From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

"retreat!!"

After the remnants of the expeditionary fleet completed the third round of artillery fire, Delatir decisively issued an order to retreat.

And at this moment, if they stay for one more second, the risk of annihilation will increase.

"Yes!!"

The crew members on the bridge responded quickly, their faces full of tension and concentration.

Therefore, as soon as they received the order, all crew members immediately turned the Paris-class ship around and accelerated towards Campbell.

At the same time, the communications officer quickly passed Delatir's orders to other warships to ensure that each ship could retreat in a coordinated manner.

When everyone looked outside through the observation window of the bridge.

The view outside the window quickly changed from the pitch-black universe and the overwhelming plasma bombardment to the Earth-like planet Campbell, whose atmosphere was glowing blue.

Moreover, everyone could vaguely see the remnant fleet that had maintained its distance, and immediately turned its ships around and began to retreat as planned.

The Paris-class, which was originally at the forefront, now directly took on the important task of guarding the rear.

If you leave the bridge to observe, you can see that the Gauss secondary guns on both sides of the ship have turned their muzzles and continue to deliver sparse firepower to the biological fleet that is invisible to the naked eye, making the Paris class appear increasingly isolated and helpless.

As the retreat unfolded in an orderly manner, the plasma artillery offensive from the Arachi biological fleet poured down like a rainstorm, with almost half of the firepower concentrated on the Paris class.

Boom. Boom——!

Within a moment, several plasma shells hit the Paris-class energy shield again.

Click-wow-! !

The next second, the energy shield emitting a light golden glow quickly shattered and disintegrated due to overload, exposing the Paris-class body directly to the universe.

Moreover, not only the Paris class, but also the main force of the remnant fleet was also under the fierce plasma attack.

Among them was a escort transport ship. Just as it was about to break through the atmosphere, its rear engine suffered heavy damage from a plasma artillery group.

boom.!

The tail engine caught fire instantly, and the violent impact caused the hull to lose its original state and began to roll out of control.

When breaking through the atmosphere, the cost of this loss of control is extremely deadly.

The rolling hull produced violent friction with the atmosphere, and flames immediately enveloped the entire escort transport ship.

Boom! !

Immediately afterwards, the crew members were faced with a desperate fate. They were unable to react at all and had no chance of escape as the entire escort transport ship completely exploded.

The fragments of the sunken ship scattered like stardust, also burning with flames, and fell towards the surface of Campbell like meteors.

Everyone on the bridge of the Paris-class ship was filled with pain and helplessness when they witnessed the death of their companions.

Besides, the Paris-class energy shield has been overloaded, and it will take at least fifteen minutes to restore to normal.

Before the shield was restored, if the Paris-class was attacked by one or two plasma cannon balls, the result would be a devastating blow.

So now they can only leave it to fate and place their hopes of survival on Carmen Ibanez, who is at the helm of the entire ship.

This pressure was like an invisible mountain pressing on her shoulders, making her feel extremely heavy and her expression extremely solemn.

Therefore, Carmen concentrated her attention and focused her eyes, never leaving the hard-light screen in front of her, and her hands tightly gripped the joystick, as if her soul was closely connected to the Paris-class hull.

soon.

Under Karmen's control, the Paris-class ship quickly adjusted its hull so that the belly of the ship faced the ground.

After she confirmed that the heat protection system was functioning properly, she quickly repeated each step in her mind to see if there was anything wrong, or if it was not opened or closed.

Because the process of breaking through the atmosphere is crucial, the hull must remain absolutely stable at this time, and it cannot adjust the direction at will like in outer space. Any slight mistake may lead to disastrous consequences.

And at this stage, Carmen can no longer rely on his driving skills to intervene left or right.

"."

As the hull gradually tilted downward, the atmosphere in the bridge became extremely tense, one could almost hear a pin drop.

All members held their breath and prayed silently, hoping that at this critical juncture, they could avoid the plasma attack.

Everyone's heartbeat seemed to echo throughout the entire bridge, and combined with the slight vibrations from the hull, it formed an almost suffocating pressure.

Next.

I don’t know if they are really lucky or the accuracy of the space plasma worms is really too poor.

In any case, during the most critical "re-entry phase" of the Paris-class's breakthrough of the atmosphere, that is, when the hull enters the atmosphere at high speed, which generates extremely high resistance and heat, it did not suffer direct attacks from the plasma artillery regiment.

Before long, the Paris-class passed the re-entry phase safely and was about to prepare to slow down and approach the capital city on the surface.

At this moment, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and feel fortunate.

but--

Boom. Boom——!

Just as everyone was immersed in a brief moment of peace, a sudden roar broke the silence.

A plasma shell hit the top of the Paris-class ship, and the explosion was deafening.

Although the power of the explosion was not as strong as expected, it only caused the Paris-class hull to sway and vibrate severely. However, even so, the sudden attack still made every member in the bridge feel uneasy.

The radar observers and communications officers even closed their eyes tightly, as if they believed that the Paris-class was also facing the end of disintegration.

Carmen quickly took over the control, gripped the joystick with both hands, and tried her best to stabilize the balance of the ship, restore it to normal, and avoid losing control and rolling.

Just seconds.

The Paris class regained stability under Karmen's operation and reunited with the remnant fleet that had entered the atmosphere earlier.

At this point, everyone could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

In fact, the attack just now did not cause the Paris-class ship to explode directly like the other three escort transport ships. It was obviously not just luck.

The deeper reason is that the "behavior" of plasma cannon balls, which are plasma, in outer space is very different from its behavior in the atmosphere.

When the plasma cannon follows the Paris-class to quickly break through the atmosphere, it will first collide and interact with air molecules, causing the plasma to scatter and attenuate.

Under normal circumstances, the plasma cools rapidly and its electrical charges combine with surrounding air molecules to form an ionized gas, which loses its plasma properties in the atmosphere.

However, the plasma artillery fired by the plasma worms has extremely high energy, which means that when the artillery enters the atmosphere, it does not immediately lose the characteristics of plasma, but its power is greatly weakened.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that the Paris class, which uses A titanium alloy armor, was able to withstand this direct blow and avoid complete destruction.

"so far so good."

“Finally I survived!”

After reuniting with the remnants of the fleet, the atmosphere in the bridge was completely eased, and many crew members couldn't help but sigh for surviving the disaster.

Carmen also took a few deep breaths, controlled the Paris-class to slow down, and sailed towards the capital city with the remaining fleet.

"Communications officer."

At this moment, Dratiel, who had also recovered, glanced at the dark night scene outside the porthole, then turned to the communications officer and instructed:

"Notify Major Kennedy to get ready. The Zerg fleet is expected to take full control of the orbit in twenty minutes at most."

Dratiel knew that what they would be facing at that time would be an attack by hundreds of millions or even tens of billions of Zerg. Although he was reluctant to say it directly so as not to affect morale, his words revealed the sense of urgency in his heart.

"Yes, Captain."

After receiving instructions from Delatir, the communications officer immediately contacted Lyon who had been waiting for a long time.

When Dratiel saw the communications officer complete the operation, he continued to ask:

"What's the progress on the human empire side?"

"After the other party indicated that they would send reinforcements, there was no further response."

The communications officer's tone revealed a hint of worry, and it was obvious that the actions of the Human Empire made him uneasy.

"I haven't detected any warp speed tracks here either," the radar operator added, staring at the hard-light screen with a frown on his face.

"At this stage, only the biological fleet of the Arach Zerg is within Campbell's gravitational range."

Delatir also frowned, pondered for a moment, and then expressed her opinion:

"The Human Empire possesses advanced technology for warp travel. Perhaps the enemy's reinforcements are still on the way and will arrive in Campbell soon.

If the reinforcements sent by the human empire were led by that archangel, the bugs would have been burned to ashes. "

Her words triggered the thoughts of the members of the bridge, and then the image of the Primarch with pure white wings that could fly freely in space emerged in their minds.

