"Boss." As Augustus and the others observed the living Hydralisk, a short, portly man in a white lab coat and gloves walked over. He had a thick double chin, shrewd little eyes, and a calculating smile.
Augustus had met him more than two years earlier, back when he was still a Federal officer stationed at the Turaxis II front. They had once made a transaction and exchanged brief words in the town of Orlan near Fort Howe.
At that time, Augustus had been preparing to sell a batch of spoils seized from the Revolutionary Army, while this man—who was purchasing arms on behalf of Cerberus Corporation—had been in a hurry to acquire a shipment of restricted weaponry at a bargain price.
Only later did Augustus learn that this company would become the future creator of the Cerberus cybernetic Zerg.
"Mr. Brova Landon, administrator and one of the principal overseers of this research station," a project sub-director accompanying them introduced to Augustus. "He represents Cerberus Corporation."
Cerberus had originally been a small biotechnology firm that had nearly gone bankrupt several times during the Guild Wars. If not for deceiving the Terran Confederacy into granting them funds by exploiting the government's eagerness to use bio-modification to enhance Federal soldiers, they might not have survived long enough for Augustus to meet them.
It was solely thanks to Augustus's sharp judgment that, one year ago, he purchased the company and paid off all its debts—otherwise, at least twenty of the researchers now stationed here would have been imprisoned in New Folsom.
Now all of them worked for Augustus's xenobiology laboratories on Umoja, conducting experiments involving Zerg, Protoss, and every nonhuman organism imaginable. At present, a scientific project personally named by Augustus—the Cerberus Program—had come to dominate the lives of these people for years to come, and perhaps even longer.
The project was funded and operated under the Mengsk family represented by Augustus. Hundreds upon hundreds of biological and xenobiological researchers from Cerberus Corporation and from Korhal IV were laboring toward the same goal: to realize Augustus's vision of weaponizing the Zerg.
"You've worked hard. No need for introductions—I've long known Mr. Brova," Augustus said with a smile, shaking Landon's hand, and the latter immediately looked both honored and flustered.
"I still remember what happened in Orlan Town—that was indeed a pleasant cooperation." One of Augustus's most lauded traits was his ability to remember every person's name and face. And those who were remembered by him would always harbor the illusion that they held some special place in his mind. Only Sarah Kerrigan would say that Augustus's ability to manipulate people's hearts was every bit as refined as his skill at toying with women.
To someone unaware of the full context, hearing Augustus say such words—combined with knowledge of who he was—would surely lead to imagining that this "pleasant cooperation" referred to something like blowing up a Confederacy government building or annihilating an entire Federal army.
The young, passionate researchers nearby, for example, immediately felt a surge of admiration for Brova Landon.
"I would never have imagined back then that you were Augustus Mengsk—the greatest revolutionary leader of the 25th-century Koprulu Sector, and its most respected and influential champion of justice." Having long navigated the corporate world, Brova naturally knew how to flatter, though in truth, his praise came sincerely from the heart.
From the Terran Confederacy's point of view, of course, such words would describe not a hero, but a ruthless rebel chief and man-eating demon.
"After all, at that time I was still an unknown nobody," Augustus said, wasting no time on small talk and going straight to the point. "How's the progress? I'm no biologist—no matter how detailed your reports may be, I can't grasp the true state of the Cerberus Project from mere fragments of data."
"My people report that the Cerberus Project has burned through enough funds to arm a heavy armored division, yet hasn't achieved any tangible results. I'd like to know—which version of events is the truth?"
"All of that is malicious slander." The fat on Brova's face quivered slightly, but it was clear he had long prepared for this.
"Please, look here."
As soon as he finished speaking, Augustus and the others saw a laboratory platform rise from the floor—supporting another Hydralisk. Compared with the previous specimen, this one's entire body had undergone extensive limb modification with integrated alloy machinery.
"You're going to be astonished," Brova said confidently, hoping to catch a hint of surprise on Augustus's face—but the latter merely blinked.
The Hydralisk's scaly plating and chitinous shell along its back had been forcibly cut open and replaced with reinforced steel armor and sharp metallic spikes. Its pair of bony scythes had likewise been replaced by titanium-alloy triple-edged blades capable of ejecting forward like bullets with the aid of a propulsion system.
