Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 185 The True Life "Gemini"

The existence of sulfuric acid rain actually shows many things.

It at least shows that on the fourth planet, there is a high probability of water that can be produced by the chemical reaction.

If this has been the case since ancient times, then a unique material cycle should have formed on this planet.

How it works is yet to be investigated, but the top priority is still to find a safe place for the Zerg unit to land on the fourth planet.

It is worth mentioning that due to the particularity of the environment here, Zero did not put all the Zerg units on the surface as it did on planet No. Thousands of Zerg space units landed first as the advance team, and the rest of the Zerg Swarm stayed quietly in the synchronous orbit of planet No. [-], waiting for the next order.

Although even if the first batch of Zerg units that landed all die, it does not mean the failure of this colonial activity, but in the early days of colonization, unreasonable losses will undoubtedly prolong the time for gaining benefits, so losses can still be avoided.

After all, here, if they can't get supplies directly from planet No. [-], they need to spend a lot of time and energy to get supplies from the "moon" base in the rear, which is almost equivalent to sending another team over.

After Zero conducted a field survey of the surface, the original plan was to let the Zerg go back to their old ways, dig underground, build a Zerg base under the ground, and then plan other things.

But he soon discovered that it is not possible to avoid the crisis from the surface by just digging a hole deep underground.

Years of acid rain corrosion has completely softened the surface here, and all substances that can be dissolved and corroded no longer maintain their original properties, or evaporate into the atmosphere, or dissolve and infiltrate into the ground. leftover residue.

Under such surface geological conditions, even if the Zerg dig down, it is actually difficult to find a safe place in the shallow layer.

The soil here is not suitable for Zerg activities, nor is it suitable for digging holes, unless it can go to the extreme depths of the ground, but it will take a lot of time to dig out a space that can accommodate thousands of Zerg units.

And one thing cannot be ignored, the hatching of Zerg diggers requires the existence of a hatchery, that is to say, even if you want to dig down, you must first establish a hatchery on the surface before you can try to operate.

A considerable part of these huge space insect species originally existed as energy sources for the new base. They are not professional or good at digging holes.

Therefore, when the "heavy rain" moves here after landing, there is only one thing they can do - run!

With the support of the vision from space, it is not difficult to find a safe place even if the weather on this planet is unpredictable. However, in the process, there are still a few bugs that did not react at the beginning, and it was easy to find a safe place. Under the acid rain, it became one with the land.

Zero is not an indecisive existence. Since it is only possible to save itself by digging deep underground, then digging is enough. After temporarily settling down again, the Zerg hatchery immediately began to build on the spot, and the surrounding space bugs Seeds were used as nutrients, and a large number of diggers began to produce.

No one knows when the sulfuric acid rain will be formed. From space, the entire planet is surging. Perhaps in the next second, the clouds carrying extremely strong acidic water vapor will move to the temporary Zerg base, so time is extremely precious.

Fortunately, the hatching capacity of the Zerg hatchery is not the same as before, and the output quantity and speed have been greatly improved.

Although the geological conditions here are special, and swallowing these sulfide sandstones carrying strong acid substances makes the excavators quite uncomfortable, but under Zero's will, this is not a problem, and the project is proceeding rapidly, at all costs.

In order to achieve their goals, these huge Zerg space units were also "rebuilt" by zero, and became land-based units that could only operate on the surface. In a disguised form, the workload of the former is reduced.

But this also means that when the acid rain comes again, they will no longer have the ability to fly and escape quickly.

Fortunately, luck was good this time. After the diggers died one after another and were replenished in large numbers, a stable, direct underground passage was established. This also means that on planet No. [-], the first Zerg base will be in Completed here.

How to carry out the subsequent activities will not come to a conclusion until Sass has passed the research of the will of the hive.

However, the colonization activities on Planet [-] are completely different from the "Moon" and Planet [-]. The light resources here have been greatly weakened. Although they can still be collected and utilized, they are much weaker than the previous ones, and it is very likely that they will become The short board of colonial expansion.

Therefore, after settling down, Sass needs to come up with a colonization plan.

Previously, its main research goal was to solve the impact of extreme temperature on the survival of the Zerg. So far, there is no result. However, colonizing Planet [-] is not a top priority, but it is obviously not suitable to delay the activities of the Zerg on Planet [-].

The large number of insect swarms that were originally orbiting with the rotation of planet No. [-] were not in a hurry to move to the surface. Before the threat of strong acid was resolved, the insect swarm could only move underground without energy supplement from the surface. Pure resources Mining can't last long.

Before Sass came up with a solution, they would just sleep in orbit. Tens of thousands of Zerg units gathered together, like a quiet meteorite in space. No one knew that inside their silent bodies, there was What a powerful vitality.

