Author's Note: Today makes 2 and a half years since WoL's release, I thought it'd be the day to update the fic again.
Blackhole1, when you had asked why wasn't Korhal City repaired, as it should have been a blow to Mengsk's reputation, it'll be revealed in future chapters. This chapter will give you some insight to Mengsk's thinking on his own people.
As always, please read and review and I'll see you guys next time.
Chapter 73
Financial District, Korhal City, Korhal
Arcturus Mengsk stepped out of the elevator and walked down the corridor of the financial district building. Like the parts of Korhal City that survived unscathed from the Odin attacks, the place had been lavishly decorated, though nowhere near to the point when compared to the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. It may be grand and vast, but that's certainly a necessity when so many of the city's business deals had to pass through here.
Besides him, Dominion ghost operatives cloaked and were on the alert in the event of assassins. It was standard security, after all. Everyone knew that outside of the Korhal capital city, the emperor was more vulnerable and therefore greater security measures were necessary. His elite bodyguards too had their fingers ready on the triggers, and the overall atmosphere was extremely tense, giving the impression that Mengsk was untouchable when surrounded by them.
Of course the Dominion emperor himself wasn't too worried about such acts of assassination. Only one such event had occurred, and that was back in 2503 when the Spectre Gabriel Tosh had attacked the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. In the end, they had failed, stopped by his finest ghost operative, Agent X41822N. As for Korhal City, although Raynor had already penetrated the defenses here once, even he would be a fool to think he could accomplish it again, Odin or not.
Two of his bodyguards opened the door to the massive conference room, revealing a long and expensively lavished table with the Korhal City businessmen sitting around it. Some of them were company CEOs, others were only financial officers. Still more were high ranking construction personnel, an obvious sight given the extent of the damage done to the city by the Odin, and something that Mengsk had seen coming well over a mile away. And finally, the city's mayor was there, and the emperor had no doubt that he would want some new regarding the relief efforts that had been promised.
Their chairs were made of elegantly lavished redwood, highly polished that they caught the reflective light from the ceiling. There were of course still inferior compared to the ones in the Korhal palace that were made of precious metals, but nevertheless they're of high quality here.
In a similar fashion, the table itself was not ridden with gold and decorations that befit the situation in the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. Instead, all of the businessmen had their portable computers out and had their eyes glued to the screen, no doubt looking over the effects the devastation wreaked on Korhal City and how it would affect the citizens there, both in the short run as well as the long run. Mengsk could see that some of the company CEOs owned companies elsewhere on Korhal, and it was obvious that they too needed to know how the Korhal City incident would affect their overall business empire.
"Greetings, gentlemen," the Dominion emperor declared, stepping towards the table and sitting down on the massive and most elegantly lavished chair, reserved obviously for him and him alone.
Everyone else at the table stood up and bowed. "We're honored by your presence here, emperor," one of them announced. "I only wish it could have been under more favorable circumstances, but as you can clearly see, Korhal City isn't doing so well in the aftermath of the Odin attacks, not after what Jim Raynor did here."
"I had more than enough of the citizens out there reminding me the same thing," Mengsk replied. "My troops had to hold them back as they tried to swamp over me, pleading for Dominion resources in relief."
"It's to be expected," another spoke up. "This place may not be as prosperous as Augustgrad, but there's the fair share of the wealthy people here as well. In the four years that Korhal had been modernized and beautified, they got used to living in grandiose style and a state of luxury. Once that happens, well let's just say it gets a little way too addictive. Trying to take something away from them would be the equivalent of removing an arm off their body. They'd never give it up. Suffice to say, when the Odin went on a rampage and leveled half the city, quite a lot of their business investments were leveled with it. That, along with their luxury apartments, penthouses, and condos. For quite a few of them, they lost nearly everything right there."
"So how are they coping with it?" the emperor asked.
