StarCraft: Tyranid Empire.

The magnificent city of Tarsonis shows the world more than magnificent skyscrapers, comfortable high-end residential areas and fashionable commercial buildings.Beneath its glamor lies slums that are considered places of filth, a word often associated with violence and danger.

The slums are the product of the rapid development of Tarsonis City, with extremely high population density but lack of necessary supporting public safety and sanitation facilities.It is right next to the gleaming marble columns of the Nagfa Hall of the Bundesrat building and the wide, tidy streets.

Tarsonis is as ugly as she is glorious, there is nothing to hide, nothing to hide.

The Tarsonis people vividly refer to the slums as rows of drains next to beautiful and huge buildings, and think that the people who live there are just lowly occupations. Live off crime and rummaging through dumpsters for leftovers.

In the old federal era, the slums and the rich areas were separated by power grids and high-paid security company armed personnel. It seemed that there was only a short distance between hell and heaven.For those rambunctious rich kids looking for a thrilling adventure, look no further than the Slums.

And although the government's management of the Tarsonis slums has achieved initial results, it still maintains its past appearance in the darkest depths. There are no lights here, and countless small streets and alleys hidden in the darkness exude decay. and rotten smell.

Stone, a newly graduated ghost agent of the Empire, can't remember whether he has been to such a place before entering the ghost military academy, but he has actually seen it-in another ghost military student's dream.

Stone's dark templar ssatar once said that many humans possess primitive, rudimentary psionic abilities, which are understood by humans as unexplainable phenomena-gut feelings, omens, and the cause and effect of things.

That's how the student grew up, until an Imperial agent brought her back to Korhal from the swill and trash.

In the former Tarsonis slums, there were spontaneously built messy shacks everywhere. People collected materials little by little like swallows to build their shelters. Only the upper class inside could afford prefabricated houses. .The newcomers can only lie on the open space with vents, and even a pipe can hold dozens of people, often with no clothes on, like maggots in cheese or shipworms in rotten tree roots.

Gangsters and unscrupulous businessmen in collusion ruled the blocks of the slums and seemed to be the masters here. They sold drugs, enhanced potions, implanted prosthetic limbs and artificial organs for huge profits.Anyone who dares not accept their products will be beaten, so [-] out of [-] people have taken drugs at one time, and the children here are addicted to drugs all their lives.

People in the slums can only do precarious labor work, and women always work lying down.

"This place gives me the chills, guys," Vega said on the channel.Her psionic power index is very strong, not only to the point of being able to transfer shape and control objects, but even invade the other party's brain to control their thoughts.This means that Vega's perception of danger is also higher.

"Zergs like places like this. They like to nest and lay eggs in Char's fiery cave, as relaxed and comfortable as pigs rolling in the mud." Captain Pierce said. …

The old city in the depths of the slums here has long been inhabited.The ruins of the past still exist, but they are almost reduced to ruins.

In the narrow area between skyscrapers, countless sheds made of aluminum alloy are piled up on top of each other, forming countless streets and alleys.Now these crumbling houses have long been smelly and black, and only a few emaciated mice can be seen occasionally.

God knows how these lingering rodents came to the Koprulu sector, or just another native species with similar morphology and habits.But just like the colonization activities after the discovery of the New World on the earth, rats, fleas and diseases have always been with the colonists.

With the help of the helmet detection function, the ghost agent can even see the lice on the mouse.

"What about the others?" Stone asked.Although there are no civilians here, they are not the first team to enter here.Each ghost team is independent and will not communicate with each other unless necessary, at the risk of revealing their location.

Apart from the lights of the skyscrapers, there is no light source in this area.It is in such dark corners that the zerg thrive.

During the Brood War, most of the Zerg's offensive strategies against humans were simple and crude frontal attacks, and humans were powerless to stop them.At that time, human beings were still very weak in the eyes of the master. As long as the supreme lord of the swarm wanted to, the swarm could destroy the most powerful and richest Tyrannian human home planet to the ground at any time.

But after the outbreak of Total War II, the swarm switched to a more effective offensive strategy.That is to infiltrate the city through parasitic infection, attack from the inside to weaken the human power, and cooperate with the inside and outside if necessary.

And even if you don't use parasites to infect humans, there are always people with greed who are willing to sell the empire for a little credit.

Over the past four years, the zerg have evolved and grown, just as humans have been developing new weapons and capital ships.In order to deal with the threat of Zerg, even the Protoss, who uphold the immutable laws of their ancestors, is developing new void glow ships to enhance the strength of the fleet. At the same time, they are also actively looking for new colonial planets and awakening ancient technologies everywhere.

"At least five teams have entered the sewers below, and they are nearby." Pierce said: "Each team has carried a reconnaissance drone, and there are a large number of widow mines and black widow spider mines in front of them." Open the way, nothing will go wrong."

"If these teams spot zerg or come under an unknown attack, we'll know right away."

"The evacuation of civilians has greatly increased the vigilance of the Zerg, and they know that they have been exposed." Vega said: "If I were the Zerg, I would have known that the enemy was coming, of course I would not sit at home and wait."

"If it's not an early attack, it's an ambush."

"You're scared." It was a female ghost agent named Tanya who spoke.Her status is enviable, and she is one of the personal guards of Emperor Augustus Mengsk.

The female ghost agents are all beautiful.

Tanya was sent to Tarsonis to cope with the shortage of manpower here. Her level is not high, but her fire control ability is extremely lethal to Zerg. …

"On the contrary, I'm worried that you will be scared. Don't think that you can look down on people because you have worked in the palace." Weijia retorted: "You must have offended the queen and you were kicked out of the palace. her eyes."

The queen is also the most powerful ghost agent since the establishment of the ghost project, not one of them.Every student studying at the Ghost Military Academy must inevitably listen to the instructors babbling: I think this is not as good as Queen Kerrigan, and this is not as good as her.

