Through a long silence, Augustus remained standing upright, motionless like a statue. Kerrigan and the other guards beside him said nothing, until a man with the same dark gray hair and eyes as Augustus slowly walked toward them from the far end of the plaza.
"Someone told me that you've been staying here these days, personally burying the fallen soldiers, refusing to rest even when utterly exhausted."
Following the voice, Augustus turned his head and saw Arcturus's face—neatly bearded, with thick eyebrows. Arcturus Mengsk looked at his younger brother, and that sincere gaze left no one in doubt that he deeply loved him.
Even now, though no longer a politician or a soldier, Arcturus, as the owner of a mining enterprise, still paid great attention to his appearance.
He was dressed in a black coat with matching trousers, a magnetic pistol and a sword fastened at his waist. The finely crafted spindle-shaped buttons and the Mengsk family crest on the coat complemented his attire perfectly, while the crimson Whip Ring emblem of the Sons of Korhal added a touch of stern dignity.
Unrelated to any display of noble rank, Arcturus could exude composure and power even without wearing a formal cloak—simply by donning that black coat.
Every member of the Mengsk family was a born leader; they carried an air of calm confidence and a poise untouched by praise or disgrace. If Augustus was the eagle and wolf of Korhal, then Arcturus was undoubtedly the lion of the plains.
"We are all very sorrowful," Augustus said, looking at his elder brother. "We've experienced too many partings and deaths, and there will be even more to come."
"In any case, it's truly good to see you again."
"You don't need me to tell you that drowning in grief is meaningless, Augustus—we have matters far too great at hand, and no time left for sorrow." Arcturus strode toward Augustus with firm steps, followed only by agents of the Sons of Korhal.
The emblem of the Sons of Korhal had been designed by Augustus himself, derived from the Revolutionary Army's insignia but with bloodied serrations added to the whip. This organization, which struck terror into the nobles of Tarsonis and the officials of the Confederacy alike, never concealed the fact that it was a populist terrorist group. Their purpose was clear and singular: to exact vengeance upon the Old Families and politicians who had signed the decrees that condemned Korhal IV to destruction.
The founder of this organization had taken only a single year to shape it into what the Terran Confederacy government called the most depraved and deranged gathering of terrorists in existence. Arcturus Mengsk was fully capable of leading an army—or an even larger organization—but for now, his focus remained on opening new mines and finding a new homeland for Korhal.
After all, Arcturus was far from being alone; in the strictest sense, both the development of New Styrling and the Revolutionary Army depended on his achievements in the mining industry.
In the past, Arcturus had studied mining purely out of personal interest, but now he bore a responsibility he considered impossible to refuse—to protect his people.
While Augustus commanded armies in battle, Arcturus had almost single-handedly rebuilt Korhal's collapsed economy. Yet Arcturus's ambitions extended far beyond that—he pressed forward relentlessly, intent on forging for Augustus an unparalleled fleet and restoring Korhal's former glory.
"I know," Augustus agreed with his brother's words.
Arcturus placed a hand on Augustus's shoulder. "I've heard of your victories. If not for the mines and for New Styrling, perhaps I too would have led troops to the front lines."
"You needn't worry about our people becoming refugees. Everything in New Styrling is well," Arcturus told his brother. "Go forth and do what you must. One day, we will overthrow the rule of the tyrants and bring justice to light."
"And the Tygore Family of Tarsonis will soon pay the price. Andrea Tygore destroyed Korhal—I'll see her bloodline ended. Over the years, more than thirty members of the Old Families have already fallen at the hands of the Sons of Korhal."
"That's not enough," said Augustus.
"…Oh…" Arcturus laughed. "Of course it's not enough—nowhere near enough."
"I've received reliable intelligence—confirmed repeatedly by the Sons of Korhal, the Augustgrad National Security Committee, and Umojan agents—that the Old Families of Tarsonis are relocating their heirs and younger members to Tyrador IX to escape the assassinations carried out by the Sons of Korhal," he said.
