Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 189 Sweeping the Star System

At this point in time, there is only one piece of good news that Sass can offer.

The energy power problem that hinders Zerg's long-distance navigation has a new breakthrough!

In the past 40 years, Zero has not actively interfered with any research on SARS, allowing it to consume massive resources like running water.

Fortunately, after such a long time, it was not disappointed after all.

An experimental bug species appeared in Zero's field of vision. Its body size is about the same as that of today's mainstream Zerg space units, but this is not the point.

The point is that during the test, its maximum speed can be accelerated to one-thousandth of the speed of light, and it still has enough energy to slow down!
One-thousandth of the speed of light does not sound like a big deal, but if it is converted into a commonly used speed unit, it is 300 kilometers per second. More intuitively, it is 3600 times the speed of a high-speed rail!
If you compare it with the maximum speed of the previous Zerg space unit, it took the Zerg six months to reach Planet 1.4 from Ori, covering a long distance of about 9 million kilometers, and the average speed was only [-] kilometers per second.

Of course, these six months included the time for acceleration and deceleration, as well as the time for adjusting direction and attitude during the journey. In the end, its maximum speed was about 20 kilometers per second, which was less than one ten-thousandth of the speed of light.

But even this speed has surpassed the third cosmic speed of the star system, and can escape the gravity of stars and reach the deep space of the universe.

From less than one ten-thousandth to one-thousandth, this is an order of magnitude change, and of course it is a well-deserved energy revolution!
It can even be said that in the interior of the star system, especially within planet No. 5000, sailing at this speed is a bit too extravagant. Taking the orbit anomaly between No. [-] and No. [-] planets as an example, the distance is only [-] million kilometers. If you sail at this speed at full speed, it only takes two days.

It may have arrived before accelerating to the maximum speed.

But then again, if this speed is used to cross the fifty light-year distance between the octopus galaxies from Crichtel to Heprius, it will take a full 5 years!

From this perspective, this speed is still insignificant, and it can even be said to be surprisingly slow!
However, the significance of the achievements made by Sass in the past 40 years is not just that it is as simple as increasing the maximum speed of the Zerg space unit by an order of magnitude.

On this road, Sass has taken the first step.In other words, one-thousandth of the speed of light is far from the limit. As long as we continue to walk along this road, maybe one day, even if they use conventional energy, they can reach or even exceed the maximum speed of the octopus when they sailed across the galaxy - 70% of the speed of light, which is [-] times the maximum speed of the Zerg today!
Speaking of which, the reason why the octopus use energy crystals for interstellar voyages only accelerates to [-]% of the speed of light is not because the energy supply efficiency of the energy crystals can only reach this step, but because the energy contained in a complete energy crystal can only support them to increase the speed of such a huge spaceship to this level, and there is a slight redundancy.

It is not impossible to continue to accelerate, but the speed can be increased, and it is completely impossible to slow down and park into the target galaxy.

The Zerg is facing this problem before and now. After the optimal balance between mass and speed is reached, there must be a maximum value for the sailing speed.

And this extreme value can only be increased by increasing the output power. Of course, if you can continue to obtain energy supplies during the journey, this problem will be solved, but even Daggs, who is thinking wildly, can't think of how to do this.

After the energy output problem is preliminarily resolved, it becomes possible to colonize and expand to planet [-] or even planet [-].

After being verified on the experimental insect species, a new generation of Zerg units was designed.

Now that the Zerg has developed, Sass can finally relax a little bit. Zero entrusts it with the task of continuing to optimize the energy problem, and leaves the task of improving the space unit to Dagos.

No matter which of the two, there is no insurmountable scourge in technology. The former has been found by Sass in the previous 40 years, while the latter is the old line of brain worms.

With the support of the massive resources accumulated over the years, it is only a matter of time before the new generation of Zerg space units comes out.

Under this premise, the Zerg's cross-planetary resource transportation supply chain will also start. Through this speed, at least in the inner galaxy, the problem of single redundancy caused by the uneven distribution of resources among the various colonized planets can be solved.

Take planet No. [-] as an example, the energy sources from the stars are extremely abundant on it, but the available mineral resources buried underground are not sufficient, or these available elements have not been enriched to form ore veins, and mining is very difficult.

This has resulted in the current situation where a large amount of energy is concentrated on planet No. [-], but there are very few mine veins.

Centralized transportation and unified deployment of various resources collected on each planet will undoubtedly increase the development speed of the Zerg to a certain extent.

When the Zerg Swarm planned to concentrate resources to colonize and expand the giant planets outside the star system, Zero started this project at the same time.

