Korhal System.
The Swarm had already fallen into a precarious situation. The Imperial fleet had fully freed its hands, with fire and explosions engulfing the hive fleet that rolled through space like a purple-gray tide.
Rumble-rumble-rumble——!
Radiant lances of light that pierced the silent void, majestic macro cannons that shook the steel heavens, fortress point-defense turrets, space torpedoes, and dazzling sparks of plasma fire—all these painted the jagged organic structures of Leviathan bio-ships with a burning coat of red, blue, and white.
The Sacred Selene Empire Navy's ships, with their unique broadside firepower distinct from Terran and Protoss designs, forced the Swarm's broodmothers to hastily readjust their commands.
On Leviathans ranging from several kilometers to several dozen in length, drawing upon excellent gene sequences like those of scourges, hydralisks, and banelings, the Swarm rapidly shifted tactics.
First, whether Leviathan motherships or smaller bioships like Brood Hosts and Overseers, regardless of their original weapons, their entire surfaces split open into countless maws.
Some resembled scourge maws, releasing massive plasma spheres in thundering bursts.
Others mimicked hydralisk bone-plate hives, spraying out countless armor-piercing spines, propelled by psionics and immensely powerful muscle tissue within their frames.
Others grew concave cavities that bred banelings; once a gigantic acid-filled suicide beast was formed, the overdeveloped muscles catapulted it outward like living artillery.
...
It could be said that with every moment of battle, the broodmothers continuously optimized the gene sequences of their bioships.
These were not hapless broodmothers who had been stranded alone by misfortune.
Under their control, hatcheries, Queens, Overseers, and Swarm Lords served as production nodes in abundance. The vast reserves of bio-essence carried by the fleet were sufficient for rapid consumption.
To withstand macro cannon fire, the broodmothers thickened the outer carapaces of their bioships, layering harder and tougher plates. To resist the penetrating lances of light, they filled the dermal gaps with genetically grown tissues, forming composite-like armor that could distort and reduce the damage of beam impacts.
They also made ad hoc adaptations for heat resistance and insulation.
This constant adjustment, optimization, and evolution—this was the very essence of why the Swarm had always been feared across the stars as a symbol of destruction.
An enemy like this, if faced with unchanging, rigid strategies, would deal one a grievous loss.
If given enough time, enough bio-essence, after this battle the Zerg might well enter a phase of explosive evolution.
Then the Koprulu Sector might truly enter an age belonging to the Swarm—charging into the galaxy, even invading the United Earth Directorate's heart, the Solar System itself.
If the Zerg still survived, that is.
For the Black Templars' Astartes commanders clearly would not allow the Swarm to continue mutating.
Bzzzzzt——!
Lances howled. Before these terrifying streams that seemed to stretch across the cosmos, the surging tides of the Swarm were cut apart like butter beneath a heated knife.
Deep within the Leviathan's core at the rear, the broodmother felt swaths of her controlled brood signals extinguish, the psionic web of connections shrieking in pain.
Boom-boom-boom!
Blazing flares erupted one after another amid the bioship swarms, each fleeting micro-"sun" in its short existence vaporizing all Zerg biomass in its path.
That was the brilliance of fusion.
Standard guided space torpedoes all contained a powerful replaceable high-yield warhead and a short-lived but dangerous plasma reactor. When both detonated together, the destructive power was undeniable.
Rumble-rumble-rumble——!
The dim deep space seemed as though the heavens had fallen. Scorching, glowing cannon barrels spewed forth a fury of steel, while countless sudden fireballs lit up the endless darkness.
"Report: Cruiser Sunfire Mark III's light lance array shows reduced killing effect… maintaining output at 20% power, but according to servo-AI calculation, effective lethality has dropped by around three percent."
"Report: The Swarm's bioships' resistance against macro cannons, railguns, and space torpedoes has improved by an average of two percent."
Imperial Navy staff in charge of fire-control observation watched the fluctuating readouts on the servitor-linked instruments. With shipborne AI aides, the numbers were compiled and reported layer by layer.
"How long can such a brief flare of resistance and structural-level bio-optimization last? Order the raiding flotillas to continue sustained, gradual offensives. Do not spike firepower all at once."
Aboard the flagship Meteor Devastation of the Black Templars' Second Grand Expedition Fleet.
The First Captain braced both arms on the holo-command platform, violet eyes reflecting the shifting data streams.