"Since the founding of the Tyrador colony, that undeveloped resort world has always been the private playground of the Old Families. They own countless estates and businesses there."
"They're afraid."
...
On the Umojan homeworld, at Polar Research Station A056.
Affiliation: Cerberus Project.
The creature that was screeching was bound within a containment cage, suspended inside an artificial zero-gravity field.
The cage's framework was forged from high-strength titanium alloy, its exterior sheathed in a faint blue plasma field. Through that thin layer of blue light, Augustus could clearly see every detail inside the cage, down to the scales of the captive, covered in an enamel-like keratin layer.
"The new scientific name is Hydralisk—a higher Zerg life form than the Zergling. They possess greater brain capacity, and their brutality has increased accordingly," said an alien researcher at Polar Research Station A056. "Sample Vyctor V, serial number 012, originated from an unhatched egg discovered beneath Roxton—adult specimen."
"For God's sake, that's a downright monster—a mutated giant serpent," Jim Raynor muttered, unable to stop shaking his head behind Augustus.
"This thing's terrifying," said Faraday.
"It's dangerous…" Kerrigan stared at the Hydralisk.
"That was precisely what I said the first time I saw a Hydralisk. Major General Raynor, perhaps you and I share a certain similarity," said Arcturus Mengsk.
"If we can truly make these monsters our weapons, then the immense cost of this project will have been worth it."
The monster Raynor spoke of—the Hydralisk—instilled in humans a fear even greater than its name implied, as if it embodied every terrifying creature that had ever existed in the human imagination since the dawn of thought, an evil being that should only belong to nightmares.
As Raynor and Augustus saw it, the Hydralisk possessed a serpentine body and a barbed tail. Its elongated, rounded skull was topped by a massive, cobra-like bony crest—this crest alone occupied nearly half of its arched upper body. Perhaps due to incomplete evolution, its dark brown crest still bore the vivid warning colors once used by insect larvae to deter predators.
Its broad, elongated lower jaw and gaping maw made up about two-thirds of its skull. Both jaws were lined with rows of fangs and canine-like teeth—each fang as large as a combat knife, sharp as a boning blade. From that enormous mouth, which could easily swallow a four- or five-year-old child, dripped transparent saliva and dark green acid from its venom sacs.
Anyone who had seen the long, bony scythe-blades at the ends of its forelimbs would never doubt that this creature could easily cleave a jeep in half with a single swing. Its limbs, segmented serpentine abdomen, and tail—over three meters long—were all covered in chitinous plates embedded with serrated spines, while its back bristled with venomous quills.
Named after the Hydra of Greek mythology, the creature's skin was unimaginably smooth, as if it truly were a prehistoric serpent clad in scaled armor. Its body was covered in massive keratin plates resembling those of archosaurian lizards. The hissing sound it made while gliding across sandy ground came precisely from these sleek scales.
The Hydralisk was far larger than any dog-like Zerg Augustus had ever seen—roughly the size of two Marines in CMC-300 powered armor. Even standing more than twenty meters away, it still loomed like an immense, towering beast.
The Hydralisk's chest was hideously deformed, as though its skin had been violently torn apart—blood-soaked muscles and tendons were turned outward, the ribs supporting its ventricles completely exposed. Veins could be clearly seen beneath a thick keratinous outer shell covering the surface.
It was a terrifying creature born from the extreme perfection of slaughter. Its grotesquely disproportionate body and form—composed entirely of thousands of muscles without a trace of fat—were horrifying to behold, as if every tissue and every organ in its body existed solely for the purpose of killing. It was as though the Hydralisk were not a product of natural evolution, but a nightmarish amalgamation of the most lethal weapons taken from countless other species and forcibly merged together.
Within the cage, the Hydralisk howled madly in its weightless confinement, roaring and thrashing about as it swung its dreadful bone scythes in a desperate attempt to break free.
When Augustus looked toward the Hydralisk, its lantern-like dark red eyes also fixed on him. Within those eyes seemed to glimmer a certain cunning intelligence—yet it was already a beast beyond control.
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