Project Black Flag

As evening fell, the Revolutionary Army's 3rd Motorized Infantry Brigade advanced westward across the junction of the Bone Trench and Death Valley, reaching the edge of the main nest area of Char Swarm.

At this moment, the blazing white sun in the sky is about to Sunset. But in this high-latitude region near the North Pole, the sun sets particularly slowly.

General Jim Raynor, commander of the Char Expeditionary Force, personally drove his powerful gray-green Vulture Motorcycle alongside the brigade headquarters, pulling the lever as if he were tightly reining in a horse.

This sleek, beautiful hoverbike is Jim Raynor ' favorite vehicle; it's said to have been Raynor beloved "ride" even at the end of the Guild Wars.

Despite the strict regulations of the Revolutionary Army's motorized units prohibiting Vulture from making any wildly imaginative modifications to their vehicles, and strictly forbidding the installation of various engines, propulsion systems, and weapons that would surely incur the wrath of Major General Frick of the Revolutionary Army's logistics department.

But General Raynor believed that the logistics personnel could not possibly be on the battlefield and empathize with the cowboys and bad boys flying vultures, so how could they understand that the minor modifications that came into being to adapt to the needs of the battlefield were absolutely necessary?

In Raynor's motorized forces, appropriate modifications to the Vulture are permitted, such as the addition of reinforced windshields, spare fuel tanks, and ion-powered engines. The addition of reinforced frames and alloy armor plates also transforms the Vulture in the Raynor Raynor's Raiders into more stable and reliable heavy-duty motorcycles.

According to the standard equipment list for motorized infantry of the Revolutionary Army, each Vulture motorcyclist should be equipped with three Smart 52-QDMM Spider Mine designed by Viktor Kaczynski —in reality, they carried much more, with some Vulture even carrying an entire polyester woven bag.

According to unconfirmed rumors, these incredibly powerful Spider Mine cost even more than the Vulture.

The sources of the modification parts are varied, ranging from spoils obtained by the Vulture on the battlefield to scraps salvaged by soldiers from the Deadman's Port, and many more whose origins remain unknown. Each Vulture is also a skilled mechanic, knowing every part of their vehicle as intimately as if it were their own brother.

This also endowed Raynor's Raiders motorcyclists with a tenacious survival ability. As long as they weren't sent flying by the exploding fuel tanks of their Vulture, even the most unbelievable malfunctions could be repaired by these amazing Char cowboys. This skill comes from the harsh living environment that honed the Terrans, and it is an essential skill for everyone who makes a living in a dangerous, Edge World.

Finally, the Raynor Vulture came to a stop behind a high, dark brown sand dune and a large, smoking pile of hot granite, accompanied by the pleasant whine of its engine.

In a low-lying area, the command center's towering control tower and orbital satellite base station stood tall, a golden-red Revolutionary Army flag fluttering in the rising hot wind. On both sides of the command center, large numbers of Vulture sped by, raising dust that blotted out the sun.

The reliable engineers of the Char Expeditionary Force were operating T-280 SCV on the black rocky ground, and soon an electrified barbed wire fence surrounding the forward base and a fortification wall with heavy Gatling guns erected on it had been erected.

Bunker, perched high on commanding heights, formed the backbone of humanity's defenses. Inside these Bunker were spirited Revolutionary Army soldiers, not seasoned Confederacy veterans who only knew Bunker to play mahjong.

Raynor parked his Vulture in a canopy made of steel frame and rainproof tiles, just as he bumped into his Chief of Staff, Charles Matt Horner, who was wearing the same Commander Power Armor and was one of the few skilled drivers capable of competing with our Mr. Renault.

People with the surname Matt Horner are always reliable.

The Vulture is a high-speed, agile single-rider motorcycle, as reliable as an old-fashioned AGR-14 rifle when the rider is lucky enough. In places like Mar-a- Sara and Antiga, it's almost unimaginable for a young man not to ride Vulture.

Aside from offering virtually no protection for the driver, the Vulture was almost perfect. On the treacherous Char Ash Plains, a well-fueled Vulture could easily leave a dozen swift and agile Zergling far behind, but if a few Hydralisk spat acid at them, everything would be over.

Raynor heard that recently, Marshal Augustus Mengsk had ordered the Revolutionary Army's Weaponry Directorate and the First Engineering Regiment to complete the design of a new generation of tanks that could replace the Vulture as soon as possible, with the hope that they could be fully prototyped and mass-produced for testing and supplied to the front-line troops next year.

The new design will feature four-wheel drive, solid fuel gas injectors, and an electroplated steel skid plate, powered by a powerful variable fuel engine.

