From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 650

Tens of thousands of airdrop pods poured out of the fleet's belly like a swarm of metal bees, drawing dense trails in the void.

These steel containers, resembling coffins, are engraved with the insignia of each company.

The runes of the Black Templar, the scales of the Flame Lizard, the bleeding heart and wings of the Lamenter, and the serrated fangs of the Man-Eating Shark, etc.

Each drop pod's thrusters spewed blue flames, weaving a magnificent web of death against the dark backdrop of space.

The combined fleet, consisting of four companies, fired its artillery in the void, setting a silent prelude to this airdrop.

The secondary gun arrays of the Emperor-class battleships began to fire with precision, and those large-caliber beams and plasma cannons, which were capable of destroying cities, seemed to be used as "surgical scalpels" at this moment.

Several blinding blue lights flashed, and the tearing force field generators that the Taldarim had set up throughout the wrecked ship exploded with a roar, sending distorted energy fields flying like shattered glass.

Next came the anti-aircraft gun turrets—

The Flame Lizard's plasma macro cannons swept across the surface of the wrecked ship, each shell exploding into a blue fireball hundreds of meters in diameter.

The Tadalin fleet was now in complete disarray.

Those motherships that were feared in the Koprulu Sector were now scattering like a school of frightened fish.

The Black Templar's strike cruisers drove them like sheepdogs, and barrages of various cannons formed metallic storms in the vacuum.

Occasionally, a few Taldarim warships would attempt to mount a counterattack, only to be immediately met with the matrix beams of the Traveller-class dreadnoughts.

Where the white light reached, only the lingering afterglow of plasma remained.

The Tal'darim fleet, placed in the Koprulu Sector of the StarCraft universe, is indeed among the top-tier forces, but it is still no match for the Forerunner civilization's warships, which are capable of dominating the entire galaxy.

At this point, the airdrop pods were already close to the surface of the wrecked ship.

Their deceleration thrusters activate simultaneously, creating a blue braking light curtain in the last kilometer.

The first to land were the special airdrop pods of the Man-Eating Shark Company. These metal "coffins" equipped with drill bits penetrated directly through the three decks of the wrecked ship.

Tiberius's private drop pod crashed into the deck like a meteorite, and the shockwave from the impact instantly turned all the surrounding Taldarim warriors into mincemeat.

This was followed by a torrential downpour of routine landings.

Tens of thousands of airdrop pods were distributed across the entire surface of the wrecked ship with landing points accurate to the centimeter, and the pod doors detached instantly upon contact via "explosive" bolts.

These heavy metal panels spun and drifted away in the vacuum, some even striking the panicked Taldarim warriors. Emerging from the silo were the Imperium of Mankind's most elite killing machines—

More than a thousand Astartes from various companies descended to earth like mythical war gods.

Even in the dim light of the wrecked ship, their power armor still gleamed with a cold metallic luster, and the muzzles of their bolters had already begun to spit fire.

The warriors of the Black Templar advanced in wedge formation, each volley accompanied by clearly enunciated Chinese prayers on the communication channel.

The Flame Lizard squad swept every corner with meticulous tactical formations, their plasma weapons melting the Tal'darim armor into molten iron.

The tactical squads of the Lamenters moved swiftly through the wrecked ship, the silent roar of their chainsaws echoing as a visible symphony of death in the eyes of the Taldarim.

More than 20,000 Hell Paratroopers followed closely behind.

These "mortal" warriors, clad in power suits and injected with Inquis serum, while not as elite as the Astartes, are still among the most elite infantry forces in the human empire.

Their hard-fire weapons, gauss rifles, and mounted machine guns and missile launchers precisely destroyed the Taldarim's defensive nodes, tearing any enemy daring to show themselves to shreds through the crossfire network of over 20,000 Hellfire Troopers.

Even more terrifying are the accompanying knight mechs. These twenty-meter-tall, fast-moving humanoid weapons are assisting the Astartes and Hell Paratroopers in their steady advance. Each rotation of their multi-barreled machine guns clears a corridor.

Meanwhile, the biological weapons that have undergone a comprehensive upgrade over half a century, such as thousands of tyrants wearing heavy armor and wielding heavy cannons, have served as "human shields."

While Tyrant's combat stats are far inferior to Astartes in terms of intelligence and reaction time, its vitality is comparable to Astartes. Moreover, Tyrant's strength is much greater than that of an ordinary Astartes.

