StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

As far as Prince Valerian could see, the sky was dominated by roaring battleships from top to bottom. The churning gunfire hooked out the shadows of these majestic ships like mountains, and countless flames fell to the earth, like Thousands of stars fell into the galaxy.

When he looked at them up close, he felt that these starship cruise ships were particularly intimidating, as if they were controlling the wind and thunder and lightning. When they were far away, he could only see a falling black dot, as light as fallen leaves in the forest.

Only then would Valerian recall how insignificant human beings were, how vast this space was, and how the miles-long fusion flames of the interstellar battleships were just dots of fireflies under the bright moon.

Vice Admiral Stukov's flagship occupies the best position. This giant steel ship is high at the top of the sky. The crystal-like lavender paint reflects the orange-red fire of the naval guns. The view from the bridge is wide and clear. Nothing left.

Standing here, Valerian should have been able to easily overlook Tal'darim Altar and Arakhan Castle, all the way to the border of The Shattered Temple, which is next to the ocean and crisscrossed by rivers. It is densely hilly with large lagoons and mangroves.

However, endless purple mist enveloped the entire battle plain of Baishel, and cracks in the void continued to emerge from the ground, as if the red light from the endless hell was licking the tall shadows of the temple buildings like flowing flames. In the depths of the misty jungle, malicious howls continued for a long time, and screams and moans that did not sound like human voices seemed to resound from the bottom of the heart, making people feel chilly.

The literal translation of the word Terrazine in the protoss Kalani language is Breath of the Creator, and the Tal'darin believe that this will bring them closer to the Xel'Naga.

Valerian believed that if Diazine really came from the god-like race of Xel'Naga, and they all died or went crazy overnight, then the breath of the gods would become the breath of poison.

All the Nerazim he met said that the current void reflected the cold fury of Amon, the vicious heart of darkness that vowed to destroy the universe and destroy everything. Eventually the cold and dark age comes, when all the stars die.

"General, Malan, the fourth ascendant of Tal'darin, sent a force of about two hundred people to Colonel Richard, mainly composed of low-level Death Apostles and vanguard walking mechas." Valerian cleared his throat , hoping that I didn’t miss any information on the communication channel:

"The Tal'darim Ascendant who leads this force has surrendered command, but he has warned that if we violate the peace agreement, we will bear the wrath of Slane."

At the same time, in front of the tactical hologram on the bridge, there were a large number of senior officers from the Operations Department who were relied upon by Lieutenant General Stukov, including intelligence staff, aviation staff, military advisors, and Valerian, who served as a temporary Imperial Marine officer representative of Staff Sgt. There can be at most dozens of people talking loudly in the radio communication channels of the entire fleet, as if they can only offset the communication interference by yelling.

Valerian was standing on the left hand side of Lieutenant General Alexei Stokov. He couldn't help but secretly thought that when you hold a fleet and negotiate with artillery fire, even Tal'darin becomes peace-loving.

"A bunch of cannon fodder." Lieutenant General Stukov nodded and concluded poignantly: "But it's better than nothing. It's better than these Taldarins taking the opportunity to stab us while we are fighting Eamon."

"Slane is full of terazine, but they still want to go as far away as possible and come as far away as Beisher."

Despite the alliance, many within the Empire and Dallam remain wary of the Tal'darim protoss, who have remained loyal to Amon for centuries and beyond.

Since Tal'darin could rebel against Amon because Alarak ascended the position of high lord, he might also rebel again because of the same thing.

"Aemon's minions must also be collecting terrazine." Valerian reminded his immediate boss: "The dark god uses terrazine to strengthen the power of his servants regardless of its terrible side effects. The void beast and the terrible This is how the shadow comes to the world."

Valerian knew that if it were not for his royal status and the operation of his father, the Imperial Prince, he would not be qualified to stand on the bridge of Vice Admiral Stukov's flagship today. In order to prove that he is not the spoiled young master that others say and is worthy of the status of the emperor's nephew, he has been working hard since he was a child.

This year, Valerian is already over twenty years old. He is young and handsome, with his mother's beautiful spring-like eyes and a stern look from his father. His long golden hair is left behind with a rebellious ponytail. . Valerian looks more like a member of his grandfather's Pasteur family, and when he was a child, he looked more like a blond version of Augustus Mengsk, but he is still a Mengsk at heart, unwavering, and has a certain The rebellious spirit of the stock.

