Among the fleet above Korhal, on her flagship, general Carolina Davis closed off her comm and signed. Trusted by her leader and appointed to command three hundred ships, she was living a life with power and authority. That was until Mengsk suddenly and mysteriously died.

Davis knew with Mengsk dead she would never get the same respect and trust from Valerian. The boy was weak and innocent. He wanted the best for the people, just like the fool Warfield. He would never understand the true meaning of being a leader. Unlike his father, he would never be strong enough to do what has to be done to win a war. He would never side with her and trust her the way Arcturus did.

That was why, whether or not Valerian was behind the death of Arcturus, Davis would always claim Valerian was behind the murder. Of course, if Valerian really killed his father to get the throne then Davis would be quite impressed because that would mean he was a brilliant actor and a decisive and merciless prince. He would get her respect, but not her loyalty.

Back during the conversation with Valerian, if Valerian had given the two witnesses to Davis she would torture and brainwash them until they say what she wanted them to say. Even now that Valerian refused she could still say he was hiding something and wage a civil war.

The war would end in one of two ways. She would either fail and die, which was highly unlikely, or she would win and become a powerful figure in the Dominion. Perhaps she wouldn’t be able to kill Valerian, but she would set the ground for future negotiations that would maintain her position as the head of the Dominion fleet. Who knows? Maybe she would be even more powerful than the time of Arcturus Mengsk.

Davis had no doubt that she could defeat a young prince with no experience in war. General Warfield wouldn’t raise his arms against fellow Dominion soldiers. She knew the old soldier for years. The man was too caring to his men. The Pride of Augustgrad fleet was powerful, but it didn’t have a good commander. Plus, there was also the possibility that the prince wasn’t willing to go to war and would back off and negotiate a truce.

As Davis went over her perfect plan, a hesitant voice suddenly came from behind.

“General?”

“What?” Davis asked coldly. She expected her men to follow orders without questions.

“Are we going to war with the emperor, general? Emperor Valerian is, indeed, the emperor of the Terran Dominion. If we disobey him, we will be traitors.” The officer said. He wasn’t afraid of dying. He was afraid of dying in shame as a traitor of mankind.

“I suspected emperor Valerian might be behind the death of his father, our former emperor, so I requested him to aid me in my diagnosis. Suspiciously he refused to hand over the witnesses of the event. What is he hiding if he is innocent? What I am doing now, I am doing this for our real emperor, emperor Arcturus Mengsk.” Davis said loudly, not just to that one single officer but to the entire bridge. “If Valerian did murder emperor Mengsk then he is the real traitor, and we’re the righteous ones.” She declared confidently. There was a real she said she was suspicious. If, or rather when, the war ended in a truce she could always come out and say she was wrong and Valerian wasn’t behind the murder. The public would be easily fooled.

Suddenly the computer screen behind her was turned on. Davis keenly noticed all the computer screens in the bridge were turned on as well.

“General, someone hacked into the communication device of our entire fleet.” That was the technology officer.

“Block them!”

“It will take time.”

“Then double time soldier.” Davis said with concern. Whoever hacked into her system wasn’t just doing it for fun.

With one more flash the image of Valerian Mengsk appeared on all the computer screens in the fleet. Almost every Dominion crew member, pilot, soldier, and officer was looking at a computer screen. None of these people was stupid, and they knew they were going against the Dominion. All of them were curiously about what Valerian had to say.

“Men and women of the Terran Dominion. Hear me.”

“You are under the false impression that I murdered my father and took his place. Hereby I tell you the truth. My father was murdered by a Nerazim dark templar. Here’s the proof.” All the screens changed and displayed a footage of an invisible blade piercing through the back of Arcturus Mengsk. A visual from the tactical goggle of a ghost showed the attacker to be a protoss dark templar.

“This is taken from the goggles of agent Nova. Agent Nova protected me from the assassin after he killed my father. This is what really happened in that room.” The Dominion members nodded in agreement. The video was, of course, forged by Jean. For some reason even in this world with advanced technology and AI the people still believed in the reliability of what they could see. Another reason the soldiers were tricked was because of Valerian’s fame. The prince was known to be someone that supported freedom of the press and encouraged the people to know the truth.

Davis held her fists together. She glared at the technology expert, and was frowning when she saw he was watching the footage as well. Silently making up her mind to punish the expert, Davis knew it was too late. If she cut the footage now her soldiers would know she was hiding something. It would just be much more suspicious.

The old general could do nothing but watch as Valerian gained more ground, but the emperor wasn’t stopping there.

“And yet someone is spreading a lie about me. Your commander, general Carolina Davis, is trying to start a civil war among the Dominion. Why? For her own political gain! She wants to be more than just a general. She wants to use a war to show her influences. In fact, she is willing to give away the lives of loyal men and women for that purpose.”

“Don’t let her to this! Crew members on the Victor(Davis’ flagship), in the name of the Dominion, arrest general Carolina Davis and bring her to me. Other ships in the fleet, jump to this coordinate and lay down your arms. There will be no punishments for those fooled by Davis, but those that are still fighting for Davis after this announcement will be branded as traitors.” A coordinate appeared on the screen.

Davis turned and glanced through the crew members on the bridge. All of them looked down and dodged her gaze. Davis smirked and turned back to the control deck and pressed a button that opened up a transmission to all the captains of the fleet.

“All ships maintain your position. Make no move. Send out MPs and patrol the bridge. Execute anyone that supports Valerian. If that boy thinks he can turn my fleet against me with a few words then he is wrong.”

The captains of the fleet were loyal supporters of Davis due to their long experience with the general. As someone with decades of experience in war and command Davis had large amounts of supporters among the ranks. There was a reason she could start the Defenders of Man movement without any outside support. The MPs, military police, were cold blooded soldiers trained to enforce the authority of the captains. They wouldn’t hesitate in killing fellow Dominion soldiers. With the captains and MPs supporting Davis the opinions of the common soldiers didn’t matter.

The Davis fleet stayed still despite Valerian’s warning. The prince’s last attempt of peace failed.