"Keep watch on those Zerg rifts. Maintain the blockade. Remember—if they show the slightest sign of retreat, do not hesitate. All forces raise output power. Recall the Grand Captain's boarding troops. I'll take responsibility. Blast those rifts apart."
He paused, then turned his head slightly: "These Zerg are evolving. The same traits as the Flood."
"Yes, sir. When I was still with the Second Legion's Punisher detachment—Spartan-117, formerly under UNSC Naval Command—I participated in multiple suppression campaigns against the Flood. Without eliminating the local proto-Gravemind at the earliest stage, their adaptation and evolution rate skyrocketed under its control."
Clad in the Inquisitorial chapter's silver-inscribed power armor, distinct from the twenty original Astartes Legions, John (bearing designation 117) thought for a moment and added:
"The optimal solutions were two: One—an Exterminatus-level strike, scouring every living thing on the infected planet, leaving no spores or microbes behind. Two—like a scalpel, swift and precise elimination of the Gravemind. Once the lesser forms lost unified command and coordination, the rest could be mopped up methodically."
The first option was brute force—the only effective UNSC method at the time.
The second required extremely high troop quality and individual combat capacity. John estimated that with the original strength of the Spartan Operations branch, they could achieve the first half, but the latter phase would demand far greater numbers—and Spartans were too few.
UNSC Marines lacked neither courage nor anger, but… they simply could not manage it. Even with rage, it wasn't possible. It wasn't about willpower. Throwing more men recklessly only fed the Flood with fresh hosts.
At this, John hesitated, glancing toward the First Captain and the roaring Black Templars insignia carved upon his shoulder plate—the emblem of the Chapter's sacred Imperial wargear. The implication was clear: your style of battle doesn't quite match the famed Third Legion's reputation.
Black Templars, believers in the Creed of Elegance, should normally disdain close combat against foes like the Flood or the Zerg, unless absolutely necessary.
And since the Swarm's main hive fleet operated in space, all it should take was full naval firepower—a storm of bombardments. There seemed little reason to adopt the second plan of boarding and decapitation.
"There may be value in capturing her alive. If we frighten her off, the chase would waste too much time."
"The Queen of Blades." As he spoke, the First Captain slid his finger across the holo-command platform. A humanoid female projection appeared.
Her skin had been replaced by armor-like polymerized cells, glistening in silver-green light. Dark scales framed her glowing yellow eyes, looking like burn scars—or perhaps only shadows. Her hair hung like jellyfish tendrils, segmented like spider limbs.
"Sarah Louise Kerrigan."
The First Captain crossed his arms, sizing up the legendary woman who had transformed from human into the Zerg's Queen. Her face still retained its captivating beauty. Small, neat spines graced her brow, and the purple-red glowing veins running across her skin lent her an exotic allure.
"Once human—a Ghost Academy graduate, the most outstanding of those trained as covert operatives for the Terran Confederacy and later the Dominion. And then… it seems due to political strife among the Terran high command, she was betrayed on the battlefield by her superiors and comrades. Outnumbered, she was captured by the Swarm and remade into what she is now."
"As for how she went from a prisoner to becoming the Queen of Blades, we don't know. Don't you find that interesting? That is where her value lies."
With another swipe of his hand across the holo-platform, the First Captain even pulled up Kerrigan's Ghost Academy graduation certificate.
Government secrets, yes—but to the Meteor Devastation's onboard AI, they were no more hidden than bare skin. The Terran Confederacy's central government database on Korhal IV had been thoroughly laid bare.
John-117 understood immediately.
"And we still have one more ace in hand." Linking to the Inquisitor's ship, the First Captain asked, "Lord Inquisitor, have they agreed to cooperate?"
"Of course."
On screen, the Inquisitor's unsettling smile appeared. Behind him, wearing only a gunbelt and undershirt, drained of strength, stood the robust figure of Jim Raynor.
"Hello, Queen of Blades' human lover. Now, I have a mission for you…"
...
Aboard the Queen of Blades' Leviathan.
Ra-ta-ta-ta! Ra-ta-ta-ta!!
Every boarding Black Templar was firing, countless explosive rounds thundering like rolling storms, shredding Zerg of all sizes into pulp—like bursting water balloons.
Pew-pew-pew——!
The shriek of laser weapons and the arcing blasts of incendiary guns poured down like rain against the surging tidal wave of the Swarm!
"Hold formation!"
"Slaughter them all!"
