Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 170 Deja Vu
In the mine, the equipment of the octopus men is making roaring noises, and they are constantly acquiring mineral resources buried underground. Naturally, these mined raw ores cannot be used directly, and need to be transported back to the outpost for processing and purification.

It is said to be a mine, but it has already been turned into a mine. In the early development of the lizard people, a considerable part of the resources on the surface have been used.

After the octopus men took over, they continued to dig down. Now, this place is no longer a relatively flat mine. With the difficulty of mining resources below it, it has gradually become a completely three-dimensional structure.

Now, the Octopus and their machines are among them, while the Zerg wait quietly for Zero's order to attack.

If it is on the home planet, with the social status of these octopus people, they will never be reduced to the level of guarding resource mines. Naturally, other individuals will do these dirty jobs. As the elite class of civilization, they are They are outstanding in every field and play an important role in society, so they definitely won't get mixed up like this.

It's a pity that civilization has declined, and the glory and status of the past naturally no longer exist. It is only possible to survive because of the endless sacrifices of the same family. There is really no qualification to be picky.

"The 1nd transportation of the No. 182 resource site has been completed, and it is expected to change the value in shifts after 2 days. Please report the situation on site."

The aircraft is obviously not designed for transportation. Even if the peripheral structure is mounted, the transportation of this kind of raw materials cannot carry too much at one time, so the strategy of using a small amount of multiple times is adopted.

The invisible electromagnetic wave propagates on the surface of the planet, carrying the information that the octopus people want to communicate. From sending to receiving, the electromagnetic wave propagating at the speed of light can almost achieve synchronization on the planet.

"Received, everything here in the mine is normal and can be handed over normally."

"Those heat-loving insects didn't cause any trouble, did they?"

Another piece of information from a different source was suddenly inserted into the channel. It was from the outpost before, but this one came from the aircraft in the sky.

"Not at all. They're just bugs. Since the start of work, I don't know how many have died. It's hard to count. I don't know where so many come from!"

"That's good, anyway, be careful, I'll pick you up 'home' in two days!"

"Got it, how is your home?"

The response from the outpost was brief.

"Everything is going well, the hatchlings are already growing."

...............

Through the will of the hive, Zero knew that the other party was communicating information through electromagnetic waves, but he didn't know the details at all.The Hive Will can't capture this kind of signal now, it can only vaguely perceive some of it, so it can't talk about decoding and other operations at all.

But Zero doesn't need to know what they are talking about, he will use the Zerg's own way to figure out everything one wants to know.

Now everything is ready, the plan will be implemented tonight.

Although it is not clear how the opponent's night vision is, this does not affect Zero's choice of the most suitable time for the Zerg to launch a surprise attack.

As time passed, a group of Zerg units that appeared to be explorers but were actually small blasters entered the mine openly, without arousing the slightest vigilance of the other party.

The sky was dim, gradually becoming completely dark, and the mine was completely dark, only the pieces of light emitted by the mining machines because of their work, which stood out like a lighthouse in the darkness.

Within the scope of the light, insects visible to the naked eye danced and collided among them, looking like a group of phototaxis flying insects. Although there were a large number of them, no one thought they would pose any threat.

However, at the next moment, a sudden change occurred!

There seemed to be a spark erupting, but it didn't seem to be there. In a very short period of time, the fire had already spread on the surface of this roaring machine. Before the octopus could react, the fire had already spread.

In the light of the fire, those flying insects rushed into the fire scene like firewood, cheering for it!

In the control room, extremely "harsh" fluctuations sounded for the octopus, it was the sound of an alarm!

"This is the No. 1 resource site. The machine caught fire for unknown reasons, causing equipment failure. We are going to go down and check."

"Please wait a moment, the aircraft is nearby and will arrive soon, it will provide you with routine protection..."

"I am worried that the fire is uncontrollable, and I am going to put out the fire first. Don't worry, according to environmental monitoring, the risk should be within the controllable range. Our equipment is limited, and we cannot let it be damaged while waiting!"

