StarCraft: Tyranid Empire.

Chapter 315 Infection
It was the time of sunrise, and Haji's sun cast beautiful red and orange rays along the horizon where the water and the sky meet, and the valley surrounded by green plants was shrouded in a colorful halo.As always, the hurricane swept plains and valleys, and circled in the huge cratered mountains.

Two gold-red Revolutionary Wraith fighters flew low over the devastated ruins of the slums in Grande. All the dilapidated shacks and houses on the ground were covered by countless purple organic tissues and pulsating tendons.

It used to be part of the coastline, adjacent to the excellent deep-water port, but now all signs of human civilization are gone, and there is no sign of any biological activity.If the tens of thousands of people who lived here hadn't escaped in time, they should have already become part of the creep.

The Zerg are not an army of humans, they have no mercy and accept no mercy or surrender.If human commanders still think that their intelligence and cunning can surpass these seemingly tyrannical but lacking intelligence creatures, they are very wrong.

Thousands of overlords were floating above the city of Grande in the distance, and flying around the tops of the city's skyscrapers, surrounded by different dragons, seemed to be a group of bats returning to their nests when the dawn came.The anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns of the federal garrison are trying to shoot down the flying creatures above the city, and the interlaced orange barrage crosses the airspace sweeping across the urban area.

The fall of the city is only a matter of time, and the network of wormways is expanding underground.Once the creep started to spread, the terrible infection of the brain worm Carlos group came as expected.

The two gold-and-red Wraith fighters circled over the slums of Grande several times before leaving.

Ten minutes later, dozens of Revolutionary Army APOD transport ships landed on the open ground in the ruins of the slums.In a blast of plasma from the transporter's thrusters, Augustus stepped down the gangway from the Little Devil.

Entire slums were razed to the ground by the hurricane and zerg attacks, and the poor wooden and brick walls of the slum dwellers came crashing down, leaving behind a wreckage of rubble and construction waste.In those small areas that were not yet covered by the creep, one after another blood-stained scratches were clearly visible, which were left by the fingernails of a person who was about to be dragged into the ground.

In places not covered by the creeper, the zerg are of course cannibals, perhaps not because of hunger, but because of their survival instincts mixed with genetic fragments.The most frightening aspect of the zerg is that they will kill a person in a brutal and bloody way or eat part of the other person's body while it is still alive.

Tychus Finley, carrying a heavy machine gun, followed closely behind, stepping into the sticky zerg creep: "It's disgusting, sticky, wet, I can't imagine anything better than these Worse stuff. It's like shit, in the words of that redhead Hank."

More Revolutionary Army Guards and Guards Division soldiers in gold-red power armor filed down from the Little Devil and other transport ships and stood in line at the landing point, while several other larger transport ships drove down the rumble. Tanks, Goliath armed robots, and T-280 space engineering vehicles, these ten-foot-tall vehicles and mechas are painted with golden wolf head logos and woven ring badges on the crimson primer.

Augustus took a few steps in the ruins of the slums covered in creeps, and the HUD display of his commander's armor immediately displayed various environmental values ​​in this area.At Augustus's feet was an alloy wheel stained with dried blood, which was once part of the tire of a Federation heavy armored personnel carrier.

"Looks like there's no chance of survivors here, I never knew the zerg needed any more captives," Tychus said, arms akimbo.

Zeratul also walked down with Augustus, his glowing green eyes swept around the landing site in silence, and then he bent down to search the ruins for information related to the psychic signal he sensed. clues.

In the strong wind from the sea, the granulation sprouts on the creep twisted and swayed like ears of wheat.Farther away there were many pieces of broken glass gleaming in the sun, shredded full-body seats, control panels and the barrels of large-caliber machine guns cut into several sections, and a charred Confederate flag covered the wreckage. of the top.

"The Goliath walking robots of the Federation, and there are more than one, must have been torn to pieces by bugs." Tychus smacked his lips and said: "A bunch of poor people, I hope they are not scared when they are killed Pee your pants."

