Headquarters of the Korhal Revolutionary Army, Styrling – Morning of December 28.
The Revolutionary Army's headquarters was located beneath a skyscraper still under construction, a structure with a silver framework and bronze-tinted glass panels. Once completed, this towering building would belong to the Mengsk Group. Over two hundred stories tall, the skyscraper featured smooth rounded corners and graceful curves, standing tall amid a forest of silver spires and geometrically diverse buildings.
Augustus was currently deep within this structure—approximately 150 metres below ground—inside the underground transit complex of the so-called Mengsk Interstellar Trade Tower. His command center was a cubic chamber lined with metallic floors, walls, ceilings, and ducted ventilation fans.
Construction of this trade tower and its intricate subterranean levels had actually begun six years earlier, spearheaded in secret by a Mengsk Group construction company. The underground section had been designed as a shelter to counter potential doomsday scenarios such as nuclear war. Now, Augustus had made the temporary decision to repurpose the site as the headquarters of the Korhal Revolutionary Army.
Roughly 200 Revolutionary Army personnel—each bearing stamped certification from the Umojan Shadow Guard and checked off under the loyalty evaluation column—were currently stationed in the underground HQ, performing clerical tasks, strategic planning, and security duties. Naturally, their presence there was permitted only because Augustus believed they possessed absolute faith in the Revolution's victory and exhibited a high degree of ideological and political awareness.
Since the Korhal Revolutionary Army had not yet matured into a truly qualified military force, Augustus still had a great deal of work ahead of him: establishing an effective administrative system, formulating strict military regulations, appointing officers, dividing war zones, and even designing uniforms and a military insignia for the revolution.
Of course, this was a task far beyond what Augustus could accomplish alone. Fortunately, shortly after Christmas, the Umojan Defense Forces dispatched around 20,000 mid- and lower-ranking officers and military advisors to support the Korhal Revolutionary Army, assisting Korhal IV in rapidly assembling a functioning military.
Thanks to tireless efforts, Angus had also secured a promise from the Umojan Representative Assembly: should Korhal IV declare war on the Terran Confederacy, Umoja and its colonial worlds would dispatch a volunteer army to aid the Revolutionary Army in combat against the Confederacy.
Moreover, the foundries and starship ports of Umoja and its core worlds would supply Korhal IV with cruisers up to 180 metres in length, along with every class of escort ship, destroyer, interstellar supply vessel, and full access to all military spaceports operated by the Umojan Defense Forces.
This amounted to an all-out effort—just shy of a formal declaration of war against the Terran Confederacy.
The reason was simple: the aging yet sharp-minded members of the Umojan Representative Assembly clearly understood that if they failed to weaken the Confederacy through another war, their own sovereignty would eventually be devoured by the ever-expanding empire.
With the support of Umojan officers and advisors, Augustus finally had some breathing room. Thus, today, he turned his attention to designing the insignia of the Revolutionary Army. Although this was typically a job for professionals, Augustus insisted on doing it himself.
In the end, he rejected all the proposed designs and chose one he had personally envisioned and commissioned from a designer: a red background, with a strong arm gripping a whip, encircled by the coiled whip itself.
This would one day become the iconic symbol of the Sons of Korhal, the famous anti-Confederate resistance organization.
Once the final version was approved, Augustus forwarded the design to the Propaganda Department, then returned to his desk to review training progress reports from the various new recruit camps.
Although Augustus still lacked confidence in these Umojan officers, who had no real combat experience, he found their efficiency and enforcement of military discipline—products of their military academy training—quite satisfactory.
By midday, Lisa Cassidy brought Augustus his lunch and a glass of red wine. She was dressed in a grey prototype uniform of the Korhal Revolutionary Army.
Just as Augustus was about to eat, the holoprojector on his desk lit up. This was part of his routine—he liked to have some background entertainment during meals.
The UNN Interstellar News Network was broadcasting footage of Lady Angus Mengsk and her youngest daughter, Miss Dorothy Mengsk, boarding a galactic shuttle en route to vacation on Tyrador IX.
The footage lasted barely three seconds before the news anchor launched into a lavish monologue, delivering a dramatic, poetic account—worthy of a chorus bard—praising Lady Mengsk for her tireless efforts on behalf of children's welfare and war refugees on Korhal IV.
In truth, however, Lady Mengsk and Dorothy Mengsk had already flown to Umoja aboard a stealth fighter on Christmas Day. By the time this broadcast aired, Augustus had long since received confirmation from Ailin Pasteur that both mother and daughter had arrived safely.
