Kate Lockwell

"As long as... the story... doesn't die...I'm...I'm a good reporter."

- Kate Lockwell

Kate Lockwell is a reporter for Universe News Network.

War-Torn
In 2500 Lockwell reported on the disaster at Maltair IV. The zerg had attacked the planet, killing everyone but Senator Corbin Phash and his psychic son, Colin. The two disappeared after being rescued. Lockwell interviewed Greggor Altman, a Dominion representative, who claimed that former Senator Phash's behavior was child abuse and treason, and that the boy needed to be taken to the Ghost Academy in order to protect him from his psionic powers. When Lockwell claimed Phash had much support from the citizenry, Altman downplayed it. She also mentioned that Senator Phash's former aide, Andrew Ballenger, had gone missing.

Lockwell also reported on the Gohbus tragedy – the planet's crust was falling apart, causing the citizens to flee to the Gohbus Moon Refugee Camp. However, when Gohbus fell apart, they would all die anyway.

Wrangler Randall traveled to Gohbus Moon, believing Colin Phash to be there; he had tracked down Ballenger upon hearing Lockwell's report. Randall would be paid for turning Phash in to the Ghost Academy. He used zerglings which had been "lobotomized" to cut them off from the Zerg Swarm to locate Colin, also scaring the populace, which believed Colin's powers were luring them, into giving him up. Colin was eventually captured by the Dominion and taken to the Ghost Academy. Lockwell reported on the "happy ending". Meanwhile, Corbin Phash had taken refuge on Umoja, and planned on exposing the Academy. Minister Jorgensen suggested he could use Lockwell to pass the information to the public.

Newsworthy
Over the years, Lockwell's reporting established her as a supporter of the Terran Dominion. In 2502, this included a story on the application of the death penalty to a group of traitors that year. By this time she had fired her cameraman, Zach Oliver, for his "bullshit conspiracy theories" despite having worked with him for five years.

A month before the fourth anniversary of Arcturus Mengsk's inauguration as emperor of the Terran Dominion, Kate Lockwell was selected for a cushy assignment; UNN's first embedded reporter since the trouble with Michael Liberty. The Dominion Marine Corps had resisted embedded reporters for years, fearing a repeat of the Liberty incident, but Major Tom Hawkins selected her to travel with his marines after UNN editor-in-chief Handy Anderson vouched for her, due to her loyalty to the Dominion and, secretly, because he believed she wasn't a good reporter and wouldn't discover the truth about himself and his unit's activities. He told her this assignment could make her career, a fact that she was well aware of.

Aboard Hawkin's Minotaur-class battlecruiser Victory, Lockwell was unpleasantly surprised to find Zach Oliver as her cameraman. He'd been assigned to her since the previous cameraman developed a cold. It was too late to replace him, however.

Lockwell gave a very pro-Dominion report before landing on Candore. However, there she was abandoned by the marines, who were conducting an urgent "classified" mission. From then on, the marines ceased treating her with politeness. She overhead a report of prisoners, but the marines refused to allow her any interviews.

Lockwell tricked one of the marines into confirming the presence of terran prisoners, after which Zach Oliver convinced her to sneak into the brig. There a prisoner told her he'd only been arrested for opposing the government, and that he wasn't a rebel. He directed the newshounds to a chamber full of terran corpses, which greatly disturbed them.

Lockwell told Oliver to make two copies of the footage. Neither Lockwell nor Oliver knew what had really happened at Candore Colony, 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.

Major Hawkins didn't believe there wasn't a copy of the report, and in order to pressure Lockwell into giving up the copy, he had Oliver spaced. He claimed she wasn't a good reporter, and he would have another "patsy" reporter report her being a rebel spy, but before he could kill her, something attacked the ship. During the confusion, Lockwell ran for safety and retrieved the two hard copies that Oliver had made of the brig footage.

Hawkins caught her running along a corridor and shot her in the shoulder. He cornered the wounded reporter, but before he could finish her off, was in turn shot down through the back of the head by Michael Liberty and the Knights of Freedom, who had invaded the vessel. 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 report aired on Universe News Network, but it was a pro-Dominion propaganda piece. Liberty speculated that she had possibly undergone neural resocialization, or simply had a short guilt trip. However, he believed it was more likely that she was playing along to protect the original footage and its keepers.

Dominion Patsy
Kate Lockwell reported on a Raynor's Raiders "attack" on a school on Halcyon.

Lockwell reported on the Terran Dominion annexation of Mar Sara, many of whose colonists had returned to terraform the mining planet after its destruction. She stated that local citizens worried about an increase in Dominion military presence damaging the economy, which could even spark an uprising.

Wings of Liberty
In 2504, Lockwell interviewed Emperor Mengsk over the subject of why he is diverting resources from preparing against the eventual return of the zerg, to hunting down Jim Raynor. Mengsk answered that he perceives Raynor to be a terrorist who must be brought to justice.

Still on Mar Sara, Lockwell reported on a supposed raid by insurgents against a Dominion facility guarding biological weapons that were being detoxified (actually an attack by Raynor's Raiders to retrieve an alien artifact). However, this was overshadowed by the zerg invading the planet soon afterward, Lockwell switching her reporting to focus on the new turn of events. These reports continued on a regular basis, one being made in regards to the refugee situation one being made from New Folsom. Lockwell reported truthfully, even when it cast the Dominion in a negative light. This was a source of irritation to anchor Donny Vermillion, who often cut her off.

During the conflict, Lockwell interviewed Valerian Mengsk, inquiring into his personal life. The heir apparent admitted that he always had a crush on her, causing the reporter to become flustered.