Aiur Refugees

Aiur is a hot and humid planet. Abundant and intense sunlight and plentiful rainfall nourish the primeval rainforests and the vibrant life within them at all latitudes, but also bring unbearable heat.

In the Antioch Province, cold winters have not been seen in many geological layers; there are only short springs and long summers.

Magnificent life thrives here, and so many such life forms have given rise to unique species over one Aiur revolution year after another. Giant lizards with huge sail-like backs, agile felines and primates that have evolved through convergent processes have taken center stage on the stage of life evolution.

The primeval forests of Antioch are vast and ancient; when those towering trees were sprouting seeds, the Protoss had not yet built their glorious empire.

Augustus just stepped off a heavy armored command vehicle and was walking along a road carved out of the primeval rainforest north of Antioch by tanks and road rollers, alongside Faraday's Marshal Guard and an entire company of Goliath Combat Robot on the march.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of crushed and chopped plants, and fallen trees were neatly stacked to serve as temporary defensive barriers and materials for building refugee settlements.

Continuing along this road leads to the Antioch Shrine and the Elders' Cemetery, where the remains of Protoss heroes are said to be buried, a memorial path trodden by countless pilgrims over the centuries. Despite its near-sacred significance to the Protoss, Protoss have recently lost it.

Continuing past the altar leads to the fortress city of Executor Fortress, which Augustus ordered to be captured and is currently still under the Protoss Empire control. Among Augustus's forces, the closest to the fortress are the Alpha Squadron and four 20,000-strong divisions of the Revolutionary Army, equipped with countless heavy armored vehicles and support artillery.

Even so, it would be a pipe dream for humanity to capture the Executor Fortress in a short time with its military strength alone. It was an impregnable fortress, and the defenders could constantly summon reinforcements through the warp network of the Crystal Matrix that spanned Aiur.

The real main force is still the Protoss army of Artanis and Fenix. In any case, they definitely know better than humans how to deal with their own people.

As he walked along the road and looked around at the forests in the distance, Augustus had repeatedly marveled at the enchanting scenery of Aiur, but he still lamented the misfortunes that had befallen such a beautiful planet.

This is a vast primeval forest, where towering ancient trees support the azure sky of Aiur. Canopies higher than head-high, vines thicker than human arms, and trunks intertwine to create a labyrinthine natural landscape in the Aiur rainforest. Poisonous and brightly colored creatures blend perfectly into their surroundings, while ferocious large animals observe these strange alien beings with astonishing intelligence.

Large, broad, palm-leaf-like branches and evergreen vines intertwine to form a green curtain that shields the sun, leaving a cool shade for the ferns below. The leaves of the vegetation are colorful, shimmering in the sunlight with reddish-brown, bright orange, fluorescent green, and sapphire blue hues, like blooming flowers, flowing like poetry from the trickling stream that flows by.

No two leaves are exactly alike; the veins, resembling the heart and lungs, seem to be drawing a mysterious map. The crisscrossing branches are like colorful corals rippling in the blue waves, each with its own unique shape and extraordinary beauty.

To this day, Augustus visited many planets, from true hell to earthly paradises with pleasant climates. As the homeworld of a powerful and vast Protoss Empire, most of Aiur's landscape remains quite primitive, with only golden cities and mysterious temples hidden among nature and mountains.

The Revolutionary Army's engineers briefly admired the garden-like beauty of Aiur Garden before having to level the lush vegetation. If they didn't, once the Zerg's Creep Tumor began to spread, all life forms would cease to exist, and even the most beautiful flowers would turn into a sticky, purplish-black Creep.

"The division of Londerstein has entered the ruins of a city forty miles south of the Executor's Fortress." As she walked, Ghost operative Sarah Kerrigan, clad in a blue and white ghost-themed combat suit, used a small knife to rip open the belly of an Aiur Rainforest insect and then used Psionics to burn the remaining venomous creatures to ashes.

