After the Revolutionary Army snipers killed a Tal'darim Protoss commander, the Tal'darim ground forces began to withdraw. They used some kind of sub-warp recall technology to instantly pull their units back—this appeared to be only a probing action by the Tal'darim.
Augustus watched everything from the command center via their satellites and reconnaissance drones; the main screen in the command center displayed dozens of separate windows showing battlefield feeds. A group of people stood at the consoles, reporting casualty figures or relaying data about fleet positions in synchronous orbit.
Alpha Squadron's losses were relatively heavy, but after all they were resocialized soldiers of the Federation—Augustus felt less grief. By contrast, the Tal'darim losses were difficult to tally; when their warriors died or were grievously wounded they almost never left bodies behind, only a very small number of corpses remained on the field.
Augustus's hope of capturing a high-ranking Tal'darim ascendant alive thus became a luxury; the Protoss deployed ground forces with far greater flexibility and speed than humans, able to choose where to fight and when to withdraw at will.
At this point Augustus was even more certain that the Tal'darim on Bel'Shir were not numerous. In his impression, these Tal'darim were only part of a Tal'darim expeditionary force—an isolated contingent far from their homeworld of Slayn.
A few minutes after the Tal'darim withdrew, Augustus received a communication from Alpha Squadron commander Edmund Duke.
"Alpha Squadron did not disappoint; this was a brilliant victory. We easily flattened the Tal'darim's pointed heads, burning them to ash—easy, like roasting a swarm of cockroaches." Duke's helmet revealed a head already bald of any hair; that shining skull could be used as a mirror.
Duke's reputation was poor throughout both the Terran Confederacy and the Revolutionary Army. Tychus, Raynor, and Harnack all called him a treacherous viper, while Lundstein—the aristocratic officer with a refined education—poetically likened Duke to a sharp-headed silverback gorilla kept in King Arthur's court; of course, he was implicitly comparing Augustus to King Arthur of the Earth era.
"Duke, I order you to continue the advance and provide cover for our engineering corps—we must not only bury the Tal'darim Terrazine springs, but also knock down their sanctums. Protoss artifacts are the most collectible items in the Koprulu Sector; with the right buyer, they're also quite valuable."
Augustus ignored Duke's smug boasting. Every general at Federation Navy headquarters knew Colonel Duke's reports were only half trustworthy; even if he claimed to have routed a Kel-Morian labor auxiliary squad, it would become in his reports that Alpha Squadron had repelled an entire Ripper heavy brigade.
But for now, this was still a victory. If the Tal'darim had had forces capable of crushing human armies, they would not have sent only a few kittens to scratch at them—they would have cleanly and decisively destroyed all human units.
The Tal'darim did not need to deploy many troops on Bel'Shir; in this universe they encountered few other enemies.
"That shouldn't be difficult," Duke said. "But I think if we want to clear every Protoss sanctum those Tal'darim pointed heads have, we'll need to spend several months."
"It'll be even harder to clear out all the pointed heads on Bel'Shir. They've got cloaking fields—we're completely groping in the dark." As he spoke, his head suddenly turned to the side, as if someone else were speaking to him.
"Marshal Augustus, I've got some good news for you." Duke showed his trademark smug grin, his tone almost one of claiming credit.
"If you keep me in suspense, you'll never receive another medal or promotion." Augustus knew Duke was a man skilled at reading the winds. Back in the Confederacy, Duke hadn't bothered to flatter his superiors—he had the Duke branch of the Old Families behind him. But those days were long gone.
"When the Tal'darim retreated, they left a few warriors behind. We found several of their spider-type mechs torn apart by shellfire—I think that's what they're called," Duke said. "Inside one of the wrecked machines, we found a dying Tal'darim pointed head. If we can keep him alive—"
"Arrange a special transport to bring that Tal'darim to the command center. Send him directly to the field hospital. And bring all captured Tal'darim Protoss equipment as well," Augustus ordered immediately. Then he summoned Kerrigan and Corporal Faraday, who were nearby.
"Call Swann and Kachinsky over. Let's see what these things can do for us." As he spoke, he walked toward the lift leading down from the command platform. "Have Lisa Cassidy prepare an operating room and assign our best attending physician."
"Yes, Marshal." Corporal Faraday snapped a crisp salute.
Outside the command center, the scene remained one of routine martial law. Augustus's guards patrolled back and forth; beyond the iron-grid security fence surrounding the command post were the hospital and the armory. Standing on the open ground, Augustus soon saw Swann and his assistant hurrying toward him, both covered in dust.
