Comrades
"Besides you, who else is locked up in here?"
Augustus walked along the narrow corridors of the prison, with Arcturus and the guards following behind him. The corridors were dimly lit and oppressive, with heavy doors at intervals on both sides. Only a few small, four-wheeled cleaning robots, like gleaming beetles, moved about.
"Mental illness, madness, traitorous Confederacy soldiers, rebel leaders from the Edge World, Confederacy officials who colluded with the enemy, businessmen who stole Confederacy property, and some top engineers and scientists—after being arrested and imprisoned, all their research results and property belonged to certain Old Families of Tarsonis." Sako Angelini, having just pulled up his trousers, quickly followed Augustus, ignoring the wary gazes of the surrounding soldiers.
Sako Angelini is an extremely powerful Psionics, as well as an outstanding Psionics agent and combat expert. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a rare master in the field of Psionics. With his powerful Psionics energy, Angelini can crush a person's brain tissue in an instant.
"Furthermore, quite a few Korhal rebels are imprisoned here."
Augustus stopped in the middle of the corridor. Several Alpha Squadron sergeants in white Power Armor dragged a prison guard covered in blood from the other end of the corridor. The Blood Eagles insignia on their helmets and broad shoulder armor were particularly eye-catching.
Then, one of the Alpha Squadron captains grabbed the head of the New Folsom Prison guard with his large, gloved hands and lifted him to the front of the cell. He then pried open the guard's eyelids and waited until the retinal and genetic scans were finished before moving on to another cell.
Slowly, one by one, the criminals in their dusty gray prison uniforms peeked out. They were either emaciated or had lifeless eyes and dry hair. In the poorly equipped New Folsom Prison, Angelini, with his greasy face, was just an anomaly.
"Marines, are they sending us to the execution ground?" A prisoner with silver hair at his temples stepped forward, displaying a heroic posture of sacrificing himself. He had probably been imprisoned for many years and did not recognize the newly risen Augustus and his Revolutionary Army.
"Do it that way, soldiers. Merciful God will forgive you. Even if they send a good man loyal to Him to the execution ground, it is not your fault."
"Brother, we're not the Confederacy's lackeys." Tychus Finley stepped forward, standing before the prisoner like a Giant.
Tychus pointed to the Revolutionary Army insignia on his Power Armor: "Look closely, we are the Revolutionary Army, the ones who want to overthrow the Terran Confederacy."
"Did you all hear that?" Arcturus Mengsk stood beside Augustus, his voice echoing throughout the prison corridor with the aid of amplification equipment.
"We are the Korhal Revolutionary Army, and we only do the right thing, which is to fight for justice and freedom for all the Terrans." He was a natural orator and agitator, and his meticulously groomed hair and beard created an extremely dignified image.
Arcturus was a charismatic leader, whose brilliance even Augustus could not diminish.
"We will fight to the last man, until we overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Terran Confederacy."
"Gentlemen, we have stormed this infamous Confederacy and punished those butchers who committed heinous crimes. Today is a climax of the revolution, and it will surely become one of the most glorious moments in history."
The gathered prisoners, their lips trembling, remained incredulous. For so many years, no one had ever stepped beyond the high walls of New Folsom. The Terran Confederacy was a ruthless and powerful government that had won the war against the Kel-Morian Combine and seemed poised to remain so.
When the expected cheers did not appear, Arcturus frowned. These people seemed to have been imprisoned for too long and had become numb to it.
"Is this a farce, or have I really gone mad?" A bald man with sickly pale skin stared at the bloodstains on the ground.
"You are just illusions in my mind."
"What about the Terran Confederacy?" another burly man shouted.
"The Confederacy still rules Tarsonis and many core worlds, but as long as more people like you join the Revolutionary Army, it won't be long before we can overthrow it completely!" Augustus replied.
