Chapter 267: Homeland Fallen

About three weeks later.

Within the Umojan Protectorate, on Icarus IV.

As an agricultural world among the Protectorate's allied planets, the capital spaceport of Icarus had never seen so many people pour in within a single day. This overwhelmed the spaceport, forcing it to restrict both the tonnage and number of incoming spacecraft.

Wearing a dark gray, form-fitting officer's uniform, Augustus stood to one side of the terminal exit—its frame silver and its domed ceiling made of blue crystal glass—watching the refugees of the Sara star system stream out.

Beyond the exit lay the pristine blue sky and fresh air of Icarus IV; Umojan white-alloy structures rose among verdant lawns and forests. As the terrain rose and dipped, flocks of tea-brown birds were flying into the distance.

The sight was so beautiful it looked like a painted world.

Icarus was one of the most beautiful planets among the Protectorate's member worlds, belonging to the Umojan colonies; its rich soil created vast fertile fields and enchanting golden autumns.

If not for the Icarans' reckless overuse of pesticides in recent years—done in pursuit of higher crop yields—causing irreparable environmental damage, the planet would have been far more beautiful than it was now.

After learning of the Sara star system's fate and the news of the Zerg's massive invasion, the democratically elected Umojan Assembly, upholding the humanitarian principles upon which the Assembly had been founded, agreed to make Icarus IV a temporary transit point for resettling the refugees of the Sara star system.

At the same time, the Umojans also requested that Augustus share his combat experience against the Zerg, while the member worlds and dominions of the Protectorate were all strengthening their defenses. A strong sense of crisis had always pushed the Umojans to reinforce their military forces.

Now, those in high positions throughout Umojan space had already realized that the threat of a Zerg invasion would, for a long period ahead, replace the Terran Confederacy's oppression.

The existence of Protoss and Zerg would no longer remain a secret unknown to the public. The new generation born and educated in this era would naturally come to accept the understanding that humanity would unavoidably have to compete with the other two races in the universe for resources and living space. And with the slightest misstep, what awaited the humans of the Koprulu sector could very well be the fate of extinction.

Even if humanity will never give up its internal struggles, fighting for the survival of the species will become something that the humans of the Koprulu sector, and even all humans in the broader Terran sense, will have to face.

Kerrigan, Raynor, Faraday, and the others, leading a squad of elite guards, were following Augustus, while Warfield, Tychus, Harnack, and the rest all had their own assignments. Every time they reached a friendly or neutral planet, the Revolutionary Army would make up its losses in manpower and supplies there and repair its warships.

At this moment, the area in front of the exit of the disembarkation passage was packed with Umojan alien-species research experts and infectious disease control specialists wearing white biochemical protective suits and orange goggles, as well as large numbers of doctors. To enter the refugee camps the local government had prepared for the Sara star system, these people still had to prove that they were not carrying the Zerg virus.

Although the doctors in the Revolutionary Army had already tested them, and the existing Zerg virus did not possess extremely strong transmissibility and did not have a long incubation period—its viral plagues being spread only by certain Zerg strains that carried lethal viruses—the Umojans, in order to keep the risk controlled within an extremely low range, still insisted on retesting.

Those able to stand here and undergo another round of testing were the lucky ones, because those whom the Revolutionary Army's doctors had previously detected as infected had either turned into monsters and been thrown out into space, or were now lying half-dead in the cabins of the medical ships.

"The Umojan Protectorate's level of medical care is as high as their achievements in high-tech fields. Could it be that even they have no way to deal with the Zerg virus?"

Withdrawing his gaze from the people continuously pouring out of the exit, Augustus looked toward Sarah Kerrigan at his side and asked.

"It's not completely hopeless." Kerrigan gave Augustus a sorrowful look. "The arrangement of amino acids in the Zerg virus is something humanity has never seen before, and it is mutating at every moment."

"The field doctors have been constantly telling those who are infected that we have a way to solve it."

"Before people discover that it is utterly incurable, at the very least it lets the patients hold on to some hope," Augustus said. "It keeps them from suffering quite so much."

"The people of the Sara star system have already suffered enough," Raynor sighed.

"Has there been any progress in our alien-creature biology laboratory?"

"Dr. Flanx believes that there may be a way to deal with the Zerg virus hidden in the Protoss' genetic material," Kerrigan replied.

"The doctor has already tested the Zerg virus's effects on the Tal'darim Protoss together with his assistants and students." Kerrigan knew what Augustus was thinking.