"Boss Mengsk—we're not late, are we? I don't know what's got you calling us in such a hurry. These days my crew and I have been buried in machines and bolts." Swann wore his orange-gray suspender work uniform, his clothes stained all over with black grease.
Meanwhile, a command vehicle meant to take Augustus to the hospital had already stopped nearby. As usual, the driver was either Kerrigan or Corporal Faraday.
"I need you to handle a batch of Tal'darim Protoss weapons," Augustus said with a faint smile, signaling Swann not to be too nervous.
"Let's get in. We'll talk on the way."
"How's the research on those Protoss weapons coming along?" Augustus asked as he sat in the back seat of the command car. He didn't mind sharing the seat with the oil-covered Swann and Kachinsky, though the latter two seemed somewhat restrained.
Swann felt this moment deeply. Just a year ago, back on Meinhoff, Augustus had only been a lieutenant with barely a few dozen men under his command. Now he was the supreme leader of the Korhal Rebellion, commanding over a hundred thousand troops.
Even so, Augustus didn't seem much different from back then—except that now, the weight on his shoulders seemed heavier than ever, and the times when he furrowed his brow in worry were far more frequent than before.
In Augustus's lifetime, never had he lost so many friends and soldiers as he had in the past year.
"Progress is basically zero—I'm not one to brag… that's about it," Swann said. "Remember those Void Crystals we found on Mar Sara? The Tal'darim Protoss weapons are powered by something similar, only far more volatile."
"The Protoss plasma shields gave me a few ideas. Maybe we can use them as reference to improve the defensive shielding of the Hyperion and other warships—if we could get our hands on more Tal'darim weapons or even some of their structures, we'd have a lot more results to show."
...
Bel'Shir Revolutionary Army Command Center – Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
The moment Augustus, clad in his powered armor, stepped into the ward, the servos within the suit emitted a faint hum. The CMC-series powered armor was so massive that he had to stoop in order to pass through the doorway.
Lisa Cassidy, the hospital administrator, was waiting for Augustus alongside several doctors. Standing beside them were two Ghost operatives from the Revolutionary Army, their expressions grim, the atmosphere tense.
The Revolutionary Army had only a little over twenty Ghost operatives in total—seven of them originating from the Federation's Vyctor V Research Facility, while the rest were former members of Alpha Squadron. After the psi-inhibitors of these Alpha Squadron Ghosts had been removed and their past memories restored, their hatred toward the Terran Confederacy and the Ghost Academy drove them to defect and serve under Augustus's Revolutionary Army.
Because of the Ghost Program, almost all Ghost operatives serving in the Terran Confederacy had been separated from their biological families between the ages of three and five. What awaited these children afterward was cruel training: they were molded into powerful human warriors and taught to master the psionic abilities within their own bodies.
Augustus placed great importance on these Ghost operatives—or rather, he was obsessed with gathering psionics.
Only after Augustus entered did Kerrigan, Swann, and the others step through the doorway behind him. Because the number of accompanying guards was too great, many had no choice but to remain outside.
"This Tal'darim Protoss is severely wounded. Rather than saying these are injuries inflicted by our weapons—wounds that would be fatal to any human—it's more accurate to say they were sustained long ago," Lisa said, exchanging a glance with Kerrigan standing behind Augustus.
"It's hard to imagine what kind of being in the universe could inflict such trauma on a race with technology as advanced as theirs. If that's the case, humanity may soon have one more enemy to face. But judging from the analysis of the wounds, the one who did this to him was his own kind."
"That must have been a nightmare," Augustus said, looking at the Tal'darim Protoss lying on the white fabric sheets.
Augustus could confirm that the spider-like Tal'darim mechs that had appeared on the battlefield were undoubtedly the Protoss's Dragoon walkers—and the being before him was the pilot of one such Tal'darim Dragoon.
The Tal'darim Protoss lay completely naked on the bed, covered only by a silk sheet. His body was barely recognizable as humanoid: his right leg had been severed cleanly by some weapon, the arm on the same side had suffered a similar fate, and his skin was covered with scars. Even so, the eye sockets in his face still radiated a crimson glow, as though two red stars burned within.
They were not eyes of whites and pupils like those of humans, but pure points of light. When a Protoss's emotions grew unstable, their eyes rippled like flowing water.
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