StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

Several Jörmungandr Allosaurus spread their ferocious wings and flew low through the majestic wind-sand canyon with the help of the hot air rising from the Cactus Canyon. Their shiny carapace shone like copper in the golden sunlight.

With the powerful flapping of its leathery wings, the flashing black shadow of the alien dragon quickly swept across the flowing sand. In their eyes glowing with ominous orange light, the dark shadows of a human fortress shrouded in the sky-covering red sand could be vaguely seen.

A few weeks ago, this place was a wasteland, with majestic planetary fortresses and breathtaking earth-shattering cannons seemingly rising from the ground overnight. Countless fortifications formed a huge fortress with thick armor, and thousands of cannons and missile towers stretched into the sky.

The Cactus Canyon Fortress is built on a large high-energy gas mine. The extraction wells deep underground continuously extract pure high-energy gas. The thick pipes connected to the distillation and refining towers are winding and crisscrossed, and are connected with those responsible for water supply and power supply. Pipes pass by.

The orderly heavy factories and barracks are located between the nuclear power plants and substations, and tanks and mechas drive in and out of the armory. It was not only a strong fortress, but also a large city with complete facilities, with sufficient ammunition and food to last for several years.

This scene was also seen by Yark, the brainworm of the Jörmungandr swarm at the other end of the psychic link. At this moment, these alien dragons were like its eyes.

The closer they got to the fortress, the more conspicuous the corpses that were still buried in the yellow sand became. The air was filled with the smell of blood and choking black smoke.

Only the bravest commandos and death squads among humans dared to approach an apparently insurmountable death barrier, but these alien dragons showed no hesitation or timidity.

The main hive mind shapes countless zerg individuals into a whole. All zerg are just part of the swarm. Even a mighty zerg army is just a tentacle extending from the swarm. The ethnic group is above all else, and under the righteousness of the ethnic group, nothing cannot be sacrificed.

The alien dragon that pounced on the fortress was no small target, and the densely packed anti-aircraft missile towers in the fortress responded immediately. The muffled metal frames of the dozens of missile towers closest to here moved in unison, the hydraulic system hissed, the tracking scanners and automatic sensors immediately locked onto the target in the sky, and Longbow missiles were sent one after another. Entered the launcher.

The missile tower covered with shiny titanium alloy armor shell roared, and the missiles trailing the flames seemed to be thrown out, burning the blazing guns of Longinus, causing ripples of halo in the sky. , and suddenly large amounts of blood and carapace fell from the sky.

An alien dragon whose wings were torn apart by missiles fell heavily onto the thick concrete ground poured into the base fortress. Blood and flesh immediately spattered, and it was too horrible to see. Even so, it is still alive. Even with such a heavy injury, it can heal itself with the vitality of the alien dragon.

It was trembling in the pool of blood formed by its own blood and trying to stand up. Even though its whole body was covered in blood, it seemed that it couldn't feel the slightest pain. Like a real evil dragon, deep scratches appeared on the ground under the scratching of the exaggerated claws, and the snake-shaped body covered with spikes made a sharp squeaking sound every time it struggled.

But the sound of heavy footsteps soon approached, and two teams of marines in red power armor surrounded it from both sides. The roaring electromagnetic rifles immediately ended its life.

At the last moment when it fell, the dimmed eyes of this alien dragon reflected a face with gray hair and gray eyes. This face immediately made the brainworm Yak who was paying attention here solemnly shrink his radiant eyes. Worm body.

In the spiritual link of the swarm, the brainworms who were whispering to each other were in an uproar, gnashing their teeth, as if they wanted to tear this face apart. It was not until Dagos, the most powerful brainworm, spoke that they gradually became quiet. Augustus Mengsk of the Tyranid Empire, his biggest crime was not to kill countless zerg, but to dare to enslave their powerful and proud cerebrate brothers in an attempt to steal the power of the zerg swarm.

At the same time, Emperor Augustus, who saw that the alien dragon was silent, received an alarm from the seismometer the next moment, and the fleet also issued an early warning, showing that multiple insect swarm Leviathans were entering the atmosphere of Phaethon.

