At that moment, the ground's trembling could be felt by everyone in Los Andares.
The Swarm's assault began again.
Collins swept his gaze over the haggard faces of the technician troopers beside him and the many pairs of eyes with heavy black bags under them; almost at the same time, everyone grabbed the C-13 Gauss rifles leaning against the wall and flung themselves toward the firing ports.
As if it were the rustling sound of insects swarming over leaves, the dense mass of Zerglings and Hydralisks formed a Swarm army that blotted out the sky and covered the earth. These violent and deadly alien organisms were covered from head to toe with sharp spikes and solid carapaces, and their terrifying roars converged into a dreadful wave of sound sweeping across the land.
Shouts from officers immediately rang out within the fortifications, and all the auto-turrets, automatic defense machine guns, and anti-air missile towers in front, under the remote control of advanced computer AI systems and operators, activated and began to rotate.
An automatic machine gun on top of the defensive fortification where Collins was ejected clanging metal shell casings amid a series of da-da-da bursts of fire, and the artillery positions in the city fired off what little ammunition they had left amid the rumbling sound of cannon fire.
Hundreds and thousands of colonial militia wearing CMC-200 powered armor were walking into the positions, among them also mobilized troops wearing only military camouflage uniforms and men gripping automatic rifles.
"Only three hours have passed since the last assault," the technician sergeant said. "The interval between their attacks is getting shorter and shorter."
"There is definitely something commanding them." In many battles with the Zerg, Magistrate Collins had already come to know these alien organisms that had suddenly appeared on Chau Sara like the back of his hand.
The Zerg now appearing on the frontal battlefield all lacked obvious intelligence, but very clearly, as for the Swarm as a whole, there definitely had to be a Zerg similar to a Terran commander secretly directing deployments. Under the well-controlled command of this Zerg commander, the assaults launched by the Swarm all followed a certain terrifying pattern.
For example, it knew that the Terrans had the habit of sleeping at night, so the Swarm always launched attacks in the darkness. The Terrans would also extend a helping hand to their kind in danger, so the Swarm used this to carry out tactics similar to cutting off reinforcements and ambushing those who came to help.
In Magistrate Collins's view, the organizational structure of these alien organisms was similar to that of a termite colony; among them there definitely was a supreme "queen" which, from the caves they had dug deep underground on Chau Sara, controlled the members of its group through some kind of pheromone. And perhaps the other alien organisms were "worker ants" and "soldier ants"; they were all that "queen's" children, all inheriting the same genes.
Once that queen was killed, the alien organisms would become a crowd of dragons with no head. But that "queen" was certainly under tight protection, and they could not even know its exact location.
"How much longer can we hold out? And the Confederate fleet?" Faced with the despair-inducing scene before their eyes, the Confederate soldiers, who had long been full of grievances, again began to complain. They had not undergone any re-socialization reform and still possessed self-awareness; they were not robots with no temper or emotions.
"When Augustus Mengsk launched his uprising on Mar Sara, Alpha Squadron arrived not long after. Even counting the journey from Tarsonis to the Sara star system, the fleet that set out the earliest should have long since arrived!" a soldier said.
"They just want us all to die here. I'd bet that the bastards in the fleet are definitely somewhere watching us—they are observing just how much destruction this newly appearing species can cause, testing how long an ordinary colony can hold out under their attacks!"
"They are using their own people for experiments!"
"That's impossible." Collins did not angrily rebuke the hysterical soldier; such an inconceivable speculation could not be the truth, unless the people in the Confederate Parliament and the Confederate Naval Command were a group of selfish lunatics.
Either the Confederate navy had already arrived long ago, but they were unable to break through the Swarm's blockade. This was perhaps closer to the truth; after all, even Alpha Squadron, famed in the navy for its tough style, was no match for mere rebels, and it was understandable that they had been beaten into a rout by the suddenly appearing alien organisms.
Once, the Terrans believed they were alone in the universe, that they were the only organisms born from Earth's uniquely favored natural environment to have evolved higher intelligence. The Terrans considered themselves the race of destiny; they believed they had few opponents in the universe, and that any enemy could only come from their equally despicable and greedy fellow humans.
However, the alien organisms that had suddenly appeared on Chau Sara had easily destroyed the Terrans' pride in being the lords of all living things.
Now, for the people of Chau Sara, they had only two choices: either completely sweep clean the tens of millions of Zerg on the planet's surface, or flee Chau Sara. And if Magistrate Collins were capable of accomplishing these two things, he would not be shrinking within this defensive fortification.
"Who can help us… even the rebels would be fine, I still have family," that nearly-collapsing Confederate soldier said in a lost voice.
"What are you saying? That is treason!" Even at this moment, Collins still maintained loyalty to the Terran Confederacy.
"…Magistrate, just now our call for help received a response from the fleet." Suddenly, another information-technology trooper loudly reported.
"Which fleet is it?" The Magistrate was relieved.
"The feedback I received is that the flagship of the supporting fleet is the Hyperion—" The information-technology trooper clearly had not realized anything was wrong, nor did he notice the Magistrate's now-ugly expression.
"Ah—also the Norad II and the Norad III—" he said happily.
"I know those two warships' names. They are Alpha Squadron's flagships. Thank God, we're saved." The soldier who had previously been cursing God's ass immediately burst out laughing.
"Idiot, Alpha Squadron has already betrayed the Confederacy," the Magistrate shouted angrily.
"Those are all the rebels' warships."
In the Magistrate's complicated gaze, a Behemoth-class battlecruiser painted in deep-blue livery was descending from the sky within the atmosphere, its ground-attack laser batteries pouring bright orange barrages toward the surface, instantly sweeping away thousands of Zerg that had been running. Once Zerg were swept by the laser beams, they turned into bright fireballs like dried firewood meeting flames, emitting the cracking sound of dry straw burning.
Wherever the Hyperion went, that place began to burn.
...
"Hyperion has already arrived. Are there any survivors down there?"
The massive observation window before the Hyperion's bridge directly faced the city of Los Andares below, and the city's grand skyscrapers were, in Augustus's eyes, nothing more than slightly larger gravestones on the ground.
Outside the observation window was a black cloud of Zerg that covered the sky and the sun. Large numbers of flying Zerg creatures were screaming as they spat acid and corrosive spores toward the Hyperion. Their numbers were so vast that the biological-signal detection instruments on the Hyperion's bridge could only display a string of wildly fluctuating digits.
At this moment, the Hyperion's relatively primitive shields had already begun to weaken. From time to time, aberrant drakes with multiple pairs of scarlet eyes folded their wings and stabbed into the ship's thick exterior armor plates, the sound of their claws embedding into the steel plates rising and falling, and the tooth-aching metallic twisting noise was enough to make even the most well-trained Terran soldiers feel fear.
The laser batteries, electromagnetic cannons, and autocannons on the battlecruiser's outer deck were continuously pouring firepower toward the incoming Zerg, forming a densely intersecting barrage that extended forward in front of the bridge's observation window.
The young Marshal of the revolutionary army was wearing a finely crafted officer's uniform of excellent material, with a deep-red cloak draped over his shoulders. This uniform had been a gift the Umojan Congress had presented to Augustus a few months ago, made with natural materials and matching the design of a Umojan Protectorate general's uniform, and the collar's button design ensured that it always maintained sharpness.
Marshal Augustus was never someone who neglected his appearance. Since he was in the position of a leader, and since tens of thousands of people were watching him and paying attention to his every move, he had to pay attention to his image and ensure that this image was bright, magnificent, and worthy of others to follow.
The bridge was under the flashing light of red and green signal warning lamps. In front of the computer main-control console stood technicians wearing the revolutionary army's dark-gray uniforms, and from time to time fully armed revolutionary soldiers ran quickly past the open bridge hatchway, the sound of their power boots clacking against the alloy deck.
Ever since entering low orbit of the Chau Sara star system, the Hyperion's communication channels—originally still somewhat calm—had become as if they had fallen into a deep-water bomb. Hundreds and thousands of people were shouting in the channel; some were verifying the Hyperion's identity, while others were requesting it to confirm the current situation in the Sara star system.
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