The magnificent city of Tarsonis shows the world more than just its majestic skyscrapers, comfortable high-end residential areas and fashionable commercial buildings. Under its glamorous appearance, there are also hidden dangers that are considered to harbor filth and evil.
The word is often associated with violence and danger.
The slum is the product of the rapid development of the city of Tarsonis, with extremely high population density but lack of necessary supporting public safety and sanitation facilities. It is right next to the gleaming marble columns of the Nagfa Hall of the Federal Senate Building and the wide and clean streets.
Tarsonis's ugliness, like her glory, cannot be hidden or disguised.
The Tarsonis vividly refer to the slums as rows of drainage ditches next to beautiful giant buildings, and believe that the people living there are just pariahs engaged in menial occupations. They are gutter rats who earn their living by stealing.
Crime and making a living by rummaging through dumpsters for leftover food.
In the old federal era, slums and wealthy areas were separated by power grids and armed personnel hired by highly paid security companies. Hell and heaven seemed to be only a short distance apart. If those dissolute rich children wanted to experience a thrilling
If you are adventurous, then the slums are the best choice for them.
And although the Tyranid Empire government has achieved initial results in the governance of the Tarsonis slums, in the deepest part of its darkness it still maintains the appearance of the past, with no lights and countless small streets and alleys hidden in the darkness.
It smells of decay and decay.
Stone, a newly graduated Imperial Ghost Agent, can no longer remember whether he had been to such a place before entering the Ghost Military Academy, but he had actually seen it - in the dream of another Ghost Military Academy student.
Stone's Dark Templar Master Lassatar once said that many humans have primitive, elementary psychic abilities, which are understood by humans as unexplainable phenomena - intuition, omens, and cause and effect.
The student grew up in this environment until an Imperial agent brought her back to Korhal from the swill and garbage heaps.
In the past, the slums of Tarsonis were full of chaotic shacks built spontaneously. People were like swallows carrying mud, collecting materials bit by bit to build their own shelters. Only the upper class inside could afford to live in prefabricated houses.
.Newcomers can only lie down on the open space with ventilation holes. Even a pipe can fit dozens of people. They are often half-clothed, like maggots in cheese or shipworms in rotten tree roots.
.
Gangs and unscrupulous businessmen have colluded to rule the neighborhoods of the slums, and they are the masters here. They sell drugs, enhanced medicines, and implant prosthetics and artificial organs to make huge profits. If anyone dares not to accept their products, they will be beaten.
, so 99% of the people have taken drugs, and the children here are born with drug addiction.
People in the slums can only engage in unstable labor jobs, and women always work while lying down.
"Brothers, this place makes me shudder." Weijia said in the channel. Her psychic index is very strong, not only to the point of being able to transform and control objects, but also to invade the other person's brain and control his thoughts. This means that Wei Jia
Jia also has a higher sense of danger.
"Zergs like places like this. They like to build nests and lay eggs in Char's fiery caves, as relaxed and comfortable as piglets rolling in the mud." Captain Pierce said.
The old city, deep in the slums here, is no longer inhabited. The ruins of the past are still there, but they have almost been reduced to ruins.
In the narrow area between skyscrapers and skyscrapers, countless shacks made of aluminum alloy are stacked on top of each other, forming countless streets and lanes. Nowadays, these crumbling houses have long been smelly and black.
, only a few thin mice can be seen occasionally.
God knows how these lingering rodents came to the Koprulu sector, or they are just another local species with similar morphological habits. But just like the colonization activities after the discovery of the New World on Earth, rats, fleas and diseases have always been associated with colonization.
He follows you like a shadow.
With the help of the helmet's detection function, the ghost agent can even clearly see the lice on the mouse.
"Where are the others?" Stone asked. Although there are no civilians here, they are not the first team to enter here. Each ghost team is independent and will not risk exposing its position until necessary.
interconnected.
Apart from the lights of skyscrapers, there is no light source in this area. It is in such dark corners that the zerg are thriving.
