The Corrupt Antiga Government

A 25mm canister bullet, its copper prow spinning, landed on the hard, reddish-brown soil of Antiga, leaving a shallow dent.

A Hydralisk, its spine shattered by a 120mm concussion shell from Arclite Siege Tank, lowered its proud head, and red blood trickled from the bullet hole.

A 12-foot-tall Goliath Combat Robot stepped over a convulsing Garm Zergling and traversed a battlefield strewn with corpses. The sound of bones cracking emanated from the still-alive alien monster beneath its broad, stable steel feet.

Augustus traversed the blood-soaked battlefield, littered with the shattered, bloodied corpses of the Garm Brood and human machinery. He stopped before a massive Hydralisk and kicked its bright red crest.

A dozen or so Revolutionary Army soldiers, each holding a C-14 Gauss Rifle, walked past Augustus. Raynor's Raiders ' Vulture, their propellers spitting icy blue flames, flew overhead, drawing a few angry curses.

Among the soldiers passing by Augustus were Marines from Edmond Duke's Alpha Squadron, their gleaming white Power Armor and golden eagle insignia standing out against the red soil of Antiga.

Under the orders of General Edmond Duke, commander of the Revolutionary Army Alpha Squadron, the resocialized soldiers in the squadron would repeatedly scrub their Power Armor, made of new alloy steel, every day to ensure they could meet the general's requirement of "shining across the land."

Several transport planes hovered in the sky, carrying the wounded and the bodies of the dead onto a medical spaceship equipped with a large amount of medical equipment.

"This Hydralisk has destroyed one of our Goliath Combat Robot. We don't know how much it will cost to repair it." Kerrigan fired another shot into the heart of the Hydralisk.

Some Revolutionary Army soldiers are doing the same thing as Kerrigan, rescuing the wounded while simultaneously finishing off the resilient Zerg. Because dead Zerg cells quickly combine with proteins to generate new cells, these monsters will slowly recover and reappear on the battlefield if they are not completely killed.

"No time for souvenirs, boss, we're in a hurry to uphold justice." Raynor opened his helmet, which was decorated with the pattern of the Heaven's Devils.

"Look at these shells, they're incredibly hard. These claws are long enough to chop off a person's head, what a monster." Duke slowly walked toward Augustus, shaking off his helmet, revealing a slicked-back scalp on his pointed head.

"The alien monsters I encountered back in Brutus were nothing compared to the Zerg," he said.

Duke's reinforcements arrived quickly, and the Marines of Alpha Squadron became very brave, immediately launching an attack on the Garm Brood behind Augustus and others, relieving the Swarm's siege.

Although the commander of Alpha Squadron was a reckless butcher and a strategic gambler, it is undeniable that the soldiers of Alpha Squadron were quite skilled in military affairs and combat. Otherwise, they would not have been so hated by the Kel-Morian people in the past.

"Come on, General. Last time you bragged about taking down a few carnivorous beasts, we were as happy as if you had just saved the world." Raynor shrugged.

"We are saving the world right now." Duke didn't seem very happy. He reminded Raynor, "General Raynor, you need to remember who you are. You are a general. There's no room for jokes on the battlefield."

Duke didn't get along well with the Heaven's Devils of Raynor's faction; he was on better terms with Collins and Pulaier, who were also Confederacy defectors and officers. Similarly, Raynor looked down on Duke's cold-bloodedness and arrogance, and the two often exchanged sarcastic remarks when they were together.

"I must have said something inappropriate," Raynor said.

Augustus tapped the Hydralisk's crown-like head, covered in layers of chitinous carapace, with the iron gauntlet of his dark gray Power Armor: "The Zerg of the Garm Brood are larger than those of Jormungand, and the most significant difference is that they are faster and stronger."

Even though its brain was dead, the monster's tough muscles remained taut, and its still-living, enormous heart continued to beat, pumping blood from its healing wounds.

