Chapter 246: Insect Plague! Insect Plague!
"Boss! The military intercepted a target ship, but the ship has self-destructed and there is no biological reaction on it. It is suspected that it is driven by mechanical soldiers.
"At present, more than a dozen similar ships have been discovered. Although the military has sent out more maneuverable ships to chase them, they have all failed.
"The military has captured some footage of enemy ships crashing into a planet."
A projection screen popped up automatically on Yang Ming's network access terminal.
Catherine, who was standing by, immediately came over and stared at the blurry video playing on the projection screen.
——The blurriness is because the shooting distance is far, and the target star and the ship where the shooting equipment is located are moving at high speed.
One could barely see a silver-white shuttle battleship entering the atmosphere, with scorching flames appearing outside the protective shield, and it crashed into the planet's clouds like a fireball.
Suicide crash?
Catherine wondered, "What is this?"
"Natural disaster," Yang Ming said in a deep voice, "man-made disaster."
"What?" Catherine was confused.
Yang Ming explained patiently:
"Just now, traces of a large number of warships jumping were detected at the border of the Empire. Dozens of these ships passed through the blank area of the Empire's border defenses and then jumped to the entire Empire.
"My assistant and I speculated that this was the New Federation's attempt to go all out and directly trigger all the insect burial sites to forcibly create a large-scale Second Disaster for the Empire.
"The only ones who know the coordinates of all the buried bugs are a very small number of high-ranking officials of the New Federation and a scientific research team. They can do this easily."
Catherine frowned slightly: "Can't the imperial military stop them?"
"The empire's territory is too large, and the universe is too vast. Even if the imperial army expands tenfold, it is impossible to include all airspace in real-time surveillance."
Yang Ming spread his hands and could only sigh:
“From the perspective of interstellar military, we conduct regional defense around each administrative star.
“The distribution of the Empire’s military power is also extremely uneven. I can come and go freely on a small broken boat, let alone the New Federation that has infiltrated the Empire for who knows how many years.
“What I’m thinking now is that the New Federation actually dared to take this step. Are they ready for a full-scale war with the Empire?
"Or maybe, after all these times, the Empire only dared to fight border wars, so that they could confirm that the Empire was strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and they wanted to overthrow the Empire in one fell swoop?"
Catherine fell silent, took out her communicator and began searching the Super Modifier intranet.
Yang Ming patted his knees, stood up and walked to the window, and began to search for information.
However, he was searching part of the New Federal CIA's information database.
According to Lu's quick investigation, none of the new federal agents she was monitoring knew about this operation , and the confidentiality level was extremely high.
The hidden earphones in my ears kept transmitting Lu's reports:
"Boss, the Dongfeng is about to arrive."
"Boss, we have discovered three Zerg riots. We have confirmed that these ships are the key to activating the Zerg. They seem to have some way to make the Zerg riot directly. The Zerg is moving the Queen away from the crust of the earth, and the direction of the three Zerg riots is the administrative star closest to them. One of the Zerg hiding points is in the same star system as the administrative star... It is predicted that in the next few hours, there will be at least thirty fourth-order Zerg riots, and the disaster level cannot be calculated."
"Boss, Lieutenant General Thomas sent a call."
Yang Ming pressed the virtual button, and a bust projection immediately appeared in front of him.
Vice Admiral Thomas was already standing on the command platform of the fleet's flagship. Behind him, people could be seen running everywhere, preparing for battle nervously.
"Hanton."
"General Thomas!"
Yang Ming immediately saluted.
"Thank you for your timely reminder. It has been confirmed that the New Federation has launched an attack on us!" Lieutenant General Thomas said in a deep voice, "They tried to detonate all the remaining insect burial sites... Damn it! We should have expected that they would have such means long ago!"
Yang Ming said: "General, I did not anticipate this crisis in advance. My focus was on the high-level insect swarm outside the domain."
"This is a mistake made by the Military Intelligence Bureau," Lieutenant General Thomas said calmly. "The Military Intelligence Bureau is the eyes of the military, and now, these eyes have lost most of their functions."
Yang Ming asked: "Has the military started to respond?"
"The national emergency defense system has been activated. Border guards are gathering to defend the area, and local defense forces are conducting a full-scale search for the insect swarm."
Lieutenant General Thomas's expression became increasingly gloomy, and he continued:
"We have captured a total of 42 target ships, and have only intercepted one now. They accurately drilled into the gap in our local defense network.
"The Empire has an invincible fleet, but it does not have an intelligence organization to match it.
“Fortunately, most of the swarms that have been activated now should be fourth-order. Although they have the ability to move at high speed within a star system, it is almost impossible for them to move across star systems.
