The Collection of The End

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Bucephalus, meeting room.

The top brass of Reno's Rangers, or "Sentinels," were meeting.

Tassadar is still recovering with Ariel's imitation crystal, Mira is still pestering Matt, Tosh runs to eat, Tychus is bragging about Captain Jax's acceptance, and Jimmy is running around. Go to guest reception.

Therefore, how to carry out the first mission of this "Sentinel" can only be discussed by Reno, Nova and Ariel.

Raynor tried to invite Captain Jax, but he stared at the coffee cup as if thinking about something serious and refused to participate.

"[Everyone knows the general situation. Next, it is time to decide our itinerary. Should we continue to recruit mercenaries, or go to the Protoss outpost to pull out their fleet once and for all. In the case of the latter, except for this The fleet is out of control, which means it has achieved its original goal ahead of schedule.]" Ariel, who continued to wear a green luxurious evening dress, looked at Nova and said.

"I always feel that there is a big gap in your personality." Renault, who had changed back to his ordinary captain's uniform, raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's like the sister next door suddenly became the female president." Nova winked at her.

"If you think about it carefully, this is actually not a contradiction." Renault saw that Nova probably wanted to liven up the atmosphere, so he continued to cooperate: "You can also suddenly become a female congresswoman."

"[You don't need to pay attention to me,]" Ariel kept smiling: "[Besides, now is not the time to discuss my personal issues.]"

"I'm afraid this will be difficult, especially after reading Alex's information." Nova made a snarling gesture.

Hmm... To say that I was worried, I was still a little worried. Renault nodded slightly.

In the current Ariel, does the female researcher have more personality, or does the ancient plant have more willpower?

It's hard not to worry when she talks about "another me."

"[Oh? Are you worried that I am no longer myself? That's not necessary, my situation is fundamentally different from his.]" Ariel glanced at their faces with the look of an incomprehensible child.

"Want to hear the details?" Renault answered.

"[Since you want to clarify this issue first, I have no objection.]"

Ariel closed her eyes slightly, and the green vines and branches on her body swayed gently as if they were alive.

"[Alex's words, as a former 'Ghost' instructor, he himself has gone through several memory adjustments and indoctrination, and his self-perception has been fragmented. His memory is more to him than proving that he is the key to himself. It’s a decoration, so I’m looking around for it, but I’m different, I’m like—” Ariel rolled her eyes, with a little confusion on her face: “Like a country girl who suddenly received a huge inheritance from a distant relative, she not only She had no idea how much these properties were, and had no idea how to take care of them, until she met some 'agents' who knew how to take care of them."

Regardless of her appearance, she really looks like a little girl now.

"Then you pick up the 'agent' and smash him?" Nova said.

"[His mistake was to try to use 'psionic interference' to cut off my connection with Solian,]" Ariel raised her hand and a flower bloomed from her wrist: "[For the time being, we have no control. These children Can’t we go crazy and beat him up?]”

Calling plants children...is her sense of self really okay?

"From this point of view, this cutting off actually proves that you are a person with plant power, rather than a fusion monster with human memories." Nova also took advantage of Alex.

Indeed, Renault thought for a while and understood Nova's logic. If Ariel, like Alex, is just a mimic of plants, then she will not maintain her human form when she loses control due to psychic interference. If those plants are also She is not one body, and will definitely retaliate against her when she loses control. It is impossible to beat Tassadar in anger.

"[My original plan was to go to Tarsonis to recover other plants and destroy bugs at the same time. I think these actions should be able to retrieve more memories, but for now, it seems that Aiur is probably a better place.]" Ai Rui I took back the flower and turned my head to look at the medical cabin.

"You seem to have recalled a lot of things when you met Tassadar. Aren't they enough?" Raynor recalled some unfamiliar terms Ariel said at that time, such as arbitrator and so on.

Ariel shook his head slightly: "[How should I put it, yes, but not enough. After fighting him, I recalled their class names, the way they used crystal supplies and the way they fought with psychic powers, but that was entirely from the perspective of a spectator. Observation, like——】”

"Like what the plants on the planet say about battles between intelligent beings," Nova interjected.

"[That's right,]" Ariel nodded: [I want to know more about 'Thorian', but judging from the information revealed by Tassadar, those Solians who have directly contacted them have been burned. 】

Because he came to this conclusion, why did those two vines hit him so hard?

"It seems that there is a reason why they have listed Solian as a must-kill target, but achieved very few results," Renault nodded: "More often, Solian is self-aware even if he does not parasitize other creatures and become a threat. Will actively avoid these predators."

"Hmm... wait?" Nova seemed to have noticed something: "If these plants themselves have self-awareness and sufficient intelligence, and are more willing to quietly disguise themselves as ordinary plants, then what is their behavior of parasitizing other organisms?"

“[Actually, it’s a stress response when life is threatened. A civilization that will be destroyed must be a master at creating pollution or destroying the ecology.]” Ariel snorted: “[My situation is different, Chief Reno. I know.】"

Renault heard this and nodded in agreement. Thinking about it carefully, it was true that those vine creatures did not fight back at all when they were inspected and experimented by the federation, until those agents tried to fuse them with alien insects and use the extracted toxins to kill Ai Riel.

If you guess what Solian thinks, it should be very simple: "Human research is all about research. Anyway, there are more than one kind of special plants like us, but if there is an incident where a poisonous plant kills the governor's daughter, we are just afraid that we will be burned down." , anyway, let’s save her through parasitism first.”

As a result... Ariel's current form as a plant queen should have been unexpected by all parties involved.

"Then, let's go to Aiur according to the coordinates given by Tassadar and see the kingdom of the protoss." Renault concluded.

Although the emergence of a huge alien force out of thin air is an obstacle to Arcturus's ambition to unify the star region, it should be regarded as a test that must be overcome on the road to becoming an emperor.

――――

A few hours later, the bridge.

"Where exactly is the planet El? Is it outside our star sector?" Reno projected the star map of the entire star sector in mid-air and asked Tassadar.

Tassadar seemed to have recovered, and the blue light in his eyes became bright again.

Although this "alien" made Raynor's rangers quite curious, it was still not as attractive to them as Ariel, who was modeled on humans. After all, apart from the armor, the Protoss' body was more upright. Insects without mouths.

"[Oh? Are you still using the interstellar crossing gates left by Kara?]" Tassadar looked at the structure of those star gates: "[Although this allows you to quickly reach different galaxies, it will also lead to arrogance. .】"

"Arrogant?" Renault raised his eyebrows.

Arriving in a strange star region and discovering that it is dotted with star gates built by pioneer civilizations, and that each star gate connected to a galaxy has at least one habitable planet, in this case, how ignorant can one be to be arrogant?

However, Tassadar was obviously talking about arrogance in another sense.

"[Think about it, when your control area continues to extend along the line connecting the interstellar jump gate, will there be a feeling that 'everything between the lines is the kingdom'?" Tassadar asked. His hand traced the connection between the star gates: "[But in fact, what you really control are just a few bonfires in the dark forest.]"

"[Dark Forest...]" Ariel seemed to have thought of something and whispered to herself.

Snapped.

Tassadar's two slender fingers crossed each other, and the star map channel that was originally a virtual projection was directly cut off by him.

The originally bright star map dimmed in an instant, and the boundless darkness surged in, compressing the spheres of influence of various colors that seemed to cover the entire star region to small dots in an instant.

"I'm so scared!" Mira hugged Matt, who was acting as the meeting recorder, again.

"Please do not disrupt the bridge's power supply at will." Matt said to Tassadar expressionlessly.

Snap, Tassadar snapped his fingers again, and the dark star map returned to its original state. Renault could clearly hear the sighs of relief from the staff in the corner of the bridge.

"[The interstellar jump gates left by Kara will only connect galaxies with habitable planets, but if there are creatures outside these galaxies that overcome the dangerous environment and survive, then when they reach out to you flowers in the greenhouse, You will be completely defenseless against the fangs and claws, and it is our duty as 'Zerg Hunters' to protect you from these monsters.]" Tassadar withdrew his hands and stood with his hands behind his back.

If the image of him being thrown around by Ariel wasn't still vivid in his mind, the low voice, deep tone and stalwart back might have made people admire him.

But where are the greenhouse flowers that drop nuclear bombs everywhere?

Renault looked around and found that his companions all had similar weird expressions, so he took the initiative to change the topic: "So, you mean, your home planet is also in our star region?"

"[It's not the home star, it's the outpost,]" Tassadar raised his hand again and pointed at the star map: "[El, it's right here.]"

As he moved, the star map dimmed again. No, it wasn't that the star map dimmed, but a planet with golden and blue marks lit up at the location he pointed to.

The planet is bigger than the galaxy, this exaggeration is really skillful.

In terms of specific location, it is a planet in a galaxy that is not on any route, but is closer to the Gallente Federation in terms of distance.

"If there is no star gate there, how do we get there?" Renault looked at the distance. It would take about twenty-four jumps to get there from the Port of the Dead.

"['Warp Tunnel', or as you call it, 'Psychic Leap'," Tassadar replied: "[It must be said that this name is not precise enough and may lead to misunderstandings.]"

"That seems to consume a lot of money?" Tuo Xu, who has the most say on psychic leaps, interjected.

"[If you are building a star gate, or need to protect the fragile body of the warp, you will naturally consume additional spiritual energy, but as Zerg hunters, we do not need to protect ourselves in the subspace - you have battleship protection, so there is no need to worry] "Tassadar shook his head slightly.

Renault raised his eyebrows: "That sounds like a very dangerous way to jump, right?"

"[I seem to have an impression,]" Ariel continued: "[The star spirit will use spiritual energy to directly tear apart the space, creating a huge tunnel that looks like the void is shattered and collapsed. It will close on its own after a certain period of time. , anything that touches the 'tunnel wall' or remains in the tunnel when closed will be directly annihilated.]"

"[That is not annihilation. When those objects touch the 'tunnel wall', they will generate extremely small 'subspace storms', throwing the object to a random location in the universe.]" Tassadar corrected Ariel, but It would be better not to correct it, and the people who heard it would become even more confused.

"It seems that Solian can still survive in space? This scene is not like what the surface plants can see." Nova tried to bring the topic back to the right track.

"[I'm not sure,]" Ariel pointed her finger at her forehead: "[It seemed to be seen from many angles at the same time. If you think about it carefully, you will feel a little dizzy.]"

"[Although I haven't read the think tank files carefully, I have heard similar news,]" Tassadar glanced at Ariel, "[There were once strange plants that formed into a ball into space and followed our fleet through it. After passing through the subspace tunnel, because they showed no signs of destroying civilization, the fleet did not open fire. So it was Sorian?]"

"[If they open fire, you probably won't be able to see this file.]" Ariel glanced at him.

"[...]" Tassadar seemed to want to retort, but he remembered the situation when he was thrown around before, so he remained silent.

"In any case, let's leave the Port of the Dead first and find a place where a space anomaly of this scale will not attract attention to open the tunnel." Renault smoothed things over.

"As far as I know, there is a strange galaxy composed of two blue giant stars nearby. Electric discharges and asteroid collisions are commonplace," Jax, who had been silent, said, "If you open the subspace tunnel, you will not be trapped in space. Abnormal influence, that’s a good place.”

"[Of course not.]" Tassadar nodded proudly.