Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft or its affiliates

Starship Construction

Upon returning home, Commander Anthony wasted no time and called up General Abe's peacetime army to travel to Terrazine via Dropships and aid the loyalists. It seems that the attack on the palace was not just an isolated incident, but a spark that kicked off a civil war that would weed out those unfaithful to the Terran cause. The loyalists would eventually win in the long run of this war, but they were predicted to suffer heavy losses as a result. Thus, Anthony felt that giving them access to his strongest General would ensure an easy victory for the loyalists.

Unfortunately, the anti-Terran forces made a huge mistake during a crucial battle for the capital of Terrazine: they engaged and inflicted wounds on Abe's men. No casualties, but the enemy had caused pain for his men. It was written that "Abe flew into a rage upon seeing the blood of his men…he fought without reserve, which was outstanding in the field of battle…but he killed all enemy officers when they tried to surrender, hindering our ability to gather intel in the long run."

And indeed, this would be a consistent problem with Abe's military record. It became especially prominent during this Terrazine Civil War that the Marauder General would not take any prisoners alive in any situation, even if the primary objective had been to capture them. Rampant rage was all that Abe felt when his men were hurt, giving him strength unparalleled by any mortal alive, but sending his mind directly into a blood frenzied state.

To the utmost horror of Commander Anthony, it would seem that this berserker-like rage was not limited only to his enemies. Abe would strike out at everyone in this state, his vision a haze of red that obscured the markings of friends and foes. This was discovered when Princess Clara tried to hold back Abe's rage when he was about to execute some prominent enemy leaders after a battle. The Terran General didn't even check who was trying to restrain him and sent her flying backwards with sweeping arm. Only the immediate intervention of Clara's royal court prevented Abe from striking at the white hair girl again.

Xana claimed that she held no grudge against Abe for it, but both Anthony and Cain could see the hatred in her eyes. Anybody who struck against her blood was already dead to her. Extra efforts were made to distract her attention as civil war continued to ravage her homeland.

But why now? Why all of the sudden does Abe go into this unbound fury against all? It was not clear back then, but recent discoveries in buried military files discovered that this was not the first time it had happen, and those said files also explained the sudden need for Exterminatus.

During the Fool's War, Abe was responsible for defending the city of Yal. Even with Commander Anthony on the scene, losses were still suffered by the Terran forces, especially those of Abe's army. He lost about a quarter of his peacetime forces there, including one of his Hammerhead troops. Even though all losses were eventually replenished and the fallen elite Marauder was replaced, Abe's rage became truly apparent to Anthony for the first time. The General would sally out onto the battlefield against Bagi and go into a killing frenzy, slaughtering all who opposed him. Eventually, it got so bad that he started killing civilians who were present at the siege camp, such as the wives of the enemy generals.

If Parliament had ever gotten wind of this mass murder, Abe would be placed on trial for war crimes and would be undoubtedly convicted of civilian murder. Thus, Anthony needed to create a bigger scandal that would blow over the entire incident, which was the mass destruction of an entire country. It is suspected that only General Cain knew of this hidden back story, as he was the one to give Takeshi the Commander's orders for Exterminatus.

However, we must remember: this was not apparent back then, so the rage of Abe was fresh in the minds of Generals Rorke and Takeshi. While Takeshi looked upon this quality of Abe as another variable in his plans, it only served to heighten Rorke's paranoia. To that effect, Rorke developed a unique padding material for his lab coat, similar to the one in Anthony's trench coat. This material was discovered to have tremendous ability in absorbing projectiles and was distributed to the Hammerheads as their unique armor attachment, much like how combat shields were given exclusively to War Pigs. However, this padding also served as extra protection for the Hammerheads in case their General went berserk right next to them.

Of course, when Parliament heard about this rage of General Abe during the Terrazine Civil War, hell was had with Commander Anthony. The Terran Commander was piled with paperwork upon paperwork, and that was only the beginning! He had to deal with court summons, tribunal hearings, witnesses, military protocols, personal attacks, and accusations of favoritism. To the last one, Anthony supposedly responded, "Of course I will pardon General Abe. He is a friend, and I would do the same to all my other Generals in a heartbeat."