The Tyrant, equipped with heavy armor, provides a barrier for the Hellscreamers to charge forward. If the Tyrant encounters an attack from a Tal'darim warrior at close range, it can crush the Tal'darim warrior's body if it gets even the slightest chance.

The battle inside the wrecked ship was almost entirely a one-sided massacre.

Despite their psionic enhancements and advanced phase technology, the Tal'darim warriors were no match for hordes of Astartes.
Especially when faced with the elite companies of the four veteran legions, they are still as vulnerable as children.

A Black Templar veteran can tear through the Tal'darim's prized energy armor with his bare hands.

The Flame Lizard's apothecary even collected three Taldarim heads as trophies, apparently intending to have Dr. Hansen's team study them.

The warriors of the man-eating sharks turned this battle into a hunting game—

Reports indicate that Tiberius was seen alone in the engine room area of ​​the wrecked ship, where there were constant sounds of collapsing buildings and psionic screams from the dying.

Just thirty minutes later, the joint forces had taken control of 75% of the area around the wrecked ship.

The remaining forces of the Taldarim were divided and surrounded in several core compartments, and their psionic communications were filled with desperate cries.

Tiberius's charge left a "burning" path of death on the rusted metal floor of the wrecked ship.

His power armor servo system was operating at high power, with every muscle bundle unleashing astonishing force, accelerating this four-meter-tall war machine to terrifying speeds.

The condensed ice beads exhaled from the breathing grille of the Shark Tooth helmet instantly condensed into fine diamond dust in the vacuum, forming a deadly halo of icy mist around his menacing helmet.

The chainsaw's power claws spun wildly at an extremely high speed, and the superalloy blades and high-energy plasma field sparked blinding blue-white sparks when they collided with the Tal'darim psionic shield.

These energy barriers, capable of withstanding direct artillery fire, were as fragile as eggshells in the face of the brute force of the man-eating shark company commander.

A Tal'darim berserker attacked from the side, his psionic blade slashing down with blinding arcs of energy.

Tiberius didn't even change his charge direction; he simply swung his right claw casually, and the spinning serrations tore through the berserker's breastplate like a hot knife through butter, shredding his entire upper body into a bloody storm of metal fragments and internal organs.

The microgravity environment inside the wrecked ship made the massacre even more bizarre.

The torn limbs of the Tadarin floated slowly in the corridor, the splattered blood forming countless suspended droplets.

Tiberius's power pack suddenly emitted a directional propulsion jet, causing him to swerve at an angle that defied common sense, directly colliding with a Templar attempting to use Phase Blink.

The figure of this high-ranking warrior was still flickering in the void when Tiberius's left claw had already reached out and pierced into the coordinates where the opponent was about to appear.

The instant the Templar completed his Blink, he was met with a spinning serration piercing his chest.

"hehe."

Tiberius grinned as he gripped his claw blade, tearing the unfortunate high-ranking warrior in two like a rag doll.

The walls were covered with claw marks several inches deep, and the overhead pipes were shattered as if gnawed by a giant beast. Six Taldarim warriors formed the final defensive formation, their psionic spears intertwining into a dense energy net. Tiberius merely lowered his head slightly and used the hardest part of his Sharktooth helmet's forehead armor to smash through this fragile barrier.

One soldier's head exploded like a watermelon upon impact, while another's chest cavity was completely ripped out by the power claw.

Before the remaining four could retreat, Tiberius swept them all in half at the waist. Their lower bodies remained in a running posture, while their upper bodies rolled and crashed into the wall.

In the monitoring room at the end of the corridor, the surviving Taldarim commander witnessed all of this through the monitors.

The battle-hardened Taldarim commander was trembling uncontrollably, his subordinates' psionic screams echoing through his communicator.

And it was just about to activate its self-destruct system—

boom--! !

The entire alloy wall dented and deformed with a deafening impact.

boom----! !

The second impact shattered the wall, and Tiberius's massive body, covered in debris, slowly rose from the hole.

The commander's last memory was the death trail traced by those scarlet goggles in the darkness, and the spinning saw teeth rushing towards him.

Meanwhile, Gao Zan and Forros did not waste their attention on clearing out the remaining enemies, but instead led their respective company guards to quickly approach the pyramid structures shrouded in a ghostly green energy barrier.

These buildings emanated eerie psionic energy fluctuations and were covered with ancient celestial runes.

Gao Zan stopped in front of a pyramid, his tactical goggles scanning the barrier's structure, trying to find a way to break through it.

However, the instant he approached, a cold and sharp thought pierced his mind—

"Ah, human warriors from another universe."