In order to connect all the colonized planets into a whole instead of letting them develop alone, Zero spared no expense and resources.

If the resources of the entire galaxy are difficult to centralize and deploy, then the current colonization activities will only expand Zero's field of vision.

For this reason, the Zerg space station located in the orbit of planet No. [-] will be expanded to temporarily act as a large transfer base for the Zerg in the star system.

Sass and Daggs had followed the Zerg shuttle-shaped space "dock" improved by Zero to the orbit of planet No. [-]. Theoretically speaking, today's place should be regarded as the current Zerg stronghold.

In fact, this is exactly the case. In Zero's plan, before leaving the star system in the future, this place will be the largest resource distribution center for Zerg. The resources collected from all colonies will be transported here except for their own consumption.

If possible, Zero also hopes to find a relatively stable orbit between the fourth and fifth planets, so that the current main base of the Zerg will become an "asteroid" orbiting the star. In this way, by controlling its own speed, it is possible to achieve the effect of passing by each planet at a specific time like a comet.

Of course, it does not mean that the main base itself should do this, but that the transport fleets from various planetary colonies may be able to use this method to make subtle adjustments through the gravity of the stars, so as to cleverly transport resources here without spending too much energy.

This is especially true for planets on the fringes of galaxies.

On the orbits of the three gas giant planets No. 10, No. [-] and No. [-], there are a total of [-] satellites that have reached hydrostatic equilibrium and thus presented a spherical shape, of which there are four on No. [-], three on No. [-] and three on No. [-] planets.

Among them, the largest in size and mass is undoubtedly the No. 0.68 satellite of Planet No. [-]. Its mass has reached an astonishing [-] Ori, which is basically comparable to that of Planet No. [-].

As for the other nine satellites, the smallest one is only slightly smaller than the "moon".

They are the most important targets for the Zerg to colonize the outer galaxies. In addition, those large-mass irregular celestial bodies are also within the target, but the priority is much lower.

Before that, Zero had sent swarms to carry out preliminary infiltration into the four satellites above the orbit of planet No. [-]. In fact, in the invisible underground, a large number of blanket-shaped Zerg energy units responsible for collecting star core energy spread here, and above, Zerg diggers were also active on a large scale, emptying out valuable resources little by little.

The average distance between here and the stars is 10 million kilometers, and it takes five to [-] minutes for the light from the stars to reach here!
It is not impossible to collect energy from the stars on its surface, but it is far worse than those rocky planets. If the consumption of resisting extreme temperatures and maintaining its own survival is included, the gains may outweigh the losses.

So in Zero's plan, this is just a backup.The main source of energy for the swarm's activities here is the heat energy from the planet's core!

For the gas giant planets orbiting these rocky satellites, Zero has not thought about them, but unfortunately, today's Zerg has no ability to break ground on them, and there is no effective way to use these The main components are hydrogen and helium.

In general, the gain outweighs the gain, and it is meaningless.

If one day, the Zerg can convert matter and energy at will, maybe they can be useful to the Zerg, but it is very likely that by that time, Zero will not care about this.

Compared with coveting these unattainable huge celestial bodies, it is better to take root to make the Zerg energy units that are gradually integrated on the surface and underground more powerful and more efficient in absorbing energy.

Since the Zerg entered space, the energy unit has undergone several major changes.

The plant-like energy structure originally applied on Ori could not adapt to the temperature difference environment on the "moon", so Sass made targeted improvements using the technology he got from the octopus. This is the first version of the Zerg space energy unit.

When the Zergs landed on Planet No. [-] and turned their attention to Planet No. [-], which is the closest to the star and also has the most energy, they found that their own energy units could not adapt to the environment there because of this level of temperature tolerance. Therefore, there was a second evolution, and finally they successfully landed on Planet No. [-], completed colonization activities, and started energy collection.

Similarly, on the fourth planet, in order to cope with the strong acidic environment on the surface and the strong acid rain that may fall at any time, Sass once again spent a lot of time improving them, and this is the third time.

Not long after, Dagus proposed a plan to solve the Zerg's use of the earth's nuclear energy. Soon, on the fourth planet, the underground energy insect blanket was born, and established a channel with the original energy unit on the surface, becoming a huge energy network covering the entire surface above the asthenosphere!
This is the latest improvement on the Zerg energy unit, but this is not the limit, because the collection and utilization of star core energy in this latest energy system is only on the surface, not even a drop in the bucket.

The huge amount of energy stored in the depths of the star core is close at hand to the "blood-sucking" Zerg lying above the asthenosphere, so how can Zero not covet it?