Deep on the surface of Planet No. [-], a super-large cave space with an area of ​​more than [-] square meters successfully appeared here after the swarm excavated regardless of the cost.

The hatchery has been re-established here, and numerous Zerg diggers are still expanding the cave around.

At this moment, they seem to have traveled back 300 years ago, when the ant colony was first born.

The waterproof structure on the surface was carefully constructed to prevent the acidic liquid from the surface from entering the ground directly. While expanding the area of ​​the underground cave structure, they did not forget to leave a load-bearing structure to avoid collapse and cause casualties.

In today's hatchery, there are not many Zerg units born here. Except for the existing diggers, most of the bugs that landed on planet [-] have become nourishment for the hatchery, and they will only wait for the day when they are needed reappeared in another form.

When it comes to the colonization priority of planet [-] and planet [-], Zero chose the latter without any surprise.The reason is not complicated. Sass is already at the stage of building a strategic plan for the survival of the Zerg under harsher temperature conditions. It is not so easy to make further progress.

Although the strong acid rain on planet [-] is terrifying, the octopus people have done a lot of research on it in Sass' knowledge system. If it goes well, it shouldn't take too much time to get some results.

Everything should have been carried out step by step, but before that, an astonishing discovery interrupted Sass' research.

As the diggers expanded the Zerg's underground base, a small life that fed on decomposing sulfate and severely acidified soil appeared in Zero's field of vision.

They are like earthworms that have shrunk several times, wriggling in the soil of planet No. [-]. Even at a depth of [-] meters, they don't seem to exert much pressure on them. They move freely and seem to be the same. Flesh and blood, but not afraid of those acidic substances!
This kind of creature itself, including the traits it exhibited, did not cause much shock to Zero. Over the years, he has seen a lot of grotesque life, even if it is a little special, it is not surprising.

But here is planet No. [-]!

Under such an extreme atmospheric environment, there are actually creatures living deep underground, successfully adapting to such an environment, and surviving!

With the first one, the swarm soon found more!

Before, due to time constraints, the swarm concentrated on digging underground, ignoring the creatures that might exist around them. It was only when they looked back now that they seemed to be everywhere!

This time, Zero himself is not sure what is going on on this planet. Apart from these weak little lives that seem to die in front of the Zerg, whether there are other creatures here, and what kind of unique creatures do they have? ecosystem.

A barren planet and a planet with life have completely different meanings to the Zerg.

The former only represents a huge resource, while the latter means a brand new, unseen gene chain.

What needs to be explained is that even though Sass has mastered the ability of gene editing and even has a space unit, this does not mean that it can really modify any insect species it wants at any time.

This requires a lot of interception and testing, and countless resources are consumed during the period. Only through optimization and improvement of generations can we get the traits that can come in handy.

If these traits had never appeared in the gene pool, SARS would not be completely helpless, but the time and energy required would have to be multiplied at least several times, and results may not necessarily be obtained.

Therefore, these small life activities on Planet [-] immediately aroused Sass' interest.

In the original plan, it originally wanted to use the technology theory of the octopus to try to transform the insect species that can resist the acidic environment.But after these creatures appeared, it felt that maybe the answer to this question should fall on them.

There are no other technologies that are more suitable for the Zerg than themselves.

Acid rain converts various unstable substances on the surface into various compounds such as sulfates through chemical reactions, and these life forms, like small earthworms, obtain energy by decomposing these sulfate minerals, and at the same time decompose the produced sulfur The waste gas was re-expelled into the atmosphere of planet No. [-], and then turned into acid rain again to fall, which actually created a simple atmospheric circulation in this way!

However, even more astonishing discoveries are yet to come.

Zerg diggers dug up coal in the follow-up expansion project of the base!

Coal is a resource that is not uncommon on Ori, and Zero also knows that it evolved from ancient plants buried deep underground and evolved over a long period of time before it finally became what it was.

And now it actually appeared on planet No. [-]!

This means that there used to be at least a lot of plant life here!
It turns out that the so-called life twins really exist, but they have nothing to do with the No. [-] planet!
In this small star system, Ori and the No. [-] planet miraculously all had life!
What kind of luck can create such a miracle?The birth of life involves many unimaginable coincidences. Even if the environment is really suitable, it is useless without the kind of luck that can be called destiny.

But the hard truth is right in front of you, these tiny lives are real, and so are these enriched coals.

Still, these startling enough discoveries are not the end.Just when the Zerg was initially gaining a foothold, and Sass was preparing to conduct research on the small alien life on the fourth planet, Zero observed a strong volcanic eruption from space!
Rolling magma flowed across the land, replacing the acid-eroded soil with igneous rock from deep underground.

