Blood Hunter

Later that evening, near 11 a. m., Lieutenant Colonel Moser, who was in charge of guarding the western defensive wall and outposts of the August Settlement, ordered the bodies of the alien creatures they had killed to be sent back to Rick Kydd's command center.

The Revolutionary Army has reported numerous kills, but so far only this one body has been found.

Along with the alien corpse came some simple food, including thick bread made from synthetic flour, some whipped cream, smoked beef, and several cans of tea.

Rick had the body, its armor stained with dark black blood, placed on a long table with battle maps on it. Dozens of the Revolutionary Army officers surrounded the obsidian table, which they had brought from Korhal, whispering among themselves as they ate.

These Revolutionary Army officers were generally between twenty and thirty years old. They wore dark red Power Armor lined with crisp, single-breasted dark gray coats and field trousers made of synthetic cotton. They had wolf head badges and V-shaped rank insignia on their chests, and their wide-brimmed caps hanging on the command post's coat rack were decorated with a Revolutionary Army whip-wielding emblem.

The young soldiers, simply by donning their uniforms and fitted belts, were enough to attract attention and entice people to enlist. Augustus believed that smart uniforms were essential and secured substantial funding from parliament.

The uniforms of the Marines, Fleets and Army in the Revolutionary Army are different, and each is equipped with two sets of dress uniforms.

"Is this the monster that killed Suez, Noviyev, and Sir Sylph? A native creature?" As Rick remained silent, a Revolutionary Army major carefully stroked the jet-black armor that gleamed with a cold metallic sheen.

This is an alien creature with rough, dark gray skin. It is about 9 to 10 feet tall (2.7 to 3 meters), and its hands, which are much larger than those of an adult human male, have four fingers with sharp nails. Its powerful hind feet are similar to those of even-toed ungulates on Earth, with its lower legs bending backward from the knees to bare ankles. Judging from the structure of its hips, it should be a creature capable of walking upright.

The wrinkles scattered across his skin made him resemble the dense scales of a reptile under the cold blue light of the command post, but if you looked closely and touched him, you would find that his skin was actually quite smooth and delicate.

The creature had a long, narrow, pointed chin and a protruding forehead, with a gray tuft of hair several inches wide at the back of its head that looked like some kind of dreadlocks. It wore a helmet made of black alien metal, full-body armor, and a deep red woven battle skirt that extended all the way to its knee joints. Sharp thorns and blades were visible everywhere on its armor, as if it existed to kill its enemies as much as possible.

His chest had withstood several grenades and thousands of nail bullets, yet it appeared to have only suffered some abrasions. The wounds were from an inconspicuous spot on his neck, and the dark purple blood, almost black, had already dried. This showed that this creature was not invulnerable; it was, after all, flesh and blood.

Rick simply couldn't imagine what kind of enemies this creature had been fighting, otherwise such a brutal and bloody decoration would be used to deal with its own kind.

It took him a long time to remove the creature's helmet, and at that moment all the officers shuddered at its bizarre appearance. The creature had only a pair of dull, lifeless eyes, no nostrils, and no lips; it was impossible to imagine whether it needed to breathe or take in nutrients.

As Rick gazed at the creature's face, an indescribable thrill sent shivers down his spine.

In this universe, humanity has never been alone.

He recalled what his Bennett Family family tutor had told him when he was young, "Among the countless stars in the sky, some of their light comes from millions of years ago, and the stars that emitted that light may have long since been destroyed. There are billions of stars in the universe, and there are infinitely many possible forms of life."

Long before humans established colonies in the Solar System, they searched for possible intelligent life in the process of exploring the universe, but to no avail.

In the Koprulu Sector, the creatures discovered by humans are nothing more than giant insects and primitive reptiles of the Umojan, and without exception, their intelligence is no greater than that of a two-year-old domestic dog.

The Revolutionary Army encountered a terrifying alien creature on the Victor V, which Confederacy researchers named the Zerg (Zerg), indicating they had already encountered extraterrestrial life. The Confederacy forces may have also encountered the same creature that the Korhal colonists encountered on Bhekar and had already named it, but they had never made it public.

"His appearance is disgusting," said a lieutenant whose comrades had all died at the hands of alien creatures.

"What local species did they evolve from? Crabs or lizards—they still seem very primitive," another Revolutionary Army captain said.

"These primitive people possess individual stealth technology capable of evading most of our detection methods, subwarp force fields, stealth force fields, energy shield generators, clustered plasma blades powerful enough to slice through the armor of a CMC-200 Power Armor or even Arclite Siege Tank with over 100mm of armor, and particle beam cannons capable of tearing our soldiers to shreds with a single shot. This could be a remnant of an ancient alien civilization," Rick concluded.

Two years ago, this twenty-year-old Revolutionary Army major general was a young master from Old Families who was desperate about life. He was tired of the luxurious but spiritually empty days and lived in the shadow of his excellent older sister. However, in a short period of time, he experienced a series of events such as the Guild Wars, the Korhal Rebellion, and the Great Escape.

These experiences are forging an ordinary Noble Young Master into a warrior of steel, but when faced with the alien enemies on Bhekar, the steel seems to have struck a ball of cotton.

If this colonial Fleets were not led by a resolute leader, he would have long since been unable to stabilize the situation. Any army that ventures into the jungle never returns; the people are slaughtered. This place is outside the Koprulu Sector, far from the core of humanity, isolated and helpless.

However, Rick knew he could not give up easily. He carried a heavy responsibility, and most importantly, he was one of the most trusted men of the Revolutionary Army Marshal, the deputy leader of the 1st Squad of the Heaven's Devils, the Hand of Augustus Mengsk.

This was Rick's only belief.

"Their civilization may have regressed to tens of thousands of years ago, but even so, these creatures still possess an overwhelming technological advantage over us."

