The Bizarre Adventure of the Warhammer Guard

The communication ended, and Mengsk's image disappeared from the screen. Silence fell over the command room, broken only by the faint sound of the holographic star map rotating.

"Are we really going to give it to him?" Renault broke the silence first, his brow furrowed. "Using insects against the Federation... just to cripple it. What about the people of the Federation? Are we just going to let them become sacrifices?"

“The Federation has been using this device for a long time,” Loken analyzed. “If we don’t give it to Mengsk, they’ll just steal it from somewhere else. We might as well make them owe us a favor.”

"Sacrifice is inevitable, Renault," Elpis said, pulling up information about Antiga Prime. "So let's do everything we can to avoid further casualties."

Whether it's the Federation Speaker or Mengsk, Elpis could easily assassinate them, but it wouldn't make a difference. All told, they only brought five people; they weren't yet capable of bringing an entire Imperial fleet.

Elpis would not establish a new regime here.

On the one hand, he preferred being a warrior charging into battle to political games; on the other hand, the StarCraft universe was far more complex than the Resident Evil universe, and no one knew what would happen next.

So, let things take their course, Elpis thought. Gathering supplies and bringing them back to the Warhammer universe was the most important thing.

An hour later, the Sons of Khar's transport ship arrived at Norard II.

Rugal stood at the hangar exit, a simple bag slung over his shoulder. Reno walked up to him, but neither spoke immediately. Not far away, a group of soldiers had volunteered to join Rugal's Sons of Korhal.

"If we leave, we'll truly become rebels," Renault broke the silence.

“I’ve been a rebel for a long time, Jim,” Rugal said with a wry smile. “Ever since the Federation abandoned Mar-Sala and those soldiers who were still resisting, my heart has been no longer in that corrupt system.”

“I know. But Mengsk,” Reynolds paused, patted him on the shoulder, “I always felt that he saw more than just freedom and revolution in his mind.”

"I think so too." Rugal looked out the porthole at the approaching transport ship. "But at least he's on the opposite side of the Federation now. As for the future... let's take it one step at a time."

Lyon also came over, holding a small badge with a skull and crossbones symbol on it.

"Lord Elpis asked me to give this to you." He handed it over. "This is a shield device; it can activate the deflection field inside when necessary."

"Please convey my thanks to Lord Elpis." Rugal solemnly accepted the gift and nodded.

"Take care," Lyon said. "May the Emperor bless you."

Rugal said nothing, turning to walk towards the transport ship whose hatch was opening. Before stepping inside, he glanced back at Renault and waved. Renault grinned and returned the gesture.

The transport ship detached from the dock, transformed into a point of starlight, and merged into the fleet of the Sons of Khar in the distance.

-

Norard II activated its warp drive, a deep resonance echoing within the ship's cabin. The next moment, the warship vanished from its spot. Through the portholes, only blurry bands of light of various colors could be seen.

Unlike the dangers and uncertainties of space travel in Warhammer Central, faster-than-light travel in interstellar space is smooth and safe. This is not because the travel technology here is advanced, but because this travel tunnel is unusually quiet.

Essentially, faster-than-light travel in interstellar space is the same as warp travel in Warhammer: tearing open real space to allow the warship to travel in another space, and then jumping out to reach another place in the real world.

"It's too quiet." Loken looked out the window. "No navigators, no Geller field, no surging energy flows. Everything is too calm."

"This is what the warp should look like." Elpis walked to Loken's side and looked out the window as well.

The warp in the Warhammer universe is filled with all sorts of creatures and violent energy flows. If you are not careful, your warship will be attacked or even lost in the warp, with no idea when it will be able to return to the real world.

At this moment, the space they were in reminded Elpis of the Netway. It was the same in the Netway: the surging energy flow was isolated outside the Netway, while the interior of the Netway allowed warships to pass safely and efficiently.

In other words, the long-distance space jumps of warships in the interstellar universe are somewhat similar to the Webpath technology in the Warhammer universe, and are somewhat like a degraded version of Webpath technology.

It seems there are quite a few secrets hidden in the interstellar universe, Elpis thought to himself.

About a day later, Norard 2 quietly left the jump space and arrived at the edge of the Antiga system.

The signal identification system quickly identified several fleets that were also using signal camouflage devices and were hidden at the edge of the star system.

That was the advance fleet of the Sons of Korhal, consisting of a slightly outdated warship and several small, agile corvettes converted into escort ships.

The signal was connected, and a red-haired woman appeared on the screen. She was tall and slender with a cold expression. Dark green goggles were casually perched on her head, and she was wearing a gray-white ghost special agent combat suit.

The Ghost operative suit is not a sealed powered exoskeleton, but rather a harsh environment combat suit made of high-strength fibers. Not just anyone can wear this suit; only trained elites with psionic abilities can master it.

Designed specifically for special infiltration missions, it features environmental isolation, radiation shielding, and enhancement of the user's psionic abilities. With this combat suit, Ghost agents can achieve optical invisibility.

"Hello everyone, I am Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan," she began, her voice crisp and clear, "I am the Sons of Korhal Ghost Agent who will be liaising with you."

"I am Jim Reynolds, and I will be responsible for communicating with you from now on."

It turns out that when Elpis left Mar-Sala, he ordered Reynolds to command Norald II and be responsible for contacting the Sons of Khar during the next operation.

As for the reason, Elpis would never say it was because he was too lazy to deal with all the various matters of the entire warship.

“I’ll be frank. Our informants say that Antiga Prime is ready to openly rebel against the Federation,” Kerrigan continued. “Unfortunately, the Federation seems to have caught on to this as well, and they’ve stationed a detachment of Alpha Squadron there, directly under the command of General Duke.”

"Duke. It's that same defeated opponent again," Reno asked. "Hasn't he been punished by the Federation yet?"

"Yes, according to rumors, the Federation is offering him a way to atone for his crimes," Kerrigan shrugged nonchalantly. "I can infiltrate the Federation base on Antiga Prime and assassinate the Federation officials inside."

"After that, the resistance will rise up, and then we'll fight together against the attack by the Union soldiers commanded by Duke. I'll send you the coordinates; we'll meet at the designated location."

"No problem," Renault replied.