A flash of understanding flashed in Zero's heart. Geological activities on Planet No. [-] are obviously relatively frequent. In just a few days, he has observed three earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which did not cause many casualties to the Zerg, but finally The mystery that shrouded this planet was lifted.

The reason for the extinction here seems to have been answered, and a considerable part of the sulfide gas that permeates the atmosphere may come from frequent geological activities!
No guesses, maybe tens of thousands of years ago, this place experienced a mass extinction. The planet that might have been considered a lush planet was completely destroyed in a certain upheaval, and it became the scene of purgatory on earth today.

However, the tenacity of life is beyond imagination.Even after a devastating disaster, some life survived, eventually adapted to the environment, and evolved into what it is today.

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

Thinking of these, Zero felt a little inexplicably emotional.

Originally thought that Ori was the only planet with life in this star system, but now it seems that this is not the case.

Whether it is Zerg or Lizardman, before going into space, they would never have imagined that there are neighbors living there on another planet next door, whose orbit is only a little over [-] million kilometers away from the closest point!

Life is not alone in the universe, nor is it that special.

According to the structure and special gene expression of these small life forms, Sass successfully gave the Zerg the ability to resist the acidic environment.

It is an exaggeration to say that it is ignoring the strong acid. If you are under the sulfuric acid rain without protection, you will die from it after a long time.

But if it is only active on the surface, the corrosive gases in the atmosphere can be completely ignored.Even if it is exposed to acid rain, it will not cause fatal injuries for a while.

And this is just the beginning, reaching this level is not enough to satisfy Zero. The swarm needs to obtain the energy needed for daily activities on the surface of the planet, relying only on the bioenergy they carry, on such a huge planet, Nothing can be done.

Therefore, after verifying that this method can indeed allow the swarm to resist the harsh environment on the surface of planet [-] to a certain extent, Sass began to carry out further processing.

These small lives found in the underground of the planet have relatively strong adaptability to the acidic environment, but they can only do what the Zerg do today. After all, they seldom climb out of the surface directly. No more powerful abilities have been given to it.

That is to say, the next step for Sass is no longer to directly copy their expression of traits, but to find the source and try to make the swarm have a tolerance that surpasses these native life forms.

Technically speaking, it is not difficult for SARS to do this today, but it still takes some time.

During this time, the second macroscopic life on the fourth planet entered Zero's eyes.

Perhaps because of the special environment, the way the only life remaining here obtains energy is completely different from that of Ori.

The earthworm-like life in the formation obtains energy from the decomposition of sulfate minerals and participates in the atmospheric circulation, while the second life discovered by Zero, a slightly larger flat-shaped crustacean, comes from volcanic eruptions and underground The heat energy in the depths to maintain its own survival!
In subsequent observations, Zero discovered that the latter incorporated the former into his diet, and there was a predatory relationship between the two parties.

The ecological system on Planet [-], Zero has not fully figured out when the swarm only occupies a corner, but what is certain is that it must have a completely different operating system from Ori, which can ensure long-term operation without collapse.

But this is not the point, the ecological system here is not very concerned about how zero is, but the life here has opened up new ideas for zero one after another.

In fact, there is no shortage of life forms that decompose various mineral compounds on Ori. Zero has also seen creatures that obtain heat energy from volcanic rock cracks to maintain the balance of materials in their bodies, but their energy utilization is very primitive and Low-level, it has no reference value for Zerg.

Moreover, the bug swarm already has the ability to obtain energy from the stars, and there was basically no energy worry before that.

But this time, when faced with the special environment of planet No. [-], the discovery of these extraterrestrial life gave Zero an idea about developing a new energy system for the Zerg.

Of course, it is not like the organisms on the fourth planet that rely on a high-temperature environment to maintain the balance of substances in their bodies. Their main energy source is still predation rather than direct intake from the inorganic environment.

It just provides a way of thinking, a way to use the heat energy that exists widely in the planet to solve the energy demand of the Zerg!
On the edge of distant stars, although they are still within the influence range of the central star, the energy from the star is already negligible, and coldness and desolation are the main themes. At that time, the energy acquisition of the star, which is the main energy source today, will be a huge problem. The problem is that it is impossible to transport energy from the interior of the galaxy to the edge over a distance of billions of kilometers, which is unrealistic.

But the thermal energy inside the planet is completely different. Even if there is no frequent geological activity, as long as the earth's core is not extinguished and completely dead, then there will be no problem of being unable to obtain energy.

This is very important to the Zerg, and it is likely to be a new energy source to support their activities on the dead planet!
(End of this chapter)