Yes, Kerrigan is indeed the best ghost agent, but her greatest achievement is being the queen of Augustus the Great.

"But I know you're just scared." Tanya said, "No matter how high your test scores are, it won't change the fact that you're a chick in actual combat, but don't hold back."

"Shut up," Vega said. "I just think it's disgusting down there."

On the other hand, Stone remained silent, maybe the female ghosts always quarreled.

Speaking of it, it turns out that Stone is a somewhat irritable person, and as a ghost, he always has his own set of ideas about the battle plan, and it is inevitable to have disputes with others.However, whether it is Vega or Tanya, he is not an opponent at all.

"Stop, this is not a tea party for ladies." Pierce said as he lifted a sewer manhole cover, turned over and jumped down, followed by the team members.

It was an unsettling night, and the Tarsonis were ignorant of what was happening beneath their feet.

After jumping into the sewer, Stone still felt a sense of suffocation despite having activated his breathing mask.The air was so foul and foul that the flames lacked enough oxygen to burn properly.

The sewer system in Tarsonis City has a history of more than 200 years, and it has been continuously extended in the process of urban expansion, and finally turned into a huge underground world. Even if the engineers who built these sewers are still alive, they cannot Can't tell its original appearance.

The entire city of Tarsonis was built on it, which is why this incident attracted so much attention from the Augustegrad Palace.With the continuous influx of new immigrants from the outer colonies, the city of Tarsonis alone has a population of 37 billion.And no matter how many people there are, it won't take long for the Zerg to completely devour them.

"It seems that there are no signs of Zerg existence here." Stone has seen those infected human buildings in textbooks and video data collections, and now everything seems to be normal.

It hasn't seen sunlight in a century or two, and they're standing in the muck and excrement.If it is not for wearing combat uniforms, people who stay in such an environment for a long time will soon suffer from serious skin diseases.

It turned out that the work of dredging the sewers was done by the residents of the slums.It costs far less to hire a sewer cleaner than to maintain a cleaning robot, and such jobs are highly sought after in the slums.

Hundreds of people die every year in the sewers of Tarsonis, and many more go missing because of disorientation inside.

There is a map of the sewer on Stone's helmet display, and it is simply a spider web extending in all directions.Most of the passages have been marked by reconnaissance drones, and only the area they are in now is the key marked dangerous area. …

"But there's not even a mouse here," Vega said.

"And on the Zerg's territory, they are the only life form." Stone thought of the knowledge he had learned in class.

Never underestimate your opponents, especially when they are Zerg.

Stone followed his team quietly through the muddy pipes of the sewer, the latest hostile environment suits allowing them to perfectly blend into the surrounding environment.

The tight suit helps Stone channel his psychic energy, increasing his strength and agility.Even if they are equally well-armed and well-trained fighters, they are no match for Ghost when they go up against ordinary people.

Of course, a ghost's best weapon is their mind, everything else comes second.

Suddenly, Stone and the others were convinced that they heard some kind of high-pitched howl, as unpleasant as a blade on glass.

"D team and e team are in trouble, guys, they are around here." Immediately afterwards, a support mission briefing appeared on Stone's mask.

Stone's team immediately entered a high-speed mobile state, and the physical improvement of the combat suit and the new enhancer gave them superhuman speed.The enhancers they used were different from those used by the marines, with stronger effects and fewer side effects, but the cost was much more expensive.

Soon, they stepped on a creepy tumor wrapped in tendrils and sarcomas, and the dark brown creeper was creeping underfoot.For the most part, creep acts as the eyes and ears of the swarm.

When a Marine steps on Creep, he is effectively exposed.

Not only that, the sewer has been completely transformed into a huge chamber, and some eggs that have been cracked reveal a terrible truth. The ferocious Zerg are wandering back in the darkness, waiting to deal a fatal blow to the intruders. .

But Stone didn't see the other Ghost Squad, instead a group of weird-looking creatures appeared in sight.

A few miners in jumpsuits, farmers with farm tools, office workers in suits and ties, and even a beautiful female singer, all had terrified expressions on their faces when they walked towards the ghost.

"Fire!" Of course Pierce couldn't be fooled by such a trick.

These mimic larvae have finally learned to be a little smarter, and they won't turn out a bunch of identical clones to fool people.

Stone immediately activated the assault mode of the c-20a canister shotgun in his hand, and killed one of the mimetic hatchlings with a few precise bursts, and the latter immediately turned into a pool of squirming tissues amidst horrifying screams .

Ghosts are elite fighters equipped with the best weapons available for individual soldiers. The c-20a is an upgraded version of the c-10 in the old federal era with comprehensive improvements in performance. It is equipped with a 24-capacity magazine and is suitable for different combat environments.

At this moment, the remaining mimic larvae showed their fangs one after another, and the skin that belonged to humans rolled out from the inside out, revealing the bloody tissues and blade-like bone blades.Even trained ordinary soldiers couldn't help screaming when they saw this horrific sight.

A mimic larva wriggled and used its two pairs of outstretched forelimbs to move forward quickly. Its eversioned tissue and the tissue under its body were disgusting.

Suddenly, Stone's heart seemed to stop for a moment, because the face of the mimic larva turned out to be His Majesty Augustus Mengsk, and it obviously imitated the holographic projection image.

Immediately afterwards, the mimetic chick that was pounced on Stone immediately burned in the scorching blue flame, making a painful creaking sound.It was Tanya who made the shot, and she was setting the mimic chicks on fire one by one like a flame mage.

"I was almost going to save you." Vega ran in front of Stone.

"Nice job, Tanya." Looking at the face burning with blue flames, Stone suddenly said:
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty."