Imperial Palace, Korhal

Never could it be said that Arcturus Mengsk wasn't prepared. The enormous underground bunker complex that Commander Raynor found himself in was a testament to that fact. After the initial sweep of the palace, the Raiders and their allies found an access shaft leading to a network of subterranean hangars, storehouses, and assorted military installations that the troops had started to call 'the Antfarm'. Since any surface installation would be an easy target from orbit, Arcturus' actual command center during times of crisis turned out to be almost entirely underground. Even if the palace itself was bombed to slag, the complex would have allowed the emperor to continue the fight. Nothing short of an apocalypse warhead or a Protoss purification beam would be able to reach it. The network itself was only accessible through a series of access shafts and hangars, each equipped with a massive array of stationary defenses and kill-zones for the garrison.

Raynor couldn't help but wonder how much the whole underground fortress-city must have cost and how that money could have been better spent elsewhere. Excavating and building a base this size must have been a colossal money-sink, and that was before one took the decorations into account. Like the palace above, Mengsk had lavishly decorated this ridiculous complex. Although the men had taken the liberty of 'confiscating' the worst of the ornaments, the place still reeked of excess. Raynor didn't like it. It clashed with his more utilitarian view of military matters. That said, the base would still have its uses. A centralized command center would actually let him be the commander that he was supposed to be.

The commander stomped his way through the halls and noted the quotes and sayings engraved on the wall. They were there to inspire the people that worked here and remind them of the greatness of the human race. Obviously, most of them were attributed to Arcturus or his family. One, however, caught the Raynor's attention:

"Brave Men are a City's Strongest Tower of Defense."

It was attributed to some Old Earth poet, but stood out to him because of the irony of the statement. Mengsk Senior had spent so much money and resources building warmachines and fortresses. Yet, it all turned out to be completely useless. In the end, it weren't the aliens or any outsider that caused Arcturus' fall; it was the fact that his own men abandoned him when they saw him for the monster that he was. Without its strongest tower of defense, the city crumbled.

At the heart of the complex was an enormous command center: a room full of consoles saying God knows what and military officers trying to coordinate the millions of soldiers spread around the planet. The middle was taken up by a huge holographic representation of Korhal with the districts color-coded to indicate ownership: blue for the allied zones, yellow for the contested zones, and red for the areas conquered by the enemy.

The commander noted with a frown that there was a lot of red on the map.

Realizing that he would only be in the way here, Raynor decided to pay Valerian's office a visit. He found the heir apparent talking to one of the generals.

"My forces have been able to surround and annihilate hybrid stronghold 14, as you ordered." A voice from the console spoke. "Losses were heavy but well within tolerable parameters. Seventeen districts were liberated in the fight, however, 8 of them were infested and had to be purged. Furthermore…"

"Wait, 'purged'?" The prince interrupted, his eyes suddenly widening in shock. "What do you mean by purged, Morrigan? Tell me you didn't do what I think you just did."

"It's a euphemism, your highness. By 'purged', I meant wiped out." The voice, general Morrigan apparently, answered calmly. "The people were infected with the Zerg hyper-evolutionary virus and to be killed. The virus is carried in the blood and spreads through the water. Each city has its own water supply, the ground water won't spread very far outside the districts' limits thanks to clever urban planning, and as long as we keep the virophages from polluting rain clouds, we can keep the virus from spreading too fast on its own. That just leaves the people already carrying the virus in their bodies and spreading it to unaffected cities and refugee camps. We put them down and the virus will be contained."

"Put down?! For the love God, Morrigan, this isn't a herd of cattle. That's hundreds of thousands of people you've just massacred down there."

The general seemed completely unfazed by the prince's outburst. "About 2.8 million, to be exact, if the census data is still accurate. But for the record, I didn't 'massacre' anyone. Those people were already dead. I merely put them out of their misery."

Valerian's face was turning red with anger. "They could have been saved. We have the means to detect the virus. You could have quarantined the whole place and take out everyone not infected. How long is it going to take before you get it into your head that shooting people isn't always the answer?"

"Look, Valerian, if you really cared about your people, you'd do the same. I never murdered anyone. Between the incurable Zerg virus that kills everyone it touches and the inevitable humanitarian crisis, there was no saving them. At worst, I spared them from a slow death or from spending the rest of their existence as puppets for the Swarm."

"You could have quarantined them. You could have set up refugee camps, or…"

"And where am I supposed to get the manpower for that from? We're not Zerg, your highness. Our numbers are limited, and every soldier stuck watching people slowly waste away is one that isn't fighting the enemy."

"We have reserves. If you need more men…"

"There aren't enough marines in all of Korhal to save everyone and refugee camps eat up food and medicine that we'll need later to keep fighting. We're at war and we can't afford to have dead weight dragging us down."

"That 'dead weight' are the people you've sworn to protect, General!"

"I swore to protect humanity, and that's what I'm doing. War is about resources. The resources I saved not protecting a million people that are already dead are resources I can now use to attack another strongpoint. Resources I can use to end the war quicker and keep a billion people from dying elsewhere. Look, I know this is hard for you to grasp, but I won't risk the entire war just so that you can watch a few unlucky bastards keel over in a refugee camp. Millions die so that humanity might live. Call me a murdered if you like, but remember that what I did is in the best interest of everyone."

Valerian's rage seemed to subside a bit, allowing him to regain his composure. "General, what you have done is, by any stretch of the imagination, a warcrime. However justified you may think it is, I cannot condone this."

