Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 266 Shocked Velvet

In the decades since Ruhr concentrated on dealing with the many civilizations in the Commonwealth, the swarm has not stopped developing.In addition to the Zerg fleet providing support, the Zerg's sphere of influence has greatly expanded throughout the entire river system.

Since entering the era of interstellar expansion, the Zerg's space exploration operations have generally shown an exponential pattern. After the emergence of wormholes, there has been a leapfrog development.

In 1560, the area of ​​the river system occupied by the insect swarm was about one-fifth millionth of the entire river system, containing about 500 stars and more than 2 star systems.

But until 1693, within 130 years, the number of stars occupied by the insect swarm had reached 13, covering nearly [-] star systems!

If its huge sphere of influence were added together, it would occupy one millionth of the river system!

Considering the size of a river system, one millionth is by no means a small number. On the contrary, it is extremely huge. No force in the entire known river system can compare with them.

Of course, they didn't gain anything in the process.

On a desolate planet where life should not exist, the swarm discovered some strange creatures that were different from all the creatures the zerg had encountered so far.

Because the basis of their life is another element - silicon.

The existence of silicon-based life has always been one of the topics within the Zerg. Although there has not been a large amount of research, related speculations are not uncommon among the Cerebrates.

Including the Velvet people, the Pan-Galaxy Federation, and even the Octopus people, it can be found from the information obtained by the Zerg that they have more or less speculated and studied this kind of life.

However, I have never encountered it before.

This kind of creature lives on a rocky planet and obtains energy through complex chemical reactions of silicon and oxygen elements combined with other elements. However, it has almost no intelligence at all. They do not have a brain in the general sense. Instead, they have a kind of computing power that is only better than that of ordinary insects. A slightly higher body structure.

Of course, this is a conclusion reached only after studying them.

In research, they once demonstrated extremely excellent ability to withstand high temperatures. Their unique molecular structure makes their bodies more stable and they can survive under various extreme conditions.

Compared with carbon-based organisms in the general sense, a large number of necessary substances, including water, are non-essential for them.

It can be said that compared to the Zerg on the surface of the planet, these special life forms have shown extremely adaptable characteristics to the universe, except that they have no intelligence - this is still related to their basic structure.

At a rough estimate, even if it takes thousands of years, silicon-based life on this planet will not be able to enter the starry sky. Their potential is too low.

But encountering them is also a good thing for the Zerg. When the real example is in front of us, the advantages of silicon-based life and the possible future development direction of carbon-based life will be carried out based on the research of biotechnology by the brainworms. Exploring may lead to a completely different path.

Even if the Zerg's current bio-alloy outer armor is countless times stronger than the opponent's body structure, it does not change this.

After all, it is well known that elements of the same family have similar characteristics and have many things in common.If the Zerg can reach this stage from carbon-based life, they may not be able to start from scratch and use silicon-based life as the basis to walk this road again.

Maybe combining the two is also a good idea. Anyway, the intelligence of ordinary Zerg individuals is as different as that of these silicon-based lifeforms. For the brainworms, they don't care at all.

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

The development of silicon-based life is the icing on the cake for the Zerg. If they could have been discovered by the Zerg 1000 years ago, perhaps today's Zerg would have been influenced by them and embarked on a completely different path. After all, it showed The superiority was something that the carbon-based Zerg spent a lot of effort to overcome.

But for today's Zerg, that's all.

In addition, Gore's research on energy life Zhuna has also yielded some results.

From the crisis caused by the surge of dark matter in the wormhole, Zero gained insight into some of Zhuna's existence characteristics. They seemed to have some kind of obsession with repairing the wormhole passage, and would always appear in places where changes would occur in these spaces.

Of course, it is limited to Lyman so far. The insect swarm has not found them in the origin galaxy.

Over the years, the Zerg have been exploring the Lyman Galaxy. Apart from the discovery of Zhuna, they have never encountered even an intelligent race. You must know that as early as 1224, the Zerg had already arrived here and started exploring. .

