StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

It takes only a few seconds from the time Tal'darin ground troops emerge from the warp field to Alpha Squadron's opening fire, no longer than a Marine to draw and load his gun or a Tal'darim warrior to ignite his psionic blade. Long.

Byshel is becoming a battlefield between humans and Tal'darin protoss among the withered jungles and dead trees. The electromagnetic guns and magnetic nail guns in the hands of the Alpha Squadron infantrymen are clicking, and the fire bats at the front are using plasma flamethrowers on the battle line. A wall of scorching smoke was released from the front.

Goliath armed robots and deployed arclight tanks are located in Alpha Squadron's battle line, between combat battalions to provide fire support to their infantry comrades.

The warriors of the Tal'darim advanced in a hail of bullets. Their padded reinforced mechanical greaves allowed these violent protoss warriors to charge at phantom speeds and storm into the enemy ranks with overwhelming force.

More than 20,000 soldiers of Edmund Duke's Alpha Squadron were deployed on a front about 15 miles wide. Behind them were more than a dozen artillery battalions and more than 6,000 elite mercenaries of the Camorian Hammer Security Company. .

Compared with Alpha Squadron's bright white power armor and golden eagle emblem, Hammer Security Company's armor color scheme is much more low-key, mainly black, supplemented by silver-gray right-angled lines.

These mercenaries have all signed confidentiality agreements, promising not to tell what they saw and heard today for five years. But even so, news of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations outside the Koprulu sector will spread like wildfire sooner or later. Even the most well-informed people will inevitably be curious about the mysterious extraterrestrial civilizations - especially if they harbor suspicions about humans. When there is malicious intent.

In fact, the Terran Federation and other human governments discovered and named these alien races much earlier than the year 2497 that is known to the public.

After the first calibration, the artillery of the Revolutionary Army fired at the location where the Tal'darin troops were initially reported. The dense artillery fire immediately covered the several square miles of Alpha Squadron's current area, a huge mud composed of mud, withered plants and shrapnel. The pillars rose from the ground, and a layer of the ground was lifted.

However, by the time the artillery commander was preparing for the second round of bombardment, he had already received reports of close combat between the Tal'darin protoss and the Alpha infantry. The artillery unit turned to target the rear of the Tal'darin to avoid accidental damage.

Tal'darin warriors emerged from the smoke raised by the artillery fire, getting closer to the Alpha Squadron soldiers who were shooting. Such intensive artillery fire was enough to shred the power armor of human soldiers and destroy any known human ground force, but the protoss troops seemed to have few casualties, or even remained unscathed.

The plasma shields on their bodies were still shining with a cold light, like solid ice under the fragmented sunlight of Baishel. The protoss' fighting style is different from humans who are accustomed to using guns. They almost do not use ballistic kinetic energy weapons, preferring beam-type psychic weapons.

Even so, the warriors of the Protoss still adhere to the traditions of the tribal era and still use knives and spears to fight, but they have replaced the stone weapons with psychic blades. Perhaps they believe that close combat between swords can better reflect the value of a warrior, but that does not mean that the protoss, especially their cruel branch Tal'darin, will not use powerful firepower to destroy their enemies.

Behind the Tal'darin front, nearly a thousand Tal'darin Dragoons drove flat four-legged armor forward like deep-sea giant crabs in the craters. Their long and multi-jointed mechanical legs were in the horizontal craters and ravines created by the shells. It's like walking on flat ground.

As long as the scarlet energy shells of the phase fragmentation cannon thrown by the Dragon Knight land in the middle of the Alpha Squadron's line, both the Marines and the Firebats wearing thicker armor will immediately melt, or look like crushed jelly. Just as cracked.

These amazingly powerful walking mechas come from the Tal'darin Protoss' close relatives on Aiur, the planet of origin of the Protoss. The Dragon Knights were originally prepared for protoss warriors who were disabled by injuries and wanted to continue fighting.

After the Tal'darin Protoss obtained the Dragon Knight mecha from their kin through unjust means, they directly threw the remains and even the brains of the warriors who lost in the internal fight into the nutrient solution, making these losers forever. Part of the icy mecha.

The Tal'darin warriors run as vigorously as strong springboks. The indestructible plasma shield blocks all bullets, shrapnel and even lasers. Their psychic blades drag scarlet arcs as if they are jumping. of flame.

