Infection

It was sunrise, Haj cast beautiful red and orange rays along the horizon where the water met the sky, bathing the verdant valley in a colorful halo. As always, the Hurricane swept across the plains and valleys, swirling within the massive ring-shaped mountain range.

Two golden-red Revolutionary Army Wraith flew low over the devastated ruins of the Geladi Slums, where all the dilapidated shacks and houses were covered with countless purple organic tissues and pulsating tendons.

This area was once part of the coastline, adjacent to a superior deep-water port, but now all signs of human civilization have vanished, and no signs of any biological activity can be seen. The tens of thousands of people who once lived here, if they hadn't managed to escape, would have long since become part of the Creep.

The Zerg are not human armies; they have no mercy and do not accept any pleas for mercy or surrender. If human commanders still believe that their wisdom and strategy can surpass these seemingly brutal but unintelligent creatures, they are sorely mistaken.

Thousands upon thousands of Overlord floated above the distant Geladi City Mutalisk, their flight swirling around the city's skyscrapers like swarms of bats returning to their nests at dawn. Confederacy troops' anti-aircraft guns and machine guns attempted to shoot down the flying creatures above the city, crisscrossing orange barrages sweeping across the urban airspace.

The fall of this city is only a matter of time; the insect network is extending underground. Once the Creep begins to spread, the horrific infection of the Carlos Cerebrate swarm will arrive as expected.

The two gold and red painted Wraith circled several times over the Geladi Slums before leaving.

A dozen minutes later, dozens of the Revolutionary Army APOD transport ships landed on the open ground of the slum ruins. In the shockwaves created by the plasma from the transport ships' thrusters, Augustus stepped down from the gangway descended from the Little Devil.

The entire slum was razed to the ground by the Hurricane and the attack of the Zerg. The slum dwellers' simple wooden and brick walls collapsed, leaving behind a pile of rubble and construction debris. In the small areas that were not yet covered by the Creep, blood-stained scratches were clearly visible, left by the fingernails of someone about to be dragged underground.

In areas not covered by the Creep, the Zerg certainly eat people, perhaps not out of hunger, but due to the survival instinct ingrained in their mixed genetic fragments. What makes the Zerg most terrifying is that they will kill a person in a cruel and bloody manner or eat a part of their body while they are still alive.

Tychus Finley, carrying a heavy machine gun, followed closely behind, stepping into the sticky, damp clumps of Zerg Creep: "Ugh, so disgusting, sticky, and wet. I can't imagine anything worse than this stuff. To use Hank's words, it's like a pile of shit."

More Revolutionary Army Guards and Guard Division soldiers, clad in gold and red Power Armor, filed off the Little Devil and other transport ships and lined up at the landing point. Several larger transport ships unloaded rumbling tanks, Goliath Combat Robot, and T-280 SCV. These vehicles, several feet tall, and the deep red base paint of the armor was adorned with gold wolf head insignia and woven ring badges.

Augustus took a few steps through the slum ruins covered in Creep, and the environmental stats for the area immediately appeared on the helmet HUD display of his commander's armor. At Augustus's feet lay an alloy wheel rim stained with dried blood, once part of the tire of a Confederacy heavy armored personnel carrier.

"It looks like there are no survivors left here. I never knew the Zerg needed prisoners," Tychus said, one hand on his hip.

Zeratul followed Augustus down, his glowing green eyes scanning the area around the landing site in silence before he bent down to search the ruins for any clues related to the Psionics signal he had sensed.

In the strong winds sweeping in from the sea, the fleshy buds on the Creep twisted and swayed like ears of wheat. Further away, there were many shards of glass glittering in the sunlight, shredded full-body seats, control panels, and large-caliber machine gun barrels cut into pieces, with a charred Confederacy flag covering these wrecks.

"The Confederacy's Goliath walking robots, and more than one at that, must have been torn to shreds by the bugs." Tychus clicked his tongue. "A bunch of pathetic worms. Hopefully, they didn't wet their pants in fear when they were taken down."

