For this reason, Augustus had to ask his old mercenary friends Hill and Kemerian to join forces. The organization and the Umoyan government sought help, requesting ships and supplies.
Of course, even the "minimum employment price" and "materials at cost price" that adhere to the spirit of humanitarianism are an astronomical sum, and this is not enough to spend the money Augustus has earned from mining in the past few years. He could only rely on his brother Arcturus to provide the money.
It is worth mentioning that some people on the planet who did not receive timely rescue escaped in time under their own self-rescue. They tried every means, either to repair the old antique immigration ships left by their ancestors, or to Trade convoys and even pirates passed through the system asking for help.
Augustus took Renault, Duke and others to the bridge of the Hyperion through the ship's escalator. When he walked through the bridge door that automatically recognized his identity and opened it, Swann, who had been waiting in the bridge for a long time, immediately Walked towards Augustus.
"Boss, I analyzed what they call Kedarin crystals in the protoss - they were obtained from the protoss buildings in Antiga that were destroyed by the zerg. I don't know if this counts. Steal, but don't worry about it." Swann is still wearing his orange-gray overalls made of woolen textiles, with bright goggles on his forehead, and his Meinhof accent is mixed with a lot of Korhal. of.
"Guess what happened?"
"I guess you've had a great success, old man," said Augustus, chuckling.
"Good morning, Swann," Reynold said. "Do you have any beer?"
"What did you find in that shining dwarf head?" said Tychus.
"Thanks, Jim, if you want to drink, I have beer and brandy in my cellar." Swann replied to Renault.
"We have discovered a lot of interesting things. For example, the Kedarin crystals contain endless energy just like the void crystals we found in the corridors of Ma Sara's Purgatory." He said.
"Kedarin crystal is definitely not naturally formed... How should I put it? It actually contains an intricate matrix structure, one ring inside another, and the structure is tight, comparable to our most precise microcircuit electronic components. , No, it should be said that our electronic components are comparable to theirs, ah, they are not on the same level at all."
"Can you imagine, the protoss carved a sun into a crystal."
"I... can probably imagine it." Augustus nodded: "Maybe the gap between us and the protoss is like the gap between paramecium and humans."
"You must have gained some inspiration from the Protoss' Kedarin crystals, otherwise you would rather stay in the armory and smear dirty motor oil on your face than come here," he said.
"By applying the method of storing and utilizing energy in the Kedarin Crystal to our own technology, I may be able to improve the efficiency of the Hyperion's energy and weapon systems, making our energy shield more durable and strong enough to cope with A terrible solar storm," Swan said.
"The fusion strike cannon you asked me to research that can destroy cities with one shot has achieved a breakthrough in Umo Yang's weapons laboratory."
"This means that we will soon have powerful ship-to-ship weapons." Augustus was overjoyed.
"So......"
"I know what you want to ask." Swann touched the back of his head: "The Umoyang people said that after calculation, a few rounds of such a weapon can destroy a city, but no one knows whether this is true. After all, there is no Real cities for shooting experiments.”
"Okay... you're right." Augustus said to the navigator aboard the Huberian: "Prepare to jump, Captain."
Outside the bridge window of the Hyperion, the Alpha Squadron's Norad III and another capital ship were entering the dark and twisted hyperspace channel.
Considering that there were still two Federation fleets lingering near Antiga Prime, Augustus only brought three capital ships and hundreds of ships, and at the same time ordered Lundstein to strengthen the defenses in outer space orbit. A large number of space mines and Magnet mines are deployed on the only way the fleet must pass to prepare for sudden attacks by the Federation fleet and orbital bombardment.
Farther away is the extremely majestic Tassadar Protoss Expeditionary Fleet. The number of Light Protoss aircraft carriers exceeds 150, and thousands of Protoss fighters and transport ships surround their mothership. A large military force is enough to easily overwhelm the main federal fleet.
In addition to the fact that the zerg have not yet established a foothold in Char, this is also the reason why Tassadar dared to lead his army directly into the hinterland of the swarm territory.
The brilliant and shining protoss fleet will arrive on Char before Augustus' human fleet, and they will be the main force fighting the zerg.
