Author's Note: Blackhole1, in your review of my chapter 71, you had asked me why didn't I repair Korhal City given Raynor's actions in there with the Odin and all that. You said that such an act should have been humiliated to Mengsk because he boasted that Korhal was untouchable, and Raynor disproved that, so it was a blow to his pride and reputation.
As the words you said yourself, "Doesn't Mengsk realize that the best way to get people to forget that little incident was to erase all evidence of its existence? By quickly and efficiently coming to his people's aid, he'd effectively be poking holes in Raynor's broadcast by appearing as a far stronger and/or more benevolent ruler than the broadcast suggested. It just strikes me as a little stupid of him not to use something like that to his advantage. I suppose that you could say that it was his arrogance that stopped him from making the right decision, but if he's making mistakes like this, I can only wonder why he's still on the throne."
That's because you and I don't see Mengsk in the same view. And in this chapter, you'll get to see my interpretation of Mengsk's mentality. Once you reach the second and fourth parts of the chapter, you'll see exactly what I mean.
Chapter 79
Bel'Shir
Dominion marines positioned themselves behind the sandbags, their C-14 gauss rifles trained in forward position and searching for any Tal'darim unfortunate enough to get in their crosshairs. Marauders trundled about beside them, their punisher grenade launchers ready to strike at any opponent to attack the defense lines.
Behind them, General Madison sighed. Despite the gallant efforts his soldiers were making and the show of courage they had on their faces, he knew that most of them were very grim about the outcome. Casualties so far have been relatively light, but that wasn't due to any tactical defensive plans or anything like that. Rather, the Protoss attack waves so far have only been probing attacks, instead of attacking them in full force. Clearly despite the devastation that Archon entity had wreaked upon his Dominion troops, the remaining Tal'darim on Bel'Shir were still unsure as to just how many soldiers Madison still had at his disposal.
The mood of the Dominion general along with his soldiers had changed only a matter of hours ago. Looking back, Madison could hardly believe how quickly the situation had fallen apart once their presence to the Tal'darim had been known. Apparently the Protoss fanatics had chosen to investigate the situation a lot more quickly than he had anticipated. He had still been ordering the Dominion engineers to hide the downed Protoss Scout and Observer in the dense foliage of the jungle when another Scout had flown over their position. Despite frantic gunfire from the Dominion marines, the Scout was able to quickly maneuver out of the way and withdraw. When that had happened, Madison knew that he and his boys had to get off the jungle moon immediately or there would be no hope of them getting off at all.
He had immediately given the order for all SCVs still mining at the terrazine altars to abort whatever mining they were doing and fall back to the Command Center, still hidden in the deep jungle foliage. The lead SCV pilot had reported to him that when that order had been issued, the SCVs had just completed harvesting the 350th canister of terrazine. To Madison, this was considered enough. It may have fallen short of the 400 canisters that the emperor had ordered him, but as far as he was concerned, it should be close enough. Whatever the emperor's plans may be, even he would understand the need to improvise. For the Dominion general, it was more of a matter of saving the lives of his soldiers.
Unfortunately, he too had made a serious error in underestimating the Protoss. Convinced that the Bel'Shir jungle foliage would mask the Command Center from being spotted from aerial reconnaissance, the Tal'darim had quickly proved him wrong. Instead of attacking the Dominion troops as Madison had anticipated, the Protoss had brought in their air power and struck at the Dominion Command Center. As reports of Protoss Void Rays were approaching the installation, Madison frantically ordered as many marines as possible to intercept them so that the Protoss wouldn't cut off their escape route.
The reports after that had both relieved and shaken him deeply. The Dominion marines were able to get to the Command Center in time to return fire at the Void Rays, and this had prevented them from reducing the vital installation to ashes. Unfortunately, as Madison had discovered, the Protoss didn't need to. While the Command Center itself was in reasonable condition, the Void Ray attacks had damaged its Atlas Boosters. This meant that until repaired, it was no longer possible for the installation to lift off into the air.
Many of the Dominion officers had argued and recommended to him to simply abandon the Command Center and just radio the Dropships to come down and pick up all the troops on the ground, and every part of Madison wanted to agree. However, he knew this was simply not an option. All of the 350 terrazine canisters that had been collected from the Tal'darim altars were stored within the Command Center, and to abandon it would mean all of their harvesting efforts had been for nothing. While the Dominion marines didn't particularly care about saving the terrazine substance, Madison knew that if he returned empty handed to Mengsk, the emperor would simply order him down to Bel'Shir to try again, and there would be no way he could pull off such a stunt once more with the slender resources of men and material at his disposal.