"Within the Zerg population, some individuals are clearly stronger than others of the same species, as seen in Zergling and Hydralisk. I believe such individuals exist in Ultralisk, Mutalisk, and even other Zerg, but we haven't encountered them yet."

"They are undoubtedly the elite individuals in their kind, the kings of their species, and the most powerful servants of the Cerebrate," Augustus.

"To kill these elite individuals, we will need to pay a much heavier price."

"Jimmy, the enemies we face will only grow stronger. The Zerg are still evolving, and their numbers are as numerous as the sands of the sea. It takes us at least four months to train a single warrior, while Zerg leader can simply issue a single order, Swarm's hatchery will give birth to hundreds of millions of Zerg."

"This is unfair, how the hell could they do this?" Raynor cursed.

"This is reality, it's hillbilly coffee and tattered clothes, it's the stinking sewers of a fringe planet, it's everything you see when you open your eyes, it's awful." Duke scoffed, "These Marine-trained bastards only know how to throw soap at each other in the bathroom."

"This is a war between races, not Game chess or sandboxes with fixed rules," Augustus said to Raynor. "The insects won't tell you I'm about to take this step when they're devouring our colonies."

"The Terran Confederacy may not yet understand that the war between the Zerg and humanity concerns the very survival of an entire race. It's either human civilization continuing to stand tall in the galaxy, or the Zerg plunging everything into endless darkness."

"Keep going. The Garm Brood's Cerebrate are likely far more cunning than we think, and this won't be their only attack," Augustus.

"If I were it, I would patiently wait for humanity to lower its guard and make a fatal mistake."

"Did you hear that, brothers? The bugs are lying in their 'wet' chambers watching to see if we make a mistake. But the tough guys of Augustus never make a mistake," Raynor shouted to the passing soldiers.

"We are the Marshal's personal guards!"

Raynor's words were immediately met with a resounding response from the soldiers.

"Perhaps the insects are in their nests watching those idiots from UNN criticizing the Zerg on TV, questioning human intelligence because of the stupidity of these arguing Xenomorph experts," Duke said.

"No doubt about it, the Zerg are absolutely capable of doing it." Augustus finished speaking and caught up with the advancing troops.

"When the Cerebrate discover that we've given their race all sorts of names based on mythology, they might find it quite amusing," Kerrigan, walking behind Augustus.

He had to dodge the enormous, gaping maw of the worm-like creature in front of him. The swarm of Nydus Worm Swarm a stranded blue whale, and its massive, tens-of-tons-weight body emitted a nauseating, pungent odor under the scorching Antiga sun.

Augustus crossed the enormous Nydus Worm and followed the army westward.

The Antiga capital Andasar, is mostly flat land with hard soil, making it ideal for human armored forces to roam freely. However, to Augustus's dismay, the lack of a stable Watering Hole makes growing crops on Antiga Prime a rather difficult task.

A Terran Confederacy military base outside Ansadar's main city quickly appeared on the HUD display in Augustus's helmet. The sizable military base once housed a regular Confederacy army battalion, but now it was completely deserted.

The perimeter walls and iron gratings outside the military base were covered with a thick, Creep- like substance, like muscle torn from skin. A massive command center had turned completely blackish-brown, as if wrapped in moldy yogurt, like a rotten brown apple wilting in the sun.

Only the radar was still operational in the base, but no one knew who was controlling the equipment. In the past, the battlefields of Antiga were always filled with scavenging birds, but now there wasn't a single living creature left.

"This is really weird," Raynor said, pointing to the outer wall of the military base.

"Isn't this unbelievable?" Kerrigan said. "The Zerg infected this military base, and the people inside were either turned into monsters or eaten alive, skin and bones."

"Bomb it, or who knows what kind of even scarier monster might jump out of there," Duke said.

The outer walls of the military base were covered with a layer of purplish-black flesh-colored vines and thorns with snot-like membranes attached to them, but it didn't take Augustus long to discover that the vines were actually the intestines of deformed humans.

