The Siege of Korhal was over.
To the galaxy that saw the live feed, it was a apocalypse beyond estimation.
Their minds still remember the attack of the Kel Morian and the UED being swallowed by the Imperium. But never a combined forces of Zerg and Imperium crashed upon the Dominion.
And after the dust settles.
Acturus Mengsk is dead, killed by his former compatriot.
It was ironic, in the eyes of the people in the Galaxy, it was not Terrorist Jim Raynor that killed Him, nor it was the queen of blades Sarah Kerrigan that was made by him, whom disappeared during the aftermath and not seen in human space, but a man that was with Acturus during his rise as Emperor.
A former friend ended his life.
Alexander Solair and Jim Raynor stayed behind to rebuild Korhal, ensured the security of the Dominion capital planet.
And Raynor provided service to the Dominion as a General as most of the officers were missing or killed in action.
While in most story, people would assumed the moment a dictator was killed, its all happily ever after.
Alexander knew that it was not possible.
As the death of Acturus left a vacuum in his wake.
Trade lanes were infested by piracy and the ambitious smaller factions eyed on the death throes of a Dominion looking to increase their territory. And it indirectly affect the Imperium if he didn't take it lightly.
And his destruction of Korhal made it akin to cutting the logistics and revenue. So it was his mess to clean up.
As he was recommending Valerian to be the emperor on the Dominion throne, the others were not so accommodating.
Due to Acturus Mengsk Paranoia and misdeeds, Other factions did not even want to do trade with the injured Dominion. Other than the Imperium, Valerian mother home country, the Umojans protectorate vouch for his throne.
While Acturus indeed had animosity with Alexander, He had a cold war with almost every human factions and xenos alike that it was basically political and economically impossible for Valerian to take over and stabilize the mess of a empire for a short time.
But his God Father managed to assist him via a trade agreement, a military alliance and a joint scientific research.
Money and Investment flowed in the tattered Dominion. Jobs began to appear as the civilian had some semblance of normalcy.
It indirectly prevented gang and crime from oversaturating the streets.
Mining fleets ventured forth in the darkness of space and more colonies were made in a joint corporation between the two Empires.
Dominion science vessels joined the mechanicum fleets as they survey the stars.
And those that fled the Dominion have a choice to simply return. Alexander didn't mind as even if they return, they were aware of the wonders and horror he could inflict.
Despite he kept a sizable garrison on Korhal as peacekeeping, the Remnants of Acturus Fanatics linger in the shadows.
They refused Valerian ascension to the throne and they committed terrorist acts across the Dominion to make a point, that he was not the Emperor of the Dominion.
They attacked everything on sight, that's even more worse than Raynor raiders, whom just only attacked military targets and sought to be a symbol of liberation, The Ghost of Acturus they called themselves attacked any infrastructure that deemed important, becoming a symbol of disgust and fear..
In a lone planet on the fringes of the Dominion, there was a gathering of the Dominion forces that unheeded the call of Valerian to step down.
They refused to believe Valerian and believe he was just a puppet to the Imperium and they would rather follow the late emperor orders. They sought to gather all the disgruntled Dominion soldiers and prepare for a rebellion. Hardware and soldier flowed daily as the armories of the fringe world laid bare.
But that's the remnants of Acturus army that either failed the orbital defenses of Korhal or too late to assist them, Acturus special forces that linger in the dark now attempt to cause as much chaos as they could, especially the arrival of the coronation date.
They are unaware that in a galaxy that was left forgotten that their Emperor actually gave Alexander permission to kill him.
But their actions were already caught by the eyes of the Imperium that waited a opportunity to get all of them at once and they sent four legions of Space marines and twenty regiments after them.
Three legions of the Angels of death to crush the rebellion that no longer needed in this galaxy and there was no second chance.
And one that would ensure they would never leave.
...
A man sat in the radar post in his ship. He watched the radar with fanatical look upon his face. He was the survivor of Korhal orbital siege and his Ship fled the battle before being captured.
