StarCraft: Tyranid Empire.

Chapter 598
Phaethon, Cactus Valley.

In front of Augustus is the vast desert with flying red sand, many large sandstones and tree-shaped spiny plants twisted in the rolling heat waves.When he looked up, the distant canyon was shining in the golden sun.

"Acturus, I have to say that this place is worse than Char." Augustus observed the opposite canyon with a telescope with a triangular ranging device, and spoke to the prince of the Tyrannian Empire beside him. .

Most of the planet's latitudes are unbearably hot, and the rest are unbearably hot.In this canyon, the scorching sun is drying people out, and the life support system of the commander-type power armor that Augustus is wearing is sending traces of cool air to every part of his body.Armored cold fusion reactors can provide powerful power, so there is no need to worry about energy issues at all.

"It's just the difference between hell and another hell." Prince Arcturus Mengsk wore armor that was almost the same as that of Augustus, and the golden wolf emblem on his armor was a symbol of imperial power.As he spoke, the twin towers of turboreactors behind the armor were still spinning.

Prince Shirahoshi was ten years older than his emperor brother and was now in his forties, with a thick, well-groomed brown-gray mustache and beard.Arcturus seems to be just a phantom of the past, and he has now lived in the appearance of his father Angus.

Compared to Angus, Arcturus's first half of his life was already exciting enough. He once led the federal army in the guild war, and once led his own exploration team to the farthest place humans can reach in this vast sea of ​​stars. , It can be said that all the wishes I made when I was young have been realized.

So, what does Arcturus want now?He is very ambitious and powerful, and is deeply trusted by the emperor of the empire. One person is under one man and ten thousand people are above him. It seems that it is difficult to go further except for the position of emperor.

But in Arcturus's view, there is no difference between Augustus's role as emperor and his own position.If the emperor is the father, it may be different.

Arcturus possessed outstanding military talent, and his political skills proved to be equal.When the prince attended the imperial council meeting as the Mengsk royal family, even the most eloquent parliamentarians were no match for him, and in the end the power was firmly in the hands of the emperor.

Anyone who has met Prince Arcturus will never dare to despise him. Those who intend to stir up conflicts in the royal family even say that he should be the emperor. People disappear.

"Why do we end up in these shitty places? The Umoyans must be crazy to come here." Tychus, a tall man in special power armor, stood between the emperor and the prince. , drank a bottle of cold beer majestically.

"You have to ask why the Zerg came to Phaethon." Augustus pointed Tychus in a direction and asked him to look over: "If you can figure out what the master and the brain worm think, this war will be Much simpler."

"Fortunately, we finally arrived, otherwise there would be no one left here."

Before the arrival of the Tyranid army, the swarm had devoured most of the life on Phaethon.The Empire rescued some Umoyans and sent them back to the safety of Korhal.

"The Empire has done more than their own leadership council to protect the people of Umoyan from the zerg," Arcturus said.

"At first, I thought it was not difficult to guess the thoughts of the Zerg, but I didn't know that people can't understand beasts until I saw the worm raised by Kerrigan." Tychus smacked his lips, the emperor of the Tyrann Empire just didn't understand Similarly, pets are brain worms at the beginning.

"But there are many people in the empire who are worse than animals." Prince Arcturus pointed out.

The prince does not hold any position in the court of the Tyrann Empire now, but he was also one of the commanders of the fleet during the war, and his status cannot be compared with that of Tychus.

Arcturus had already led the army in the early days of the war, leaving the work at hand to his stupid father who was a member of the parliament.If Queen Kerrigan wasn't in Korha, Angus might actually lose the last of his hair.

Although being away from the center of power would leave Arcturus with an irritable sense of emptiness, fighting alongside former subordinates was also a means of extending his power.

When personally commanding the army, Arcturus can also be called a brave general.Arcturus is a ruthless character in the political arena, and the same is true on the battlefield. He is often used to making sacrifices with a small number of troops in order to concentrate his strength on attacking the enemy's backbone. Therefore, all the troops in the White Star Prince's army have undergone resocialization. soldier.

