Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 217 Energy Vein
Compared with Ori, the central star of the Krichtel galaxy is one size larger. Its mass is 1.4 times that of Ori's star, but its volume is 1.6 times that of the latter, which means that its average density It is smaller than Ori's central star.

This star, which has radiated its light and heat into the galaxy for eons, has created a region hospitable to life.Its third and fourth planets orbit at a moderate distance from the star, which means that the energy from the star will not turn this place into a lava field, nor will it keep it frozen all year round.

Compared with the gas giant planet No. [-], Planet No. [-], which is a rocky planet, obviously has a more superior environment.

But maybe it was fate. Although the distance from the stars was almost the same, it did not give birth to civilization like Ori.

On the contrary, a satellite with the largest mass in the orbit of planet No. [-] took over its mission. Under not so superior conditions, the fire of life was born, and finally grew into a planet that later reached the level of interstellar travel. Civilization - Octopus people.

Visser commanded the swarm to devour all the "space junk" above the orbit. These man-made objects have no reference meaning for today's Zerg. Over the years, the brain worms have basically Thoroughly understood.

There may be some that aren't being used, but that's more due to inappropriate development for Zerg than they don't understand.

After clearing the orbit of this natural satellite, it will be a more in-depth exploration.The Zerg Devourer began to land on the surface of this satellite.

Without the protection of the atmosphere, this makes the landing of the swarm much easier. In Zero's field of vision, it is like a completely dead planet, quietly suspended in the darkness of space, with the help of The light illuminated half of his azure body.

Whenever it moves to the side of the fourth giant planet close to the star, the heat from the star will melt and evaporate the solid water on its surface, and enter the sky. Originally, if everything is normal, it should be in the future due to this effect The atmosphere has been restored, but it is a pity that its orbit has been seriously affected long ago, from a roughly circular orbit to a flat ellipse.

The direct result of this is that every time it completes a complete revolution, it will have a chance to get extremely close to the giant planet, and this "chance" will cause it to lose the "atmosphere" that has continued to accumulate during the process.

——To this day, it is still being robbed of mass by giant planets!

Maybe it can't be said to be taken away, they are just scattered in space.

But all of this is not important to Viser. If this is not the hometown of the octopus, it may retain the secret of the octopus obtaining energy crystals. It may not choose this place as the first base of the Zerg in this galaxy. site.

After the Devourers landed, they immediately started a comprehensive survey of the entire planet. Of course, before that, they needed to hatch enough Zerg units.

As usual, the swarm began to go all the way deep underground, and the planet obviously still had a frozen hot core, which would be the best energy source for the Zerg's expansion activities at this stage.

The adaptability of the swarm to the alien environment has been strengthened by Sass as early as Ori's time. In the following hundreds of years, it has undergone several evolutions, whether it is an extremely cold planet or a lava planet, Even on high-gravity planets with a mass about three times that of Ori, the Zerg can have enough adaptability, just by spending more energy.

This planet has obviously been tossed a lot in the past few hundred years. Visser has found a lot of evidence of geological activities under the thick ice layer, and at the same time, he can vaguely find some evidence that the octopus once existed. Architectural relics, or some unnatural objects.

It's a pity that Viser didn't find traces of living octopus people here, and he didn't even find a dormant device like that in space.

The violent geological activities here have erased a large number of traces of civilization.The insect swarm found some inactive plant seeds within the ice layer and in the deeper underground space. They did not survive in such an extreme environment.

Although it has not been observed at the microscopic level, it is almost certain that this is a planet with no life.

Viser was a little disappointed. If the octopus civilization still existed, it might be possible to find some information that Zero paid attention to through them, and at the same time obtain some knowledge of survival and development for thousands of years from them. Now it is obviously impossible.

Except for the birth of the octopus civilization, this planet has no other special features, and it is no different in essence from the planets that can be seen everywhere in the various galaxies in the universe.

As the swarm search deepened, Viser gradually began to adjust his mentality.Now that no useful clues can be found here, it's time to move on to the next step.

The Zerg Swarm began to accumulate resources here to incubate the first armed force. At the same time, the other two satellites in the orbit around planet No. [-] were gradually brought under their control by the Zerg colonists.

As time passed, the first Zerg armed fleet in the TD-004 galaxy—an armed force of more than [-] biological warships—was formed in space. build on.

Generally speaking, as long as there is no special existence like Mira, this "small" fleet is enough to ensure the normal progress of the Zerg colonization activities, at least it will not be wiped out in one round of blows.

The next step is to accumulate resources to send out the next round of Zerg colony expansion fleet, and to incubate Zerg space explorers for exploring the fourth planetary system.

Although there is no ready-made octopus "guidance", according to the memory records from the octopus colonization team, a "space anomaly" once appeared between the orbit of No. [-] planet and its No. [-] satellite, and the octopus also got The two energy crystals started their interstellar voyage.

