Homeland

Early February, 2492, Ansadar City.

Antiga Prime is the site of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrials and the ensuing war. Before being nearly destroyed by the Zerg, it was a desolate and treacherous place in the eyes of many.

General Edmond Duke would say, "Bad people come from poor and remote areas."

This planet, with its scattered Red Plateau, vast deserts, and extremely saline oceans, can only support a small number of life forms. Like other Terrans colonies with harsh environments that are still colonies, Antiga Prime must have its own unique advantages that make the colonies willing to endure harsh environments to establish settlements there.

The immense resources of metals and minerals, abundant high-energy gas reserves, and soil suitable for agriculture Antiga Prime's advantage lie in its extremely rich mineral resources.

Centered on the Antiga Stikler Forest and the surrounding rich mineral mountains, precious mineral resources and extremely valuable Adien crystals are almost readily available, and the resources scattered throughout the Delta subcontinent are enough to support one or more industrial centers.

Early the next morning after returning to Antiga Prime, Augustus departed from the governor's mansion in Ansadar, traveling in a Revolutionary Army Foxhound Armored Vehicle along the city's main thoroughfare to the Antiga Alloy Armor Casting Factory.

The factory is located in the Gaspard Satellite City, a newly established city named after the Revolutionary Army who died in the Battle of Antiga, whose story is enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who hears it.

Upon returning to his governor's office in Ansadar, Augustus met with a mountain of work reports awaiting his final review and signature. These clearly worded documents and substantial data would allow Augustus to understand the enormous changes on Antiga Prime, but he still intended to see the city and its people for himself.

At dawn, the pale yellow sun had just risen, and the wind carried the cold, rusty smell of iron. As Augustus, dressed in a thick, dark gray military overcoat, stepped out of the governor's mansion, he realized that although Antiga barely met the conditions for human survival, it was still better than Haj, which was plagued by Hurricane all year round; at least the climate was much more stable.

Sarah Kerrigan stood to Augustus's right with a smile on her face. She wore a long-sleeved hand-knitted sweater over a matching Revolutionary Army overcoat and a pair of small, delicate leather boots.

A heavy Armored Vehicle painted in red camouflage was parked at the foot of the steps of the governor's office, with the marshal 'Marshal Guard standing around it, fully armed. The original Antiga governor's office faced the central park of Ansadar, but now it was surrounded by high walls, automatic turrets, and missile towers to ensure that no enemy could break in.

Every few tens of minutes, a faint meteor shower would fall over Ansadar, carried by transport ships entering the atmosphere from geosynchronous orbit. As Augustus looked up, three Wraith roared overhead, their bright, gleaming orange-yellow thrusters flashing.

Augustus saluted the Wraith flying overhead, then walked toward the Armored Vehicle.

"Good morning, Marshal. Everything is normal in the Antiga system today." Faraday opened the door for Augustus, standing beside the Armored Vehicle. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Yes, Faraday, let's go. I need to check out the mining site in the Stykoler Forest this afternoon." Augustus smiled.

Augustus sat with Kerrigan in the back of the Foxhound Armored Vehicle, while his bodyguard, Faraday, drove for the Marshal himself, a duty that could not be easily delegated to others.

The Armored Vehicle drove out of the governor's mansion and headed along Ansadar toward the western part of the city.

Augustus grand processions, but necessary security measures were still quite important. A squad of Marshal Guard's guards rode in Vulture to escort Augustus's Armored Vehicle.

The central park outside the Governor's Palace has been transformed into a plaza open to the public, where rare and exotic plants are still carefully maintained. In the middle of the park stands a deep red flag with a golden five-pointed star, a powerful arm, and a whip.

The city center hasn't changed much from the past. After all the Zerg and creeping Creep were cleared away, most of the buildings were restored, and the skyscrapers and glass curtain walls gleamed in the morning sunlight.

The streets of this area were mostly filled with the Revolutionary Army soldiers in uniform on duty, engineers, and people working at the Ansadar Town Hall. Augustus then saw the reopened shopping plazas and shops.

The area was even more prosperous and bustling than before the invasion. Large numbers of refugees from other Edge World who had come to Ansadar were trying to find a foothold in the city through their talents and diligence.

The main roads were crowded with high-end, stylish Hover Car, Volkswagen-like cars that slid close to the ground, and large transport trucks carrying goods. As it was the season for rebuilding and planting, many rusty land reclamation machines and seeders were driving from one end of the city to the other.