"...Okay, be safe, we'll be right there."

Although it is a marine civilization, they are no strangers to the phenomenon of fire.To be able to develop to the present level, the so-called marine civilization and land civilization are basically complete in terms of cognition except for the living environment.

Land civilization will not be unable to deal with underwater until it develops into space, and on the contrary, marine civilization will not still be helpless against land at this stage.

The development direction of the two parties may have different emphases due to different environments, but the most basic cognition will not be much different.

Zero is very focused, and he is very clear that as long as the other party stays in the control room, it is impossible for the Zerg to do anything to them in a short period of time, so finding a way to let them come out by themselves is the only feasible solution.

Of course, it can't be an equipment failure in the conventional sense. When this kind of failure will happen is beyond Zero's control, and the other party will have aircraft cruise protection at that time, making it even more difficult to succeed.

Through small blasters disguised as Zerg explorers, Zero successfully lured the two remaining octopus individuals out.

The moment they noticed the other party's appearance, the diggers lurking in the ground immediately began to push forward frantically. This insect species designed for underground excavation showed its professionalism. In the next moment, they had already pushed out. off the ground.

Next, the Zerg land units that had been preparing for a long time spewed out behind him, rushing into the mine at the fastest speed!
In the next second, the alarms on the spaceships of the octopus people far away in space, including the outpost, sounded immediately, and the two octopus people in charge of monitoring responded almost at the same time, and immediately sent a signal to warn.

"Pay attention, there are a group of unknown creatures approaching you rapidly at the mine, suspected attack, danger level-advanced! Return to the control room immediately, return to the control room immediately!"

"Damn! We are expected to arrive in 5 minutes and provide support. Please return to the control room immediately and leave the damn fire alone!"

Of course the octopus people who showed up heard the warning from their companions, but Zero had expected this a long time ago. A large number of blasters had already cut off their retreat after they showed up, and the fire surged out of nowhere in front of and behind them.

In the light of the fire, countless flying insects with flapping wings filled the entire space!

"We...seem like we can't escape..."

"What do you mean you can't escape?! Return to the control room immediately, where your safety can be guaranteed! Quick!"

"We were...surrounded...ah!!"

"This is...not...is..."

Because the distance was close enough, the Zerg land unit had arrived as soon as the blasters attacked. Zero knew what kind of communication technology the opponent had, so he didn't want to leave them too much time.

Although after this attack, creatures like the Zerg will definitely arouse the vigilance and attention of the other party, but it is in the best interest of our side if we can not leak more information!
Therefore, the first time the Zerg land unit enters the field is to jump over the sea of ​​fire, throw the opponent down, and directly attack the opponent's non-lethal parts to interrupt their communication!
And behind them, several memory storages followed closely. After the situation was quickly controlled by the land attack unit, they immediately started their own work.

At this moment, whether it was satellites and spaceships in space, or colonial outposts, or octopus people on aircraft, they received two extremely tragic signal fluctuations almost at the same time, which were two screams representing death , is also the last communication message these two octopus people left for them.

Next, in the communication channel, there were only harsh noises of unknown meaning.

"Damn it, this is an attack!!" The speed of the aircraft was extremely fast, and it was rushing here with all its strength, but Zero, who had been prepared for a long time, was obviously faster.

The Zerg units responsible for memory extraction quickly completed their tasks. They don't need to read like Sass, they only need to collect the brains of the other party's stored knowledge, so it doesn't take much time.

Under their feet, another group of diggers burst out of the ground, and the two Zerg individuals who completed the task quickly rushed into the hole, followed by other Zerg individuals as guards.

Two minutes later, all the Zerg blasters who sneaked in detonated themselves at the same time, completely turning this place into a sea of ​​flames!
Of course, this is an aftermath action made by Zero to hide the existence of the Zerg as much as possible. Even if this seems a bit self-explanatory, even if it can mislead the other party a little, it will be profitable for the Zerg.