The bases of these titanium blades were deeply embedded between bone and muscle; the brutality of the modification process was nearly equivalent to rolling steel plates inside a living human body—enough to make even the bravest warrior's scalp crawl.
The creature's lower jaw had been reinforced with a titanium-alloy support frame and fitted with additional razor-sharp blades. The pair of dark red eyes that had once left such a deep impression on Augustus had been replaced with orange cybernetic optics equipped with triangulation modules and highly sensitive sensors.
If not for the subject's ability to regenerate rapidly through powerful cellular regeneration, no human undergoing such a procedure could possibly survive.
"The Zerg's alpha amino acids possess unique R-group properties that allow dead cellular matter to bind with normal proteins to produce new cells. Under ordinary conditions, the Zerg can regenerate indefinitely. Given enough time, even a gravely wounded Zerg can make a full recovery," Brova said to Augustus.
"Tests show that their pain tolerance far exceeds our expectations. They can fully endure our modifications—whereas any previous test organism would have died before we could even weld steel plates to their tissue."
Before aligning with Augustus, Cerberus Corporation's business had also included performing prosthetic implantation surgeries for certain 'volunteers' or individuals willing to undergo modification due to physical disability, including—but not limited to—the implantation of auxiliary organs.
Among the blood-soaked professions within the Terran Confederacy—particularly assassins who handled the dirtiest work—such modifications were enthusiastically embraced. Once they replaced their flesh-and-blood legs and arms, or even certain organs, with mechanical prosthetics, formerly fatal injuries ceased to matter, and their weaknesses dwindled.
Recently, the Terran Confederacy government and military had become the greatest supporters of mechanical, pharmaceutical, and even genetic augmentations, for they possessed an enormous supply of resocialized soldiers who could undergo such inhumane and unethical alterations without complaint.
The Confederacy's military was accelerating the full resocialization of its soldiers. Marines clad in powered armor were no longer an honorable profession—they had become mass-produced humanoid weapons, stamped with commercial barcodes.
If resocialized soldiers could be refurbished like machines—merely replacing worn parts and redeploying them—it would, of course, be ideal, saving the Confederacy Parliament an enormous amount of money.
"So, after receiving mechanical modification, they've become far stronger than before, haven't they?" Augustus made no comment regarding the semi-mechanized Hydralisk before him.
"Of course. Their titanium-alloy blades can easily slice through the frontal armor plating of an Arclite Tank," Brova said proudly.
"Then who replaces the dulled blades of these modified Hydralisks?" Augustus asked.
"That issue must be resolved. At the same time, we're attempting to equip them with low-yield nuclear warheads, since certain Zerg species are capable of burrowing underground and infiltrating enemy lines through tunnels," he said. "In any case, your task is not to make them into toys that please me, but into a swarm of Zerg that I can control—forever."
"What concerns me more is how you control these Zerg, ensuring that they obey your every command without reservation."
"We replaced the neural connections between their temporal lobes and their bodies with mechanical neural systems. By simulating neuronal electrical signals, our operators can remotely control these Zerg through interface terminals—just like operating drones," Brova explained to Augustus.
"Show me," Augustus said curtly but clearly.
Brova immediately walked to the nearby control console and began operating it himself. The modified Hydralisk stepped out from behind the opened plasma barrier and, under his control, moved swiftly across the smooth floor of the research station with remarkable agility.
Then, driven by the station supervisor's perverse sense of amusement, the massive creature began performing an alien version of a belly dance.
Augustus nodded repeatedly, clearly satisfied.
"A fine toy," said Arcturus, who had been listening intently.
"I—and my brother—care more about whether such Zerg can be mass-produced."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Hydralisk suddenly let out a roar and lunged toward Augustus and the others, the armored scales of its abdomen scraping against the floor with a dry rustle like a serpent slithering through dead leaves.
Brova's expression instantly turned to panic. It seemed the Cerberus Project's neural control technology was far from perfect—this Hydralisk had undoubtedly gone berserk.
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