Twelve squadrons of the Imperial Combined Fleet each advanced toward Aiur in a dense battle formation above the ecliptic plane. The scale was huge and spectacular. The tactic of concentrated deployment of main battleships to avoid dispersion of power and being defeated one by one was still applicable from the age of ocean sails to the age of space.
.
Each squadron in the combined fleet has multiple naval squadrons at or near full strength, with more than a hundred capital ships, and its commanders are Horace Warfield, Matt Horner and Allie.
A world-famous general like Ksey Stukov.
On the holographic three-dimensional display screen in front of Augustus, enemy signs in the direction of Ayr almost filled half of the screen airtightly, and the blue triangular cursor representing the power of the protoss pierced into it like an arrow.
Multiple green light point blocks composed of the imperial fleet followed closely behind, and red light points appeared like pieces of red clouds from all directions above, below, left, and right, approaching rapidly, and then were destroyed or swallowed by the green blocks.
The digital announcement screen and special symbols in a large section of the display screen display a series of data such as distance measurement lines, contact angles, and predicted trajectories of enemy Leviathan plasmid projectiles. This is the result of supercomputer simplification, otherwise no one can simultaneously
Processing so much information.
His flagship White Star is at the forefront of the entire fleet's attack formation. On the left and right are the Augustgrad's Pride-class Royal Princess and Overlord respectively. Only the only battleships of this class have been built so far.
Less than twenty ships.
Viewed from both sides of the two ships, the huge group of battleships continued to extend to both sides, like a large bow being bent. The flickering flashes of firepower from rows of gun crews were clearly visible, forming a sea of orange-red fire.
There was already a scene of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood outside the porthole in front of him. A large number of Zerg corpses were floating in the deep air. They were torn apart by the impact of the warships. Their flesh and blood flew everywhere, flying around like ice cubes thrown on the road.
Muscles, connective tissue, exoskeletons and insect eyes rained down like hail.
The dense laser barrage of the ATX gun group spread like a big net on the White Star's path, crushing all the zerg caught in the net, and the pungent secretions and gas in their bellies caused them to burn briefly.
For a while, then it went out in the blink of an eye.
Augustus seemed to be able to imagine the sound made by those huge flying insect creatures when they were smashed to pieces by naval guns. It should be the same as squeezing a juicy bug to death.
At this time, they are about two hundred thousand miles away from Aiur in the center of the screen, but this is not a distance to the fleet. Think of the ship as a vulture car, and it is just a few steps on the accelerator.
Al was getting closer and closer. It was originally just a red and white dot, but now her huge shadowy and deathly shadow had occupied a large area above the porthole, like a weird ghost eye.
This is not the El that Augustus remembers at all. The void has corrupted her for a long time.
From here, Al can already see the continental plates looming beneath the atmosphere. What used to be a green and fertile soil is now like dried bones, decayed, decayed and barren.
Red gas emerged from the cracks, brutally changing the environment on the planet's surface.
If someone said that it was not El, but another planet, Augustus would not be able to find any rebuttal.
"Your Majesty, Tal'darin has cleared a landing zone on Ayer's satellite Sharok." Matt entered the command channel at this time:
"We can establish a command center and supply depot in the mining area to serve as a forward base and a fortress against the attack of the gold fleet."
Sarlok, the moon of El, has a diameter of approximately 2,174 miles, which means that she is almost the same as the only moon of the third planet in the solar system.
In the ancient religious beliefs of the protoss, the sun and moon also play a very important role. From a mathematical point of view, Sharok is almost a perfect sphere, symbolizing purity, perfection and order.
However, Sharok now seems to be a symbol of corruption and disease. It is covered with gray-brown carpets of creeping bacteria. Giant organ-like zerg structures are growing vigorously on the mountain walls and plains. Billions of zerg are growing in the soil.
Sparse underground excavation, moving.
"A model of efficient killing." Looking at the landing point Matt was talking about on the screen, Augustus commented.
