Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 192 Set sail
Three percent of the speed of light, or about 9000 kilometers per second, if it is above the surface of the earth and sails in the atmosphere at this speed, take Ori as an example, it only takes about six seconds to sail around its equator for one week!
But if this speed is placed between the Ori and Hurley galaxies, the distance is 5.6 light years, at this speed, it will take nearly 200 years!
This is still the closest star system. If you want to go straight to the hometown of the octopus, which is the Krichtel galaxy, at this speed, it will take a full 500 years!

Even in order for the Zerg Swarm to reach such an "insignificant" speed in the universe, it took a full 36 years for the two brain worms of the Zerg!

It has always been easier said than done. As early as 70 years ago, Sass had spent 40 years to find a solution to the Zerg's energy output efficiency. Three percent, it took them nearly 70 years.

If you add the time it took to increase the maximum speed of the space bug species from less than one ten-thousandth of the speed of light to two-thousandths of the speed of light, then this number has already exceeded a hundred years!

In this regard, Zero expressed admiration for the luck of the octopus people.

It took the Zerg more than 100 years to reach [-]% of the speed of light, and they could easily achieve more than twice this speed with only two energy crystals.

Although it took at least 200 years of preparation time before the octopus began their interstellar voyage, during this process, their main energy was on building spaceships, and they even skipped over energy.

Because after testing, the output efficiency of energy crystals can be improved almost infinitely!
In theory, it could empty all of its stored energy in an instant!
Without this fortuitous encounter, with the original technology level of the octopus people, even if the technology exploded in the next 300 years, they would not be able to develop to the step of crossing the star system.

On the Zerg side, Zero couldn't even observe the wreckage of the energy crystal up close. I don't know where it was blown up in the end. In a dark space, finding it is tantamount to Find a needle in a haystack.

One day, Zero will go to the home galaxy of the Octopus people, Krichtel, to see what is special about it in the records of the Octopus people, or if there are any other legacy left by the Octopus people.

But not now, fifty light years is still too far away.

After the brain worms once again solved the energy problem, launching colonization activities to other star systems was put on the agenda.

The first is to establish the goal. The three star systems of Hurley, Torrell, and Sommer were zero-selected. The main colonization targets are Torrell and Sommer galaxies, and Hurley is only used as a Zerg to protect itself.

As for Prov, because the distance is too far, at the current top speed of the Zerg, it will take 300 years to reach there, which is much longer than the first three.

This is one, and the other is because of resource issues.

To accelerate itself to [-]% of the speed of light in the void of the universe, and to complete the final deceleration, it is necessary to reserve enough redundancy for contingencies, and the energy consumed during this process is not a small number.

It is also impossible for Zero to send a small number of bugs across a long distance of ten light years to complete the colonization activities there. If you are lucky enough, that may also achieve your goal, but the risk is high and it is unnecessary.

Even Zerg is not afraid of some losses, but at the beginning of technological breakthroughs, it is not advisable to take too many outward steps. Zero, who has always followed the principle of "be lenient to the enemy", is more willing to be a steady person deep in his heart.

As we all know, at the beginning of a business, the amount of start-up capital is very important, which directly affects the speed of development and growth.

For an entire galaxy, it remains to be considered how large a colony team will be sent.

It's just that in the past, the Zerg were trapped in the status quo, passively waiting for possible enemies and accidents to come, but now it's finally time for them to march to the alien world.

Perhaps in the unknown star field, they will encounter brand new enemies, but this time, they will no longer be the ones to worry about.

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

Two years later, three completely different expeditionary swarms assembled at the main base. The reason why they were so different was that one of them had only single-digit Zerg units compared to the size of the other two.

It was headed for Heli, which most likely had no planets, and the Zerg went there as a precaution and, if possible, as an outpost on their way to the next galaxy.

These insect species that have undergone the full transformation of Sass and Dagos, apart from the inter-epochal improvement in power, the only difference in appearance from these hollow jellyfish-like transporters in the galaxy is their size.

Under Sasse's calculations, they have reached an optimal balance in terms of mass and energy output again, to ensure that after they can accelerate to the maximum speed, they still have enough energy redundancy to deal with possible risks and eventual deceleration Activity.

For these two large colonial teams, Zero almost did everything he could, consuming more than half of the resources accumulated in the entire main base!

Each of these two branches has more than [-] individuals. This is not the basic unit that was hatched by the swarm when it was on the surface. Their size is tens of millions of times that of those land units. !
In order to ensure the smooth colonization of these two galaxies, Zero can be said to spare no effort.

