Augustus Mengsk

"Thank you, Old Immortal, for cursing me into an airplane in the Koprulu Sector. Thanks, brother!"

That was the last thing He Shuhan heard before everything went black. When he opened his eyes again, the computer, desk, chair, and all the other furniture in the room had vanished.

In their place stood a round mahogany table carved with pastoral scenes and hunts on horseback. Gold and silver tableware covered its surface, while the light from two golden candelabras mingled with the glow of a crystal chandelier.

He Shuhan sat in an intricately crafted chair. On the table before him lay a folded white napkin, a glass of sparkling rosé, and mushroom risotto. A beautifully decorated plate held sliced charcoal-grilled steak drizzled with sauce, along with a small bird roasted until its skin gleamed.

What luxurious furniture and sumptuous decor! Colorful rugs of every size covered the floor, each made from the finest materials and crafted with exquisite care. Velvet, brocade, and silk hung from the walls, adorned with portraits of the family's ancestors, their frames trimmed with gold braid.

Korhal Guardian, Imperial Wolves, the Mengsk Family.

"Augustus, do you know how much effort your mother put into this dinner? Don't ruin it."

The stern male voice pulled He Shuhan out of his daze. He looked up at the person across the table: a middle-aged man with dark gray hair, graying at the temples and in his beard.

His temples were silvering, and he spoke with a slightly unusual accent, though it didn't sound awkward. He Shuhan quickly realized the language wasn't Chinese but English. Somehow, English had suddenly become as familiar to him as his mother tongue.

He glanced up only once, then lowered his head and picked up his knife and fork, naturally turning to the food on his plate. Clearly, to everyone else, he must have been sitting there in a daze for quite some time.

Savoring the fragrant food, He Shuhan realized that if this was all real, then thanks to the curse of some Old Immortal named Xu Dong, he really had crossed over into the Koprulu Sector. And from the looks of it, he'd landed in a respectable middle-class family at the very least.

As he lowered his head and enjoyed the meal, He Shuhan remained poised and elegant, handling his knife and fork with practiced ease. He didn't sneak a glance at the other family members around the table. Instead, he tried to recall the memories of the body he'd woken up in. Fortunately, though they were incomplete, he managed to unearth some buried memories in a short time and gain a basic understanding of his identity.

Augustus Mengsk.

He was a member of the Mengsk Family, one of the Elder Families on Korhal IV, one of the thirteen core worlds in the Terran Confederacy. The family was ancient and prominent. Its founder and several generations of ancestors had led the first colonists in carving out a home on this beautiful world over the course of centuries. Augustus was the younger of two sons, named after his grandfather.

Augustus's father, Angus Mengsk, owned the family's many holdings across the Mengsk Family's territories. He was also a member of the Korhal Council, a highly respected figure in politics, and had millions of devoted followers among the public.

His mother was a strong, beautiful woman from Korhal. Like the wives of other nobles and elites on Korhal IV, Katherine Mengsk was skilled at managing a household and enjoyed cooking and developing recipes. She was also a major donor to several charitable causes.

Augustus also had an older brother, Arcturus Mengsk, a colonel commanding the 33rd Ground Assault Division of the Federal Marine Corps, and a sixteen-year-old younger sister, Dorothy Mengsk. He had just graduated from Stirling Academy in the capital city of Korhal IV and had turned eighteen.

The perfect age to be young and reckless.

Compared to his remarkable older brother and adorable younger sister, Augustus had given his parents nothing but headaches. His record at Stirling Academy was riddled with misdeeds.

Skipping classes, tormenting the stuffy Grade Director, beating up the corrupt principal, holding Magnetic Levitation Motorcycle races on campus, illegally modifying the IAA Advertising Robot at the school gate, and hosting a barbecue mob at Graduation Ceremony. This young, flamboyant Noble Young Master radiated contempt for secular rules and authority.

"Augustus. Our war with the Kel-Morian Combine has been going on for two years, and the outcome is still uncertain. The government on Tarsonis has lowered the minimum age for conscription several times. The UNN and Global News Network, controlled by the corrupt Terran Founding Families, are vague about casualty figures but trumpet honor and sacrifice."

His father Angus's voice once again pulled Augustus out of his memories. He seemed to be struggling to find something to talk about with his rebellious son.

The atmosphere at tonight's family dinner was utterly unlike the warm, peaceful family meals Augustus remembered, where everyone still observed proper etiquette. Angus never used to bring politics or business to the dinner table, because the family's Little One, Dorothy, always had plenty to say.

At times like those, even Augustus, who could never sit still, would patiently listen to her talk about her friends at school and the imaginative fairy tales she made up.

Augustus sensed that something was wrong. As he looked up into his father's eyes, pretending to listen, he noticed that his mother and sister both looked troubled.

And in Augustus's memories, he had almost never seen his mother cry. When she did, it was usually because of a parting of loved ones. Augustus immediately searched his mind for anything he knew about the war his father had mentioned. He keenly sensed that it had something to do with him.

It was a total war between the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine, another human regime in the Koprulu Sector with the same origins. The two sides were fighting over precious crystal deposits and colonies. So far, the war had spread across more than a dozen Outer Colonies, claiming the lives of hundreds of millions of people and several million soldiers, miners, and civilians.

There was no sign that the Total War would end anytime soon. Both the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine claimed to have the upper hand.

Only Confederacy officials like Angus knew that both sides had won and lost, and that the war was more or less evenly matched. The fighting had evolved from localized clashes into fleet battles, with even nuclear weapons being deployed. To win, the Confederacy government was sending young people, kept in the dark, into a slaughterhouse of a war.

As a politician, Angus only showed such unmistakable anger when denouncing corruption and fiercely defending the interests of potential voters. The reason he was so upset today was that his second son was determined to join the Federal Marine Corps, just like his older brother. Tomorrow, Augustus was due to leave for boot camp.

The Mengsk Family had always worked to free Korhal from the Terran Confederacy's rule and secure independence as an autonomous dominion rather than a colony. This put the family at irreconcilable odds with the Confederacy government, and Augustus's decision to join the Confederacy military was undoubtedly a betrayal of his father's cause.

The boot camp was on a remote colony several light-years from Korhal, a distant world reachable only by a ship equipped with a Warp Drive and capable of making a Long-Range Jump. Angus's second son was about to leave him, too. It wasn't simply that he might lose his heir; he loved every one of his children.

"This is the last time I'll tell you how brutal war can be. It's nothing like those childish games you've played. Have some pity on your family! Your mother nearly cried herself unconscious when you made such a cold, heartless decision!" As Augustus recalled all this, Angus went on.

"Beyond the walls we built around you is a cruel world. The battlefield is hell within that cruel world. You've grown up surrounded by luxury, doing whatever you please without a care for the consequences. God, I wish you'd show even the slightest regret!"

Augustus was stunned. What the hell was wrong with him? He had a life of luxury and reckless freedom as a Noble Young Master, so just how messed up in the head did he have to be to want to go off and be a fifty-credit good-for-nothing?

This is a fanfiction set in the StarCraft universe.

(The StarCraft universe is a combination of the game, Official Books, Merchandise, interviews, and other background lore. I'm not trying to write a history book with rigorous accuracy. I just want to do my best to recapture a little of the StarCraft world I love.)