"Quick! Quick! Move!"
At dusk, the refugee evacuation in the capital district of Mar Sara was still being carried out under intense pressure.
Under the gloomy twilight and the red sand and dust that filled the sky, hundreds of thousands of refugees—who had originally been driven into the wilderness by the Terran Confederacy—were now rushing toward Mar Sara City's aerodrome under the escort of the Revolutionary Army.
These refugees were using every means of transportation they could obtain: off-road vehicles, hover bikes, and troop carriers provided by the Revolutionary Army. Yet most of them still had no choice but to rely on their own legs to complete this extremely grueling journey.
On Mar Sara's crimson earth, the refugees converged into a dark, densely packed, slowly moving human tide. It was advancing northward along a roadway toward Mar Sara City.
The sky grew ever darker, and even the sun seemed about to set. The less-than-one-mile stretch from the wilderness to Mar Sara City now felt unusually long.
Far ahead lay Mar Sara City, dotted with twinkling lights. Its central aerodrome was already brightly lit, and from time to time, bright points of light rose from within it.
In the eyes of the refugees, the glow emitted by the starport tower of the aerodrome was their only hope.
Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army in deep-red CMC powered armor were mixed into the running crowd. They carried exhausted elderly, women, and children on their backs, shouldered medical kits and supplies, and their towering figures appeared like indestructible giants among the people.
In Terran Confederacy propaganda, these soldiers—whose armor bore the white ring of the gripping-whip emblem—were portrayed as merciless killers. Yet it was precisely this group that was now bringing hope to the despairing people of Mar Sara. The Mar Sara people called them heroes, even though their actual ages ranged only from eighteen to twenty-four.
The refugees were all dressed in dust-gray mining work clothes or thin shirts, their expressions sorrowful and panicked. Just over a month ago, Omega Squadron of the Terran Confederacy had forcibly driven them from their homes into the wilderness refugee camps without any prior notice.
The residents of the various cities and towns of Mar Sara believed that the rescue ships would arrive at any moment. Because everything happened so abruptly, they had taken only the most valuable small belongings from their homes when they were driven out by Omega Squadron.
It was only after they reached the refugee camps that they realized the Terran Confederacy, apart from setting up a few tents for them, had provided no other supplies—food, water, or even clothing to keep out the cold during Mar Sara's frigid nights.
To prevent the people of Mar Sara from using private communication devices to tell the outside world what had happened in the Sara system, there were, of course, no communication devices of any kind inside the refugee camps.
Not only that—Omega Squadron also deployed Marines and even Goliath combat walkers to seal off each massive refugee camp, preventing refugees from escaping their control.
Lack of clothing and food, and the torment of hunger and cold, claimed the lives of many Mar Sara people on the very first freezing night. The initial casualties were entirely the result of the Terran Confederacy's own evacuation measures.
Thus, before the Jormungand Brood even launched attacks across Mar Sara, a considerable number of Mar Sara residents had already died in extreme pain and despair.
In the end, no one could understand whether the Terran Confederacy's rescue measures were meant to save people or to kill them. Or perhaps they feared that the alien creatures would not kill people fast enough, and so drove everyone into the wilderness to face the Zerg and the Protoss directly.
With the Terran Confederacy serving as contrast, the Korhal Revolutionary Army that arrived to rescue the people of Mar Sara naturally became the saviors in the eyes of humanity.
As people passed before Augustus, they cast respectful looks toward him. They had completely come to believe every promise ever made by this broad-shouldered, gray-haired man. These people of Mar Sara would undoubtedly become staunch supporters of Augustus's revolutionary cause in the future.
Compared with the General Officers of the Terran Confederacy's command, a Revolutionary Army Marshal who dared to command troops on the front line was far more worthy of trust.
"Hold tight to your families and your children—the Mar Sara aerodrome is right ahead! Hang on. Once everyone is aboard, the ships will take off immediately and fly all of us out of here."
At this moment, Augustus was standing among several thousand refugees. Draped in his cloak, now almost completely covered by red sand, he shouted while standing unmoving amid the constantly advancing crowd. When the refugees reached him, they split into two separate streams, merging again only after passing by him.