In the honeycomb space dock of the main base, each hole is a huge hatching site, where they obtain material supplies to grow, and also replenish and set sail here.

At the same time, the huge number is not only for increasing the speed of colonization in the initial stage of colonization, but their more important role is to ensure that the swarm can reach the new star system smoothly. The vast majority of the energy may be turned into a backup energy source for a certain bug.

As for the team going to Hurley, it is not that important. It was just an idle move, and even if it fails, there is not much loss.

After everything was ready, the three colonial fleets positioned around the main base of the Zerg space began their respective orbital accelerations.

Due to the different directions, they successively start changing speeds at different positions on the orbit around the stars of the main base, using the gravitational force from the stars to "throw off" themselves, and finally surpass the third cosmic speed until they rush out of the star system and continue to accelerate. They have reached their own maximum speed, and each of them has sailed in this way for more than two hundred years, and finally arrived at new galaxies one after another to start activities.

It will take at least a few months for them to change orbit and accelerate from the main base, to rush out of the star system, and basically get rid of the gravity of the central star and enter the void of the universe.Accelerating from the orbital speed to the third cosmic speed beyond the star system, and finally reaching [-]% of the speed of light, is not an overnight process. Even if it jumps out of the star system, it still takes a long time to accelerate.

This is mainly limited by the body strength of the Zerg, but the energy output efficiency is sufficient.In other words, there is still room for improvement in the physical strength of the Zerg. Of course, this is not the focus of the Zerg's development for the time being.

As they sped away, Sass and Dagos already had new assignments for them.

Over the past few decades, Zero's Dyson sphere plan is still at the first step, and has not made much progress in essence.

It did take some time to verify the resource consumption of Zerg energy units for reproduction in space, but after calculation, if their current reproduction consumption, that is, the mainstream creep active on each planet is directly copied into space, would you like to To complete such a grand project, only the initial resource investment can empty out the resources on a planet!
With the consumption required for the growth of the current energy unit, forcibly advancing this project is likely to bankrupt the Zerg that has just launched interstellar colonization activities, and if it is only a small-scale establishment of a pilot, the output is too small and there is not much meaning.

Therefore, in recent decades, the development of this ultra-far-reaching project has stagnated.

Now, Sass and Daggs are finally free, and this difficult task will be handed over to Sass with outstanding ability. Of course, even he can only push it forward slowly to a certain extent. The next focus needs to be on the energy efficiency of each colonized planet.

Abundant energy supply is also a prerequisite for future Dyson sphere plans.

As for the research on the Zerg's attack methods in the space age, Dagus is in charge. The Zerg used to have some ancient methods in this regard, but it is obviously far from enough now. How to threaten the enemy is an important task. knowledge.

Before the Zergs arrive in the new star system and the resources in the main space base are abundant again, the promotion of energy output efficiency will be the focus of the Zergs' development during this period.

There is no other reason. The departure of several colonial teams consumed most of the resources in the main space base, while the energy reserves were almost exhausted!
You must know that it is the accumulation of decades since the establishment of the main base. It is just a large-scale event, and it is almost sold out!Of course, there are still considerable reserves in each colony, but even if these are added together, it is not enough for Ling to gather another colonial team of the same size.

In the past, many things could not be done due to the problem of energy output power. Now, in the face of the large-scale activities of the Zerg, the total amount of energy is insufficient, which limits their development.

The cause of this problem is not the distribution of energy units, in fact, they have already surrounded all "living" planets in the extreme depths of the ground.

In the outskirts of the star system, they are even responsible for the main energy supply for the Zerg colonization activities, maintaining the basic life activities of themselves and all the diggers responsible for mining resources, and even adding the energy consumed by hatching space transporters.

This part of the expenditure is very huge, and the closer to the edge of the star system, the less the total amount of energy delivered to the Zerg main base per unit time, or even a cliff-like decline.

There are various reasons for this, and a large part of it is due to the fact that these spherical colonial satellites outside the star system are mostly unable to compare with the rocky planets in the inner galaxy in terms of volume and mass.

But more importantly, they lack the energy supply from the stars.Compared with the "Moon" with almost the same volume and mass, and the No. [-] satellite of Planet No. [-], the total amount of energy supplied to the Zerg main base is more than twice that of the latter.

The lack of sufficient stellar energy in the colony planets on the outskirts of the galaxy is one of the reasons for the Zerg's energy problems again, but it is by no means the main reason.

Biological use of stellar energy has a long history. Whether it is the Zerg or the relatively advanced civilization octopus they encountered, there are many researches on this aspect. The Zerg's main source of energy is the stars.

This big fireball that dominates the entire galaxy has provided its own energy for every civilization born here for hundreds of millions of years, allowing life to exist and civilization to develop.

But compared to the utilization of stellar energy, even after three times of optimization and improvement, the performance of the creep that can already draw energy from the extreme depths of the ground is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Of course, it is undeniable that their existence has laid the energy foundation for the Zerg's colonization of the entire star system, and it is still a very important part of the entire Zerg's energy system.

Zero has roughly calculated that if the energy consumption of the Zerg units in all planetary colonies is included, the energy from geothermal energy can account for more than 40.00% of the total, and it is indeed a well-deserved energy pillar.

But if we only talk about the energy reserves in the Zerg space base, then the proportion from this aspect will drop sharply to less than 15.00%!
Needless to say, the reason for this is that the existence of extremely cold planets at the edge of the star system has offset too much energy supply from this aspect.

For the time being, Sass has no more ideas about improving the efficiency of stellar energy utilization. This involves some technical problems that are temporarily difficult to overcome, even if it is actually related to the further advancement of the Dyson sphere project.

Compared with this, it is much simpler to solve the current urgent needs of the Zerg from geothermal energy.At least compared to extremely hot stars, it is much milder, and it is easier to do both in experiments and in practice.

The Dyson sphere project is still a distant dream so far, and Zerg is still a long way from realizing "energy freedom".But the energy gushing out from the planet's core all the time is close at hand, and it can even be said that it has been touched by the Zerg.

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

Three months later, the edge of the star system, if it is in the solar system, it should be called the "Kuiper Belt".

Here is the edge of the star's sphere of influence. Looking from here to the central star, its brightness is much weaker than looking up at the "moon" from the surface of Ori.

But even so, this place is still dominated by that "distant" star, and all celestial bodies are orbiting around it.

Whether it is the data from the Octopus, or Zero's personal observation after the explosion of Zerg technology, it is believed that there are no large-mass planets like the solar system, that is to say, there are only seven large-mass planets in the entire Ori galaxy. , there is no so-called eighth planet or a dwarf planet whose mass is large enough to affect the orbit of the planet.

Of course, there are countless small celestial bodies. Perhaps they were orbiting here at the beginning of the birth of the stars, and their revolution period reached hundreds of years. Perhaps they have not been able to complete the orbiting of the stars since the birth of the Zerg on Ori. Feat of the week.

Zero has no intention of staying here. Colonial activities here are undoubtedly not worth the loss. They even need energy support from the interior of the star system, but they can only obtain some common resources. The effort is not directly proportional to the harvest, and there is no need to proceed. .

The Zerg creature fleet heading to Toril continues to move forward. They are the first batch of Zerg life to step into the "Kuiper Belt". Within fifteen days, the other two colony teams heading to other star systems will also enter one after another. This range is just a completely different direction.

Passing through here, the speed of the "solar wind" from the central star gradually begins to weaken, which means that this distant behemoth gradually feels powerless to grasp such a distant edge.

Here is the top layer of the "heliosphere", which is nearly 200 billion kilometers away from the central star, and it is also the last bit of territory belonging to the central star.

To the outside, there is an infinite amount of interstellar medium. Under their influence, the "solar wind" of the central star is further weakened.Zero knows that here, there are countless particle entanglement collisions that the Zerg cannot observe, which raises the temperature here to thousands of degrees Celsius.

But it's still icy here. If the Zerg were still the same as they were on Ori, they didn't have much resistance to extreme environments, then once they were exposed here, they would freeze to death in an instant.

Yes, frozen to death in the "high temperature" of thousands of degrees Celsius.

Temperature is just a physical quantity that describes the degree of thermal movement of matter molecules. As long as the matter is thin enough, no matter how violent the movement of these particles is, it will be difficult for the Zerg fleet to sail here.

Here, "hot" and cold.

Beyond the confrontation boundary between the stellar wind and the interstellar medium, the stars behind are not much different from other stars in the starry sky, they are just bright spots dotted in the darkness.

Darkness and silence are the main themes in the universe, and light is the luxury.

Here, the speed of the Zerg fleet relative to the central star of the Ori galaxy gradually approached one percent of the speed of light. Years of interstellar travel spread the brilliance of the Zerg to more star systems, and brought the glory of life to these places that have only been lonely since ancient times.

Sass and Dagos will sit in the Zerg main base in the Ori system and provide them with technical support through the Hive Will.

(End of this chapter)