A deafening explosion rang out from outside, followed by the increasingly loud thud of soldiers' steel boots pounding in the prison corridors and at the entrance to the restricted area. The prisoners, finally realizing they had been rescued, burst into tears. Most of them had lost their families and all hope for the future, and at this moment, it was inevitable that they would lose control of their emotions.
This is a place where people are still of value to the Terran Confederacy, or whose influence is too great to be executed and can only be imprisoned indefinitely. Many of them were once regulars on the UNN Universe News Network and the hottest e-magazines and weekly publications. Fame and fortune were once so easily attainable for them.
"Are you their leader?" The white-haired old man walked quickly up to Arcturus and asked.
"No, the leader of the Revolutionary Army is my brother Augustus Mengsk," Arcturus Augustus beside him.
"Hello, Mr. Flingard Ken Follett, the father of the second-generation Warp Drive of Tarsonis, the founder of the Terrans interstellar era, a great man of that time." Augustus extended his hand and shook hands firmly with the other man.
"I always thought you were from the last century, the kind of person who only exists in textbooks."
"Later, your daughter announced that you had died in a terrible time-travel accident, and your remains were never found."
"Oh, that's all in the past," Mr. Follett recounted his past in a flat tone. "The Cusinis Family approached me, wanting me to work for them. I was arrogant back then and didn't take the Old Families seriously."
"I have no grudge against the Terran Confederacy, but if you are willing to hire me, I am willing to dedicate the remaining years of my life to my unfinished third-generation Warp Drive project."
"Of course, that's exactly what I'm going to do," Augustus.
"Hello, Master, I have read your works. Without a doubt, you are a treasure bestowed upon humanity by the stars." Arcturus put his arm around Follett's shoulder and handed him over to a medic.
"If any one of these people were released, the Terran Confederacy would tremble." Angelini subtly raised a hand, implying that he was also a remarkable figure.
"Mr. Philip, the last time I saw you was on the UNN news. They said you had contracted some strange illness and had to abandon your medical laboratory in Tarsonis to go to the sanatorium in Halsen to recuperate." Augustus then approached a man with a thin face but bright blue eyes.
"If they call New Folsom Prison a sanatorium." Mr. Philip's public image had always been that of a cheerful and witty medical expert, but now the thin lines on his nose and cheeks made him look much more somber.
"The next time UNN gets close to the truth will be when he first comes into contact with it," he Augustus.
"Let me tell you what happened back then. In Tarsonis, I developed a new military Stimpack to replace the endorphin mixture in the current version, minimizing side effects," Philip said.
"To better observe this Stimpack, I used it on myself, and it felt—surprisingly good."
"Later, my apprentice betrayed me. Then the Confederacy declared my experiments to be crimes against humanity, they sent people to ransack my lab, and finally kicked me to New Folsom."
"Ha, those idiots are short-sighted." Finally, Philip burst into laughter. "They have no idea that the Stimpack has flaws. And the best idea..."
"Always the next one!"
"Very well, Mr. Philip, if you wish to return to your homeland, then we will send you back." Augustus exchanged a glance with Arcturus: "If you wish to stay, then I will arrange a position for you in the Revolutionary Army's biological and alien laboratory."
"No, I used to have a home in Tarsonis, but the Confederacy destroyed it." Philip was an arrogant man who never bowed to those in power. He was always harsh and sarcastic towards his subordinates, friends, and even those around him, but would leave laughing after they were trembling with anger.
"Let's talk about it after you've taken Tarsonis."
This is understandable, as no one ever asked about Philip's true whereabouts after he went to prison.
"Are your laboratory equipment complete enough? As the old saying goes, even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice." Mr. Philip was clearly still skeptical of the Revolutionary Army's technological capabilities.
This is not Philip's fault; in the eyes of the general public in the Terran Confederacy, the rebels of the past have always been clowns wielding fire sticks.
"That's more than enough. It contains Korhal's most outstanding scientists, as well as Protoss and Zerg for your research. I'm sure you'll find some inspiration in them." Augustus thought to himself that there was also a noisy domesticated Cerebrate inside, whose ambitions once encompassed the entire galaxy, but now it was only the size of a bedroom.