Sarah Kerrigan was wearing a dark gray long-hemmed trench coat, with a hood bearing the golden wolf emblem. She carried a sniper rifle on her back and held in her hand a red battle flag painted with the Revolutionary Army's insignia, appearing every bit like a valiant red-haired Valkyrie.
"This is the last group." After waving to signal the refugees not to stop, Augustus looked toward Kerrigan beside him. "We must escort them to the aerodrome."
"The latest reports from the other regions?" he asked.
According to Augustus's deployment, each of his Senior Officers and the Heaven's Devils Colonels were responsible for a designated sector of refugees. Augustus himself was personally overseeing the evacuation of the most heavily populated capital district.
"Except for Duke claiming that he ran into a tiny bit of trouble, the evacuation work in all other regions is going smoothly," Kerrigan said. "A few hours ago, Duke's men found a group of Mar Sara miners trapped inside a mine, so he personally led an Alpha Squadron assault team to rescue them."
"And it turned out to be a Zerg ambush?" Augustus had already guessed most of it.
"Yes. The Zerg discovered that whenever humans are trapped, their fellow humans will try everything possible to rescue them. The leader of the Jormungand Brood noticed this pattern and exploited it, laying a trap," Kerrigan said.
"After entering the shafts, Duke's forces found hundreds and thousands of infected people and spider-like monsters. They abandoned several hundred corpses before managing to escape."
"Have Duke record this failure in detail. Every unit must read this report as a warning," Augustus said.
Although the vast majority of soldiers in Alpha Squadron were criminals who had undergone resocialization, even the equipment they discarded was enough to make Augustus feel pain.
Moreover, while resocialized soldiers lacked ability, unlike ordinary soldiers whose bodies would stiffen with terror at the sight of alien creatures, even when facing far more frightening monsters, the hands of resocialized soldiers holding their guns would never tremble.
"This will make Duke feel very ashamed," Kerrigan said. "You know his personality—Duke cares most about honor and dignity. In other words, he loves to show off."
"This is good. Next time, before he gets carried away, he'll at least think about what consequences might follow," Augustus said. Nearly half of the Revolutionary Army officers' negative training examples came from Edmund Duke, something that caused Duke deep humiliation.
This also made him all the more desperate to prove himself. Fortunately, Duke's recent feat of leading the Norad III to drive back a Protoss fleet had helped recover some of his reputation, earning him the titles of Lone Hero and Brave Gorilla within the Revolutionary Army.
"What about Governor Player's situation?" At that moment, a middle-aged woman before Augustus suddenly staggered, and he instantly caught her with lightning speed.
The blonde woman, who was nearly fainting, cast a glance at Augustus with a look resembling startled gratitude, then pulled her gaze back in panic, trying with all her strength to stand again. Yet she was so utterly exhausted that she was completely unable to get back up.
"I am terribly sorry, Marshal. I'm sorry." She wore only a pair of worn-through shoes, and her feet were covered in blisters.
"This is not your fault—it is the fault of the Confederacy and the Zerg," Augustus then roared.
"Corporal Faraday! Take this lady away. She can no longer walk."
"Sergeant Clarke" Not far from Augustus, Corporal Faraday immediately ordered one of the Marshal's Elite Guard under his command.
A tall soldier in deep-red powered armor, with golden insignia on his pauldrons, immediately ran over and helped up the woman beside Augustus.
"It is my honor to serve you, Marshal," the soldier said to Augustus.
"Serving the people is what brings honor," Augustus replied to the soldier.
"Marshal Augustus, you truly are a hero. Back then, I even thought you were rebels disturbing public order," the woman said to Augustus after being lifted away.
"I made a mistake," she said.
"Go on," Augustus said, patting the Elite Guard soldier on the shoulder.
Only after the soldier carrying the woman walked off into the distance did Augustus look toward the slowly moving crowd behind him, sensing countless eyes fixed upon him, watching his every action.
The line stretching behind Augustus still extended beyond sight. By conservative estimate, there were likely tens of thousands of refugees behind him.
"Where are Governor Player's people now?" Augustus asked Kerrigan. "He has fewer than two thousand recruits with him—Raynor's men are following him, but I'm still not entirely at ease."
"In the last report, the Governor had already led his assault detachment into Jacob Base, rescuing more than five hundred Confederate xeno-biologists and Confederate soldiers from within—he also had his men obtain Jacob Base's weapons backup through a disk," Kerrigan said.