Of course, this is a whitewashed statement. To put it bluntly, they are the first-class stubborn people and the second-rate young people.

Valerian sometimes seems pretentious and unsophisticated, but this is not a big problem. His uncle has the whole story.

For Valerian, it is not difficult to get in touch with old-school generals such as Warfield, Duke, and Reynolds who have been famous since the founding of the empire, but it is extremely difficult to gain their recognition.

Just like his second uncle Augustus was already a revolutionary leader at this age, Valerian was still the child picking up mud in the fields and playing archaeological games.

"I'm afraid that's exactly what happened."

Lieutenant General Alexey Stokov comes from Earth. He is nearly sixty years old. The neat short beard on his chin has turned black with gray. As long as he is still human, he cannot escape the erosion of time.

Despite this, he still had a sharp face and full of momentum.

The most important thing is that Stukov does not regard Valerian as a prince or nobleman. No one except Augustus the Great can have any privileges here.

Based on Valerian's understanding of Stukov, he obviously doesn't like the Tyranids very much. He feels that they are the descendants of habitual criminals. Their ancestors are all technology dealers, drug addicts and heretical lunatics, and now they are just a kind of people in the backwoods. A group of farmers ate alive in the mud all day long.

According to his father Arcturus, they are all unruly people.

"Think about it." Stukov frowned and said: "Things like alien holy objects, Xel'Naga temples and terrazine are all mediums used by Eamon to display his evil power, and coincidentally, among them Beisher has it all.”

"There can be nothing more terrible than this," Valerian concluded.

At this time, a dozen battlecruisers broke away from the main fleet and sailed towards the southern twilight line, their thrusters moving at full speed, and their long blue tail flames seemed like torches in the horizon.

Hundreds of much smaller ships followed, including Valkyrie frigates and hospital ships, but even the smallest of them was as big as half a football field and loaded with soldiers, weapons, and medical supplies.

The first task of Stukov's fleet here is to search for the survivors of Beisher, and then recover as many military facilities and resources as possible. Those colonial settlements are scattered all over the planet, and they don't have much time to waste jumping up and down. On Tal'darin.

The imperial flagship with a giant hammer-like steel bow under Valerian's feet continued to lower its altitude, slowly descending into the fog below the battleship, like a giant whale falling into the purple ocean.

In the storm caused by the battleship's engine, the fog still lingered for a long time, making it impossible to see the earth or the sky.

Only then did Valerian realize that the height and area of ​​​​the fog were much larger than he originally imagined, and the original Byscheldiazine gas spring, although spectacular, could not reach this level at all.

After a long time, Valerian saw the Arakan Castle below.

When building the new city, the original colonists preserved as much as possible the temples, spiers and libraries surrounding the city walls. Even though they had collapsed, those giant gates that seemed like giants had once passed through them were the Augustgrad Palace. One and a half times the size of the front.

How great.

On the remnants of this glorious era, people built wide roads and canals, around which they built a grid of streets and a prosperous interstellar port.

The buildings here are all beautiful and gorgeous, making the magnificent Protoss buildings not obtrusive at all. The glass skyscrapers stand like crystal among the green trees, next to the incredible spiers and brilliance of the Protoss. The eye-catching Xel'Naga Temple looks like a city built of light, steel and color.

Outside the city, automated facilities irrigate vast tracts of fertile fields. The streets of the town are lined with brick-built red-roofed buildings and glass-roofed ecological farms, creating an idyllic scenery similar to that of Umoyan and Halsain.

This is really rare. Augustgrad is more majestic than any city, but it is certainly not as beautiful as Arakan Castle.

In many places that were once protoss colonies or remnants of other civilizations, human colonists often tore down shining towers without a care, and precious artifacts were worthless in their eyes.

Valerian's father once told him that something must be sacrificed for the good of all mankind.

But in Valerian's view, these ancient civilization creations containing knowledge will benefit mankind, and the secrets are buried within them. He wanted to know why these magnificent civilizations flourished and why they perished before humans even existed.

Arcturus, however, did not see how great these creations were; they all fell to dust, while humans still thrived.

However, this was all before the Shadow of the Void invaded Byshel. After its fall, this sparkling and beautiful place became more like a city written by Dickens, degenerate and corrupt.

