"Haha—look who it is! Kydd himself! I knew that guy would personally lead his men into battle."
At that moment, Tychus burst out laughing as he stepped off another transport ship that had just landed.
"Look at him, strutting around like that. I always figured he was just Augustus's lapdog."
The moment Duke saw Tychus, his temper flared—he got along poorly with nearly every officer under Augustus's command.
It wasn't that Duke held any particular prejudice against the Revolutionary Army's commanders; in truth, he simply looked down on everyone in the same profession. His infamous temper and terrible interpersonal relations were worse than any general in the history of the Duke family.
Of course, every general in the Duke family had his own brand of eccentricity—some liked to run naked after getting drunk, while others, when angry, would drop to the floor and chew on wool carpets.
Following Tychus came Augustus himself, clad in red power armor, surrounded by heavily armed Revolutionary Army soldiers and by Sarah Kerrigan in her black combat suit.
"Kydd, we came as soon as we received your message."
As Augustus approached Ryk, he opened his helmet. His signature gray hair, gray eyes, and reassuring smile almost brought the recently rescued Revolutionary soldiers to tears.
"How are things at the colony?" Augustus asked.
"Most of them are still alive," Ryk replied. "The ones who attacked us called themselves the Tal'darim."
"Tal'darim? So it was them."
Augustus frowned deeply, his voice dropping so low it was almost inaudible.
"Don't worry. There likely aren't many of them. We detected only two Tal'darim warships in synchronous orbit. If they had even a few more, they wouldn't have retreated so easily," he continued.
"Our arsenal's a lot richer now," Tychus stepped forward and said.
"Our fleet has eighteen battlecruisers—almost the size of a Confederate Navy squadron. And several of those ships came from Alpha Squadron. We owe thanks to our good old friend, Colonel Duke, for delivering them to us—twice."
"That's Brigadier General Duke," Duke corrected with rigid insistence on his rank.
"These aliens have slaughtered countless of our people. That debt must be repaid," Augustus declared, standing among dozens of soldiers in power armor. The floodlights on their armor illuminated his face in stark brightness.
"Even if we have to dig three meters into the ground, we'll find them all."
Everyone could hear his voice clearly; nearby, Kerrigan and Faraday were already recording his words to transmit them back to the fleet.
"Be they Zerg or Tal'darim Protoss," Augustus said, uttering the word Protoss for the first time, "as long as they can bleed and die, they are not to be feared. Truth exists only within the range of our cannons!"
"Let me handle these Tal'darim Protoss," Duke stepped forward, eager to prove his loyalty. He knew Augustus had been recruiting many mercenaries on Moria, and he feared they might steal his chance at glory.
Having joined the Revolutionary Army only a few months ago, Duke constantly worried that Augustus still doubted his loyalty. He was consumed by insecurity.
Under Duke's command, Alpha Squadron had over 20,000 re-socialized soldiers—without question, the bravest of warriors, utterly devoid of fear.
"I'll take the vanguard," Duke said to Augustus.
...
The Korhalian colonists on Bel'Shir had endured a night of terror. The Tal'darim Protoss hunters still hid within the lush, overgrown jungle, silently watching the lights of the colonial encampments and the barracks and command centers rapidly erected by the Revolutionary Army's engineering corps.
The transports and landing craft lit up half the night sky, their roaring engines echoing without pause until dawn.
Over the course of a single night, more than one hundred and twenty thousand Revolutionary Army Marine Divisions, Alpha Squadron Airborne Divisions, and mercenaries from the Kel-Morian Iron Hammer Security Company had landed on Bel'Shir. The temporary airfields were packed with soldiers wearing power armor of various types.
Augustgrad Colony—named in honor of Augustus Mengsk's grandfather—was ablaze with light throughout the night. Crates upon crates filled with ammunition and supplies piled high across the dispatch center and the colony plaza. Heavy artillery and tanks were being delivered to the surface by APOD-42 heavy transport aircraft. The entire landing zone was boiling with activity as armored soldiers, mechanics, and engineers bustled about.
When the sun rose again at dawn, the noise that had lasted through the night in Augustgrad Colony finally subsided. The fully armed Revolutionary Army soldiers were now assembled in tight formations by battalion across the plaza and on the open grounds excavated by large bulldozers beyond the colony perimeter.
After Moria's armament expansion, the Revolutionary Army's equipment had entered a new phase of modernization. Among the more than one hundred thousand direct-line troops of Korhalian descent—including a fifty-thousand-strong corps from Deadman's Port and four divisions from Mar Sara—all had been re-equipped with power armor. Most wore the Federation's CMC-200 standard-issue armor, the KMC Ripper armor, or tens of thousands of imitation CMC suits supplied by the United Republic of Umoja.
In addition to assigning one or two grenade-artillery battalions and one full Kraken-I railgun artillery battalion to each infantry division to enhance firepower, Augustus also allocated a large number of Kel-Morian tracked armored personnel carriers, bulldozer-converted heavy tanks, light reconnaissance vehicles, and multi-functional Saber command vans. This allowed the Revolutionary Army's ground forces to maneuver efficiently across the complex terrain of an alien battlefield.
As for individual heavy weaponry, the Revolutionary Army had acquired a vast quantity of low-cost weapons from the Moria military factories. Every soldier carried electromagnetic grenades and explosives, and each company was equipped with two ten-man fire-support squads. Their weaponry was diverse—heavy machine guns, man-portable rocket launchers, flamethrowers, Bosun heavy cruiser sniper rifles, and EMP interference rounds specifically designed for use against the Protoss.
During the more than two months of hyperspace travel, Augustus and his generals and staff officers had not spent their time idly within the ship cabins. Using the Tal'darim Protoss as their hypothetical enemy, they had drawn up corresponding battle plans and ordered the Science Stations and Physics Labs to research anti-Protoss weaponry.
At this moment, Augustus stood within the command tower of the Augustgrad Command Center, gazing at a three-dimensional holographic projection map covering seven major colonies and dozens of smaller ones. On this map, hundreds of Tal'darim Protoss sanctuaries were marked, almost every one of them constructed atop a Terrazine geyser.
"We believe that these sanctuaries built around Terrazine must be the Tal'darim's strongholds—or perhaps this Terrazine holds great value to them, whether strategic or cultural," read Corporal Faraday beside Augustus as he went over the report transmitted back by the reconnaissance craft.
Inside the command headquarters were only his adjutant and a few staff officers; the other Revolutionary Army generals were all with their respective units, awaiting Augustus's orders.
"These Terrazine sanctuaries are of critical importance to the Tal'darim. Our goal is to seize them, not destroy them. This way, the Tal'darim will be forced to appear in order to defend their sanctuaries," Augustus said with a nod.
"Our probes haven't detected a single Tal'darim city. Judging by the technological level the Tal'darim have displayed, I believe their structures may be concealed within cloaking fields—or perhaps the Tal'darim, like human space pirates, simply use their warships as their homes," said Sarah Kerrigan, who had just been appointed as Augustus's new adjutant.
"We cannot yet confirm where exactly they are on Bel'Shir."
"Your speculation is very likely correct," Augustus said with a nod. "If the Tal'darim's understanding of our expeditionary forces is no different from ours of them, then the force stationed on Bel'Shir is most likely not a complete Tal'darim army."
"As long as we seize those Terrazine geysers and sanctuaries, the Tal'darim will go berserk and charge straight at us." Augustus immediately began issuing orders. "Trust me—that's no different from taking a shit right on their heads, especially when the ones doing it are the humans they so despise."
On the map, each Terrazine sanctuary was marked as a numbered point by the AI computer, while the positions of the various Revolutionary Army corps were represented by flag icons.
"Order Brigadier General Duke and Lieutenant General Warfield to prepare for the offensive. The operation will begin at the scheduled time," Augustus said, glancing at the mechanical watch on his wrist—the hands were stopped at 7:10.
"All units must be in their designated positions before 7:15. Advance with shells and flamethrowers. Don't concern yourselves with damaging Bel'Shir's environment—we don't care about any pollution."
"Have you seen that Tal'darim Protoss corpse?" While waiting for confirmation that his orders were being executed, Augustus turned toward Kerrigan. As always during operations, the efficient agent had tied her fiery red hair into a simple ponytail.
"Yes. Just as our biologists said, it's a lifeform possessing powerful psionic energy. Their psionics are essentially the same as human psionics in nature, but completely different in composition," Kerrigan answered with a nod.
"The Tal'darim Protoss's psionic power—it always makes me feel uneasy and afraid," she said. "Based on the current information, the Tal'darim can use their wrist gauntlets to condense psionic energy into blades, which they employ as melee weapons."
"These psionic blades can slice through almost any material known to humanity—cutting through iron as if it were mud, nothing can withstand them."
"That sounds similar to the monomolecular lightsaber technology I'm aware of. So then, can our own psionics condense their energy into similar psionic blades?" Augustus's cold gray eyes seemed to gleam faintly as he spoke.
"Of course, what I'm even more interested in is whether we can replicate the Tal'darim Protoss's plasma shields."
"What did Swann say?" he asked Kerrigan.
"It's not the same as our human technology. Don't rush me, girl—you really ruined my train of thought," Kerrigan said, spreading her hands. "After that, he just brushed me off and went straight back to studying the Tal'darim Protoss armor, muttering about reverse-engineering the schematics."
"I don't think he's likely to succeed—unless we capture a few Tal'darim engineers," Augustus said.
"Mr. Victor Kachinsky, Swann's assistant, did chat with me for a bit," Kerrigan said. "He believes that Tal'darim technology is built on principles completely beyond our comprehension. The gap between the Protoss and humanity is roughly equivalent to that between us and monkeys."
"Even monkeys have sharp teeth—and aren't the Tal'darim Protoss still using blades?" Augustus was saying when the voice of Lieutenant General Warfield came through the command center's comm system.
"Warfield's unit is about to launch the attack. Current time: 7:13."
"This is Duke. Alpha Squadron is in position. We'll soon be taking off the sharp heads of the Tal'darim Protoss."
"Jim here."
On the holographic projection screens within the command center, footage transmitted from various command vehicles and aerial units showed that the human forces on the ground had already reached their designated attack positions.
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