Now more than 400 years have passed. Just in terms of scope, the star field occupied by the Zerg here has far exceeded the territory opened by any other Cerebrate except for the Zerg group centered on Krichtel where Sass is located. It is three times the entire territory of the coalition that Ruhr defeated before!
Thousands of stars have been brought under the control of the Zerg, but not a single planet with an intelligent race has been seen, let alone a civilization capable of interstellar navigation.I have to say, this is unusual.

The strange thing is that except for guarding the wormhole passage and repairing it, Zhuna does not seem to take the initiative to attack creatures. This should not have much to do with it.

Zero thought so before.

Until an accidental opportunity, during the development of the galaxy by the insect swarm, the distribution differences of some elements attracted Gore's attention.

Finally, through extensive research, it was discovered that the material composition of planets that seemed to be "wrapped" by Zhuna would change to a certain extent. The details were more complicated, but in short, they all seemed to have erased the subtle possibility of the emergence of organisms. .

In other words, even in the extremely distant future, the possibility of these planets giving birth to life on their own is very slim.

It is eradicating the birth of intelligent races from the source!
If this is the case, Zhuna, who migrates irregularly throughout the year and reproduces relatively easily, can indeed minimize the possibility of intelligent life appearing within the entire galaxy!
This is Gore's biggest discovery of Zhuna in these years. Of course, there are some fragmentary discoveries besides this, but they are not important compared to this.

Because it further reveals the secret of the existence of this kind of life, it gives Zero more basis for his guess, but at the same time, it also raises more questions.

Why does it do this?

From taking the initiative to close wormholes at the cost of their lives, to now eradicating intelligent races from the source, but unexpectedly not taking the initiative to attack the worm swarms, there are too many abnormalities, and some behaviors are even inconsistent with ordinary life. The underlying logic is contradictory!

According to research, these Zhuna clones do not possess high intelligence, this is certain.But judging from their behavior, their purpose is so obvious.

This is less like a biological instinct and more like...

A preset program!

Maybe, it was created!

This sounds sensational.After all, Zhuna itself is almost invincible to the Zerg, except for occupying favorable galaxies and detonating gravity bombs.If there is any existence that created them, it is simply beyond the imagination of today's insect swarm.

Of course, this is just a reasonable speculation based on its behavior, and there is no direct evidence.However, Zerg activities often do not require any evidence. Sars, who has always expected the enemy to be lenient and inherited his strategic thinking, pays more attention to this.

For this reason, Zero decided to increase his exploration of the Lyman Galaxy.

After Gore died in Lyman, out of concern for the safety of the Cerebrates' lives, Zero never sent Cerebrates to this huge galaxy that now seemed quite "desolate". However, now, from the Federation, , the swarm obtained a large amount of data and conclusions about the changes inside the wormhole, and basically understood its mechanism.

As expected, its occurrence does follow a certain pattern, and it will only happen when the conditions are met.And of course, the most important factor is time!

To put it simply, when the wormhole has been open for about 16 years, the possibility of danger will suddenly increase.In the joint investigation, this seems to be related to the large accumulation of matter inside the channel. In addition, it is also affected by a series of complex factors, but in short, at least within the sixteen Orian years of continuous opening of the wormhole , it is still safe.

After figuring out the risks posed by Zhuna and wormholes inside the Lyman galaxy, Gore once again requested to return here and personally lead the swarm to explore it on a large scale.

To be honest, this does not mean zero. With the biological density of the Lyman Galaxy, it actually does not make much sense for the Cerebrate to be in charge. It can completely sit in a safe area for unified command, but since it is Gore's own request, then Zero didn't object either.

In 1694, Gore returned to the Lyman Galaxy and began to organize a large-scale exploration of the entire galaxy at close range.

At the same time, the huge fleet of the Velvets is getting closer and closer to the Teller system occupied by the Zerg.