The voice was deep and weathered, as if it had endured a thousand years of solitude.

“If you can release us, we will fight for you against those blindly loyal Tadarin compatriots.”

Spiritual communication?
Gao Zan's nerves snapped to attention, but the helmet screen immediately pulled up the information shared by the intelligence department, providing him with the answer—

"Dark Templar".

The Protoss imprisoned within the pyramids are different from "their" brethren.

They were banished for a thousand years for refusing to integrate into the Khala, the spiritual network shared by the Protoss race.

They abandoned the advanced technology of Protoss society, turning instead to the study of pure Void psychic energy, becoming assassins in the shadows. Now, some of their people are imprisoned here by the Tal'darim, seemingly becoming some kind of experimental subjects or prisoners.

Instead of responding immediately, the top-voted comment sent a message via an encrypted channel to Forros, who was conducting an investigation on the other side.
"These Dark Sanctuaries might become temporary allies."

Forros nodded slightly, a thoughtful glint in his icy blue eyes beneath his helmet. He then gracefully raised his hand, signaling the Weeping Warriors behind him to remain vigilant, and gave his response:

"Then release them. It might break down the Taldarim's resistance more quickly and provide us with ready-made living Protoss samples."

Gao Zan did not hesitate. He raised his hand and gestured to the company guards beside him: "Break the barrier."

Upon receiving the order, the ten guards immediately stepped forward, raised the 1.0cal heavy explosive bolts attached to their arm armor, and began firing at the barrier-generating device.

In just a few seconds, with the silent roar of the explosive projectile and the silent electronic shriek, it shattered like glass.

The pyramid's gates slowly opened, and darkness flowed out from within—not shadows, but pure void energy.

Immediately afterwards, pairs of deep blue eyes lit up in the darkness, as cold and sharp as stars.

The Dark Templars, who had been imprisoned here, have finally regained their freedom.

The Dark Templars, freed from their restraints, immediately displayed terrifying combat skills.

Their eerie blue figures flickered erratically in the corridors of the abandoned ship, their nerve cords dancing like living things behind their heads, rapidly spreading out and charging forward.

The leading Dark Templar raised his double-edged psionic scythe, the space around it distorting slightly as the blades sliced ​​through it. Before the dozen or so Taldarim guards in the distance could react, they were sliced ​​into neat chunks of flesh by the suddenly appearing psionic blades.

The battle situation had long since become one-sided.

More and more transport boat formations are carrying more auxiliary troops and heavily armored units to land on abandoned ships, while carrier-based aircraft, bombers and other aircraft are also freed up to assist ground troops in preparing to annihilate all Tadarin forces.

What the Tal'darim feared most were the elusive Dark Templar—

They would sometimes appear as phantoms passing through the walls, and sometimes suddenly emerge from the shadows, each appearance accompanied by the psionic screams of the Tal'darim warriors.

Inside the core of the wrecked ship, Sigismund held a power greatsword, the scriptures on its blade gleaming faintly in the darkness.

Five Black Templar Terminators followed closely behind, their bolters already switched to armor-piercing mode.

boom--! !

As the hatch was blasted open by the molten metal bomb, the last few Taldarim Ascendants attempted to put up a last stand, preparing to unleash a massive shockwave.

However, Sigismund lunged forward, his greatsword tracing a perfect arc, cleaving two enemies in half at the waist.

The remaining Ascended were quickly reduced to wreckage by the Black Sanctuary's precise firepower.

The Xel'Naga artifact fragments within the central force field emitted an eerie blue light.

Sigismund stepped forward slowly, ignoring the psionic fluctuations of the artifact, and cleaved through the protective force field with his sword without hesitation. The moment his armored left hand grasped the artifact, the entire wrecked ship trembled.

But calm quickly returned, and then his steady report came through the communication channel:

"Target acquired."

Meanwhile, with the last of the Tadarins being wiped out, the Combined Fleet in orbit also began its final cleanup.

Shortly afterward, all personnel, along with the hundreds of Dark Templar released by Astartes, were returned and transferred to the Combined Fleet—

Ri~——咻——! ! !
The main gun array of the Nerva lit up with a blinding white light, and a purifying beam completely vaporized the abandoned behemoth.

Athena stood on the bridge, her golden armor reflecting the distant flames of the explosion. She nodded slightly and addressed the communications officer behind her:

"The first phase objective is complete. Now, we can notify the young prince to go to Charles and await our arrival."

(End of this chapter)