Psi Crusher

Formiga System, Imperial Fleets assembly point.

"Captain Frederick requests to board."

The F-port hatch of the Hyperion opened under the propulsion of hydraulic turbines, and a transport ship, G-226, painted in blue and white optical camouflage, landed on the flight deck under the direction of the landing controller. Several security inspectors in orange uniforms immediately went up to check the damage to the ship.

"I want to see His Majesty!" Captain Frederick was an Imperial officer stationed in Formica, dispatched by Major Mortier, the highest-ranking commander in the area, to report on the planet's current situation.

Due to the invasion of Zerg, Formica's communications were temporarily disrupted.

As he descended the gangway, Frederick was still wearing his Power Armor, his spiked boots still covered in mud and condensed white ammonia. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and his obelisk-like face was upright and solemn.

When experienced sergeants were in short supply, Frederick served as an instructor in the Marine Corps boot camp. To the Imperial soldiers he had trained, he was a strict yet patient teacher. He had a lion-like, flowing blond head and a broad nose, and was a powerful Korhal warrior.

The troops sent to the Edge World during the Zerg invasion were the backbone of the Imperial Army, not newly enlisted recruits. Only troops tempered by war could withstand the pressure of being surrounded by Zerg while venturing alone into the Edge World.

"Welcome back, Captain." Not far away, the Royal Guard Commander Faraday, had been waiting with his men for some time.

The royal officer, dressed in the uniform of a guard commander, stood with his hands behind his back, flanked by guards in heavy gold and red armor, all of whom were elite soldiers.

Faraday immediately stepped forward, shook hands with Frederick, and led him to the ship's vertical elevator. "His Majesty has dispatched reinforcements to Formica, and the situation is still under our control."

"I'm afraid even if we deploy more troops, we won't be able to retake Formica, sir. You don't know what the situation is like down there." Frederick said as he followed Faraday into the elevator.

"The Griffin Swarm has deployed thousands of main hives, hatcheries, and Virophage in Formica, and millions of Infested Terran humans are flocking to the final stronghold. Carlos's swarm contains a large number of Unclean Defiler, whose plague virus remains incurable!" he said.

"We have done everything we can to save the world. The only remaining option is to evacuate everyone and use nuclear weapons to cleanse Formica."

Frederick didn't know much about this royal officer, only that he was an excellent commander, and the safety of the emperor and the palace depended on him. By all accounts, he was at least a general.

"Evacuate?" Faraday shook his head. "The Emperor has ordered a decisive battle at Formica. The Empire will not abandon this planet."

"The main Fleets has arrived?" Frederick lit a cigarette, his bloodshot blue eyes seeming to light up.

"A new weapon." Faraday shrugged.

"What new weapon could possibly be worth a thousand troops?" Frederick's spirits lifted.

New weapons are capable of changing the face of future warfare; Psi Emitter and Psi Disrupter are products of this era.

However, the Zerg also have their own unique technological path, constantly patching up their weaknesses and growing stronger with each war. After the Swarm Overlord generally evolved more powerful Psionics organs, the current Psi Disrupter are no longer of much use.

"You'll be very surprised soon." Faraday didn't mind keeping him in suspense, because he didn't actually know much about Psi Crusher either.

"Hopefully it wasn't a fright. However, His Majesty has never deceived us." Frederick didn't press the matter further; Emperor Augustus must have been confident in his plan to issue the order.

Frederick was also a veteran of the Revolutionary Army, having been an officer since Augustus rose up in Korhal. It took him quite some time to change his address of Marshal Augustus to His Majesty, while many in the army still used the old title.

Upon reaching the upper deck, Frederick and Faraday encountered several engineers carrying suitcases as soon as they stepped off the ladder. On the wide bridge, where starlight scattered, Emperor Augustus, draped in a gold and red cloak, faced the planet Formica through the porthole.

Standing beside the Emperor were familiar figures: Queen Sarah Louis Kerrigan, the Emperor's hyena Tychus Finley, and a seemingly affected old man with a gray beard.

