StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

In late February, the area where Oasis Town is located experienced a light rain that lasted for several days. The rain brought some coolness to the sweltering Oasis Town, and the lingering red haze in the sky also showed signs of weakening.

The sun's rays projected out from the dispersing fog, and the sky was covered with a transparent blue light, like the ruffles of a skirt.

Oasis Town was nothing more than a small settlement in the beginning, with rows of staggered prefabricated houses and wide and narrow alleys composed of tall oil storage tanks from a gas refinery, located in the rugged and winding rift valley terrain of Altera. between.

This may be the most habitable place in the area. There is a river that rises and falls with the flood season in the rift valley below the town, and to the south is the drought-resistant and tough Black Forest of Altera.

It is not an easy task to find water sources and settlements with stable soil that can shelter from the wind and sand in Altera, because most areas are either barren and barren, or are on dangerous moving plates.

The land plate of Altera has been extremely active in the past few million years. New high-energy gas springs are discovered almost every moment along with the latest cracks, and cracks that have existed for many years are also buried.

Although it is called Oasis, Oasis Town has always been a chaotic and desperate place. All kinds of wanted criminals and people engaged in illegal activities live in the town. Mercenaries and pirates also like the cigarette shops and cigarette shops in Oasis Town very much. Bars and underground black markets. Altera's population is even more complex than Port of the Dead, and pedestrians must watch their backs even during the day.

In recent times, with the invasion of the zerg and the arrival of the Korhar Revolutionary Army, the chaos and crime in Oasis Town have been wiped out. This is not because the people here suddenly become law-abiding. When an army is stationed in the town with siege tanks and Goliath armed robots with bright muzzles, even the most vicious people have to temporarily Keep your tail between your legs and be a human being.

Even though many people in Oasis Town are dissatisfied with the status quo, they dare not complain. The streets were filled with Revolutionary Army soldiers wearing powered armor and loaded with ammunition. From time to time, arc tanks and heavy armored vehicles crossed the widened and rebuilt town roads and rushed to the front line to clean up the Zerg.

The tallest and most conspicuous buildings were replaced with the golden and red flags of the revolutionary army. As long as people raised their heads, they would inevitably see these red flags of wolves and whips.

For the vast majority of people in Oasis Town who make a living doing illegal businesses, the arrival of the revolutionary army is definitely more worrying than joy. The revolutionary army built a new government building and a sheriff's office with a five-pointed star in Oasis Town. Not only that, schools and hospitals were also rebuilt.

Revolutionary Army Marshal Augustus Mengsk seems to be very obsessed with the construction of infrastructure in his territory, which can be seen from the fact that he vigorously promotes the construction of the subway network in Ansadar City, the main star of Antiga.

The big shots who once held sway in Oasis Town did not like these changes. They believed that the revolutionary army had destroyed the customs and living standards of the Altera people, while Augustus just laughed at it. He could not let go of a country full of assassinations and violent conflicts. The town existed for a long time under his rule. Even if Augustus won't completely cleanse Oasis Town, he will let those criminals know the value of obeying the law.

On this day, Augustus did not stay in Oasis Town waiting for his generals to report back on the latest progress in eradicating Altera's zerg. Instead, he went to the largest Camorian high-energy gas refinery nearby.

At this moment, on the other side of the planet Altera, Tassadar's Protoss fleet is still bombarding the main nest of the Jormungandr Swarm, while Zeratul's Dark Templars are hunting in the wilderness and dark canyons of Altera. The elite of the insect-killing herd.

The Kemorians have several miles of industrial facilities for high-energy gas collection, extraction and storage at the foothills of the mountains south of Oasis Town. This is not difficult to spot on satellite images, but the Kemorians have bribed the Tyranid Federation to officials in exchange for the right to build factories here.

Those corrupt federal officials don't care whether the bribers are Camorians or pirates. It is only legitimate to exchange Altera's natural resources that have little to do with them for real money.

The gas refinery is a building composed of solid alloy buildings, thick knotted pipes, exhaust gas outlet gates and tall gas storage tank facilities. There are also workers' living areas, entertainment areas and even supporting bars. The living environment is comparable to that under federal rule. The Altera people are much better.