During the Brood War, most of the offensive strategies adopted by the Zerg against humans were simple and crude frontal attacks, and humans were unable to stop them. At that time, humans were still very weak in the eyes of the Overlord. As long as this supreme Zerg
If the Lord of the Swarm wants to, the swarm of insects can raze the most powerful and rich Tyranid human home planet to the ground at any time.
But after the outbreak of the second total war, the swarm turned to a more effective offensive strategy. That is, to penetrate the city through parasitic infection, launch an attack from the inside to weaken human power, and cooperate internally and externally when necessary.
And even if parasites are not used to infect humans, there are always those who are greedy for profit and are willing to sell out the empire for a few credit coins.
In the past four years, the zerg have also continued to evolve and grow, just like humans are always developing new weapons and capital ships. In order to deal with the threat of the zerg, even the protoss who adhere to the immutable laws of their ancestors are also developing
The new void glow ship is being built to enhance the strength of the fleet, and it is also actively looking for new colonial planets to awaken ancient technology everywhere.
"At least five teams have entered the sewers below, and they are nearby." Pierce said: "Each team carries a reconnaissance drone, and there are a large number of widow mines and black widow spider mines in front of them.
Open the way and nothing will go wrong.”
"If these teams discover zerg or are attacked by an unknown entity, we will know immediately."
"The evacuation of civilians has greatly increased the vigilance of the zerg. They know that they have been exposed." Vega said: "If I were the zerg, if I had known that the enemy was coming, of course I would not sit at home and wait."
"Either we attack in advance or we set an ambush."
"You're scared." The speaker was a female ghost agent named Tanya. She had an enviable status as one of Emperor Augustus Mengsk's personal guards.
The female ghost agents are all beautiful.
Tanya was sent to Tarsonis to cope with the shortage of manpower here. Her level is not high, but her fire control ability is extremely lethal to the zerg.
"I'm actually worried that you're scared. Don't think that you can look down on people just because you've been a servant in the palace." Vega retorted: "You must have made the queen unhappy before you were kicked out of the palace. No one can escape from his little thoughts.
Her eyes."
The Queen of the Tyranid Empire is still the most powerful ghost agent since the establishment of the Ghost Project. Every student studying in the Ghost Military Academy will inevitably listen to the instructors nagging: I think this is not as good as Queen Kerrigan, that
She didn't do as well as she did.
Yes, Kerrigan is indeed the most outstanding ghost agent, but her greatest achievement is becoming the queen of Emperor Augustus.
"But I know you are just scared." Tanya said: "No matter how high your test score is, it can't change the fact that you are just a chick in actual combat, but don't hold back."
"Shut up." Vega said: "I just think it's disgusting down there."
Stone, on the other hand, remained silent. Perhaps female ghosts always like to quarrel.
Speaking of which, it turns out that Stone is a somewhat irritable person, and as a ghost, he always has his own ideas about combat plans, and it is inevitable that he will have disputes with others. However, whether it is Vega or Tanya, he
Not a match at all.
"Wait a minute, this is not a ladies' tea party." Pierce said as he lifted a sewer manhole cover, turned over and jumped down, followed closely by the team members.
It was an unsettling night, and the Tarsonis had no idea what was happening beneath their feet.
After jumping into the sewer, Stone still felt a sense of suffocation even though the breathing mask had been activated. The air was so rancid and rotten that the flames lacked enough oxygen to fully burn.
Tarsonis City's sewer system has a history of more than two hundred years, and has continued to extend during the city's expansion, eventually turning into a huge underground world. Even if the engineers who built these sewers are still alive,
It's impossible to tell what it originally looked like.
The entire city of Tarsonis was built on it, which is why this incident attracted so much attention from the Augustgrad Palace. With the continuous influx of new immigrants from outer colonies, Tarsonis City alone has thirty-seven
There are billions of people. And no matter how many people there are, it won't take long for the zerg to completely devour them all.
"It looks like there are no signs of the presence of zerg here." Stone has seen those infected human buildings in textbooks and video collections, but now everything seems to be normal.
It has probably not seen sunlight for a century or two, and they are standing in mud and excrement. If they are not wearing combat uniforms, people who stay in such an environment for a long time will soon suffer from serious skin diseases.
It turns out that the work of unblocking sewers is done by residents of slums. The cost of hiring sewer cleaners is much lower than the cost of maintaining cleaning robots, and such jobs are highly sought after in slums.
Hundreds of people die in Tarsonis's sewers every year, and many more disappear due to disorientation there.
There is a map of the sewers on Stone's helmet display, and it is simply a spider web extending in all directions. Most of the passages have been marked by reconnaissance drones, and only the area they are currently in is
Key marked danger areas.
"But there's not even a mouse here," Vega said.
"And there is only one life form of them in the Zerg territory." Stone thought of the knowledge he learned in class.
Never underestimate your opponents, especially if they are Zerg.
Stone followed his team silently through the muddy pipes of the sewers, the latest hostile environment suits allowing them to blend perfectly into the surrounding environment.
This tight-fitting suit can help Stone channel his psychic powers, enhancing his strength and agility. When fighting against ordinary people, even if they are equally well-equipped and well-trained warriors, they are no match for the ghost agents.
Of course, a ghost's best weapon is their mind, everything else comes second.
Suddenly, Stone and others were convinced that they heard some kind of high-pitched howl, which was as unpleasant as a blade scraping against glass.
"Team D and Team E are in trouble, guys, they are nearby." Immediately afterwards, a support mission briefing appeared on Stone's mask.
Stone's team immediately entered a state of high-speed movement. The physical improvement of the combat uniforms and the new enhancer gave them superhuman speed. The enhancers they used were different from those used by the Marines, with stronger effects and less side effects.
, but the cost is much more expensive.
Soon, they stepped on a carpet tumor wrapped by tendrils and sarcoma, and the dark brown carpet was spreading quietly under their feet. In most cases, the carpet served as the eyes and ears of the insect swarm.
When a Marine steps on creep, he is essentially exposed.
Not only that, the sewers have been completely transformed into huge chambers, and some cracked eggs have revealed a terrible truth. The ferocious-looking zerg are wandering in the darkness, waiting to deal a fatal blow to the intruders.
But Stone did not see the other ghost teams. Instead, what appeared in his field of vision was a group of strange-looking creatures.
There were several miners in jumpsuits, farmers with farm tools, office workers in suits and ties, and even a beautiful female singer. They walked toward the ghost with frightened expressions on their faces.
"Fire!" Pierce certainly couldn't be fooled by such a trick.
These mimicking hatchlings have finally become smarter and will no longer conjure up a bunch of identical clones to fool people.
Stone immediately activated the assault mode of the C-20A canister shotgun in his hand, and killed one of the mimic hatchlings with a few precise bursts. The latter immediately turned into a pool of squirming tissue with a terrifying scream.
.
Ghost agents are elite warriors, and the weapons they are equipped with are also the best among individual soldiers. The C-20A is an upgraded version of the old federal era C-10 with fully improved performance. It is equipped with 24-capacity magazines and is suitable for different combat environments.
At this moment, the remaining mimic larvae showed their fangs one after another, and the skin that originally belonged to humans rolled out from the inside out, revealing bloody tissue and blade-like bone blades. Even if ordinary soldiers who have been trained see this terrifying...
The scene will inevitably make you scream and lose your voice.
A mimic worm squirmed and moved forward quickly with its two pairs of extended forelimbs. Its everted tissue and the tissue underneath it were disgusting.
Suddenly, Stone's heart seemed to stop for a moment, because the face of the mimic larva turned out to be His Majesty Augustus Mengsk, and it obviously imitated the holographic projection image.
Immediately afterwards, the mimic larvae that was rushing towards Stone immediately burned in the scorching blue flames, making a painful squeaking sound. It was Tanya who took action, and she was like a fire mage, killing the mimic larvae one after another.
of lit.
"I almost rescued you." Vega ran past Stone.
"Well done, Tanya." Stone looked at the face burning with blue flames and said suddenly: