The capital district of Mar Sara had been through the flames of war, yet the city hall, the governor's office, and the new Saint Sophia Cathedral remained remarkably well preserved. These vertically oriented rectangular buildings had tall, pointed domes that differed greatly from the semicircular roofs of the Mar Sara settlers' houses.
Before this, only those who were the most powerful, the wealthiest, or both on Mar Sara could step through the doors of the governor's office.
In the few days since the arrival of Mr. Player, the newly appointed governor of Mar Sara, this young and promising Tarsonis gentleman immediately rectified the corruption and malfeasance within the governor's mansion and all subordinate institutions.
This parachuted governor of mysterious background gained the trust of the capital district's garrison troops and the militia commanders in a very short time and took control of these military organizations.
After that, Governor Player swiftly executed a batch of Federation officials guilty of serious crimes and promoted his own trusted subordinates from the grassroots. Before Omega Squad and the Revolutionary Army made landfall, he had already taken actual control of Mar Sara City's administrative and military authority.
It was said that Governor Player executed several hundred corrupt Federation officials—shooting twenty people every ten minutes. Those executed were simultaneously declared traitors and heretics. At the same time, the criminal syndicates entrenched in the capital district were uprooted.
If not for the terror brought by the aliens shattering the Mar Sarans' will, and for Omega Squad's invasion of Mar Sara ahead of the Zerg depriving him of the powers a governor should have, this highly capable governor would no doubt have been able to keep the situation firmly under control with ease.
However, once the Revolutionary Army's vanguard reached the capital district, this ruthless yet capable Mar Sara governor surrendered quickly. He claimed that his surrender was not out of fear or a desire to cling to life, but only to seek a faint chance of survival for the people trapped on Mar Sara.
That afternoon, Augustus rushed to the Mar Sara governor's office, dust-covered from travel, and met this young governor—widely believed to have been posted to the endless sea of Zerg as punishment for offending someone.
"Very glad to meet you. I am Augustus Mengsk, the leader of this Federation Resistance Army."
Augustus hurried across the courtyard of the governor's office—filled with exotic plants—and saw Governor Player, who had been waiting behind a door assembled from whole pieces of Chau Sara sunwood. After the total destruction of Chau Sara, this door would surely be worth a fortune.
"How should I address you—Governor or Commander?"
The Mar Sara governor sitting across from Augustus looked to be around thirty. Governor Player wore a crisp blue suit. He was not tall—only slightly taller than Kerrigan—yet he kept his back straight, and his gaze was sharp. His face was long, making him look much younger than his actual age.
While waiting for Augustus, Player had been eating. These past few days, Mar Sara City was filled with refugees, and when the former Mar Sara governor fled, he had almost taken all the property from the government warehouses. As a result, Player had been barely getting by on the canned goods and bread provided by militia members still loyal to him.
Even so, this governor—clearly of uncommon background—had still prepared luncheon meat, ham, kaoss beast meat, and stewed mushrooms for Augustus. The textile tablecloth and the silver tableware left behind by the former governor were arranged fully in line with the elaborate etiquette standards of the Tarsonis nobility. Augustus believed the man was at least a minor noble who often mingled within the social circles of the Old Families.
Considering that the Zerg usually used spores to spread creep and infection, Augustus and those with him—Raynor, Kerrigan, and the others—kept frowning at the sight of the mushrooms.
"I am merely an obscure governor… I have my own views on commanding troops, but I am not qualified to be called a commander by a Marshal."
Governor Player invited Augustus to sit as soon as they met, and Augustus accepted naturally.
"There are not many people left in this city. Omega Squad drove most of them into the wilderness. By my side, I have only a few thousand militia and tens of thousands of civilians who follow me," he said.
"People who know me always say that my greatest strength is that I rarely make mistakes, so my superiors are always happy to give me the thankless work. I have already declared my allegiance to you. In short, call me whatever you like."
"The best generals are always the ones who make the fewest mistakes," Augustus said. "Governor."
In his memory, this player-controlled commander was a superhuman daredevil who kicked the Zerg, fought the Federation head-on, and eventually led his forces into Tarsonis—a peerless powerhouse and an undefeated war god.
