This is a giant tetrahedral building built of dark stone. Its three parts standing on the ground are slightly separated, leaving three roads for people to reach the center of the temple.
The main building of the temple is still intact, but all the furnishings and decorations on the three pathways and in the center of the temple have been completely destroyed. The entire ruins are in a mess, as if they have been silent for a long time.
And in the dead silence, a dull crystal suddenly lit up with a faint blue light, spreading some kind of silent and extremely loud spiritual voice.
【Today, we will take back our homeland,】
[Take back the glory of the stars!]
buzz——
In the darkness of the ruins, nine eyes with blue light lit up.
Boom, boom, with the sound of heavy footsteps, a tall star spirit whose armor was in tatters, the crystal decoration was completely shattered, and his left eye was blinded by a long claw mark walked out of the shadows and picked up the crystal.
"[Are they Kara's reinforcements?]" Two more protoss with the same armor as him walked out of the darkness.
“[No,]” the one-eyed star spirit said with disgust: “[It’s my stupid brother, ‘Sleeping Tassadar’.]”
"[First of all, he is not your brother," "Secondly, he is not stupid,]"
The last thing that emerged from the darkness were two armor styles that were very different from those of the one-eyed protoss. They were more suitable for the protoss sitting at the back than charging into battle, and there were even afterimages left during their actions.
"[Tassadar's title is not 'Sleeper'," "He is a high-ranking Templar.]"
The two protoss just finished speaking sentence by sentence, and it sounded like the same person was speaking.
"[Hmph, the tacit understanding is not as good as that of your brothers.]" The one-eyed fanatic didn't even look back.
"[Sacred Kara connects us.]" The star spirits suspected to be twins said in unison.
"[The quarrel can wait,]" another protoss with a more steady tone said: "[Did Tassadar find reinforcements from native species? If they are not strong enough, we cannot risk fighting with them.
Contact them.】"
"[I received the summons and must respond, as always.]" The one-eyed star spirit slapped the crystal on a strange metal creature with a round body and one eye.
Hu~er~
The metal creature absorbed the energy of the crystal, floated in the air, and shook its body as if to shake off the dirt on it.
"[Let's go, little spy,]" the one-eyed star walked out of the temple: "[Let's send a signal to Tassadar.]"
"[Caldaris! I hope you know what you are doing! This will make the swarm that has left return again!]" The steady protoss was a little angry.
"[We know you want to preserve the temple's communication device," "But Tassadar is the only high-ranking templar who can use it.]" The twin templars advised in turn.
"[Of course I know what I am doing,]" the one-eyed star spirit known as Kaldaris was moving forward. Hearing this, he shook his hands and protruded a pair of light blades emitting dazzling blue light from his wrists:
"[Died on the battlefield, wrapped in horse leather.]"
"[...]" Calm Star Spirit was silent for a moment, then followed him: "[If we lose, I will definitely let you live until the end and see the consequences of your wrong decision.]"
"[We are 'Akundra (Sacrificial Ones)',"" the last protoss who had been silent said: "[Never afraid of danger.]"
————
Outside the temple, there was deathly silence.
Brown, scorched earth mixed with bones and dead wood, dark and shiny rocks and cliffs melted by high temperatures.
Even though they had seen it many times, a group of five protoss remained speechless when faced with this situation.
These wasteland landscapes have completely covered the original green mountains and green waters of Aiur in their impressions. Even if the protoss' crystal technology is quite advanced, it is almost impossible to restore the entire planet to its old appearance.
The best result is to clear out some key buildings and areas for later generations to recall and warn.
"[It seems that they are the reinforcements invited by Tassadar.]" Kaldaris looked up at the sky. A huge battleship was breaking through the atmosphere with lightning and strong winds.
"[This number is far from enough, we should start with - you!]" Halfway through the words of the Steady Star Spirit, he saw Kaldaris commanding the probe to open a crossing crack at the entrance of the temple, and couldn't help but feel angry.
"[Although he has a small number of troops, Tassadar never does anything he is not sure of,]" Caldaris looked around, "[What we should do now is to defend against the attack launched by the insect swarm after discovering the movement here, until it
Reinforcements have arrived.]"