It's a pity that there are too many important projects that the Zerg need to study. Even with Dagos sharing the pressure, it is difficult for two cerebrates to be busy.

Therefore, it has been too late to wait for the opportunity to upgrade the energy unit again.

Speaking of Cerebral Worms, Dagus has shown his talent after being responsible for the development of the Zerg alone. Although there is still some gap compared to Sass, who knows everything about the Zerg, but when Sass is concentrating on research, under his leadership, the colonies in the entire galaxy are developing rapidly.

By the way, it also optimized the surface energy transportation channel, further reducing its energy consumption, and its subjective initiative is extremely strong.

It no longer needs zero to worry about, it can indeed stand alone, and to reach this level, it has gone through decades of study and practice!
From this point of view, cerebrates are no different from ordinary intelligence units. Apart from being born smart and having unlimited potential, they are not born with knowledge, and still need continuous learning to improve.

Today, the entire Zerg galaxy colonization system is operating under the control of Dagos combined with the will of the hive. There are no mistakes or omissions, and Zero's instructions can be executed quite thoroughly. At the same time, some scientific research work, including the flow of resources in the entire galaxy, is now in charge of Dagos. Zero really can't ask it to do more.

Sass, on the other hand, completely relieved himself of the task of coordinating the swarm, and concentrated on his own scientific research work. Finally, he got his wish and saved a lot of worry.

Perhaps it is really a relaxed environment that can bring more inspiration to the cerebrum. Just three years later, after Dagus took out the improved version of the Zerg space unit in less than a month, Sass announced that it once again doubled the speed of the Zerg in space.

Two thousandths of the speed of light!

That's nearly 600 kilometers per second!

Perhaps this is not an extreme speed for the boundless deep space of the universe, and this speed is even negligible for some advanced civilizations, but for the swarm, it is indeed a remarkable leap!
It is equivalent to [-] times the peak speed of the Zerg space unit more than [-] years ago!
Great results!

To reach this level, in this star system, there is no longer any distance that cannot be crossed. As long as the energy is sufficient, even the No. 50 gas giant planet, which is the farthest away from the closest point of the No. [-] planet’s orbit, is more than [-] billion kilometers away. As long as the timing is good, at this speed, it only takes less than a hundred days!

It can be said that when the Zerg's energy output efficiency reaches this level, the entire star system can finally be regarded as being included in the Zerg's bag!
Otherwise, it will take several years to move here, and there are too many variables.It is very likely that resources that are still in short supply at the time of departure have been resolved halfway.

After the phased results of this research, Zero did not let Sass continue to expand. It was able to make another gratifying progress on the original basis within this short period of three years. It has already made up for many defects that may not have been considered. Although it has basically seen the research direction in the previous decades of research, it is still unrealistic to continue to achieve results in a short period of time.

Therefore, Zero asked him to temporarily put aside the research in this area, leaving the rest of the problems to be discussed with Dags later, and turned to another improvement on the energy collection unit.

Every "living" planet contains enormous energy, which is the root of all geological activities. Even if the crustal activities have stagnated, deep in their hearts, there are still surging waves!

This is the "blood" endowed by the universe since their birth. At the very core, it is even hotter than the surface of stars!

For the Zerg, this is an important resource that cannot be relinquished!

Passing one's tentacles through the hot rocks to go deeper and hotter to obtain more energy is the closest and easiest way to obtain energy in front of the insect swarm.

The research progress in this area complements the energy collection on the surface of the planet, and it also faces the unbearable extreme high temperature. There is considerable commonality between the two.

Although it is indeed a luxury to go directly to the deepest point, even if it can be pushed down an inch, it will be a huge harvest of energy.

These individual insignificant little lives can take root above the entire asthenosphere, just like countless blood-sucking insects attached to the surface of the planet, greedily sucking the "blood" of the entire planet to support themselves.

Speaking of blood-sucking worms, they are just absorbing the insignificant heat from the core of the earth, and they are more like a parasite.

Even so, the energy obtained is an extremely considerable amount, which makes the energy output of the entire colonial planet surge and occupies a very important weight. The most important thing is that it is stable and reliable most of the time.

Sass has established a new research station deep underground on planet [-]. Brand new energy units and the entire energy collection system will be generated here and popularized among all colonized planets in the entire galaxy.

As for Dagos, it will be based on Sass's previous research results, allowing the Zerg space unit to evolve again, and will actually use this extreme speed that can travel through the entire galaxy in a short time on the Zerg themselves.

In the near future, if the Zerg units criss-crossing the planets sail at full speed, it will only take half a year to cross the orbit of the entire planet No. [-]!

(End of this chapter)