At the very least, the issue was simply about Abe having anger problems in the heat of battle in comparison to him slaughtering civilians in a mist of blood. It was better this issue was unearthed now rather back during the Fool's War.

With the aid of the Terran Empire, the Terrazine Civil War came to an end by the year's passing. An appropriate event to celebrate as well as the year's end. It was a rather touching moment when Princess Xana was finally reunited with her siblings at a feast in Anthony's mansion, with the three hugging and kissing. All the Terrans smiled at little at the scene, save Takeshi who was suspiciously absent for the feast. He had gotten out of the hospital a month earlier, but his whereabouts were unknown again.

Another major event at the end of this year was the first absorption of another country into the Terran Empire during the five year plan. Ironically, this should have been the second annexation, but Bagi's current situation explains the reasoning behind the confusion of order. After a few bated breaths and much paperwork (Cain swore that the Commander's hand was edging to his revolver), the Terran Empire grew another tiny little bit. Only three lands were left, including that of Terrazine.

Again, Takeshi reappeared during the first days of spring. Again, he refused to explain the reasons behind his absence. Again, he turned up just in time for a grand revelation of Rorke's engineering…

O O O

April 1st, Year 8

"So what do you think he has planned for us this time?" Commander Anthony asked as they walked along the hallways of the Orbital Command. It was the very same military base from the space launch, but it seemed to be even more packed than before. There were significantly more military personnel in the base, as if the person in charge was a paranoid scientist-engineer obsessed with his personal security.

"I don't know. Rorke and I may be on good terms, but he never tells me about my projects." A hooded Takeshi shrugged, his sword sheath moving with the gesture. "Same way how I'll never tell him where I go."

"Ah, about that." The Terran Commander cleared his throat, his voice lowering to a barely audible whisper. "I know about her and who she is."

"What?!" The strategist's voice was filled with disbelief and outrage, catching the attention of some passersby. Many of them were now intrigued by the conversation between the Commander and the Siege Tank General.

"Voice down!" Anthony frantically whispered, pulling at the cloak and dragging his friend into an elevator. With a press of a button, the machine hummed and began to descend downwards, into an expanded area excavated for building the rocket previously. It had been turned into Rorke's new workshop area, as the wide open space was perfect for building prototypes of anything.

But that was for later. Right now, just a few moments after the elevator began going down, Anthony leaned forward and flicked the power switch, causing the space to stop in its tracks as the airtight room was used for an emergency talk. "You're not invisible to the world. All I had to do was look through a few records and a single camera recording to figure it out."

"I thought you hated paperwork!"

"I do. But I was curious." The Terran Commander crossed his arms and leaned on the elevator's metal side wall. "Why didn't you tell anybody?"

"…Because it's my burden alone." Takeshi sighed and tapped his sword's hilt. "Much like this blade, she's all I've got left. I don't trust anyone else to not exploit this weakness of mine."

"Alright then. I'll keep it a secret as well." Anthony moved forward and placed a gloved hand on Takeshi's shoulder. "But know that if there is anything I can do to help, don't be afraid to call."

"What, with those new cell phone things?" The Terran General shook his head and flipped the power switch back on. "They're not as reliable as a military radio right now; maybe in the future, but not now."

The remainder of the trip down underground was silent, save the humming of the elevator and the irritating beeping noise from the elevator's speakers. As the machine slowly shuddered to a stop and the silver doors opened, Anthony and Takeshi stepped out into another hallway, filled with even more people as they rushed around. Peering through the windows as they walked, the Commander could see partial blueprints of something large taped up against several walls, with several engineers hard at work on another section of the mysterious project. The smooth metal hallways soon transitioned into rough metal grating, giving the two Terrans a rough idea of how many levels of catwalks were below them.

A lot. A lot of catwalks stretched out beneath them, large and sturdy enough to accommodate the multiple SCVs that walked on them. Anthony whistled in surprise at the sight as the two came across a basic service elevator, the machine large enough to hold several dozen people. For the moment, it was only the General and the Commander, so there was nothing obstructing the view of the massive project being built in the hanger bay.