"Captain Frederick, thank you for your hard work." Emperor Augustus turned around, and Frederick immediately knelt down on one knee, his hand on his right chest, while holding the reinforced armor on his knees.

"Fight for the Empire," Captain Frederick Augustus.

"Your Majesty, in accordance with your orders, the 147th Marine Brigade of the former Korhal Legion has held out in Formica for two standard weeks, successfully evacuating more than 4.7 million civilians," he said.

"If you give the order again, the 147th Marine Brigade can hold out until the last man."

The 147th Marine Brigade is also a historically significant unit. During the Battle of Tarsonis, this unit lost most of its soldiers and was almost disbanded, only being replenished and reorganized again on the eve of the Battle of Aiur.

The emblem of this brigade is a giant Korhal eagle with a golden crown, an extinct prehistoric creature that has long been a monster in mythology.

"The Imperial 4th Legion will take over the front lines, and the 147th Marine Brigade will be reassigned to support and evacuation duties." Augustus gestured for Frederick to stand up. "I've received reports that the Griffin Swarm has evolved a new variant. To understand these terrifying monsters, reports alone are not enough. Tell me, what are they like on the battlefield?"

The 4th Legion was originally part of the Deadman's Port Legion, and to this day, the city located on the junkyard remains the legion's main recruitment base.

The Deadman's Port is even more chaotic than some of the Edge World under pirate control. It's teeming with gangsters, drug dealers, outlaws, and all sorts of scum, and it's one of the poorest places in the world.

Driven by the desire for a paycheck, a chance to get ahead, or simply to escape that hellish place, the people of the Deadman's Port are willing to join the army.

"The main variants come from the Brood Queen and the Contaminated. The Brood Queen of the Griffin Swarm not only aberrantly abandons its instinct to guard the nest and appears on the battlefield, but also becomes smarter and more deadly. The Griffin Brood Queen injects deadly parasite eggs into the victim's body, and once they mature, the parasites burst out." Frederick seemed to still be recalling the horrific scenes on the battlefield.

"The Griffin Defiler is not only larger and has more and more deadly venom, but it also possesses considerable intelligence. Moreover, we have discovered a monster even more terrifying than them."

"The infected person," Dr. Narud said on behalf of Frederick.

"They are likely not a variant of Defiler, but rather from another species carrying deadly pathogens. Currently, there are only eyewitness reports; no samples of this species are available for research," he said.

"The known characteristics are that infected individuals can release a terrifying, highly contagious fluid, and they also have the habit of storing infected humans in a large abdominal sac—which they can vomit out if necessary."

"Carlos is an expert in infection; as long as he lives, new variants will keep emerging." Augustus nodded, then looked at Frederick and asked:

"Do the soldiers and civilians on the ground still have the determination to fight the Zerg to the death? What is their morale like?"

"Upon learning that you personally led the Fleets to Formica, the soldiers are in high spirits." Frederick had abandoned his idea of persuading Augustus withdraw his troops; he could tell that the emperor did not want to abandon Formica.

Formica is indeed a rare and auspicious place, with a beautiful environment and abundant resources, but timber is by no means its only resource. It is the only planet in this star system, whose mass mainly comes from the star and the massive icy and rocky asteroid belt at the galactic edge.

These small star belts once contained all the planets that the Formiga System once had. Vast amounts of shattered crystal ore and high-energy gas are scattered within them as giant asteroids and gas. It is estimated that the resources here can be mined for fifty years, equivalent to the total reserves of Redstone, and are easy to mine with lower risks.

Although the Formiga System is of immense value, Frederick is unaware of the price the Empire will have to pay to protect it.

"Very good." Augustus wanted to ask some more questions, but his gaze was immediately drawn to the light outside the porthole.

At this moment, the Hyperion's radar detectors detected a Zerg Fleets attacking from Formica. The Griffin Swarm and the Jormungand Brood have similar purple carapaces, only darker in color, and can be distinguished by the proportion of Defiler among them.