To that end, he made it perfectly clear that the Command Center must be protected and had to lift off of Bel'Shir. This had provoked resentment from the marines, but surprisingly enough, a decent amount of them saw reason behind Madison's logic and accepted the fact that they were going to have to stay on the jungle moon for a bit longer.
For others, this proved to be extremely discouraging news. When on the battlefield, most marines had their hands full pumping out bullets at their enemies. Few of them had the time to pay attention to the Dominion engineers building and repairing buildings and vehicles, even if it would later become beneficial to them. In fact, even during lulls in the fighting, few marines cared about what the Dominion engineers did in their repair work, and this meant that none of them knew how long such work would take.
Now, given the critical manpower factor and the constant dwindling supply of ammunition for all of their weapons, Madison saw that the surviving Dominion officers were radioing the engineers every few minutes, however heavy the fighting was on the frontline. He couldn't blame them. They were all demanding news on just how much longer it would take before the Atlas Boosters could be repaired so that they could all get off this moon.
The engineers' responses did nothing to encourage them either. Every single time that the Dominion officers had contacted them, the engineers had always responded by saying that they were going as fast as they could. The general could clearly see the impatience on the officers' faces, as well as the sheer frustration in realizing that they could do nothing to help the engineers. Some of the Dominion marines on the defense line looked as if they were about to explode with impatience, and were demanding a more definite answer from the engineers.
Madison shook his head. This impatience and frustration was clearly getting on everyone's nerves, including his own. But constantly pestering the engineers to get the Atlas Boosters fixed was obviously not going to get them to go faster, nor would it make their jobs any easier. This was just something he knew that his troops would just have to wait it out.
Even so, the thought of being powerless to do anything about it bred pessimism and despair on the frontlines, and the general could see that this was clearly affecting his surviving officers as well. For everyone's sake, he had to hold it together. If his troops got the impression that he lost hope of making it off Bel'Shir alive, then they would all fall like dominoes.
At this point the general alarm went off again, and this time, the Protoss came at them much more rapidly than had been anticipated. No sooner did the marines on the frontline raise their rifles did a Scout suddenly swoop down upon them, its photon blasters blazing.
"Shoot it out of the sky!" a Dominion officer shouted, but it was no use. The Scout's weapons had a longer range compared to the marines' rifles, and its speed and agility proved to be every bit as quick and graceful. Within a matter of seconds, the Tal'darim air superiority fighter had strafed the Dominion defensive line, and the cry came up for medics from the marines.
"Medivac ships, this is General Madison," the general spoke into his comm-link. "Where the hell are you? We've got more wounded here!"
"The Protoss still have plenty of air power here, sir," came the reply. "Whatever Vikings that aren't with you on the ground all have their hands full trying to keep the skies clear."
"The medics here are running out of supplies!" Madison shouted. "I need you people down here to help the wounded!"
"We're doing everything we can right now, sir. Some of our Wraiths managed to get through the Protoss ships. They should be coming within visual range of you any minute now."
"Zealots incoming!" one of the marines shouted, as the surviving marines opened up with their gauss rifles. Bullet casings clattered to the ground as the sounds of battle raged.
"Reapers, detonate the charges!" Madison ordered.
A massive explosion rocked the battlefield as the Dominion Reapers entered the codes into their wrist systems, as the piles of D-8 explosive charges were set off right in front of the frontlines. But to the marines' shock, some of the Zealots nevertheless survived and came within striking distance of them.
"Hold them off!" A Marauder shouted, firing his punisher grenades from built-in grenade launcher. However only a moment later, he was blown apart. The other Marauders turned to see Tal'darim Immortals were also moving into position. A few of them were already within range, their phase disruptors raining death on the defensive line.
"Reapers, concentrate fire on them!" A Dominion officer shouted, as the Dominion Reapers opened up with their P-38 pistols. As they were light attacks, the Immortals' hardened shields did not activate. Unfortunately, due to the longer ranges of the Protoss cybernetic warrior, it also meant that the Reapers had to get within range, and many were slaughtered before they could cause any significant damage. Before long, the surviving ones were forced to retreat back to the defense line or risk being completely torn apart by them.
