The mentor didn’t want to tell Melina too much, afraid the impulsive girl would rush off and cause more trouble. But he couldn’t resist her relentless pestering.
“Alright, this is insider knowledge—keep it to yourself.”
The mentor opened a virtual screen and showed Melina the latest battle situation map. “Wormholes have appeared in every Star Ring. The First Star Ring has the fewest wormholes but the highest number of Void Devourers. This was the situation five days ago.”
Melina kept her expression neutral and quietly took a photo of the map with her smartwatch. “Why are there so many wormholes near Starlight Life’s headquarters?”
The mentor put away the battle map and let out a heavy sigh. If he didn’t tell her, she would just find another way to get the answers.
“Based on our analysis, the blood of the insectoids can, to some degree, influence wormhole formation.”
The fact that Starlight Life had been secretly working on bio-integrated mech suits had already become an open secret among high-level officials.
They were not only collecting fresh insectoid blood but also extracting fluids from mutated Star Dust plants.
Most of these test samples were stored right at Starlight Life’s headquarters.
Melina’s face showed a look that said, I knew it. “Is the Federation going to abandon them too?”
“How could we? Special forces from the First Star Ring and Security Bureau Special Guards have all been sent in for rescue.”
Melina clicked her tongue softly. Sure enough, some lives mattered more than others.
The mentor had said all this to get Melina to stay put and keep quiet.
And she did behave, only wandering around campus without ever stepping out. But behind the scenes, she sent all the information she gathered to Lin Xiaohe’s account. As soon as Lin Xiaohe connected to the Star Network, she would receive every piece of it.
In the early stages of the war, the Federation military and government adopted a strategy of trading planets for time.
Whenever wormholes appeared on remote planets, or those deemed less important or less valuable, the Federation government and military would evacuate key personnel and resources in an extremely short time.
Once those people were off the planet, the military would destroy the entire planet with planetary-grade weapons to prevent the insectoids from building nests and using it as a stepping stone to jump to nearby regions.
These planets met a fate similar to the capital planet of the Third Star Ring.
Meanwhile, the Federation military concentrated its forces on taking out the Void Devourers before the insectoids could muster a large-scale army.
At the same time, the Security Bureau and the Insectoid Research Institute used this window to conduct in-depth studies, striving to crack the insectoids’ defenses.
“According to the plan, we’ll throw detectors into the wormholes to search for the insectoids’ main hive.”
At an online military conference, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff Department presented the plan.
The idea was inspired by Lin Xiaohe’s reverse breakthrough into a wormhole.
Based on Lin Xiaohe’s experience, the insectoid wormholes should function as two-way passages.
If special forces could indeed locate the main hive through a wormhole and destroy it outright, the Federation’s current crisis would be solved.
But a plan is just a plan, and plans never keep up with changes.
They threw in tens of thousands of detectors, and not a single one sent back useful information.
The “Strike the Dragon’s Lair” plan—dead on arrival!
The meeting’s special guest, the dean of Gaia Academy, said wearily, “Our newly developed bio-Stardust armor can’t even withstand the Void Devourers’ Stardust Torrent. I can say with certainty that there is no shield in the entire Federation capable of blocking it.”
The bad news: humanity was utterly helpless against the Void Devourers.
The good news: there weren’t many of them—fewer than a hundred in the whole Federation.
Once they had eaten their fill, or if they were forced into a war of attrition until their energy ran out, they would fall into a long coma.
Almost everyone attending the meeting had dealt with insectoids before, and discussions buzzed among them.
“How on earth did this thing evolve? It completely defies logic.”
“Insectoids win by numbers. Judging by the reproductive capacity of Black Beetles and Plump Worms, the number of Void Devourers should be far more than this.”
“Could the insectoids be holding back a trump card, waiting to catch us completely off guard?”
It didn’t make sense. With such an overwhelming advantage, why would they need any trump card?
The insectoids were essentially fueling their war effort with the spoils of war. The more planets they conquered, the more offspring they could breed.
“I heard the Empire developed a fusion of insectoids and humans that can control Level-1 Black Beetles.”
Wow. Everyone was green with envy. If the Federation had such fusions, there would be no need to blow up planets at all.
To date, the Federation had already destroyed over 200 planets, incurring incalculable economic and human losses.
The commander of the Fifth Star Ring Military Region said impatiently, “So, what do we do? The Empire has already pushed its battle lines to the entire border of the Sixth Star Ring.”
The Sixth Star Ring was riddled with small wormholes, mostly spawning Black Beetles. In the early stage, each wormhole only produced 20 to 60 Black Beetles.
This gave many planets a brief reprieve. In the Sixth Star Ring, only three planets were completely overrun and had to be blown up.
But the Empire’s opportunistic attacks made the already troop-strapped, overburdened Sixth Star Ring situation even worse.
The bald commander’s precious wife and son had both been deployed to the battlefield—just imagine how dire the situation in the Sixth Star Ring had become!
Someone turned their attention to the Security Bureau representative. “Over half of the Federation’s top combat power is in your hands, and you’ve had the most dealings with the insectoids. How about…”
“No!” The Security Bureau representative refused outright without a second thought. “All our people are guarding the gate there. No one can bear the consequences if we withdraw them.”
“Then what do we do?!”
Panic gripped the entire Federation.
Even though Nuwa implemented strict information control measures, all kinds of rumors still spread like wildfire through the dark corners of the network—from men to women, from the elderly to children, growing more and more outrageous.
The rumors had evolved into: This is the Federation’s plan to purge genetically inferior humans. The space exploration teams have hit a dead end in their outward expansion, forcing both the Federation and the Empire to fight over limited resources. But thanks to advances in medical technology, the population has exploded, and existing resources alone can’t sustain humanity for another thousand years.
The insectoids are special bio-weapons jointly created by the Federation and the Empire to wipe out half of humanity. The proof is Starlight Life and the Empire’s publicly disclosed fusion project!
Coupled with the Federation’s frequent planet-destroying actions, many people actually believed this theory.
Human technology had advanced for so long, spanning six Star Rings, and had once wiped out countless alien life forms—how could humanity be so utterly defenseless against insectoids?!
It had to be because they simply didn’t want to save people!
In this climate of public opinion, with the Federation falling apart like a heap of loose sand and everyone fighting their own battles, the Federation desperately needed a hero with prestige, strength, and the deep trust of the entire Federation to step up and take command!
The good news was, the Federation once had such a figure—Marshal Chu.
The bad news was, his strength had severely declined, and he could no longer shoulder the heavy responsibility of a marshal.
A deathly silence spread through the online conference room.
Some listening council members even began to entertain the thought: Let it be. Let the insectoids eat their fill, and they’ll eventually quiet down on their own.
Suddenly, Nuwa’s voice echoed throughout the conference room.
Chu Huaizhi has joined the meeting!