At this moment, Augustus pulled one foot out of the muddy Creep and prepared to walk forward, but he stopped as soon as he took a step. Where his foot had been raised, there was a pile of twisted bones, stained with rotting flesh and blood.

Augustus and his men soon found themselves standing on a vast expanse of corpses, at least a hundred bodies buried beneath a thick Creep of Creep Zerg, which were becoming nourishment for the Swarm.

The dead people curled up, reaching their hands toward the sky amidst the writhing Creep and pus.

"A 'graveyard'." Augustus experienced battlefields with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of participants and seen hundreds or thousands of corpses laid out side by side, yet he could not take such a cruel scene for granted.

This is a slaughterhouse; the Zerg have captured these people and killed them, their blades as efficient as machines in a factory.

"It wasn't all the Zerg that killed these people." Zeratul approached Augustus after circling the slum ruins several times, his purple cloak billowing in the Haj wind behind him. "It was human bullets and Psionics that killed these people."

"So, it was the Confederacy who did it?" Tychus grinned, convinced that it was the Confederacy army that clashed with the slum dwellers.

"Human Psionics," Augustus then summoned his Ghost operative.

"'New recruit,' what did you sense?"

The Revolutionary Army's Ghost operative "Recruit" appeared to Augustus's right amidst the interplay of light and shadow on his environmental refraction suit. "Without a doubt, a human Psionics with a Psionics of at least level 8 was once present here."

The Ghost operative was completely encased in a blue and white close-combat suit, with a C-10 long-barreled rifle slung over his shoulder. He wore a sophisticated helmet, and the prosthetic eye implanted in his mask allowed the wearer to see farther than an ordinary person.

"This is just my guess. This Psionics is still unable to control his powerful mental abilities, or perhaps no one has ever taught him how to restrain them. -- This is a required course for high-level students at the Ghost Academy." The Ghost operative said as he crouched down and wiped away a portion of the Creep on the ground, revealing the head of the dead man beneath.

"Some people die directly from the damage to their brain tissue caused by the psychological impact; their brains are crushed like garlic cloves, and they bleed from all seven orifices to die."

"High-level Psionics are more prone to losing control under immense mental pressure and other stimuli, triggering a catastrophe caused by a terrible psychological shock. If you've ever seen Psionic Storm unleashed by Protoss High Templar —that's basically it," he said. "I saw one once at the Confederacy Ghost Academy in Tarsonis."

"An unstable level eight Psionics went out of control because his pet cat died, and the resulting psychic shock killed everyone within a two-hundred-yard radius except for himself—I don't know why anyone would allow him to keep a cat."

"This human Psionics is very likely the Swarm agent the Overmind; he shouldn't have been captured by the Zerg yet," Zeratul added.

"Oh, how did this guy manage to do that? He managed to hide for so long while so many insects were frantically searching for him." Tychus exclaimed in amazement.

"The good news is that he's probably still hiding somewhere quite well," Augustus concluded. "The bad news is that he's hiding so well that even we might not be able to find him."

"Perhaps I can find that Psionics," Zeratul said.

"I can feel his presence. To humans, Psionics signals may be as intangible as sound waves, but to us, they are as clear as a beam of light in the darkness, as if connecting the thread of fate to an untouchable light."

"That Psionics hasn't gone far. He's learned to shield his Psionics signals to evade the Zerg's hunt. But how will he survive?" His glowing eyes looked at Augustus.

"During my time on the Hyperion, I learned many things about humanity, including that this peculiar race cannot survive on sunlight and water alone."

"Follow me, Augustus, I will lead you to him," Zeratul said finally. "Hopefully we can make it in time."

Zeratul left those words and started walking forward, seemingly following some kind of trail, his steps slow.

"We will follow you closely, elder," Augustus.

"That Protoss has a really good nose," Tychus muttered.

"Be careful that Zeratul doesn't hear you speaking ill of him," Augustus warned him.

"I don't care whether people like me or hate me," Tychus replied nonchalantly.

