StarCraft: Tyranid Empire.

Xanthos, the godlike iron giant, flew proudly and majestically over the sky above the Imperial Forum, casting a huge shadow on the cheering crowd of tens of thousands.

Compared with its overly large body and armed parts, the pair of "V"-shaped wings of Xantos looked round and short, just like the flippers of a sea lion. But even so, it still flew well and steadily.

The designers and technicians of the Imperial Engineering Corps were both geniuses and lunatics. Swan's men once claimed that as long as the thrust was strong enough, they could send the Emperor's palace into the sky and allow this largest building in Augustgrad to perform a Cobra maneuver in the air.

Augustus almost approved this ambitious and bold plan, which he called the Wandering Palace. Unfortunately, the plan was ruthlessly sanctioned by Prince Arcturus because it was "extremely expensive, impractical, and meaningless."

Of course, no matter how good the equipment is, it is useless if the driver is not good. Tychus Finley is fully capable of doing this job. This guy's love for super-giant war machines and violence is almost comparable to women and alcohol. He can drive a baby stroller and a space battleship.

Tychus has little interest in most things and people in this world, but everything depends on the reward. He is the kind of person who learns the swan dance from scratch in order to rob a train.

Tychus flew the Xantos back and forth over the Imperial Plaza several times. A large number of tactical aircraft took off from the hangar and gathered around like a black storm. They were huge in number, in strict formation, and the distance between them was so precise that it seemed as if it had been measured with a ruler.

Finally, Xantos retracted its wings and landed on the ground with ease. Groups of fighter planes immediately lined up and returned to the hangar, as fast as the retracted blade of this steel giant.

"Citizens, this is the power of the empire." Augustus was facing the cameras of dozens of major imperial media at this moment. He held the hilt of the sword of the dynasty with his hands and his eyes were sharp, exactly the same as the statues erected everywhere in Augustgrad.

"Another great achievement of the engineering community of the Xantos Empire, the greatest jewel in the crown of Terran industry. All Imperials should take it for granted that all our achievements today are due to the nature of this race. We are enterprising and we are as strong as steel."

"Since the days of slash-and-burn farming, humans have never stopped fighting. When we mastered fire and guns, we drove away most of the beasts on Earth. Once we had starships and cannons, we fought for supremacy in the galaxy."

"Amon, no matter he is really a corrupted creator or a bluffing clown, once humans obtain the Spear of Destiny, they will kill the gods."

At this time, people's enthusiasm was at an all-time high, and Augustus only added fuel to the fire.

This was Augustus' daily routine. Unless he was on a campaign, he spent most of his time in the palace, with his best generals and most trusted ministers. From his throne, Augustus ruled his vast army and bureaucracy, and thus ruled the vast star regions of the empire.

The rest of the time, Augustus' schedule was also quite tight. He usually attended various important public events or traveled with Queen Kerrigan to inspect various places.

Whenever facing the camera, Augustus always has to say a few words.

Augustus was not a natural orator, but he practiced.

The Emperor likes to challenge his own weaknesses. For example, he is not good at fighting. Now, after good training, he is able to fight against the Royal Brain Worm Alpha.

At this time, after Augustus finished his speech, the scene changed and Xantos had begun to demonstrate its transportation capabilities.

Layer upon layer of landing pads opened from the fortress-like mechanical structure of Xantos's leg, each one was five stories high, and steel-armored War Wolves, Goliaths, and rows of raiders marched out in formation. The bright imperial flag was painted on every mecha and every piece of armor, and on every red shield of the Marines was the white Whip Ring emblem.

It can be imagined that Xantos will be a mobile weapon platform and military fortress with powerful firepower. When necessary, it can also take on the responsibility of siege. At the same time, engineers have left enough redundant space when designing this terrible war machine so that other weapons can be added or replaced in the future.

According to Augustus, another undisclosed Xantos model even has a full set of automated weapons production and repair workshops, capable of building and assembling large armor plates. In the body of Xantos, multiple huge furnaces can swallow hundreds of tons of crystal ore like a gluttonous stomach, smelting and forging it into steel ingots dozens of inches thick to produce armor, wheels, bearings, rails and other accessories that are difficult to obtain in time on the battlefield.

