Rosa Morales

After boarding one of the Valkyrie missile frigates, Raynor was very satisfied. He immediately ordered the Revolutionary Army to train its own Valkyrie pilots and crew members as soon as possible to integrate them into the Char Fleet's operational order of battle.

"Earthling stuff is always high-end—but now it's ours." As he descended the gangway, Raynor announced:

"Captain Howl, quickly get someone to paint these ships our colors. The UED emblem is really an eyesore."

"As you wish." The Revolutionary Army captain, Jessica Hall, was a woman with light gray eyes and short brown hair. She wore a blue-black open-front naval uniform and looked very dashing.

Over the years, Augustus recruited many people from all over Koprulu, most of whom are young, ambitious, and idealistic like Hauer.

Meanwhile, Raynor noticed that more shuttles and transport ships were landing on the Dreadnought Fortress's helipad, from which emerged many dejected UED soldiers, followed by the Revolutionary Army officers and soldiers escorting prisoners.

The United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet's uniforms were mostly khaki and dark brown, made of comfortable and breathable material, and easily recognizable with eagle insignia and gold five-pointed stars on their shoulders. They were marching in single file from the transport ship, their hands raised high, in several lines. Most of them were wounded, either limping or needing the support of their comrades to walk.

These UED soldiers were survivors scattered across the Char battlefield; they had truly survived by the skin of their teeth.

Some fell into abandoned Nydus Worm, lying there for three days before encountering a Revolutionary Army motorcycle patrol on the Char Red Wasteland. Others escaped the Zerg but were stranded in the wilderness, nearly dying of heat and hunger, when they happened to encounter the Protoss army.

The Revolutionary Army treated these Earthlings relatively well; at least they didn't mistreat them.

"It seems these Earthlings aren't entirely convinced yet." Charles raised his head slightly and snorted as he looked at the Earth prisoners.

Many UED soldiers were uncooperative, maintaining their heads high even when guns were pointed at them, and refusing to remove their hats with silver wing insignia.

"They believe they were defeated by the Protoss, not us." Raynor's view of Earthlings was somewhat better than Charles's. "Earthlings came to be conquerors, not prisoners."

"Never mind them. Feeding tens of thousands more people will be a headache for us." He patted Charles on the shoulder. "We are a benevolent army; we can't let these people starve to death."

"But someone always ends up in a war crimes tribunal."

"Let's go." Raynor left the helipad and headed towards the core area of Dreadnought Fortress.

Inside the Dreadnought Fortress is a newly built hospital, which is probably the most welcoming corner in Char's hellish world of death.

The hospital's main structure consists of modular steel frames, with the ground covered in stamped composite wood panels. The docking port is filled with shuttles, and many engineers are driving unloading trucks and SCV to move supplies.

The outermost rows of gray-black tents were used to store supplies, unopened medical equipment, bandages, surgical instruments, or piles of various canned fruits and synthetic protein rations.

Each tent was adorned with a fluttering gold and red Revolutionary Army flag, which, like the Red Cross worn by medical soldiers, offered a sense of reassurance.

The tent was filled with busy medical workers and wounded people, and the smell of disinfectant and medicine was quite strong.

The outermost tents were used to house soldiers with minor injuries; some were fast asleep, snoring loudly due to difficulty breathing. Those still awake were whispering, quietly reading e-books, or listening to music stored on their personal terminals with headphones on.

Every moment, people are groaning and crying out in pain.

The situation was much worse in the innermost operating rooms and intensive care units, where stretchers carrying several seriously injured people were brought in every two minutes on average.

A gunnery sergeant had lost feeling in his legs due to infection with Defiler venom. He was crying and struggling to wake them, and the doctor and his comrades had to do their best to hold him down.

Defiler venom is extremely deadly; just a few milligrams can paralyze a person. If treatment is not timely, the venom will quickly spread throughout the body and cause ulceration.

A communications soldier in charge of radio equipment was blindfolded, his hands severed at the root. He wailed uncontrollably, not from the pain, but asking about the whereabouts of his company.

