Michael Liberty

"I'm Michael Daniel Liberty. Call this my most important, perhaps final, report. Call this my manifesto. Call this what you will. I'm just here to tell you what really happened. I'm here to set the record straight. I'm here to tell you the truth."

- Liberty presenting his manifesto

Michael Daniel Liberty is a terran news reporter whose affiliations have varied over time. He hates it when people such as his former editor-in-chief Handy Anderson calls him "Mickey".

Liberty is described as being "of normal height and proportions, if a little lanky." He has dirty blond hair that is spattered with lighter striations of gray which is swept back in a ponytail to cover a bald spot. He has a liking for cigarettes, but keeps trying to quit. A few years after going freelance, Liberty remained the same in physical appearance, apart from an abundance of facial hair.

Early Reporting
"Liberty. I've seen your reports. They get things right more often than not."

- Sarah Kerrigan

Much of Liberty's time as a reporter was spent under the auspices of Universe News Network, a Confederate news organization. It is known that one of his early pieces involved groundwater pollution outside a middle school.

Liberty complained about Confederate censoring of Guild Wars information, earning him the respect of fellow UNN reporter Max Speer, who otherwise didn't get along with him. After the war, Speer went freelance and would sometimes send information Liberty's way, such as the Confederate attack at Geladi, Haji, in their attempt to capture Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay.

In 2491 Liberty reported on an attack by the Sons of Korhal on the Tarsonis Ghost Academy, which brought the existence of the rebel group to the general public in 2491. For Liberty, who "humbly" suggested that this might have been a sign of things to come, this may not have been such a bad thing, as over the years, he had cautiously commented on the corrupt nature of the Confederacy. His favorite topics involved the Tarsonis City Council. He considered them a large bunch of crooks. He had a similar level of respect for the Confederate Marine Corps.

Liberty may have served as an anchor for UNN in 2497.

Dangerous Occupation
In 2499, Liberty's life was threatened by political interests (such as the Old Families) involved in illegal dumping activities. In order to keep him alive, Anderson arranged for him to be "embedded" on the Norad II, the command ship of Alpha Squadron commander Edmund Duke. His assistant during these events was Lieutenant Emily Swallow.

He saw the aftermath of the destruction of Chau Sara and bore witness to the protoss, which nearly attacked Duke's fleet at Mar Sara's orbit but then "fled". When Liberty made insightful observations, such as demanding Duke tell him why would the protoss concentrate attack on parts of the world that were not settled by humans, Duke threw him off the bridge; from that point on, none of Liberty's reports were published without significant editing (when his report on Chau Sara was published, it included none of his speculations).

The Confederates did not permit Liberty to contact anyone in the Sara system. He overcame this interdiction on Mar Sara by swapping ID tags with Rourke, a local reporter, and clandestinely making his way to the evacuee camps. Swallow did not know the excursion was unauthorized and agreed to escort him. Liberty interviewed some of the evacuees and made contact with Sarah Kerrigan, an undercover Sons of Korhal operative. On Kerrigan's advice he and Swallow entered Anthem Base and were attacked by zerglings and a hydralisk. Swallow was killed and Liberty was rescued by Marshal Jim Raynor, becoming acquainted with the Mar Sara Colonial Militia.

Following the events at Backwater Station, Raynor and his men were arrested by Alpha Squadron. Liberty was still masquerading as Rourke and as a "local reporter" was let go. Driving Raynor's vulture he was intercepted by Kerrigan who informed him that officially he was dead; his outspokenness made him a wanted man by the Confederates and the real Rourke, with Liberty's ID tags, had died in his stead. Kerrigan put Liberty in contact with Arcturus Mengsk. Mengsk wanted Liberty to generate publicity for the rebels, especially during the coming rebel-aided evacuation of Mar Sara. In return the rebels agreed to free Raynor and the militia from Confederate custody.

Liberty took part in the raid on the Jacobs Installation and watched the destruction of Mar Sara by the protoss. For better or worse, he was now affiliated with the Sons of Korhal.

Dealing with the Devil
"Don't go following causes. They'll just break your heart. When idealism meets reality, it's rarely reality that backs down."

- Michael Liberty

Liberty was granted a series of one-on-one interviews with Mengsk and later traveled down to Antiga Prime, broadcasting a messages to the rebel forces that the Confederacy's master command center had been taken, all in the name of working with, rather than for Mengsk and his goals. However, with the induction of Duke and Alpha Squadron into the SOK, doubts began to stir in him, along with Raynor. All in all, Mengsk appeared to be the lesser of two evils.

The rebel leader showed Liberty a flat-screen report of an idealized version of Michael Liberty, which appeared as the Confederates panicked. (Mengsk said he preferred to use holograms because they were harder to fake.) The fake Liberty claimed that he had just escaped from the Sons of Korhal, who had captured him on Mar Sara shortly before the world was burned by the protoss. He also claimed that Mengsk released "poisonous" mind control drugs on the populace of Antiga Prime, killing some and mutating others into strange shapes. He also claimed that a Sons of Korhal saboteur released a "virulent toxin" onto the Norad II, causing it to crash. Some soldiers, including Duke, became "mentally reprogrammed zombies" for the purpose of harming Confederate morale, while others were killed by Mengsk's zerg "allies", however, there was no need to worry because the Confederates had blockaded the planet and the "terrorists should be destroyed in a few days". Mengsk mocked the report because they obviously "laid it on thick".