"Vikings, don't let the Zealots through!" Madison commanded, as the Dominion Vikings continuously fired from their gatling cannons. The recoils shook the mechanical hybrids, but despite the fact that Zealot after Zealot fell to the ground bleeding, more of them continued to rush forward towards the Dominion line.
Suddenly, the skies above some of the Vikings cracked lightning blue. The Dominion marines watched in shock as Tal'darim High Templars moved into position and unleashed the power of their psionic storms right over the Vikings' positions. A few of the mechanized hybrids were able to move out of the way, but as the storms had been cast over such a wide area, they had left many more Vikings a smoking ruin.
Some of the marines rushed to taking the Vikings' place, only to let out a cry as a massive orange beam engulfed them. Madison watched wide eyed as Tal'darim Colossus walkers emerged out of the jungle foliage, their thermal lances targeting the Dominion troops.
"Where's that Wraith support?" he shouted. "I need those Colossi taken down now or we're done for!"
"We're coming in hot, general," came the reply. "Targeting the Colossus walkers now, sir."
Dominion marines and War Pig mercenaries looked up into the sky and cheered as Wraith fighters swooped down and unleashed their gemini missiles from their rocket pods. Because of their height, the Colossi were easily sighted, as the missiles rammed into the golden hulls. One of them toppled over from the sheer intensity of the firepower, while others moved quickly away towards the Stalkers to seek protection.
Other Stalkers blinked about on the battlefield, much to the anger and frustration of the marines. Some of them proved to be exceptionally experienced, able to blink within range to unleash the firepower of their particle disruptors, before quickly blinking away once more. Dominion medics rushed from one place to another to tend to the wounded marines, Marauders, and Reapers, and Madison could see that they were clearly getting overwhelmed.
"Engineers, just how much more time are you guys going to need?" he demanded angrily into his comm-link, as he watched more Zealots make a rush towards the defense line. "My boys are getting hammered here! We're reduced to stripping the weapons from the dead and wounded for ammunition!"
"I'm sorry sir," one of the engineers answered. "But to fix this Atlas Booster isn't exactly a simple task."
Madison growled in frustration. "Right now, I don't care anymore how well you do it. If it's enough to get the Command Center to lift off and fly, I'll take it. Now, how much longer is this going to take?"
"Well if you're just going to settle for that, then maybe another hour, sir."
"Another hour still?" the general was not pleased at all. "If the Protoss attacks intensify, we're not going to be able to last that long! You've got 20 minutes, fix those damn boosters already!"
Switching to another channel, Madison knew it he would need to get all the Dominion transports he's got left down to the surface of Bel'Shir as soon as possible. The danger was still far from over.
Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal
Mengsk listened carefully as the Dominion officers briefed him through the communicator in the Korhal Palace. The emperor was clearly displeased, not only with the situation in Korhal City, but with the actions of his son Valerian as well.
"We've been able to intercept some of the other Dominion freighter ships and turn them back around," the officer on the other line reported.
"How large a freighter are we talking here?" the emperor demanded.
"Some of the biggest ones the Dominion use for cargo movement, both for civilian usage and military operations. Those ones could carry over 100,000 tons of supplies if fully loaded. One of which had successfully landed in the Korhal City starport. Within minutes, the starport personnel had unloaded them onto trains, where they were taken straight to Korhal City."
"Did any others get through?"
"Just three of them," the officer replied. "They were of smaller freighters and couldn't hold as much, but overall, I'd say before we stopped the transports from going to Korhal City, the combined efforts of all the freighters would have landed about 250,000 tons of supplies at the starport. According to what you've said about mayor Kirkwood's requests, that won't be enough to completely resolve the situation, but I'm sure he knows that too. He's probably talking it out with his city officials to find a way to stretch the resources even more to make these supplies last. I'm not the expert on that, I'd estimate he could probably make it last about two weeks, give or take a day or two. During that time, I'm sure he'll be making requests to other cities on Korhal for relief aid and such."
Mengsk clenched his teeth in frustration. Valerian was becoming a severe thorn in his side for such actions. He never really understood that boy. There were qualities that made him strong, but there were so many that made him weak that at times, the emperor hardly even recognized his own son.
Among the major flaws Valerian had was the fact that he still believed in compassion and ruling with kindness towards his people, and that by doing so, it would win over the people's trust and praise to him. As far as Mengsk was concerned, this was nothing but wishful thinking. The citizens of the Dominion were little more than whiners, and the emperor had recognized this very quickly. It was for this reason that he knew that ruling with an iron fist and by making cold and calculated decisions was the right one.
Because of the constant whining problems from the public, Mengsk knew that by giving in to their requests, it would be nothing more than a form of appeasement. And as he had learned long ago, appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive. It meant that by giving in, the people would just keep demanding more and more out of him, and that would cause a serious strain on other, more important matters that he had to deal with.
This was especially true now, in a time of war. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped, but their defeat was another matter altogether. Raynor's actions on Char may have returned Kerrigan to human form again, but the Zerg were a force to be reckoned with long before she had been transformed into the Queen of Blades, he understood that now. Certainly by deinfesting her, it was a severe blow to the Zerg, but by now, Mengsk had changed his view overall Zerg threat in the aftermath of the Char invasion. According to the reports from scouts flying over Dominion worlds that had been infested by the Zerg during the invasion, while there was no evidence to suggest that the Zerg forces down there were massing for any major offensive operations, the fact remained that the scouts still drew a considerable amount of hostile fire from the hive clusters if they got within too close a distance. This meant that even with the Queen of Blades to issue them orders, the Zerg forces were still vigorously defending the territory they overran, which was exactly what some of his generals had pointed out.
Mengsk sighed in frustration. Although Raynor had foiled his attempt to eliminate Kerrigan once and for all on Char, he had still hoped that the situation could be somewhat salvaged by clearing the Zerg infested worlds. Without their queen, the Zerg could be easily steamrolled right over, and the public would praise him for such actions. Now it was clear this was no easy task, as the vile creatures down there would stubbornly resist until the end, regardless of how mighty a force challenged them.
Still, he had his reasons for not immediately clearing out the Zerg infested planets, for turning the mass numbers of refugee ships away from the Dominion Core Worlds, as well as decision to send so few amounts of supplies of relief aid to the people of Korhal City. Being an emperor who ruled with an iron fist meant that compassion and sympathy were not among the options in leadership. Rather, what was needed was the need to be ruthless, and that the power of that fear would bring about obedience from his people.
This was exactly how the Dominion was defined, that made it the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector, and this was how to be a true leader. Valerian's sympathy and compassion were for a dream world, one that could never be fully recognized into reality. Such characteristics would inevitably allow the Dominion's enemies to crush Mengsk's mighty empire, and that was something he would make sure would never come to pass.
And yet, the power of fear had fallen short of expectations when he had addressed the people of Korhal City. Clearly when the people had nothing left to lose, even the presence of the all-powerful Dominion emperor himself wasn't enough to get them to tremble in fear. It was for this reason that Mengsk had sought to starve the vast majority of the people in Korhal City to death. If they refused to bow before him, they would perish for their insubordination. This was exactly how the Dominion throne functioned, where the position of power was paid with lives, blood, and death. Unfortunately, Valerian proved to be stubborn, as he was unwilling to accept the inevitable.
As if on cue, the Dominion officer spoke up again, "Emperor, due to your son's actions in delivering the mass amounts of supplies and aid to the people of Korhal City, I hope you realize the implications of this."
"That the people there would be able to carry on with their lives, I already know that," Mengsk shot the officer an annoyed glare.
"It's more than that, sir. By now, I'm sure the Korhal City residents would have known that these supplies had been flown in by Prince Valerian's decree, and not yours. You only made a speech promising them aid, but your son was the person who had delivered on that promise."
"I don't see what the problem is," the emperor shrugged. "The people there can be easily manipulated. I'll simply tell them that Valerian was acting on my orders to deliver the emergency supplies to Korhal City."
"That's not going to work this time, your excellence," the officer said softly. "We had intercepted some of the transmissions from the starport personnel. They had been in direct contact with the freighter crews, and they now have confirmation that the supplies were flown in by Prince Valerian's decree, and that you had nothing to do with it. It means the Korhal City inhabitants are now praising your son for doing what you did not."
Mengsk gritted his teeth as the officer continued, "Emperor, you must understand that if this continues, your position on the throne will be threatened even more. Ever since James Raynor and his terrorist friends made the broadcasts on Korhal, your approval ratings and popularity have been going downhill. After Prince Valerian had praised Raynor for his actions on Char in defeating the Zerg there and thus stopping the whole invasion, those ratings dropped even more. In fact, it had gotten so low that even more Dominion fringe worlds turned against you and declared their independence from the Dominion, while the civilians on the core worlds are demanding new leadership. Stopping the rioting certainly didn't change their minds about it, although we were fortunate enough to convince them to put those feelings on hold for the time being because we're still in a state of war."
He took a breath and continued, "Now, with your son helping out the people that you promised but didn't actually do, his popularity is steadily rising, while yours would remain low. The point I'm making is that the actions of your son is quickly winning the people over, and they seem to be in favor of him, not you."
The emperor scowled. "I can handle Valerian myself. In case you forgot, I'm the Dominion emperor, and he's only the Crown Prince. I have the greater measure of power here."
"He obviously doesn't share your view of being an emperor than kills his own people, especially not in the case of helpless women and children."
"That comes with this position, soldier," Mengsk shot back. "Besides, if Valerian is unwilling to see this, then I will see to it that he'll never ascend to the throne."
Off the officer's confused look, the emperor continued, "These actions that he had ordered will now do nothing but feed Valerian's ego and overconfidence, and that'll be his downfall when he slips up. The way I see it, he's bathing in their praise and thinking that he's already the Dominion emperor. I'll personally drive the message to him that the Dominion throne is still a long ways away. If he thinks a few small actions like these would be enough for him to just waddle over and take the emperor position, he's going to be sorely disappointed."
"With all due respect, it's obvious that Prince Valerian has every intention to become emperor. He may not be like you in that sense, but I have a feeling he may share your ambition. Your son may not command the whole Dominion as you do, but that doesn't mean he has no leadership potential," the officer pointed out. "You said it yourself that in battles, it's never a smart idea to underestimate your enemy. I fear that here, you may be underestimating your own son. Regardless of what you see him, there are those who see the potential within the young prince."
"He's weak and unworthy to be on the throne. He lacks the qualities necessary to be a leader," Mengsk said angrily. "He still has his uses to me, which is why he's worth more alive to me than dead. But rest assured, if Valerian gets too ambitious and decides it's time for the crown to land on him, I'll personally put a stop to it and make sure he remains obedient on the sidelines, the way it always should be."
En Route to Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock
Captain Bock looked out of the window of his Dropship and sighed. He, along with a handful of Dominion troops, were among the lucky ones. They were able to successfully break out of the Dominion base, despite it being assaulted from every direction from the mercenaries as well as James Raynor's Raiders. By the time his Dropship had lifted off into the sky, the attackers were already hammering at the inner defense belt of base. Ridgeway had been withdrawn from the area once the mercenaries had penetrated to the middle defense line, and this had provoked severe protests from many other Dominion officers who looked to the general for leadership.
He too was among them, despite the fact that he and Ridgeway disagreed on many occasions, especially when it came to dealing with the people on Dead Man's Rock. Nevertheless, withdrawing the general away from the battlefield had proven to be a severe blow to Dominion morale, and such an action had began to convince the troops in the base that there was little prospect of holding out against the combined assault from both the mercenaries and the Raiders.
Casualties had been appalling to the cutthroats, and the emperor predicted that they would break and run from all the bloodshed, something that Bock concurred with. However despite his predictions, nothing of the sort had happened. Instead, the mercenary forces had pushed forward, seemingly determined to defeat the Dominion forces regardless of the cost to them.
To make matters even worse, as the attack had continued on the base, other mercenary forces from the lawless world had joined in to assist Mira Han's troops and the Raiders. This was something that virtually no one had believed could happen since the Dominion operated under the assumption that the mercenary organizations on Dead Man's Rock were greedy and selfish, which would have made it impossible for them to put aside their differences and work together with one another, regardless of the circumstances.