This is a giant insect similar to a mosquito. Its bites on the Revolutionary Army soldiers can cause a severe fever and even death. This venomous insect is by no means the most dangerous and deadly creature on Aiur.

The primeval forests of Aiur are fraught with danger; those deadly hunters are beyond the sight of the human eye.

"That city was abandoned not long ago. There is evidence that a Zerg group from the Baelrog Brood attacked and destroyed it, devouring all the Protoss." A layer of moisture condensed on Kerrigan's Wraith suit, and the damp air made the suit cling even tighter to her body, making her look even more feminine.

"Wasn't Gwen, the Cerebrate of the white Balrog clan, killed by Zeratul's Dark Templar? Gwen can't possibly be resurrected, and its out-of-control clan has been crushed by the other hives." Augustus made no attempt to hide his astonishment upon hearing this news.

As Augustus spoke, the miniature air conditioner in his Power Armor was still working, bringing a touch of coolness to the wearer during the sweltering summer in Aiur. Otherwise, the humid and stuffy air would have greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of soldiers from high-latitude regions.

This is one of the few times Augustus has given high marks to the human-centered design of Power Armor, whereas the functions of most other parts of the armor are not very human-centered.

"Either the Overmind rebuilt the Baelrog Brood race based on its genes, or Cerebrate from another race or an unnamed Cerebrate accepted and controlled the Baelrog Brood."

After capturing the Cerebrate named α, the Revolutionary Army made a breakthrough in their research on the class and ethnic traits within the Zerg. They also learned from the Cerebrate that a newly born Cerebrate has little influence and finds it difficult to establish its authority within the Swarm —although the Cerebrate was unwilling to admit this and threw a tantrum when the researchers questioned it.

The Baelrog are few in number, but each clan member is bloodthirsty and powerful. The Baelrog are one of the groups that Overmind the Overmind, and their presence here indicates that Overmind Swarm must be nearby.

"Londerstein's men did not encounter Zerg attack, nor did they find any Protoss survivors in the city," Kerrigan continued to say to Augustus.

"One of his jungle guerrilla units shot down an Overlord with an anti-aircraft missile, and dug out a large number of Protoss civilian corpses from the monster's abdomen. He suspects that the Zerg either ate the Protoss or took them away," she speculated.

"The Zerg cannot assimilate Protoss genes; they probably only eat Protoss to alleviate their hunger. Research in the Xenomorph Labs shows that if the Zerg leave the Creep's range, they must replenish their energy through feeding."

"If you can still recall those Hybrid monsters created from the combined Protoss and Zerg genes that we discovered in the Luria System, you might then understand the conspiracy behind the Zerg's unusual behavior." Augustus, did not think so.

"The Zerg have devoured so many Protoss that the resulting Hybrid monsters must be beyond all our imagination."

Augustus envisioned a future Hybrid of the Overmind's body and the host of the evil god, a monster formed from the Overmind's corpse and countless Protoss, which would be the true end of the world.

Kerrigan couldn't quite grasp the meaning behind Augustus's words, but she imagined they must have a profound meaning far beyond the limitations of her own thinking.

Augustus's words will be recorded so that they can serve as evidence for future biographers and historians who write about Augustus Mengsk.

Before Kerrigan could say anything more, the commander of another main force reported that they had reached their designated attack positions, and new intelligence was continuously pouring into Augustus's Marshal's headquarters.

The Protoss are still reinforcing the defenses of the Executor Fortress, but not to guard against the sudden appearance of humans, but to defend against the Zerg attack from the direction of the Sain Province.

That was the first region to fall after the Overmind descended upon Aiur. Large numbers of Tiamat and Jormungand Zerg roaming the ruins of once-glorious cities and broken disc towers in the Sain Province. Whenever the Overmind deems the moment the best time to launch an attack on the Protoss Empire capital region is, these two most powerful races will truly take action.

"Tell Bennett to launch the attack according to the battle plan. All we need to do is drop bombs on the Protoss positions, the louder the 'fireworks' sound, the better. Once the Fenix army starts moving, then launch the general offensive," Augustus ordered in the command channel.

