StarCraft: Frontline: Newsworthy is a story in the four-part StarCraft: Frontline series. It is found in olume 2. It was authored by Grace Randolph and illustrated by Nam Kim.
Description
Newsworthy
A pro-Dominion reporter lands the scoop of lifetime: an exclusive sit-down with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk following an embedded mission with terran marines. Every good reporter tells both sides of the story, but when she comes face-to-face with atrocity, can she handle the brutal truth, much less report it?
Synopsis
A month before the anniversary of Arcturus Mengsk's inauguration as emperor of the Terran Dominion, Kate Lockwell was embedded with a group of Dominion marines led by Major Tom Hawkins aboard a battlecruiser. This was the first time UNN had been allowed to embed a reporter since Michael Liberty's own reporting several years earlier. The editor-in-chief, Handy Anderson, had recommended her, and Hastings accepted since she way loyal to the Dominion. He told her this assignment could make her career.
However, Lockwell had to work with cameraman Zach Oliver, a conspiracy theorist. She had fired him several months earlier, but he was back as the scheduled cameraman suffered an illness.
Lockwell made a pro-Dominion report and was treated nicely by the marines. Upon landing at Candore colony, however, the marines refused to let her see them in operation.
When the marines returned, one told Major Hawkins there were too many prisoners to but in the bridge. Hawkins simply told him to "handle it" and refused to discuss the situation with Lockwell or grant her any interviews.
Aboard the battlecruiser, Lockwell tricked a marine into confirming terran prisoners, then she and Oliver investigated it. They discovered a stack of bodies behind a door. Lockwell told Oliver to make two backup copies of the report. As they didn't know what really happened, Oliver suggested tuning in to Mike Liberty's pirate broadcasts, but all they discovered was Candore's colonists had simply disappeared. The marines discovered the transmission and arrested them.
Neither Lockwell nor Oliver knew what had really happened at Candore, so Oliver listened in on a transmission from renegade reporter Michael Liberty. He said the colony had simply vanished. The transmission alerted the marines, who arrested them. Lockwell claimed there were no copies of the footage, but Hawkins didn't believe her. He spaced Oliver and tried to kill her, only to be interrupted by an attack from the Knights of Freedom, who invaded the ship. As the Knights fought the marines, Hawkins chased down Lockwell, shooting her in the arm. However, the Knights caught up to them and shot Hawkins dead before he could finish off Lockwell.
Lockwell refused to be rescued, however. She gave Liberty one copy of the footage, and allowed the marines to find her with the other copy. Lockwell survived the encounter with the marines, and her reported aired on Universe News Network – but it was a pro-Dominion propaganda piece. She promised to interview Mengsk the next month. Liberty decided to air the footage he'd been given at the same time.
References
Randolph, Grace (w), Nan Kim (art), Matt Dalton (i). "Newsworthy." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 2 (paperback binding), pp. 68-121. Tokyopop, January 1, 2009. ISBN 1427-80831-7.