Strictly speaking, this type of Xantos is more like a super heavy factory consisting of land-based bases, turrets, high-quality armor plates and anti-aircraft weapons. There will not be too many of them, but just like those space weapon platforms moved by warp engines, they are indispensable in a large-scale battle far away from the borders of the empire.

According to the scheduled plan, the Empire was going to show the public the powerful weapon system of Xantos today. The Imperial Marines Headquarters even got a scrapped Odin II mecha. If everything goes well, Xantos will first use missiles, lasers, flamethrowers and rail guns to bombard in turn, and finally use the Vulcan blaster to make the final move.

However, these loyal believers in the doctrine of firepower superiority got one thing wrong from the very beginning, that is, they might send the audience to heaven along with them.

By design, the firepower of the Xantos is enough to destroy the armor of a Gorgon-class battlecruiser and burn enough armored forces to cover the entire Imperial Square into a pile of molten industrial waste. But unless there is no other way, any savvy commander should not let their Gorgons land in the atmosphere and compete with the Xantos in firepower without opening the shield.

On the other hand, deploying such a powerful weapon in such a densely populated area is no less than handing the red button to the bulls.

There is precedent for this. In a public exercise, Captain Jon Dyre, a heroic Imperial Viking fighter pilot, destroyed his military base in just thirty seconds and slaughtered the colonies, perfectly demonstrating why the Vikings were called the Wrath of God.

Subsequent investigations showed that past experiences were the main reason why Jon Diller fell into madness. He had to personally kill all his subordinates who were infected by the Zerg virus, and he suffered for it for the rest of his life.

However, on such an important occasion, Xantos was still handed over to Tychus with confidence, probably because this guy had an incredibly strong psychological quality and almost no sense of shame.

However, for Augustus, today's ceremony is over, and Xanthos may be open to the citizens of Augustegrad for the rest of the day so that they can all take a look and promote patriotic ideas.

According to Augustus' style, the most advanced weapon is always the next one, which means that any weapon is outdated once it is put into service, and the backwardness can be displayed.

The Terran Empire could even authorize the Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan to produce their own Xanthos. After all, the real strength of the Empire has never been a certain technology, but its size, mobilization and war potential.

Augustus never asked again what the Protoss thought of Xantos. Before, he had only asked on behalf of those in the Empire who cared most about these opinions.

In addition, the Empire does not need to sell equipment to any Protoss force. From their aesthetic point of view, Xantos undoubtedly appears bloated and fat, with no aesthetic appeal at all.

The Protoss would slaughter their enemies in a spectacular manner. Each deployment of the psionic network and warp matrix was like a musical note passing through the battlefield. They flattened everything with fire, like a knife gracefully spreading butter on bread.

If there were Protoss from the Purifier Council here today, they would probably think that manned machines are obviously outdated, and that the future will be the era of military intelligent machines. Fortunately, these mechanical Protoss are still proud Templars in their bones, and have no desire for expansion, otherwise they would have to fast forward to a situation where carbon-based creatures have been eliminated.

But Augustus had to say that although the Empire's weapons were not as good as those of the Protoss, they were not much inferior in terms of causing death and destruction, and they were available in large quantities.

Compared to large machinery, the Imperials are actually more keen on distributing "express deliveries". They like to throw all kinds of things onto the battlefield, sometimes missiles carrying nuclear warheads, Odin mechas airdropped to the battlefield, or even abandoned space stations that warp to the enemy's face.

"The Empire has many machines like this." In front of the foreign guests, Arcturus also showed his toughness. It was rare for him to say such words: "The weapon is not the key, the most important thing is the person who controls it."

Any advanced weapon would be no secret to Amon, he could build a hundred Xanthos, or simply use void energy to create something similar out of thin air, just like Augustus making a hundred omelettes on the stove.

But Amon didn't care about these petty gains, even the death fleet of the Tal'darim Protoss was not worth his excessive worry.

“Yes.” Ginara thought Arcturus was praising Tychus, so she said sarcastically, “I would rather give the Skywalker to my opponent than to a fool.”

This noisy ceremony seemed like torture to Jinara. Indeed, a large-scale Rakshir ceremony might involve tens of thousands of Tal'darim, and the noise caused by the cursing, provocations, and even fighting between the two sides was far less than that of these humans.

