Kate Lockwell

Kate Lockwell was a reporter and later the chief anchor for the Universal News Network, the dominant news outlet of the Terran Dominion. For years she was a loyal supporter of the Dominion and genuinely believed it to be a benevolent government, a reputation that brought her favorable assignments and, more than once, made her a convenient patsy. Over the course of the Second Great War and the years that followed she came to confront the regime's deceptions, most famously challenging Emperor Arcturus Mengsk to his face on live broadcast.

Early career#

Lockwell was a reporter for the Universal News Network by 2496, beginning her work with cameraman Zach Oliver in that year and covering subjects as minor as bowling tournaments on Bukari V early on. In 2500 she reported on the disaster at Maltair IV, where the zerg had killed everyone but Senator Corbin Phash and his psychic son Colin, who disappeared after their rescue. She interviewed a Dominion representative who framed Phash's behavior as child abuse and treason and argued that the boy needed to be taken to the Ghost Academy, and she covered the related tragedy of Gohbus, whose collapsing crust drove its citizens to a doomed refugee camp.

Over the following years Lockwell's reporting established her as a supporter of the Terran Dominion, and she truly believed it a benevolent government. By 2501 she was working with UNN News, and in that year she parted ways with Oliver.

Newsworthy and the Candore massacre#

In 2502, in the month before the anniversary of Arcturus Mengsk's inauguration as emperor, Lockwell was selected as the Universal News Network's first embedded reporter since the trouble with the renegade newsman Michael Liberty. The Dominion Marine Corps had resisted embedded reporters for years, but Major Tom Hawkins chose her after the network's editor-in-chief vouched for her loyalty and, secretly, because he believed she was not a good reporter and would not uncover the truth about his unit's activities. To her surprise, Zach Oliver was assigned as her cameraman after the previous one fell ill.

After a pro-Dominion report, Lockwell was abandoned by the marines on Candore as they carried out a classified mission, and they ceased treating her with courtesy. Overhearing mention of prisoners, she tricked a marine into confirming their presence and, with Oliver, sneaked into the brig, where a prisoner told her he had been arrested merely for opposing the government and directed them to a chamber full of terran corpses. Realizing the marines had massacred the colonists of Candore Colony, Lockwell had Oliver make two copies of the footage. The marines arrested them, and Hawkins, doubting she had destroyed the evidence, had Oliver spaced and planned to have another patsy reporter brand her a rebel spy. Before he could kill her, the ship was attacked. Hawkins caught and shot her in the shoulder, then was killed by Michael Liberty and the Knights of Freedom, who had boarded the vessel. Lockwell refused rescue, gave Liberty one copy of the footage, and allowed the marines to find her with the other. She survived, but the report that aired was a pro-Dominion propaganda piece, leaving Liberty to wonder whether she had been resocialized or was simply playing along to protect the original footage and those who held it.

The Second Great War#

Lockwell's reporting through the years carried the Dominion line. In 2503 she covered United Earth Directorate terrorist cells striking Dominion targets, information that was in truth fabricated to cover up the real perpetrators, and a supposed Raynor's Raiders attack on a school on Halcyon. In 2504 she reported on the Dominion's annexation of Mar Sara and the local fears that a heavier military presence could spark an uprising.

When Jim Raynor returned to stir rebellion on Mar Sara, Lockwell reported on it, but whenever she approached the idea that his Raiders were not the bloodthirsty terrorists the regime portrayed, anchor Donny Vermillion cut her off, a pattern that held through the war as the zerg returned in force after four years of relative silence. Her assignments took her across the Koprulu Sector, including Agria, Meinhoff, Nephor II, and New Folsom, and her interviews included one with Valerian Mengsk, who admitted he had harbored a crush on her for years.

The turning point came when Raynor and his men broadcast proof that Arcturus Mengsk had used psi emitters to lure the zerg to the destruction of Tarsonis. Lockwell was present at the emperor's news conference and questioned whether he was truly benevolent. When Mengsk denied being a power monger, she countered with a recording of his own rant from the Fall of Tarsonis revealing his callousness toward the well-being of others in his pursuit of power, and the flustered emperor abruptly stormed out. As riots ran rampant across the Dominion, Vermillion broke down on air over a brother he believed lived on Tarsonis and proved unable to report, while Lockwell's coverage of the chaos on Korhal was cut off by a satellite lockdown. Vermillion was eventually committed to a mental institution, and Lockwell was promoted to chief anchor in his place.

Chief anchor#

Three weeks later, Lockwell brought news that Raynor had been captured in a Dominion raid and summarily executed. In 2508 she reported on the third anniversary of the fall of the Arcturus Mengsk regime and the celebrations under Valerian Mengsk, noting the continuing peace and the support of Admiral Matt Horner and the Dominion military for the new government. She later covered the exposure and arrest of a senator with a criminal past, and a broadcast of hers led into Valerian's admission of his role in creating the Moebius Foundation and his responsibility for the hybrids.

During the Defenders of Man insurgency, Lockwell reported on zerg sightings on Antiga Prime and the disappearances of Dominion ghosts, and when it was leaked that Agent Nova Terra had killed four Dominion Intelligence agents, she ran a special on the desertion. As zerg attacks worsened she covered mounting disapproval of Valerian's regime, the attack on Tyrador IX, protests outside Korhal Palace, and Valerian's speech on Vardona, where she questioned whether he was running from his problems or paving the way for a better Dominion. After the death of the Defenders' leader, General Carolina Davis, she reported that opinion had swung back toward Valerian as documents implicating the Defenders in the feral zerg attacks came to light.

In the post-war years she reported on the Battle of Adena and on an outbreak of spectre attacks that destabilized the peace, asking whether the Dominion was cursed by its tainted roots or whether there was hope for redemption. The spectres were ultimately dealt with by Nova Terra and her Daelaam allies, and Lockwell reported on the end of the crisis.