Encirclement and Annihilation of Reinforcements

In September 2500, the planet Tepperus, tucked away in the northeastern corner of the Koprulu Sector, was plunged into a savage bloodbath. What had begun as a local conflict triggered by a Zerg assault on a new Terran Empire colony soon escalated into a vast interstellar war centered on the planet.

In just a few days, several major hive clusters containing tens of billions of Zerg suddenly appeared in the star systems surrounding Tepperus. More than seventeen Terran Empire worlds were abruptly exposed to the gaping jaws of the swarm. Imperial Marshal Horace Warfield was ordered to lead the Imperial Fleets in holding the Tepperus system to the death, without retreat.

Korhal urgently rallied nearby fleets to provide support, and Imperial Fleets from every direction began converging on Tepperus in great numbers.

Within the Tepperus system, the fighting in space was especially fierce, and the battle on the ground was no less so.

At that moment, Lieutenant Colonel James Danther was in hell.

James Danther served in Warfield's 336th Airborne Division. This airborne division belonged to the long-established and notoriously fearsome Omega Squadron, a battle-hardened force.

Danther was not among the first Imperial soldiers to drop onto Tepperus. By the time he and his men arrived, the ground had already become a living hell, strewn with corpses and running with blood.

Nearly one-third of the airborne division's soldiers lost contact within minutes of landing. Of the Imperial warriors who had first set foot on this land, few remained.

Tepperus had now become the most brutal battlefield in the Koprulu Sector, a blood-drenched meat grinder comparable to Char during the Brood War. Tepperus was merely one of countless points of light on the sector map, unremarkable and undistinguished, but the Empire lay behind it.

"Sir, the communications satellites have been shot