Sanguinius.

Reminiscent of Sanguinius, especially when Sanguinius displayed god-like strength and ability, like an unparalleled light, ruthlessly tearing apart the enemy

Even though the enemy at that time was their federal expeditionary fleet.

But when they thought of Sanguinius's combat performance, a smile still appeared on the faces of the crew members, and the pressure in their hearts seemed to be relieved a lot.

Sanguinius was an enemy then, but now he is reinforcement!

And Sanguinius gave them a strong sense of security without them even realizing it, which boosted everyone's morale.

Even though the Arachi Zerg came like a tide, as long as there was such a presence as support, the feeling of despair would disappear.

Dratiel noticed this change and spoke at the right time with a firm tone:

"No matter what, we must assist the mobile infantry to delay the Zerg's attack as much as possible and buy more chances for the people of Campbell to survive."

"Yes, Captain."

All crew members responded in unison, their voices expressing a common determination and sense of mission.

Their original intention of joining the federation was to protect citizens and civilians.

At the same time, the capital city shrouded in darkness was brightly lit.

Although there is not enough anti-aircraft firepower here, with the remnant fleet arriving soon, it will be enough to make up for the firepower gap in the capital city.

In November, the capital city is technically in Campbell's summer.

In the past, local residents and colonists would have taken to the streets to enjoy the breezy evening and indulge in a comfortable life after a day of labor and work.

However, the current capital city is a different story.

The streets were empty, with only mobile infantry, commandos, mercenaries and police officers affiliated with the Campbell authorities standing by to prepare for the impending threat.

The once bustling city now seems quiet and tense.

For the local residents, the impending Zerg invasion was like a nightmare threat. After receiving official notification, they quickly hid back in their homes, silently praying that the mobile infantry could withstand this unprecedented catastrophe.

In addition, more than 80% of Campbell's total population is concentrated in the capital city.

Most of the people evacuated from other towns and villages were arranged by Johnson and Campbell's senior executives in public shelters or subway tunnels in order to avoid direct invasion by the Zerg.

At this moment, the whole city is filled with an extremely depressing atmosphere, and the safety of the people seems to be hanging on a fragile thread.

Although the capital city is a relatively safe haven due to its heavy military presence, it is also the most dangerous place.

The IQ of individual insects in Arachi is extremely low, but the will of the swarm is enough to understand that breaking through the defense of the capital city is equivalent to breaking through the lifeline of the entire Campbell.

Then the goal of the swarm's will will be extremely clear, that is, directly pointing to the "heart"-like capital.

On the main road on the north side of the Governor's Palace, Lyon and his command team were busy making final arrangements and deployments.

Moreover, on the north side of the main road, there were already more than 200 commandos and more than 1,000 mobile infantrymen stationed in the buildings on both sides of the street, forming a dense and solid defense line.

In other words, all armed units deployed in the capital city flexibly use the city’s buildings as bunkers and fortifications to enhance their combat advantages.

Obviously, relying on physical bodies to fight against the Zerg in an open area is not only an extremely unwise choice, but also a dead end.

Only the current Federation Interstellar Marshal Dean could make the foolish decision to let the mobile infantry fight the Arach Zerg in the wilderness.

At the same time, in order to ensure the stability of the defense line, the remaining fleet of more than 100 armored vehicles and main battle tanks were deployed at crossroads and other important nodes.

Lyon, who was on the first floor of the apartment building, was using the helmet screen to observe the movements above the capital city.

Countless warship wreckages looked like fleeting meteors, and the night sky was continuously flashing with dazzling blue light.

All signs indicate that the war that broke out in low-Earth orbit and within the range of gravity was quite fierce, even tragic.

However, when Lyon learned about the battle situation from Delatil, he thought the losses were still within an acceptable range.

After learning that Arachi's biological fleet was about to occupy low-Earth orbit, Leon immediately opened the communication and said to everyone:

"Everyone on alert! It's time to kill some bugs!"