“What are those things!?”
The Rikens finally caught sight of the Burrowing Worms. These were certainly not remnants from the last invasion. How had they managed to infiltrate Planet Raze? Were they a new Swarm species or native organisms of the planet?
There was no ti for deliberation. The answer revealed itself almost imdiately.
Trailing behind the Burrowing Worms were familiar figures—“old friends” who quickly confird their identity as Swarm units.
Yes, these were the Swarm’s latest combat creations.
Once the tunnels were opened, a torrent of larval bodies poured into the underground nuclear power plant. The handful of security personnel there stood no chance of repelling the attack.
As for the special operations team dispatched to assist them, they had only just boarded their transport ships and were nowhere near the battlefield.
“Detonate the compromised nuclear power plant,” General Hamis ordered coldly. The Rikens had many thods to deal with larval bodies, but hand-to-hand combat was not one of them.
“But there are still our people inside,” his adjutant protested.
“Follow orders, soldier! They are heroes of our race!” Hamis snapped.
A soldier’s duty was to obey. Though reluctant, the young adjutant saluted and shouted, “Yes, sir!”
“There’s no need to shout. I know what you’re thinking—you believe I’m cold and heartless, don’t you?” Hamis sighed. “Their weapons are incapable of withstanding the Swarm’s attack. Delaying our response for their slim chance of survival would be an unforgivable mistake for a commander.
“A commander must not be swayed by sentint. They must view everything through the lens of reason. Expanding our advantage in this war is the only rational course of action. Your career has just begun; I hope you’ll co to understand this.”
“Yes, sir!” The young adjutant saluted and stepped back. Though Hamis’ reasoning seed logical, a part of him remained unsettled.
—
“We’ve been abandoned!”
The nuclear power plant’s self-destruct chanism could have been remotely triggered. However, the order had been relayed to the plant itself, leaving the final decision to those inside.
“It’s true. There are too many of them, and reinforcents will never arrive in ti.”
“Gentlen, it has been an honor working with you. Let us maintain our dignity and et a noble end,” Ryder said, straightening his uniform and struggling to maintain his composure.
Even with preparations in mind, it was difficult to face death with equanimity.
“Ha! Captain, it’s been an honor working with you too. As for pressing the button, I’ll leave that decision to you,” a security team mber said as he adjusted his uniform and strapped himself with explosives. “Gentlen, I’ll go first—for the glory of our race!”
Shortly after the team mber dashed out of the chamber, a distant explosion rocked the facility, sending clouds of dust raining from the ceiling.
“Captain Ryder, I lack that man’s courage, but I’m no coward either,” an engineer said with a complicated expression.
His deanor was a mix of fear, hesitation, and resignation. After speaking, he moved to a corner of the chamber, silently holding a photograph.
“Ha! When this plant detonates, everything here will be obliterated anyway. I won’t bother with anything extra,” an older engineer laughed with a sense of acceptance. He was the most senior mber present and the leader of the engineers.
“Captain, press it now, or it’ll be too late.”
“Ha! Right, better we do it ourselves than let those ship-bound folks trigger it remotely. Otherwise, they’ll look down on us.”
“…”
“I don’t want to die!” soone sobbed.
“Ah, who does?” another sighed.
The Burrowing Worms, with their unrelenting spiral teeth, effortlessly breached the facility’s final barriers. Behind them, the larval bodies sward forward, ready to seize their prize.
Everyone had sothing to say in these final monts—so faced the situation calmly, while others succumbed to hysteria.
Captain Ryder’s eyes were red, glistening with unshed tears. His hand trembled as he reached for the self-destruct button. After a final series of confirmations, and with synchronization from the warship above, the self-destruct sequence proceeded at lightning speed.
“The base will self-destruct in ten seconds. Please evacuate imdiately…”
“Eight.”
“Seven.” The chanical female voice counted down relentlessly.
“Gentlen, it has been an honor.” Ryder removed his hat, bowing to his comrades in a final gesture of apology and farewell.
No one responded, but they too prepared for their last monts in silence.
“One.”
“Boom!”
The underground nuclear power plant had been constructed with extre safety asures, but all forward-operating bases were equipped with self-destruct systems. The nuclear power plant had been further modified into a true nuclear bomb, capable of unleashing blinding light and searing heat when needed.
The surface of Planet Raze, which had been relatively tranquil, was still dotted with land-based cannons firing steadily. The laser defense arrays, idle due to the absence of incoming missiles, stood on standby.
Suddenly, the ground bulged upward as though a monstrous beast were about to erge from beneath.
Soil and rocks erupted, flinging debris skyward. Entire land-based cannons, along with their platforms, were thrown into the air. The earth cracked wide open, releasing a blinding light from the fissures.
The chaos subsided as swiftly as it began. The uprooted surface collapsed back down, leaving the land-based cannons toppled in disarray. The laser defense arrays were heavily damaged, many rendered inoperable.
“This is war,” Sarah Kerrigan murmured, her voice filled with a cold, steely resolve. “Between two races, there’s no right or wrong—only strength and weakness. Weakness is the original sin. The weak have no right to determine their own fate. If we don’t want to end up like them, the Swarm must remain the strongest!”
Whether she spoke to herself or to the Blades standing behind her was unclear.
The thunderous explosions rippled across Planet Raze, triggering seismic reactions in several regions. Nurous underground power plants were deliberately or incidentally destroyed. The land-based cannon emplacents above them were also largely ruined. Those few that survived went offline due to the loss of power supply.
The sudden disappearance of over a thousand firepower nodes slightly eased the pressure on the Primordial bodies of the Swarm. However, this shift wasn’t enough to change the overall tide of the war.
If the Rikens’ assumption—that the Swarm units attacking the nuclear power plants were rely remnants from the last war—had been correct, the situation might have been manageable.
But once their monitoring systems captured the image of the Burrowing Worms, the Riken high command began to realize that things were not as they seed. The situation might have spiraled out of their control.
This ti, their fears were justified.
The destruction of several bases didn’t halt the continued assaults from the Swarm sub-colonies on Planet Raze.
Alarms blared at an increasing number of underground power plant bases.
Simultaneously, on the surface above the already-destroyed bases, clusters of purple-gray, fleshy tissue began to ooze out from the fissures created by the explosions.
The damaged land-based cannon emplacents were gradually overtaken by the spreading purple-gray substance. Steel structures were corroded and absorbed as nutrients, accelerating the expansion of the conspicuous fungal carpet.
“It’s those things!” a Riken soldier exclaid in horror.
The familiar sight struck fear into the hearts of the Rikens, dredging up mories of their previous brush with utter devastation. Once again, they were reminded of the terror that had once held them in its grip.
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