"General Duke is right, we can't let these monsters continue to harm people," Augustus ordered.

"Bomb these buildings."

A company of Goliath Combat Robot and about twenty Arclite Siege Tank surrounded the desolate base. Large numbers of the Revolutionary Army soldiers began to re-equip themselves with grenade launchers and short-barreled grenades. Intense artillery fire leveled the Confederacy military base in minutes.

A piercing howl echoed through the smoke of battle. Augustus could see, through the collapsed walls of the command center, a massive Zerg Broodmother being sliced into pieces by sharp metal fragments.

Surrounding this Zerg Broodmother were Terran Federal Marine Corps encased in amniotic blister-like shells, their dark brown Power Armor covered in spikes like new shoots emerging from the earth.

"My God, if we hadn't seen this infected base, who knows how many hideous monsters would have emerged from it." Raynor was deeply shocked.

"We have destroyed the incubation ground of an abomination." Augustus's reaction was no better than Raynor', but he remained remarkably calm throughout.

"Can anyone hear me? This is Johnson, the Magistrate of Norman Town. We're surrounded! Someone, please come and save us!"

At that moment, many people's Power Armor's built-in computers received a signal that read, "There are wounded and children here! Someone help them!"

"Go and see," Augustus.

"Those who have persevered until now must be the most outstanding warriors in Antiga," he said.

"Send out scouts first; it could very well be a trap."

By this time, Augustus's troops were quite close to the distant Ansadar City, which resembled a Giant with dark gray skin lying on the crimson plains of Antiga.

It was a gray industrial city, a city built on the foundation of the Antiga mining industry. Ansadar was plagued by rampant bureaucracy and chaos, with local tax laws and government decrees being inconsistent, contradictory, and subject to frequent changes.

One Confederacy official after another relentlessly plundered the wealth here, and the embezzled and recovered bribes were used to bribe the Confederate Congress and the Old Families or to hire lawyers to defend them in court.

Eventually, the people there had to establish their own order and laws, which is one of the reasons for the frequent rebellions in Antiga. However, the local rebel forces were simply no match for the Confederacy's Resocialized Soldier, so they now regard the Augustus Korhal Revolutionary Army's achievements as an exciting success.

Augustus's troops continued their advance, crossing a salt flat overgrown with red thorns, and a ravaged colonial town slowly came into view.

Numerous Zerg of Garm Brood roam around the town, leaving most of the buildings in ruins. Only a small number of Antiga militia are still using old-fashioned weapons to guard the last few Bunker and automatic machine gun turrets.

"Even the militia are better fighters than the Confederacy soldiers." Raynor had every right to say this, having served in Mar- Sara's militia. "We have to get there quickly; time is of the essence."

"General Duke," Augustus.

"Everyone, follow me!" Duke took the lead, leading hundreds of Alpha Squadron Resocialized Soldier to support the besieged Antiga militia.

"Hurry up! You bunch of brainless apes!"

"What's going on? This place is so close to Ansadar City, isn't anyone coming to their rescue? I heard there weren't many Zerg attacking Ansadar," Raynor said. "They shouldn't be so busy that they can't reach out to help the nearby satellite towns."

"The answer is obvious. Those terrified Confederacy officials are holding onto all the troops tightly, afraid that if they send out a hundred or so men, the city will fall," Augustus.

"Ever since the Confederacy executed the last group of governors and officials from the Sara System who fled, these cowards have never dared to run away again."

"Marshal, the Fleets in high orbit above Antiga has just spotted a golden Protoss fighter. General Warfield said he received a message from the Protoss Fleets..." Kerrigan suddenly reported to Augustus.

"They indicated that they will not purify Antiga Prime for the time being."

"Purification? Purification by burning," Raynor said. "That's how Earthlings used to deal with Psionics ...burning them alive."

"Because they believed those people were witches."

"I understand," Augustus nodded.

"I knew Tassadar would come to Antiga. Wherever there are Zerg, there they will be."

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