The Conclave's Pursuers
In late February, the area where Oasis Town is located experienced several days of light rain. The rain brought some coolness to the sweltering Oasis Town, and the persistent red haze in the sky also showed signs of weakening.
The sun's rays shone through the dissipating mist, casting a translucent blue light across the horizon, like the folds of a skirt.
Oasis Town was originally just a small settlement, with rows of prefabricated houses and narrow alleys made up of tall oil storage tanks of a gas refinery nestled in the rugged and winding rift valleys of Altera.
This is probably the most habitable place in the region. A river rises and falls with the flood season in the rift valley below the town, and to the south lies the drought-resistant and resilient Altera Black Forest.
Finding Watering Hole and settlements that can shelter from the wind and sand and stabilize the soil is not an easy task in Altera, as most areas are either barren wastelands or located on dangerous active tectonic plates.
The continental plates of Altera have been unusually active over the last few million years, with new high-energy gas vents being discovered almost every moment along with newly formed fissures, while fissures that have existed for many years are being buried.
Despite its name, Oasis Town has always been a chaotic and desperate place. It is home to all sorts of wanted criminals and people engaged in illegal activities. Mercenaries and pirates also love Oasis Town's tobacco shops, bars, and underground black markets. Altera's population composition is even more complex than that of Deadman's Port, and pedestrians must be careful of their backs even in broad daylight.
In recent times, with the invasion of the Zerg and the arrival of the Korhal Revolutionary Army, the chaos and crime in Oasis Town have been cleared away. This is not because the people here have suddenly become law-abiding; when an army, scorching Siege Tank with gleaming cannons, and Goliath Combat Robot are stationed in the town, even the most vicious people have to temporarily keep a low profile.
Even though many people in Oasis Town were dissatisfied with the status quo, they dared not complain. The streets were filled with the Revolutionary Army soldiers in Power Armor and armed to the teeth, and Arclite Siege Tank and heavy Armored Vehicle frequently crossed the widened and rebuilt town roads to go to the front lines to clear out the Zerg.
The tallest and most conspicuous buildings were now adorned with the Revolutionary Army's golden-red flags, and people could not help but see these red flags with wolves and whips whenever they looked up.
For the vast majority of people in Oasis Town who made a living through illegal businesses, the arrival of the Revolutionary Army was more of a cause for worry than joy. The Revolutionary Army built a new government building and Magistrate's office with a five-pointed star emblem in Oasis Town. In addition, the school and hospital were also rebuilt.
Revolutionary Army Marshal Augustus Mengsk seems to be very obsessed with the construction of infrastructure in his territory, as can be seen from his vigorous promotion of the construction of the subway network in Ansadar Antiga Prime.
The powerful figures who once held sway in Oasis Town disliked these changes, believing the Revolutionary Army had disrupted the customs and survival rules of the Altera people. Augustus, however, simply laughed it off; he couldn't allow a town rife with assassinations and violence to remain under his rule for long. Even if Augustus didn't completely purge Oasis Town, he wanted to teach the criminals the value of obeying the law.
On this day, Augustus did not stay in Oasis Town to wait for his generals to report the latest progress in Zerg in Altera. Instead, he went to the largest nearby Kel-Morian High Energy Gas Refinery.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Altera, Tassadar's Protoss Fleets was still bombarding the main hive of the Jormungand Brood, while Zeratul's Dark Templar were hunting down elite Swarm in the wilderness and dark canyons of Altera.
Kel-Morian has a multi-mile-long industrial facility for the extraction, storage, and extraction of high-energy gas in the foothills south of Oasis Town. This facility is not difficult to spot on satellite imagery, but the Kel-Morian people obtained the right to build a factory there by bribing officials of the Terran Confederacy.
Those corrupt Confederacy officials didn't care whether the bribes they received came from Kel-Morian people or pirates; what mattered was exchanging Altera's natural resources, which had little to do with them, for real money.
The gas refinery is a complex of buildings consisting of sturdy alloy workshops, massive, gnarled pipes, exhaust gas gates, and towering gas storage tanks. It also includes living quarters, recreational areas, and even a bar for the workers, making their living conditions far superior to those of the Altera people under Confederacy rule.
Before Augustus arrived at this factory, the guild guards of the Kemorian Kailanis Guild were protecting these gas refineries. Their equipment was sufficient to deal with any pirates or other threats in the interstellar space, but even that didn't keep these brave guild guards here for long.
After the Jormungand Brood invaded Altera, none of the more than two thousand Kel-Morian in this factory survived. Most of the buildings were covered with abscesses and purple hardened skin, and the interiors were filled with bloody tissue and veins.
Guided by the Zerg's main nest genes, all infected human structures seem to have regained life, living like real organisms, while the spreading Creep supplies these structures with nutrients.
If these infected buildings are not destroyed, they will transform the humans devoured by the Swarm into terrifying Infested Terran. These Infested Terran, existing according to the will of the hive, will move with the Swarm, becoming true monsters.
It took several days just to clean up the pieces of corpses from the infected buildings and roads.
The refinery's facilities were completely rendered inoperable; the explosion in the core reactor destroyed dozens of buildings and collapsed the outlet of the high-energy gas vent.
Augustus now stands before the control center of a completely infected oil refinery, watching Revolutionary Army soldiers use flamethrowers to clean off the sticky residue, the air thick with the acrid smell of burning protein.
"New creatures have been discovered in this area. The livestock and pets brought by the factory workers have all undergone varying degrees of mutation, and all sorts of mutated creatures are frequently attacking our warriors and local civilians." Sarah Kerrigan stood beside Augustus.
"This factory is no good," Augustus told Kerrigan. "It must be destroyed and buried. The Swarm's infection has penetrated deep underground."
As they were talking, a crack appeared in the building in front of them, which was covered by an exoskeleton, ugly hide, and purple carapace. A Kel-Morian Guild Guards with a spike piercing his brain was squeezed out by writhing tissue, like a fish being pulled from a ruptured stomach. His body was covered by a thin layer of amniotic membrane.
The abhorrent distortion has already manifested itself in this Kel-Morian. He was once a Guild Guards of the glorious Kalaris Guild, as evidenced by the totem-like sun emblem on his chest. All that glory is a far cry from what this warrior is now; he is merely a monster controlled by the mind of the Nest.
"Bury him." With these words, Augustus crossed a main road of the oil refinery and arrived at the production area, passing a collapsed Holographic Projection theater. Many souls were buried under the pile of rubble covered with charred organic matter, while colored lights and shards of glass glittered in the sunlight.
In the distance lies a colossal Zerg hatchery, composed of hundreds of tons of organic matter, its surface covered with sharp spikes and a hard, keratinous exoskeleton. A robust exoskeleton and skeleton support this massive structure, far larger than a stadium, which pulsates like a living thing, as if it were breathing.
The purplish-black creeping Creep spread outwards from where it took root in the incubation site, like ink soaked in clear water.
Below this incubation facility stood hundreds of the Revolutionary Army soldiers and Goliath Combat Robot, all warily watching the seemingly still-living structure.
Further away are a dozen or so Zerg extraction chambers covering the vents of high-energy gas geysers. Their evolved special organs can replace human distillation and refining facilities to convert impurity-rich high-energy gas into a concentrated state, and then make these precious gas resources serve the evolution of the entire Swarm.
A Psi Disrupter is emitting a yellow light, indicating that the area is safe.
"Reporting to you, Your Excellency Marshal Augustus Mengsk, I am Captain Frank of the 9th Division. We are keeping a close watch on these dangerous Zerg structures around the clock," a Revolutionary Army officer in a dark gray uniform with a silver insignia on his cap reported to Augustus.
"No need to add 'great' before my name, Captain." Augustus knew this man's name. Before joining the Revolutionary Army, Captain Frank was a software engineer at Korhal IV, and now he was a fanatical follower of the Marshal himself. Many people worshipped Augustus, but this captain was particularly fanatical.