Tal'darin warriors holding scarlet blood blades jumped into the enemy formation against the intensive firepower of Alpha Squadron. In the blink of an eye, flesh and blood flew across the human battle line. The psychic blades of the Tal'darin Protoss could cut through the power with just a few swings. Armor.

The roar of artillery fire and the flash of swords.

At this time, even the Tal'darin Protoss was surprised by the morale of Alpha Squadron that seemed to never collapse or retreat. The resocialized soldiers would not collapse even if only one person was left in the battle. Their combat awareness Almost like a robot. Never retreat, fight to the death.

The first wave of Tal'darim charges inflicted huge casualties on Alpha Squadron, not to mention the Tal'darim leaders whose bodies were suspended in mid-air and could use their powerful psychic powers to release scarlet psychic energy chains that swept across the battlefield.

The protoss' use of psionic powers has reached such an extreme level that their individual psychic powers far exceed those of any human psyker except Sarah Kerrigan. While the total number of human psykers in the entire Koprulu Sector is between one thousand and ten thousand, the Tal'darin Protoss psykers are everywhere. If psychic potential is the product of a highly evolved species, then the protoss has undoubtedly evolved to a fairly high level.

The terrifying psychic arc can easily tear apart the power armor. The human soldier at the center of the psychic chain is dried directly like a crab in an oven, and dies in an extremely tragic way.

It's just that Duke's Alpha Squadron is undoubtedly an elite force. They quickly withstood the protoss' charge and used EMP weapons and anti-psionic weapons to inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

Tal'darin's warriors were able to use their advanced plasma shield technology and psychic blades to kill all sides when facing human warriors, but their number was still too small. Coupled with the dragon knight troops deployed at the rear, the number of warriors participating in the battle was The Tal'darin protoss numbered less than five thousand.

At the same time, the Warfield Marine Corps behind Alpha Squadron reinforced and strengthened its flank defenses, while Reno's Rangers detoured to the left wing of the Tal'darin front, giving the Dragoon troops in the rear a great sense of oppression.

After a Revolutionary Army sniper shot and killed a Tal'darin protoss commander, the Tal'darin ground troops began to retreat. They used some kind of sub-jump technology to instantly recall their troops. It seemed that this was just the Tal'darin protoss commander. Lin's test.

Augustus, who was in the command center, was watching all this through the monitors of his own satellites and reconnaissance aircraft. There were dozens of different windows on the main screen of the command center showing images of the battlefield. There were a bunch of people talking in front of the console in the command center, reporting casualty figures or some data about the fleet in synchronous orbit.

The losses of Alpha Squadron were relatively heavy, but after all, they were all resocialized soldiers of the Federation, so Augustus was not so sad. In comparison, the losses of the Tal'darin troops were difficult to count. Their soldiers died in battle. Or after a serious injury, there will be almost no body left behind, and only a few bodies will remain in place.

Augustus's wish to capture a high-level Tal'darin ascendant alive became a luxury. The protoss deployed ground troops much more flexibly and quickly than humans. They could choose the place to start the war and the time to retreat at will. .

At this time, Augustus was more certain that there were not many Tal'darin protoss in Byshel. In his impression, the Tal'darin here was only part of the Tal'darin Expeditionary Force, and this Tal'darin Expeditionary Army was originally a A lone army far away from Tal'darin's home planet of Slane.

Within minutes after the Tal'darin Protoss retreated, Augustus received a communication from Alpha Squadron Commander Edmund Duke.

"Alpha Squadron lived up to expectations. This was a glorious victory. We easily flattened the pointed heads of the Tal'darin protoss and burned them to dregs. It was as easy as burning a group of cockroaches." The pointed heads in Duke's helmet have already been There is no trace of hair, and the shiny head is discernible.

Whether in the Tyranid Federation or the Revolutionary Army, Duke's reputation is not very good. Tychus, Raynor, and Harnak all call him an insidious snake, and a man like Lundstein who received an aristocratic education The aristocratic officer literaryly referred to Duke as the pointed silverback gorilla imprisoned in King Arthur's court. Of course, he was undoubtedly comparing Augustus to King Arthur in the earth age.

"Duke, I order you to press forward and provide cover for our engineering regiment - we must not only bury Tal'darin's terrazine springs, but also knock down their shrines. The protoss artifacts are all Koprulu The most collectible things are quite valuable if you find the right buyer.”

Augustus ignored Duke's smug boast. All the generals in the federal naval command knew that Colonel Duke's report could only be half believed. Even if he defeated a small team of Camerian Labor Auxiliary Army, then It would also turn out to be a huge victory for Alpha Squadron as they fought off an entire Ripper Heavy Brigade.

But for now, it seems that this is still a victory. If Tal'darin has the power to defeat the human army, then they will not just send two or three kittens to scratch it, but will cleanly destroy all the human troops.

The Tal'darim don't need to deploy many troops in Byshel, they have almost no other enemies in this universe.

"This doesn't sound difficult," Duke said. "But I think it would take us a few months to clean out all the shrines of these Tal'darim heads."

"It's even harder to get rid of all the pointed heads of Beisher. They have an invisible position. We are completely blind." As he said this, his head suddenly turned to the other side, as if someone was following him. say.

"Marshal Augustus, I have good news to tell you." At this time, Duke showed his signature proud smile and said in a tone that was almost asking for credit.

"If you keep cheating on me, you will never get any medals or promotions." Augustus knew that Duke was a man who was good at adjusting to the circumstances. When he was in the Federation, Duke didn't like to please his boss because he was backed by the Duke family, the founding family, but this is no longer the past.

"Ta'darin left some warriors behind when they retreated. We found several spider-type mechas that were damaged by shells - I think it should be called this." Duke said: "One of them was hit. We found a dying Tal'darin pointy head in the rotten mecha, if we can revive him."

"Arrange a special plane to send this Tal'darin to the command center. Directly to the field hospital. Also, send all the captured Tal'darin Protoss equipment." Augustus said immediately. Then, Augustus called Kerrigan and Corporal Faraday beside him.

"Call Swann and Kaczynski over here to see how these things can help us." He said and walked towards the straight ladder leading to the ground from the command island in the command center: "Let Lisa Kesidi Prepare an operating room and arrange for our best attending doctor.”

"Yes, Marshal." Corporal Faraday immediately saluted with a standard military salute.

There was still an ordinary scene of martial law outside the command center. Augustus's guards were patrolling back and forth. Outside the iron grating separation wall where the command center was located were the hospital and the armory, so Augustus, who was standing in the open space, quickly Swann and his assistant arrived after a long journey.

"Boss Mengsk, we are not too late, but I don't know what made you rush to find us. My people and I have been dealing with machinery and screws these days." Swann was dressed in orange and gray. The sling work clothes were covered with black oil stains.

At the same time, a command vehicle taking Augustus to the hospital had parked nearby. As usual, Augustus himself was driven by either Kerrigan or Corporal Faraday.

"I need you to handle a batch of Tal'darin Protoss weapons." Augustus smiled softly, asking Swann not to be too nervous.

"Let's get in the car and talk as we go."

"How's the research on those protoss weapons going?" Augustus was sitting in the back seat of the command vehicle. He didn't mind sitting with him at all with the oily Swann and Kaczynski, and the latter seemed Somewhat reserved.

Swann was the one who felt the most. A year ago at Meinhof, Augustus was just a second lieutenant with only a few dozen men under his command. He was already the supreme leader of the Kohal rebels, commanding ten people. Tens of thousands of people.

Even so, Augustus seems to be no different from before, but it always makes people feel that the burden on his shoulders is too heavy, so that he is more depressed than before.

Never in Augustus's life did he lose so many friends and soldiers as in the previous year.

"The progress is about equal to nothing. I don't like to brag...that's basically it." Swann said: "Remember those void crystals we found in Mar Sara, the ones that power the Tal'darin protoss weapons are similar things, but among them The energy is even more violent."

"The Protoss's plasma shield gave me some inspiration. Maybe we can refer to this to improve the defensive shields of the Hyperion and other battleships - if we can get more Tal'darin Protoss weapons or buildings, then the results will be great It will be much more.”

Thanks to Corporal Kerry for going out on patrol, Senior Blackwatch Commander, Agent Rongrong, and Jason1326 for the reward!