The idea of new equipment was certainly appealing, but Raynor could hardly believe that such a perfect Terrans classic as the Vulture would one day become obsolete. -- Within the Revolutionary Army, the calls for upgrading and modifying all kinds of equipment had never ceased, and the Revolutionary Army government's tax revenue and income from the mining areas were mostly spent on this.

Weapons like the Vulture, the Arclite Siege Tank, and the Goliath Combat Robot Wraith will all have better and stronger alternatives. It seems that even a timeless classic like the APOD-33 transport ship is now being developed into a new model.

War has changed everything. To survive in this dark universe, humanity must accelerate the upgrading of its military to prepare for even more perilous wars to come.

"I'm certain the Zerg's main nesting area is nearby. Years have passed, and they haven't moved an inch. I wouldn't go wrong even with my eyes closed." Raynor looked in the direction of the main nesting area.

It was a low-lying area crisscrossed by gullies, resembling small puddles scattered across muddy ground after rain, except that they were filled with flowing, scorching orange-red lava rather than gentle, soft water. Thick smoke rose from the horizon, and the sky was filled with countless black dots, like a swarm of mosquitoes that blotted out the sun in summer.

"Jim, the Zerg in the main hive area have all caught wind of this and are heading straight for the location of the newborn Overmind." Charles Matt Horner casually tossed his Vulture aside.

"Because the Earthlings have plunged headlong into the death zone." Raynor quoted Marshal Augustus as he stepped onto the ramp leading to the command center entrance. "They've got guts. I thought there were no other people in the world with that kind of courage besides us."

"Technician, tell me, is our communications equipment still a mess?" Upon entering the control tower, Renault bumped into a group of technicians entangled in electrical coils. Raynor could understand their frustration, as all the control panels had turned into a chaotic jumble of static, and even the kettle for brewing coffee was sparking.

"General, I'm afraid we won't be able to repair these devices anytime soon, unless those unprecedentedly strong interferences disappear," said a technician wearing an orange-yellow flat-topped hat.

"Trouble won't just disappear on its own when the time comes, but luckily we just got a new Protoss equipment." Raynor waved.

Several Revolutionary Army soldiers dragged in an exquisitely crafted rectangular box, which was filled with crystal-clear objects, each an equilateral pyramid, with pearl-like blue crystals inlaid on its golden metal shell.

"These are Protoss communication crystals, each one is very precious. Out of consideration for past friendships, the Protoss High Executor Tassadar gifted them to us."

"Wow—can we keep them forever?" The engineers' eyes immediately lit up, and one of the female Revolutionary Army engineers, completely wrapped in a bulky protective suit, asked Raynor.

"What is borrowed must be returned, but could you pick up my piece from your collection and examine it, dear?" Raynor, a farmer by Shiloh, was approachable and unpretentious. Of course, he had always been someone who was unafraid of authority.

"Earl, get your men moving. When the Protoss handed me these devices, they said human engineers could perfectly understand how to use these 'simple' communication devices, so they didn't give me the instruction manual I requested. -- They don't have one." He shouted before leaving the command center.

"For God's sake, I only wish you were as intelligent as the Protoss think you are."

"A piece of cake." Earl was the right-hand man of Rory Swann, the chief engineer of the Revolutionary Army. He had served on the flagship Hyperion and was now a capable engineering team leader.

"I'll have to buy you a drink once this is done." Raynor rushed out of the command center again.

Since the command center's communications were completely paralyzed, there was little point in staying there. Moreover, the intense electromagnetic pulse signal even destroyed the Revolutionary Army's radar equipment, instantly plunging the Char Expeditionary Force's landing force back to the Stone Age.

"Where are Tassadar's troops? Where are he?" Raynor shouted at Chief of Staff Charles, who was fiddling with a Protoss crystal communicator, while gesturing with a pen.

He should have been standing next to me not long ago.

"Tassadar isn't exactly a speed demon," Charles shrugged. "He has to command the Protoss Fleets."

"A Protoss is to our south, and as far as I know, they are commanded by Archon Fenix."

"James Raynor, the humans are advancing on the Swarm's main hive. The Swarm are thoroughly enraged; they lost their Overmind before, and they certainly won't repeat that mistake." Before Raynor could finish speaking, Fenix appeared beside him.

Fenix was critically wounded early in the Battle of Aiur, and now he returns to the battlefield as Dragoon. Even though his unwavering will is bound within this golden spider-like mech, the great Fenix still makes his enemies tremble with fear.

"Their goal is Overmind —if the Terran Confederacy had had that kind of courage back then, those Edge World could have been saved." Raynor sighed, "They're Earth men after all; the Confederacy cowards didn't even dare to fight back when faced with insects."