To the Protoss, who have keen telepathic abilities, humans are indeed overly noisy creatures. They never try to conceal their shallow thoughts when they speak, and their mouths keep chattering at the same time.

Augustus waved his hand, signaling them to be silent. At the same time, his eyes were as clear as a square, looking through the surging crowd into the invisible distance.

In fact, he didn't have any profound meaning, he was just pretending to be profound.

Learned it from Zeratul.

In this way, others will feel that what he is about to say next will be very important.

People understand the true direction of the war less than they think. Most people can't even count how many worlds the empire owns, let alone the names of other imperial territories outside the core world.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

In addition to this lively scene, the military camps across the Terren Empire were busy, and the troop movements were more frequent than ever before. The orders for the transfers had even just arrived, and in many places it was still dark, and the soldiers had received orders to set off before they knew what they were going to have for breakfast.

Many soldiers knew that they were rushing to the front line, and sufficient supplies meant a great war, but they did not know that the other 3/4 of the empire's fleet had already left the station. Now, half of the empire's fleet has entered a hyperspace jump state and can no longer be contacted.

The destinations of all fleets were false; in reality, their journeys all ended at the Otarian Rift, a gate to the void.

There is no sense of direction in the universe. At this time, only those careful people will notice that the starlight outside the porthole is becoming abnormally scarce, and only those who are truly proficient in navigation can use this to calculate where they are.

But that doesn't mean anything.

Augustus had said long ago that he would march into the void, but Amon didn't believe he really had the courage to do so.

It's a big gamble.

The Imperial Army would either kill Amon or be wiped out in the void. From then on, apart from the humans on Earth, no other human force could fight against Amon alone.

The battle of Baysher was just a coincidence. The order to attack the void was not issued suddenly on a whim, but was the result of long-term preparations after the Battle of Aiur and the careful consideration of decision makers.

In fact, it was only after Augustus ordered the fleet to assemble that he learned about the appearance of two Ark of Destruction in Baysher and realized that Amon was preparing to make a big move there in the near future.

This is perfect. Amon might think that the Terran Empire and Darram are going to launch another Shakuras-style battle at Baisher, or launch a large-scale counterattack throughout the Koprulu sector to regain lost territory.

It's just that Augustus' appetite is much bigger than his, and his target is Aamon himself.

To do this, Augustus must mobilize all the power of both humans and the Protoss.

Since the Last War, all their plans to decapitate the Zerg Overmind have come to nothing, and there is no hope of saving the Zerg from Amon. All attempts to emulate the UED in controlling and enslaving the Overmind have ultimately proven to be nothing more than wishful thinking.

Neither humans nor the Protoss could drag it on.

Therefore, they must be prepared to face both the void army and the Zerg in the void at the same time.

The current Terran Empire has a bit of a feeling of a universal alliance. Augustus has basically unified the humans of Koprulu, and although the Protoss are not convinced by each other, they are willing to form an alliance with humans if it is to resist Amon.

Out of Augustus' sight, gear-shaped skyscrapers pierced the sky.

Augustgrad seemed like an unreal dream. No one could have predicted that a new empire was being built on the ruins of Korhal, and even the most optimistic people estimated that it would take at least ten to twenty years just to clean up the ruins of Stilling.

Even today, Augustgrad is still slowly expanding outward. As the largest industrial heart of the Terran Empire, the Augustgrad Industrial Zone has swallowed up all of Korhal's mines, and now it is the mining industry of the entire empire that provides it with blood transfusions.

Today's industrial area is much quieter than before, but it is still in operation. All outsiders who come here will be shocked by its amazing vitality and creativity. Every channel in and out of here is crowded with trucks, trains and transport barges, bringing in raw materials and taking away products.

"Actors is right, we still have a lot of such equipment." Perhaps Augustus did have selfish motives. The battlefield of Baysher was dangerous enough, but it was better than the void.

Even after today, Augustus will board his flagship and head for Urna.

"Humanity is ready to march into the void," Augustus said. "I know you are too."

"The fire of discord burns fiercely," Jinara said. "That is why I am here. The Death Fleet has been assembled and will arrive in the void soon."

"Alarak's wrath against Amon was unmatched, and to that end he was willing to stoop to the counsel of the men of the Empire."

"I hope you will keep your word," Arcturus said. (End of this chapter)