"Leader of the Korhal Revolutionary Army and successor of the Mengsk dynasty, the Sons of Korhal. From Pridewater to Tyrador, from Valhalla to Tarsonis—your name is known to all. On Tarsonis, the Old Families even circulate the rumor that you have already ascended the throne on Umoja and been crowned the new emperor," Player said immediately to Augustus.
"If even half of the Federation's rumors about me were true, my troops would have already marched straight for Tarsonis." Augustus smiled and sat across from Governor Player.
"Sir, you should know very well how false the Federation's propaganda about us is," he said. "I have heard that you are an enlightened man and would not believe the slander UNN spreads about us."
"I have never heard any news about me wanting to become an emperor—that is simply unbelievable. In this age, how could anyone want to reverse the tide of history and turn it backward? Precisely because the Federation's Old Families are already de facto royalty, they fear that I will replace them." Augustus was also puzzled as to how the rumor of him seeking to be emperor had arisen.
It now seemed that this rumor circulated only within the small social circles of the Tarsonis nobility. Likewise, the rumors about Augustus were becoming increasingly demonized. Some claimed he was a powerful psionic capable of controlling minds, while others asserted that he possessed neurochemical agents that could enslave human thoughts.
In short, as Augustus achieved one victory after another on the fringe worlds, those in the Federation who hated him grew to hate him even more, and those who admired him loved him all the more.
"Precisely because they fear I will do such a thing, they exhaust every word they can to defame me," he said finally, taking a perfectly roasted piece of beef from the plate on the table.
"Governor, we don't have time for a meal right now. Mar Sara is crawling with hideous alien beasts and Federation soldiers, and on top of that, some unknown extraterrestrials are preparing to bombard this place into ash—and roast us along with it."
Augustus spoke as he opened his arms toward Governor Player, unfastening the buttons of his cloak and revealing the crisp dark-gray military uniform of a soldier beneath it. During this movement, the golden wolf-head badge on him was especially striking.
Behind him, Raynor and Kerrigan stood at attention behind his chair—the former watching this former Federation governor warily, the latter gathering up the deep-red cloak Augustus had removed.
"Only when you're full do you have the strength to face the enemy, Marshal Augustus."
"Before this, no one like you had ever accumulated so many titles—devil, warlord, wandering tyrant of the stars, agitator, and the source of heresy."
Player's attitude toward Augustus was extremely respectful, though his words did not sound like praise.
"Then what is your view of me?" Augustus placed considerable importance on this governor before him.
"Of course, you are none of the things they call you." Player looked at Augustus and said, "In truth, you match every ideal I've ever had of integrity and greatness. The Federation abandoned everyone here, and only you risked being caught between two alien forces to come rescue us."
"Just too young—truly far too young. I didn't expect you to be this young."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Augustus said. "Governor, what is your opinion of the two alien species that suddenly appeared in the Sara system?"
"To be honest, before coming here I thought aliens didn't exist at all—that it was something used to fool children. But the truth is they really do exist, and they are far stronger than we are, stronger than Terrans. I fear only the legendary Earth Federation could deal with them; humanity in the Koprulu sector is nothing but a small colonial outpost," Governor Player said.
"The Zerg are products of the Federation's biological laboratories. They thought those monsters were merely isolated species living in a few star systems, but they never expected their swarms to span the entire universe. The Protoss, on the other hand, are the gardeners of cosmic order—their task is to purge infestations and species they deem excessively evolved."
He said this while voraciously devouring the food on the table.
Although the table setting was quite elegant, the eating manner of this high-ranking former Federation governor was anything but. His mouth was stuffed with food—he clearly was very hungry.
It was said that before the Revolutionary Army arrived, the governor had been distributing nearly all the remaining food in the governor's mansion to the refugees, eating very little himself.
On Tarsonis, only those who were both smooth and cunning could survive the power struggles of political competition, while those who were upright and selfless were often pushed aside. Governor Player was undoubtedly a highly capable man, but his assignment to Mar Sara seemed far more like the outcome of some political struggle.
After all, no one would consider being sent to a monster-infested fringe world at a time like this to be a lucrative post. If being posted to a poor star district had previously been seen as a form of exile, then being sent to Mar Sara—overrun by alien creatures—was nothing short of a death sentence.
