- Zach Oliver to Kate Lockwell(src)
Zach Oliver was a Universe News Network cameraman and conspiracy theorist.
Biography
Oliver worked with reporter Kate Lockwell for five years before she fired him in late 2501.
Newsworthy
An uneasy reunion
The following year, when Lockwell received a career-making assignment embedded among Dominion marines, she was surprised to find at the last minute that Oliver was her cameraman. The assigned cameraman had become ill, and Oliver was the replacement. He said the cold had been "very expensive". He just couldn't pass up the chance to "take a peek behind the iron curtain" that was the government. Lockwell was worried he would mess up her high-profile assignment, and warned him that she would not have him making a joke of it. However, he simply told her that he wanted to be sure whether the Marine Corps were merely innocent pawns of the government or active participants.
Oliver made little secret of his disdain of the marines as Lockwell's assignment became a pro-Dominion propaganda piece.
The reporters on Candore
The reporters visited Candore, but were left behind as the marines took care of business. They overheard Major Tom Hawkins speaking about prisoners who had been captured and taken aboard the battlecruiser. When the reporters got back onto the battlecruiser, Oliver convinced Lockwell to investigate further, complaining that they didn't have anything to report.
Sneaking into the brig, they discovered a mass of terran corpses, including women and children. They were shocked, but didn't know the reasons behind this. Oliver made two "hard copies" of the footage, then picked up a transmission from renegade reporter Michael Liberty, who reported that Candore Colony had simply "vanished".
Oliver is spaced
The marines detected the transmission and arrested the reporters. Unnerved at being unable to find the hard copies, Hawkins had Oliver put into an airlock, and threatened to space him if Lockwell didn't give them up. Oliver used his last moments to confirm the truth to Lockwell, that she snuck into the brig with him because she "had to know." A pleased Oliver's maintained that so did everyone else. Unfortunately, an enraged Hawkins had other ideas, opening the airlock and spacing the cameraman.
Legacies
"I had to know."
"Exactly. And so does everybody else."
- Zach and Kate's last exchange(src)
Shortly after Oliver's death, Lockwell recovered the hard copies as Michael Liberty and the Knights of Freedom invaded the battlecruiser. She secretly gave one to Liberty before he and his team left, while allowing herself to be captured by the marines, turning over the other hard copy.
Liberty planned to air the footage at an inopportune time for the Dominion.
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
- ↑ April 6, 2010. "Timeline". StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). pp. 311 - 323. ISBN 978-1416-55084-6.