Independence Day

April 1st Sterling City, 2489, was a bright and sunny day in Korhal IV. It wasn't a good day, but revolution doesn't care about auspicious dates.

The marble road from the battlefield plain to the Balatine Senate was known as the Senators' Walk, a route traversed by Augustus ' ancestors in heavy, bright red robes on their way to the council hall to uphold justice and pursue reason.

Back then, honest and upright members of parliament, dressed in the same red robes as their father Angus, would argue heatedly in the council chambers to push through laws, their faces flushed, while the audience below was their people. Now, however, the people listening to the members of parliament speak are all richly dressed dignitaries.

Augustus brought in a battalion of new recruits from the Korhal Defense Force to maintain order. After being turned by the revolutionaries, these young soldiers now took his orders. Armed with Gauss Rifle and dressed in brown uniforms, the soldiers formed a human wall on both sides of the parliamentary procession to block the surging crowds.

Angus's supporters even traveled halfway around the world to get here. The enthusiastic crowd carried banners that read "Make Korhal IV independent!" and "Angus Mengsk: Hero of the People!" and waved red flags with gold wolf heads, the emblem of the Mengsk Family.

At this moment, Augustus was standing a dozen yards away from his father, closely following him. He was wearing a dark gray militia officer's uniform with golden ears of wheat on his broad epaulets. Revolutionary Army Colonel Acton Field stood beside him, his eagle-like eyes occasionally scanning the dense crowd.

"Make way, let me stand among my people!" Angus Mengsk smiled sincerely and warmly, his voice carried through the loudspeakers of dozens of Umojan armed drones in the sky to everyone present.

The frenzied crowd cheered even louder, and Augustus had to send more soldiers to hold them back.

"He is far more popular than any superstar." Augustus looked towards the towering skyscrapers further along the road to Parliament.

"This is the prestige of a politician. If the Confederacy hadn't continuously exploited the people of Korhal, and its chaotic and corrupt government had gradually lost everyone's trust, the calls for reform wouldn't have been so loud," Acton said. "The Confederacy has created its own enemy."

"There are very few members of parliament here today." Augustus's earpiece was constantly receiving reports from various monitoring points and the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the Revolutionary Army, who had secretly assembled.

"Lennox Calvin is one of them; he's standing by in the council chamber of the Palatine Assembly Hall. Only thirty-seven out of a hundred senators are here, and eleven of them support Angus," he said.

"The council chamber had no guards, no Sentinel on duty—it was the rule of the original councilors, the pioneers, that soldiers should not stand in their way from the people."

At this moment, Angus walked up the steps of the Balatine Senate, paved with black marble with gold veining, faced the crowd watching him, and began his impassioned speech with practiced ease.

"The rulers of Tarsonis have oppressed the Korhal for far too long! This is a world opened up by the hands of our ancestors! It belongs to every Korhal and their descendants!"

"In the southern Confederacy cities, corruption has seeped in like maggots, deliberately distorting the Senate's new laws and openly selling civil servant or administrative positions!"

"Nobles and their relatives controlled the local senator elections, and wealthy businessmen bribed officials to win 90% of the infrastructure construction rights through illegal bidding. The safety accidents caused by shoddy construction resulted in the deaths or maiming of hundreds of people!"

"In Balik, the number of illegal mines far exceeds the number of registered mines. These mines lack safety facilities, have appalling conditions, and mine owners hire illegally extradited refugees to wade into these mines, which could collapse at any moment, for meager wages. I want to know, who should be held accountable for this?"

"Which penny of the exorbitant taxes levied by the Confederacy on Korhal IV has actually gone to the people? If every one of us works so hard only to make those who are already nobles even richer, and even if we work ourselves to the bone, it's not enough to support our own children, then we should rise up and rebel!"

"I only believe one thing: even if geometric axioms and inviolable mathematical laws go against the interests of the people, they must be overthrown!" Angus raised his two hands from under his bright red robe to his chest, as if he had suddenly grasped something tightly, or held a sword thrust at him. His face, with its thick beard and chiseled features like a Greek statue, flushed an unnatural red with excitement.

"We firmly believe that no government, individual, or even the Old Families of Tarsonis has the right to treat others unjustly. Democracy and the law should not be mere empty words; corrupt officials should receive the punishment they deserve!"

"All men are created equal, and the Creator has endowed us with inalienable rights. It is to safeguard these rights that the people elect their governments. And if a government abuses its power and seizes property to place the people under its despotic rule, then the people have every right and reason to overthrow it!"

"The history of Tarsonis and his colonial government is a history of tyranny and plunder. They attempted to establish an autocratic tyranny in a free land like Korhal, and their tyranny would enrage even the most magnanimous heart."

"My compatriots in Korhal, my comrades in the Revolutionary Army, my followers gathered around me! I want you to solemnly declare that at this very moment, Korhal IV is independent! This vast land will once again belong to us!"

"The Korhal Dominion is established today!"

"I swear on my honor and that of the Mengsk Family that the principles of the Dominion's constitution, formulated by the original pioneers of Korhal and governed by the will of the people, will never violate democracy and justice."

"If the Tarsonis Confederacy intends to force us into submission by force, then let the terrible demon of war be unleashed!"

"Long live Korhal!" Finally, Angus made a gesture that seemed quite exaggerated to Augustus, raising his clenched right hand high.

"Long live Korhal! Long live the Dominion! Long live the immortal people!"

In an instant, a sea of cheers brought a deafening roar, with people embracing and shouting, some even weeping with joy.

"Londerstein, take your guards and follow me closely." Augustus commanded his troops through his headset.

"Now, the Palatine Assembly Hall is ours. If those councilors want to resist, let blood flow there."