"A few couldn't at all," one of the CEOs answered. "In the days and weeks following what happened here, there have been reports of such wealthy people committing suicide by jumping off the remaining skyscrapers in the city, putting a bullet through their brains, or swallowing cyanide pills. To have lived for so long in a life of luxury and then to suddenly have it all taken from you, well it was just too much for them to handle. They felt their lives were going down the drain and there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Given the fact that virtually all the ones who committed suicide would have had to file for complete bankruptcy, I'm sure you can put the pieces together."
Mengsk nodded. Not that he cared one bit for such people, but it was good to know. It would give him the opportunity to increase his influence over Korhal City even more with such scumbags out of the way. "What about the ones who didn't take the cowardly way out?" he asked. "How are they handling the situation?"
"Quite a number of them are getting closer and closer to that point with every passing day," came the reply. "There are those that still had some of their condos to take refuge in to avoid the crowd, but it's only providing temporary relief. The Odin had leveled quite a number of the manufacturing plants in the city. As I'm sure you're aware, not all of them build weapons for the Dominion military, but rather of recreational use. Some of the plants manufacture hovercars, yachts, and private shuttles, and so forth. The wealthy people have had the vast majority of their money tied up in those places, in some cases all of their money. It's a complete contrast to us who have our money tied up in multiple companies on Korhal, and even ones on other Dominion core worlds, so the Odin attack is only a temporary setback. On the other hand, because they had gambled everything on the manufacturing plants here in Korhal City, they've now lost everything, and don't have a single credit left in their pockets."
"So what are they doing now?"
"Many of them have been forced to take to the streets with the rest of the homeless. A select few are the lucky ones, having associated with the city's residents on more than a few occasions. Some even offered help to the people in times of need. For them, they were recognized very quickly and the homeless people are now doing what they can to accommodate them in their makeshift shanties, offering them whatever food, water, and spare clothing they still have left. It's not much, but it gives them a sense of belonging and everything. If nothing else, at least they know that they aren't completely on their own after the whole city went to hell."
"And the others?" Mengsk asked.
"They're in their personal hell," another spoke up from the table. "Those people never did anything to integrate with the civilian population, and always thought about what directly affected their own personal and physical well-being first. It's a complete disregard for the common people."
Even as he spoke those words, Mengsk could sense the tension from his voice. It seemed as if the man was hinting somewhat at him, and for not helping out the people of Korhal City as the people had expected him to.
"Now the shoe is on the other foot," the man continued. "For those people, the civilians are treating them with complete contempt and disgust. Most expressed satisfaction to see that the mighty had fallen, that they have gone from one of the wealthiest people in the city to mere beggars in rags. They couldn't do anything about it anymore, since the civilians are telling the truth, and that they're completely ruined. It's creating a level of despair they have never experienced in their lives before, and many are having trouble trying to adjust to this. At least during their wealthy days, they could avoid the anger from the public, out of sight, out of mind. Now, there's no such option."
"I'm not surprised," the emperor said, placing his hands on the table. "But at least they're getting a taste of life like the other civilians in the city, now that they no longer have their luxuries with them everywhere they go."
"The refugee situation is still steadily deteriorating, emperor," the city's mayor said, speaking up for the first time since Mengsk entered the room. "The city's supply levels in food, fuel, and other resources are all running very low."
Mengsk rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you people never bothered to prepare in the event of an emergency, mayor."
"With all due respect emperor, you stated for years that Korhal would be untouchable by the enemies of the Dominion, that no one would have the nerve to even think of attacking," the mayor replied. "Everyone believed you, especially given all the Dominion resources that have been poured into fortifying the planet, which you claimed repeatedly to be the Dominion's strongest fortress. I don't think people had considered the possibility that anyone would have really attacked Korhal."
The emperor shook his head. "Well that still doesn't explain why the city's supplies are becoming so low."
"As you're aware, the Odin walker had been intended to be displayed right in the city square. The inhabitants had been informed of this, along with the Dominion military presence for this event. Given the fact that the original plan was for the military to stay in Korhal City for a few days, the local authorities had made the logistical preparations for feeding the military and supplying it with the vespene gas needed to keep its vehicles running."
Mengsk nodded, taking it all in.