Zero's abacus was resounding, but what he didn't know or couldn't take into account was that, amidst the flames soaring into the sky, the octopus' monitoring device kept the process of things happening on the mining machines that were still barely functioning. , quietly recorded a clear.

Due to the angle, it failed to record the image of the Zerg extracting the brain of the Octopus, but the attack of the Zerg land unit, the intrusion of the diggers, and the spontaneous combustion of the last blaster were all faithfully recorded by it.

This video was not sent back to the outpost in real time, so Ling Dao did not send a live broadcast to the other party.

However, with the rapid arrival of the opponent's support, even if the fire is difficult to extinguish compared with conventional flames, it is unlikely that the machine will be directly burned down.

Therefore, this video fell into the hands of the Octopus not long after.

Since arriving in Heprius, this is the first time that the octopus people have lost personnel. Now that human resources are seriously insufficient, all the octopus people attach great importance to this matter!
They can't help but not pay attention to it, this is the only clan they have left, each of them is the most precious wealth of civilization!
Each of them represents the diversity of octopus people's genes, and is also an important existing labor force. It is difficult to bear the loss of one, let alone two.

In the spacecraft, Jimenez, who is the commander-in-chief, is watching this video synchronized from the ground. At the same time, all the existing octopus people are watching.

There is no news blocking, and there is no public opinion control. Under such circumstances, it is meaningless to do these things. They, the only remaining individuals of civilization, are very clear about their mission.

Since the blaster's initial attack occurred close to the interior of the machine, the cause of the fire was not shown in the video, of course, this is not difficult to guess.

They watched the two octopus come out of the control room, watched them hesitate for a moment because they received warning reminders from all directions, watched the blasters all over the sky block their retreat at the same time, and watched the Zerg Land The unit rushed in and knocked them down...

Until the ground was broken, this group of larger Zerg evacuated from the mine, and then the entire space was covered by fire...

All this is clearly recorded.

This phenomenon is something Zero is aware of but powerless to change, not to mention the problem of whether he can find it. Zero's understanding of the opponent's technology is really limited. He has no way of knowing what this monitoring facility looks like.

And even if he finds out, it is impossible for him to let the Zerg rush in and destroy it.

Firstly, there is no time to operate it, and secondly, I don't know where to start destroying it. How this kind of thing is stored in the technology of the octopus people, and how to completely destroy it, is completely unknown.And he really doesn't have the ability to completely destroy the entire machine in a short period of time, so as long as the other party has this thing, this situation cannot be avoided.

This comes from the suppression of the level of technology, which essentially forms a cognitive inequality.

"This is indeed an attack." After a long silence, Jimenez set the tone for the incident.

"If we speculate from the process of the incident, the various... bugs that appeared, let's call them bugs, and treat them as arms with a clear division of labor, this is undoubtedly a premeditated and quite tacit cooperation. Attack!"

"Cross the sky, create opportunities, sneak in by surprise, evacuate quickly, destroy corpses and traces..."

"If you put aside the superficial unreasonableness and only analyze it based on its mode of action, the opponent has a clear purpose, well-planned, and interlocking chains, showing a very efficient action."

"From the existing data, they have a complete set of processes for this, and there is a high probability that they are not instinctive activities. In other words, they are very likely not simple low-intelligence creatures, and of course there may be some kind of existence Instigated behind the scenes."

"We have lost two precious clansmen because of this, which is a huge loss for the colonization activity, and it is also a huge loss for the entire civilization.

But things have already happened, and they are presented in front of us in such a form, which shows that our previous investigation of the environmental safety on the planet has drawn wrong conclusions! "

"Based on today's intelligence analysis, the primitive civilization here may not have completely disappeared, but... sneaked into the ground!

This can also explain the mistakes caused by the opponent's lack of knowledge of our technology. "

Another signal joins the channel at this time,
"If these...uh... bugs are the original civilization here, why do they abandon the superior environment on the ground and live underground?

