Sacrifice

The Barren Canyon was still shrouded in darkness, but a faint light was beginning to appear in the east, and dawn was approaching.

Duke was quite trustworthy in surrendering; the remaining hundred or so Alpha Elite Guard soldiers threw all their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.

Most of these are Resocialized Soldier who are completely obedient to the highest-ranking commander. This is where the drawbacks of large-scale resocialization become apparent. When a high-ranking commander defectes, he can immediately order his subordinates to lay down their weapons or issue a ceasefire order.

Even if someone is pointing a gun at the head of a Resocialized Soldier, he will not hesitate to do so if his superior orders him to put down his weapon and stop resisting.

The Resocialized Soldier were programmed with absolute loyalty to the Confederacy, but they didn't really understand what loyalty meant—after all, bombarding the Hall of Reason, where the Confederate Congress of Tarsonis was located, could also be considered a form of loyalty.

"Don't try anything funny. I know you have two more Ghost operative under your command." Augustus strode towards the Alpha Squadron soldiers who had already laid down their weapons, speaking as he walked.

A few seconds later, two Ghost operative carrying heavy sniper rifles appeared. After a moment's hesitation, they also lowered their weapons.

Edmond Duke, clad in white commander armor, emerged from the dejected soldiers of Alpha Squadron. He was a burly man, and his armor bore the insignia of a golden eagle.

"I hope your promise is worth the price." Duke didn't remove his helmet, but simply walked up to Augustus and threw his sidearm and holster at the man's feet.

"I've already given the surrender order to all units, but the Marines might not obey. If the Marines aren't willing to surrender, then you can take them out without any problem."

"My promises always stand." Augustus looked at Corporal Faraday, who immediately ordered the Revolutionary Army soldiers to confiscate the weapons of the Alpha Squadron and to remove their Power Armor.

"Today, I made a big mistake," Duke said gruffly. "I fell into your trap."

"And this trap isn't actually that hard to spot," Augustus said, looking at Duke. He didn't want to give a long victor's speech. "Ultimately, you've always treated the Revolutionary Army as a weak peasant uprising."

After saying this, Augustus ordered the Revolutionary Army soldiers to reboard the transport ship, and Duke was also escorted onto the ship by Corporal Faraday.

The transport ship took off from the flat sand, its thrusters kicking up dust. As it rose higher, the horizon, its edges shrouded in a layer of white light, gradually became a curve. It Bottleneck Pass Fortress, and it wouldn't be long before Augustus saw the main battlefield, still gleaming with light.

Duke wasn't lying; apart from some localized skirmishes, the main battlefield in the Barren Canyon had quieted down again.

According to information relayed by Raynor, Londerstein, and other units, the Confederacy troops either laid down their weapons rigidly or surrendered under the leadership of their officers. Several brigade-level remnants of the Federal Marine Corps were still putting up a stubborn resistance. Currently, Raynor and his troops are concentrating their superior forces to deal with those Confederacy remnants who are still unwilling to surrender.

The Revolutionary Army defenders at the bottleneck identified the transport ship but did not open fire. Even so, the transport ship Augustus could not find a place to land and could only temporarily land near a command center that had been bombed down to its steel frame.

Wherever the transport ship's lights could reach, there were destroyed Bunker and makeshift modular structures everywhere. Each destroyed Bunker looked like half a charred eggshell, its supposedly indestructible alloy steel plates now shattered.

Everywhere you look, there are abandoned weapons, copper-plated bullet casings, shredded railgun shells embedded in the rust-colored sandy soil, and limb remains that even Augustus couldn't bear to look at. These remains are still covered with scorching Power Armor plates, some white from the Alpha Squadron and some red from the Revolutionary Army. Blood has mingled with the red soil of Mar- Sara, as if returning to its original form.

In the Bunker and craters dug by cannons, piles of corpses could be seen everywhere. The Power Armor was riddled with holes, and even with armor protection, some people were still riddled with bullets by heavy machine guns and large-caliber railguns. The soldiers of the Alpha Squadron and the Revolutionary Army died in a bizarre way, twisted, almost embracing each other but actually with gun muzzles and bayonets pressed together. The number of dead was countless.

Augustus knew that a soldier who had been through the baptism of war might already be numb to such sights. Augustus had witnessed countless deaths; Reaper had taken his former comrades and thousands of warriors from his hands, and all he could do was bury them.

It was Augustus brought these young people away from their families. They thought that following the Marshal would lead them to light and hope, but in the end they perished in a Edge World bore almost no resemblance to their warm and beautiful homeland Korhal IV.

As Augustus walked toward the transport ship, Duke had already had his Power Armor removed, and his hands were tightly bound together with ropes. He was wearing only a thin, malleable naval combat uniform and a dark gray overcoat from the Revolutionary Army, shivering in the cold wind.

The Revolutionary Army on the spaceship immediately rushed to the position, which had almost been reduced to ruins, searching for possible survivors in the collapsed Bunker and fortification walls.

Augustus heard not a single cry or wail; in the reach of the transport ship's lights, there was only death.

"There they are! There are still survivors down there!" Kerrigan emerged from her invisibility and guided the Revolutionary Army soldiers to dig through a collapsed rubble. Kerrigan's telepathic abilities allowed her to locate the survivors buried in the ruins; she could detect even unconscious brain activity.

The SCVs of the Revolutionary Army's Engineering Corps, who rushed to join the battle, immediately began rescue operations in their area of expertise. They used the melting torches of the SCV to cut through the metal on the Bunker and then used powered clamps to pull out the survivors buried in the rubble. The SCVs in the engineering corps were all skilled workers, mostly between thirty and forty years old, with few young people.

Whether in the Confederate Marine Corps or the Revolutionary Army, the SCVs, who build modular structures on various battlefields and weld tanks in workshops, are hailed as "fathers who put diapers on the Marines' backs."

"It took me quite a while to break through this damned fortress. The rebels here are far more tenacious than I imagined," Duke said, standing behind Augustus. "Before this, I simply couldn't imagine any army with morale that could match that of Resocialized Soldier, allowing them to maintain such fighting spirit even after being nearly destroyed."

"Unheard of."

"My warriors have unwavering faith." Augustus felt a surge of sorrow when he saw the rescued Revolutionary Army soldier's legs, which had been blown off. Even though the soldier had survived the pain, blood loss, and infection, he would have to rely on modified prosthetics for the rest of his life.

Augustus could do was send more war-crippled soldiers back to Umojan. These soldiers would train new recruits and future officers at the barracks and military academy in New Sterling.

"Moreover, every Korhal who has lost his home is a wandering ghost yearning for revenge," Augustus. "And you will not understand this."

"You wouldn't hesitate for a second if I asked you to destroy Tarsonis, the land that gave you birth."

Just as Duke was about to retort, Tychus and Harnack, clad in red armor, arrived before Augustus with several Revolutionary Army soldiers whose armor was covered in wounds and burn marks.

"We wiped out fourteen battalions." Harnack was a free spirit by nature, but he couldn't hide his sorrow at this moment. His tone was fierce, like a lion's roar.

"But I dare say, far more of the bastards in Alpha Squadron died than we did."

"We have won, Hank," Augustus told him.

"Yo, Colonel Duke." Despite having just escaped death, Tychus seemed quite cheerful. He beamed as soon as he saw Duke and greeted him kindly.

"It's an honor to see you again, you Viper."

At this very moment, the sun in Ma Sara slowly rises, and the morning glow paints the sky red.

A tattered, red flag, blackened by smoke and fire, fluttered in the morning breeze that swept through the canyon, with a strong arm wrapped around it, bearing a whip.

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