StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

Canis, within the ring of asteroids surrounding Korhal IV.

This is a small satellite with a diameter of about 3 million feet (more than 900 kilometers). Its surface gravity is only a dozen times that of Kehal IV, and some smaller ones have carbonaceous and metallic cores. Planets and icy masses orbit around the moon due to its gravitational pull. These gray-brown asteroids within the locking range of the satellite fortress sentry turret reflect the light of the star, rotating or standing still.

When Lieutenant Colonel Curt Josephine arrived at his garrison in a speedboat equipped with an afterburning accelerator, he could see through the portholes the intergalactic space missiles that had been densely covered with steel fortresses on its surface. The dark brown satellite is completely covered with silos and anti-aircraft missile towers.

This moon named Cannis has given birth to many beautiful fairy tales and poems. Now observers at the observatory can find that its original rocky surface has been transformed beyond recognition. There are hundreds of towering structures on the moon's surface and back. Thousands of railguns, railguns and cluster laser weapons are mounted on the fortress.

Those solemn and magnificent polygonal fortresses are located among the craters, connected into a huge whole by countless underground pipelines, missile launch towers, command centers, radar launch stations and barracks. The ten-foot-thick armored plates of the fortress shimmered with golden light under the starlight. The flag of the Korhal Revolutionary Army and the golden wolf flag of the Mengsk family were planted diagonally on the top floor of each fortress, hanging low due to gravity.

Cannith has been transformed into a giant space fortress, with a huge nuclear fusion reactor buried in its core, which can not only provide energy for all weapons and internal systems, but can be manually detonated if necessary. On this small moon, the traces of human modification are so large and majestic that the landscape of Cannith has been permanently changed, and even the gravity and diameter have undergone significant changes.

At this moment, Cannis and the sixteen orbital stations within twenty miles of it are stationed with approximately 80,000 Korhal Revolutionary Army soldiers and operators of gun turrets, missile launch towers and other defense facilities. More than 100% of these people Eighty-five of the soldiers were originally from Kehal IV, and the rest were basically Umoyan volunteer soldiers.

Josephine's shuttle stopped on the parking platform of a fortress on the far side of the moon. The artificial gravity and internal air circulation system allowed him to walk on flat ground and breathe freely. More than a dozen adjutants, division staff officers, majors, and commanders of the Umoyan Volunteer Army came to him one after another. They surrounded Josephine and brought bad news one after another.

"Lieutenant Colonel, there are twenty Behemoth-class battlecruisers." The commander of the Umoyan Volunteer Army said: "According to the images returned by the galaxy telescope and the drone, judging from the painting and printing on the sides of these battleships, This fleet should be a mixture of Delta Squadron, Nova Squadron, Beta Squadron and Omega Squadron.”

"Their auxiliary fleet is still on its way to the jump. According to calculations, the Omega Squadron was last seen a thousand light-years away from Korhal. From this, it can be seen that they will start the jump to the core galaxy within at least three standard Earth cycles. .”

"The enemy's mixed fleet's flagship is less than two AU (astronomical units) away from Cannae. They have not dispatched detection drones and assault ships. According to their driving speed, it will only take 20 minutes at most to reach the Siren giant planet. "The revolutionary army has nearly a hundred high-energy gas refineries on that planet." A staff officer said: "And we only have less than 50,000 troops stationed on that planet."

"Who is their commander?" Josephine, wearing a thick school officer uniform, raised her eyes to look at the starry sky above her head. After Augustus handed over nearly 20,000 revolutionary soldiers to Josephine half a year ago, no matter how incompetent he was, he still had some leadership qualities.

Josephine was not a famous general who was used to strategizing and was good at fighting. He graduated from Stillling Academy of Arts and knew nothing about leading troops in war, but he knew that he should listen to the opinions of professionals extensively. , how to manage a huge army in order.

"The flagship is the Nord I of the Beta Squadron. According to the information provided by the Umoyan Intelligence Agency, this battlecruiser is commanded by Gather Duke. It is said that he is the same as the famous general of the Federation Navy, Edmund Duke. Relative relationship," said the staff officer.

"Maybe they will stop on the giant planet and replenish fuel." Josephine said: "The Federation Navy is already sure of victory, and Gather Duke is a man who likes success. We don't have a fleet that can be used to stop them, so we can only send Hope and the folly of the Federation fleet commander.”