This was the Raiders' fault. Because they possessed modern military equipment, it had given those scumbags hope that there would be a chance of success. As much as Bock hated to admit it, they were right. Prior to the assault, the Dominion captain saw very little of James Raynor and his Raiders. After all, none of their actions in the past four years had caused any significant harm to the Dominion. Even after what had happened on Korhal, Bock continued to believe that it was only a matter of luck, as the only reason James Raynor had succeeded was due to the fact that the Odin heavy walker had been at his disposal, and that machine had been engineered by the Dominion anyway. The same was true after he had seen Prince Valerian's statements in the aftermath of the Char invasion. Rather than believe the Crown Prince of the Dominion, Bock simply assured himself that it was the Dominion troops that took part in the invasion that did all the work, while James Raynor and his Raiders just stood on the sidelines and observed.
Now, however, despite his cocky and arrogant attitude, even Bock was finally forced to reevaluate them. Clearly the Raiders were not a group of terrorists who'd run at the first sign of danger. The Dominion base defenses had taken its toll on them as well, and Bock had seen with him own eyes of the numbers of infantrymen being carried away and tended to by medics, a testament to the Dominion's base defenses. However despite this, the Raiders had continued to press forward, instead of simply getting off the lawless world in order to save themselves from being part of the casualties from the Apocalypse-Class nuclear weapons.
To risk their necks just to save a bunch of scoundrels and murderers seemed illogical to Bock. The mercenaries here on Dead Man's Rock weren't loyal to anyone but themselves. Ridgeway had told him that Mira Han and the Raiders had temporarily teamed up to recover the valuable transmissions that Raynor later broadcasted on Korhal, but this had suited Han's goals as well, as Bock knew that everyone on this lawless world despised the Dominion. Even so, to have that alliance still in effect was something that never occurred to the captain.
Of a far greater shock to him, and to the rest of the Dominion troops on the base, was when Ridgeway had informed him that the former Queen of Blades herself was fighting alongside the Raiders. Apparently the vicious ruler of the Zerg was once the terran ghost Sarah Kerrigan, having been taken by the swarm and infested. Ridgeway informed him that Raynor's actions on Char had somehow reversed this infestation, which meant that Kerrigan was now back to her old self once more.
As far as Bock was concerned, this was sheer insanity. After all the suffering she had caused onto not just the Dominion, but to humanity, how could anyone possibly consider trusting her? As with many other Dominion officers, the captain had been expecting the Raiders and mercenaries to fight her instead because she posed a greater threat, yet they had all chosen to fight alongside her. Their combined efforts had proven to be extremely effective against the Dominion base, and many of their defensive plans had been ruined due to Kerrigan's actions. She had played a major part in protecting the Raiders and mercenaries alike, and there were many Dominion officers who felt that the base could have been held had it not been for her.
Regardless, by now Bock was certain that the Dominion base back at the Toxic Slums had been overrun. There might still be a few isolated pockets holding out, but most of the Dominion troops would have either been killed or were forced to lay down their arms. Nevertheless, he still had the opportunity to see that the Raiders and mercenaries pay a steep price for their victory.
He turned his head to the cockpit. "Pilot, talk to me. How far away are we from Deadman's Port?"
"Not far," came the reply. "We should be within visual range of the settlement in less than 20 minutes. Captain, are you certain this is a good idea?"
"Of course it is," Bock answered, looking at the Apocalypse-Class nuclear warhead, and then to the other Dominion troops in the Dropship with him. All of them expressed signs of agreement. "Those cutthroats may have been able to destroy our base on Dead Man's Rock, but I can still make sure they won't have a place for the celebration."
"Sir, you have to realize that once the mercenaries find out that one of the nukes is missing, they're going to head to Deadman's Port and Paradise to look for it," the pilot pointed out. "Don't forget, General Ridgeway had threatened to detonate the nukes on those two settlements if Mira Han's location wasn't revealed, so they'll still expect those places to be the likely targets. In addition, we only have a very small escort force left to protect you. The Raiders and mercenaries had made sure that only a small number of Dominion ships were lucky enough to break out of the base and escape. There's no possible way we can engage them with what we've got at our disposal."
"We won't have to," Bock assured him. "The nuke will be remote detonated, no countdown timer whatsoever. If we get lucky, we might even take some of the Raiders and mercenaries down, along with all of Deadman's Port. We just need to go there, plant the nuke, then head back to the Dominion BattleCruisers in orbit. It'll send a message to the people of Dead Man's Rock that by choosing to mess with the Dominion, they're now going to get burned for it."
