The Enemy's Atrocities on Our Land

After that, the arriving Cerberus Swarm launched a lightning assault, engaging the Protoss and Zerg attacking Ister's unit in an unimaginably brutal and bloody melee—sharp, cold, and precise as a scalpel.

With the pressure suddenly reduced, the Imperial forces regrouped, consolidated their troops, and launched a counterattack.

Afterward, the Jormungand Brood continued reinforcing its numbers through Nydus Worms constantly bursting from the ground, and the battle raged on until starlight slowly crept over the horizon.

Even in the darkness, fierce exchanges of fire could be heard in every direction, while the flashes of explosions flickered endlessly at the edge of the sky. The traces of battle stretched from the ground to tens of thousands of feet in the air. Flares, laser beams, and plasma bolts lit up the clear night sky again and again, leaving only the brightest stars faintly visible.

It was a chaotic free-for-all without the slightest order. The ambush had completely disrupted the Imperial landing force's prior deployment, forcing every Imperial unit to fight on its own.

Worse still, the satellites and ground communications stations of the Imperial command system suddenly came under focused Protoss attack. The strikes encompassed Imperial corps-, division-, brigade-, and battalion-level command posts. Signals sent from orbital satellite stations had likely completely exposed the locations of all high-level command units.

The enemy had not waited for them to get into formation before attacking.

During this period, communications between Ister's unit and the 7th Marine Infantry Division headquarters were cut off for a time.

Only when a lieutenant colonel took over command did they learn that the command center where Division Commander General Ludvid had been stationed had suffered a sudden attack. Ludvid himself, along with his adjutants and staff officers, had all met with disaster. Not only was division headquarters gone, but they