A Terminator bellowed: "For Selene——!"
The entire cavity of the bioship echoed with the dying monster's howls, as golden-violet Terminators advanced. Heavy melta weapons among them unleashed searing beams.
The front ranks of the Swarm ignited, shrieking as they were reduced to ash. But more Zerg surged forward, claws gnashing, unrelenting.
The wounded whimpered on the ground, struggling to rise on shattered limbs. The Terminators ignored them, letting the creatures gnaw at their armored boots as they marched in formation, crushing bone and flesh beneath, leaving nothing but paste.
The boarding battle had entered its white-hot stage.
As the Queen of Blades' flagship, this Leviathan was nearly thirty kilometers in size—a true bio-titan. Yet even so, the three thousand Terminators were an indestructible spearhead, tearing through its hive-heart, leaving blood and gore in their wake.
Boom!
"Thunder Lizard Spreads Its Wings!"
Suddenly, the inner dome was torn apart by immense force. Bone spurs and chitin fragments flew asunder, while countless embryonic eggs were hurled out like a sudden, torrential rain. Amniotic fluid and half-formed larvae splattered across the battlefield.
From midair, a towering figure plummeted, relying on violet-gold armor and a resilient frame to smash directly into the sticky, pulsating creep below.
"This is Hamster on the Wheel!"
With massive masterwork power fists, he plowed through the Swarm like a bulldozer, leaving shattered skeletons and pulped biomass in his wake, mowing down everything in his path.
Each thunderous strike broke through layers of dense muscle walls, smashing forward in a straight line toward the fleeing target.
Thud-thud-thud——!
"Queen, beware!"
Bang! Crack! Zzzzt! Slash! Crunch——!
"Good timing! Watch me—Tiger Strike, Double Wind Through the Ears, Cobra, Oyster Shell, Lotus Drift!"
A bizarre, piercing shout rang out, deafening all who heard it.
Kerrigan looked over—it was one of her broodmothers, now torn in half by that hulking brute. Its upper body dangled from his hand, every bone shattered, its belly ripped open, only a few intestine-like organs barely connecting it to the lower half.
The corpse's mouth hung agape, its tongue mixed with entrails lolling out, dripping foul mucus.
"Meteor Strike on the Mountain!"
The rough, booming shout came again. Darkness flashed before her eyes as a gale like steel knives cut across her face.
It was a fist as massive as her entire upper body.
Her bone wings folded tight. Her body curved into a protective crouch, arms crossed. Psionics erupted!
BOOM——!
With a deafening crash, the floating dust in the air trembled violently, and then—
Crack!
Her bone wings exploded apart like shattering petals, her whole body driven into the power fist. The sound of splintering bone and the cracking of polymerized cells made it seem she would be pulverized in a single blow!
Thud! Rip——!
In an instant she was blasted hundreds of meters away, smashing through layers of muscular corridors. Her legs trembled violently, her arms hung limp and numb, while her defensive forearm bones bent grotesquely out of shape.
Damn it, again!
Her greatest weapon—psionics—was once more either neutralized or corroded when it met that violet-red force. Broken through in a single strike.
Where did this monster come from?!
Clutching her left shoulder where bone armor had shattered to reveal raw red flesh, her bone wings broken, Kerrigan retreated swiftly. She no longer had the luxury to care about his chatter-like naming of techniques. Her shoulders and spine burned with searing pain.
She had been crushed again. It was obvious. Even after becoming the Primal Queen of Blades.
"I never sought enmity with you! This is your own doing! Hrrgh——!"
With a deep inhalation, Kerrigan's eyes burst into violet radiance. Her broken bone wings and torn spine regenerated rapidly. Her back arched like a dragon rising, psionic light blazing from her wings. Pale-violet thunder nets flared, expanding in rings, leaving blazing trails.
Bzzzt——!
A searing psionic beam shot out like lightning, flooding down the passage, linking the countless eggs in the chamber walls into a glowing net.
"Hmph, petty tricks—you dare flaunt them here?!"
Clang——!
The towering giant advanced instead of retreating, leaning forward, fists colliding. A metallic clang resounded long, as from the violet-red particle core burst forth a concentrated sphere of pure energy. A thunderous roar followed.
With the tearing of muscle and tissue, the entire chamber collapsed. Centered on Hak Foo, hundreds of meters around were annihilated into emptiness.
"This is called—The Black Tiger Preys on the Small Insect."
—
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