The Battle for Korhal

Korhal IV, the main city of Sterling.

By June 22, a full month had passed since the UNN News Network headquarters was seized by terrorists. This event, described by news media groups and independent writers as "the biggest scandal in the history of the Confederate Congress," continued to escalate and affect every aspect of the lives of tens of thousands of Confederacy citizens.

The Korhal are undoubtedly one of the major groups most affected. The Korhal system now has fewer than two million inhabitants, most of whom are military personnel stationed on space-based defense platforms and satellites. The last large-scale colonial Fleets that transported immigrants has also left.

Today, every city on the planet's surface is equipped with launch ports that use electromagnetic orbital acceleration technology to launch interstellar shuttles. These slanted launch ports, their surfaces flashing red and green lights, are larger and more magnificent than any of the Old Families's Sky Tower, like silent Giant standing among towering skyscrapers.

At night, the problem of light pollution, which environmentalists have criticized, was finally solved as the city and even the planet came to a standstill. For the first time in decades, the dazzling artificial clouds that shone every night in Sterling City disappeared from people's sight.

Even standing atop the Mengsk Sky Tower, the tallest building in the heart of Sterling City, one can only see faint lights in the far distance, all of which are military installations and heavy factories. The towering skyscrapers are shrouded in darkness, silent as tombstones.

The original plan to build a fortress on the surface of Korhal was also abandoned. All usable building materials, such as steel frames, vehicles, and maglev trains, were dismantled and melted down to make ships. All luxury goods and heavy furniture that were deemed useless to the colonists were buried or burned. After the Korhal people left, even Sterling, once a prosperous political, economic, and cultural center, was reduced to empty shells of houses and high-rise buildings.

In early summer, the once bustling Sterling skyscrapers seem like a series of stopped gears, and the solemnity and tranquility of nature have once again taken over the city.

Humans had only been gone from Korhal for a few weeks, and the streets were already piled high with fallen leaves. Plants and small animals from the countryside flocked to Sterling, making their home in the abandoned city.

The city, seemingly forged from silver and glass, remains as beautiful as ever, only now it has transformed from a noble lady in a white pleated skirt and adorned with exquisite jewelry into a serene and melancholic young woman.

The two satellites shone so brightly that the stars twinkled above Sterling City, and a ribbon of light, like milk, stretched across the sky. The name of that ribbon of light—the Milky Way—was mentioned in the textbook Lisa Cassidy remembered, titled "From Earth to Koprulu."

As Lisa Cassidy looked down from the Korhal Revolutionary Army meeting hall on the top floor of the Mengsk Sky Tower, she suddenly felt sorrow for the people of Korhal IV, who were forced to abandon the accumulation of generations of their lives and leave their homeland to go to Umojan and to an unknown place far beyond the Koprulu Sector.

However, this catastrophe also forged a strong bond between almost all the Korhal, making them more united and more committed to the concept of Korhal as a whole than ever before. The Korhal who colonized distant galaxies swore an oath never to forget their hatred and their homeland.

As more and more Korhal are forced to embark on interstellar journeys far from their homes, this humiliation and hatred are being amplified infinitely in the hearts of all Korhal.

Even so, the Korhal people remain firmly convinced that they will return to their homeland.

A soft click of the door to the meeting room, belonging to Speaker Angus, brought Lisa back to her seat. Although she was attending the meeting as the second Minister of Health and a member of the Heaven's Devils, Lisa knew perfectly well that her views were actually irrelevant.

Lisa looked at the conference table and spotted several familiar faces: Colonel Arland Londerstein, a member of the Heaven's Devils; Kurt Josephine, commander of the Parachute Division; Harnack Hank, commander of the Firebat Composite Regiment. These men had previously held the highest rank of private, yet now commanded tens of thousands of men.

As for the others Heaven's Devils left the Korhal system in batches as escorts for the colonial Fleets, after all, they still needed to preserve the life force and seeds of the Korhal Revolutionary Army.

"Let's begin." Angus Mengsk's thick, greyish-white eyebrows furrowed, his expression as serious as steel. "This is our last meeting on Korhal IV. It has been a full forty-eight standard Earth hours since the last expeditionary Fleets that departed the Korhal system escaped the star's gravity."

Angus looked around and nodded to the officials and officers attending the meeting. "This is not a meeting of the Korhal Senate. I have summoned the generals of the Revolutionary Army not to vote on some trivial issue, but because I have bad news to tell everyone here: the Kel-Morian Combine and the Terran Confederacy just completed all the steps and procedures of the peace talks half an hour ago and signed the final peace treaty."

"The peace treaty shall take effect immediately and shall be valid for a period of twenty years."

"The legal representative of Kel-Morian United Mining Company told us they did their best to stall for time. The diplomats from the Terran Confederacy were very impatient, pressing us relentlessly, and even made some concessions." Angus shook his head and said, "Perhaps it is because of us that Kel-Morian was able to cede fewer barren mining worlds."

"The Confederacy Fleets is coming."

Lisa's heart tightened; this day was finally coming. During the tense month of evacuation, many of the Korhal people who remained on the ground dared not even sleep, filled with fear of the impending disaster.

"..." Finance Minister Levi Henry sighed. "The media offensive has been very effective. UNN editors and reporters, secretly serving the Augustus Intelligence Committee, have also provided us with considerable evidence of corruption among Confederacy officials. However, a month has passed, and the spokesperson appointed by the Confederate Congress has still not uttered a word about using Apocalypse-class Nuclear Missile to destroy Korhal."

Initially, the Terran Confederacy tried its best to block news of Korhal IV's open rebellion, but the news of the entire planet's declaration of independence still spread like wildfire and reached both within and outside the Confederacy's borders at a speed that shocked and angered Confederacy officials and nobles.