Now it was a capital ship to lead the rebel fleet. This fringe world was once a staging grounds for invading the Imperium space in the event that they bled with the Zerg long enough to be taken over.
It was a pity that now it's used to starting a coup to kill their own.
In the darkness of space, his mind got twisted, dark voices linger in his ears.
"It wasn't your fault, the imperial lied and now control your Domion with a puppet king." it spoke in his ears like a broken record.
The voices gave him a vision... Images of victory on the imperial.
If any sane man heard this, they knew it was impossible to contend with the Imperium, not with hardware that already confirmed to be impossible to kill them, but this was a group that lost everything, echoes of a past that refused to move on. Their self loathing and hatred consumed them that in their souls they opened to the darkness of hell to inhabit them.
The demons heard their darkest desire. And it slowly pave a pathway into this galaxy.
The radar operator never cared about the consequences, his darkest thought is already rousing the desires of the demons.
It was one of the slow days, just a resupply ships that done their contribution to their cause, funded by Valerian opposition no less, until he was met with the alarms of the ship.
He checked the improved radar that the rebellious Dominion scientist managed to triangulate the radiation signature of the Imperium gigantic ships. It was the only one thing positive of the massive defeat as they know the warp signatures.
The radar beeped like crazy. And his mad delusions faded away as the ships that appeared on his radar was beyond what he could fancy.
"One hundred....four hundred... Thousand five...." He muttered as the ships began appearing in mass quantities.
The ship hull trembled as the Yamato cannon howled with agony.
But he didn't cared. All his task was staring at the radar...yes...the radar.
He rubbed his eyes as if to keep the mind on it... It blurred and distorted before him, tentacles and spikes erupted from the station he is on, the fleet signatures turned into eyeballs of a goat that stare at him.
He shook his head and by the time he blinked. It was ordinary.
The echoes of the ship pa screaming in monotone of the degree of damage.
But the radar operator simply sat as his men around him were screaming as debris and shrapnel were playing with the crew in the ship hallways.
"Stare at the radar and report of the enemy numbers", that was the order he was given,
The screams and explosion suddenly stopped.
He ignored for a while... Suddenly a thump was heard in the distance.
"Compiling orders...." The robotic adjutant nearby spoke randomly.
"Orders" he muttered.
Trying to ignore that thump that slowly made its way to the operation room.
There was gunfire and comms of section of his ship is being boarded.
"Orders must be followed..." He muttered in bated breath, hoping to ignore the sudden gunfire outside. He felt dread .. something in his body and soul knows that something was coming... And it was coming for him...
The guns went silent... He suddenly stopped his task as he glance around.
The crew around him is dead... Body parts and splattered gore of what was his companions. That emotionless face began to have a semblance of fear. His frantic heartbeat ignored the facade of his face
The thudding that echoes in the hallways stopped for a brief moment... Assessing, the man fear welled up in his throat.... Then the thudding resumed, each step closer was like a rhythm to his heartbeat.
And each step closer made his heart felt dread...
He wanted to free himself from the radar station. But he found himself glued to his station. His feet is like concrete bolted to the ship.
His nape felt like it's was filled with ice.
Each thud is making him something deep in his soul... Trembled.
He unholstered his service handgun and aimed at the entrance.
His eyes palpating as if to assess the foe beyond his station.
The sole flickering light that survive the onslaught, the only a very sole sense of comfort, destroyed as it was overloaded from the surplus of electricity.
The protocol was that there was emergency power would kick in soon.
It didn't came.
From the darkness a pair of red eyes simply appeared in the shadows.
The man froze... He was staring at the darkness itself.
He fired the service revolver as some semblance of getting courage and in its brief flash of illumination.
It show the figure of the monster.
It was a Giant man clad in power armor with giant fist.
And the armor itself was filled with iconography of bat wings and chains.
"So....you chosen death." The armoured figure hissed that brought the man in fear.
It approached him slowly, as if savouring his fear.
He fired the gun blindly as the sparks of the bullet that rammed into the armor.
The man slowly attempted to flee the room, away from the figure, away from this ship.
Something deep in his own soul, knows that thing before him was a monster, a creature that should never existed in this galaxy.
A living contradiction.
But as he fumbled in the darkness, his neck was grabbed and he could feel actual malice as a literal metaphor.
"Wha...what are you?!" He screamed, hoping that others would converge the radar station.
"I will take time.... To let you learn from me personally. And you have no one saving you, not even the demons can save you...hehehe." The figure chuckle as his hands flicker with electricity.
The man final scream was the finality of the dying ship as it crash into the surface of the planet.
The defenders were prepared for the arrival of the Imperium, trench line and whatever hardware they could stolen littered the planet. Even the planet core itself had hardened underground bunkers.
They thought of using the old country of Vietnam tactics to bleed the Imperium dry if they did came here.
but they were not prepared for the horrors ahead.
They believe that Korhal was a fluke, it was just a mistake. But they didn't realize that Alexander didn't sent all of his forces...
He held back because of the citizens that were confused of the invasion and his issues is Acturus.
On a planet with no civilians?
They met what was the true brutality of the Imperium when they hold no hesitation.
The skies lit up with pillars of light and asteroids rained down from the heavens.
The ground trembled with the sheer volume of death and destruction
Super heated asteroids that was hastily strapped with rockets rained upon the planet below.
Alexander gave them orders, no survivors and all methods can be used to prevent their deaths of their own.
The planet, scorched in flames as asteroids and their fleet debris rained on the planet and the defenses.
The rebels that survive hide deeper and deeper of their underground bunkers as the ones closest to the surface was eradicated..
The flames and heat was akin to the sun surface scorch the planet.
And after the bombardment, there was a brief moment of respite.
And as the remaining surveillance system that survive the apocalypse mentioned a temperature drop, the rebels rushed out to take down the invaders. Taking defensive position as they welcome the enemy.
Siege tank and wraith flew from underground airstrips and motor pools
There they heard it... A giant war horn sounded and echoed in a planet of flames and ashes
Many of them gripped their gauss rifles.
Their heart palpitation were like dancing with fear despite the lobotomy they received to be
Fearless men of the Dominion.
Their fear ... Nay, their genetical and primal instinct that longed for the forgotten emotion returned to them.
Before them in a field of flames and ruins, giants figures outlines in the horizon that is accompanied by the mini dots below them.
"How the hell they are walking in this temperature?" One of them muttered, because by their logic, these Imperial machine literally landed while the planet burned.
But those that used their binoculars saw the figures that accompanied the giant men of metal that touched the heavens.
Armoured men with similar faces helmet marched in tandem with caution strips in their suits of armor.
They walked in a tetsudo formation as the slowly made their path to the bunker entrance.
"Open fire!" One of the operator yelled as artillery rumbled to defy the invaders.
Shells rained in the distance, but the payloads never met their target as they exploded in a brief flash above these titans of war that revealed a brief moment of shields above the striding titans.
"They got Protoss shields!? Fuck! Concentrate fire on one of them at the same time!" The commander yelled.
It was a known glaring issues that a Imperial titan can't handle a concentration artillery barrage.
And it was fixed by strapping not two, but ten shield generators at the expense of not using laser weaponry.
The commander watched as his theory failed before his eyes as the titan was akin to walking in a rain of explosive fire.
The sounds of counter battery rained upon them.
Drumbeats of a pararade of death whistle and swept past the defenders.
Clouds of dirt and explosion litter on the defensive lines that were sporadically firing at the shrinking lines.
A Officer rushed to the commander with pale sunken horor on his face.
"Sir... We received the Imperial legions signatures...."
"What is it?"
"Iron warriors and Night Lord's...with twenty regiments of Death Korps of krieg." He wheeze his answer.
The commander paled.
He was aware of the legions, and with those two combination with the Kriegsmen, he understood, the High Lord never intended for them to be alive. Even if they surrendered, Alexander never gave them a chance because they touched his interest of making Valerian a Emperor.
They were losing fast, and as the temperature cool enough for baseline infantry to land, the tremors occured, this time with more intensity that it almost crack the planet apart.
