StarCraft: Tyranid Empire

Chapter 288 Down, Straight to Hell (6000-word chapter)
"Sailors, we are about to get out of the hyperspace transition state. Keep up your spirits, the victorious songs and beautiful girls are waving to you."

Raynor was speaking on the fleet-wide radio channel when Augustus emerged from the tiled floor of the Hyperion's captain's cabin bathroom.Augustus could feel that the Hyperion was shaking slightly, which was a sign that the warship was about to complete its transition.

Among the human battlecruisers, the behemoth-class Hyperion is already considered an older battleship.But it is one of the very few warships with shield upgrade technology, Umoyan titanium alloy steel armor and Nemesis missile cabin upgrade technology, and except for a few flagships, most of the behemoth-class battlecruisers of the Tyrann Federation Can only rely on armor defense.

The Leviathan-class battlecruisers have already become history, and they will be at a great disadvantage when facing the new generation of battleships in terms of weapon level, speed, and power engines.

In the shortest time possible, Augustus put on his shirt, coat, and trousers with white seams, and took his gun.

After fingerprinting and gene unlocking procedures, Augustus saw Corporal Faraday and another marshal's personal guard behind the opened door of the captain's room.

"If the navigator is not mistaken, then we will arrive at the destination soon." Augustus said to Corporal Faraday.

"Charle. The Federation and the Federation almost smashed it. The surface is completely uninhabitable, and the rest of the people live on Charle's space orbit platform." Corporal Faraday said.

"Before the zerg landed on Char, only mining companies and pirates owned by the Federation nobles would patronize there."

"This is a good place. The Federation and the Commonwealth broke their heads for Char a few years ago, not only because of the abundant heavy metal deposits on it." Augustus supported the cabin next to the captain's cabin of the Hyperion, which was hung with a wool blanket. and wondered where Swann had gotten these things, whose only purpose was to keep wobbly sailors from knocking their heads against them.

"The most important thing is the position of Char. Neither the Federation nor the Federation wants to lose it." Augustus said as he walked towards the deck of the command layer along the arrow mark on the wall of the cabin: "Once Char is captured by one side, Multiple planets on the other side would be exposed to the strike force of the strike fleet."

"Char was one of the first planets to be invaded by zerg, and its fall brought a chain reaction. Of course, no one wants to stick to a harsh mining world. Being an official here is a lucrative job, but Char It's a veritable hell on earth," he said.

"Char is nothing but lava and scalding air."

The Hyperion is known as the steel palace in the air, and its interior is also quite spacious, enough to accommodate six thousand crew members, a large amount of supplies and weapons, and can park a small fleet composed of wraith fighters.

But at the beginning of this design, every inch of land and gold was used on a warship sailing in deep space, so the space left for the cabin became too little.In some extremely narrow passages, passers-by even have to cling to the pipes emitting heat.

At the time of departure, all the cold storage rooms of the battleship were filled with frozen meat, potatoes and other supplies.When a battlecruiser had to undertake the task of transporting an entire marine corps, some of the marines were forced to sleep in narrow aisles.

Augustus has already adapted to the environment in the Hyperion, just like the engineers under Swan, he will also go to the sub-engines under the bottom deck of the Hyperion in the spare time of the schedule. Climbing the stacked pipes in the cabin is like climbing a mountain.

Similar activities like Kopru squash, real man bumper cars and rugby are the favorite sports of fleet soldiers, because these young and energetic young people are idle most of the time and have nowhere to vent their energy.

After passing through a cabin in the ship that leads directly to the main control room, Augustus boarded a straight steel ladder that was more than ten feet high.When he stepped into the elevator inside the ship, he saw Matt Horner, a recruit of the Revolutionary Army who was also preparing to board the bridge, and the first officer of the Hyperion.

This 16-year-old boy, who was a little shy at first, was deeply loved by the commanders of the Huberian.Horner has almost all the advantages of being a commander. He has a good character, is serious, meticulous, has a strong sense of responsibility and justice, and is able to complete every task assigned to him and strive for excellence.

Matt Horner is also a person who loves to learn. During the break, he read all the books given to him by Augustus in his small cubicle that can only accommodate a single bed. books, and at the same time read manuals and a large number of professional books on human ships.

Matt doesn't have any bad habits other than chocolate, which is the exact opposite of Tychus Finlay.