"The small number of these creatures is likely the reason they haven't launched a full-scale attack on us," he said. "They've been lurking just outside our sight, weakening our military through repeated raids, until our troops are exhausted, at which point the final offensive begins."

"I even suspect they have a unique fetish; these creatures, like some ancient tribes from Earth's time, still prove their strength by hunting down the strongest warriors among us."

"If he were still alive, that would be wonderful," Rick said with a hint of regret.

"Do you know how he died? That bastard and his companions ran rampant in Moser's camp, and it took dozens of soldiers to kill him." A lieutenant slammed his fist heavily on the table.

"What exactly is going on here? Is this just a training ground for their trial warriors, and we're just livestock kept by these creatures?"

"They only attack our soldiers and have absolutely no interest in defenseless women and children, but that doesn't mean they have any chivalry or compassion. Perhaps these creatures simply don't possess any human-like emotions."

"God knows where these monsters live, in those alien ruins or underground? We've been on the defensive the whole time."

"What worries me more is that they might have another Fleets," Rick said worriedly.

As he spoke, Rick removed a metal bracer from the creature's arm and picked up a weapon about seven feet long, resembling some kind of cane, with his other hand.

Rick twirled the heavy cane, tapped it on the table, and handed it to his adjutant. "Give this to our engineers; perhaps it will be helpful for our research into new weapons."

Then, Rick waved to stop his subordinates who were trying to stop him from trying, and put the metal bracer from the alien creature on his forearm, which looked incredibly thin compared to his strong arm.

There were no abnormalities.

Shaking his head in disappointment, Rick handed the wristband to his adjutant. "Take it to the scientists for dissection. Only by understanding the anatomy of these creatures can we figure out their potential weaknesses."

"What should we call this creature so that we can use the same commands?"

"Alien monsters," Rick said. "What else can we call them?"

"Sebold, how much supply do we have left?" Several soldiers who entered the command post carried the alien corpse, which was still flowing with purplish-black blood.

"The stored wheat flour, meat, and canned fruit should be enough to support the 320,000 people in the August Colony for nine weeks. If the synthetic food factory's production line is activated, we can sustain them for at least another six months. Food supplies are not a problem; the important issue is our lack of high-energy gas fuels and weapons."

Sebold is a lieutenant under Rick, wearing a dark gray uniform with a V-shaped rank insignia, naval ribbons, and the Rose Cross awarded by the Revolutionary Army Headquarters in recognition of his contributions in the Battle of Korhal. He is also the first officer of the colony Mothership Sterling, primarily responsible for the ship's logistics and daily management.

"What about the other cities?" Rick asked again.

The biggest predicament for the colonists in Bhekar was that their large settlements were scattered across two main plains, with many settlements separated by towering mountains or large lakes. This resulted in the Revolutionary Army being relatively dispersed, with three settlements with populations of around 200,000 stationed with only a small number of troops.

He noticed that their enemies seemed to use aircraft very little, so he tentatively used transport planes to reinforce the poorly defended settlements, thus preventing the people of these settlements from being slaughtered or the order from collapsing due to lack of protection.

"Food supplies in New Lidenheim, New Faust, New Danzigsk, New Balik, and New Lexington are about the same as ours, and the brigade-level troops and militias stationed in these cities are facing ammunition shortages and declining morale. The militias are still using old-fashioned water-cooled machine guns and Black Powder Weapons to defend against an unseen enemy, and there have been reports of soldier suicides," Sebold said.

"The number and location of the enemy are unknown. They've figured out our daily routines and always launch attacks in the dead of night, trying to wear us down—"

"We're stuck on this damn green planet. The enemy is hostile towards us and has never tried to communicate with us," he said.

Rick nodded and gave a low "hmm." As he silently walked toward a main control panel, his golden hair spread across his forehead like a mushroom cap.

"Can we only try building a gas refinery on the high-energy gas wells that have already been discovered? Can that purple high-energy gas be refined and purified?" Rick asked again after pacing around the command post a few times.

"That's not a recent discovery. Interstellar explorers from Kel-Morian and the Terran Confederacy have found this gas on several desolate, lifeless planets. They call it Terrazine," First Officer Sebold said.

"Terrazine is a special type of high-energy gas that cannot be used as a refined fuel—in some backward colonial worlds, the locals even use it as a drug, believing that inhaling this gas can grant them some kind of superpower."

"Is this true?" Rick looked at him.

"Well, everyone who tried it went insane—the SCV driver who accidentally fell into the Terrazine vent has shown some symptoms of schizophrenia," Sebold said.

"He began to believe that the planet Bhekar was a supernatural being and worshipped it as a god. This poor man would always hear inexplicable whispers in the dead of night, which he believed were Bhekar himself talking to him."

"This is really strange. Forbid everyone from coming into contact with this gas, and seal off all the Terrazine gas springs," Rick ordered.

Just then, with a ticking notification sound, a signal for a Revolutionary Army outpost battle appeared on the Holographic Projection screen of the command post.

"This is the E-9 outpost. We have received a distress signal from the 1st Vulture Company, 9th Division. They went missing in the jungle a month and a half ago," reported a sergeant wearing a flat-topped military cap with a grass-grey wolf head insignia.

"Take it," Rick said.

The main screen prominently displayed the jungle landscape typical of Bhekar, with approximately one hundred Revolutionary Army Vulture, motorized soldiers, and mechanics lying amidst dense ferns. Although it was unclear how they had survived in the jungle for so long, they appeared to be still alive.

There was no image of the alien creature on the screen, only human soldiers occasionally groaning.

"It's an obvious trap, but they know that humans will never abandon their companions," Rick said coldly.

The other party had clearly deciphered human language; at that moment, an English word suddenly appeared on the screen.

insect.

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