Artillery rained upon the defenders once more as the rebels forced to bunker down.
By the Imperium didn't care, formations of men and tanks simply rushed through the artillery zone as they have shield generators to prevent them as a statistics.
Men in gas mask, although not in power armor rushed into the trenches and overpowered the ones in power armor.
The explosion and shrapnel swept across the passageway. Ignoring the massive column of tanks and artillery that were akin to unending meteor showers that made the skies bleed red.
To the rebels, they never saw hell, for them they only fought Zergs and pirates on their own terms, but never was the fact that they fought in a planet filled with madness and destruction beyond understanding.
The soldiers thought they were safe in the bunkers as they regroup once more.
But the horrors occur in the darkness of the structures within.
The night Lords came from the shadows and
Flayed and tortured the people within.
The night Lords accompanied this legion on the surface was not Konrad Kurze redeemed night Lords that worked as Arbiters in the night, but the Original legion of the mainstream.
This was one of Alexander simple war crimes of letting Konrad insane sons under his control and away from his brother awareness as they devoured the remains of the fallen regime.
Their insanity and madness flooded the hallways of the paltry defenses. Man, women and children that were part of the rebellion were being flayed and skinned regardless of surrender.
Alexander didn't take any chances of leaving a Indoctrinated alive. Especially most of their souls belong to a entity that pretend to be their god.
The iron warriors knew what they have to do....
They armed charges to the planet core as they ignored their insane cousins feast of madness.
The planet exploded. The short rebellion ended not in a fanfare as the spark of insurrection is snuffe out.
This battle was not recorded live as Alexander never gave face to the traitors to humanity. Those that participated this battle kept their silence as they were the more trustworthy.
The rebellion was written off and labeled the insurgent that died against the Zerg invasion for those that was unaware.
It was a unsung conflict to cement Valerian rule.
A planet that was made by a desire of a dead Emperor to be ruler of the galaxy, become a tombstone of his fanatical followers.
And there was no one left to write their eulogy.
On the day of Valerian Coronation, Korhal changed for the better.
With the financing from the Imperium, Valerian made policies that made the people digestible and the only request from the Imperium was to move Mobius foundation and their security away from the planet and allowed the imperium to obtain all the Mobius foundation bases under the guise of "infrastructure management".
Alexander knew these former colleagues is a bomb waiting to happen when false god Amon would possessed them and he guess by the time the Protoss is retaking Aiur, The Dominion would have a better chance of survival.
The sky of Korhal that was once bleak of ash and soot was filled with blue skies as if welcoming the new Emperor to take place in his empire.
The citizens cheered as confetti rained down to welcome the Emperor.
As he stood before his father tower, he was greeted by both sides.
On his left was General Warfield and the newly formed Dominion Army that is fresh from the training facility, battle tested by the Imperium joint exercises but still have the ambition to do so, while on the right is the Celestial Imperium Army and various factions leader that awaited his coronation.
Both raised their rifles as they saluted to the man that would lead the people of the Dominion to a brighter future.
He looked around and saw the crowd of people cheer in his name.
And in the plaza where the battle were the heaviest, stood a platform and simple throne was made for his arrival.
Alexander and his mother stood in waiting as a Archbishop of the Ecclesiarchy awaited him with a crown.
"Do you, Prince Valerian Mengsk, take your duty to the people? As the God Emperor Intended?" The archbishop asked.
"I do, and I hope my people would give me the strength to help me to defend the Dominion." Valerian spoke with confidence.
"Do you Prince Valerian, Ensure your people defend them against the Darkness and Sins of the past?"
"I do, I will ensure that the Dominion we would pave for a brighter tomorrow. And I will not be like my father."
"Then by the Power of the God Emperor vested in me, I shall announced you Emperor Valerian Mengsk and may your Dominion be faithful and with truth with your words as we are now Equal in the Eyes of our beloved God." The archbishop placed the crown on the head of Valerian for all to see.
