StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

"I hope there are still some scraps left for Stetman"

When Augustus looked back, even with his eyes slightly closed through his thickened mask, the world in his eyes was pale, as if he was suffering from snow blindness.

Thousands of light spots trailing blue molten flames fell to the earth, releasing pulsar-like light, and stacked shock waves swept across the earth.

The sky was raining dense and scorching golden light, and the ground was also filled with flames, blazing flames burning from one end of the horizon to the other. A sea of ​​light is boiling and rolling, and countless solar hurricanes are rising from the sea, sweeping everything.

Finally, a very thick beam of light came down, the ground was penetrated, and the lava spurted out like a spring, straight into the clouds.

Even the steps of cremation are omitted. There may be some ashes left.

It was already night at this time, and the sky was still bright. Everything, whether it was a soldier's armor or a stone on the ground, was shrouded in a bright light that had not dissipated for a long time.

Although Augustus' current position was far enough away from the center of the strike point, the air here was hot and hissing, and countless thunder exploded in his ears every moment, making people dizzy.

"Hybrid signal detected. Marking location."

A heart-piercing roar sounded from behind Augustus, followed by the fierce rattling of Gaussian weapons and several huge explosions. The disgusting burnt smell in the air deepened even more. point.

They were still retreating, reaching a long upward slope. At the end of the slope was a straight ravine five miles long and a thousand feet deep. Inside was a sea of ​​plasma fire shining with azure blue flashes. , even the narrowest point is completely impassable.

The terrible thing is that this chasm didn't exist at all not long ago. It was left after the Pride of the Fallen Ark Otalis razed an imperial base. There are hundreds of long, narrow and ugly scars like this in the temple area. In addition, there are countless craters and landing module impact points scattered everywhere. There are very few places to stay, like a cratered moon surface. .

No one knows what this place was like before. When the protoss mentioned the numerous temples and courtyard walls surrounded by towering trees before the First War, humans could hardly imagine what it was like.

Augustus ignored the hybrids and didn't even think he had the need to order them himself.

During the retreat, he and the royal guards stayed behind to serve as rearguards. They repelled the pursuing enemy troops many times, were surrounded and broke out of the siege several times, and saw hundreds of hybrids and killed many hybrids. There are also hundreds and thousands.

"It seems we can only take a detour."

Tychus walked over from behind, followed by several Royal Marines wearing wolf helmets and golden and red armor. Everyone's armor was scarred, and they had obviously just experienced a hard battle.

During the offensive phase, the Odin prototype driven by Tychus was almost at the forefront, followed by the new team of Heavenly Demons he recruited in a private name.

This old boy was in high spirits this time. He charged the most fiercely and fired nuclear bombs wildly. It was as if he had owed money that he could never pay back in his whole life and had no choice but to die on the battlefield.

While waiting for the combat goal to be achieved and the entire army to retreat, the imperial troops who were the main offensive force were the most difficult to escape. This was a near-death battle in itself. The death rate of the troops on offensive missions was very high, with one battalion even surviving only one seriously injured person.

But Tychus not only escaped on his own, he also managed to bring back more than a thousand people. A selfish person like Tychus is a good fighter and an excellent runner, unless he is unwilling to abandon others and escape on his own.

But this time, as a price, he could only leave his beloved Odin on the battlefield.

Tychus was heartbroken for a while, but only for a moment, for Augustus would soon give him a better Odin. His original Odin was even equipped with a shield and a reactor to power it. It could automatically assemble and produce tactical nuclear bombs internally, and the cost of construction and maintenance also continued to increase.

The next one, Tychus couldn't imagine how good it would be.

Augustus did not answer Tychus at first, but just looked back from a high place.

A group of Royal Guards were walking past him quickly, many of them holding in their hands a scarred flag that until tonight had belonged to one of the Imperial divisions.

When the remnants of these divisions passed by the Royal Guards, perhaps only a few hundred men remained. Knowing that their troops would not be replenished for the duration of the battle and might be withdrawn from the battlefield or temporarily assigned to other units, they returned the flag to the emperor as if their divisions were still fighting on the battlefield. .

