You know, Uncle Augustus. My inscrutable father had always been suspicious and unwilling to trust others easily, but this time he believed it completely. He was utterly shocked and bewildered, furious beyond measure, and flew into a rage.
In the end, like all tyrannical, overbearing fathers, Arcturus Mengsk harshly announced to every member of the family that he absolutely could not allow his son—his rightful heir in this world—to go into a profession where he would "make a living rooting through trash in mud and rubble." Valerian Mengsk had the potential to become a great leader; he simply had never realized it, and all I was doing was helping him avoid a few detours.
He was too good to me.
But unfortunately, the head of this great family was still my grandfather, Angus Mengsk, father of the current Emperor of the Terran Empire. In the stories I had heard, my great grandfather had been an unyielding revolutionary fighter even before I was born. He was the first to raise his voice against the corrupt old Confederacy, and among the people of Korhal, his standing was no less than the Emperor's.
People called him the Father of the Revolution.
Ironically, one historical truth differed somewhat from what later generations came to know. When my grandfather was denouncing the Tarsonis Confederacy government's exploitation of other Colonies in the Korhal Senate, he was in the prime of his life, vigorous and energetic. At the time, his second son Augustus was only a child.
As the eldest son, my father Arcturus was probably seventeen or eighteen then, having just graduated from Sterling Academy.
I thought that my grandfather must have needed an heir at the time—someone to inherit him, inherit his seat in the Senate, inherit the vast Mengsk Family estate. More importantly, Grandfather