"That is why I always contact you on an encrypted channel in your private quarters. No one outside of high command will ever know that we have had this conversation, so when people find out about this, you can just tell them that I went rogue or something. Plausible deniability. Spin the story in whatever way you deem necessary. Besides, you want to play holy with me? Ask your best friend Raynor what he did in the fringe worlds. Now, if that's all, I have a war to win." With that, Morrigan severed the connection and left the prince seething. The commander could see that the boy's outrage was genuine. His respect for Valerian went up a notch.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Raynor said, calmly. "he's not entirely wrong. We can't cure Zerg infestation, so anyone with that virus is a dead man walking. Death ain't always the worst thing that can happen to a person."

"That doesn't excuse the slaughter of millions." Valerian said, exasperated. "Even the worst-hit areas have infection rates of only 30%. We could have saved the others."

"How? One infected getting in a refugee camp is enough to make everyone sick and we don't have the means to make millions of people take a blood test. That's assuming that the test works all the time. From what I've heard, those things are never perfect and it can take days, or even weeks for any of the symptoms to show up. By then, who knows how many people they've infected? Hell, the only thing I can think of is quarantining entire districts to keep it from spreading…"

"Which would be a death-sentence to anyone inside. If they don't die from disease, starvation, or exposure, they'll be ripped to pieces by the infested."

"Yep." The commander replied. He noticed how tired Valerian was looking. Not in his appearance; that was as meticulous as always. No, Raynor could see it in his eyes. The boy probably hadn't gotten any sleep in days.

"The Raiders managed to liberate a few districts themselves, didn't they? How did you handle the infected situation?"

"I told my people set up a refugee camp in an old skyscraper and had dropships fly in supplies. Told the people inside to stay calm and hope for a cure."

"Is it working?" The prince asked, hopefully.

"We ain't got a cure, junior, and I don't know if we ever gonna get one. My men already had to shoot a few of the poor bastards trying to make a run for it."

"I'm sorry they had to."

"I made the mistake once of thinking I had wiped out a Zerg plague. I won't make it again. Not when there're billions of people on the planet." The commander said, dourly. "Coming to think of it, doesn't your old man have a plan for this sort of thing? I mean, he got an underground doom-fortress under his palace, he's got to have a zombie plan stashed away somewhere."

"He does. It can be summed up by the phrase: 'Kill it with fire'."

"Guess dictators can get away with that sort of thing, huh?"

"So it would seem. We, however, do not have that luxury." The crown prince rubbed his forehead. "What am I supposed to do, commander? Reduced to pure arithmetic, Morrigan is right. He's not killing anyone that wouldn't probably have died within the coming weeks anyway and he's preventing the plague from spreading. On the other hand, I can't tell the generals to wipe out millions of people, even if it is the most rational thing to do. Apart from the fact that it is utterly repugnant, if the press finds out about this sort of thing…"

"I know."

"Then what am I supposed to do? My people are dying, Raynor, and I can't save them."

The commander couldn't help but notice how different this young man was from Arcturus. Mengsk Senior wouldn't have given a damn about the people. He would have given Morrigan a bunch of nukes and told him to go nuts. However, having the prince be crushed by the burdens of leadership wouldn't help anyone. "Same thing we're doing now: end the war as quickly as possible and let the commanders do their thing."

"Just delegate and hope for the best, huh? What if people like Morrigan start burning down entire cities?"

Raynor let out a long drawn-out sigh. "I'd like to say that they're evil bastards and you should hang them after this is over, but I'd be choking on my own hypocrisy if I did that."

"Putting a colony of a few thousand to the torch is not the same, commander."

"No, it is the same. The only difference is the number of zeroes at the end of the casualty report."

Valerian shook his head, trying to think a way out of this mess. "Think the Zerg can figure out a cure?"

"Well, if it's possible, I'm sure they can do it. No telling if they can do it in time, though…" Raynor suddenly laughed. "Look at us, hoping for the Zerg to come and save us."

"Yes. The sky must be falling. Not that I can tell under meters of rock…"

"Cute. Of course, even if there is a cure, how're we gonna convince folks to take it? Don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to sticking a needle full of Zerg goo into my arm. Can't imagine the people being too happy about it either."

The prince shrugged. "Well, one thing at a time."

"One thing at a time. Speaking of which, you look like hell. When was the last time you slept?"

"I'm fine, commander. I don't need a nanny."

Raynor snickered. "Just what I thought. Well, as your commanding officer, I'm ordering you to get 8 hours of bed rest, immediately. If you don't, I'll shoot you a tranquilizer gun."

"Commander…"

"Don't. I gave you an order, kid. The proper response is: 'Yes, sir'."

"And since when did you outrank me?"

"Since you told everyone I was in charge of this whole mess." Raynor couldn't help but smile as the crown prince groaned. "Told ya that was a bad idea…"

"Yes. Yes it was." Valerian conceded before heading to his sleeping quarters.

Raynor sat alone for a while, mentally reviewing the situation. Funny how a simple ex-criminal turned marshal turned freedom fighter would end up in a place like this: leading the entire human race into battle with all creation at stake. He could imagine that the pressure would be too much for most people, even for someone like Valerian. The commander knew he wasn't immune to this either. Though he put up a brave face for the men, he knew that his strength of will had its limit and dreaded the day it would be crossed.