Gradually, even those least interested in politics began discussing Korhal, and speculation about the Confederacy deliberately suppressing information spread throughout the streets and alleys.

There is a widespread belief that the truth is far more serious than the rumors we have, and that Korhal IV is certainly not the only rebellious planet. Furthermore, the Confederate Marine Corps and Fleets must have done a terrible job dealing with the rebellion, otherwise they would have received news of its swift and effective suppression.

After the UNN headquarters broadcast the scandal of the Confederate Congress to the entire Terran Confederacy, the excited people believed that Korhal IV's revolution had achieved unprecedented success, to the point that the Confederate Congress had to use nuclear weapons. Sympathizers of Korhal began to protest, and many public figures also condemned the Confederate Congress's atrocities. Rebellions broke out again on several planets, including Antiga Prime.

From ordinary civilians on the Edge World to colonial governors and their billionaire clients in suits, everyone was saying the same few words.

Korhal, Angus, the Mengsk Family, rebels.

Initially, even Angus Mengsk, due to favorable public opinion, began to be overly optimistic about the possibility of the Confederacy abandoning the use of nuclear weapons. However, this optimism did not last long, because the Confederate Congress never promised not to use nuclear weapons or made any statement on the matter.

A group of friendly leaders of the Tarsonis Old Families and members of the Confederate Congress told Angus that Andrea, the matriarch of the Tagore family, and her large entourage of nobles would never change the issues that had already been passed; the nobles' hearts were colder than glaciers that never melt.

"The chances of using public opinion to make the Confederate Congress abandon this plan are extremely slim. Would the leaders of the Old Families really change their minds because of the significance of ordinary people that they don't care about at all?" Angus said. "I know those high and mighty Old Families, because I was once one of them. They are arrogant and indifferent, and refuse to admit that they can fail in anything."

"Prepare for war—I think that goes without saying," Angus said. "The defensive battle will begin in outer space orbit."

"We have mobilized every resource we can, and workers, working day and night with the assistance of drones built in Umojan Space, have finally completed the construction of two new high-altitude orbital defense platforms and space-based weapon stations," said Secretary of Defense Harry Wilde. "The anti-aircraft missile turrets atop the two satellites are powerful enough to shoot down Confederacy Fleets battlecruiser."

Angus nodded in satisfaction. "As I said, this battle was by no means meaningless. We had the opportunity to leave with the colonial Fleets, but we chose to stay."

"Because this may be the only opportunity to lure and delay the Confederacy Fleets. Only in this way can Augustus's First Fleets possibly succeed in raiding the Dylarian Shipyards. If the Fleets hadn't encountered the Alpha Squadron and hadn't had to repair and replenish its ships, the chances of this raid would have been much higher."

"But even so, we will continue to believe in him as always," Londerstein said.

"He cannot possibly fail," Josephine said casually.

"Because he is Augustus." Lisa nodded seriously. Although Lisa had reservations about the young and beautiful redhead who had recently appeared by Augustus's side, it did not stop her from Augustus.

"Londerstein, like you, I have never doubted that my son would fail." Angus had every right to say this; his confidence in his son was no less than that of the Heaven's Devils.

"York, how many people are still unwilling to leave Korhal?"

"The people of the Fiers Territory and the Icefield Tribe refused to leave Korhal IV. Nearly three thousand people remained in Norman Hawk, setting up tents and makeshift camps on the outskirts of the city," said the head of the Korhal Immigration Bureau. "The final count is about seventy thousand. Some are elderly people who do not want to leave their homeland, while others are those who have surrendered."

"Let them be," Angus said after a moment of silence. "We did our best."

"How many troops and logistics personnel are still on the surface?" he asked again.

"There are 190,000 people," the immigration director said.

"Evacuate everyone from Korhal," Angus said. "Take what they can take."

"We can't stay on the ground any longer." Angus suddenly stood up, a sudden sense of oppression making him glare. "Notify the guards to prepare the shuttle to the orbital defense platform."

"You cannot go to the front lines," Londerstein shouted. "You must leave Korhal IV immediately."

"Yes, the spaceship directly to Umojan is ready," the Minister of Transport said.

It seems everyone was keeping it from Angus, determined to forcibly send him out of Korhal. From beginning to end, only Angus believed he would stay in Korhal and fight alongside the Revolutionary Army.

Several officers held Angus firmly down, trying to put him on the spaceship, but this only provoked his thunderous rage. "You've made me a coward!"

Angus forcefully shook off the hands that were restraining him. "How can I abandon more than a million Korhal warriors to go to Umojan to see their parents!"

"If I die in Korhal, then I have my son to carry on my work. You think I'm just a politician who talks big on the podium—but I'm the one who sent so many people to the battlefield with my own hands," Angus told them.

"Don't try to persuade me anymore, my decision will never change."

Just as Angus was about to say something, a Holographic Projection screen suddenly popped up on the conference table, showing a sergeant from the Korhal Revolutionary Army Marine Corps. This sergeant was the commander of an outpost, whose outpost was located on a desolate planet on the outermost edge of the Korhal system.

"We have detected spatial fluctuations from a hyperspace jump." Amidst the roar and smoke of the explosion, communication abruptly ceased. Everyone could predict what had happened.

Lisa stood up along with the others.

"God—" she whispered.

"So fast?" The Minister of Transportation exclaimed in surprise. "It takes at least a week to sail from the Edge World to Korhal."

"Your naiveté surprises me," Josephine said with a touch of sarcasm. "We don't have a precise train timetable to follow."

"This is very likely the first Confederacy Fleets to arrive; they set sail a week or two earlier," Angus said. "They don't care if it's diverting their forces or alerting the enemy."

As Harnack stood up and put on his overcoat, he offered a succinct assessment. "Because they're just on their way to crushing an ant."