It was all of the leaders that attended to see that the Imperium vouch for his ascension that they literally dragged the exclusive church for Valerian Coronation
And they began making calculation of the news that is before them.
Valerian saw Alexander smiled as he held out a handshake.
"Congratulations, Valerian, I hope that this would be a fruitful friendship between our nations." Alexander handed him a black colored box.
"What's this?" Valeri
"Your father...last words for you. He wanted to make amends." Alexander smiled sadly as he patted and stepped down from the platform.
For the night everyone was celebrating on the streets of korhal.
Valerian sat in his newly made office.
He looked at the box of that Alexander left behind.
He could have tossed it away, but... Deep down he wanted to know, what his father truly think about him.
He opened it and found a storage device.
And a paper that simply state "Your birthday is the code."
And he plugged it in a burner computer and a password protected, he simply placed his date and a man appeared before him.
It was his father... Although more older than the man is slained.
"If you are receiving this, Son... That means that My friend Alexander Kept his words and my friendship meaningful.
If you wonder if it's a trick, it's not, I'm from a galaxy where I made a choice... A choice that doomed us all.
This galaxy is ruled by the United Earth Directorate and in their arrogance they created a monster more worse than the one that would soon invade Korhal.
I fought them as long as I could... But it was not enough, even for me.
From where I'm from, you died defending the people I cared...
Funny isn't it?
It took the death of my family to clean up my act and reflect on my life.
You may think it's strange, but knowing Alexander, he arrived in this godforsaken galaxy to bring you a message...
If you know it's real, under the wolf statue in my office is a box that held the medallion of my family heritage that I scavenge from the ruins of my home, it's to legitimize you as a son of Mengsk. But I know that man would go out his way to make you a emperor.
You may hate me... For the things I have done... Creating monsters beyond understanding and sought to compete with Alexander... In my path to vanity, I forgotten to protect my people. I forgot my reason to have my Dominion for... You.
You may hate the way I trained you.
Or the times that I unable to spent time with you as I fought for my Dominion survival as a gift to you.
When news of your death reached me, I never had time to speak, I never had the time to say the words to a son that made me proud.
Boy, no...Valerian... When I heard of the future you paved from Alexander... I'm glad that you were the son I should have...
You are always a son of Korhal, and in that blood that flows in you... Is not a coward... Not a snake like me that achieve thought lies, But a warrior... I know you can achieve a better path than me... A old man that lingered in the past. I hope one day... You understand.
I know Alexander is going to kill me, so don't hold hatred.. it was my request... As a old friend. I hope that you can see the dawn opened for you... If we can meet... I hope to see the man you become.
This is Acturus Mengsk, last Emperor of the Dominion, Signing out."
Valerian silently process the information he received.
Alexander can hop into different parallel worlds.
That would explain how much power he have in Valerian logic.
With added data in the storage device, he understood why Alexander request the Mobius foundation should be transferred away from Korhal.
They were compromised as the majority turned into cultist and possessed by a false god. And especially his Chief Head Scientist Narud is a eldritch abomination.
And the amount of hardware that were missing in the Mobius inventory was alarming.
But he managed to get some of the non infected personnel away from the compromise organization. And wiped his hands off it by announcing that he no longer in control of the Mobius foundation.
And he began to make plans for the incoming darkness.
He glance at the picture of his father that smiled. A image that he never see before ein all his life, just a picture of a impossible reality.
He smiled as the last words of the man he wanted to seek approval was comforting.
"Nova....I have a job for you." Valerian spoke at a corner and a Dominion ghost simmer from the darkness.
A blond haired Ghost smiled as she awaited orders.
Away from the human control territories that is slowly recovering from their racial war, there was a great stir in Protoss space.
A massive fleet begun their preparations to retake their homeworld.
Artanis, now the leader of the Daelaem stared the the general location of the Human controlled territories.
He heard about the news of their spat, but as promised, Alexander kept the queen of blades in check and with her disappeared in the end of the siege of Korhal, this was the opportunity for them to take over Aiur.
He closed his eyes as he steeled himself for their liberation of their planet.