"Salute to the soldiers of the 9th Division." Augustus saluted the captain, Tychus was huffing and puffing as he walked over from the other side of the hatchery. If the soldiers had paid a little attention, they would have noticed that this burly, hulking man was dragging a Drone that looked much larger than himself toward Augustus.
It was a hideous creature resembling a manta ray, with enormous pincers and multiple pairs of tiny triangular eyes. Its worm-like body had webbed wings on either side. Although those fleshy wings did not help this Zerg fly, it did indeed float in mid-air like Vulture.
"Guess what place I got in the bug-kicking contest, I kicked it a full ten feet (3.1 meters) away," Tychus said as he walked, dragging the Drone bee by its tail toward Augustus.
"Are you insane? Don't let this monster near the Marshal!" Faraday almost jumped up, shouting at Tychus.
"Shut up, you jumping-around Korhal monkey, stop ordering me around. You're not qualified." Tychus nonchalantly dragged the motionless, no-longer-struggling Drone in front of Augustus.
"Don't worry, the monster's fangs and internal thorns have all been removed, and Cassidy even gave it a full dose of anesthesia." He threw the Drone forcefully to the ground, clapped his hands, and said with satisfaction, "This monster is even more dangerous than Zergling; it can spit out venomous thorns like Hydralisk. Some people have already been hit and are now lying in the hospital, waiting for orders to return to Antiga or Umojan."
"Now it's just a toy."
"A dangerous toy," Kerrigan added sternly. "You're behaving like an ignorant child."
"Such a big, ignorant child." Augustus walked toward the Jormungand Drone lying paralyzed on the ground. Due to the effect of the sedative, the Drone was still lying flat on the ground, exposing its relatively soft abdomen, with its head drooping.
"The people Cerberus Project will find it useful—as will this hatchery. Hopefully, we can find a way to get those larvae to metamorphose into cocoons," Augustus.
"It will take quite a while to transport these back to Umojan," Kerrigan, looking at Augustus. "We've already transported quite a few live Zerg samples back to Umojan's home planet during this time—aren't those scientists in Umojan playing with fire?"
"Everything is within the scope of the Umojan Council's permission." Augustus, his hands behind his back. "You would never imagine how much the Umojan desire a complete Zerg hatchery."
"They paid a high price for this," he said. "If the Umojan Protectorate can't even handle a few Drone and a hatchery, then the United States shouldn't count on them for protection."
"Who knows, one day the Kel-Morian and Umojan people might even need to ask us for advice on how to deal with the insects," Tychus said with a chuckle.
"Can you sense this Drone?" Augustus asked Kerrigan. This place was extremely far from Char and was right in the center of the Psi Disrupter effect, so even if the Overmind's Psionics strong, it would not be able to sense this place.
"I think I can." Kerrigan held out a hand to the Drone: "You warned me never to disobey your orders and contact the Zerg."
"Now you can try," Augustus said to Kerrigan. "I want to see the limits of your abilities. Try to control them."
"The Psi Disrupter is also affecting me a lot." Kerrigan focused her mind, golden light appearing in her emerald pupils. "But at this close range, it shouldn't be a big problem."
Kerrigan used her powerful telekinesis to control the Drone that was being controlled by drugs. She quickly turned around and poked Tychus, who was asking Corporal Faraday for a cigarette, with her huge pincers.
"Awooo!" Tychus jumped up, clutching his butt.
"Haller might be able to do it too, but such Psionics are extremely rare among humans," Augustus said with a smile.
"The next step is to try to transform this Drone into a hatchery."
Augustus did not have high hopes for this.
"How could you think that? Fine." However, under Kerrigan's control, the Drone immediately transformed into a writhing mass of tissue. "If this is what the hatchery looks like."
"Dr. Francos said that the genes that respond to Psionics seem to be hidden within these Drone."
"Cancel this order," Augustus said immediately.
"Good heavens!" Tychus and Faraday were utterly astonished.
"Emergency! An unmarked Protoss Fleets has appeared in outer space orbit around Altera— " Just then, the Hyperion's vice-captain's voice came through Augustus's communicator.
"Should we intercept them? We need your instructions."