Different from the past, this time Visser no longer plans to play house with the Velvet people. The insect swarm entrenched here has already begun a large-scale transformation as early as 1692, and the originally restricted production capacity has also been reduced. Be fully released.

For more than 100 years, the Velvets have trained tens of millions of warriors to control spaceships. In order to replenish the federal population, a large number of clones began to be trained to serve in the army. They were born with no other mission but to contribute their full strength to the war.

Under the strong deterrence of the Zerg, there was no objection like a thousand years ago. …

How terrifying would it be to have a Zerg base that completely releases its production capacity to hatch Zerg units?The production capacity of the multi-star production lines that the Federation had worked hard to build over the past century was completely exhausted in the first month. In just six months, the insect swarm overtook them in terms of numbers.

After defeating the alliance, Zero plans to establish a "Zerg Talent Bank" exclusive to the Zerg to cultivate talents for the Zerg that can be used in scientific research.

Of course, in order to prevent this "insect talent pool" from becoming a "idiot talent pool", he also needs technical support from Sass.

From the Federation, as the swarm continues to advance, the number of captive intelligent civilization individuals now exceeds 1000 billion. They are either trapped on the surface of the planet, or simply blocked in the living space station.

Ruul did not attack them or communicate with them, it simply trapped the existing individuals while sending Zerg land units onto the planet's surface to destroy all weapons of mass destruction, nothing more.

Whether it's Ruel, Visser, or Todd, they are all waiting for a decision from Zero to determine whether they will use complete violence or limited violence when facing the intelligent race in front of them.

…………

Zerg In 1698, Sars' experiment that had lasted for hundreds of years finally came to a conclusion.

Previously, the structure that can bring "aura" from the Brocher body has been proven to have the ability to restore the creativity of intelligent civilization individuals "infected" by Zerg lurkers. This also means that the Zerg has the highest level of intelligent civilization. The infiltration of scientific researchers became possible.

In order to determine its effectiveness and whether there are unknown side effects, so as not to waste these precious talents and change the Zerg's strategic decision-making, Sass was ordered to conduct experiments and observations for hundreds of years, and finally determined one thing.

That is to say, it does have certain side effects. For example, the effects may be different due to adaptability in different organisms.Due to the peculiar nature of this difference, there is no way to quantify it, but it does exist.

In other words, after being implanted into an individual's body, some can play a better role, while others may have no effect, depending on the individual.

It's not a perfect result, but there aren't many things in the world that are perfect, and to this point, Zero is more than satisfied.

His previous plan has thus received sufficient technical support, and it can then be implemented.

The first ones to bear the brunt are naturally the Velvets.

His long-term lurking has allowed Todd to control all aspects of the entire civilization, especially high-level and important positions.

The moment Zero made his decision, Todd had already started to respond.

The Federation's fleet lost its signal connection at the edge of the Teller system, and was immediately destroyed by the swarm of insects that actively attacked.

Then, Visser's biological fleet began to sail at super-light speed towards the Federation's home star - Velvet, heading straight towards Huanglong.

At the same time, throughout the Federation, a huge "rebellion" took place.

After getting up in the morning, many people find that their colleagues, comrades, and superiors seem to behave differently than usual.

But then they knew something was different, because Todd had completely stopped acting.

A large number of Zerg units broke away from the surface and rushed into the city in a devastating manner, but the space-based defense system in the outer orbit of the planet did not make any move.

Immediately, the federal military began an internal purge, and a large number of senior officers were caught off guard and killed in a surprise attack by Zerg lurkers.

Subsequently, Zerg units entered military territory and purged every aspect of the entire federal military establishment.

In Todd's plan, the Velvets of the future no longer need military weapons.

At first, many people thought this was a coup. Although they were panicked, they still felt that with the size of the Federation, they would be able to quickly put down the rebellion and restore order.

But as time went by, especially when the swarms of insects rose openly from the surface into space, and the space-based defense weapons that the Federation was proud of did not respond at all, everyone knew that things were no longer that simple.