This is not the first time the swarm has launched an attack on the fortress. Ever since Augustus arrived on Phaethon and brought the Xel'Naga artifact, the swarm that originally gathered on the eastern and southern borders of the Tyranids suddenly moved towards Phaethon, located at the far end of the Koprulu sector, came.

The Xel'Naga artifact that has been assembled has an unimaginable attraction for this race. The mysterious signal it sends even makes the protoss "can't stop". The nearest protoss empire colony comes to inquire about the news. Every day Scholars of the Dark Templar Xel'Naga who have wandered through the stars have arrived in Phaethon, looking for clues about the creator Xel'Naga in the severely weathered wind-eroded canyons.

"How does it feel to be at the center of a war? Using yourself as bait, one careless move will lead to losing everything." Arcturus avoided the splashing blood of the alien dragon with a look of disgust on his face. Once exposed to air, zerg blood turns into an extremely corrosive acidic liquid.

"If I have a choice, I usually put others on the hook instead of myself, and by the way, I can exclude dissidents." He said to Augustus beside him: "You have to know which approach is more conducive to consolidating your rule. favorable."

"When I have a killer weapon like the Xel'Naga artifact in my hand, it must be reserved as a last resort."

This passage is circulated among the people. The Mengsk family rules the Terran Empire, and it is up to them to decide who should die generously for the empire and who should shed their last drop of blood for the emperor. The palace of Augustgrad is now inhabited by wolves, so the empire dominates Koprulu and has its eyes on the earth.

"You should let me bring the Xel'Naga artifact to Phaethon instead of coming with me." Arcturus said: "Even the loss of a prince can arouse the fighting spirit of the imperial people."

"I swear I will never do such a thing again," Augustus told him.

"One thing I learned from Jim is that people's hearts come first." Augustus disagreed with Arcturus' words: "My people and soldiers should know that their monarch is willing to sacrifice for the well-being of the empire and the people." What sacrifices, propaganda of actual deeds is far better than a thousand fabricated boasts and ruthless iron rules.”

"I have always believed that only power can create an empire." Arcturus does not understand people's hearts, nor does he understand the people's hearts. It is just his self-interested personality that determines his style of doing things.

Arcturus believed that his brother was too kind in some ways, but that had nothing to do with weakness. Augustus was this kind of emperor. He was born into a noble family and had never been in contact with civilians before reaching adulthood. His ability to empathize with civilians was exactly what Arcturus lacked.

If Arcturus's family members all died as they did, he would have no sympathy for the suffering of others. He is a son of vengeance, never a savior.

"I don't think this is a conflict." Augustus looked at the desert in the distance. The surging yellow sand was like a mountain and a tsunami. This abnormal phenomenon indicated that a large number of worms were moving at high speed in the desert. .

From Augustus's position, he could even see the giant snake-like body crawling in the desert. When their ugly heads jumped out of the sea of ​​sand, the terrain of Cactus Canyon even changed. When the dust kicked up by these monsters fell again, it eventually formed a small rolling sand dune.

The Nydus Worm poses a great threat to human defenses. This terrifying giant insect can even penetrate the ground of Augustgrad and the walls of the Xel'Naga Temple.

"Dynadus Worm!" an Imperial officer shouted. Within a few minutes, a large number of uniformed Imperial Marines merged into the main roads from all over the military camp. Tens of thousands of armored soldiers moving at the same time were seen from the air. Extremely shocking.

After a long period of tempering during the Second Total War, the newly formed imperial armies after the Great Recruitment became well-disciplined and capable of fighting well.

"We need both power and the hearts of the people." Augustus took a needle gun from Faraday's hand. Several giant Goliaths of the Spartan Company were moving with heavy steps. to the preset fire points of the fortifications.

"If you were the one who said this, I wouldn't think he was an arrogant person. I heard Jim say that his revolutionary ideas were all learned from you." Arcturus has always obeyed himself. brother, but still raised his own questions.

"Hold the line, soldiers, the Emperor is with you." Augustus was silent for a moment and saw a group of Imperial Marines rushing to the front line, and immediately shouted to them: "Go and see the Xel'Naga artifact. , now it is more important than the entire fortress.”

The emperor obviously didn't care about Arcturus's problem: "That's Jim. He is too humble. I often tell him that he should act tougher."

