"Hill & Harris Company's headquarters are on Umoja—too far to be of any immediate use." Augustus moved through the mercenary market with Kerrigan and his mercenaries, shaking his head repeatedly before heading straight toward Iron Hammer Security's headquarters.
"Before 23:00 today, we must return to the fleet. The last batch of Kel-Morian Type-I heavy combat vehicles—modified from bulldozers—as well as the railguns, and the newly purchased advanced detection helmets and goggles all need to be in place. Only then will we be ready to deal with those invisible enemies."
Augustus was still worried about the colonial fleet that had come under attack. If the assailants were the Tal'darim Protoss, then they would show no mercy to humans whatsoever.
The Tal'darim Protoss might attack humans because they had trespassed upon their territory—or simply because they sought the thrill of the hunt.
...
As one of the top mercenary organizations in the Combine today, Iron Hammer Security occupied half a floor of the massive commercial plaza.
The company's headquarters were mostly staffed by internal personnel and mercenaries returning from missions. The moment Augustus appeared, he caught the attention of one of Iron Hammer's managers.
"Hello, I'm Ottmar, the manager here." A tall, middle-aged man greeted Augustus. It took him only a few seconds to recognize the marshal of the Revolutionary Army standing before him.
"If I'm not mistaken, you must be Marshal Augustus Mengsk of the Revolutionary Army," he said, shaking Augustus's hand.
"During the Four-Year War, I also served as a guild guard on Turaxis II. When Heaven's Devils descended upon Federal POW Camp No. 34, my Snakehead Komando happened to be operating nearby. But since your withdrawal was so swift, my men didn't have time to catch up," the former guild guard recalled with emotion.
"I often think—if I had arrived just a little sooner, perhaps my squad and I could've added to your list of achievements… and died on Turaxis II."
"Fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin, Mr. Ottmar." Augustus shook his hand.
"I need an elite Iron Hammer Security force—around… several thousand men, tentatively."
...
April 17th, 2490, 08:00 local time — Colonial Settlement "Augustgrad."
It was a planet lush with verdant life. From synchronous orbit, her star-bathed surface shimmered smooth and pure, while the swirling rain clouds coiled like countless white spirals.
The first time the colonists saw this world, cheers of Korhal-born settlers erupted aboard the flagship Styrling-class transport of the colonization fleet. They believed it to be a gift and blessing from the goddess of fate—yet none imagined it was a world that would soon bring boundless terror and death.
Ryk Kydd, clad in a deep-crimson CMC-250E Commander-grade powered suit, stood in the central command tower of the Augustgrad settlement, surrounded by his Revolutionary Army officers—many of them holding the rank of Warrant Officer.
Originally, under Ryk's command were three Colonels and over twenty senior staff officers, but now, many of their corpses hung from branches or lay exposed in the wilderness.
Through the massive glass window before him stretched the blue sky of the planet, drifting clouds, and a warm sun suspended high above. In the distance rolled a vast green jungle—an ocean of towering deciduous trees and palm-like plants. When the warm southern wind swept through, waves of greenery rippled across the canopy.
Ryk Kydd recalled the moment he had first set foot on this planet—it felt as if it had happened only yesterday.
The leader of the First Colonist Fleet, Ryk Kydd, had once served under Marshal Augustus Mengsk as a member of the Heaven's Devils—a psionically-gifted elite sniper, though his abilities were not sufficient for him to qualify as a Ghost operative.
On this green planet named Bel'Shir by the colony ship's AI adjutant, ferns, small-leaf shrubs, towering trees, and a wide variety of herbs and vines blanketed the expansive land. The enclosed jungles were dense with rivers, and between the emerald mountain ranges hung magnificent inverted waterfalls.
Bel'Shir's air required no processing to breathe. Fresh water was abundant, and harmful bacteria or viruses were far fewer than on most major colony worlds in the Koprulu Sector.
