StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

As soon as Zeratul finished speaking, the green prismatic crystal that refracted light and shadow like a gem dimmed, ending the image with a precise coordinate that humans could understand.

Augustus put the crystal back into the storage unit on the power armor breastplate, and ordered an Alpha Squadron officer over the communication channel to collect the remains, weapons, equipment, and supplies.

Then, Augustus asked on the channel if anyone knew the location of the Protoss Grand Archon Tal'darin. A few seconds later, an Alpha Squadron medic answered Augustus on the much quieter public channel. All problems.

Not long after, Augustus took Corporal Faraday to find Taldarin, who was in a still intact Star Spirit portal.

The magnificent pyramid-shaped star building seems to be made of gold and blue gems. It is majestic and towering. The barrel-shaped vaults are closed at the top to form a huge azure Kedarin soul crystal suspended in the center. .

When approaching the elegant and gorgeous buildings of the Protoss, Augustus could hear a soft humming sound coming from the crystal. This sound was as sweet and sweet as the water in the mountains, and had its own rhythm. There is a towering crystal tower dozens of yards away, and the psychic matrix network that expands from it looks like an imperceptible light blue halo under the fierce sunlight of Char.

The buildings of the protoss seem to have been originally built to bring them closer to the sun. They shine with incomparable splendor in the sun, just like a pile of gold in the light.

Climbing the hundreds of stairs is a kind of pilgrimage for a Templar, beyond the Warp Gate's twisting rift in space and time to their fleet and home. Augustus didn't have much reverence. As a human, it was difficult for him to resonate with the thoughts and customs of the protoss.

It's just that these buildings that can be called works of art are also in line with human aesthetics. Augustus just thought that it was fortunate that the nobles of Tarsonis had never seen the buildings of the Protoss, otherwise they would just think that they were not luxurious enough.

The top of the portal is a flat-top platform with an area equivalent to two football fields. On it stand many protoss templar warriors in full formation, guarding the Grand Archon Tal'darin of the Protoss Koprulu Expeditionary Force.

The high-ranking consul turned around in his dragon knight armor, the joints of the mechanical appendages bent inward, and the cockpit slowly landed in front of Augustus, almost completely on the ground.

"What a hearty battle." Taldarin's remains, wrapped in the ice-blue nutrient solution in the cockpit, were close to the shaped transparent window of the cockpit, and his shining eyes stared at Augustus. All.

Augustus didn't know if he had seen it wrong. He found that a small fish had just swam in the cockpit of the Taldarin Dragon Knight.

"It would be great if Aden were here too." He said to Augustus: "This is the first time I share the glory of victory with mankind, and it will certainly not be the last time. Praise the light of Kara."

The Templars around Tal'darin also pressed their long, blunt chins against their chests as one of the ways they showed respect.

Even the Aiur protoss who communicate directly on the spiritual plane through Kara sometimes use body language to show courtesy and respect, and this is even more necessary for their fellow Nerazim Dark Templar who voluntarily severed their link to Kara. Way.

"Consul Taldarin, it is my honor to fight alongside you." Augustus opened his helmet visor, but he did not smile, only a stern expression.

Augustus' brother Arturs once warned him that he should be cold and behave like steel.

"Dark Templar Zeratul just told me that they discovered space-distorting fluctuations in the main hive area of ​​the Char Zerg." Augustus did not hesitate.

"I don't know what that means, but I think I have to get there right now to find out what the zerg are doing."

"Send an elite force and set off lightly." Tal'darin's look of recalling the past fleetingly disappeared.

"Before this, we must withdraw the remaining troops from this area and establish a new line of defense in dangerous areas that cannot be covered by psychic launchers." Augustus said.

"There is no need." Taldarin said to Augustus: "I can allow your warriors to teleport back to the fleet through the warps."

"What a help in times of need, Grand Archon." After Taldarin reminded Augustus, he suddenly remembered that the protoss could transfer his army through the portal.

"Then this matter will be much simpler." He said: "I will take a few subordinates to the direction mentioned by Zeratul to find out."

"And me," Taldarin responded. "It is the honor of a Templar to risk one's life to protect one's people."

"Okay." Augustus just responded without any more compliments.

Augustus discovered that getting along with the arrogant star spirits was not as difficult as he believed. First of all, the protoss will not deliberately make things difficult for humans. At most, they will ignore them. They respect warriors and those with noble moral character. As long as these two requirements are met, the rest will be much simpler.

