"Birth" "Erasure"

Under Athena's watch, the shadow of the Zerg finally vanished from Mar Sara.

The ground once swallowed by dark purple Creep lay bare again. Scars left by the Zerg covered the cracked, scorched earth.

Metal frames eaten away by acid, collapsed buildings, and pools of organic slime that had yet to evaporate.

The surviving Zerg hiding in underground nests disappeared after the rout of their Bio-ship fleet.

But the cost of victory was just as stark—

Once-bustling towns lay in ruins. Twisted scraps of alloy littered the streets, and blackened building frames stood beneath the dim yellow sky like the bones of Kaiju.

The air still smelled of burning. Now and then, a faint crack could be heard in the distance.

The Engineering Department's reconstruction work, however, was already in full swing.

Countless Hex Robots moved through the wreckage like worker ants, efficiently sorting recyclable materials.

Nanorepair agents sprayed from their nozzles, coating damaged walls in a thin liquid film. The walls then repaired and reassembled themselves before the eye, gradually restoring buildings worth saving as closely as possible to their original state.

The massive Engineering Hunter-Killers handled the hardest clearing work. The ground trembled beneath their heavy alloy legs, while hydraulic arms lifted hundreds of tons of debris with ease, opening new roads through the chaos.

Along the edge of the reconstruction zone, Terminator units formed a tight patrol network. Crimson scanning beams swept the shadows without pause, ensuring no hidden threat could disrupt the work.

New City had taken in every survivor, but as a strategic hub with a Space Gate, Mar Sara's future held far more.

Under the Empire's highest standards, it would become an interstellar political center, trade hub, and military fortress.

A holographic projection suspended above New City displayed the grand blueprint—

The administrative center