The driver's seat and the open-top at the back of these large agricultural machines, which emitted steam from their tails, were filled with farmers carrying tools. Their clothing was varied; the immigrants from Maltair IV wore thick clothes and breathing masks, because it was a planet full of high-energy gas vents, and the composition of the air was quite different from that of Antiga.

The Minara people wear lighter clothing; their home is a warm, oceanic planet.

The Altera people, with their pale purple eyes, always kept their distance from others. This was because their homeland, the Stone Town, was always teeming with criminals and gangs. It was a place where pirates, spies, and all sorts of scoundrels mingled, and it was also a temporary transit point for the Confederacy to transport dangerous prisoners. Walking on the streets, one had to be careful at all times so that someone might suddenly rush out from behind and stick a gun barrel into their mouth to rob them of their money.

Regardless of their backgrounds or identities, these people are now all sitting in the same vehicle, and they are all now referred to as citizens of the Terran Republic.

The closer Augustus got to the outskirts of the city, the more places he noticed that delighted him.

For every mile you drive away from the city, more and more new houses and factories appear—permanent buildings constructed of pipes and metal scaffolding, mostly light gray, polygonal domed structures in the Antiga style. The tan-white buildings are factories and newly built modular housing for those who have just arrived in Antiga and haven't yet found a place to live.

As the capital city of Antiga Prime, Ansadar was built on the ruins of an ancient civilization on a dried-up ocean, and few cities of the Terrans can match its history.

Ansadar, under the control of the Revolutionary Army, had become a prosperous and enterprising city. All sorts of people were forced to flock to the city and settle down due to the Zerg invasion. The dramatic changes were not unexpected by Augustus. In some ways, the threat of the Zerg invasion was far more effective than the arduous propaganda.

Among the refugees pouring into Ansadar were a large number of skilled technicians, outstanding architects, engineers, teachers, doctors, and people from all walks of life. They were resilient and tenacious, and did not suffer from the effects of adapting to the alien world, because their original homeland was probably a much more dangerous place than Antiga.

These refugees from other planets may have some differences in culture from the Antiga, but a few generations are not enough for such differences to become drastic.

As Augustus approached the factory, the first thing he saw was brand-new, low-rise sheds and rows of rectangular houses stretching for miles. In the distance, the giant domed buildings that made a rumbling sound were storage warehouses for raw materials and finished products. A large number of winding and crisscrossing pipes formed a series of heavy factories under construction, gas refineries, and transportation hubs with heavy trucks running around.

At the very center is Ansadar's second spaceport, a starport shaped like a tall, pointed glass, where cargo ships poised for takeoff and landing hover. Giant, ruler-shaped, cobalt-blue transport ships, thousands of feet long, tirelessly deliver crystal ore collected from the Antiy moon and the asteroid belt to the smelting plant, and then send the finished products to the starport in geosynchronous orbit.

From delicate electronic components to alloy armored warships for battlecruisers, the Antiga Industrial Center, inheriting the industrial system and technology of Korhal IV, can produce everything. Most of the products are used to supply the planet's internal supply chains and equip the Revolutionary Army, while others, such as explosives for mining, are exported to the Kel-Morian Combine.

In addition, souvenirs made from Zerg limbs can fetch high prices within the territory of the Umojan Republic.

The Foxhound Armored Vehicle, with a deep red flag attached to its rear, sped along a north-south main road into the industrial residential area. Augustus saw through the rear window of the Armored Vehicle that the crowds on both sides of the road immediately became denser, with hundreds and thousands of port workers wearing light blue and light gray work clothes riding industrial park buses or walking.

The workers weren't particularly curious about the Armored Vehicle. The Gaspar Industrial Zone directly supplied the Revolutionary Army's armored forces and the rail shipyard, and was under strict military control. An entire brigade of the Revolutionary Army 7th Division was stationed nearby.

Augustus remembered the last time he sat in Armored Vehicle and looked out at pedestrians was four years ago in the city of Korhal IV Sterling City. He clearly remembered his father, Angus, passionately referring to every Korhal person he saw as his own.

This also confirms Augustus's original intention in forming the Pan-Terran National Party. Whether they were the Korhal, Tarsonis, Antiga, or Ma- Sara, the most important premise was that they were all Terrans. The revolutionary party aimed to unite all Terrans and establish a new regime based on this.