"You look very excited, Matt." Augustus looked at the young man who was much younger than himself and said, "According to the protoss, Char has at least several billion Zergs and a dozen different ones. Hive. Aren't you afraid?"

"No, sir, because I'm sure I'm on the great path to saving all of humanity, and that's why I joined the Revolutionary Army." Matt saluted Augustus.

"I did the same thing when I first joined the Federal Marine Corps." Augustus smiled: "It is not easy to stick to the original intention, especially when fame, status and power come one after another."

"That's what I should learn from you," Matt said.

"Write it down, what you said just now must be verbatim." Corporal Faraday whispered seriously to his subordinates beside him: "This is worth learning."

Augustus shook his head. Among the revolutionary army, some people's cult of personality was almost unstoppable. He couldn't imagine what it would bring after overthrowing the rule of the Tyrann Federation and establishing a new regime.

When the elevator came to a complete stop, Augustus was not surprised to see Tychus Finley in another elevator that was opening next to him. cocktails.

Alcohol was strictly forbidden in the fleet, with the exception of Tychus, who spent all his cleverness trying to steal it.

"Marshal, good morning, I heard that you are going to throw us all to Char." Tychus was trying to light the cigar in his hand while speaking.

Tychus was a man of instant gratification, and whenever he had money he spent it on booze and tobacco and girls.The type of cigarettes Tychus had in hand could tell how long his fleet had been sailing, for he always enjoyed the best ones first, and only tried inferior ones when he had to.

"Not bad, Tychus, you and I will be the first to jump if necessary," Augustus said.

"You hypocrite, I don't expect you to do that." Tychus felt like he was making fun of himself.

When Augustus walked into the bridge of the Hyperion, there was a black vortex radiating glare outside the observation window directly opposite him, which was the sub-warp space-time channel that was opening.

The equipment in the bridge is running at full capacity, the seats in front of the command console and the sensor monitoring platform are full of people, and more people are coming and going on the bridge deck, precise instruments, valves, wires and measuring instruments It constitutes the whole picture of the bridge.

There was another slight tremor, and the Hyperion jumped out of the hyperspace channel, and a world bursting out with strong flashes from time to time suddenly appeared in everyone's eyes.

A voice of a call suddenly came from the originally relatively quiet fleet communication channel, and Jim Raynor, who was standing in front of the main screen, looked back at Augustus.

"The Hyperion has arrived at Char, Marshal, welcome to the world of purgatory and death," Raynor said.

"Char, the cremator of the world."

"Is there anyone alive here?" Augustus asked, "Where did I send the scouting fleet?"

When Augustus asked questions, Matt and others had already returned to their posts, waiting for the commander's order.

"No one has contacted us yet." Raynor pointed to the space outside the observation window.

"But it looks like Tassadar's protoss crusade has been fighting Char's zerg for a long time."

Augustus moved closer to the observation window, and a fiery red dot immediately came into view.That planet was far from the Hyperion, but the humans on the bridge could notice the difference.

The closest to Hyperion is a red giant planet with a golden halo and several small moons.

The battle between Tassadar's protoss fleet and the Char swarm in space stretched from Char to the fifth planet in the galaxy, and the diameter of the battlefield reached more than ten astronomical units.

Huge corpses of Zergs and broken golden Protoss warships can be seen everywhere on the way of the Hyperion and its affiliated fleet to Char. The aftermath of the war even tore up several large satellites and uncountable asteroids. A number of rocky asteroid belts are formed on the edge of the Err galaxy.

"God's ass." Tychus exclaimed, "Is this something a human can do?"

"It's really spectacular." As Augustus said, a piece of debris from the Protoss aircraft carrier passed the bridge flank of the Hyperion at an extremely fast speed and flew to the edge of the Char galaxy.

Farther afield, a gigantic swarm of Behemoths floated in the icy depths, like a tiny dead moon or a whole continent thrown into space.The massive gash in its vesicular and abscessed skin was wide enough for a battlecruiser to enter, and the seemingly dead monster was itself a gigantic battleship capable of traveling through deep space.

A huge hole with a diameter of more than several hundred feet runs through from Behemoth's head to its tail. Even though it seems to have lost the vitality it should have as a creature, its internal meridians, tendons and organs are still working .There are still a huge number of different dragons and guardians of the swarm crawling out from the gap between their skins like ravines and deep valleys, and a large number of maggot-like larvae are wriggling inside, preparing to transform into cocoons.