"The most important thing next is the insect burial points within the administrative stars and star systems. We will also give priority to dealing with these insect swarms.
"Captain Hanton!"
"Yes, General!"
“Now, the Imperial Military needs your strength, your ancient technology, and your ability to decapitate the Queen!
"The military grants you temporary privileges, allowing you to freely navigate all star regions of the empire outside the imperial star circle, and allowing you to access the local defense system where the insect plague has broken out!
"Protecting the people is the mission of the military! Are you willing to accept this mission?"
"Yes! General!"
Yang Ming shouted at the top of his voice.
Lieutenant General Thomas nodded and said, "There will be an information team here to provide you with information about the insect plague. Go ahead, White Ghost. The Empire will not forget your contribution... and neither will I."
Projection communication ends.
Lu immediately said, "Boss, the Dongfeng has reached synchronous orbit and can start particle transmission at any time."
Yang Ming put his finger on the ear hole and sucked the hidden earphones out directly.
He saw several figures walking by, and without any hesitation, he said directly:
"Prepare for a live broadcast on the entire network in the name of White Ghost, collect as much information as possible about the insect plague in various places, and spread it as widely as possible."
"yes."
"Hanton?"
Hanton's father frowned and called out, "Are you going to be busy? You've only been back for less than two days..."
"Well, I'm sorry..."
"No, no, you don't have to apologize to us," Hanton's father said hurriedly, "You have to take care of these important things, and family can't be an obstacle for you, just go, just go... Do you want a hug?"
"Of course," Yang Ming took the initiative to step forward.
Hanton's father stretched out his hands somewhat unnaturally. He had originally intended to give his son a brief hug, but he couldn't help but hugged his son's back tightly and patted him hard a few times.
Catherine gently hugged Hamton's mother.
"Go ahead," Hanton's father waved his hand.
Yang Ming nodded and winked at Catherine. Just as Catherine was about to move forward to leave with him, Yang Ming suddenly turned around, pushed open the balcony window, and flew out in one quick step.
"I'll transmit back first. Catherine, wait for the Stinger to pick you up!"
A beam of strong light streaked across the daytime sky, and the end hit Yang Ming, and Yang Ming's figure disappeared.
The corners of Catherine's mouth twitched slightly.
Well, she hadn't had time to contact her team's Stinger.
…
The Dongfeng left the orbit at full speed and headed towards the gravitationally stable area.
When Yang Ming came back, there were already more than a dozen robots busy at work on the bridge, and the tail cabin was also bustling with activity, with tracked robots carrying ammunition and energy for the mechas and small assault boats.
A life-size projection of Lu appeared at the side, and the tight combat suit on her body indicated that she had entered a state of full combat readiness.
"Boss, after calculation, the troops that the Empire can temporarily mobilize are not enough to fight against all the Zerg swarms. They can only encircle and suppress seven to nine fourth-order Zerg swarms at the same time. If they are dispersed, they can resist half of the Zerg swarms. It will take some time for the rest of the Empire's troops to gather."
Yang Ming said: "As long as not all the burial sites are close to the administrative planet, we should be able to handle it."
"But Boss, the ships also need supplies," Lu reminded, "Unless the Empire has more reserve warships, it will take time to mobilize and deploy fleets. There will almost certainly be large-scale casualties this time."
"This is not something we should be concerned about, Lu. This is not Luofeng. Our strength is meager compared to the national strength of the Sherman Empire."
Yang Ming sat in the captain's chair and watched the data sliding rapidly on the dial in front of him.
The Dongfeng began to jump towards the airspace where the first batch of high-threat insect swarms were located.
Yang Ming frowned and asked, "Has the time for the insect burial point to be detonated also been calculated?"
"Yes," Lu reminded, "The Imperial military has detected that more than 30 enemy spaceships self-destructed within half an hour. The fourth-order Zerg swarms were found in the self-destruction areas. There are also some enemy ships that were not detected. It is expected that the Zerg swarms will also be detonated in the same time period."
Yang Ming sank into his chair and cursed a few times under his breath.
The Dongfeng completed continuous jumps, and the starry sky outside the porthole has returned to stability.
A huge projection screen appeared in front of them, showing a simplified map of the empire's territory. It was clearly visible on the map that dozens of red halos were spreading outward from every corner of the empire.
"It's time to test the empire's local troops."
Yang Ming exhaled lightly and stared at the big screen in a daze.
"Any news from Hera?"
"Not yet," Lu reported quickly, "but I heard Miss Hera frowning and muttering something, as if she was saying that the Zerg was angry and they would do whatever it took to avenge humans... Boss, the military sent us a picture of the Zerg leaving the hive."
"Take a look."
"yes."
…
The video provided by the military this time has finally become much clearer.