Now, all the troops that could still be contacted had evacuated, and Augustus and his guards were the last troops left.

In the direction from which it came, the aftermath of the nuclear strike and solar bombing was dissipating, and the sky was gradually getting darker.

It can be seen that further away, there is an extremely tragic scene. On the broken land, corpses are piled up like mountains. The weapons and huge insect skeletons stuck on the ground are like a forest of swords, guns, swords and halberds.

The areas flattened by particle weapons were marked with many charred outlines, some of which had the shape of Zerg. Both the fine steel and the carapace were melted into part of the body. They were still fighting before they died, just like the murals painted on the walls by prehistoric humans of humans and beasts fighting and fighting.

Many Imperial warriors died directly from the horrific mental attacks of the Hybrid Destroyer, and the armor's servo system still locked their limbs tightly, allowing them to maintain the standing position in life.

They dumped hundreds of thousands of corpses in that direction, and Augustus secretly thought that this account could not be settled.

"A Hercules will come to pick us up. Calculate the time. If we don't encounter any trouble, it will arrive in a few minutes." After thinking for a while, when he confirmed again in the communication channel that no troops were left behind, Ogu Stuart answered Tychus's question just now.

In fact, even if there are survivors behind the Royal Guards, there is no possibility of rescue now.

Behind them, the insect swarms are making a comeback.

After the evil god's host was destroyed, the number of void creatures was greatly reduced, and the most powerful ones were greatly weakened due to the reduction in the energy supply of the void. But these native Aiel zerg completely obey Emon's orders and will not be affected by the lack of void energy.

Augustus could fully predict how crazy the swarm's next attack would be.

After the evil god's host is destroyed, Amon should at least put away some of his contempt for humans, and will definitely order the insect swarm and the golden fleet to attack with all their strength. Speaking of which, Augustus quite hoped that Eamon would be furious because of this, but it was hard to say whether he would have such emotions.

If Amon wanted to create a new evil god's body, it would not be an easy task even for him. To reach the previous level, it needs to be at least equivalent to the zerg and protoss that dominate the huge flesh and blood.

The Overlord is still alive and kicking. Since Amon still holds the golden fleet in his hands, the protoss is not short of flesh and blood, but recasting the evil god's body cannot be completed in a short time, not to mention it is still in Narud. Having been expelled back to the void.

At this time, in the sky above the Xel'Naga Temple that had completely disappeared, the last nuclear bomb arrived belatedly. It was the largest nuclear bomb in the empire's nuclear arsenal. As soon as it fell, an unparalleled mushroom cloud shot up into the sky, and the world was ignited once again.

Even Augustus felt that the damage was a bit excessive, but he still had to be cautious when dealing with the evil god's body.

"How many people have we lost so far in order to kill this beast?" Tychus opened his eyes and glanced at the rising sun in the distance. Even through the visor of his powered armor, he felt that he was about to be dodged. blind.

"Yes." Augustus opened and closed his mouth and said nothing more.

"Why is the bastard with such power the one who wants to destroy the world?" Tychus said to himself.

"I don't understand either," said Augustus.

Augustus looked at the sky reflecting a white light, knowing that the battle above was equally fierce.

Although the space battlefield covers most of the Aiur Galaxy, and there are traces of battles as far away as the asteroid belt at the edge of the galaxy and even the further Oort Cloud, which is more than one light-year away, the battles are mainly concentrated in a much narrower place. Just like Earth's ancient surface fleets fighting on the ocean.

In human perception, space battles are more about close-range naval gunfire between large battlecruisers, because even with weapons that can reach the speed of light, it takes eight minutes to cross one astronomical unit. Unless they can find more effective weapons, it will take a lot of time just for fleets to search for each other and chase each other on the vast space battlefield.

There is only one thing that is consistent in space warfare, and that is the cruelty of war.