Zero is very curious about this. How this kind of thing came about is just like his own existence, which does not conform to the common sense he knows.

But memory doesn't lie, and there's no doubt that the event did exist.

So is there a possibility that there is a third or even more energy crystals left here?
The Zerg race's energy supply is sufficient now. Although there is a demand for the energy provided by this substance, it is not necessary. Even if he can't find it, he will not be so disappointed.

It’s just that Zero has always maintained enough curiosity about unknown substances. Since there is such a phenomenon beyond his own cognition in the universe, and the place where this spectacle occurs is right in front of him, there is no reason for him not to study it. What's more, this substance itself is also useful for the Zerg. If there is enough support, maybe the Zerg can use it to make further progress in a short period of time!
It is not difficult for today's Zerg to hatch a small colonial fleet. The only thing that takes some time, apart from their own growth, is the collection of fusion raw materials.

To propel their large armed Zerg units across a long distance in units of light years, even a nuclear fusion reaction that can release huge energy requires a lot of raw material supply.

But now that a gas giant planet is right in front of us, and the colonization activities on each planet have already started, it is natural to meet this requirement.

With the support of sufficient energy and resources, Zerg explorers began to be released on a large scale in this planetary system.

They will serve as the eyes of Zero and the brain worms, and with the most intensive field of vision, they will completely display the orbit of planet No. [-] in front of Zero.

What they are going to search is a huge spherical area with a radius of about 300 million kilometers, excluding the gaseous planets. In order to search here more carefully, Zero is not going to just place the search area near the ecliptic plane, but completely place the entire planet The system is all included.

Visser roughly calculated that the Zerg now need to ensure the normal development of the three colonial planets in the entire galaxy and the expansion of the space base on the one hand, and on the other hand also need to take into account the energy supply and resource collection of the colonial fleet.

Under such conditions, it will take about seven months to complete the field of vision control of the entire planetary system.

Zero is noncommittal about this, the swarm has spent decades arriving here, and he still has this bit of patience.

In other directions, the fifth colony fleet of the Zerg has also approached the target star system, and Visser is also required to take charge of the overall situation.

After this round of expansion is completed, the number of Zerg colonized galaxies will increase by about half, and the overall depth will exceed fifty light-years!

During this period of time, Sass was conducting research on the armor materials of the Mira mechanical battleship, while Dagos was tinkering with his own energy weapons with the help of fusion reactors.

Time passed by in such days. Four months was not enough for the brain worms to make any progress in scientific research, but it was enough for the Zerg explorers to control most of the entire No. [-] planetary system.

To Zero's surprise, the explorers had already gained something before the Zerg had finished searching the entire planetary system!
Energy crystals, they really found it!

These purple translucent magical substances in the form of multi-faceted crystals are quietly suspended in the darkness like space junk, inconspicuous.

And their number far exceeded Zero's previous expectations.

166 pieces!Rather than saying it is a pile of energy crystals, it is better to say - an energy vein!
You know, the octopus traveled fifty light-years to Ori, and such a long distance failed to exhaust the energy contained in even one crystal. Now, just beside their home star, the Zerg have discovered hundreds of crystals. Meticulous lavender translucent energy crystal! !
What a irony this is!
If the original octopus had such a huge energy supply, why did they need to go to Ori to survive? !
Such a level of high-quality energy is enough for them to choose another planet in this galaxy and start a new one!Even a little bit of moving can create a suitable living environment!

Unfortunately, they didn't.

Zero doesn't know the specific reason for this, presumably the other party will continue to wait and collect after discovering that the space anomaly can bring this energy crystal, but obviously, they failed to wait until the follow-up, nor could they use this to escape from the parent star If you survive, you will be trapped on the planet.

Thinking of the cosmic spectacle brought about by the extremely bright but soft enough light recorded by satellites that he had read in the Octopus man's memory, Ling couldn't help but think of the observations made by the Swarm Fleet on its way forward.

That was four years ago, when the Zerg Swarm was very close to this galaxy and was about to start slowing down. The same fleeting light passed by the Zerg Swarm's field of vision, but it disappeared into the universe strangely, and did not go to the universe. Continue to spread further.

Presumably that is the space anomaly in the Octopus records, and it must have brought at least one energy crystal as described in the records!
It's just...why haven't they been collected by the Octopus over the years?
Zero is weird.

This is undoubtedly a huge treasure, but why didn't the octopus people use it?

From the information obtained before, Zero knew that the interval between the appearance of the first vision and the appearance of the second crystal, converted into the usual unit of the Zerg, was about five Oriel years.

However, it took far more than five years for the Octopus colony's spaceship from construction to departure. During this process, there was no special record at all, as if the only two energy crystals were unique and limited. General treasures!
Thinking of this, Zero seemed to understand a little bit.