It must be said that Augustus didn't really care much about his own life; he could handle a luxurious lifestyle with ease, and he could also accept a simple one. But when he saw that those he called his people were at least happier than before, Augustus felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction. He was delighted to see his people happy and considered it his responsibility.

"Stop, Faraday," Augustus shouted, and the car pulled up smoothly to the side of the road next to a row of low, modular houses. The closely packed houses separated a pedestrian walkway a dozen feet wide, filled with workers on their way to work.

As Augustus stepped down from the Armored Vehicle, passersby immediately recognized him as Augustus Mengsk, the current de facto ruler of Antiga Prime. His most distinctive features were his cold gray hair, eyes, and his weathered dark gray cloak.

Of course, the main reason is that the large poster next to it features a portrait of Augustus waving and leading soldiers, with the slogan. "The freedom of unity, union, Confederacy is not the freedom we want. Fight for the future!"

Whispers rippled through the crowd, but Augustus noticed that not all of them were praise for him. Some were saying that Marshal Mengsk was truly wise and brave, while others, looking weary, were asking who that arrogant-looking gray-haired boy was, hoping that the guy wouldn't give them any more extra work to do.

Nevertheless, Augustus received a warm welcome as he approached them.

Augustus inquired about the workers' origins, living conditions, and working conditions, telling them that the current situation would certainly improve once interstellar trade routes with the Umojan Republic and the Kel-Morian Combine were fully established.

The passing workers were still grateful to Augustus and the Revolutionary Army. They had originally lost everything, but the Revolutionary Army had saved them and given them food. The workers here were war refugees from other planets, and for them, simply surviving was the greatest fortune. In particular, Antiga's life was actually better than many of them had ever lived before.

Antiga's factory conditions are based on Korhal IV standards, which are not only far ahead of the Edge World, but also far better than most of the core worlds of the Confederacy.

After the Garm Brood and Surtur Brood withdrew from Antiga and the Battle of Antiga ended, the planet seemed to be developing for the better. People's livelihoods recovered, and the prosperity of light and heavy industries linked to military industry orders, along with the influx of a large number of foreign laborers, brought about more than just economic recovery.

In fact, this was entirely an opportunity for Antiga's rapid development. It had been on the verge of destruction due to the war between humans and the Zerg, but was now thriving because of it. The population of Antiga Prime continued to expand. In the Revolutionary Army's "census," the officially registered population exceeded thirteen million the day after Augustus arrived on the planet.

The massive influx of people did not lead to chaos; strict militarized management and a strong crackdown on crime eliminated all destabilizing factors. Antiga Prime was more than just a refugee settlement; it also housed the laws brought by Augustus from Korhal IV, and the people who enforced them with passion, fervor, and love for their people.

The Revolutionary Army had many young idealists and passionate youths, who were never short of enthusiasm for their work. Augustus would refer to these people as those with faith.

The large number of troops and Fleets there also made Antiga Prime the safest planet in the Zerg invasion zone—if it weren't for the fact that it was under the control of the "rebels," there would likely be far more people fleeing to Antiga than there are now.

This is why Augustus and the Revolutionary Army are considered the saviors of Antiga. A planet that should have been destroyed by the Protoss after the Zerg invasion became a sanctuary, thanks to the Revolutionary Army.

Augustus led Kerrigan and Faraday through the crowded workers' quarters, seeing not only the muscular workers but also their families. Just outside the industrial park was the affiliated school, filled with teachers who had fled to Antiga.

The children were walking to school in groups against the flow of the crowd. The children of the Outer Colonies were very independent. They carried schoolbags with the Revolutionary Army badges on their backs, sang songs as they walked, had candy in their pockets, and hope in their eyes.

Seeing them laugh, Augustus smiled too. Only Kerrigan to the side, could understand Augustus's thoughts at that moment; she so wished she could have met Augustus when she was a child.

Antiga is a place where countless people who lost their families to the Zerg huddle together for warmth in the cold night; hardship is binding these people together tightly.

When I learned yesterday that Microsoft had acquired Blizzard Entertainment, I felt like I had finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

This stagnant pool, which had been inactive for so long, finally had a chance to move.

I'm so excited, I can't sleep at all, my mind is full of "wow!" I just hope StarCraft II gets another update, not just for balance, but also for the Taldarim Campaign, Selendis, and the Purifiers building skins.

If all else fails, we could make a StarCraft: Ghost Game and create a StarCraft universe based on the StarCraft universe.