Except for a few people, there are very few people who can impress the protoss, and even fewer who can respect them.

At this time, Renault's call came from Augustus' channel: "I found Duke and Tychus. They stayed in the wilderness of Char all night and were no less frightened than us."

"Bring them to me." Augustus overlooked the entire Alpha Squadron base from above the portal and found that except for the Protoss portal under his feet, there were very few buildings still standing in the entire base. .

"The tallest Protoss building you can see is the tallest one. Ask Duke to bring over the Nova Squadron scouts and scientists he captured."

Augustus waited on the platform of the portal for another ten minutes, until a mixed revolutionary army of about a thousand people walked towards here through the collapsed fortification wall.

These people basically ride on vultures and chariots. Compared with the number of troops led by Duke and Tychus before, it can be seen that their numbers have been reduced a lot.

A night spent on the unprotected Ash Plains of Char had taken its toll on these warriors, and the swarms of darkness were more terrifying than ever before.

"The night just now was really the most frightening moment in my life." Augustus could hear Tychus's loud voice when he had just walked two-thirds of the steps.

"The zerg that surrounded us in the wasteland of Char are less than a fraction of the ones you have here, but there are still a lot of them." He walked quickly, with the help of the power armor servo system and adrenaline, he moved through the portal. Climbing quickly on the steps: "We built positions on several protruding highlands, arranged trenches, barbed wire and spider mines, and also used Viktor Kaczynski's little spider robots."

"Dozens of bugs swarmed toward us, like the flying bugs of Reading III that hit you in the face while driving a Vulture. As soon as the torrent of guns and guns swept away those bugs, more and stronger ones came immediately. Rushed forward," Tychus said.

"It's like trying to kick away the waves coming at you when you're on the beach. The bugs come in waves, and once you fall down once, you can't get up again."

"Well said, Tychus, how much have you drunk?" After several years of getting along, Augustus understood some of Tychus' habits more clearly than his mother did. Tychus likes to drink a lot when fighting. Usually he doesn't drink too much, just to refresh himself, and the side effect is that he talks nonsense.

"Whiskey, the kind that's spicy and strong." Tychus walked over the steps to Augustus and showed him a long scratch on his chest: "This is a red and big one. At the hands of the Hydra Hydralisk, he almost killed me."

"I showed him the portrait of Lisdelle on the chest of my armor, spat a mouthful of wine on the beast's head, and then stared at it."

"Okay, shut up Tychus, I'll listen to your bragging later." Augustus ordered the other person to shut his mouth as always, and then looked at Renault and Duke behind Tychus.

"General Duke, where are the people from Nova Squadron?" he asked Duke, who was opening his helmet visor.

Duke's bright white power armor had long since lost its luster, and the gray-faced general looked listless: "Lieutenant, bring those damn bastards up. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have suffered heavy losses at all!"

A dozen Nova Squadron soldiers who had already been stripped of their power armor, leaving only their combat uniforms, walked toward Augustus, including two federal ghost agents.

It is worth mentioning that as a relatively well-known federal squadron, the Nova Squadron is best at infiltration and covert operations. During the Kaimorian War, they would often appear in the rear of the Kaimorian Federation disguised as black Tearer troops, delivering a fatal blow to the guild guards of the Federation.

"Marshal, guess how many psychic transmitters the Nova Squadron people have placed in Char?" When looking at the captives of the Nova Squadron, Duke's voice was still full of arrogance and condescension as before, as if he was a regular Talking with his bulging nostrils.

"Four," said Augustus.

"At least ten." Duke said bitterly: "The signal released by each psychic transmitter can attract all zerg within 2.5 light years, which means that the entire zerg of Char will be affected."

"It's really cruel," Renault said.

"What else were you told before being ordered to activate these psychic transmitters?" Augustus looked at one of the Nova Squadron ghost agents. The opponent's psychic level was still fluctuating around PSI5, and he was unable to use his spirit. The telekinesis hurt Augustus.

"No, sir, nothing." Due to the conditions, this federal ghost agent has not yet had his psychic suppressor removed. Even if he really knows something, he cannot say anything.

"Activate the psionic launcher and wait for the order to evacuate," he said.

"But you did not wait for the order?" asked Augustus.

"It's too late, sir. As soon as the psychic launcher was activated, the bugs swarmed up." The ghost agent said.