"So, what gives them their confidence?" Charles opened his Power Armor helmet and looked at Fenix. The air here was scorching hot, but still breathable.

"Even Tassadar's Fleets cannot penetrate deep into the Zerg hive; the Scourge of mosquitoes in the Bone Trench can destroy everything."

"It's still unknown." A holographic image was projected into the cockpit of the Fenix Dragoon armor, showing the footage captured by the Protoss Observer.

In the scene, a massive United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet Fleets is engaged in battle with the endless defensive forces of the Zerg hive. The UED warships are so numerous that they blot out half the sky, while the swarming Swarm seem to fill everything else.

In the sky, city-sized battlecruisers swarmed with dense laser barrages, reaping the Zerg that entered their firing range. But it was like wiping away a mosquito on a screen—a drop in the ocean.

One after another, UED battlecruisers, bathed in raging flames, plummeted from the sky, crashing into the ash-covered, volcanic land of Char, creating enormous and ugly red clouds.

Transport ships and shuttles rained down, and tens of thousands of United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet warriors were deployed on the surface of Char, where they were met with countless snarling, savage Zerg and flowing lava.

"Humanity on Earth is deploying a Psionics device, which is speculated to be the same as the Psi Disrupter you are using," Fenix said.

"But their Psi Disrupter are far inferior to yours; they are completely incapable of interfering with the ever-strengthening hive mind, and therefore unable to affect the mental links between the Cerebrate and their swarm members, causing them to fall into disarray."

In Lieutenant General Alexei Stukov's plan for the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet, the Psi Disrupter was originally the key to their advance on Char and control of Overmind. As planned, the Psi Disrupter would disrupt the Zerg's psychic links, plunging the Swarm into chaos. This would allow the UED forces to take advantage of the situation and inject a large amount of high-energy neurotoxin into the Overmind, thus controlling this terrifying monster.

This is Project Black Flag of the United Earth Directorate.

However, although the Confederacy was the first to discover the Hive Mind and use this trait to control the Zerg, they initially overlooked these incredibly powerful weapons, wasting a great deal of valuable time.

On the contrary, Augustus highly valued this technology from the Confederacy, and the Revolutionary Army's Psionics technology was far ahead of the Confederacy in terms of application and upgrading.

Due to the Revolutionary Army's "abuse" of Psi Disrupter, the Confederacy's outdated Psi Disrupter were completely ineffective, much like outdated antibiotics that were helpless against superbugs.

Humans have been monitoring the Koprulu Sector, but Psi Disrupter have always been Confederacy secret, and they have no idea about the technological gap between the Revolutionary Army's Psi Disrupter and those of the Confederacy.

"Which version of their Psi Disrupter is it?" Raynor asked Charles.

"My guess is that their Psi Disrupter is still in the testing phase, having just passed the prototype weapon experimentation stage. UED Lieutenant General Alexei Stukov must have made a lot of modifications to it, but it was still to no avail," Charles replied.

"This isn't our fault," Raynor said, speechless.

According to the original timeline, the Psi Disrupter played a crucial role when the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet invaded Char, but now it's just a useless tool that's neither useful nor worth discarding.

In this timeline, not only did the Protoss retain more strength, but many powerful Cerebrate also escaped destruction because they were unable to invade Shakuras, making them even more powerful than the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet believed.

The United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet originally came when the Protoss and Zerg were weakened, but due to Augustus's interference, the difficulty of their original plan suddenly increased many times over.

"It seems that without other trump cards, it's only a matter of time before these Earthlings are devoured by the Zerg," Raynor said, looking at the Holographic Projection of Fenix. He could almost picture the grim face of Gerard DuGalle, the commander of the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet, upon learning of this.

"Now that the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet has sent such a massive Fleets to Char, how will they defend the land they've already occupied? As soon as this news reaches Augustus, he will immediately declare war on the UED!"

"By the way, Fenix, have you run into that Blade Prince Tosh?" Raynor suddenly asked Fenix. "Tosh promised to join us in destroying the Overmind and the Cerebrate, but we haven't seen him since we got here."

"Tosh, where are you? You're not in Char at all!"

After Prince Tosh of the Blades suddenly appeared in Shakuras and informed the Protoss of the birth of a new Overmind, Tosh and his Behemoth vanished without a trace.

"I have a feeling," Raynor said, looking at the UED Fleets that was struggling against Char, his brow furrowed.

"The next Total War that will engulf the entire Koprulu Sector is coming, and the Protoss, Terrans, and Zerg will once again fight tooth and nail."

Thanks for voting, brothers!!!