This is not a coup at all, nor is it a damn rebellion, nor is it an alien army created by a crazy biologist. This is a Zerg invasion, an unprecedented and long-planned invasion of alien species!
Combined with the abnormal changes in some people around them in a short period of time, a terrifying but true conjecture has appeared in the minds of many smart people.

Thinking of the insect swarm coming from the underground, it must be able to hide underground without leaving a trace. It must have gone through a long period of breeding and arrangement, and at the same time, there must be some kind of cover within the Federation.

But for so long, the entire Federation has not been able to detect any clues. As long as the mind moves quickly enough, it is easy to think of the incident that was recorded in the textbooks 600 years ago, which the Federation is proud to bring to the entire race. The "New Technology Explosion" of "Eternal Life Technology"!
At that time, the Federation once discovered that this kind of alien life could restore the reproductive ability of its own macroscopic individuals through microscopic divisions, but it was quickly considered to be under control at the time.

However, combined with the biological fleet that has appeared outside the territory of the Federation and slaughtered tens of billions of Terle and Velvet citizens, as well as the invasion activities that occurred within the Federation, it now seems that maybe the original incident It's not that simple.

Of course, although this inference is not profound, it is not something that everyone can think of. Many people still believe that this is a long-planned conspiracy by an unknown external biological civilization.

In a sense, their idea is not wrong, but it is an inversion of cause and effect.

It's not because of Visser's biological battleships that there are today's insect swarm invasions, but because of the existence of these insect swarms, there are external biological warships!

This is no wonder, after all, the various swarms of insects that are pouring out of the surface now are completely different from the materials recorded in textbooks 600 years ago, or from the biological fleets that the Federation is facing today.

…………

Compared to the long lifespan of the Velvet people, 600 years is only five to six generations.

If an individual lives long enough, he may be able to witness the entire process from the widespread application of the technological achievements obtained by the Federation from the Zerg to today's biological invasion.

If he still has enough thinking ability, he may be able to tell the truth, but such existence is already rare.

However, that doesn't matter anymore.

The entire Federation, including various colonies including the Velvet home planet, is experiencing a huge top-down turmoil at this moment.

Without unified leadership, the Velvet people have no ability to organize resistance activities against the insect swarm, not to mention that they now have to always be wary of whether their companions around them are disguised as some kind of terrorist creature.

Because they had witnessed with their own eyes the cannibalism between the Zerg lurkers and the real top federal officials, many people no longer trusted their companions who lived with them day and night.

More than [-]% of the Federation's military system has directly collapsed and was quickly destroyed organically, while the insect swarm is quickly controlling the entire situation.

In this chaotic situation, some temporary leaders of the Velvet people under the control of the Zerg began to re-maintain the new order under the Zerg rule system. To be honest, no matter what their position was, at least they did ensure that many people who were originally due to chaos And the lives of the Velvet people who must die.

This was not something Todd did intentionally, but it did achieve such an effect.

In 1704 of the Zerg, Visser's huge biological fleet arrived at Velvet, the capital of the Velvet Federation, which had been completely disarmed. Along the way, they had divided their forces many times and headed to various important stars under the federal rule. area.

At this point, there is no longer any suspense about this chaos. The swarm used absolutely powerful violent methods, combined with the personal statements of the lurkers of the zerg, to turn the Velvet people who could still maintain a superior life into prisoners of the zerg overnight.

It is hard to imagine that just 12 years ago, they were still planning a counterattack against the Zerg and actually put it into practice, but in Zero's mind, they quickly completed the gorgeous transformation from master to prisoner.

Of course, this is still some distance from the plan to achieve zero. This is not the end, just a beginning.Next, they will no longer have the same freedom as before. Even because the insect swarms have begun to infiltrate early, they cannot even retain the true fire of civilization like the Colossians.

　Thank you for your concern. After taking some medicine, I feel much better.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)