Liberty was so angered he no longer wanted anything to do with the Confederacy. Despite this, his unease with Mengsk intensified when Mengsk ordered Kerrigan to activate a psi emitter inside the base camp of Delta Squadron, which would break the blockade the force had set up around Antiga Prime by luring the zerg to that location. Liberty aided her in this task, but hardly warmed to doing so.

Breakaway
"I think it's over for me. I'm not a warrior. I've played at it, but I'm a newsman. I don't belong on the battlefield. I belong behind a keyboard or in front of a holo camera."

- Michael Liberty

After the destruction of Antiga Prime, Liberty found himself battling alongside Raynor and Kerrigan on the streets of Tarsonis City, even returning to the UNN Building; or rather, what was left of it. Confronted by Confederate forces, it was hardly a happy reunion and Mengsk's repeated use of psi emitters hardly helped matters. Confronted with the early arrival of the protoss, Mengsk sent Kerrigan to the city of New Gettysburg to engage them.

Appreciating the suicidal nature of the mission, Liberty and Raynor set after her and after dealing with Duke aboard the Hyperion and the gauntlet of the space planet above Tarsonis, they finally made it to the surface. However, while they were able to save numerous soldiers and non-combatants, Kerrigan was not among them. Mengsk had sacrificed her to the meat grinder and it became clear to both that he would do the same to them to achieve his goals. While Liberty was offered a "cush job" for Mengsk by Anderson (who had been rescued and was now working for Mengsk), he no longer wanted anything to do with the rebel leader.

Freelance
"What you're seeing is my own private little war, fought on my turf. Not cruisers and space fighters and marines but just words. And the truth. That's my specialty. That's my hammer. And I know how to use it."

- Michael Liberty

Liberty used his skills as a reporter to fight Mengsk on the propaganda front. He adopted holo transmissions, which were harder to fake, and hampered the Dominion's attempts to locate him by transmitting over open wavelength and random frequencies. He continued to support Raynor and most notably delivered the Liberty Manifesto; his "last, perhaps final report", revealing the true nature of the war leading up to the destruction of the Confederacy.

Liberty's defection to the rebels caused the Dominion to ban the embedding of reporters in Dominion military units. This ban lasted for years.

The Umojan Protectorate considered contacting Liberty to spread anti-Dominion propaganda.

Newsworthy
"Liberty's still reporting?! What--does he have an audience of, like, five people?!"

- Kate Lockwell on Liberty's pirate broadcasts.

In 2502 Liberty was embedded with the Knights of Freedom. Tuning into his holo transmissions was punishable by death in the Dominion. While with the Knights he reported on how Candore Colony had "vanished" from a Dominion raid; a few colonists had previously offered sanctuary to the Knights and the colony was subsequently attacked by Dominion marines from the Minotaur-class battlecruiser Victory.

Liberty and the Knights tracked down the battlecruiser, attacked, and boarded it. They arrived in time to rescue UNN reporter Kate Lockwell from Tom Hawkins, the Dominion marine commander. Lockwell and Zach Oliver, her cameraman, was embedded with the unit that carried out the attack on Candore and had discovered evidence of the massacre aboard the ship. They were discovered after tuning in to Liberty's Candore report to put their discovery in context. Hawkins had already killed Oliver in an attempt to cover up the truth; only the intervention of the Knights saved Lockwell from execution. Lockwell gave Liberty a copy of her evidence for his pirate broadcasts. Liberty could not convince his wounded counterpart to join him; Lockwell opted to remain behind and turn over another copy to the Dominion. At the time he worried he was leaving her to die.

Liberty and his cameraman were disturbed by Lockwell's footage - the stacked corpses of numerous civilians, including children, in a large room locked behind an air-tight door in Victory's brig. He was disappointed that Lockwell's report aired as a pro-Dominion propaganda piece, noting that she may have been neurally resocialized or had a short-lived guilt trip. However, Liberty believed it was likely that she was playing along to protect the original footage and its keepers. He decided to air a proper report the following month as a counterpoint to Lockwell's scheduled interview with Arcturus Mengsk at the same time.

Spectres
Michael Liberty became involved in a plot with the Umojan Protectorate and a renegade Dominion faction, Project Shadowblade. The plotters would kidnap Arcturus Mengsk and force him to confess his crimes to Liberty. The renegade leader, General Cole Bennett, intended to use his mental powers to take control of the Dominion. However, the plot failed, and Mengsk remained safe.

Ghosts of the Past
In 2504, as the Second Great War drew near, Liberty sent a transmission to Jim Raynor, simply saying "Run from your past, and it'll chase you down even faster." The Terran Dominion intercepted the transmission, but was puzzled by its contents.

Wings of Liberty
"...a veritable firestorm of anti-Mengsk sentiment..."

- Michael Liberty's comment

Not long afterward, Raynor's Raiders revealed Arcturus Mengsk's hand in the Fall of Tarsonis. Liberty was among those who commented on the revelation.