Moreover, based on its appearance, in terms of the body structure of life on this planet, there is a high probability that it does not have a brain with wisdom, so how do they cooperate so tacitly? "

Jimenez was silent for a while.

"Now there is too little information to make a definitive analysis, but one thing is certain, this place is not as peaceful and beautiful as previously imagined. We have indeed encountered an enemy!"

"Before ascertaining the specific information of the other party, suspend external resource mining activities, use satellites to cooperate with land vehicles to load more weapon units, conduct directional detection of underground structures near the accident site, and try to capture these biological individuals, return to the spaceship laboratory research!"

"But time..."

"Removing the danger, this is something that must be done in advance, and it is also a cost that we must spend. We have already expected this situation when we set off from the parent star, didn't we?"

………………

Zero was not completely unaware of the possible existence of "monitoring equipment", but under the circumstances at the time, no matter what strategy was adopted, it was impossible to leave more damage to the Zerg in such a short period of time. The time of "performance" convinced the other party that the attack was just a coincidence, and that the group of bugs that popped up suddenly were just some mutated beasts.

This is the main reason. No matter what, there is probably only one chance. If he wants to achieve his goal, he can only do this. Whether the other party will notice it or not, Zero will do it.

He has done everything in such a short period of time as much as possible, and has disguised as much as possible within the capabilities of the Zerg. If he wants to expose it, then he will admit it. The left and right plans have been more than half successful. As long as the information can be obtained, the Zerg will not lose.

Before, the blaster's attack on the machine was not seen through and detected by the opponent at the first time, which gave Ling some confidence, and the arrow was on the string, so he had to launch it, but fortunately he did it!
If the other party is really an existence that the Zerg can't resist, whether it is discovered or not will be the end in the end.

At that moment, Zero had done everything he could and was ready to deal with all the consequences.

Although there is a sense of wasted effort that has been carefully planned but failed by accident, it is good to be able to achieve the goal.

Of course, Zero at this time is not sure to what extent this action will expose the information of the Zerg. What he is doing now is to find a way to bring the Zerg unit with the memory of the Octopus to the main base , in front of Sass!

But when the Octopus's flying machine flew close to the ground and began to drive some kind of mechanical probe into the underground rock to explore, Zero immediately realized the extent of the Zerg's exposure.

As far as the octopus people are concerned, their current situation is indeed very difficult.To feed more hatchlings, the outpost must be expanded, and to expand the outpost, resources must be mined.

However, while exploiting resources, they will also face unknown and huge risks. The problem of choosing safety or resources is in front of them.

Even if the opponent had already realized the existence of the Zerg, Zero was not too worried.Looking at this posture, they should want to find out the situation underground. These probes should exist as signal transmitters, because the will of the hive has captured a large number of regular signals from them, and they are heading deep underground.

In the process of going from shallow to deep, these signals are constantly experiencing reflection and attenuation, which can feed back the real information of the underground to the ground, but at this moment, Zero is not so worried.

So what if we found out?Go underground if you have the ability, and have a battle in the dungeon with the Zerg to see who wins and who loses.

When he kept hiding before, he still had some scruples, but now in this form, Zero simply let go.

The other party has not shown the ability to destroy the planet so far, nor does it have any intentions in this regard, which is one of the reasons why Zero's actions gradually became bold.

Exploration is a process from the shallower to the deeper. Zero is constantly exploring the bottom line of the other party. Until now, it is the first contact with the octopus in the true sense.

This scene made Zero feel a little familiar, just like the Lizardman discovered when the Zerg first landed on the mainland.

The same thing is that in the two encounters between civilizations after more than a hundred years, Zero adopted almost the same strategy, secretly capturing the individual civilization of the other party, obtaining specific information about the other party, and then formulating specific strategies.

The difference is that the octopus people are not the same as the original lizard people.

But for so many years, the Zerg has not stood still. For Zero and his Zerg, the two races are no different.

(End of this chapter)