Sons of Korhal

2489.7.12, Umojan, New Sterling.

"This is a long-planned subversion of the government. The evil and incorrigible Angus Mengsk is the leader of the largest cult in the Koprulu Sector. He controls 45 million Korhal using both mental and physical poisons, enslaving the ravaged Korhal and forcing them to join his rebel army armed with pamphlets and drugs."

"In this great Battle of Tarsonis, our brave warriors fought valiantly, shedding their last drop of blood to defend Tarsonis and fighting heroically to annihilate the rebel forces threatening the Confederacy —the following will be played in memory of these heroic warriors: 'The Glory of the Confederacy,' 'Our Great Confederacy,' and 'Starship Song'!"

"Long live the Confederacy!"

"Change the channel." In a cubicle in the New Sterling Town Hall, where mining equipment, hard hats, and windproof coats were hanging from rivets on the walls, Arcturus Mengsk sat on an old sofa sipping a glass of Porter wine. In front of him was an LED advertising screen that had been dismantled from the main urban area of Korhal, the capital of Sterling, and it was playing 2D images rather than a stereoscopic Holographic Projection.

The intelligent voice recognition device automatically identified and switched to the next channel according to Arcturus's words. These channels included UNN Universal Television and local television stations from several Terran Confederacy colonies.

"Angus's son, Augustus another leader of their cult and the head of the rebels. He orchestrated all the terrorist acts against the Confederacy and Confederacy citizens to date. Augustus should be held responsible for the heinous killings, and the deaths of the more than 600,000 Confederacy citizens in this catastrophe should all be attributed to him."

"Change the channel." Arcturus had a high alcohol tolerance, but he was clearly a little drunk. This man, who shaved every day and got a regular haircut even in the mining area, rarely had a stubble, but these days Arcturus always had a stubble, his greasy brown hair was tangled, and his cold gray eyes were bloodshot.

"This is Mike Liberty, a reporter from UNN Universe Television. At the crash site of the battlecruiser Century Gothic, the shockwave from the explosion destroyed forty percent of the main buildings in Queen Mary District. The New Lancaster Cathedral, the Minsk World Trade Tower, and the Verlia World's Roof were all destroyed in this unprecedented disaster. This is a major loss to human culture."

"--Who the hell wrote this script? How many people have died and you still care about historical sites that are less than a hundred years old?--Enough! Finish reading the script. I clearly told you this is a live broadcast, there's no room for error!"

"The fire that spread to Tarsonis East Wales Starport continued until dawn the following day, resulting in the deaths of over 420,000 Confederacy citizens and leaving 1.3 million with burns of varying degrees that caused permanent disabilities. A spokesperson for the Confederacy Ministry of Defence stated that the fire was set on fire by Korhal rebels at a gas fuel storage silo."

"Even after the rebels withdrew, firefighting efforts are still underway in some areas—how can private fire brigades handle the situation? Where are our troops?"

"Change the channel." Arcturus felt no sympathy for the Tarsonis's plight; in fact, he found it gratifying. About a week earlier, Arcturus, who had returned to his mines on Pike's Peak, received news of Korhal's fall. Despite being somewhat prepared, he was still furious upon learning of the nuclear attack on Korhal.

Korhal held extraordinary significance for Arcturus; he loved his homeland. Like all members of the Mengsk Family, Arcturus adored this beautiful world with its stunning scenery and pleasant climate, and he would do anything to rebuild it, even if the planet were to be reduced to ashes by nuclear bombs.

"The perpetrator of this terrorist attack was Angus Mengsk, and his second son Augustus Mengsk, orchestrated it. This wicked family should be held responsible for a series of rebellions. Currently, Augustus Mengsk has risen to second place on the Confederate Investigation Bureau's Most Wanted list, second only to his father." The host of the Vilityia Prime Global Television Station then added, after forcefully denouncing the rebels' numerous atrocities:

"As of today, seven major worlds have placed Angus Mengsk and Augustus Mengsk on their wanted lists. If you happen to encounter these criminals, please call the Vilityia Prime Police Headquarters, and we will transfer you to the Confederacy Navy—"

"Augustus, the more they hate you and slander you, the more it proves that you are on the right path." Arcturus was alone; he was talking to himself.

"Umojan is no longer safe; the Confederacy's Ghost operative will find this place sooner or later."

Arcturus realized he was becoming increasingly entangled in the Korhal rebellion; his father and brothers were on the Terran Confederacy's wanted list because the Mengsk family was the mastermind behind the uprising. After Korhal's destruction, Arcturus neither wanted nor believed he could remain uninvolved.

He had long anticipated this day, but had always wanted to avoid it. Angus deserved his punishment no matter what, but his mother and sister would inevitably be implicated, and Arcturus could not ignore it.

Augustus figured it out sooner than Arcturus himself: even if they killed his father with a single sword, the rising tide of revolution in Korhal would not stop their rebellion.

"Change the channel." Arcturus put down his empty glass, picked up the bottle, and was about to refill his glass when he found a shiny hand on his own.

"Speaker Angus's Fleets has arrived at the Umojan orbital starport." Dressed in casual clothes, an apron, and a headscarf Juliana Pasteur entered without Arcturus noticing—even after having given birth to a child, the Juliana could still walk like a cat.

Katherine's mother, always hoped that Arcturus and Juliana could rekindle their love. Even after so many years, Juliana still deeply loved the man she had entrusted everything to, but Arcturus had long since grown tired of the Game of love.

"Where did he get so many ships?" Arcturus frowned. His complex feelings for Angus and his inner pride made him always feel resistant when the man was mentioned.

The main reason Arcturus is still unwilling to the Korhal Revolutionary Army is that he does not endorse Angus's revolution. This is not simply a matter of who is right and who is wrong. Ten years ago, Arcturus left home in protest against his father and deeply abhorred the revolution. Even now, he will not change his mind for the sake of saving face.

"It is said that the Confederacy Fleets left in such a hurry that it abandoned eight battlecruisers that could not jump over. The life support systems of several warships were damaged, and the Confederacy captains on board requested help from the Revolutionary Army. Therefore, Londerstein personally led a group of men to board the warships in speedboats."

"Hmm, what should we do with the soldiers on the warships? The captains can be retained," Arcturus asked. "If they don't remove the signal tracking devices from the battlecruisers, then the Umojan Protectorate and the Terran Confederacy will be at war. At that time, we'll have to find a way to get Umojan to fight with all their might—"

"The elected parliament won't allow you to interfere," Juliana said, sitting down next to Arcturus and shaking her head.

"The members of parliament are the wisest elders in their respective administrative districts. Some of them are even executives and lords of autonomous territories from a hundred years ago, still using life support pods to sustain their lives and keeping a close eye on every resolution passed by the elected parliament."

"Then, Angus is at least an elder." Arcturus's bloodshot eyes were fixed on Juliana's slender body, but there was no lust in them, as if the white-haired members of the Umojan were standing behind Juliana.

"Korhal number 25 million in Umojan, equivalent to one percent of Umojan's population. According to the laws of the Umojan system, the Korhal should rightfully have a place of their own."

"Would you rather the Korhal become a people of Umojan?" Juliana blinked her charming eyes, but Arcturus remained unmoved.

"Why not?" Arcturus stood up, looking down at Juliana sitting on the sofa. "We deserve as much as we pay. Korhal charged headlong into the Terran Confederacy's Fleets for the sake of the Umojan people. If you saw Korhal's tragic state, you would know what we sacrificed for him."

"The Field of Martial Arts was once a beautiful grassland, home to the most enchanting lake in all of Korhal, where the water was azure blue, and at night, schools of silvery lanternfish made it look like an inverted Sea of Stars. But now it's a barren wasteland, with a thick layer of ash from the nuclear bombs clinging to the river's surface; only microorganisms remain," Arcturus said. "The maple forests of Sterling buried many of my ancestors; now only thousands of empty tree trunks remain."

"Those who remained are all dead, whether patriots or traitors. The symbol of the Mengsk Family, the wolves of Sterling that roam the dying forest, will soon be turned into monsters by nuclear radiation." He said this, yet his voice remained calm.

"The Confederacy has turned us all into monsters."

"Everything will be alright." Juliana could sense Arcturus's sorrow.

"Of course, I don't expect the Umojan to be moral, but I have other ways." Arcturus had been drinking all this time, but he never let himself get drunk; he remained coldly sober.

"Umojan has been doing everything he can to help the people of Korhal, the people of Korhal," Juliana said, defending Umojan, who had raised her.

"They at least don't look like a bunch of ragged refugees, right?" Arcturus suddenly shook his head.

If Juliana's father, Confederate Congress member Eileen Bastide, and the Umojan Council he represented were watching all this, then Arcturus clearly a master of acting. "Sorry, this is not your fault, nor the Umojan's fault, nor Angus's or the Korhal's fault."

"The Confederacy is in the wrong; the Confederate Congress and the Old Families behind them will suffer a terrible fate."

"You should go and talk to the members of parliament," Juliana winked playfully, still as adorable as a girl in love in front of Arcturus.

"Is this the attitude of your parliament or your father?" Arcturus laughed.

"I overheard my father talking to another member of parliament, and they agreed to your attendance at the next meeting," Juliana whispered.

"Well done!" Arcturus praised Juliana, "You didn't disappoint me, Juliana, I saw your talent at first sight."

"Oh~ from among millions of Sterling women—that's what you said in your letter." Juliana clicked her tongue. "But when we first met, only your mother and sister were present."

"I don't remember writing this letter." Arcturus spent only a quarter of a second searching his memory for anything related to it, then quickly gave up. "Alright, let's get down to business."

"Is Valerian still crying and calling for his father?" Arcturus tried to change the subject.

"Our son has stopped crying a long time ago, and he stopped thinking about you a month ago." Juliana crossed her arms over her chest. "Now all he talks about is his Uncle Augustus."

"That's a good thing, I've been saying it every day." Arcturus smiled. Although Valerian was physically weak and loved reading literary poetry, Valerian had become stronger and stronger since Augustus's last instruction to him.

"In my memory, Augustus was only about the size of Valerian."