More than a dozen highly maneuverable cruisers were chasing an enemy ship. After continuous jumps, only six cruisers were left behind the enemy ship.
Before entering the effective range of the Imperial Cruiser, the silver-white battleship penetrated into the atmosphere, using its protective shield to resist atmospheric friction. It did not slow down at all and crashed straight into the surface.
The planet was struck as though by a heavy hammer.
In the aftermath of the explosion, adult insects with a body length of four to six meters drilled out of the cracks, seemingly looking at the starry sky.
Then, the ground began to tremble continuously, more cracks appeared on the ground, and it seemed as if black mist was rising from the ground. When the picture was enlarged and a closer look was taken, it was discovered that they were adult insects moving at high speed.
It took only half an hour from the impact on the surface to the swarm riot, and dozens of black "rain clouds" appeared in the atmosphere.
The arriving cruiser tried to launch an attack, but a dozen ion beams blasted into the atmosphere, only opening some tiny holes in the rain clouds.
The swarm's counterattack was even more ferocious, with light rain pouring down into outer space. Hundreds of battleship worms, each hundreds of meters long, slowly rose into the air, and their main guns composed of giant cannon worms fired synchronously.
The two cruisers were almost destroyed instantly after being hit by concentrated fire.
The remaining ships quickly retreated and were driven away from the vicinity of the planet by the swarm.
Fortunately, they released some miniature probes in advance and perfectly recorded what was happening on the planet's surface.
Those adult insects floating in the sky are just a means of defense and concealment.
The earth became riddled with holes, countless adult insects crawled out of the ground, and various special insects lined up to enter the battleship insect's abdominal cavity.
Hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions...
The swarm of insects, angry for unknown reasons, suddenly came out in droves at this moment.
The bloated queen rarely appears directly on the surface, but now, the queen was lifted out and drilled into a Zerg battleship consisting of four battleship bugs.
The swarm of insects began to take off collectively.
With the queen as the core, a large number of adult insects flew over, using their bodies as materials to form layer after layer of "encirclement" around the queen...
When the swarm flew out of the atmosphere, it was no longer densely packed and overwhelming, but had gathered into hundreds of Zerg warships of various sizes.
They manipulate the simulated gravity field and use simulated gravity to provide powerful acceleration for the insect ships; their strong physique far exceeding that of ordinary humans allows them to withstand the pressure and tearing caused by extremely high acceleration.
Their purpose is clear.
Heading towards the nearest human settlement.
To take revenge on mankind;
Occupy human homes!
Some Zerg swarms are lucky. They have discovered that the planet where humans gather is not far away from them.
But most of the swarms have to make a long leap across star systems, just like this video provided by the military. Even if this swarm accelerates to sub-light speed, it still needs to cross a distance of several light years. Normally it will take several years to reach their target planet.
However, the name of the Zerg is Space Zerg.
They are cosmic creatures that, through long years of evolution, have acquired the ability to conquer space.
The latest videos were continuously sent to Yang Ming.
The Zerg warships rushed to the gravitational balance area. The two warships in the front suddenly cracked open, and more than a dozen strange insects shaped like ladybugs and hundreds of meters long jumped out.
The law gave the marks: fifth-order special insects, burrowing insects, and a small probability of mutation and birth of fourth-order insect swarms.
Their names are simple enough, but they are the handles of the butcher knife that caused the huge civilian casualties in the empire that followed.
A borer curled up its body, and suddenly its entire body collapsed inward, silently blasting out a black hole.
An adjacent star field appeared in the void, which seemed to be on the edge of the star system.
More than a dozen burrowing worms quickly flew into the hole, curled up their bodies and completed self-destruction, and the edge of the hole was expanding rapidly.
The Zerg warships drilled into the void and arrived at the edge of the star.
Another group of burrowing worms moved forward.
Continuous short-distance space travel!
This is the true strength of the fourth-order Zerg after the space Zerg leave the underground.
"All Zerg swarms have been confirmed. A total of thirty-nine Zerg swarms have been activated. Forty-two administrative planets are threatened by the Zerg plague. The time it takes for the Zerg to reach the target administrative planet ranges from one hour to twelve hours."
"Miss Hera reports: The Zerg want to take bloody revenge on humans. If a large area of the Zerg is destroyed, it is likely to attract Zerg swarms from outside the region."
"The Empire is about to be hit by a full-scale attack from the Second Scourge."
"Lv, plan the route for killing insects," Yang Ming's voice remained calm, "making killing the most queen insects a top priority."
"It has been planned that we will encounter the first wave of insect swarms in half an hour. You need to prepare for the battle now."
Yang Ming nodded in response, sat in the chair and looked at the big screen for a while, then stood up and rushed to the tail cabin.
