The figure behind the holographic projection screen gradually blurred and eventually disappeared, leaving only a pair of scarlet eyes.
“He was Lord of the stars and He returns as King.”
"You're a despicable person who hides his head and shows his tail. You think this scares the free-spirited freedom fighter!" Jim Raynor, a passionate young man, tried his best to figure out the meaning of these words, but he was still confused.
"Can you find out where the signal for this communication was sent?" Augustus turned on the built-in computer in the commander's power armor and ordered the fleet to prepare to leave the asteroid belt.
"Nothing," Kerrigan replied immediately.
Augustus looked at Tassadar and Zeratul again, noticing that both of them were feeling heavy. Narud's words had a much greater impact on the protoss than on humans, especially Zeratul, who had been pursuing the Xel'Naga prophecy. It was a heavy blow.
"The Xel'Naga have already predicted a dark age, and the voice in the darkness has brought a ghastly omen." Zeratul said: "If these evil creatures created by the protoss and zerg genes are the executioners of the The executioner of the dark plan, then the catastrophe we have to face is not just this."
The wise elder of Sagulas Star Spirit felt a heavy sense of mission: "I must pursue the ancient prophecies of Xel'Naga scattered in the universe and figure out the conspiracy of Amon, the God of Darkness... May The gods direct my path..."
"Are you going to leave us?" After hearing Zeratul's words, Augustus thought that he was now going to drive the Void Seeker to search for the Xel'Naga prophecy.
"Of course not now, friend Augustus." Zeratul said in a low voice: "I must return to the sacred home of Aiur first, and then I can leave with peace of mind to pursue those prophecies."
"Let us leave this place of right and wrong." Tassadar also said: "Everything that happened today must be recorded and conveyed to the Supreme Council. As the leaders of the Protoss Empire, they must understand the warning brought by this discovery. .”
"The three arks built in the era of Adun were born to cope with the doomsday that might destroy this protoss civilization."
When Augustus and Tassadar and others walked out of the shuttle, the researchers in the Revolutionary Army's alien laboratory were collecting samples of the hybrid corpses and the aberrant creatures in the containers, and the rest were burned.
The Protoss are working to jump some of the Tal'darin weapons and vehicles back into the fleet, which they have stolen from the Protoss Empire. As for the few weapons imitated by Tal'darin craftsmen, the wealthy Protoss Empire destroyed them without hesitation.
By the time Augustus returned to the fleet, Tassadar's flagship Starshuttle used its main cannon to tear the entire asteroid apart, shattering it into thousands of smaller asteroids and stardust.
The fleet returned to Luria IV in the territory of the Camorian Federation with a gloomy dark prophecy, and also destroyed a plundering fortress of the Camorian pirates along the way.
In the next week, Augustus's revolutionary army was still operating step by step.
Augustus knew that the upcoming Battle of Ayr would be an extremely difficult battle. Under his order, a large number of soldiers received precious holidays.
The soldiers pouring into the local cities of Luria were eager to spend all their money. In a few days, the economy of the main cities had prospered many times, and the faces of the local dark-skinned girls also became rosy.
After the zerg took away one after another fringe colony that provided raw materials, manpower, and other products to the main world, the economic depression caused by the war was making the once giant of the Tyranid Federation increasingly weaker.
The federal parliament has had to cut various subsidies, and even the salaries of civil servants working for the government have shrunk significantly. At the same time, the corrupt and bloated federal government and capitalists are still intensifying their exploitation of the federal people. Federation soldiers were under tremendous mental pressure as they fought against the terrifying Zerg, but their salary increases were pitifully small.
Even in the most difficult times, Augustus's revolutionary army insisted on distributing Umoyan currency as salary to soldiers, which was not susceptible to the inflation and deflation of the Tyranid Federation.
Supporting a huge army with nearly 650,000 combat personnel alone requires huge funds, and the construction and maintenance of new weapons and warships is an astronomical sum. This is indispensable not only from the funding support from the Mengsk family, the Korhal people and the Umoyan Council behind Augustus, but also from the income from Augustus trying his best to open more mines wherever he goes.