Before their departure, Augustus had confiscated all of Dorothy's little dresses and sternly warned her not to tease her young nephew, Valerian. As for his mother, however, he was powerless to do anything.
Poor Valerian—he had never met his grandmother or aunt in his original lifetime. But Augustus had changed the course of history.
Not that it mattered. The traditions of the Mengsk family had to be preserved.
As he enjoyed his steak and red wine, Augustus couldn't help but wonder how the very same journalists who decried the extravagance and corruption of the nobility might now be spinning tales about the Mengsk family's opulence. Yet, such exposés rarely survived longer than ten seconds on the Confederacy's largest social and news platform, Confederate Banner, before being permanently deleted.
Some of those brave enough to 'speak the truth' might well side with Augustus—after all, they were drawn to hidden truths and buried secrets.
Without realizing it, Augustus had already come to regard the downfall of the Terran Confederacy and the protection of his family as the defining goal of his life.
The broadcast continued, shifting to coverage of internal news across various Confederate territories.
The capital of Antiga Prime, Andasar, had once again erupted in large-scale unrest, resulting in multiple casualties.
This city—long known for its tradition of resistance—had suffered a brutal crackdown by Confederate Marines decades earlier. Even conservative estimates put the death toll in the thousands, yet not a single word of this appeared in current retrospectives. Only someone like Augustus, a leader of the revolution, had access to the original records.
Next came minor headlines: an earthquake on Tyrador III, a major crop failure on Mar Sara due to inadequate irrigation, followed by an advertisement featuring child star Kayla Vyras.
But Augustus knew better. Riots and uprisings were flaring up all across the Koprulu Sector—far too many for UNN to report. And yet they seemed to be ignoring what, under normal circumstances, would be considered major news.
As he pondered ways to infiltrate the UNN headquarters and broadcast truths that could shatter the Confederacy's image—massacres, suppressed scandals, and humiliations that would disgrace the Old Families of Tarsonis—his personal terminal vibrated.
It was a message requesting his return to Meinhoff on the first Saturday of the following month. Even now, while leading the Korhal Revolutionary Army, Augustus remained a second lieutenant in the Confederate Marine Corps—a decorated war hero who had once defended the Terran Confederacy.
He sat in silence, contemplating the danger of returning to the military camp. Only a handful of senior Revolutionary Army members knew his true identity, and each had been thoroughly vetted and tested before being allowed into the movement's inner circle.
Even the Umojan Shadow Guard had confirmed that although some members harbored ambitions and sought personal gain under the guise of revolution, none had committed outright betrayal. The odds of the Confederacy discovering his true identity were thus extremely low.
A few minutes later, another message arrived in Augustus's inbox. It contained two invitations: one inviting him to speak at the Tarsonis Noble Military Academy in his capacity as a decorated war hero; the other, inviting him—under his dual identity as commander of Heaven's Devils and heir to the Mengsk family—to attend the 140th birthday celebration of Lady Andrea Tygore, matriarch of the Tygore family, one of Tarsonis's Old Families.
The wording of the invitation was elegant but unmistakably condescending, implying that Augustus's attendance at the celebration was not just expected—but required.
This invitation was, without doubt, a calculated move rooted in cold political logic. The call for Korhal's independence was sweeping the planet—and had already begun to ripple outward to other Confederate worlds.
If Augustus were to appear on Tarsonis now—presenting himself as the Mengsk heir and a Confederate war hero—it would give the Confederate government a perfect opportunity to spin the narrative. They could promote the illusion that the Mengsk family remained loyal to the Old Families' elite class, thereby undermining Angus's political clout and minimizing the impact of the Korhal uprising.
There were likely even more intricate political motives at play. The Old Families might be looking to test Augustus's stance toward his father—after all, they had long been aware of the rift between the two. Augustus's decision to join the Confederate Marine Corps in direct defiance of his father's beliefs was proof enough of that.
If they could push him toward a complete break with Angus, Augustus would become a pawn they could use to control both the Mengsk family and the situation on Korhal.
And then, he would inherit his father's legacy—wielding a blade called Frostmourne.
Traveling to Tarsonis was, of course, extremely dangerous. But Augustus knew he needed to engage with the Old Families sooner rather than later. He was desperate to determine which among them might support Korhal's cause, which might stay neutral, and which were beyond saving—and had to be eliminated.
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