At this time, Augustus pulled out one of his feet from the muddy creep and was about to walk forward, but he stopped as soon as he stepped out.Where he raised his foot, there was a pile of twisted bones stained with carrion and blood.

Augustus and his men soon found themselves standing on top of a mass of dead bodies. At least a hundred of them had been buried under a thick zerg-infested creep. Human corpses are becoming food for the swarm.

The dead people curled up and stretched out their hands to the sky in the squirming creep and ichor.

"A 'cemetery'." Augustus had experienced tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people participating in the battlefield, and saw hundreds of thousands of corpses lying side by side, but he couldn't feel that such a cruel scene was normal.

It was a slaughterhouse, and the zerg took these people and killed them, their butcher knives as efficient as the machines in a factory.

"It's not all Zerg that killed these people." At this time, Zeratul came to Augustus after walking around the ruins of the slums a few times, and the purple cloak behind him trembled in the strong wind of Haji: "It was human bullets and psionic energy that killed these people."

"So, it was the people from the Federation who did it?" Tychus grinned, sure in his heart that the army from the Federation had clashed with the people in the slums.

"Human psionics" Augustus immediately recruited his own ghost agent.

"'Recruit', what did you sense?"

The ghost agent "recruit" of the Revolutionary Army appeared on the right side of Augustus in the interlaced light and shadow of the environmental refraction suit: "There is no doubt that a human psyker with a PSI index of at least 8 or higher has appeared here .”

The ghost agent is wrapped in a blue and white close combat suit, with a C-10 long-barreled rifle on his shoulder.He wears a precision-designed helmet, and the auxiliary mechanical prosthetic eye implanted in the mask allows the wearer to see farther than ordinary people.

"This is just my guess. This psyker is still unable to control his powerful spiritual power, or no one has ever taught him how to restrain his spiritual power. This is a compulsory course for high-level students in the Ghost Academy." Specter As the agent spoke, he knelt down and wiped off part of the creep on the ground, exposing the head of the deceased below.

"Some people died directly from the loss of brain tissue caused by the psychic impact. Their brains were crushed like smashed garlic cloves, and their seven orifices bleed to death."

"High-level psykers are more likely to lose control under tremendous mental pressure and other stimuli, causing a disaster caused by a terrible psychic shock. If you have seen the protoss high-level templar released Psionic storms—basically that.” He said, “I saw one once when I was at the Commonwealth Academy of Ghosts in Tarsonis.”

"An unstable eighth-level psyker who lost control because his cat died and killed everyone else within two hundred yards of him in a sudden burst of psychic shock—I don't know why anyone would allow him to Cats."

"This human psyker is likely to be the agent of the swarm that the master is looking for, and he should not have been captured by the zeratul." Zeratul added.

"Oh, how did this guy do that, to hide for so long when such bugs were looking for him like crazy." Tychus marveled.

"The good news is that he's probably still hiding somewhere," concluded Augustus. "The bad news is that he's hiding so well that we may not even be able to find him."

"Perhaps I can find the psyker," Zeratul said.

"I can feel his presence. Perhaps to human beings, psionic signals are as intangible as sound waves, but in our eyes, they are as clear as light beams in the dark, as if connecting the threads of fate and the intangible light."

"The psyker didn't go far. He learned to shield his psychic signals to avoid the Zerg's hunting. But what should he survive?" His glowing eyes looked at Augustus.

"During my time on the Hyperion, I learned a lot about humans, that is, this peculiar race cannot survive on sunlight and water alone."

"Follow me, Augustus, and I will lead you to him." Zeratul finally said, "I hope we have time."

Zeratul left these words and walked forward. He seemed to be following a certain footprint, and his pace was slow.

"We will follow you, elder," said Augustus.

"The protoss has a real nose," Tychus muttered.

"Beware of Zeratul hearing you speak ill of him," Augustus reminded him.

"I don't care if people like or hate me," Tychus replied nonchalantly.