Before Augustus came to this factory, it was the guild guards of the Kaimorian Kelanis Guild who guarded these gas refineries. Their equipment was enough to deal with any pirates and other threats in the interstellar, but this could not Let these brave guild guards guard this place for how long.

After the Jörmungandr swarm invaded Altera, none of the more than two thousand Camorians in this factory survived. Most of the building surfaces were covered with abscesses and purple crust. The interior of the building Filled with bloody tissue and meridians.

Under the guidance of the zerg main hive gene, all infected human buildings seemed to have life again, living like a real creature, and the spreading carpet of creeping fungi transported nutrients to these buildings.

If these infected buildings are not destroyed, they will transform the humans devoured by the swarms into horrifically infected humans. The infected people who follow the will of the hive will move with the movement of the insect swarm and become real monsters.

It took days just to clean up the debris from the infected buildings and roads.

The facilities in the refinery were completely unable to operate anymore. The explosion in the core reactor destroyed dozens of buildings and collapsed the outlet of the high-energy gas spring.

Now Augustus was standing in front of the control center of a completely infected oil refinery, watching the Revolutionary Army soldiers use flamethrowers to clean up the sticky attachments on it. The air was filled with the smell of burnt protein.

"Some new creatures have been discovered in this area. The domestic animals and pets brought by workers in the factory have become more or less deformed. Various alien creatures frequently attack our soldiers and local civilians." Sha. La Kerrigan stood beside Augustus.

"This factory is gone," Augustus told Kerrigan. "It must be destroyed and buried. The swarm's infestation has spread deep underground."

As they were talking, the building in front of them, which was covered with exoskeletons, ugly hard skins and purple carapace, opened a crack, and a Kaimorian guild guard with a spike in his head was squirmed. The tissue was squeezed out, like a fish ripped out of a ruptured stomach pouch, and the surface of its body was covered with a thin layer of amniotic membrane-like material.

Hideous aberrations have manifested themselves in the camorian. He was once a proud Guildguard of the Kelanis Guild, as evidenced by the totem-like sun emblem on his chest. All honors were a far cry from what the warrior now became, a monster controlled by the hive mind.

"Bury him." Augustus left these words and walked through a main road of the refinery to the production area, passing a collapsed holographic projection theater. Many dead souls were buried under the pile of rubble covered with charred organic matter, but the colored lights and glass fragments in the rubble sparkled in the sunlight.

In the distance is a huge zerg hatchery, composed of hundreds of tons of organic matter, covered with sharp spikes and horny crust. The solid exoskeleton and skeleton support this huge building, which is much larger than the stadium. It vibrates like a living thing, as if it is breathing.

A carpet of purple-black creeping fungi spreads from the location where the hatchery is rooted, like ink soaked in clear water.

Underneath this hatchery stood hundreds of Revolutionary Army soldiers and Goliath armed robots, all of whom were staring warily at this living building that seemed to be still alive.

Further away are a dozen Zerg extraction rooms covering the spouts of high-energy gas springs. The special organs they have evolved can replace human distillation and refining facilities to convert high-energy gas rich in impurities into a concentrated state, and then make these The precious gas resources serve the evolution of the entire insect colony.

A functioning psychic disruptor is glowing yellow, indicating that the area is safe.

"Reporting to you, the great Marshal Augustus Mengsk, I am Captain Frank of the 9th Division. We are keeping an eye on these dangerous zerg structures all day long." A man wearing a dark gray military uniform , a revolutionary army officer with two silver vertical bars on the brim of his hat reported to Augustus.

"There is no need to add the great in front of my name, Captain." Augustus knew this man's name. Captain Frank was a software engineer for Korhal IV before joining the revolutionary army, and now he is the Marshal himself. Fanatic believer. Many people admired Augustus, but this captain was particularly paranoid.

"Salute to the soldiers of the 9th Division." When Augustus saluted the captain, Tychus was walking over from the other side of the hatchery with a hum. If the soldiers had paid more attention, they would have discovered that this burly man was dragging a worker bee that looked much larger than himself towards Augustus.