"What the-?" The two chorused, their eyes widening in shock.

In front of them, seen clearly through the holes of the grating, was a massive hulk of metal. But it didn't look like a normal rocket. Rather, it was in comparison much larger. Rorke must've excavated a few more levels underground than before to house this gigantic machine. Anthony counted at least four primary engines in the back, with an additional two large engines on both sides, giving it a T-shaped look. This monstrous looking thing was tipped on its back as its nose was facing forwards for launch, its top facing towards the Terrans as if showing off the horde of SCVs working on the machine inside, welding together sheets of metal to form a rough image of the final product. Several Marines and Marauders also littered the scene, not as effective in building as the dedicated SCVs but assisting in all the finer details such as hardware installation.

The trip to the launch bay's floor seemed to take forever, as at least 50 kilometers were traversed down vertically in multiple service elevators, the two Terrans forced to switch several times as groups of workers traversed the construction area carrying materials. At the bottom, Anthony spotted General Rorke assisting in the construction of the engines, his four robotic arms working on the surroundings as his two human hands wired up the engine's hardware. Generals Cain and Abe were spotted near him as well, the two muscled men in their power armor as they hammered away at the metal in a valiant attempt to help.

They somewhat did help the construction, but not very much as Rorke. His spectacles were completely drenched in oil and other nasty chemicals, but the engineer's eyes never strayed from his task as he clipped wires and bound them together, his additional limbs moving around and welding together more parts of the engine. With a loud grunt, the green hair man reached into the engine bowels and shouted something to Cain and Abe, gesturing for them to get back. When he was sure the two were far away from the danger zone, Rorke flicked a switch in the machine and the end of the engine began humming, glowing slightly red as the machine began to go to work. As quick as he turned it on, Rorke flicked the switch back off and took his hand out, giving a thumbs up to Cain and Abe as he finally detached himself from the task at hand.

"Rorke, what the hell is this?" Takeshi asked, coming up next to his friend and staring up in wonder. "A new rocket or something?"

"It's a starship of sorts, but made specifically for military usage in mind," The engineer replied with a grin on his face, gesturing to his grand project. "I call it the Battlecruiser! A machine made to traverse the stars and to rain fire and brimstone upon those who disbelieve in the Commander's dream of a unified world!"

"It looks glorious!" Cain commented, the pride showing quite blatantly in his face. "Have you seen what Rorke plans for its weapon systems? The armaments on this baby are going to be out of this world!"

"These weapons will be the most powerful in this world!" Abe roared in excitement.

"I'm thinking that we should, if possible, add some other features to it besides guns." Rorke shot a look at his two burly colleagues then turned back to Commander Anthony. "We could have a lab onboard, or a fully equipped armory, perhaps even a cantina for the troops onboard! People would be able to live on this behemoth of a vehicle, with the capabilities to survive weeks out alone in space. That would be a huge achievement for the Terrans, as we will gain the ability to make long trips in space."

"When will it be completed?" Takeshi asked with a hungry tone. "We need to have this advantage if we want to truly exert our dominance over this world!"

"The completion date is not very clear right now, but I can tell you it's not going to be at least for a year, and that's if nothing interrupts me." Rorke took a moment to wipe some sweat on his brow away, his lab sleeve growing damp. "What you see here is just the second stage of installation, which is done after a skeleton is made. Then we'll have to add armor, the weapon systems, the AI, and all the other details such as lighting. Add to that the fact we have to import all the materials down here underground and the weird nature of this construction site, and we're delayed further."

"Keep at it Rorke," Anthony finally spoke, his eyes glued to the Battlecruiser in front of him. "Get this one done and get it in the skies. Afterwards, you won't have to build any more of these things down here."

"What do you mean sir?" Cain's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Shouldn't we have more than one of these things at our command?"

"Yes, but I can think of a better place to build them rather than an underground facility."

"The surface?"

"Well, that'll work, but I think I have something even better. I hear that we'll establish a strong foothold in space soon with the only Battlecruiser. And what better place to build starships than in the stars?"