He tends to let the resocialized soldiers act as cannon fodder, and then the prince's guard with sophisticated weapons and equipment will clean up the mess.

Over time, people began to call Arcturus the Black Prince.Compared to Shirahoshi, it seems that only this word is more suitable for his ruthlessness.

"Hmph." Tychus thought for a while, and decided that he wasn't talking about himself.He's a bad guy, but not a fool.

Tychus looked in the direction Augustus was pointing at, and there seemed to be a large wriggling gray cloud on the cactus canyon under the scorching sun.That was the creeping blanket that was constantly spreading, and countless Zerg buildings rising from the ground stretched into the sky like boiling glue.

This is the largest lair of the Garm swarm on Phaethon. The number of zerg in the depths of the canyon and even in the underground caves may be in the tens of millions.

He seemed to hear the viscous and disgusting sound when the creep blanket spread.

This is the Zerg. In the history of their race, there are only endless conquests and slaughters, bringing only death and destruction.In a history longer than human beings, the swarm has been destroying the planet, infecting and devouring the genes of the species on it.

In order to fulfill the distorted mission entrusted by the Creator and to achieve perfection on the road of evolution, the swarm has always carried out the way of killing.Humans are different from animals in that they can imagine and create things that do not exist in the world, but it seems that the zerg are more born to destroy.

"Okay." Tychus shook his head. "When we first came, there were no such disgusting things."

"I think you already have a detailed plan to eradicate the hive group of the main hive." Arcturus turned his head and looked at Augustus.

"Of course, but that's just an appetizer." Augustus turned away.

Behind them are fortifications and huge bunkers under construction. Planetary fortresses, engineering stations, and supply stations with heavy alloy shields and Ibex machine guns added to the main structure form a steel city. Thousands of towering anti-aircraft missiles, sensor towers and psionic jammers block the ground and the sky.Powered by multiple fusion cores, this fortress can be fully fired at any time.

This is a new city that has risen from the ground in a very short period of time. The city is full of terrifying caliber cannons and rocket pods. It can be said that it is armed to the teeth, and it is no exaggeration to call it a super fortress.

In the center of the super fortress, there are more newly built fighter platforms, transport aircraft platforms and a shocking super cannon - the earth fragmentation cannon.

This kind of giant artillery is as high as a dozen floors, and the length of the barrel alone is several hundred feet. It is an ultra-long-range artillery that can fire several tons of shells, and its range is enough to cover the entire battlefield.When the earth-shattering cannon fire roared, it was like the end of the world. The infinite sea of ​​light could even raze the strong fortress to the ground, and the attack point went deep into the ground.

Equipped with radiated warheads, the Earthshatter Cannon can also turn enemy positions into a deadly place of horrific fallout.

Since Keha IV was bombed by the old federation with apocalyptic nuclear bombs, the Keha people have become more and more difficult to deal with nuclear weapons.

Due to the extreme weight of the Earthshatter Cannon, it can only be deployed by train and heavy transport ship. Countless Imperial engineers are on the battlefield to assemble and build a stable launch platform.

Ordinary generals think that only a detailed and complete military plan can win victory, but a real military genius can decide the outcome of an entire war with one move. All human fear of the unknown comes from insufficient firepower.

"A model of the imperial military industry," Augustus said to Arcturus.

"It's time to turn this place into scorched earth." Arcturus said, "We have enough firepower. As long as we can defeat the enemy, we will not hesitate to spend more shells."

Not only the earth fragmentation cannon, but also thousands of nuclear bomb silos in this super fortress.As long as Emperor Augustus gives an order, he can launch a nuclear catastrophe at any time.

The battlefield between the Tyrann Empire and the Zerg Swarm covers a large star field, and more than 100 worlds are engaged in fierce battles to varying degrees.Some areas have at most only a few marines due to distance and importance, because the empire has always concentrated its limited resources on the main battlefield.