"Combined with the fact that you had stated for so long that Korhal would be untouchable, all of those food and fuel supply depots were moved out into the open for easier access. Therefore, when the Odin went rogue and turned on the Dominion forces, those supply dumps became easy targets for the heavy walker. Despite our best efforts, the vast majority of those dumps were quickly destroyed, either by the Odin or by James Raynor's Raiders. Only a very small fraction had been saved, and this isn't enough to deal with the hundreds of thousands of suffering people in the city ruins."
Seeing that the emperor wanted him to continue, the mayor went on, "The homeless are now reduced to burning waste in garbage cans just to start a fire so they can keep themselves warm at night. The local police authorities are having their hands full trying to maintain order as the Odin attacks had taken a heavy toll on their numbers too. Quite simply, there aren't enough to prevent the widespread of chaos that's been steadily increasing due to all the food supply shortages. The reports keep coming in about the people on the streets are constantly fighting each other over loaves of bread. Hell, sometimes it gets so desperate that people are killing one another over just a few slices of bread. Bakeries are being constantly targeted as there have been more and more incidents where the homeless are just smashing the windows down and taking the food. The same is true for the vespene tanker trucks, where people have been raiding them to get the fuel necessary for whatever vehicles they have."
He took a deep breath before continuing, "Since these raids are starting to increase in intensity, it also means that the number of casualties have been steadily increasing as well. This makes the situation even worse since the Odin attacks have also destroyed most of Korhal City's hospitals. For the ones that remain, the hospital personnel are starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of wounded that have been pouring in. In some cases, the doctors have been forced to treat patients out in the parking lots because the hospital wings themselves are becoming too overcrowded. To make matters worse, the hospitals' medical supplies are also starting to run low, as they too have been the target of raiders. They realize that they're going to need to get their hands on all the meds they can grab because there's no longer a guarantee that they could get treated at a hospital in case they suffer serious injuries."
"So what are you asking of me?" the emperor folded his arms. He was not liking this at all.
"Given the shortages of food, fuel, and med supplies, in the short run those will be vital in order to keep the city from spiraling completely out of control," the mayor answered. "I ran over the logistics with some of my boys. According to their calculations, the inhabitants are going to need 25,000 tons of supplies a day for at least a month. The local authorities can take care of the job of distributing the supplies to the people who need it the most in order to prevent the rioting and raiding from getting even worse."
"And in the long run?"
"The attack by James Raynor using the Odin heavy walker had caused the city terrible damage, and it'll take months to have everything rebuilt. In terms of the money necessary, my boys estimate that the damage done had caused nearly 300 billion worth of credits. That's how much the city is going to need to restore it back to the glorious way it once was."
The mayor looked directly at Mengsk in the eye. "Emperor, please help my people. I know you have a responsibility to the whole of the Dominion, which is a hell of a lot more than my responsibility to Korhal City, but the situation here is critical. The whole city is sitting on one giant powder keg, and unless relief comes immediately, I guarantee you that the keg will go off. As I've stated before, the local authorities simply cannot handle it if that occurs, and the whole city will erupt into total anarchy. I'm doing everything in my power to ensure that won't happen, but without any relief supplies or military aid, my options are somewhat limited right now. If the inhabitants here get the impression that they're completely on their own, I'll lose whatever control I've still got left. The backlashes will be far worse compared to the rioting on other Dominion core worlds in the immediate aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts."
He then turned his head to the business CEOs at the meeting table. "You guys can argue all you want about making profits and all that, but that's not what's important here. Granted, there will be the money to be made once the Dominion aid comes and relief efforts begin, but right now the focus is saving the lives of people. Public and private property takes a backseat compared to that, as well as making a profit for yourselves."
Mengsk sighed. "All right, you've stated your requests. Given how the people here had said the same thing to me about Dominion aid when I was addressing them in the city square, even I can't deny the situation is anything but bad."
He pushed himself out of his chair. "If you'll excuse me, this is something I must discuss with my associates, and it must be done alone."
Everyone in the conference room gave nods of understanding, and one by one the Korhal City mayor, business CEOs, financial officers, and construction personnel stood up from the massive meeting table. One by one they turned to the door and left, leaving the Dominion emperor alone in the room with only his elite bodyguards.
Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock
Bullet casings clattered to the ground as Raiders and mercenaries continued to push forward towards the Dominion base entrance. Sarah led the way with one of the squads, channeling her psionic powers and forming a barrier to prevent the Spider Mines from getting within proximity of the ground troops and detonating.
She telekinetically picked one up and hurled it at one of the bipedal Hellions. The explosion that resulted caused its fuel tanks to rupture, and the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The hatch opened, as the driver tried to jump out and escape, only to be cut down by the bullets of nearby marines.
"Franklin, come in," Kerrigan said, tapping her comm-link. "What the hell are these things? They look like Hellion vehicles, but they're bipedal for some odd reason. One of the Dominion's new toys?"
"You got me," came the reply. "All I know is that Dominion troops were not too pleased with the performance of the Hellion because their armor was too weak to withstand much when it came to fighting the Zerg. They may be fast, but the Zerg always have the overwhelming numbers advantage. Rumor had it that the Dominion was planning to improve the Hellion in a way to make it more effective on the battlefield, though no one seemed to know anything more than that."
The red haired ghost channeled her psionic powers and jammed the rifles of nearby Dominion marines, before squeezing the trigger on her C-20 Canister Rifle and cutting them down. A nearby Firebat spotted her and unleashed fire from the Perdition Flamethrowers, but Sarah unleashed her pyrokinesis ability and redirected the flame away from her. Seeing the moment of opportunity, a nearby Marauder fired a punisher grenade right into the Firebat, causing the man to explode in a fireball.
In the air, one of the Dominion Grizzlies suddenly swooped down onto their position. "Get to cover!" Sarah shouted. "I'll handle this!"
The Grizzly dropped its bomb payload, sending it plummeting towards her. But again, she used her telekinesis to stop the bombs in midair, before hurling it towards a Dominion Stinger jeep and blowing it apart.
Hammer Securities Marauders moved past her, firing their mediator grenades at Dominion Vultures. Cloaking, Kerrigan sprinted forward and unleashed a psychic attack, as Dominion Reapers fell to the ground screaming from the pain, before their minds were permanently shut down.
A Dominion Banshee who happened to be near a Raven managed to detect her, and unleashed its backlash rockets. But to the pilot's surprise, the female ghost formed a psionic barrier around her that stopped the missiles dead in their tracks. Before he had a chance to do anything else, Kerrigan unleashed a psionic storm and sent the Banshee plummeting from the sky, before hurling the suspended rockets at nearby Goliath walkers and sending five of them toppling to the ground.
Other Goliath walkers immediately switched their fire to her position, but Sarah was already prepared. Taking aim, she fired from her rifle right towards their cockpits. True to her crack shot ability, the bullets went right through and killed the pilots. One of them was fortunate enough to swerve his walker aside, but Kerrigan took advantage of this and sprinted forward, jumping onto the Goliath walker.
Using her telekinesis, she yanked the cockpit cover right off, exposing the pilot, before reaching down with her arm and throwing the Goliath pilot out, where he was greeted by a wall of fire from mercenary Devil Dog Firebats.
Suddenly, a massive explosion knocked her off her feet, as she saw one of the mercenary Sloth bulldozers explode in a fireball. Sarah turned her head to see that in the distance, Dominion Siege Tanks were moving into position. Some of them already were, their shock cannons beginning to shell the battlefield.
The mercenary Saber vehicles charged forward, their gauss cannons blazing, but this served only to cut down the Dominion marines. The Siege Tanks themselves were relatively unharmed, while the Sabers easily succumbed to the laser fire of Dominion Wraiths flying overhead.
Unleashing another psionic storm, Sarah directed this one to the flyers up ahead. While a few were able to dodge out of the way, enough Wraiths were knocked out of the sky to allow the mercenary Avengers to move forward and unleash their payload from their rocket pods. Dominion marines and Goliaths put up a desperate wall of lead, but many were forced to retreat as the sheer firepower overwhelmed them.