Moreover, Omega Squad, the only Federation armed force in this star system, paid no heed whatsoever to Governor Player; only the militia supported him. Nearly all Federation transport ships had already evacuated Mar Sara, and the Federation had even gone so far as to simply dump a newly appointed governor here.
Thus, the possibility that he had offended someone and been sent to Mar Sara to take the blame for the previous governor was very high.
"The Zerg have already lost themselves on the path of evolution, so the Protoss rush to exterminate them."
"That is closer to the truth," Augustus said. "What I can tell you is that the Zerg that reached Mar Sara are only one branch of their boundless swarms. There are dozens of hives larger than the Jormungand Brood, and fleets like this Protoss armada are far from their only ones."
"Governor, the Federation thinks only of preserving their own core regions and lets the devastated fringe systems fend for themselves," he said.
"I truly cannot imagine what the people of Mar Sara would do without you…"
Before Augustus had even swallowed a few slices of meat, the governor had already swept clean the entire table.
"You are a very upright man," Augustus said with a nod. "For the sake of these people you have never met, you did not hesitate to betray the Federation… to collude with rebels."
"Didn't you do the same, Marshal Augustus?"
The two exchanged a smile.
When the Mar Sara governor took out a napkin to wipe his mouth, Augustus rose to his feet, and everyone present knew that this small meal had come to an end.
"Let's go, Governor. There is no reason to stay in this governor's mansion any longer. We are heading to the spaceport," Augustus said to Player. "Once we leave, Mar Sara will surely face the same fate as Chau Sara."
"What do you need me to do—serve as your military clerk or your civil administrator? Or, if you prefer, I can start from the very bottom as a private."
The governor wiped his mouth with satisfaction.
"No. More precisely, I want you to serve as a commander of the troops," Augustus said. "Starting now, I will draw the most elite units from every corps and every division to form a special tactical force dedicated to dealing with aliens. Its initial strength will be about ten thousand."
After talking for so long, Augustus could already confirm that this man truly was the Mar Sara governor—because his predecessors had all been utterly miserable excuses for officials. Compared to them, Governor Player was practically the glory of the Federation.
"Are you serious?"
The governor was clearly stunned—not because he would be commanding a military force, but because he could not understand why Augustus would trust him so deeply after only a brief conversation.
This trust both moved him and left him puzzled. Aside from Augustus having an eye for talent, the governor could think of no other explanation.
"I used to be nothing more than an administrative worker. Becoming governor was just being pushed into the job," he said. "If you want me to lead a military force, that should only happen after I have won plenty of battles to prove my ability… yet I have never commanded any force other than militia."
"I believe in your ability."
Before walking out of the governor's office doors, Augustus let his gaze linger on the Chau Sara sunwood door at the entrance.
"We are leaving anyway, so we may as well take these valuables with us."
He issued an order: "Have Private Faraday bring some people and knock the door down."
"This sounds no different from banditry," Governor Player said.
"I am not short on money, but the revolution is," Augustus said. "I remember there's a church nearby. Church people are always the richest."
"You're not actually going to do that, are you?" Raynor grinned maliciously. Most of the time, these men were fairly devout believers in God. But the church in Mar Sara City belonged to a denomination detached from the other Christian branches—they worshipped a local deity rather than God Himself, which practically made them heretics.
"You know exactly what I'm thinking," Augustus said. "The monks ran off long ago anyway."
"You really are a wicked man," Raynor said with a laugh. "Religion is getting more and more chaotic these days. According to reports, there are even people on Mar Sara who worship aliens… some worship the Zerg, some the Protoss. A few are standing with open arms waiting to welcome them."
"They are always obsessed with what they don't understand. In the end, the object of their belief is still power itself."
"Marshal, a Federation base called Jacob Station is calling for help. The Federation troops there swear that if we rescue them, they will turn and pledge allegiance to us."
At this moment, Kerrigan suddenly received a report through her earpiece from the Marshal's command staff.
"Look, Governor—your chance to show your skill has arrived. Your victory is here."
"I'll mobilize the nearest Ranger units at once," Raynor said.
"No. You only need to follow my militia," the governor said, straightening his suit. "I will prove your judgment right."
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