Sons of Korhal's First Operation

Hilo Autonomous State, Revolutionary Army Camp, Marshal's Command Post. August 17, 2489, 19:21 local time.

In the Hilo Autonomous State Mar-a- Sara, near the equator in the Southern Hemisphere, that deadly fireball in the sky always stubbornly lingers in the orange-gray sky, and the long Sunset process gradually burns the clouds red, as if God has hung a piece of gradient red cloth on the horizon.

The domed tent, used as the temporary marshal's command post, contained an old-fashioned temperature control system, outdated from the fourth generation of Tarsonis. It was said to be able to adjust the temperature, humidity, and even air pressure according to the user's mood— Augustus believed this was not false advertising in a sense; the temperature inside the tent depended entirely on how hard he pressed the regulator button when he was shivering from the cold.

In the center of the domed tent stood a long alloy table moved from the armory of the Norad II battlecruiser. Next to the table were weapon racks holding more than a dozen different electromagnetic and laser guns, and a shaped coat rack for hanging the hats and overcoats of the Revolutionary Army officers. On one side of the wall, lined with Plasteel plates, were pasted more than a dozen paper wanted posters and a news report clipped from a newspaper.

Everything in Augustus's military camp was kept simple, but the chairs he and Raynor were sitting in were out of place in the serious and cold atmosphere of the camp. The local gang's lair had exquisitely crafted, delicately designed imitation Tarsonis -style court chairs. These chairs varied in style, ranging from the luxurious Tarsonis models to the famous Cha Sara Sunwood Chair, which was renowned throughout the sector, and even a chair from Pegasus II, the autonomous territory of Umojan, thousands of light-years away.

"Only a small group of Pegasus Brotherhood are still at large, but I swear to those good people in Mar- Sara who believe in God, they will be brought to justice one day." In the command post, there were only two people in the room, Raynor and Augustus, so Raynor, without any awareness of being Revolutionary Army major, put his legs up on the long table.

"That makes sense, Sheriff Jimmy." Nobody remembers when Augustus started calling Jim; it was an affectionate nickname. Raynor only reluctantly accepted being called Jimmy by Augustus and Tychus; he would feel uncomfortable with anyone else—it didn't sound like a tough guy's name.

"Isn't that right? We've already helped the local town's Magistrate arrest over two thousand criminals, including smugglers, drug traffickers, and maglev train thieves. We've even taken care of petty thieves and gangs, leaving only the gang members hiding in town." Augustus wearing a gray military shirt. When he was in the military camp, he would take off his Umojan malleable mask to reveal his true face.

"They still believe that the Confederate Marine Corps wiped out their outpost in the wasteland and took away their missing comrades—the Marines are a military force, independent of the Mar- Sara militia and police department. Apart from the governor, no one can trace which Fleets has been patrolling this area recently."

Augustus was nineteen years old this year, and he had only been wandering in the Koprulu Sector for a little over a year. Even so, his fair skin, which had been nurtured in the privileged environment of the nobility, had turned into a healthy tan, and he had developed a strong and powerful physique. However, Augustus still did not grow a beard, and his appearance was no different from what he had always presented.

"These thugs don't deserve to be called cowboys; they've done practically every evil deed imaginable." Raynor clearly loathed the gangs he'd brought down. "I bet the Magistrate here is sleeping all day long."

"Ogrub 'Korhal August National Security Committee agents obtained several identity documents by paying money. A few days ago, when they infiltrated Echo Town, they discovered that the position of Magistrate was vacant and had been vacant for quite some time. The magistrate didn't seem to be in a hurry to recruit a new Magistrate to lead the leaderless sergeants and officers."

"What's that judge thinking?" Raynor shook his head. "Did the local Magistrate resign? Looks like he was transferred to the Core World."

"I heard his body was hung at the entrance to Echo Town, all but the chest gone, leaving only a bloody spine. Whatever he suffered in life, his killer must have used slaughterhouse equipment to hang him up and slaughter him," Augustus a sigh. "Many townspeople lamented the death of this Magistrate, saying he was too upright."

"It's regrettable," Raynor said. "The criminal who killed him must have been utterly inhuman."

As they were talking, Rory Swann lifted the tent flap and rushed in, turning around to adjust to the light in the command post before sitting down on a court chair that was far more valuable than his clothes, covered in dust.