This near-collapsed Revolutionary Army actually knew the truth: a dozen terrifying Tiamat Hunter Killer Hydralisk had killed everyone in an extremely brutal manner, severing their limbs and ripping out their hearts (Zerg do indeed remove hearts), to ensure these people would never rise again to threaten the Swarm.

Thousands of people are battling for their Reaper, and medical equipment can only do its best to increase their chances of survival. These people are both heroes and tragic sufferers.

After standing outside for a while, Raynor saw more than a dozen body bags being loaded onto trucks, containing pale-faced young men and women, some of whom even looked like children.

Raynor simply couldn't imagine how heartbroken these children's parents must be to see such a scene. Just thinking about his own mother's sorrowful face made his chest ache and his nose sting.

Trucks laden with corpses drove toward the crematorium with a cold, mechanical pace, without stopping. In Char, if bodies weren't cremated quickly, the spread of infectious diseases and plagues was a minor concern; the spores of Zerg scattered in the air could soon turn them into hideous monsters.

Raynor knew he was of no help to the surgeons except to make things worse, so he could only approach the lightly wounded and check on them.

When Raynor and Char entered one of the tents, several bandaged Revolutionary Army soldiers were reading letters from their parents and relatives, sent from the distant Antiga Starport by the supply Fleets.

The supply Fleets promised by Marshal Augustus will continue to arrive, bringing much-needed reinforcements and various supplies, as well as taking back Revolutionary Army soldiers who are no longer able to fight or who want to escape Char.

Inside the tent was a young female doctor, wearing an ill-fitting white coat and with her light brown hair tied back.

"Where does it hurt? I heard someone needs a doctor." Her voice was gentle, sweet, and tender. Without needing anesthesia, the soldiers softened at the sound of her voice.

However, this gentle voice was immediately interrupted by the excited cheers of the wounded soldiers. Jim Raynor was highly respected in his unit, and the soldiers loved him as much as they loved their marshal.

"General!"

"General Raynor-- "

"Salute to you."

"Brothers, it is I who should pay tribute." Raynor gestured for the soldiers who were eager to get up to lie back down on their beds, and couldn't help but sigh that he had once been just like them, reading letters from his family with great joy, not missing a single word.

"Are you reading a letter that just arrived from the rear?" he asked one of the soldiers whose face was wrapped in bandages.

"Yes, it was sent by the mayor of Atticus Gordon Town. He's probably the last person who remembers me." The soldier's face, still pale from the pain, was filled with sorrow, yet he still wore a smile.

"We all remember you, brother." Raynor's nose twitched as he hugged each of the soldiers. "You all did a great job."

"Thank you for taking care of them, doctor." He finally turned to the doctor.

Raynor noticed the doctor's name tag—Lieutenant Rosa Morales —which indicated she was a specially authorized UED medic.

"An Earthling?" Charles nearly jumped up. "How can we let someone like that take care of our soldiers? She'll poison the needles and IV drips."

"General, my duty is to protect others, whether they are Terrans or Earthlings," the UED medic Morales retorted.

"It's always been this way: you're responsible for killing, and we're responsible for saving lives."

"Let's keep to ourselves."

"Don't rush to play the villain, Charles. The hospital is simply not enough staff. UED's medical equipment can save many lives, and they are the ones who know best how to use it." Raynor shook his head repeatedly. "We also treat Earthlings here. We have more chivalry than Earthlings— the Terrans act according to the Geneva Convention."

"But I don't know where they found you?"

"We lost too many comrades in Char, and after successfully breaking through, we encountered one of your light motorcycle companies." Morales waved her hand and replied, "My men and I eventually had to surrender to them."

"I'm deeply sorry, but there are people here who have just lost their comrades, and there's nothing I can do to help you," Raynor said regretfully to Morales. "They've found a good doctor, maybe even an angel."

"The angels of the gospel and the angels of death are also angels," Morales said.

Indeed, Raynor noticed that this Earth woman did have an almost angelic face.