It was an ugly creature shaped like a manta ray, with huge pincers and multiple pairs of tiny triangular eyes. Its worm-like body was flanked by webbed wings. Although the pair of fleshy wings did not help the insect fly in the air, it did float in mid-air like a vulture car.

"Guess where I got in the bug kicking contest, it's a full ten feet away (three meters one)." Tychus said as he walked, pulling the worker bee's tail and dragging it towards Augustus Come.

"Are you crazy? Don't let this monster get close to the marshal!" Corporal Faraday almost jumped up and shouted at Tychus.

"Shut up, you jumping Korhar monkey, stop giving orders to me. You are not qualified yet." Tychus nonchalantly dragged the motionless worker bee to Augustus. in front of.

"Don't worry, this monster's fangs and thorns have been pulled out, and Kesidi has given it a sufficient amount of anesthesia." He threw the worker bee to the ground hard, clapped his hands and said with satisfaction : "This monster is even more dangerous than a springtail, and it can spit poisonous thorns at you like a Hydra Hydralisk. Some people have been hit by it, and they are still lying in the hospital, waiting to return to Antiga or... Umoyan’s order.”

"Now it's just a toy."

"Dangerous toys," Kerrigan added sternly. "You behave like an ignorant child."

"Such a big ignorant child." Augustus walked towards the Jörmungandr worker bee that was lying on the ground. Due to the effects of the sedative, the worker bee was still lying flat on the ground, exposing its relatively soft belly and its head hanging down.

"The Cerberus people will be able to use it - and this hatchery. Hopefully we can find a way to transform those larvae into cocoons," Augustus said.

"It will take a lot of time to transport these back to Umoyan." Kerrigan looked at Augustus and said: "During this period, we have transported a lot of living Zerg samples back to Umoyan Prime—— Aren’t those scientists in Umoyang really just playing with fire and burning themselves?”

"Everything is within the permission of the Umoyan Council." Augustus put his hands behind his back: "You would never imagine how much the Umoyan people want to obtain a complete zerg hatchery."

"They paid a high price for this." He said: "If the Umoyan Protectorate Army cannot deal with a few worker bees and hatcheries, then the United States should not expect them to protect it."

"Maybe one day the Camorians and Umoyans will have to ask us how to deal with bugs." Tychus said with a chuckle.

"Can you sense this worker bee?" Augustus looked at Kerrigan at this time. This place is extremely far away from Char, and is at the very center of the influence of the psychic disruptor. No matter how powerful the master's psychic energy is, it cannot be sensed here.

"I think I can." Kerrigan stretched out a hand to the worker bee: "You warned me never to disobey the zerg against your orders."

"Now you can try," Augustus said to Kerrigan. "I want to see what the limits of your abilities are. Try to control it."

"The psychic disruptor also has a great impact on me." Kerrigan concentrated, and golden light appeared in her emerald pupils: "But the distance is so close, it shouldn't be a big problem."

Kerrigan used her powerful mental power to control the drug-controlled worker bee. It quickly turned around and used its huge claws to poke Tychus, who was asking Corporal Faraday for a cigarette.

"Ouch!" Tychus jumped up holding his butt.

"Hole might be able to do it, but such psychics are really rare among humans." Augustus smiled and continued.

"The next step is to try to transform this worker bee into a hatchery."

Augustus had no expectations of this.

"Why do you think so? Okay." However, under Kerrigan's control, the worker bee immediately turned into a puddle of squirming tissue: "If the hatchery is this thing in front of you."

"Dr. Francos has said that the genes for psychic feedback appear to be hidden within the bodies of these worker bees."

"Cancel this order," Augustus said immediately.

"Oh my God." Tychus and Corporal Faraday were shocked.

"Emergency, an unmarked protoss fleet has appeared in the outer space orbit of Altera -" Just at this moment, the caller of Augustus suddenly heard the message from the deputy captain of the Hyperion. The sound of reporting.

"Want to intercept them? We need your instructions."