Five light-years away from the Sara System, the Umojan mobile fortress.
Dock 4, artificial-atmosphere environment, 1.0 standard gravity.
One deep crimson transport ship after another sailed into the vast dome—large enough for battlecruisers to land and launch—of the mobile fortress under the guidance of thousands of red signal lights lining both sides of the inbound docking trajectory. Standing on the docking deck below, one could see a magnificent sight: starlight glittering tens of thousands of light-years away, and the incoming ships appearing as though coated in a golden glow.
This mobile fortress resembled a moon-class steel bastion. It was so massive that descending onto it felt like heading toward the surface of a planet.
More than twenty thousand Umojan ground crew members, engineers, and ship mechanics worked to keep the mobile fortress functioning. Scattered across isolation zones, compartments, and ports, they were like gears, screws, and bolts operating within a gigantic machine.
Now temporarily leased to the Korhal Revolutionary Army, this Umojan mobile fortress had become the revolutionaries' new forward base. It stored vast quantities of gas fuel and supplies, and aside from its weak firepower and slow mobility, it could almost be deployed as a colossal mothership in battle.
To counter possible surprise attacks, the Revolutionary Army arranged large numbers of Mag Thunder Mines and tens of thousands of sensitive space mines around the mobile fortress, turning the surrounding area into a heavily trapped minefield.
Space was a multidimensional and three-dimensional combat environment rather than a flat one. Fleet combat resembled submarine warfare in deep oceans, and these densely laid minefields were enough to deal with any reckless attack. If the Confederacy fleet were to jump directly into the minefield without verification, what awaited them would be a terrifying death trap.
Only by knowing the detailed layout of the minefield in advance could one find a narrow and winding passage to avoid the dangerous high-explosive mines and the Mag Thunder Mines that Augustus had acquired from the Moria Kachinsky factories—mines with astonishing destructive power.
When deploying it, the Revolutionary Army Marshal Command unimaginatively named this mobile fortress Fortress One.
Local time 12:34:21, the Revolutionary Army fleet's flagship Hyperion entered Dock A, surrounded by large numbers of turbine-driven unmanned repair drones that hovered around the battle-scarred deep-blue battlecruiser like dragonflies.
Augustus had already landed in the top-level docking port of the mobile fortress aboard a Wanderer-class shuttle before the Hyperion entered port, and he immediately attended a mourning ceremony to commemorate the warriors and fleet pilots who had died in this rescue operation.
At this moment, Augustus was comforting the people who had just escaped death at a Chau Sara refugee shelter inside the fortress.
This shelter had originally been a large ore-storage warehouse inside the fortress. Now it was full of beds separated by tent cloth and supplies distributed to them, temporarily housing about twenty thousand citizens of Los Andares City of Chau Sara.
With a Revolutionary Army battalion responsible for maintaining order here, the still-shaken people did not break into riots, aside from exchanging the only items they had on hand or mourning the relatives and friends who had died.
The topic they spoke of the most was describing the terror of the Zerg and cursing the Confederacy. The incident of Omega Squadron attacking the Chau Sara refugee ships had long since caused an uproar. At the same time, an even more cruel reality made the people of Chau Sara fully recognize the true face of the Confederacy: the Confederate Navy had watched the destruction of Chau Sara and did not respond to any desperate cries for help from the Chau Saran people.
Even the most cold-hearted person should not ignore more than a month of wailing on Chau Sara. And as an allied colonial planet of the Terran Confederacy, providing military protection to member colonies was originally part of the alliance agreement. Even from this perspective, the Confederate Congress had betrayed the agreement they had signed with the Chau Sara settlers more than a hundred years ago.
Once such a betrayal was made public, the Confederate government of Tarsonis would lose the reputation and prestige they had accumulated among the allied planets.
Unsurprisingly, the moment Augustus appeared before these still-traumatized people, anyone who saw his determined gaze and tall, strong body regarded him as a savior.
Walking through the shelter draped in a deep-crimson cloak, Augustus received a hero's welcome. Those praising him were perhaps the same people who had criticized Augustus's Revolutionary Army not long ago, saying they were no different from terrorists because war followed them wherever they went, but now all those rumors had turned into admiration.
"The facts have already proven that the slander and insults against me and the Revolutionary Army have collapsed on their own. The Revolutionary Army is the most steadfast protector of the Terrans and the defender of human honor," Augustus promised the confused people of Chau Sara.
"Do not worry about the future of yourselves and your families. When we reach the next habitable planet, we will leave you there."
As soon as his voice fell, cheers rose from the crowd. The Revolutionary Army's embedded journalists recorded this moment and immediately began writing to describe everything that had happened today. The Chau Sara rescue operation would be portrayed as the most glorious page in human history; compared with the Terran Confederacy, which had mercilessly abandoned its people, the Revolutionary Army was the true brilliance of humanity.
After Augustus finished speaking, Raynor behind him shouted loudly through an amplification device: "If any of you want revenge on the Zerg or the Confederacy, you can join the Revolutionary Army. We refuse no one. Whether you were once an ordinary citizen or a guard in Los Andares Prison, the Revolutionary Army will always open its arms."
Raynor's words immediately received responses from many of the Chau Sara people. For many among them, the pain of losing their homeland was almost impossible to mend. In the hearts of these people filled with hatred, there was no longer anything that could be called "home."
Augustus stayed at the refugee shelter for only a short time. He had neither the time nor the mood to give a long speech. After shaking hands with several refugee representatives and the surrendered Chau Sara Confederate officials, he headed straight for the Xenomorph research laboratory platform inside the mobile fortress.
Obviously, something extremely urgent was pressing Augustus to handle it.
"The situation is very bad." Only after Augustus had walked far from the shelter and entered the passage leading to the Xenomorph research laboratory platform did Sarah Kerrigan, who had been following him, finally speak.
"Tell me in detail exactly how bad it is," Augustus said.
"We ultimately rescued about three hundred and twenty thousand people who had been trapped in Los Andares City, and among them about forty thousand were detected to be infected with a certain terrifying Xenomorph parasite and a type of enzyme virus we have never seen before. This Zerg virus can even alter the DNA of the infected," Kerrigan said. As soon as she finished, Raynor reported to Augustus.
"A Wraith fighter responsible for tracking the Zerg discovered that the retreating Jormungand swarm fleet is currently fighting some enemy at the edge of the Sara System. For now, the enemy the Zerg are facing is still invisible. Our pilots cannot see anything except clusters of golden flashes."
"Signs of spatial distortion are everywhere in the Sara System. The entire space has become riddled with holes—an enormous unknown fleet has already arrived."
"Bad news one after another," Augustus said as he looked toward Raynor.
"Two groups of enemies we have never seen before are fighting fiercely in the Sara System. Even more unfortunate is that humanity is caught between them."
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