In addition, Augustus had the best soldiers and engineers in the Koprulu sector.
The lofty revolutionary spirit allows them to work twice as hard as federal soldiers. For example, the SCV space engineering vehicle drivers in the Revolutionary Army can always use half the working hours of federal projects to collect comparable results. Twice the resources. In addition, the extensive use of Kaimorian and Umoyan technology is also the reason why the Revolutionary Army's mining areas and factories always have doubled output.
During this time, Augustus did not give himself a holiday. He spent most of the time talking with Tassadar and Zeratul, discussing the detailed plan to march into Aiur.
They had to temporarily put behind them what they had seen and heard at Tal'darim Outpost. Because the commanders all know that once they return to Aiur, the combined fleet will not only face Zerg, but the Protoss Empire's army will also likely attack them.
Augustus gave his own opinion on this matter. He believed that the combined fleet must find support for them on Aiur. Only with more support can the fleet gain a foothold on the planet.
Both Tassadar and Zeratul agreed with Augustus' ideas and praised his wisdom.
As the legendary executive of the Templar class of the Protoss Empire, Tassadar is unparalleled in prestige among the Templars in the Empire. He has many old friends on Aiur, noble warriors who might be able to help him.
As time passed, Augustus, Tassadar, and Zeratul all decided that the return to Aiur was urgent.
By the second week of November 2492, the work of the Revolutionary Army logistics officers in gathering supplies on Luria had been basically completed, and hundreds of refugee ships converted from mining transport ships of the Kaimorian Consortium Transport Guild also joined the Revolutionary Army. fleet.
Not only that, the recruitment department also recruited thousands of new soldiers in Luria as usual. Most of them were miners who had insufficient food under the oppression of the Federation and the guild and young and energetic youths. These soldiers were quickly incorporated into a new army. Replenish brigade.
After Augustus confirmed that the high-energy gas fuel tanks in the fleet had been filled, and that the engineering stations and armories had been filled again with shipping containers, the Revolutionary Army soldiers who had finished their vacation were reconvened into the bright red Revolutionary Army. Under the flag, board the transport ships returning to the fleet from various ports.
The fully equipped revolutionary fleet set off amidst the sighs of the people of Luria, and many soldiers also said goodbye to the reluctant young girls they had just met locally.
This is not only because the young boys with their pockets full of money have made the locals make a lot of money, but the locals of Luria are actually hoping that the revolutionary army can overthrow the rule of the coalition.
After the Guild War ended, the holders of large guild shares in the Kaimorian Federation distributed the compensation and losses to all people in the system. The guild enterprises in the consortium are always mixed. Some attach great importance to the welfare and subsidies of employees, so they have gained a good reputation, while others do not care about the life and death of workers at all. Anyway, they have other people and machines that can replace them.
The oppression of civilians in the Kaimorian Commonwealth is no less severe than that in the Tyranid Federation. The so-called unionization for workers has been a lie and a joke from the beginning.
In the end, the revolutionary army did not bring more changes to Luria IV. But in contrast, every time Augustus' army arrived in a new place, the revolutionaries took root like dandelion seeds falling to the ground.
In any case, the people of Luria are not opposed to any change.
After leaving the Luria system, the Revolutionary Army fleet joined the fleets of Tassadar and Zeratul in another system, and the huge combined fleet set sail again. In the fleet, busy work continues, and everyone is trying their best to find something for themselves to do to pass the boring time.
Except for those tender moments with Kerrigan, Augustus was always conferring with Zeratul and Tassadar, and he always believed that the journey to Aiur would be dangerous.
This period of time travel was extremely long, and Augustus could only record the time through a calendar. The most intuitive thing is the growing age of Valerian, the nephew of Augustus, and John, the son of Renault.
In January of 2493, the combined fleet arrived at the destination of the Aiur system across the distance of time and space.