There are only hateful void monsters in the city, as well as countless dead people and madmen. The banner of the empire was burned, and the bones of warriors were desecrated. Aemon's followers built an altar with thick bones and stinking maggot-infested corpses, and painted grotesque patterns of "chosen ones" hybrids with hot blood to please the gods.

Arakan Castle had already been destroyed once, and now it was completely reduced to ruins under the attack of the imperial fleet.

When the Dark Patriarch Zeratul brought the prophecy of doomsday, perhaps even he did not anticipate what it would be like when it actually arrived.

When the Doomsday War comes, many border planets like Byshel are isolated and helpless and have to fight alone.

At present, more than two hundred inhabited planets or large space stations have been reduced to ashes by the protoss, and at least three times this number of worlds have been massacred by the insect swarm. The Durham Protoss has only a few more colonies that have fallen into the sea of ​​​​fire. Their people have been declining day by day, and now there are not many left.

Only a few imperial worlds have persisted until now in this siege that has lasted for several months or even longer. Either they are lucky enough or powerful enough, and these two Byshers have not touched it at all.

What a misfortune for Byshel, just like Tal'darin's home planet of Slane, the spreading terrazine fog opened a terrifying door to the void, allowing unimaginable void creatures and mutant monsters to invade the real world.

The people living here are not strong enough, their numbers are too few, their weapons are too poor, and the imperial troops stationed here are too weak.

But Byshel was not destroyed - at least some people have been fighting to this day and are still persistently asking for help from the empire.

"After Eamon occupied Arakan Castle, he established several hybrid factories here, which were used to continuously create protoss-zerg hybrid monsters. It is said that the genes of Abathur, the master of swarm evolution, were also used. Technology." Valerian exclaimed:

"The brightest and craziest human engineers and protoss Khalai phasers work here for their masters. They conduct experiments on living humans and protoss to create mutant monsters."

Valerian has seen many hybrid factories, which are real hells on earth. There are cryogenic sealed chambers and high-pressure pipelines everywhere. Bundles of hydraulic cable bundles connect huge mechanical claws and main consoles made of steel. It’s crazy. The scientists use this to dissect and sew up their mutant monsters.

The hybrid factory produces hybrid monsters like a drone assembly line, and the so-called Chosen Ones are just canned goods on a conveyor belt.

Fortunately, Eamon doesn't look down on human genes at all, otherwise there's no telling how many horrifying monsters would appear.

The Terran Empire once scrapped the Gestalt Project to create hybrid human-protoss warriors due to inhumanity and moral taboos - even though the project's director claimed that he would only use resocialized condemned prisoners for experiments.

There are a large number of slaves of the Dark God in the three tribes, but I am afraid that Amon's human servants have already created similar things. They will not care about any ethics in order to gain power.

"I would rather die than become such a bastard." Stukov said: "But I am afraid that I will not be able to survive, and I will not be able to die."

Before coming to Baishel, they didn't know that there was a hybrid factory here, let alone hundreds of void rifts, void fragments, and other evil dark creations.

"We must destroy all the hybrids in Byshel and kill all the monsters in them." The Imperial Lieutenant General continued: "We must also destroy the void rifts and seal every terrazine gas spring, otherwise Amon will use These are used to deal with other planets.”

"If necessary, I don't mind burning the forests and seas of Baishir and spreading salt on every inch of the land so that Amon can no longer get any troops or resources from here."

"But Korhal only gave the order to rescue," Valerian said.

"Let me explain it to the emperor." Stukov waved his hand.

"With all due respect, I am afraid that our current military strength is not enough to clear the shadow of the void on Baishel." Valerian said: "The current Baishel is more dangerous than Char."

"Who is our closest ally?" Stukov asked again.

"Archon Fenix ​​of Duram Protoss." Valerian said: "If his fleet starts to jump now, it will arrive in a day."

The most heroic Zealot among the Protoss is Phoenix, the Zealot's Zealot, the Templar's Templar.

No need to say more.

"Very good, the protoss are also holding back their anger now." Stukov focused his attention on the tactical panel in front of him: "Let's start with Arrakhan."

"I must remind you, General, there are still some military facilities here that are still well preserved and can be reactivated with a little repair." Valerian was very happy that he could have a place in Stukov's officer corps: "Well , and there are many collection robots used to collect terrazine, maybe we can use this in exchange for more support from the Tal'darin army."

"It's a good idea, but leave that son of a bitch collecting robot alone," Stukov ordered. (End of chapter)