"Avoid that Behemoth, we are no match for it," Augustus ordered.

In the cold and dark space, the swarm has noticed the human fleet that suddenly jumped into the Char galaxy.Although this fleet is insignificant compared to the mighty Protoss Crusade fleet, there are still large numbers of Zerg approaching them.

"Find Tassadar's flagship Star Shuttle." When Augustus was speaking, a Protoss aircraft carrier that was closer to the Hyperion was firing, and the bright flash of fire illuminated his face for an instant. It was like the light of a fire in a fireplace.

"Detecting." Renault walked to the observation platform.

The radar scanning map of the Char galaxy appeared on a main screen projected by a hologram, with various colored, triangular or square signs on it, which were Zerg and Protoss warships in the high-altitude orbit of Char.

The main battlefield has moved from the edge of the galaxy to Char's high-altitude orbit, where bright flashes erupt from time to time, as if several supernovas are currently exploding.

"Contacted, they responded to us." After a while, Renault reported.

"I am Tassadar, Marshal Augustus." Tassadar's face with light blue skin appeared on the main screen, and his sky blue eyes that seemed to be burning with flames were still as shocking as before.

"The fleet has been fighting on Char for four sun cycles," Tassadar said. "We are still unable to penetrate the zerg's defenses in orbit above Char."

"We have detected hundreds of millions of eggs hatching in Char's numerous main hives, and the zerg in these eggs must be mutants specially prepared for space warfare. Once Char's zerg Hatch enough flying creatures and our fleet will be at a disadvantage in this battle."

"I am in the process of sending ground troops to Char to destroy those Hives. The Sons of El would be grateful, my friends, if you spared your hands to help us destroy a few of the Hives. Great Archon Dragon Knight Taldarin will fight with you."

As soon as Tassadar spoke, Augustus could see a group of golden flashes erupting outside the Star Shuttle, and the Scourge that covered the sky and the sun was attacking the Protoss fleet.

"Goodbye, my friend, and may Adun bless you."

"What's the matter, are you ready to help?" Tychus looked at Augustus: "We are just pendants on the pointed heads of these protoss, and the sword tassels on the hilts. Just leave these things to them."

"Could it be that we traveled thousands of miles to Charle just to enjoy an unprecedented space fleet battle?" Renault thought for a while and said.

"I can tell that Tassadar, the executive officer of the Protoss Expeditionary Army, is much more noble than those in the Federal Parliament. If we help him once, he will definitely remember it." He said: "Don't forget Yes, we owed a lot to Tassadar in the Sara galaxy and Antiga."

"But no one ever said that you have to repay your kindness, not to mention that it's a life-threatening affair." Tychus curled his lips.

"You guys are the ones I hate the most, it makes me look like a scumbag."

"Attacking Char will surely force the zerg back, which will undoubtedly relieve the pressure on several marginal worlds. Apart from these, Tassadar's friendship is also worth the risk." Augustus said.

"Jimmy, how many nuclear bombs do we have?" Augustus said.

"Not much." Reynolds said, "Two apocalypse-level nuclear bombs and two 5000-megaton tactical hydrogen bombs are enough to destroy several Zerg main nests, but after that, it's all up to us."

"We used it a lot on the main star of Antiga."

While talking, the Hyperion and other warships jumped to the vicinity of Char after a short jump, but kept a certain distance from the Protoss and Zerg who were fighting in the high-altitude orbit.

At this time, on the right side of the Hyperion is Edmund Duke's flagship Norad III, and on the other side is the scientific ship Amerigo of Alpha Squadron. These huge spaceships are painted in gray and white. The outfit and the blood eagle are used as symbols to distinguish it from other golden and red revolutionary warships.

On the main screen of the bridge that keeps getting closer, it seems that the surface of Char's planet with bright orange spots is getting closer and closer to Augustus.

It was a dead world with seas of boiling lava and unstable volcanoes on its surface. Golden flashes and black spots sometimes appeared on the surface of its orange-red planet. These were erupting volcanoes and the constantly moving Char continent. plate.

At first glance, Char looks like a sun that can be seen directly with the naked eye. The raging storm is surrounded by golden heat waves, like an erupting solar wind.How they managed to achieve the speed to escape the gravity of the planet Char is a mystery as swarms of Mutalisks, Scourges, and Swarm Keepers keep flying from the surface of Char into space.

"Dropping a boot in this hellish place could hit a bug on the head," Tychus said.