As Tychus spoke, Augustus looked to the right at the city of Grande, where the cannon still roared.This at least shows that the city's federal defenders still have sufficient weapons and ammunition, and they still firmly believe that there will be a fleet to rescue them.

However, according to the part of the information that Augustus has learned, there is no Tyrannian Federation naval fleet at least six light-years away from Hegee. , or near a galaxy invaded by the swarm.

Haji's position is quite embarrassing. It is on the interstellar shipping route of the Federation world, but it does not belong to the developed core world.The economy is backward, the legal system is chaotic, and the political influence is almost negligible. Probably only after the Zerg invasion war is over, the Federation will remember that this corner of the corner has been attacked by the Zerg swarm.

Even if the federal government of Tarsonis received Haji's distress signal, by the time the fumbling federal fleet arrived, there would not be many living people left on this planet.

"Go forward." Augustus ordered in the command channel: "Keep a distance between the front and the back, and be careful under your feet. The zerg will come out of the ground at any time. If you find something wrong, report it to your commander immediately, and ensure that the officers and The political commissars are where you can see them."

About 700 soldiers of the Revolutionary Army assembled under the orders of Augustus and the officers. They are all veterans who have experienced many battles. The golden wolf head of the Mengsk family is allowed to be used on the power armor. This is a symbol of honor. It is also a strong evidence that has experienced many battles.

At the beginning, Zeratul walked very slowly, but after ten minutes or so he confirmed his direction and had a clear goal.

Augustus followed Zeratul for six or seven miles on the creep-covered wasteland, passing many towns and factories completely covered by Zerg organizations, until they saw an abandoned border checkpoint.

Zeratul stopped half a mile from the border checkpoint, and Augustus ordered his troops to stop at the same time.

"Gods." When Augustus observed the unnaturalness and weirdness of the abandoned border checkpoint, Zeratul next to him sighed with horror: "It's too late."

That border checkpoint was originally part of the old city walls of Grande City, used to stop homeless, tribal, and ghetto people trying to enter the city illegally.It was originally just a few square single-storey houses poured with clean cement, next to it was a steam furnace powered by high-energy gas, which was used to provide electricity and heat for the entire building complex.

Normally, the Hagee military governs the place, but by the time Augustus saw the checkpoint, it had apparently been abandoned.

Not only that, but the main part of the building at the checkpoint is completely covered by a sickly gray-brown membrane, like a fetus wrapped in amnion.Every part of the building is covered in clumps of creep, as if covered by a rotting blanket.

Sharp, dozen-foot-tall spikes emanating from the edges of the infected buildings were animated like tentacles with chitinous blades bound to their tips.These tentacles lurking in the creep can release a row of moving spikes from under the ground, which can pierce the entire sole of the human soldier wearing alloy power boots.

If Augustus had opened his helmet visor, he would have been able to smell the stench of corruption in the air.The zerg had already infested the building, even more thoroughly than those in the slums.

Even though Augustus had seen many zerg-infested sights, he still felt a physical revulsion at it.

"Look at what's in there." Augustus glanced at Zeratul and said in the command channel: "Go on, I need the bravest fighters under my command to serve as the vanguard."

Augustus gave several more orders in the channel, and a vanguard force mainly composed of fire bats approached the infected border checkpoint first.

At this moment, the sound of carapaces and fangs and claws rubbing against hard objects suddenly came from the originally silent wilderness. Many Hydra Hydralisks and springtails with copper-green carapaces appeared from the infected checkpoint. body.Seeing the scene in front of him, Augustus' heart sank, convinced that the psyker had been captured by the Zerg.

More zerg emerged from the interior of the checkpoint and nearby potholes, emitting a low humming like the humming of countless insects in summer.

These hideous monsters roared lowly. They did not immediately launch a violent attack, but wandered in the pipes and creeps around the checkpoint.At this point they are more of a lair guardian than a bloodthirsty hunter.

"Go on, run and shoot, that's all you have to do," Augustus ordered loudly. "Kill them!"

　Thanks for the reward - it will be updated before the Chinese New Year!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)