The Imperial Fleets immediately went into battle mode, a dense barrage of orange-red bullets sweeping across the black space, the light from the rising shields illuminating the bridge.

"This guy can't sit still anymore," Tychus said.

"Griffin lacks a large air force and Fleets, a deficiency that becomes even more apparent without the assistance of other Cerebrate clans," Kerrigan said.

"However, the Griffins have never been a clan that is accustomed to defeating their enemies on the front lines; disease is their weapon."

Griffin has been using viruses to target the human Fleets, a tactic commonly employed by the Cerebrate Carlos —silently injecting viruses and parasites into the bodies of human Fleets and marine soldiers, then activating the viruses after they return to their ships and warships.

At this point, all the soldiers and warships were in Carlos's hands. Viruses are difficult to prevent, so Carlos's methods proved consistently effective.

The Imperial Army had suffered a great loss before. A Behemoth-class Battlecruiser named Gray met a tragic end while on a search and rescue mission after intercepting several friendly transport ships.

No one expected that these transport ships, which could perfectly match security codes, passwords, and genetic locks, would be filled with infected humans and Zerg.

However, after Augustus vigorously promoted the production of nanoserum, Carlos's virus became ineffective. The Protoss scientists hired by the Empire continued to improve the serum based on Zerg virus samples, which was of great help to Augustus.

The current leader of the Daelaam is Tassadar, who is not only a benevolent and enlightened Protoss leader, but also a friend of Augustus.

"No wonder Carlos is restless," Augustus. "Bring up the map of Formica."

The map of Formica immediately appeared on the tactical console. With Formiga Fortress as a shield, the 147th Imperial Marine Corps established a defensive line seven miles deep to resist the endless army of Infested Terran.

More than three-quarters of the Formica residents took up arms and stood with the Imperial Army to defend their homeland. Although Augustus could only glimpse the brutality of the Formica battlefield over the past two weeks through Major Mortier's report, and see Formica's determination to defend their homeland even at the cost of losing a million able-bodied men, he could imagine what those soldiers and suffering people had gone through.

The Swarm does not accept surrender, and they do not possess human values.

However, Carlos once used this to take over a Edge World with a population of over ten million and a large militia, just a dozen parsecs away in the Formiga System.

The mad Confederacy governor was so terrified that he surrendered to the Zerg, and Carlos used this to plunge the planet's defenders into civil war and cause them to fall apart, thus easily defeating that world.

"Carlos's insect hives are mainly concentrated near the former capital of Formica, more than four hundred miles from our fortress," Augustus.

"The cunning Carlos will certainly not stay in such an obvious place, but we must take this place as a breakthrough to defeat the Griffin Swarm."

Now, Formica's former cities have all fallen and lost their strategic value.

"Connect to Mira Han's communications channel," he said.

"Your Majesty, Mira's Marauder are ready." A female general with short, bright pink hair appeared on the other end of the communication. One of her eyes had been replaced with a blue Protoss mechanical prosthetic eye, making her look no different from an ordinary person, although some burn marks could be seen at the corner of her eye.

This time, however, Mira replaced her own eyes with mechanical prosthetics because these eyes would allow her to see things she couldn't see before.

"Take the Psi Crusher and set off immediately. Nova Squadron will provide fire support."

"Okay, boss, ask Matt Horner (Matt D. Horner) for me why he never uses the channel codes I give him to contact me." Mira glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then dropped her serious demeanor and blew Augustus a kiss.

This is truly heartbreaking.

As is widely known, Matt Horner Matt Horner lost a poker game to Mira Han and was forced to marry her, after which he vowed never to touch a card again.

"I will," Augustus glared at her, defending Matt Horner. "Now is not the time for romance."

Then, the emperor looked at his empress. "I've always treated her like a younger sister."

"What are you explaining?" the Queen asked, puzzled.

"Alright, lads. Prepare to land. Angels are with us."