"What were the losses?" Augustus asked.
"Only a few people were injured. Governor Player personally led the charge. I heard he single-handedly killed a giant bright-red Hydralisk and used its massive head crest as decoration on his helmet," Kerrigan said. "Right now, the Governor is leading his subordinates back to reinforce Mar Sara City."
"..." Augustus froze for quite a while.
Judging from that Governor's appearance, he did not look particularly, extraordinarily formidable. Very quickly, Augustus reminded himself that he had made the mistake of judging someone by their looks.
"The Governor is truly a capable warrior," he said. "Perhaps I should consider assigning my most elite unit to him. I have already decided to give my Guard Division to Player."
"Did they gain anything?"
Kerrigan stepped closer to Augustus to keep others from overhearing them. "They found psionic emitter schematics at Jacob Base identical to the ones we discovered on Chau Sara. However, the psionic emitter at Mar Sara's Jacob Base was even more complete—it could transmit psionic energy across several light-years."
The psionic emitter was still a secret that absolutely could not be made public.
The Terran Confederacy had originally planned to use the psionic emitter to lure the Zerg into destroying their enemies, and then, once everything was done, drive the Zerg away and play the role of savior. And if people learned that such a weapon truly existed, not only would they doubt the Confederacy, they would also doubt the Revolutionary Army—especially since public opinion was now completely controlled by the Confederacy.
Biting back and pinning one's own actions on the enemy was a common tactic of the Confederacy government.
"This type of psionic emitter already possesses the capability to be deployed in real combat. This means the Confederacy's scientists have made truly groundbreaking progress," Augustus said. "A distance of several light-years is enough to influence the movement route of a Zerg hive. In a certain sense, such a distance might be just right."
"What did Swann say? Not long ago, I had someone deliver the prototype psionic emitter to him," he asked Kerrigan.
"Swann and Kachinsky are still studying this new weapon," Kerrigan said. "They say the thing gave them a great deal of inspiration. Since the psionic emitter can emit psionic energy, by increasing the strength of that energy, it should also be able to do other things."
"Dr. Flanx has discovered that higher Zerg units control the members of their broods through psionic links, and perhaps we can disrupt that psionic connection based on this principle, causing the controller of the swarm to lose its control over the other Zerg."
"I think that is worth trying." Augustus's eyes lit up. "Has Swann made any progress?"
"Rory Swann says he is asking his old acquaintances on Meinhoff, Moria, and Umoja to bring him some blueprints for new weapons. He says he has some ideas, but it is still too early to put anything into practice."
"All right. Where does Swann get so many old acquaintances?" Augustus shook his head.
"I believe he will succeed sooner or later."
"After all, Swann is the engineer you trust the most," Kerrigan said.
"No—I trust his old acquaintances even more," Augustus said.
"Zerg have appeared near White Rock Base. I am heading over to support." As Augustus encouraged the refugees beside him, the headset beneath the brim of his hat continued to broadcast the reports from the various ground commanders of the Revolutionary Army.
The Revolutionary Army, operating in dispersed formations at the division and brigade level across Mar Sara, was covering the evacuation of refugees. As long as there were people in a place—even a tiny village forgotten by the Confederacy with only a dozen or a few dozen residents—it received assistance from the Revolutionary Army.
"What about my Guard?" Augustus said. "Corporal Faraday!"
Just as Augustus gave the order, an earth-shaking roar suddenly erupted from behind the refugees. People could even feel the ground trembling beneath their feet. In that direction, the earth began to collapse inward again and again, quickly revealing one massive cavern after another.
Huge numbers of Zerglings and Hydralisks surged out of the tunnels, flooding toward the slowly moving refugees. The rustling and the scraping of fangs and claws were terrifying. The Revolutionary Army scouts and the rear guard company closest to the emergence point were instantly overwhelmed; their dying roars and screams filled the communication channels.
"All warriors, assemble on me at once and form a defensive line," Augustus said.
Several thousand Revolutionary Army soldiers in deep-red powered armor pushed against the flow of people toward the rear of the refugee column, forming up into a defensive line. More than a dozen massive Goliath combat walkers strode past the crowd from the flanks. The Arclite Tanks were already set up, their cannons roaring.
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