Arcturus is unaware that the emotional void between him and Valerian is being bridged, but the strange way they interact still leaves a latent rift.

When Arcturus met Valerian this time, he was surprised to find that his son, who had previously displeased him, had become a man who rarely cried. This made Arcturus begin to regard Valerian as his Heir from the bottom of his heart. Of course, to prevent Valerian from becoming complacent, he still behaved quite authoritatively.

"Speaking of which, why don't you meet with Speaker Angus? He has arrived in New Sterling City and is speaking with my father," Juliana said.

"You don't need to be so respectful to him," Arcturus said impatiently. "I don't want to see him."

"Angus had better die in Korhal, otherwise we'll definitely start fighting the moment we meet."

"I respect him because he is your and Augustus ' father, Valerian's grandfather," Juliana said with a smile.

"But you still love him in your heart."

"I hate him." Arcturus angrily pulled back the curtains in the room.

Before Arcturus lay the orange-yellow sky of Umojan and an endless expanse of prefabricated and modular buildings, each over ten stories high, angular and columnar. Umojan -winged drones circled the sky above, and supply ships occasionally emerged from what appeared to be piled-up clouds. Next to the temporary Town Hall was an open-air market, bustling with the sounds Korhal people using Umojan currency for transactions.

"Alright, I won't mention him." Juliana walked to Arcturus's side and said softly, "You spent money to buy the factory from the Kel-Morian Combine, built it, and transported it back to Korhal to rebuild the weak but vital basic industrial system. You provided all the Korhal people with far more food than the Umojan could provide, and the children even had eggs and milk."

"Because they are my people," Arcturus said naturally. As a descendant of the nobles who ruled the Korhal in the world, he naturally regarded the Korhal as his own people.

But this kindness and generosity belong only to the Korhal people.

Of the wealth obtained from the giant mine, Arcturus's share was entirely used to provide relief to the Korhal refugees who were flooding into Umojan, while he himself preferred to live frugally. Although the Umojan government covered all the construction costs for the refugee camps, water and electricity facilities, and the expenses for the first three years, Arcturus still needed to invest his own money to build a fully functional city capable of supporting the lives of 20 million people.

Fortunately, the Umojan government also pledged to use three percent of the total revenue of Umojan and other planetary autonomous territories to build cities belonging to the Korhal and maintain their basic operations until the Korhal ' territories could achieve self-sufficiency.

For the time being, no one is starving or freezing.

However, Umojan is not a mild, life-friendly paradise. The Korhal people will have to endure many hardships to adapt to this planet, which is far harsher than their homeland.

"You also hired several thousand skilled miners from Kel-Morian and, taking advantage of the market turmoil caused by the signing of the peace treaty between the Kel-Morian Combine and the Confederacy, purchased mineral layer scanning equipment and Kel-Morian planetary excavators that filled two orbital starports at extremely low prices," Juliana asked again.

"So, do you want to lead them to become miners?"

"You're asking too many questions," Arcturus said, glancing at her, and quoting a wise saying, "To get rich, start mining."

After that, neither of them spoke, and the only sound in the room was from the television screen.

"Moral depravity has led to the forced prostitution of innocent women and the sale of them into slavery."

"This is a trampling of humanitarianism. Angus and his lackeys have disrupted the balance of order for their own selfish interests. They intend to overturn the entire world and establish a feudal dynasty belonging to the Mengsk Family on a free Confederacy government based on fairness and the rule of law!"

"We suspected that the Korhal rebels possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that they illegally possessed at least ten to thirty Apocalypse-class Nuclear Missile. In order to protect the people of Korhal and spare them from the devastation of the rebels, we destroyed Korhal IV."

"."

"An interview? What a disaster! I'd say the Korhal are shitting on our heads! The Confederacy Navy is a bunch of trash!"

"."

"Welcome to Franz Womirian's special: Augustus Mengsk, the Heaven's Devils —How Did a People's Hero Fall to Such a Fall?"

"Augustus Mengsk, a ruthless butcher, a cannibalistic monster, a sex maniac, and a transvestite, he forced women and children to carry high explosives to attack rebel forces, ordered underage children to pilot fighter jets without landing gear into naval warships, and his henchmen once hijacked a cargo ship and crashed it into the Confederate Security Forces building."

"..." Arcturus immediately looked as if he had choked on his words.

"They've gone too far in smearing Augustus; he was once a hero of the Confederacy," Juliana sighed.

"But that's not the case anymore." Arcturus wasn't actually surprised. "Why don't they report what has become of Korhal?"

After a long silence, a Revolutionary Army soldier entered the room. He had the insignia of a whip on his arm, but unlike the other Revolutionary Army whips, the whip did not have a five-pointed star in the center of the ring, and the whip was covered with sharp serrations.

"You've formed the Sons of Korhal," Juliana said. "A real terrorist organization."

"Since the Confederacy says we're a terrorist organization, then so be it," Arcturus said. "Someone has to do it anyway."

"They are my people." Arcturus pointed to the city outside the window, looking at the people with their thousand different faces.

"I will fight for Korhal."

"So that everyone can have a home to return to."

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