"This is a crucial battle, and I need not reiterate the value of Executor Fortress. I have only one requirement for the soldiers: take this fortress." He said, "I will not allow any failure."

Augustus was still quite a distance from the front lines, and his destination was not the Executor Fortress, but the nearest city that had been occupied by the Zerg, which was also the location of the High Altar in the Protoss doctrine.

The attack on the Executor Fortress was the most important battle after the Revolutionary Army landed in Aiur, but Augustus commanded more than just this one battle and a large, temporarily assembled army.

According to the original plan, Augustus establish a temporary command center in that area to direct the entire army.

As Augustus issued his final order, a commotion suddenly arose from the nearby primeval forest, and dozens of elite Marshal Guard's guards immediately surrounded him.

Hidden in the shadows, an eight-man Ghost operative squad from the Nova Squadron quickly approached the direction from which the sound came, while the other two groups remained in place.

The terrain in Aiur's primeval forest is complex, with thick tree branches intertwined like dragons, making even running difficult. Only agile primates and birds can adapt to the environment above the tree canopy.

"Are they the beasts of Aiur?" This wasn't the first time Augustus had encountered such a thing. Every now and then, large, panicked animals would rush into the Revolutionary Army's marching ranks as they walked through the jungle. If they couldn't drive them away, the soldiers could only shoot those creatures that the Protoss, perhaps in ancient times, had regarded as some kind of divine incarnation.

"It's Protoss," said one of the Ghost operative who went to investigate. "More than two hundred people, mostly civilians, and very few of them are armed."

"Bring them here," Augustus ordered. "Take the Protoss relics that Tassadar gave us, lest these Protoss see us as enemies."

"As you wish."

"Has the Protoss Empire lost control of its own civilians?" Kerrigan shook her head.

The Revolutionary Army rarely encountered stray Protoss civilians during their marches, and the latter would avoid dealing with these peculiar primates unless absolutely necessary. The Protoss Aiur perceived humans as either clumsy apes or cunning little furballs the size of a palm.

Before long, two Templar Knights clad in gold and blue armor were brought over. One wielded a common Zealot Protoss blade, while the other used a scythe-like weapon similar to the Dark Templar's Warp Blade. They were clearly the leaders of these Aiur Protoss refugees and their representatives sent to meet with the human leaders.

"En Taro Adun, greetings to you, noble Templar Knights, I am Augustus Mengsk, leader of the Revolutionary Army of Mankind," Augustus addressed the two Templar Knights.

"Greetings to Adun, I am Alrena, a Templar of the Fenatiel tribe. I know your identity and purpose, but we have no need for human assistance. Please tell us, where are our people?"

One of the Templar Knights made a gesture of respect to Augustus, and despite his current state of disgrace, his words still revealed the Protoss's deep-seated contempt for other races and their haughty attitude.

After all, before humanity even ventured into space, the Protoss Empire had been silently watching over and protecting countless such races.

"Come with us, you'll soon be reunited with your people." Augustus glanced at Kerrigan, who was getting agitated by the other party's rude words, and told her not to worry about such a trivial matter.

"If you could read my mind, you would find that Tassadar and Artanis, the executive officers of the Protoss Empire, are my closest friends. The Revolutionary Army of Humanity has come here to help the Protoss, both to fulfill a promise I made and to ensure that the friendship between humanity and the Protoss lasts forever."

"By the gods above, you are as honest as pure gold and stone, I salute you, human commander." The Templar Knights's attitude toward Augustus had clearly changed.

Then, a group of Protoss emerged from the jungle behind him, their robes tattered and filthy. Like all the Protoss Augustus seen, these Protoss forced to flee into the jungle had slender limbs and graceful, agile steps, but their physical and mental exhaustion from fear, running day and night, and hiding in fear was no better than that of the human refugees who had been forced to flee their homes due to the Zerg invasion and the Protoss burning their homes.

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