"A new batch of Ardien Crystal has been loaded onto the ship and is just waiting to be delivered to the Fleets." Swann said, then stood up, dusted himself off, and looked at Augustus: "I'm sorry, boss, I didn't knock before coming in because I couldn't find the door."

Revolutionary Army Lieutenant General Warfield was preparing to lead six of the fourteen battlecruisers that were more severely damaged to the Umojan shipyard for major repairs, which conveniently allowed him to use the empty cargo holds of the battlecruisers to load goods.

The Augustus Fleets, adrift at sea, was not having an easy time. They lacked supplies of medicine and ammunition, and suffered losses due to lack of manpower. Mara Sara didn't even have many production lines capable of producing C-series Gauss Rifle cartridges. If it weren't for the abundant mineral deposits in the area, the Revolutionary Army simply wouldn't have been able to stay.

In addition, as reported by UNN, at least six Confederacy naval squadrons are searching for the Revolutionary Army Fleets in the Koprulu Sector. News editors have been saying that the fleeing rebel Fleets will be found and defeated soon, or within days, and emphasizing that the rebels have very few ships left and are easily defeated.

However, the remote and impoverished Mar- Sara was unlikely to attract the attention of the Confederacy Fleets.

"Tell the new workers they can take a break—temporarily," Augustus. "About how much crystal?"

Augustus remembered that Mara's Sara Xel'Naga Artifact came from a mining outpost, and his purpose in coming to this planet was to collect this fragment first. That way, regardless of whether he could find the remaining fragments to assemble the artifact, he could seize the initiative and prevent the artifact from falling into the hands of other forces.

"By Kel-Morian standards, it should be 10,000 cubic meters, equivalent to a large swimming pool. If the market remains the same, we can probably sell it for 20 million Umojan citizen points. That's a huge sum, but it's still not enough to repair the warships, provide supplies for the people of the new Umojan city, and help them rebuild the city and industry," Swann reminded Augustus.

"If we didn't lack a cutting and refining plant for Ardien Crystal, we could earn much more than just the cost of raw materials. Ma Sara is too far from Umojan; the round trip alone takes almost a month, which is simply not worthwhile."

This is equivalent to a month's output from the canyon mine designated A-1 by Augustus. The A-1 mine is currently managed by one of Rory Swann's cousins and mainly consists of local gang members undergoing labor reform, Kel-Morian miners hired by Augustus to train the miners, and a Revolutionary Army company guarding them.

Augustus currently has two small mining areas, whose combined output is only one-tenth of that of the A-1 mining area. However, their advantage lies in their proximity to each other, allowing the Revolutionary Army camp to immediately dispatch reinforcements in case of an emergency.

Each mining area was personally appointed by a Revolutionary Army second-level political commissar to provide ideological guidance. Every day, ideological and political education was conducted for the miners after their work. Performance indicator tables and slogans such as "Labor is the most glorious" were posted in many places in the mining area.

At the same time, the political commissar also served as the army chaplain, reciting prayers to the religious people among the miners, whether to God, Jesus, Allah, evil gods, or Sara herself.

"You're a genuine Kel-Morian, Swann," Augustus said with a smile. "Right now, it seems we can only sell to the Umojan. Even the Pike's Peak Mine in Arcturus can only supply the Umojan. The Kel-Morian Combine is not yet worthy of our trust."

"Unless we establish a factory in Mar- Sara to refine the impure crystals into high-purity crystals, and then process them into armor plates for battlecruisers or other products, we will not be able to earn more profits from the mines." Raynor was not completely ignorant of the mining industry; compared to Tychus Finley, who only cared about himself, he was much more concerned about the Revolutionary Army.

Having been away from the battlefield for nearly a month, the Revolutionary Army's engineers could only make minor repairs to some of the electronic equipment on the battlecruisers. To restore these battlecruisers to their pre-war condition, they had to return to large military shipyards for port repairs.

"You know perfectly well that we can't afford to spend a fortune to establish a complete crystal mining and processing industry chain on this planet." Augustus simply shrugged. "The Confederacy Fleets could arrive at any time, so we have to be prepared to pack up and leave at any moment."