Sunlight was steady, the climate warm and pleasant for most of the year. Untouched by terraforming, Bel'Shir possessed a fragile, primitive ecosystem where arthropods and ancient insects reigned supreme, feeding on stems, leaves, and the pollen of flowering plants.
Reconnaissance dropships and scout teams dispatched by Ryk to the planet's surface discovered deposits of a gas similar to high-energy vespene. The substance seeped from deep ravines and surface fissures, gleaming a vivid violet under sunlight—yet wherever it appeared, not even the hardiest plants could survive, leaving desolate wastelands behind.
This phenomenon unsettled Ryk and his Revolutionary Army Colonels, and the alien ruins found weeks later only deepened their unease. According to the colonists' scientists, the ruins might belong to a once-advanced native civilization or an abandoned colony left by a spacefaring race. However, no signs of intelligent life were detected, nor had any attacks occurred.
Even though the planet's resource reserves had yet to be fully surveyed, compared with the miasma-choked or lifeless rocky worlds scattered across the galaxy, Bel'Shir was still the most suitable near-Earth-type candidate among the colonization fleet's target planets.
If the colonists were to abandon this world merely because of uncertainty, they would have to sail far longer before finding another habitable planet—and that world's livability might fall far short of Bel'Shir's.
After much deliberation, Ryk decided to awaken the colonists still in cryogenic sleep and hold a referendum among them.
This was a world unimaginably distant from their homeworld of Korhal, yet for those colonists newly awakened from hibernation, it felt as if only an instant had passed between closing and opening their eyes. Most of them were still mired in grief over Korhal's destruction and were unwilling to continue voyaging farther into the void.
After a long period of waiting, the colonists finally decided to settle permanently on Bel'Shir.
During the first three months, everything went smoothly.
Colony ships, each nearly 300 m long, landed on the planet's surface. The Korhalian settlers swiftly dismantled their mother ships, using hull plates, hydraulic conduits, airtight doors, and every usable material to construct the first civic center, residential blocks, power stations, water plants, and sewage treatment facilities.
Soon after, the first road and communications relay tower on Bel'Shir began construction. Lights flickered like the sparks of civilization scattered through the jungle—just as humanity had once kindled its first campfire on Earth.
Seven massive residential zones, each capable of housing 200,000 people, rose across Bel'Shir's vast jungle terrain, along with more than thirty small and medium settlements scattered around them. Land was cleared, schools were built—everything proceeded in steady order.
To honor Korhal and the homeland they had once lived upon, the Korhalian colonists named their new cities after places from Old Korhal, and everything seemed to be thriving—
Until a Captain ordered to investigate the alien ruins vanished into the jungle along with his company, and a Revolutionary Army Major was found dead in his own home in a hideous and gruesome manner. Only then did the colonists realize the danger lurking within the jungle.
By that time, however, evacuation from Bel'Shir was no longer feasible.
Over the following month, the colonists suffered slaughter from the shadows. More and more people died while clearing land, and isolated settlements disappeared overnight without a trace. Those who vanished were either killed or captured.
Ryk's forces numbered fewer than 2,000 Revolutionary Army soldiers equipped with powered armor; the rest wore only thin uniforms and lacked anti-stealth equipment.
Unable to determine where the enemy was, they could not strike back. From the very beginning, the colonists were forced into a passive defensive stance, their territory shrinking steadily back toward their original landing site.
As the casualties mounted, Ryk began constructing high walls and watchtowers around the settlements, assigning numerous patrol units to guard the perimeter. Only then did the number of deaths gradually decline.
"We can't count on reinforcements from Augustus—they're likely caught in a war even harsher than what we're facing now," Ryk muttered as he gazed at the endless green sea of jungle. Green, once a symbol of life, had now become the color of death.
Ryk's subordinates all wore grim expressions and remained silent.
"Commander, this is Lieutenant Colonel Mozell of the 10th Styrling Division. My troops have killed one of the attackers," came a low voice through the command center's comm network.
"It was a humanoid creature."
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