More and more of the Medivac Dropships were moved into the area, and medics had their hands full dealing with the wounded, both Raider and mercenary. The lightly wounded were quickly patched up and sent right back onto the battlefield, while the ones with heavier injuries had to be evacuated from the area.
Fortunately, by now the other mercenary troops on Dead Man's Rock were already fighting alongside the Raiders and Mira's forces, and the numbers had turned in their favor. Kerrigan smiled at the thought to see that everyone on the planet was fighting the Dominion, fighting for their independence. It brought back memories of her Sons of Korhal days with Jim, where the two of them dreamed of a Koprulu Sector free of tyranny.
Still firing from her rifle, more and more Dominion marines, Reapers, and Marauders were being cut down by the sheer amount of fire, while others continued to retreat towards the base entrance. The Raiders' Thors by now were less than a mile away from artillery range, and Sarah knew that the Dominion bunkers at the entrance stood no chance of surviving such a barrage.
"We're just about clear of the toxic area," one of the mercenary officers next to her announced. "With the other mercenaries fighting alongside us, we've got more reinforcements inbound."
"Good," she said. "Remember, once we breach the base entrance, don't go leveling everything you see, at least not yet. We don't know just where the nuclear warheads are, and any stray explosion might end up setting them off."
"The other mercs already know about the nuke threat," he assured. "They'll be sure to handle this in a delicate manner."
Sarah's comm-link then beeped. "Kerrigan, Dominion activity in the base is increasing," Franklin reported. "The flyboys are reporting increased transport activity."
"Could they be trying to move the nukes?" she asked.
"Can't tell," came the reply. "All I know is that some of the Dominion trucks are being loaded onto Dropships, and they're ready for takeoff. They may be evacuating the base as we speak."
"We can't take that chance," she told him. "Until the warheads are taken care of, it's too risky to assume anything."
"We'll deal the Dominion scumbags," one of the mercenary marines beside her said. "You just get into the waste processing facility and do your part. Once you're done with the nukes, we'll handle the rest."
Train, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis
"I'm going have to agree with Raynor on this one," Mal said, looking at the female UNN reporter. "I watched a few of your reports myself on UNN. Despite them being pro-Dominion, it seems you didn't exactly buy the emperor's claims of Raynor being a terrorist who wanted nothing more than to spread chaos to every world. The tone you gave for these broadcasts seemed skeptical, even before the recent Zerg invasion got off the ground."
Kate gave the wrangler a slight nod. "Contrary to what you may think, reporters do what they can to find out the truth, not just turn a blind eye and accept whatever they're told. Even in cases where we're physically at the scene, some of us are smart enough to know there may be more than what meets the eye."
Nova frowned in confusion. "If that's true, why didn't you make any attempt to tell anyone?"
"The Dominion keeps very careful tabs on what people say," Lockwell answered. "I wouldn't expect you to understand this because as a ghost operative, all you do is listen to a superior order and then carry it out, no questions asked, no thinking allowed."
"That's not how it works in my Raiders," Jim said, seeing Nova frown even deeper. "I may have ghosts as well, but they're treated as actual people, instead of just weapons and a means to an end. I don't have an expectation for anyone under me to just blindly obey without even the slightest bit of explanation to it all."
He turned his head to Kim. "You can deny it all you want, but answer me this: if your claims are true are Dominion ghosts are still people to you, why are they never called by anything except for their agent serial numbers? Nova told me that despite their memory wipes, Dominion ghosts still remember their real names, they just don't go by it."
"They're used for the Dominion's special missions," the colonel said calmly. "It's better not to give out their real names. That way, the Dominion's enemies won't be able to track them down so easily."
Nova's eyes darkened in anger. "Special missions? Almost half the missions I was assigned to were nothing more than pure assassination!" she shouted. "Jim helped me recover my memories, and I remember killing Dominion targets right in front of their families!"
"You said it yourself that the Dominion people are not demons, Kim," Raynor told the Dominion colonel. "Am I supposed to believe you're not supposed to feel anything from that?"
Kim let out a sigh. "Ok fine, so the Dominion personnel in charge of the Ghost Program are a little more cold-hearted than they should be. The point is they still have the Dominion's best intentions at heart."
"So you deluded yourself into believing," Nova shot back. "As ghost agents, we were meant for only one thing: to serve the Dominion without question to the very end. Whatever goals, dreams, family, friendship, and things like that were removed due to the memory wipes, and only loyalty to the emperor was what mattered."
"Even you have to admit by now that Mengsk is not the savior of humanity as he claimed himself to be for all these years," Jim added. "Or have you learned nothing from the Korhal broadcasts?"
The Dominion colonel sighed. "Mengsk is far from perfect, I'll give you that much, but your revolution hasn't exactly earned yourself a good reputation either, Raynor."
"He has to the Dominion Fringe Worlds who praised him for saving them from the Zerg," Kate pointed out. "I heard it from them myself, but due to the censorship, I just wasn't able to say it to the public."
"Which brings me back to my original question," Mal said. "You're not like the others, Ms. Lockwell. You don't seem to be convinced about the emperor's claims regarding Raynor. Care to tell us why?"
The UNN reporter looked at Kim, before shifting her eyes to the wrangler. She seemed hesitant on what she's going to say, especially since other than Raynor, everyone else around her were either Dominion or formerly Dominion soldiers.
Finally, she decided to take the risk. "Mr. Raynor, what do you know about the reporter Michael Liberty?"
Jim's head perked up slightly at the mention of his name. "He and I met a few years back during the days when the Confederacy was still around. Two of us worked under Mengsk back then."
Now Kate suddenly looked confused. "Wait, you and the emperor were once on the same side?"
"Before Mengsk became the Dominion emperor, he was the leader of the rebel group known as the Sons of Korhal," Jim explained. "As I'm sure you know, that group was formed after the Confederacy blasted Korhal with 1000 Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles and turned the whole planet into a radioactive wasteland. A lot of people were not pleased with the Confederacy for doing that, and it increased the list of rebels against them even more."
"I know about how the Sons of Korhal came to be, Mr. Raynor," Lockwell replied. "I just don't know how you fit into all this."
"I was only a marshal on Mar Sara back then," the rebel commander said. "When the Zerg came, the Confederacy wouldn't help the people there. Only the Sons of Korhal did, and I joined Mengsk's cause because I had believed he would be a force for change, to bring the Confederacy down once and for all. However, by the time of Tarsonis and him using the Zerg to kill the whole population, that's when he crossed the line. When he told me that I must remain loyal and obedient to him once he rules over the sector, it just confirmed that he was every bit as rotten and corrupt as the Confederacy ever was."
Beside him, Nova nodded in agreement. "Jim told me that during his days with the Sons of Korhal, he had hoped that once the Confederacy is eliminated, the people they enslaved would finally be freed. In particular would be the ghosts, since the Confederacy saw them as nothing but weapons. But when Mengsk formed the Dominion, he kept the Ghost Program. We were still only seen as weapons. That meant by having the Confederacy switched over to the Dominion, the corruption didn't go away, it just got changed from one form to another."
Kate nodded slowly, trying to take this all in.
"All right, I've explained my part with the Sons of Korhal," Jim said. "Now it's your turn. What do you know about Michael Liberty?"
"When the Dominion was first formed, very little," Lockwell answered. "All I knew was that he was once friends with the emperor, but then their relationship fell apart. Of course now that I've heard what you told me about the Sons of Korhal, I can see why."
"But you know more about him even before I told you about the Sons of Korhal," Jim insisted. "What was it?"
"This goes back one of the anniversaries of the Dominion, Mr. Raynor. In the year 2502, I was aboard the Dominion BattleCruiser Victory, where I was chosen for an assignment. Apparently the Dominion disliked reporters due to what Mr. Liberty had done, not that I knew exactly what that was at the time. One of the officers aboard the ship, Major Tom Hawkins, wanted me to tell the story the way the Dominion Marine Corps would see them."
"And what happened?" Nova asked.
"One of my cameramen was a man named Zach Oliver," Kate explained. "He and I worked together worked together for 5 years, but then I fired him for conspiracy theories. We landed on a planet called Candore, a Dominion colony world. Because there was nothing to report, he and I snuck into the BattleCruiser's brig, where we discovered a huge pile of terran corpses, including women and children. We also intercepted a transmission from Michael Liberty, saying that the Candore colony simply vanished."
She took a breath before continuing, "When Major Hawkins found out, he had both me and Oliver arrested. Because he knew that Oliver had taken hard copies of the footage and gave them to me, he threatened to throw Oliver out the airlock unless I gave it up to him." She shook her head in disgust. "In the end, Hawkins threw him out the airlock anyway, not to mention tried to kill me by shooting me in the shoulder."
Mal was horrified. "How did you get away?"
"Michael Liberty saved me," Kate answered. "He was part of an organization called the Knights of Freedom and against the Dominion. The Knights of Freedom killed Hawkins, then explained that the reason the Dominion had killed all those people on Candore was because they believed the Candore colonists were sheltering the Knights of Freedom organization. It left me very confused as to who to believe, but it was then that I knew the Dominion was far from perfect. Killing women and children simply because they disagreed with the Dominion's point of view certainly did not sit well with me. Mengsk had constantly talked about freedom and liberty, but what I on Candore was only dictatorship."
"But you stayed with the Dominion anyway," Jim said.
"I needed to understand if everyone in the Dominion was as sadistic as Hawkins, or if he was just one of the few psychos. He had accused me of being a traitor to the Dominion, but I pointed out to him that apparently the Dominion did not have the best intentions at heart as everyone had been led to believe. In either case I didn't turn a blind eye to what happened back then. Oliver had made two hard copies of the footage of corpses of the Candore colonists. I had allowed myself to get captured by the Dominion marines and turned one over to them. The other one I gave to Mr. Liberty and the Knights of Freedom."
Kim looked angry. "You gave an anti-Dominion organization such information?"
"I could never have broadcasted such a thing with all the censorship," Lockwell answered. "I'm a reporter, and it's our job to find out the truth. I don't go about blindly listening to whatever the Dominion tells me without so much as giving it a second thought."
"She has you there, Kim," Raynor pointed out. "You can say all you want about you being a Dominion soldier and being trained to obey orders, but that doesn't stop the thought process altogether. In addition you can argue about superior orders can't be questioned, but that doesn't mean you never stop and think if those orders make sense or not."
"Not all of them are supposed to make sense," the colonel said, exasperated. "Some of them are for the greater picture which we're on a need-to-know basis."
"So you keep telling yourself," Nova pointed out. "Have you ever considered that maybe you're not being told everything because there's something sinister that Mengsk doesn't want you to find out?" Before she had a chance to respond, the blond ghost continued, "Don't forget, I'm a telepath here. I know you're the type of officer who tries to dig a little bit a little deeper behind orders, and try to understand slightly more to the picture. It's why you're not as resented as much by Dominion ghosts since you at least make some attempt to see us as people. All the other Dominion officers only see us as killing machines and nothing more."
Kim gritted her teeth, aggravated. The only ones in the train car now that didn't seem to favor the Raiders as much were all of Lockwell's journalists, who had remained silent this whole time. Clearly the female news reporter was far from the pro Dominion woman that people had been led to believe, but even Kim was forced to realize that she was right with regards to multiple perspectives to events.
Finally, she decided to let it go for the time being. While the troops under her command would continue to resent Raynor, she decided maybe it's time for more light to be shed on the picture. After all, as long the as the Zerg masses were still pursuing after the train, their troops would be forced to work together anyway to repel the threat.
She pushed herself up from her seat. "You guys can argue all you want, but you're not going to turn me and my troops against the Dominion. Raynor, you can say all you want about the Dominion being corrupt, but you haven't exactly shown the people the better future yourself. I'm going to speak to my troops to still cooperate with yours due to the Zerg. Once that's over with, we're done."
Financial District, Korhal City, Korhal
The holovid screen displayed a Dominion supply and logistics officer speaking with the Dominion emperor. "Those people in Korhal City really have it bad, don't they, sir?"
"And they expect me to help them through this mess," Mengsk said in disgust. "Well they can all go to hell for all I care. I've got far bigger matters to tend to instead of just listening to their crap."
"Then why even contact me if you're not going to do anything about it?"
"I didn't say I wasn't going to do a thing," the Dominion emperor replied. "I just won't do what they expect me to do. The Korhal City mayor expects me to give out nearly 800,000 tons of supplies of food, fuel, and medicine over the course of the next 30 days to prevent the people there from going completely crazy. I'll never hand them that much, especially not on a silver platter."
"So what do you have planned?"
"Have your boys ready the Dropships and airdrop them onto the city," Mengsk answered. "Give them about 1500 tons for the next 30 days, let the inhabitants fight it out."
"You know that's just going to cause further chaos in the city, right?"
"Of course I do, but I don't care about that. If the people down there start turning into savages who have to resort to cannibalism to stay alive, it'll just mean they're too damn weak to endure. And if they're too weak to endure, then they have no place in the Dominion, especially not the throne world. They can die for all I care."
The Dominion officer on screen nodded in understanding. "I'll begin prepping the Dropships for the airdrop operations right away, emperor."
As Mengsk turned off the communicator, one of his ghost operatives decloaked next to him. "Sir, you have a transmission from Dead Man's Rock. General Ridgeway is holding on the line for you."
The emperor pressed a button, and the general's face appeared on screen. "General, I take it you have some good news for me on the mercenary planet?"
"Hardly, sir," Ridgeway answered. "The Dominion base is getting pounded here. Our scouts have identified nearly all of the mercenary organizations on Dead Man's Rock assaulting the base."
The emperor shook his head. "And here I thought the mercs would be too scared to attack. Well, that doesn't matter. They have only outdated equipment compared to your modern ones, so they'll have to endure appalling casualties before they can even enter your base."
"That's not what's happening here," the general said. "The entrance is about to be breached right now, and the mercenaries show no sign of stopping."
"And how's that possible?" Mengsk asked.
A video display appeared on the screen, showing Thors pounding away at the Dominion bunkers guarding the entrance. "Because the mercenaries aren't the only ones attacking us. My scouts have detected military vehicles from James Raynor's Raiders as part of the assault force as well, and you know as well as I do that they have much more modern equipment."
The emperor gritted his teeth in anger and was about to turn his head away when something on screen suddenly caught his eye. "General, rewind the footage slightly and play it back at a slower speed."
Ridgeway complied, as Mengsk looked closely at the screen. "I see a psionic storm being cast there," he observed. "Are there any Protoss fighting alongside the mercenaries?"
"No, sir. I'm every bit as confused as you are about that. I know Raynor has ghosts at his disposal, but their minds aren't strong enough to do something like that."
Mengsk looked more carefully at the screen, before his eyes widened slightly. "General, freeze that picture right there."
The video display suddenly froze. "Did you find something, sir?" Ridgeway asked.
"I think I have," the emperor murmured, as he looked at a ghost operative on the ground cloaking. But before the cloak was finished and the operative vanished into the air, he saw a glimpse of her mane of fiery red hair.
Mengsk's eyes darkened in anger, and his fists clenched. "It's Kerrigan. She's fighting against your forces down there."
Ridgeway's face showed confusion. "Why the hell would Raynor have the Queen of Blades fight on his side? Isn't he even concerned about this coming back to bite him?"
"I don't know, and I don't care," the emperor said, barely controlling his rage. "General, I have another task for you once you've decimated Paradise and Deadman's Port with the nukes. Concentrate your Dominion forces against Kerrigan there. She is not to leave the planet alive under any and all circumstances."