"By the way, I remember there's a Tal'darim Protoss in our alien-creature laboratory—I heard that apart from taking in a considerable amount of Terrazine every day, he just lies there 'idling his life away,' and in order to get Terrazine he doesn't hesitate to take part in all kinds of Flanx's experiments."

"Flanx's drive is as strong as ever." Augustus asked with concern, "What about the result?"

"The implanted virus couldn't infect the Protoss, but that may be because the Zerg virus that can infect Protoss is completely different from the one that infects humans," Kerrigan said.

"A drop in the bucket." Augustus did not pin much hope on this.

"Tell Dr. Flanx that the fate of billions of humans all depends on the results of his experiments."

"That's quite a burden—you're putting Flanx up on a moral stake and roasting him," Raynor shrugged.

"You're always like this, Augustus. You know each of our temperaments like the back of your hand, and you know exactly what way to use to stir up our fighting spirit," he said.

"Duke is a scoundrel—he's selfish and chases after honor—so you satisfy his vanity. Tychus has nothing but money in his eyes, so you give him money."

"That's precisely where your wisdom lies."

"Jimmy, on a deeper level, this is nothing more than an exchange of interests." Augustus's gaze was calm and cold.

"But you're different when it comes to us. I can't think of anything about me that's worth you using," Raynor said.

"That's different, Jimmy." Augustus fell silent for a moment. He did not follow the refugees out of Icarus's spaceport, but instead went back inside the spaceport's dispatch hall through a narrow passage.

Inside, there were still quite a number of refugees from the Sara star system waiting to walk out of the spaceport.

At the center of the dispatch hall was a huge holographic projection screen, and the UNN logo on it showed that this was a rebroadcast from the Tarsonis headquarters of the UNN Universe News Network.

What was noteworthy to Augustus was that, more than three months after the appearance of the Zerg in the Sara star system, UNN had finally begun reporting news about aliens. The people in the hall were all glaring angrily at the big screen, cursing the Confederacy government's evasiveness and inaction.

In the Sara star system, the Revolutionary Army was rescuing refugees without regard for sacrifice, while the Terran Confederacy not only refused to help, but was even thinking about dealing with the Revolutionary Army. One could say that the Revolutionary Army was desperately pulling the refugees out of the abyss, while the Confederacy was thinking about kicking both the Revolutionary Army and the refugees back down and then nailing the coffin shut.

"I can already imagine the sensation these news reports are causing on Tarsonis and in other Confederate worlds," Augustus said as he looked at the main screen.

"That much is obvious. The news of the discovery of intelligent alien races has set off a huge uproar across the Terran Confederacy's territory," Kerrigan said. "At the very beginning, UNN and the other mainstream media outlets only told the people of the Confederacy that there are two races in this universe: Protoss and Zerg."

"They didn't say that the Zerg are terrifying man-eating monsters and that the Protoss fire beams of light that can disintegrate humans?" Augustus said coldly.

"The same as always. They downplay the important and emphasize the trivial, break the facts into multiple fragments and then reassemble them according to what they want. As long as they change the word order and add some rhetoric, what they express can end up being completely opposite to the truth," Kerrigan said sarcastically.

"In fact, in the beginning, what humans were thinking about was how to share human culture with the aliens. Toy companies even released commemorative Zerg and Protoss toys, and they were a huge success."

"But back then, the Confederacy still hadn't provided any concrete images of the Protoss and the Zerg," Augustus said with a silent laugh.

As Augustus spoke, the screen projected by the hologram was still showing the image of the UNN news program's host.

"This is where the Protoss destroyed Chau Sara. Everything on the planet has been reduced to ashes, and the current number of survivors is still being tallied. The military has already withdrawn from the Sara star system."

"Now they've finally started to face this matter," Augustus said. "But it looks like they have completely pinned the destruction of the Sara sister worlds on the Protoss, while utterly ignoring the Zerg that truly devoured those two planets."

"At first, the Confederacy even tried to seal off all news about the Sara star system, and Omega Squad really did make it almost watertight. Although we knew what was happening over there, with the Confederacy controlling the media, any voice we sent out could only sink without a trace," Kerrigan said.

"But in fact, not long after we evacuated the Sara star system, the Zerg successively invaded Char, Antiga, and Atticus Minor—a total of five fringe worlds all came under attack from different Zerg hives. This clearly exceeded the Terran Confederacy government's expectations, and they had no choice but to make the Sara star system's ordeal public."

"Char." Augustus suddenly turned to look at Kerrigan, his gaze sharp, and this almost startled her.

"What is it?" Kerrigan wanted to read Augustus's thoughts, but after a moment's consideration, she gave up.