From the current limited information, it can be boldly speculated that this may be an energy mine, but its output is not fixed.

After it appears in the universe, there will be a certain amount of output every once in a while, but this time is not fixed.

This can well explain the number of energy crystals left here, and it seems to perfectly explain why the octopus people cannot use this to change their fate.

It's just that this is just speculation after all. The octopus people have actually perished. What is the truth of the matter? Zero needs more evidence to support it. At this moment, this is the most reasonable explanation he can think of.

In any case, it is always a good thing to have something to gain, and now, the Zerg also possess this material entity, so they no longer have to covet in the memory of the octopus.

With these samples, Zero needs to do a good job of research, let Dagus also participate, and try to apply it to the Zerg's weapon system.

After all, the original octopus used the residual energy of a single crystal to deal a devastating blow to the tens of thousands of square kilometers of Ori's surface!
There are many ideas about these energy crystals, including the application research in various aspects of interstellar navigation.

It's a pity that compared to the size of the Zerg, their number is still too small.Although this batch of crystals contains enormous amounts of energy, the efficiency of releasing energy is far from being comparable to that of ordinary fusion reactors, and it does not change its slightly tasteless nature to the Zerg today.

First of all, the Zerg's current energy supply system is comprehensive, including stellar energy, planetary core heat energy, nuclear fusion and fission energy.This system as a whole will never change fundamentally because of the appearance of a hundred energy crystals.

Because of its indivisible and rare characteristics, its application scope has become much narrower, and large-scale application is impossible.

Secondly, Zero hasn't fully figured out what to use this kind of special energy for, so it won't be possible to use it to supply the daily needs of the swarm.

Good steels are used for the blades, not to mention that they are so scarce.All in all, it is not a bad thing to modify the Zerg units that can make it play its due role first.

Maybe it can be used to further increase the speed of the Zerg during the longer-distance interstellar voyage, or maybe it can be used as the original idea of ​​the octopus to turn it into a powerful energy source for energy weapons. within range.

The universe is so vast, and since this strange substance has been discovered in the Crichtel galaxy, Zero can almost conclude that this kind of "mineral vein" is definitely not the only one in the universe.

So how do other advanced civilizations that might exist use it?

Such a question flashed through Zero's mind, and then it was left behind.At this point, it doesn't make any sense to think about these things.

How to deal with these special energy depends on the long-term output of this "energy vein", and at the same time, it can verify your previous guess.

Except for this energy vein, there seems to be no other special place in this galaxy that is worthy of the swarm's intentional stay. Perhaps it is special enough to be able to breed life, but now the octopus people are all extinct. In the eyes, it is no different from other barren galaxies except for the more important mineral veins whose production method and quantity are unknown.

In the following time, the sixth batch of colonists of the swarm hatched and grew, and they set off from Crichtel first, and headed for six stars within [-] light-years of here.

The Zerg colonists who carried out the previous batch of expansion plans also arrived at the target galaxy one after another during this period of time. By the year 981 of the Zerg, the fifth batch of the Zerg's interstellar colonization fleet had all completed the initial colonization activities.

At this moment, the number of star systems occupied by the Zerg has reached 63, and the average radius of the sphere of influence has reached 55 light-years. Judging from the bar-shaped river system as a whole, the Zerg is already at its edge. There is a trace of undetectable foothold.

The only fly in the ointment is that the communication and contact between the various galaxies is still a problem. Once an enemy invades, the Zerg can only use the resources of the same galaxy to fight against it within a few decades, and cannot use the resources of many galaxies. Advantage comes.

Of course, even so, this is amazing enough.

In addition, for Zero, there are two other things that he cares about during this process.

One is that although the Zerg Swarm has gone through five rounds of expansion, there are almost no life planets discovered. Even if the home planet of the Octopus and the indigenous race of the ice field that allowed the Zerg to master nuclear fission, there are only four. Considering the hundreds of planets within the sphere of influence, the ratio is indeed somewhat low.

Zero really wants to meet more alien races, but unfortunately, Zerg has been sailing alone in the starry sky, devouring, multiplying, continuing to sail, and repeating itself.

The second is thinking about the mechanical civilization Mira. After decades, Zero has been thinking about the meager information Mira left behind. After long thinking and many guesses about the behavior of the other party, Zero thinks This mechanical life that caused huge troubles to the Zerg race most likely didn't completely perish in any battle.

Because even though the Zerg had the advantage at that time, they were unable to monitor the entire galaxy, and with their abilities, if they were prepared in advance, the Zerg would be powerless to stop it with its life form.

Sometimes, Zero couldn't help thinking, if Mira hadn't "died", then where is it now, and in what way is it spying on the swarm?
(End of this chapter)