The Tal'darin Protoss are representatives of realism and practicality among the protoss factions. They have used destruction rays and ray guns to clear out all the large main hives of Sharok, and nonchalantly razed to the ground the giant craters that were once endowed with religious connotations.
flat ground.
This kind of extinction efficiency is still unmatched by humans.
"Just do that." Augustus was silent for a moment and then said: "Establish a star-based weapon station and deploy all orbital weapons and space mines. It is best to make it difficult for them to move."
"Now's the time to clear out the inventory, Matt, no need to pick at the strings," Raynor added.
A squadron then sailed towards Sarlock. The huge starship seemed extremely majestic before it sailed away. In the end, it could not escape the law of large and small near and far. It gradually turned into a group of small black spots and disappeared into the backlight of Sarlock.
in the shadow of.
At the same time, the distance between the fleet, Sharok and even Ayr was rapidly closing.
Like a tragic car accident scene or a horrific shipwreck, the battlefield leading to Aiur was covered with huge insect corpses and protoss battleship wreckage. Bloody corpses and broken hull frame wreckage were scattered everywhere. The scene was
Terrible and horrifying.
The ages of these wrecks are even different. They come from various large-scale battles that have occurred in Aiur for more than ten years. Each battleship and each behemoth represents an epic in the interstellar world.
"Emperor Augustus, we have cleared the road to Aiur." Artanis's image immediately appeared on the main screen. On his body was the Spear of Adon, which seemed to connect the magnificent bridge of the stars.
Hundreds of Phoenix fighter jets were passing through the light blue energy dome, casting shadows that moved like broken leaves.
"I really don't know what you would do without me." High Lord Alarak appeared from the other side of the screen: "Augustus Mengsk, don't forget who is the one who contributes the most.
"
Augustus nodded and motioned for Artanis to continue.
"The El Swarm is trying to regain control of the high-altitude orbit, but they have missed the best opportunity." Artanis continued.
As he spoke, Augustus could clearly feel from Artanis' slightly trembling figure that the Spear of Adon was suffering. To shake this unparalleled super ark, the power required would probably be unimaginable.
.
"Activate the Spear of Adon attack cluster and the destruction cluster." The high-ranking executive of the protoss gave the order and said to Augustus:
"The zerg here are the craziest of all the species we have seen. Rather than using their lives to stop us from moving forward, it is better to say that their mission is to march towards death passionately in lamentations."
"The worst bug is always the next one," Raynor said.
"Death is the gift of the dark god." Alarak said in a mocking tone: "How kind and generous Amon is."
"They are stalling for time." Augustus took a few steps in front of the home screen, then turned back:
"Where is the evil god's body?"
"It has been confirmed once again that it is the place where the Lord once descended on El, on the Xel'Naga Temple." Matt said: "Now there is a void storm surge that rises and falls like a tide, and the energy level is sensing
The index on the device is frighteningly high.”
"You may not like to hear this, but even our most powerful orbital weapons may not be able to penetrate this natural energy barrier and kill the evil god's host."
"Is this the original temple?" Renault asked, looking at the screen.
Amidst the surging void energy, one can suddenly see a majestic temple standing in it, with glittering spiers and walls as far as the eye can see. In that weird picture, there seem to be countless weird void creatures.
It's walking in a meandering way.
Behind the endless temples, shrines and altars is the evil huge body of the evil god, a twisted monster that is a mixture of the flesh and blood of countless stars and insects. From a human perspective, it may not be extremely scary, but if you look at it from a human perspective,
If the flesh and blood of the protoss were replaced by humans, it might not be possible.
"If Amon didn't go to work in Xel'Naga, then he might be a good architect and artist." Augustus sighed and shook his head.
Xel'Naga emphasizes that the successor must have pure spirit and pure essence, but does not realize whether the successor's mind can truly withstand the huge transformation and contrast "from human to god".