When Kerrigan told Augustus that Aiur, the home planet of the Protoss Empire, was close at hand, Augustus was still writing letters to his family in his personal room on the flagship Hyperion. The habits he developed after arriving in this world are also his way of relaxing.
Whenever Augustus lamented the passage of time, he would always look at the photos of his family and the devil in heaven on his desk. To this day, Augustus is still writing letters to many of the above people, but some people no longer receive them.
"The fleet is jumping out of the hyperspace pirates, Augustus. Now under the bridge is Aiur." Kerrigan walked in with a spear on her back: "The Aiu galaxy is scattered with the remains of the fleet spanning most of the galaxy. Along with the huge corpses of the zerg - Tassadar sadly tells us that the once glorious armada of the Protoss Empire has been severely damaged."
"But the zerg are definitely not comfortable either." Augustus stroked the photo of his nephew Valerian with John Raynor. Just now he was sighing at Little John and his brother who were babbling behind Valerian. The relationship with Arcturus is actually very good.
Arcturus Mengsk, who has always disliked psykers, is very fond of this child who has shown extremely strong psychic talents since he was a child. This is not only because he thinks that this child is likely to become his son Valerian. His right-hand man is also because of his own recognition of Jim Raynor.
Arcturus only abhors those powerful psykers who are not under his control or those who pose a great threat to him, and a small child is obviously not one of them. He still resents Sarah Kerrigan for assassinating his father, not because of his poor father, but simply because he fears the psyker is controlling his brother's mind.
Hearing this, Augustus put down the hand holding the photo, put on an iron-black coat with golden wheat epaulets, and followed Kerrigan out of the room.
Augustus found Renault, Harnak, and Tychus in the narrow passage leading to the bridge. The first two people were talking about Al and the fleet, but only Tychus was still immersed in the vacation a month ago.
"I have never been so far away from home... You know, I am a sentimental and good person. Being away from home for too long always makes me miss my mother." When Tychus saw August It’s a big downer for everyone.
"Have mercy on your mother. If you can think of that gentle woman's teachings when you are preparing to do bad things, Tychus, at least you can behave more like a human being." Augustus waved Tychus away. Si's complaint was like swatting a fly to death.
"Jim, any updates?"
"Augustus, we have just arrived in the realm of the stars. We are not familiar with the place and we don't know what happened in the past." Renault said immediately.
"But the only thing we can be sure of is that the main force of the Protoss and Zerg surrounding Aiur is almost beating their brains out in the entire galaxy. At least two planets have suffered a devastating blow from the Protoss fleet, one of which The volume has directly shrunk by about one-third," he said.
"No matter how powerful the protoss empire was in the past, most of them no longer exist."
"So, the Star Spirit has lost?" Augustus asked.
"Actually, it is very likely that both sides will lose." Raynor replied: "Neither the Protoss nor the Zerg have the possibility of giving up and negotiating peace. If two powerful races start a war in a small galaxy, then one side will completely defeat the other. One side never stops before the other.”
"We may have completely underestimated the intensity of this war - at first, the Overmind only sent a small number of zerg into Aiur, but now the entire swarm has been smashed in the face of the protoss. Flowers exploded on their home planet.
Augustus walked into the bridge while chatting with Renault and others. At this time, the center of the bridge was brightly lit, and outside the portholes, there was dark space and a few scattered stars.
The sub-folding force field bloomed into a brilliant orange ball of light, dispelling the darkness of nothingness. As many as a thousand phantoms and battleship outlines appeared around Hyperion, causing thrilling and fascinating signs of time and space distortion.
"The long voyage has brought us here." Augustus walked to the main screen on the bridge and looked at the once green and lush star planet Al, which was now covered with dots of black spots.
——The birthplace of the Protoss and the center of their vast empire across the stars.
"Al," Augustus said.
"Gather my generals and tell the soldiers that we are about to go to war with the Zerg Overlord and the Protoss Empire."