"[There are no insect swarms nearby, maybe——]"
Boom!
Before one of the Twin Templars could finish speaking, the surrounding soil exploded, and more than a dozen zerg broke out of the ground and pounced directly on several protoss.
At this moment, tiny blue lights lit up on the tentacle-like braids of each protoss, allowing everyone to understand the current situation.
[A total of eight springtails and four hydralisks.]
[The six springtails pounced on the three zealots in pairs, and the two hydralisks were about to spit bone spurs at the two templars. The other two springtails and the two hydralisks were adjusting due to poor positioning. 】
At this moment, the dim crystals on the armor of the three fanatics lit up again, allowing them to avoid the attack of springtails at an astonishing high speed. They walked a short distance in a zigzag route like lightning, avoiding all insect claws, and
The light blade pierced into the bodies of those hydralisks, interrupting the spurts of bone spurs.
At the same moment, the two Templars turned a blind eye to the Hydralisk that was about to spit at them, and cast Psychic Storm directly at the location of the Zealots and Springtails who might be caught in the melee.
The result of the simultaneous actions of both parties was that the Zealots killed the Hydralisks, while the Templars destroyed all the Zerglings, and the psychic shields of all the protoss did not even fluctuate.
"[It seems that you haven't forgotten how to fight because you have been hiding for so long.]" Kaldaris said something that was either a compliment or a criticism.
"[You can only say weird things now,]" Steady Star Spirit pointed to the surroundings: "[Since we have a battle, it is impossible to hope that those bugs haven't discovered it yet.]"
Around the temple, densely packed insects gathered like a rising tide.
————
"[Do you think the reinforcements brought by Tassadar are enough to cope with this kind of situation?]" The steady protoss stood side by side with Kaldaris at some point, paying attention to the insect swarm while also looking at the battleships in the sky.
"[This has nothing to do with Tassadar. If these natives can't cope with this kind of scene, they will never come,]" Kaldaris sneered: "[This is the instinct of lower creatures to pursue to save their own lives."
.】"
"[They have been hovering for a while, and they should start whatever they want to do,]" Steady Star Spirit said: "[Maybe their commanders had a dispute, maybe--"
Boom, boom, boom!
At this moment, the nearby ground suddenly exploded again, and three strange, round, green bugs emerged from it, spinning towards the crevice that the exploration machine had just opened.
[Three Poison Banelings, a complete hit will cause the rift to close, and the distance of the psychic storm is insufficient. There is an 87% chance of killing all the Poison Banelings, which requires the sacrifice of a Zealot.]
"[Heh--]" The steady star spirit chuckled, turned into a phantom and rushed out.
"[Hey! Wait!]" Several stars tried to stop him at the same time.
"[For Akundra!]" The Calm Star Spirit shouted, closing the Kara connection with his comrades.
Tsk!
He slashed away the poisonous baneling in front with a light blade, and then because he couldn't close the sword in time, he was hit by the second one, causing the psychic shield to completely collapse.
"[Damn it——]" Due to the momentary interference when the shield collapsed, his movement of slashing at the third poisonous baneling was slowed down by a sliver, which was enough for the opponent to hit him and explode.
Phew! Bo'er!
The calm star spirit, who had already narrowed his eyes to welcome death, found that the sound of the poison explosion seemed not right. When he looked again, he found that a dark, fat creature with braids appeared in front of him, and that
The poisonous baneling that failed to explode was being repeatedly penetrated by a strange red flying weapon.
"Hell, what's the logic that I have to come down first because the psychic jump is faster?" The creature was nagging in words that the calm protoss did not understand: "I have to ask the protoss for a big meal to compensate -
—How can they eat if they don’t have mouths?”
"[You——]" The Calm Star Spirit was about to establish a spiritual connection to talk to him, but heard a roar from the surrounding insect swarm.
Boom boom boom——
The surrounding insect swarm seemed to be stimulated by the "appearance of reinforcements" and no longer tried the lowest-loss tactics, pouring down like a flood.
"Reno! If you don't come back! I'll eat Bucephalus!" The fat creature seemed to start talking nonsense.
Whoosh - touch!
A huge, square box fell from the sky and hit the route where the swarm was running. Then the box door opened, and three creatures that were similar in size to the previous black creature walked out, but there were many differences in details.
"I said, 'I'll be there on the back foot,'" the creature wearing heavy black armor raised its weapon at the approaching swarm of insects: "I saw you—"
Da da da!
As flesh and blood flew everywhere, the vanguard of the Zerg stagnated, and then quickly changed its formation, from a straight-line attack to an arc-shaped outflank.
The biggest problem with this kind of physical projectile weapon is the insufficient ammunition capacity. If you need to change the ammunition.
Before the protoss could think clearly, the black-armored creature had already used up all the bullets in its weapon and started to change the magazine in a muttering voice. At this time, the distance was enough to see clearly the saliva dripping from the zerg at the front.
"'Gravity Surge'!" Another creature that fell together controlled the cannon weapon in her hand to throw out a ball of gravity interference energy, which directly sucked all the nearby insects into the air.
But this psychic ability itself is not harmful——
"Die! Die!" The last creature wearing blue power armor threw away the weapon that was similar to the black power armor, took out a pair of bolt guns, rushed directly into the insect pile and opened fire in less than three seconds.
Just kill all these insects.
"Good job! Mira! I will help you with Matt's matter!"
"You are such a good man! Tychus!"
The protoss decided not to speak for the time being.
————
"Does anyone need a fire?"
“Taste the big guy!”
"Tank crews in position!"
As the "airdrop pods" landed one after another, various "human" troops and machines also arrived one after another, and their weapons seemed to be particularly suitable for dealing with bugs. The bugs that kept attacking could barely reach the melee range before being wiped out.
This made several protoss who were originally prepared for a deadly battle seem to have nothing to do.
"[It seems that Tassadar does not fight unprepared battles.]"
"[I talked with these 'humans' and found that their weapons are all used to deal with the same kind," "So it is very effective against zerg of similar size."
"[Why do you have to deal with the same kind!?]"
"[You are still too young, as is the case with races with too strong individual consciousness.]"
"[However, their number is still too small. Even if the supplies are sufficient, it will be difficult to deal with the endless swarms of insects on Aiur, especially the particularly large ones——]"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As if hearing the whispers of the protoss, more than a dozen ferocious thunder beasts appeared from behind the swarm, shaking the huge fangs on their heads and rushing towards the lines of humans and protoss.
"What the hell! What is that!"
"We have to retreat!"
"Who has a tactical nuke?"
When several "siege tanks" fired a salvo and found no effect, the originally complacent human troops suddenly became panicked.
Gulu! Zhizhizhi!
However, before those thunder beasts could continue to approach, the same number of giant vines rose up from the ground, tightly binding each one and lifting them to the ground. The frantic attacks of the small insects next to them had no effect.
I can watch these giant beasts disappear underground.
Unlike the confused human mercenaries, the protoss can clearly sense the huge spiritual power sweeping across the battlefield.
"[They still have such powerful psykers?]"
"[Maybe they can really save Al.]"
Zhizhizhi—buzz!
At this moment, the warp gate created by the exploration machine at the beginning finally pulled a giant Kara crystal out of the void, and the protoss simultaneously felt the long-lost psychic connection.
"[Friends, long time no see,]" Tassadar's voice appeared together with his approaching figure: "[I'm sorry that I couldn't fight side by side with you when El was attacked.]"
"[It's not too late now, you can join us in the process of recovering Ayr,]" Kaldaris said while looking around: "[But, if the reinforcements you find are only this few, I suggest
Everyone should retreat as soon as possible.】"
"[Not only us, there are many compatriots hiding like you in other places in Aiur,]" Tassadar shook his head: "[I have to contact Kara and ask for help here, and at the same time, I need to provide support to Commander Renault's subordinates.
The operation to rescue our compatriots attracts attention, so even if we have to evacuate, it is not now.]”
"[In other words,]" Kaldaris sharpened the light blade on his hand: "[We still have a tough battle to fight, right?]"