"Perhaps we could move the factory onto a ship, a large mining vessel—you know the Taradorn whaling ships, where the hunting and processing are all done on board, and the mining vessel is the same thing," Swann said.

"I know the Kel-Morian have these ships; they have many raiding Fleets consisting of giant mining ships." Augustus nodded. "But the Kel-Morian people never sell their mining ships."

"The situation has changed now." Swann clearly knew more about the current state of the Kel-Morian Combine Augustus: "My relatives in Meinhoff told me that the Kel-Morian Combine's economy is on the verge of collapse because the Mining Guild is unable to repay the massive amount of Kel-Morian Combine bonds issued during the Four Years' War, and most people are starving."

"At this point, they were even willing to sell battlecruisers."

"Hmm--I was also planning to go to Moria," Augustus nodded.

"Such a good thing?" Raynor put his feet down from the table. "You're a Kel-Morian, how can you let us do something like this?"

"What's the point of anything else if people can't even survive?" Swann sighed. "The Revolutionary Army will provide Kel-Morian with a large amount of Umojan foreign exchange reserves, which will at least solve the immediate crisis."

Everything will be alright.

"What's going on? What are you whispering about? Let old Tychus hear too." As dusk approached, Tychus, wearing a long overcoat, walked in, carrying several newspapers he had just retrieved from the nearby Echo Town.

"What's wrong, Tychus? I heard you went to town to have some fun?" Raynor asked Tychus with a smile.

"I'm a wanted criminal now—I'd have to be crazy to do something like this. I'm currently dating a Revolutionary Army Marine Corps lieutenant, and I was just going to town to buy a few clothes, you know what I mean?" Tychus glanced at Raynor.

"Jimmy, you're still just a boy, you don't understand anything."

"We're in a revolution right now, marriage is too early for me," Raynor explained. "Besides, these things are all about fate."

"Do you expect two people to fall in love at the same time? It's as unbelievable as two male Sara's marmots falling in love." Tychus gave a mocking look, placing several wanted posters and a copy of the latest Sara's Global Evening News on the table. "Never mind that, I think there are some things you need to take a look at."

One of the wanted posters featured a portrait of Augustus's father, Angus Mengsk —an Arabic numeral 5 followed by a series of astonishing zeros. Augustus's poster, however, was only two hundred million less valuable than his father's, and it used a photo of him at the Turaxis Marine Corps recruit training camp, where Augustus just shaved his head and looked like a prisoner who had just been released from jail.

"That's right. If the Revolutionary Army goes hungry, you can use Angus's head to make money," Augustus commented.

Then, Augustus pulled out another poster, which appeared to be a recruitment poster for the local Magistrate, dated just yesterday. "Jimmy, now there's a chance for you to 'turn over a new leaf.' You can try it and see if you can get a position in the government."

"Mara Sara needs an honest Magistrate." Raynor chuckled. "You could even run for mayor of Hilo City."

"Maybe?" Augustus smiled, but his smile gradually froze when he picked up a newspaper.

A newspaper with some text erased in red paint reads, "On July 28, a fire broke out at a synthetic intelligent drone assembly plant owned by the Tagore Family on the main planet Tarsonis. All of the hundreds of employees on duty that day perished, except for two material procurement officers who disappeared after taking leave. An organization called ' Sons of Korhal ' quickly claimed responsibility for the incident on a website with an anonymous address."

The poster ended with only one sentence: This is just the beginning.

An expert interviewed by the newspaper believes that the accident destroyed a large number of finished drones and components in the factory. Furthermore, the Tagore Group will have to pay huge penalties for failing to deliver on time to customers. However, compared to the significant decrease in the Tagore Group's assets caused by shareholders selling off large amounts of stock in response to the incident, the penalties and losses to factory equipment are negligible.

The Sons of Korhal's first terrorist attack sent shockwaves through Tarsonis's stock market, and the Tarsonis Police Force Chief, whose case dragged on for years, was forced to resign. Just as Tarsonis's businessmen were significantly increasing security at their factories, the Sons of Korhal vanished again, never to be seen again.

"That's great, Mengsk," Tychus said. "Who did it? All I know is that it was the Korhal —or maybe I'm just imagining things, someone's using your name to do good things."

"I don't know," Augustus, "But I can guess who did it."

Why is no one voting? QAQ