"Jimmy, tell our brave pilots to keep watching the battlefield at the edge of the Sara system, and send all discoveries to the Marshal Command through the highest-priority line." Augustus instructed Raynor.
"I guarantee those fine lads won't even blink." Raynor answered immediately.
"This virus… and what do the parasites rely on to spread?" Augustus walked toward the anti-gravity mobile platform at the end of the passage corridor, heading to the Protoss-variant research laboratory on the upper level of the mobile fortress.
Two Alpha Squad sergeants wearing white power armor were guarding the entrance. Upon seeing Augustus, these soldiers—who had undergone resocialization—immediately gave a flawless military salute. Compared with the generally stern expressions of ordinary Revolutionary Army soldiers, these men all carried, in Tychus's view, a silly professional smile.
"At present, these are mainly spread through the Zerg creep. For now, we have not found any possibility of transmission through air, water sources, or physical contact." Kerrigan said.
"If that's truly the case, then there should be a specific type within the Zerg swarm responsible for infection." While speaking, Augustus had already reached the entrance of the Zerg research laboratory: "Where have the infected people been placed?"
"The medical center in the mobile base has long been overcrowded. At present, we have placed all critical patients in Isolation Zone A-11, while the others are arranged in different isolation zones according to the degree of infection. All isolation zones have undergone disinfection and inactivation procedures, and they are guarded by the Revolutionary Army Special Operations Battalion to ensure absolute safety." Kerrigan answered.
"Why do they need to be watched? Shouldn't they be so sick that they can't even move?" Raynor asked doubtfully.
"You'll know once you see those patients." Kerrigan said.
"Have you ever seen zombies? Those people are exactly that."
"I've seen that kind of movie." Raynor recalled. "In my impression, zombies are about the same as a starved-crazy Harnack, the only difference is that they bite people."
As Augustus arrived, the door of the research center slowly opened. Augustus led Kerrigan and the others into the dust-free chamber first, wrapping themselves from head to toe in sealed protective suits and putting on breathing equipment before entering the heavily guarded Protoss-variant laboratory interior.
Just like the Umojan laboratory, large and small dissection tables, mechanical arms, control consoles, and low-temperature cultivation tubes filled with blue liquid occupied most of the laboratory's space.
Even Augustus felt an added chill when he saw the twisted creatures on the dissection tables—creatures almost no longer able to be called human. The corpses of the infected being dissected were rotten all over, covered in disgusting blisters and ulcers.
The infected appearing here were clearly those who had just died not long ago. It was hard to imagine how the corpses had decayed so rapidly in such a short time.
On the dissection table closest to Augustus lay a man wearing a black prison-guard uniform, and Augustus could only vaguely identify this as a man through the beard on that face. The English letters on the clothing showed that before death he had worked in the Confederate prison of Los Andares.
The man's sunken eye sockets were pitch-black, as if some organism had hollowed out or eaten his soft eyeballs. Like a scene from a horror movie, the man's entire face had rotted away, covered in pustules and spikes as long as short knives.
Tendons and bone spikes broke through his uniform, and his limbs had undergone a visible and terrifying mutation. Specialized bone spikes and fleshy tendrils had replaced fingers and nails. He had completely become a member of the swarm, lost human intelligence, and become an uncontrollable beast.
"When we brought these people back, at most they were only mentally unwell. Some had even been holding guns and fighting continuously for several day-night cycles," Raynor said as he looked at the man lying on the platform.
"Disease is the most terrifying enemy. A well-trained soldier can use holographic projection training to overcome fear of fangs, claws, and gaping maws, but cannot overcome disease."
Next, as he went deeper, Augustus saw several familiar people in the laboratory, including Revolutionary Army chief Xenomorph biologist Dr. Flanx, Egon Stetmann who had come as the former's student to observe and learn, and Chau Sara Officer Collins.
"Officer Collins, what are you doing here? You should be resting properly in the single cabin we arranged for you." Augustus was very surprised to see him here and also wanted to know who had given him this authority. This made the Revolutionary Army Marshal somewhat displeased.
"Marshal Augustus, I must find a way to save my people. They say that the Zerg virus cannot be cured by anyone, but I simply do not believe it." Collins wore a heavy protective suit, and his exhausted eyes—bloodshot with dense red veins—had clearly not closed for a long time.
In this era, advances in medical technology had made the difficult diseases of centuries ago no longer incurable. But as humanity continued exploring the universe and encountered countless natural ecologies vastly different from Earth's environment, many diseases never seen before also began to appear. Medical-care resources were open only to wealthy people, and disease remained one of the enemies threatening human survival.
"We will find it, we definitely will." Augustus looked at Collins and made the promise as he spoke.
"But I need you to explain to me: why did you not tell me that the people of Los Andares were infected?"
"We do not know how many people are infected. Their infection is only something from the past week, and no one expected it would end up like this." Collins's voice grew even weaker.
"I feared that once I said it, the rescue ships would no longer come. I had no way to abandon them."
"I have no way to condemn you." Augustus stared into Collins's eyes. "But never let there be a next time."
"Dr. Flanx, tell me what exactly is going on with these people." He then looked toward Dr. Flanx, who was jogging over not far behind Collins, and his young student Egon Stetmann.
From Egon's pale face and repeatedly startled appearance, it was clear that he had seen enough monsters in this day to leave him with lifelong memories, and he was trembling uncontrollably.
Just as Dr. Flanx was about to say something, the chest of the infected corpse on one dissection table suddenly burst open, blood spraying everywhere, and two flesh-colored long worms with hardened carapaces broke out from the body. These two blood-soaked creatures opened their small multiple triangular eyes the moment they were born and let out sharp and terrifying screeches, like stone scraping across glass.
However, before anyone else could sound the alarm, the laboratory researcher who had been operating a mechanical arm to dissect the Zerg at that dissection table quickly pulled a P-30 electromagnetic twin-gun from the waist and fired accurately at the heads of the two creatures.
After two gunshots, the laboratory immediately fell silent. This ordinary Revolutionary Army Xenomorph researcher calmly retracted the electromagnetic rifle and continued the dissection work as if nothing had happened.
Egon, on the other hand, let out a scream and ran off as fast as possible.
"Ah—ah—this is too terrifying!"
Egon would likely need quite some time to overcome fear of Xenomorph creatures. Dead monsters did not frighten him at all, but once they could move, that was a different matter.
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