Most of the medics in the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet were women like this—beautiful and with sweet voices. In any case, Raynor believed that those who heal and save lives should look like this; compared to demons, they certainly looked more like angels.

In military camps filled with young men, ladies in skirts were always welcome. In times of scarcity, just seeing them was enough to boost morale.

Raynor didn't even dare to comment much on Morales's appearance, because he found it hard not to let his mind wander.

"Whether good or bad, any angel who can save lives is a good angel." Raynor modified a quote that Augustus once said:

"We need someone like you here." Raynor's sense of identification with and belonging to the Revolutionary Army led him to spontaneously begin recruiting talent for Augustus.

"Marshal Augustus Mengsk needs someone like you to train standard medics like the UED. If all goes well, you'll meet him soon." Raynor was only implying that the UED unit commanded by Alexei Stukov would soon be defeated.

"I'm sure the Marshal will be very satisfied."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing." To Morales, it sounded more like slang from a remote area.

Morales was not entirely ignorant of Augustus Mengsk, but the versions circulating about him were either utterly terrible or so perfect as to seem inhuman.

"The Marshal already has enough women around him," Charles pointed out cautiously.

"Charles, what are you thinking, you old turtle?" Raynor paused for a moment, then launched into a tirade.

"General, Protoss Executive Tassadar has an urgent communication that requires your immediate attention." At that moment, one of Raynor's adjutants walked in, holding an information panel.

"Bring him in," Charles said immediately.

"En Taro Adun, General James Raynor, we must now leave Char and return to Shakuras." In an unfolding hologram, the Protoss Executor Tassadar appeared, his magnificent crown and gold-blue Executor robes fluttering without wind.

"I understand," Raynor nodded.

"But why so suddenly?"

"Shakuras has been invaded by the Zerg —the actual situation is more complicated, with Dark Templar believing that the traitor Orega is among them." Tassadar's words surprised Raynor.

"This sounds like a bad situation," Raynor said. "Has Zeratul still not caught that traitor?"

"No." Tassadar's face was expressionless, but his usually calm voice sounded much more urgent.

"Friends, we are sorry we have to leave. May the light of Adun shine upon you."

"Goodbye, my friend," Raynor said.

"The Protoss Fleets has left Char's high orbit; they've disappeared from our radar scans," Raynor's adjutant said a dozen minutes later.

An indescribable unease welled up in everyone's hearts.

If Shakuras is attacked, it means the Protoss will find it difficult to spare any resources to help humanity. Moreover, as the Zerg's mortal enemies, it would be a bad thing if the Protoss's power were to be significantly weakened once again.

At this moment, the sky gradually darkened, and the blood-red giant sun on the horizon was setting. It was the irregular variable star in the Char binary system, which meant that its size and brightness were unstable, sometimes exceptionally bright and sometimes suddenly dim.

"Commander, several outposts have reported discovering tens of thousands of humans infected with the Zerg virus in multiple directions Dreadnought Fortress," the adjutant reported.

"Damn it, why won't these bugs leave them alone?" Frustrated, Raynor looked at the holographic screen on the control panel.

In the crimson glow of the setting sun, Infested Terran, their steps faltering, appeared on the distant horizon. They had all once been members of the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet or the Revolutionary Army, and perhaps some of them were early colonists of Char.

"Oh my God!" exclaimed Morales, the UED medic beside her, her heart heavy with sorrow. Most of them were Morales's former comrades and fellow countrymen who had come here to protect Earth, never imagining they would become such hideous monsters.

"I had heard before that infection was terrible, but this is terrifying."

"Until the antidote for the Zerg virus, which is still a long way off, is finally developed, killing these poor souls and bringing them relief is the last thing we can do." Raynor quickly issued the order:

"Send out Firebat and armored units to wipe out these Infested Terran —I will lead them myself."

"This is terrible." Charles grunted, his brow furrowed. "Now that the Overmind has left Char, who is controlling these monsters?"

"Where did that bastard go?"

The Orega attack on Shakuras is part of the Star Trek: Dark Vengeance campaign and is officially recognized.