"I'm Duke, a group of different dragons are coming towards us!" The voice of General Edmund Duke on the Norad III sounded through the communication channel.

"Don't be afraid, General, we will cover you up. You coward." Renault said in a low voice.

"Fire back immediately, do you expect them to just pass by here?" Augustus ordered.

"Duke, the transport ship ready to land, I need the Alpha Squadron to send an elite landing force to Char immediately." Augustus scanned the scanned map of Char's surface with his finger, and in the area marked as the Plain of Mirrors, Dead Bones The Trench, Death Valley, the 17th Mining Outpost, and the Burning Lands were divided into huge fan-shaped areas.

"Land here and here." Augustus pointed to the Plain of Mirrors and the Burning Land: "The landing troops are led by General Duke and myself respectively."

The Trench of Bones was omitted by Augustus. In the future, Warfield buried many Gorgon-class battlecruisers here. It was not an auspicious place for him.

"Sir, we found a Federation fleet." Suddenly, a revolutionary soldier sitting in front of the observation platform reported.

"Damn it, why are these ghosts lingering around!" Tyke suddenly growled like a vicious dog whose tail was trampled.

"It's the battleship of the Nova Squadron, and the spaceship of the Omega Squadron has not been found." The soldier continued.

"What are they doing here?" Renault was puzzled: "What benefits can the Federation gain from Charle?"

"The most important thing is how they found us."

"I don't think they're here for us," said Augustus, "but beware of them anyway."

"Wait, what's that?" Raynor suddenly pointed to the radar detection map: "Several Protoss spaceships. It doesn't look like the Tassadar fleet, and it's completely different from the Tadarin we've seen."

When Augustus looked over, several wedge-shaped pitch-black spaceships emitting green light flashed across the main screen, and then disappeared without a trace with a burst of force field ripples.

Although these spaceships stayed for a moment, Augustus could still see their appearance clearly.

Except for the fluorescent green light that lingers on their surfaces, the hulls of these spaceships are completely black, like a piece of obsidian in the dark or scattered ink, it is an almost completely non-reflective black.The surface of the spaceship is smooth and matte, as if absorbing light.

It was far less slender and elegant than the gold-blue ships of the Tassadar fleet, but it was just as light and fast.These spaceships look quite old, and many traces of weathering and wear can be seen on their surfaces.In terms of the protoss' craftsmanship in building warships, it would take tens of millions of years to cause this level of wear and tear.

And Augustus even suspected that these pitch-black warships were as old as the celestial bodies in the universe.

Each black spaceship is engraved with quaint patterns and its strange textures, as if there is life-like green light like the afterimage of the spaceship.

Dark Templar.

"Are you sure you're not delusional? Jimmy, you're always seeing the wrong things, after all." Tychus didn't see it at all, and thought there must be someone between him and Raynor completely blind.

"Nonsense." Raynor ignored Tychus.

"... I'm afraid something bad will happen." Even Augustus did not expect that the dark templar would come to Char at this time. Originally, Tassadar and Zeratul should have been captured by the swarm in Kerrigan Was brought to Char before coming to this planet.

Because at that time, Kerrigan, who was being transformed into Queen of Blades by Abathur, the master of swarm evolution, had been using her powerful psionic power to call for help, and the psionic scream of that terrible creature had been echoing throughout the universe. Tassadar, Raynor And Arcturus and others heard her call for help.

But the point in time now is completely different from then, because Augustus rescued Kerrigan early, and the timeline has also changed.

Perhaps the Dark Templar, who have been traveling across the universe, saw their kind appear on Char and engaged in a fierce firefight with the Zerg there, and came to help them deal with the Zerg.

"Can you locate those spaceships?" Augustus asked Raynor.

"The Hyperion's detection equipment can't find the location of the spaceships just now, but I think they should land in Char." Reynolds replied: "Those spaceships don't look like warships, they should be some kind of warships." Shuttle."

"Tell Swann, Fick, and Kaczynski to make sure my shuttle and power armor are ready." Augustus calmly ordered, "Keep the original battle plan unchanged and put all our Bring spider traps and fusion explosives, when you need them."

"Did you hear that? Prepare to land on the magma." Tychus walked towards the bridge gate: "Well, I hope we can still have a chance to drink No. [-] whiskey at Joey Ray's Bar."

"Further down, it's hell."

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(End of this chapter)