Arcturus shrugged and followed Augustus through the military camp where soldiers kept coming out, encouraging these brave warriors to fight bravely as they walked.

The first officer's regulations that Terran Empire soldiers must recite is: The Tyran Empire Emperor is the supreme commander of all the armed forces of the empire. The place where he is is the empire, and guarding the land under his feet means a desperate battle.

Augustus walking among the soldiers should have boosted their morale. This year, the emperor in the Augustgrad Palace seemed to be getting farther and farther away from his loyal soldiers. Those who were alone in the peripheral world The Imperial troops who fought hard but could not wait for reinforcements inevitably felt abandoned.

But now he's back.

"The airdrop pod is crashing into the surface of Phaethon, and the estimated arrival time is in three minutes." The young Leo, the chief security officer in charge of the fortress network communications, reminded all the imperial commanders in Augustus's command channel.

In the sky of Cactus Canyon with thin clouds drifting away, tiny black spots were falling rapidly and becoming larger and larger. The number of these black spots quickly increased to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

Similar to the Empire's airdrop pods, the Swarm also has the means to airdrop ground troops. These airdrop pods, which are made of hard carapace, shock-absorbing sponge tissue and buffer-filled liquid, can hold a large number of Zerg and safely deliver them to the ground. battlefield.

Nowadays, the number of insect swarm Leviathan in the Phaethon galaxy has reached a quite astonishing number, with the genomes of as many as seven large insect swarms and 21 regional secondary insect swarms appearing. The Phaethon galaxy and The number of zerg in several surrounding star systems can even be calculated in trillions.

Most of the swarm was attracted to Phaethon by the signal released by the Xel'Naga artifact, and the Imperial Navy was unable to stop such a huge number of zerg.

The entire fortress was engulfed in the roar of giant cannons. Various missile launch platforms, anti-aircraft laser cannons, and machine gun platforms spewed out deadly tongues of flame. The flames and thick smoke of the explosion soon covered the sky, and most of the airdrop pods It was shattered by anti-aircraft fire before it hit the ground.

Even so, a batch of airdrop bags fell into the fortress, and the impact was strong enough to create huge craters, trample the buildings, and crush the people and vehicles below into powder.

One of the airdrop bags landed on a high-rise supply station not far from Augustus. After a loud bang, metal flew and debris flew everywhere, causing a commotion. The Imperial Marines who reacted below quickly rushed here and suppressed many springtails and hydralisks that jumped out of the cracked airdrop pods at the landing site, followed by marauders armed with heavy weapons. support.

"They're everywhere!"

"Then fire everywhere!"

Several springtails ignored the imperial soldiers who fired at them and jumped over the crowd in the direction of Augustus, as if they were sure he was there.

"Give me a gun, Corporal Faraday." Arcturus, who saw all this with his own eyes, was not panicked even though he was a prince. He was a man who had walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and had killed countless insects. .

Faraday handed Arcturus an AGR-28 rifle.

Without waiting for the surrounding Royal Guards to open fire, Arcturus opened the safety, drew his gun, and fired. His shooting was accurate and ruthless, blasting off the Springtail's head one by one.

"The marksmanship is still as good as before, Arcturus." Augustus also fired a few shots, but he missed.

"The jackals are at our door." Arcturus put down his gun.

"Well, here comes the jackal with a shotgun," Augustus replied.

At this time, a figure that looked panicked and stumbled into the sight of Augustus and Arcturus.

The man was wearing a researcher's uniform and a white windproof coat, with a frightened expression on his white-bearded face.

"Ah! Zerg!" Narud saw the corpses of several springtails and was immediately in a panic.

"I, I am a scientist, Your Majesty. I study zerg, but I have never seen such a scene." He then stammered an explanation to Augustus to cover up his embarrassment:

"I'm not good at fighting."

Augustus couldn't help but praise Dr. Narud's acting skills. He said to himself that when it comes to pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger, you are the best at it, Doctor. It looked as if Narud was about to jump into Augustus' arms and scream like a little girl in the next second.

Alas.

"It's really hard for you. Doctor, I hope you came to tell me that the Xel'Naga artifact's Nova Impact has been fully charged."