"It's time," said Augustus.

Augustus' Commander Power Armor has the most communication ports of any armor model, condensing all command lines into one suit of armor, so he can give orders directly to the main control center.

"Adjutant, report."

"Radiation strike is ready, fusion strike is ready, fighter launch platform is ready," the other end replied immediately.

"The fate of hundreds of millions of lives is at your fingertips," said Arcturus.

Arcturus likes this feeling, since Keha has been destroyed, he doesn't mind that the rest of the world becomes like Keha.

"Count down and prepare, let all soldiers get ready." Augustus ordered again.

The imperial soldiers located in the fortress began to move quickly, and the artillery who was operating the earth fragmentation cannon had already adjusted the position of the cannon according to the order.Everyone wears sound insulation equipment, and the subsequent roar is enough to tear human eardrums.

"Launch them all!" Augustus closed his mask and ordered after confirming that everything was ready.

With an order, the ground began to tremble, the air trembled and screamed piercingly, and the cactus canyon let out a tragic mourning.The entire land as far as the eye could see fell into a sea of ​​flames, and rounds of artillery fire tore apart the vicissitudes of the land of Phaeton.

Augustus was not in the mood to appreciate the magnificent picture of the continuous artillery fire, but turned directly to the command center.

"The Gum Swarm is just a vanguard of the Master, and I'm sure Sas, the Gam Swarm Lord, didn't even land on Phaethon." Augustus said:

"But as long as the master knows that I am here, he will definitely come. Moreover, I will bring the Xel'Naga artifact, which is very attractive to both the protoss and the Zerg."

During this period of time, Augustus appeared in Phaethon many times, and the eyeworms who monitored the imperial base must have noticed this human emperor who dared to appear on the front line.

The Overlord had wanted to assassinate Augustus more than once, by controlling important officials of the empire and sending mimetic larvae to carry out the assassination, doing everything he could.As long as they can win, it doesn't matter whether the method and process are despicable to the swarm.

"The master will definitely surround Phaeton, but with the lessons learned from the battle of Aiur, it may not dare to come to this planet in person." Arcturus said.

"You should go to Astrid III, General Warfield has taken that planet."

Augustus retorted: "But there are no protoss on this planet. The previous master died at the hands of the protoss, and the role of humans is actually insignificant."

"It doesn't know we have the Xel'Naga Artifact."

In fact, Augustus did not agree with this statement.If the fallen gods of the void have taken control of the current Overlord, it is not clear which side his only servant in the real world, Narud, will be on.

However, Augustus judged that Amon's influence on the Overlord actually has a limit, and that mainly depends on the degree of erosion of the void to the real world.Now that Narud has handed over the method of using the Xel'Naga artifact, it is very likely that he wants to use the hands of the empire to get rid of the current master.

The current overlord might not even know of Narud's existence, and an uncontrolled swarm would be a huge destabilizing factor for Amon's terrifying plan.

With this in mind, Augustus had a second plan.

"We are putting our hands in the lion's mouth," said Arcturus to Augustus.

They were walking past a massive armory, next to a prototype of an Odin mecha.As incredible as it is, the engineers of the Tyranid Empire are building Odin directly on the battlefield.

The technology of modular assembly enables the Tyranid Empire to deploy large mechs like Odin on the front line at a faster speed.

"And the fable says that when we put our hand into the lion's mouth, we must hold the whip in our hand," said Augustus.

At this moment, after rounds of artillery fire, a large number of imperial bombers are riding the wind and flying towards the main nest of the Gum swarm in the distance.

"Okay, but now I have to drive Odin into battle." Tychus walked over to his own Odin.

"I hope you know how to drive heavy armor this time," said Prince Arcturus. "Remember who holds your collar, Mr. Finley."

"You think I'm your dog?" Tychus snorted through his tall nose.

"If you say so, think of you as a dog," said Arcturus.

(End of this chapter)