The ancient Xel'Naga were as faithful to their duty of guarding the reincarnation of the universe as ascetics, but the new successors may not be able to.
He continued: "Wasn't the original Xel'Naga temple destroyed by the twilight energy together with the Lord's body?"
"I'm afraid we just mistakenly thought it was destroyed, and the Eye of the Void born from the psychic storm confused our sight." Artanis denied.
""
Regardless of whether the Eye of the Void that swallowed up the Xel'Naga Temple and the Overlord's corpse was actually the work of Eamon, or it was the butterfly effect produced by Augustus using twilight energy to kill the Overlord.
Before Kerrigan could become the Queen of Blades, the plot was still under Augustus' control. After Brood War, it started to rush in an unpredictable direction.
Speaking of which, if this thing had not happened, Augustus would have sent people to burn the Lord's body in the future to prevent Amon from using it to resurrect him.
Let's cremate him at least three times.
"How can we destroy the incarnation of Emon?" Alarak couldn't understand what they were saying, but he didn't care: "I can't wait to crush its heart with my own hands."
"These void fragments" Matt came online again: "They are similar to those that appeared in Augustgrad, but stronger."
"Eamon's incarnation is absorbing the energy of the void fragments at an extremely alarming speed. Under this situation, even our most powerful military weapons cannot harm the evil god's body."
"That means our weapons are not strong enough." Renault looked at Artanis, but the other party also expressed that he was powerless.
"I don't like things that can't be attacked," Augustus said.
"We can only destroy these void fragments first, and then concentrate our firepower to destroy them," Artanis said.
"Your Majesty, this will be very time-consuming. Our warships must deal with the attack from the swarm and cannot carry out orbital bombing." Matt looked at his watch: "The sensors show that new worm hive troops are still arriving."
"A large number of corrosive spore clusters are coming!"
"The shield failed and the ship trembled!"
"We were hit!"
There was an exclamation from behind Matt, and the battleship under his feet was trembling, but his expression remained unchanged: "It can be expected that the insect swarm's offensive will not slow down at all until it is completely wiped out.
"
"Before this, it was difficult for the fleet to provide sufficient fire support."
"Send troops to pull out these void fragments." Augustus ordered: "Quickly."
"Artanis, have the Elsar's Naga portal and warp matrix been destroyed?"
"We destroyed the Xel'Naga portal and two of the psychic matrix buildings that maintained the warp matrix from orbit." Artanis replied: "The two were located in the Executor's Fortress and the Ancient Temple. Finally,
One is located underground in the Xel'Naga Caves, and I have sent a heroic and skilled Templar force to destroy it."
"The last moment has arrived, and this is for the glory of the protoss."
"But don't make any mistakes. If another golden fleet comes, many of us will die." There was clearly a sad expression on Renault's face.
"Destroy the void fragments and warp matrix buildings at the same time." Augustus looked at Artanis and said.
"An enemy ship has been detected jumping in." At this moment, an alarm came.
A picture flashed on the main screen of the White Star. A huge battleship with astonishing momentum was leaping in. The torn warping force field was extremely spectacular, and countless blue-black Protoss fighter jets were roaring out.
"So fast" Augustus was surprised, thinking that the golden fleet was coming.
With this speed of support, how could Aier have fallen back then?
"Be careful, it's a big guy." Renault also opened his eyes wide.
"How is that possible!" Artanis's composure that he had been trying to maintain could no longer be maintained: "Is it the Pride of Ark Otalis that even she fell into the hands of Eamon?"
It was a salvation ark that had fallen into darkness. Traces of void corruption were all over the glorious and magnificent hull of the past. Huge clusters of void energy crystals stretched out like swords, glowing with an icy blue cold light.
.
"I remember that the Arbitrators who were defeated by Tassadar drove away. Since they still have Kara, it will be a matter of time before they are controlled by Eamon." Renault said: "Arbitrator, it's better not to trouble the old man."