"Order-" Josephine said: "All fighter planes take off and recharge the fortress's main guns."

"Yes, sir." The order was delivered quickly and without any hesitation.

From the parking platform on the top of the fortress where Josephine was standing, he could see the Avengers fighter planes with vermilion primer paint and gold stripes driving out of the electromagnetic projection track of the fortress. Thousands of fighter planes were like sharp swords. Lift off.

At this time, there was darkness on the far side of the moon in Cannis, with faint lights flickering on the fortresses. The ice-blue plasma thruster flames of the Avengers fighter jets were like dots of light rising upwards. The fighter jets flying out from the other side of the satellite were like Like a comet passing by a satellite.

An interceptor carrier about a thousand feet (three hundred meters) long sailed past Canis under the cover of the Avengers fleet, and ten frigates converted from Fomorian-class frigates were arranged horizontally behind the mothership. These warships are only a dozen miles away from the surface of Cannith, and they look like brilliant starlight from the fortress.

This is the only fleet we have.

There was almost no chance that these battleships and fighter planes could successfully return home. All pilots and battleship crews set sail with the determination to die.

Josephine thought sadly and sadly: What would you do if you were here, Augustus. We don't have a fleet, so we can only be passively attacked. The outcome of Korhal IV was doomed from the moment he rebelled.

Although Josephine was an open-minded person by nature, even he could feel a tragic sense of mission at this moment, and everyone who fought alongside him was ready to sacrifice for Korhal. Josephine had thought that great men did not exist. He had never realized that more than a million Korhal soldiers possessed such noble character and willingness to sacrifice.

At critical junctures for the survival of the race, many ordinary and great people will always emerge among us.

These revolutionary soldiers are not reformed and resocialized soldiers. They have sound and independent personalities. They have their own thoughts, and of course they are also afraid. Many of them were just the sons and daughters of workers and farmers before they shouldered their Gauss rifles. Some of them even behaved selfishly in their daily lives, but they still stayed in Korhal.

Everyone knew what they were about to face. If the Federation wanted to reduce Korhal IV to scorched earth, then the "Sons of Korhal" would also be reduced to ashes.

"Where are Marshal Mengsk's fleet?" Josephine said, putting on a military coat handed over by her subordinates, and walked down the spiral staircase from the parking platform to the interior of the fortress.

"The fifth-level encrypted communication one day ago mentioned that the First Fleet has arrived in the MTY 324586 system, which is less than six light years away from the planet Dela IV where the Dalarian Shipyard is located. They must have arrived by now." Joseph A young lieutenant of Fen said: "Even if the Terran Federation's intelligence department can find this one among millions of forged puppet messages, it will take several days to completely decipher it."

"If everything goes well." Josephine walked down the spiral staircase and entered the command center: "I think by this time, the members of the Tarsonis Federation Council are already crying for their fathers and mothers."

The fortresses of Canis are all built using modular plates. Each one is equivalent to the Howe Fortress of Turasis II. It can accommodate 5,000 fully armed revolutionary soldiers. A shelter to withstand a Category 4 nuclear blast.

Along the way, Josephine saw many Revolutionary Army soldiers patrolling the corridors. Up to now, the Revolutionary Army still only had starter armor for officers, so the private soldiers were still wearing ordinary dark gray uniforms, with boat-shaped caps and armbands.

Since the Keha Revolutionary Army is not a loose organization with the nature of a peasant rebel army, it is written into the oath of enlistment that junior officers and soldiers must salute immediately when they see senior officers. Therefore, the soldiers saluted immediately after seeing Josephine. And responded with a serious and respectful expression. This was a well-disciplined army, and Josephine was sincerely proud to command such an army.

Josephine never thought that he could become a school officer. He had many dreams and nightmares, but they were not as magical as reality. Josephine probably never thought in her life that one day she would stand here in this capacity. A year ago, he was just an ordinary federal marine soldier, and his only idea was to join the army to avoid the limelight.

When Josephine was young, he was considered an incurable playboy. His mother, Mrs. Josephine, was even so angry that she was bedridden because of her son's dissoluteness. Josephine himself never repented or had any thoughts of changing his mind. His life was probably like this, dying as a Marine on an unknown battlefield in an unknown battle.

No one cares, no one mourns.

Compared with his old boss Augustus, Josephine was much more of a bastard when she was young. Among the old lovers she abandoned were noble ladies with excellent family backgrounds, doctoral students in colleges and universities, and Steele gangsters. The leader's only daughter, I can't remember the countless one-night stands.

Anyway, by the time Josephine came to his senses, the hired killers were already eager to chop off his head. In order to prevent his family from suffering, Josephine had to join the army.

It doesn't really matter if he dies in the federal marines. A scum like him will just die.

But Josephine survived in the end. The war forged his strong will, and the friendship between the team somewhat reshaped his sense of responsibility that might not have existed at all. The experience of the Devil in Heaven taught Josephine that people can also form a strong and indivisible collective. So Josephine began to return to the past that she had escaped from, trying to make up for the wrong things she had done.

Before this battle, Josephine could have escaped with the last batch of colonial ships evacuating the Korhal system, but he did not do that. Josephine's aging father also joined the Korhal Revolutionary Army and was serving in the Korhal Revolutionary Army's First Fleet at this time.

The Josephine family is the nobles of Korhal. The nobles of Korhal have always stood between the people and disaster. Just like those knight lords who have been eliminated by the times but still pick up their armor, pick up their great swords and mount their war horses, Korhal is a much younger colony than Tarsonis, and the nobles there can still see the legacy of their ancestors. The bloody nature below.

The reason Josephine stayed was simple. Like Lundstein, he was a native of Korhal, and an heir to Korhal's old nobility. If outsiders like Harnak and Lisa were willing to stay and fight for Korhal, they would view themselves as cowards for running away.

Among the generals born in the Demons of Heaven, only Josephine and Lundstein were Korhal nobles born and raised here. Their ancestors swore to protect their people in the early colonial era. Although the glory brought by this oath has long since dissipated, almost every noble who survived the wave of the Korhal Revolution sent their children to the battlefield, and those who had no heirs carried it on their own. arms.

"What do you need us to do?" said a young revolutionary soldier, probably in his early sixteen years.

"Stay at your post, soldier." Josephine could feel that the young soldier was very nervous, and his legs were even trembling slightly. No one forced him to stand here. His determination to fight in this place and in this way today was entirely of his own free will.

"Fight for Korhal!" the young warrior suddenly saluted. "I'm ready to die."

"Fight for Korhal!"

"Fight for the beautiful Korhal, for our ancestral homeland." Josephine said as she walked into the command center. In front of the console in front of a huge radar map and star map, there were about twenty radar monitors. Members are talking at the same time.

A Behemoth-class battlecruiser of the Tyranid Federation Navy appeared on the radar scan, with a dangerous red light flashing on the bow, and the rest of the battleships followed closely behind.

"If this is just the vanguard, sir." Looking at the radar chart glowing with dark green light, a major officer said, "How many more fleets are there to follow?"

"What is that?" Suddenly, a radar monitor shouted.

Josephine followed the sound and saw the artificial intelligence in the command center's notes on the dense red dots on the radar map: missiles or other small flying objects, some of which were probably empty bombs used to confuse the field of vision. The fragments they explode and travel at high speed in the vacuum appear as dozens of reflected signals in radar images.

"A dense swarm of long-range missiles and space torpedoes with over four thousand signal sources and more to come."

"But the Federation fleet is far away from one point and five astronomical units - another fleet, Zeta Squadron -"

“There’s a nuclear bomb in there—”

"Apocalyptic level."

"One hundred pieces - there are another hundred pieces - three hundred pieces - the Holy Son is on top, four hundred pieces -"

"Intercepting——"

All Cannis' anti-aircraft missile towers and all kinetic energy weapons began to fire. In the near-vacuum environment, everything was quiet. Josephine and his men could only see tens of thousands of fire points firing at the same time, rays of light. shine.

"It can't be stopped." Josephine's tone actually sounded relieved: "I hope they only brought so many nuclear bombs."

In a space war, a nuclear bomb may be a less efficient weapon. A nuclear explosion in a vacuum environment does not produce a shock wave, and the light pressure generated is negligible. Therefore, it cannot cause the mechanical impact produced when it explodes in the atmosphere. Its entire energy will be Released as radiation and electromagnetic pulses.

However, just like what Josephine saw, at the very center of the detonation of the apocalypse-class nuclear bomb, the extremely high-temperature electromagnetic waves caused the steel fortress on the surface of the Canis satellite to begin to melt, as if it were a melting sugar cube. Everything seemed like a twisted mirage.

"Son of a bitch—"