The Cerebrate are among the most outstanding creations Overmind the Zerg, and their secrets are enough for humans to study for centuries.
"Okay, that makes sense at least." Philip closed one eye and said, "I'm not working in your lab out of gratitude for saving me."
"He's incredibly grateful to you," Angelini whispered.
"Stop showing off your little bit of telepathic ability." Kerrigan rolled her eyes.
Kerrigan could only be thankful that Sako Angelini was a man; otherwise, given Augustus's unique fascination with Psionics, it was hard to guarantee that he wouldn't waver.
"I thought Marshal Augustus wanted to know what others were thinking." Angelini shrugged, not daring to provoke the most outstanding senior in the Ghost Academy's instructors' words.
Angelini is an ambitious Psionics who would much rather be an educator than waste his time as a Confederacy executioner. At the same time, being intelligent, Angelini knows never to argue with his unreasonable boss unless he absolutely must.
"The Marshal doesn't need to know what other people are thinking," Kerrigan said.
After Augustus dismissed Philip, he turned to the others. The remaining men eagerly recounted their tumultuous lives, hoping that the leader of the Revolutionary Army would accept them, or at least not leave them to die in New Folsom.
One of these men, who was a rising star in Tarsonis politics a year or five years ago, mistakenly ignored a hint from a member of a Old Families and refused a huge bribe offered to him, determined to get to the bottom of the matter in a corruption case.
Soon, this honest and upright official was disgraced for child molestation and was subsequently brought down by a series of political maneuvers.
Some of them were leaders of the Antiga Rebellion, in which a Confederacy Marine company easily crushed a local resistance force of several thousand men in battle many years ago, mercilessly killing almost all of them.
As Angelini said, those imprisoned here are the number one enemies of the Terran Confederacy, and they themselves are a kind of political bargaining chip.
There are about sixty people imprisoned in this area of New Folsom. More than twenty of them have been imprisoned for offending powerful figures in the Terran Confederacy or as scapegoats. The other twelve are experts in cutting-edge fields such as engineering, science, genetic engineering, body modification, and Psionics technology. The Terrans have dabbled in every research field that is explicitly prohibited by Earthlings.
The remaining people are more complicated. Among them are war criminals from the Guild Wars whose crime was handing over a mining world of the Terran Confederacy. This happened during the time when the Kel-Morian Combine was closing in, and holding onto that doomed world meant certain death.
In an attempt to save his soldiers' lives, the Confederacy general defied orders from the Supreme Command—but every blade of grass and every tree in that mining world actually belonged to a vast Tarsonis Old Families.
Regardless, these people are rare and valuable talents, exactly the kind of people Augustus desperately needs. If Augustus to establish a new regime on the ruins of the Terran Confederacy, he will need their help.
There weren't many truly vicious thugs in New Folsom Prison, because the Terran Confederacy didn't care about the lives of these social scum. And the Terran Confederacy's most hated enemy was none other than Augustus's loyal friend.
The Confederacy believed that New Folsom was impregnable, and that even the most audacious and reckless prison breakers would not be able to take a single hair from New Folsom Prison. However, the Augustus Revolutionary Army wiped it out directly.
Finally, Augustus passed through the crowd and came to a bewildered young man with melancholy pale blue eyes. Compared to the white-haired prisoners, he was as young as a child.
The scars left by torture have disfigured him beyond recognition; he even bears a scar on his head from a memory-reading surgery.
"Marshal Augustus, I'm sorry." He clearly recognized Augustus.
"I was captured during the Battle of Little Atticus. During the interrogation by the Confederacy, I didn't say a word, but then they knocked my head open."
"Sergeant Boghoff, Warfield's personal guard. You were captured while protecting a family of six from Little Atticus." Augustus ' words brought tears to the Revolutionary Army soldier's eyes instantly. "Your company considers you a hero, and your hometown Antiga proud of you."
"You did not betray us."
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