"Take him down, every psyker is precious. As long as the psionic suppressor is removed, he can be used by us." Augustus ordered Duke.

Generally speaking, the team deploying the psionic emitter must evacuate immediately after activating the psionic emitter, otherwise it will be overwhelmed by the insect swarm. But in Char, a place full of zerg, the team deploying the psionic launcher had almost no chance of evacuating.

In other words, each time a psionic launcher is activated, one ghost agent is consumed. Considering the high cost of finding, cultivating, and equipping psykers of suitable age, as well as the scarcity of the number of ghost agents themselves, the Federation has spent a considerable price. .

"What exactly does the Federation want to do?" Reynold looked at Augustus and said, "This number is more than just trying to trap us."

"Lead as many zerg as possible to Char, and then use a thousand or more Apocalypse nukes to wipe us out along with the zerg, just like we did to Korhal." Augustus A possibility came to mind: "There is no time to delay, Duke, you take the rest of the people and follow the warriors of the Protoss Archon Taldarin to return to the Protoss Fleet through this portal."

"Remember, Duke, restrain the people who follow you." Augustus warned Duke again: "Tell our engineers to try not to touch the Protoss things on the Protoss warships unless they allow it. .”

"Portal" Duke maintains a somewhat skeptical attitude towards anything and technology that is not under his control, especially the protoss.

"Without the protection of spaceships and battleships, how can a human body withstand the losses caused by the folding of time and space? To hell with the protoss, I will not go in even if I die."

Behind the central platform of the portal is the black, rotating hazy core. The black vortex through which no light can penetrate seems to be a non-reflective iris, like the reverse side of a mirror, with a border outlined by golden light at the edge.

Mysterious and unknown, it seems like there is dark space behind it.

The Protoss' portal comes from the ancient Xel'Naga portal, and the technology to create the Xel'Naga gate has long been lost in the disaster that the Protoss calls an eternal catastrophe.

In the Xel'Naga era, the mysterious Xel'Naga portal connected various distant and unknown worlds, even as far away as the Milky Way. At that time, the ancient Xel'Naga Gate was the transportation hub used by the Xel'Naga fleet to explore the universe.

Even if they are hundreds of millions of light years away from countless galaxies, the user can reach the Xel'Naga portal in an instant. Nowadays, this kind of portal only exists in Aiur, Sagulath and other unknown distant worlds. Today's protoss will only use Xel'naga portals and not create them. They use them to jump armies. The portal is the result of reverse research on the Xel'Naga portal.

And even if the Protoss' portal can leap armies across a distance of several light years, this technology is nothing more than an extremely poor imitation of the Xel'Naga portal.

"The scariest thing is not seeing it." Renault has never seen it before, but he is not afraid of tigers as a newborn calf, and he has never been afraid.

"With your short life span, it is understandable that you cannot understand teleportation technology." Taldarin said: "Only the bravest warriors can pass through the teleportation gate."

"Damn the protoss, you are relying on your old age and betraying your old age." In the federal army, Duke has always been the one who relies on his old age and betrays his old age. He was undoubtedly angered: "You see if I dare."

Duke said as he rushed into the time and space rift of the portal and disappeared like passing through a shadow, followed closely by the remaining Revolutionary Army soldiers.

"He's so understanding." Tychus said teasingly to Renault next to him.

"The provocative general has tried his best against Duke. What he can't stand the most is others denying him." Renault saw it clearly in his heart than anyone else.

"Tychus, Jimmy, you stay." Augustus looked at Corporal Faraday: "And my guards."

"Okay, let old Tychus try what this 'magical arbitrary door' can do?" Tychus followed the team and walked out after a while.

"It's a wonderful feeling, like lifting the skirt of a street girl," he said.

Tychus' bad metaphors never get old. If the protoss hadn't been able to understand Tychus' offbeat jokes, he would never have left Char today.

"Come on, Tychus, we still have to find Zeratul." Augustus said to Tychus.

"The zerg's sense of smell is extremely sensitive. They are like sharks in the water and can smell the smell of blood miles away." The mission briefing on the face of Tychus's helmet is what Augustus just listed in the command chain. Task.

"It's almost impossible to travel unnoticed through a land full of bugs."

"As always, as long as the bugs can't catch up with our vulture car, walking the dog on the moor of Char is as easy as walking in your own garden." Augustus said.

Thanks for tipping