The victory or defeat in space is also related to the success or failure of this battle. If the Spear of Adon failed to stop the Pride of Altaris, they would have been burned to ashes.

While Tychus and Augustus were talking, a huge Hercules transport ship suddenly appeared above them.

It jumps directly.

"If it can jump, why do we have to wait so long." Tychus was shocked.

"Be content." Augustus didn't waste any time and immediately boarded the spaceship named "Flying Tyranids".

The flying Tyranid rose into the air and immediately left the devastated area.

Their destination was a protoss temple that had been abandoned for a long time and had not been affected by the previous war.

At present, Augustus's army has simply abandoned the White Star and established a new defense line around the temple.

When Augustus arrived, the troops that could evacuate had basically retreated to the assembly points around the temple. The ground was full of fortifications, supply depots and other barracks buildings under construction.

Four Gorgon-class battlecruisers that were too damaged to continue fighting were parked at the four entrances of the temple, and were temporarily transformed into a nearly one-mile-long fortress by the Imperial Engineering Corps. They were basically useless ships before, and had even lost the ability to leave the El gravity field, but when placed on the ground, they could serve as fortresses and fixed forts.

When he saw this scene on the spaceship, Augustus shouted: Look, Warfield, this is how Gorgon is used!

Tychus was stunned but didn't catch the joke, and had nothing to complain about.

As soon as Augustus got off the spacecraft, he immediately began to understand the current status of the various troops that had retreated to the surroundings of the temple.

Many people failed to withdraw in time. Some troops were either not fast enough or fell into chaos during the retreat, and were overwhelmed by the void creatures in the blink of an eye. Scattered reports indicate that only a few scattered units were lucky enough to be rescued by nearby protoss ships.

Some troops used tanks and chariots when they attacked, but when they came back, they had no choice but to leave these heavy equipment where they were.

The terrain near the temple has long been in a mess by non-stop orbital strikes and indiscriminate bombing. Not to mention a basic road, there is not even a road that can be walked for half a mile without falling into a pit. In extremely bad road conditions, it can even be described as climbing over mountains and ridges.

When the time comes to retreat, these troops can only abandon their vehicles, take a few injections of stimulants and walk on foot. If it weren't for the most elite imperial army behind them, the number of people who could evacuate from the temple area this time might be 70,000 to 80,000 fewer.

Although most of the void creatures were wiped out with the evil god's body, the nearby enemies were still many times their number, and the retreat was still accompanied by endless battles.

The coalition forces have not yet lost air superiority, but most of the transport planes that responded have been shot down, and the battle situation has long been out of control. Even so, Augustus used all the power at his disposal to save them.

Even the Tal'darin Protoss reluctantly dispatched a nearby mothership and two Titan Prisms at Augustus's plea, and rescued tens of thousands of Imperial soldiers, most of whom were heavyweights who had evacuated first. Wounded, but this only kept the retreat from turning into a bloodbath.

In many of the troops that Augustus had been to, because they had experienced a full day of highly tense battles, basically everyone was lying on the ground and beside the walls, sleeping lightly in their power armor.

Many seriously injured people can only stay in Gorgon's medical module temporarily, because there is no safe place either in space or on the ground. As a result, the ship's space is simply not enough, the newly established temporary medical point is also overcrowded, and the air is full of the smell of death.

Even this bad situation may not last long, because the enemy will soon launch an attack here.

"It's finally over. I want to go back and find a tavern for a drink now." Perhaps it was because he was used to seeing death, but Tychus was the only one here who didn't look sad at all.

"It's not over yet." Augustus just said: "The next part is the most difficult."

"When the artifact is activated, the zerg and hybrids from the entire planet will rush here. Then, accompanied by indiscriminate bombing, the troops of the Supreme Council and the Golden Fleet will also land on Aiur."

"The swarm's offensive will never be delayed." He said: "The same goes for the protoss."

"We must persist until the artifact is fully charged."

"Damn it, why is it a defensive artifact? Why do we have to deal with this kind of thing." Tychus lay down with his hands spread out and fell asleep. (End of chapter)