"I still remember Char. It's a red planet filled with lava lakes," Raynor recalled. "Back when I was in the Confederate Marines, I heard news about Char quite a few times. I heard your brother Arcturus also went to that place."

"During the Guild Wars, Char was once the main battlefield between the Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine, because of the precious heavy metals and minerals there. Later, both sides used Behemoth-class battlecruisers and nuclear weapons. As far as I know, the environment there is now even worse—almost uninhabitable, with basically only some miners and garrisoned troops left."

"To put it bluntly, the Confederacy simply isn't going to bother with that hellhole," he said.

"As for Antiga Prime and those few planets like Atticus Minor, the Terran Confederacy might still say a few nice-sounding words."

"This is really bad," Augustus said. "If it were at all possible, we shouldn't be handing Char over on a silver platter. Unfortunately, we just have far too few people."

He let out a heavy sigh and said nothing more.

No sooner had Augustus finished speaking than the host on the hall's holographic projection screen suddenly said indignantly: "Before the Protoss destroyed Chau Sara, the military discovered large numbers of Sons of Korhal members. In the midst of the alien invasion, they were still wantonly sabotaging military facilities and slaughtering refugees."

"There is no doubt that the evil Protoss are the running dogs of Augustus Mengsk. He has sold out the interests of humanity and colluded with aliens to strike at the legitimate government!"

"Nonsense!" This immediately drew enraged shouts from the Sara people.

"Bullshit!" Even Raynor burst out cursing. The young man with a head of black hair glared furiously, and he had already pulled out the revolver Augustus had given him, aiming it at the holographic projection screen.

"To save people, how many good brothers of ours died? If you hadn't focused only on sealing off the news from the beginning and had instead hurried to evacuate the refugees, things would never have turned out like this!"

Raynor was, after all, still a hot-blooded young man. Although he had a steady personality, when he flew into a rage he could not help losing his reason.

"Put it down, Jimmy!" Augustus shouted angrily.

"Even if you fired a shot, it wouldn't do any good. That's a holographic projection screen, not an LED 2D display," he added.

"You wouldn't be able to shatter it even if you did shoot."

Hearing Augustus speak, Raynor instantly sobered up. He slowly lowered the revolver in his hand, his face turning from pale to red, unable to say a word.

Raynor very quickly realized what kind of terrible consequences firing a gun in the middle of a crowd would have, and his face flushed scarlet with shame.

"You idiot!" Augustus cursed.

"Next time, you aim at a real person's face, not some image."

The people around them were still shouting and cursing the Terran Confederacy government's inaction and incompetence, to the point that Augustus could no longer make out what was being said in the news.

All Augustus could see was the Revolutionary Army's whip-ring banner with its deep red background, and the image of a Zergling roaring.

"The Confederacy can't tell the difference between the Revolutionary Army and the Sons of Korhal—or rather, they simply don't want to tell the difference," Kerrigan said. "In the eyes of the Confederacy, both the Revolutionary Army and the Sons of Korhal are terrorists and disruptors of order."

Just then, the noise in the hall suddenly quieted down, because a well-known Terran Confederacy parliamentarian had appeared on the news program.

"Citizens of the Terran Confederacy, I must tell you this: the aliens who stand as enemies of humanity are not only the Protoss. There are also the Zerg controlled by Augustus Mengsk through drugs. These two races are both mortal enemies of humanity."

"There is only one path open to humanity: all humans must unite under the banner of the Terran Confederacy and drive back the invading enemy."

"We must defend Antiga, Atticus Minor, Hellsene, and all the other fringe worlds. The Terran Confederacy Navy will always stand at the very forefront of defending humanity," he said, impassioned.

"And yet at this very moment, the traitor Augustus Mengsk and his rebel armed forces are stirring up riots in the rear, attacking the soldiers who are fighting against the alien threat! In the eyes of these thugs, only their own interests matter, while they turn a blind eye to the life-and-death crisis facing our Human Confederacy!"

"You're really something, Councilman Pilt," Raynor said sharply. "You really don't need to dress up what you've done that much."

"Let's go. We can't stay on Icarus too long," Augustus said, patting Raynor's broad shoulder.

"Where are we going now?" Kerrigan asked.

"The closest place to us is Antiga," Augustus said. "Wherever the people need us, that's where we'll show up."

"Just watch— the Zerg are not going to stop their advance. In the future, more planets will be invaded, and the situation in Koprulu will inevitably grow beyond the Terran Confederacy's imagination. And what the Terran Confederacy fears most is nothing more than things slipping completely out of their control."

---

I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar

---