As Tychus spoke, Augustus glanced to the right at the city of Grandi, where the sound of cannons still echoed. This at least indicated that the city's Confederacy still had ample weapons and ammunition and remained convinced that Fleets would come to their rescue.

However, according to the intelligence Augustus gathered, there were no Terran Confederacy naval Fleets at least six light-years away from Haj. These Fleets were either reinforcing the defenses of the Koprulu Sector's edge in the Core World or near the invading Swarm system.

Haj's position is rather awkward. It lies on the interstellar shipping routes of the Confederacy world, but it does not belong to the developed core world. Its economy is backward, its legal system is chaotic, and its political influence is almost negligible. It is likely that the Confederacy will only remember that this remote place was once attacked by the Swarm after the war of the Zerg invasion has ended.

Even if the Confederacy of Tarsonis receives Haj's distress signal, by the time the slow-moving Confederacy Fleets arrives, there will probably be very few survivors left on the planet.

"Advance," Augustus ordered over the command channel. "Maintain distance between you and your units, watch your step, the Zerg could emerge from the ground at any moment. Report to your superiors immediately if anything seems amiss, and make sure your officers and political commissars are within your sight."

Around seven hundred Revolutionary Army soldiers assembled under the orders of Augustus and his officers. They were all battle-hardened veterans, and were permitted to use the golden wolf head of the Mengsk Family on their Power Armor, which was both a symbol of honor and strong evidence of their experience in many battles.

At first, Zeratul moved very slowly, but after about ten minutes he confirmed his direction and had a clear goal.

Augustus followed Zeratul for six or seven miles across the Creep wasteland, passing through many towns and factories completely covered by Zerg organisms, until they came across an abandoned border checkpoint.

Zeratul stopped half a mile from the border checkpoint, and Augustus simultaneously ordered his troops to halt.

"Gods," Zeratul sighed in alarm as Augustus observed the unnatural and bizarre nature of the abandoned border checkpoint, "Too late."

The border checkpoint was originally part of the old Geladi City, used to intercept homeless people, tribal people, and slum dwellers who attempted to illegally enter the city. It was originally just a few square, single-story houses made of clean cement, next to a high-energy gas-powered steam furnace that provided electricity and heat for the entire complex.

Normally, the area is under the jurisdiction of the Haj military, but when Augustus saw the checkpoint, it had clearly been abandoned.

Not only that, the main structure of the checkpoint was completely covered by a sickly grayish-brown film, like a fetus wrapped in an amnion. Every part of the building was covered by clusters of Creep, as if it were covered by a rotting blanket.

Some sharp, ten-foot-tall spikes emerged from the edges of the infected building; they were mobile, like tentacles with chitinous blades strapped to their tips. These tentacles, lurking in the Creep, could release a row of moving spikes from beneath the ground, capable of piercing the entire soles of human soldiers wearing alloy power boots.

If Augustus open his helmet visor, he would surely be able to smell the stench of decay in the air. The Zerg had already infected the building, even more thoroughly than those in the slums.

Even though Augustus had witnessed many instances of Zerg infestation, he still felt a physical aversion to it.

"See what's in there." Augustus glanced at Zeratul and said into the command channel, "Keep advancing. I need my bravest warriors to lead the vanguard."

Augustus issued several more orders over the channel, and an advance force, mainly composed of Firebat, took the lead in approaching the infected border checkpoint.

Just then, the previously silent wilderness was suddenly filled with the sound of carapaces and sharp claws scraping against hard objects. Countless Hydralisk and Zergling with copper-green carapaces emerged from the infected checkpoint. Upon seeing this scene, Augustus's heart sank, certain that the Psionics had been captured by the Zerg.

More Zerg emerged from the checkpoint and nearby pits, emitting a low buzzing sound, like the humming of countless insects in summer.

These grotesque monsters roared in a low voice. They did not immediately launch a ferocious attack, but instead wandered among the pipes and Creep clusters around the checkpoint. At this moment, they were more like guardians of a nest than bloodthirsty hunters.

"Keep moving, run and shoot, that's all you have to do," Augustus shouted. "Kill them!"

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