Tarsonis City, Tarsonis
Jim stood to the side with Mal, and Nova besides the Dominion decryption personnel. Colonel Kim was present as well, along with Lieutenant Corbin and Kate Lockwell and her UNN journalists. Apparently just minutes ago, the decryption boys announced that they had made a breakthrough in the transmissions, and now they were all gathered in the building to hear the news.
"So what's the big secret?" Kim asked. "Anything useful on the satellite?"
"That's what we're all about to find out," one of the decrypters answered. "The only thing I can say for certain right now is that whatever these transmissions are, they don't belong to the Confederacy. Confederate transmissions are all heavily encoded and encrypted, but the ones here don't have that level of security. So either the transmissions are so unimportant that the Confederacy didn't really care if they got intercepted—"
"Or it's something the Confederates wanted others to know," Jim finished.
"It's certainly a possibility. The Confederacy had its list of enemies as well, though I don't quite see the need to use intercepted transmissions as a weapon. Until the Zerg came and overran Tarsonis, their military was the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector. They could have just taken care of their enemies with bullets and bombs, rather than use words."
"Just play the transmissions," Nova said calmly. "It's pretty obvious that you don't know what they are any more than we do. Now it's time we all find out."
The decrypter nodded and entered a few keystrokes on the computer. "Accessing the transmissions now."
A female adjutant voice suddenly began to speak. "Accessing intercepted transmissions from the terrorist group Sons of Korhal. Location: New Gettysburg."
General Edmond Duke's voice suddenly made itself heard, "Mengsk, I've got bad news. The defenses failed. Despite the efforts of my Alpha Squadron boys and your Sons of Korhal Elite Guard, they weren't enough. Both had inflicted plenty of casualties to Raynor and his boys, but his forces were still able to break through."
Mengsk's voice spoke next, "What about the Confederate ion cannon? That should be enough to stop them from leaving Tarsonis."
"Raynor already factored that into his plan, sir. Reports from my surviving Alpha Squadron troops just reported that he and his troops had already destroyed the Confederates' ultimate weapon. Now there's nothing to keep them from escaping Tarsonis."
"A small setback," Mengsk spoke in an assuring tone. "Raynor's skills are good, I'll give him that much, but he's still weak and inexperienced. You, on the other hand, have had far more battle experience than that man. So now, I don't need him anymore."
"He's going to come after you for revenge, you know," Duke warned. "The way he reacted from your actions at New Gettysburg, it's pretty obvious that the guy's really pissed at you now. Not to mention the fact that you just lost your strongest ghost operative down there."
"Also just a minor setback, Duke. I've already got one as a replacement," came the reply.
"What are you talking about?"
"As Tarsonis was being overrun by the Zerg, my boys had intercepted a Confederate transmission from Tarsonis City," Mengsk answered. "Apparently they had found a young girl by the name of Nova Terra, with exceptionally high psionic capabilities and potential. She's also younger than Kerrigan, which means her uses as a ghost would be very valuable to me. Granted from what I see, Kerrigan's psionic abilities still appear to be the stronger of the two, but that doesn't matter. I'll simply give Nova a choice to become part of the Ghost Program, or force her in if she refuses. Either way she's going to become a ghost, whether she likes it or not. Given her strong psionic potential, I wouldn't be slightest bit surprised if the Confederacy was thinking of training her as one as well."
"I hate to burst your bubble, Arcturus," Duke spoke up again. "But ghosts are still only human beings, they're not gods. You can say all you want about how deadly they are on the battlefield, but the truth is there's still limits to even what they can do. Even if you could get this Nova Terra to become loyal to you, she's still only one person."
"That's why I'll be taking the rest of the Confederacy with me as well," Mengsk replied. "With Tarsonis now overrun by the Zerg, the Confederate capital world is no more. With them gone, I now have the chance to become what I've wanted for a long time: supreme ruler of a great empire. The rest of the Confederacy will be reorganized into the Terran Dominion, and I'll stand supreme as the leader of the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector. With the whole Confederate military at my command, Raynor will be weak and ineffective against me. Nothing he does will be able to harm me since his force comprises of maybe a few hundred people, at best. By adding the Confederate military into the Sons of Korhal and Alpha Squadron, and then converting them into the Terran Dominion, I'll have tens of millions soldiers at my command, and Raynor will be brought before me, either alive or in pieces. After that, I'll make sure that he'll be stifled, so no one will ever know the truth that it was I who had lured the Zerg to Tarsonis and killed off the Confederacy."
"Speaking of the Zerg, what about them?" Duke asked. "Your use of the Zerg to wipe out Tarsonis may have been ingenious, I'll give you that, but you and I both saw just how many Zerg the psi emitters had attracted. We had both counted in the billions, and that might not even be all of them. Even if you remain as the most powerful terran force in the Koprulu Sector, that'd only be true against terran enemies. What are you going to do if the Zerg decide to strike? There's no way we can beat them in a battle of numbers, you know."
"The Zerg are nothing but mindless animals, Duke," Mengsk said. "They too can be easily manipulated and deceived. Don't forget, we already have the weapon to do just that."
"The psi emitters? But those lure in too many of them. You said it yourself even before using them on Tarsonis that the Confederates weren't able to control it."
"That's only because the Confederates were still far from complete in their research before I used their technology against them on their capital world. They may be arrogant, but not all Confederate researchers are dumb. I'm sure that if they had more time, they would have been able to develop a psi emitter that could lure in more manageable numbers of Zerg."
"So you plan to keep this technology?" Duke asked.
"How right you are, general," Mengsk answered. "They will still be of use to me, and especially if I can get the emitters to be more manageable. I have a gut feeling that once the Terran Dominion is established, it's going to have a list of enemies almost just as long as that of the Confederacy. I can use the Zerg to deal with them, but unlike the Confederates, I'll only use the emitters when I'm convinced that it won't bring in the whole horde. It'll be a much cheaper way to deal with my enemies, and once I use the Dominion forces to save what I can, they'll worship me as their savior. In time, every planet in the Koprulu Sector will see me as just that, and they will all join in the Dominion's cause."
"You said you weren't going to save all of them," Duke pointed out.
"Death is the currency when it comes to power, you know this," Mengsk replied. "I'll simply sit back and wait for enough to die. Once they do, then I'll step in. The people may complain that I didn't come sooner, but they'll have to accept what they can get. After all, they'll think the Zerg just so happened to come to their world, not that I lured them there."
"You know you won't be able to pull off such things forever," the general warned. "The common people are idiots and can be easily deceived and manipulated, but there are those that are intellectuals. Sooner or later they're going see that the numbers aren't adding up."
"Those people are easy, Duke. All it takes is a simple arrangement to have them assassinated, which I'd probably do with the Ghost Program, now that it's mine to command. The public will think it's an accident or something, and it will instill fear to them for daring to challenge me. That's how it'll work once I'm crowned emperor of the Dominion. You kill some of your own people, the rest will get the message and bow before you in unquestioning obedience. Besides, it's not like such things will be made public, so the common citizens will still only see me as the savior of humanity from the alien menace."
"Which leaves just one loose end left, sir. What are you going to do about Raynor? He knows the truth about what really happened on Tarsonis," Duke said.
"As the ruler of the Dominion, I'll have everything at my fingertips," Mengsk assured. "That'll include all the media branches, along with the whole justice system. As the emperor, I will become the voice of law, order, and justice, and the people will bow at my feet. Suppose Raynor gets lucky and manages to elude capture, I'll simply use the media to portray him as a criminal and terrorist, intend on spreading fear, chaos, and violence throughout the whole Koprulu Sector. He has no real evidence against me except his word, and that'll never win. One way or another, Raynor will have to accept defeat and know that I outsmarted him and that there's nothing he can do about it. Right now he's probably off somewhere sulking because he can't take the fact that I've already won."
"Raynor isn't a man to give up that easily, sir," Duke pointed out. "You said it yourself that it was the Confederates' arrogance that had brought this upon them here on Tarsonis. Aren't you making a similar mistake here?"
"Once I have enough worlds annexed into the Dominion, it won't matter, Duke," Mengsk answered. "Raynor will be nothing but a speck of dust trying to delay the inevitable while everyone else had already moved on. The expansion and annexation will continue until my goal is achieved. The Koprulu Sector is rightfully mine to rule, and everyone living being, whether it'd be terran, Protoss, or even the Zerg, will kneel before me as their master. They'll all bow before me in obedience or they can die in defiance."
The adjutant's voice spoke up once more. "No more relevant data available."
Without another word, the transmission feed cut off, leaving everyone in the room in total shock. It became so quiet in the room that one could hear a pin drop.