Zhou didn’t take these three human spacecraft seriously at all.
In its view, there was no need to deploy the Void Devourers. The Black Beetles alone would be more than enough to tear those three ships to shreds.
This new wave of Black Beetles had learned from past mistakes and reinforced their back carapace armor, making them the perfect meat shields. Using the stardust tunnels created by the Void Devourers, they stacked themselves layer upon layer, eventually forming a massive sphere that rolled straight toward Lin Xiaohe.
The human fleet’s fierce artillery fire slammed into them, killing off one layer after another—but there were always more layers beneath. They simply couldn’t wipe them out fast enough.
The sight of that Black Beetle sphere, as seen through the eyes of the 53rd Division’s commander, was like a colossal beast radiating an overwhelming aura of death.
“Commander…” The chief of staff’s voice trembled slightly.
No human being could remain unmoved in the face of such a killing machine. Fear—the urge to flee—was only human instinct.
The commander glanced at his chief of staff, his voice softening just a little. “Tell the brothers to record their final messages and store them in the black box.”
“Understood.” The chief of staff stood beside the commander and relayed the orders.
The commander raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to say something? If you don’t speak now, you won’t get another chance.”
The chief of staff grunted. “I’ve got nothing to say. A real man bleeds but doesn’t cry. I’m not giving you the satisfaction of laughing at me.”
“Good! Good! Good!” The commander exclaimed three times in a row, slapping his broad, fan-like palm heavily on the chief of staff’s shoulder.
“That’s my 53rd Division man! That’s a graduate of the Central Military Academy—you haven’t let the school down!”
In the battles against the Zerg, the cadets from the Central Military Academy had performed brilliantly—exceptionally high combat proficiency and a fearless courage that defied death itself.
This wasn’t just true for those who had graduated years ago; even the newer cadets who had barely entered the academy were the same.
A flicker of deep pain passed through the chief of staff’s eyes, and he said in a low voice, “It’s a shame… at the most critical moment, we made the wrong choice.”
If back then, when Lin Xiaohe was being tried by the Security Department on trumped-up charges, those of us who had already graduated and taken up mid-level officer positions had been able to withstand all the pressure and stand firmly on her side…
Would everything have turned out differently?
Lin Xiaohe wouldn’t have been pushed by the Security Department into defecting from the Federation. She would have stayed quietly at the Central Military Academy, serving as its top student and tending to her fields.
With her abilities, the stardust-mutated plants and creatures would have become assets to the academy. When the Zerg launched their surprise attack, would humanity have had the strength to fight back instead of being caught completely off guard?
And those unknown creatures hiding behind the guise of gods—would they be as arrogant as they are now?
Sensing the regret and disappointment in his chief of staff, the 53rd Division commander offered some comfort. “The past flows away like water. Unless time itself can turn back, there’s no use dwelling on it. Instead of regretting, we should seize the present. We made the wrong choice once—we can’t afford to make it twice.”
“You’re right!” The chief of staff perked up again, a blazing fire in his eyes—like a moth drawn to the flame, ready to embrace the death that awaited him.
He was deeply curious: in the zero-gravity void of space, how exactly would that Black Beetle sphere deal with human warships?
He didn’t have to wait long for the answer.
The first to bear the brunt was the transport ship—the largest of the three.
The Black Beetle sphere withstood several rounds of artillery fire from the transport, closing in relentlessly. Once it was close enough, the sphere seemed to open its massive jaws and swallowed the transport whole, morphing into an oval-shaped mass.
“The transport ship has gone offline.”
The commander and chief of staff watched in silence.
The transport had held off the Black Beetles for less than ten minutes. Instead of reverting to a spherical shape, they maintained their oval form and lunged toward the communications ship.
[Humans never give up!]
After transmitting that final message, the communications ship was completely engulfed by the Black Beetles.
The commander’s eyes turned red as he straightened his uniform and said solemnly, “Alright—now it’s our turn!”
The chief of staff gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “If I feel even a hint of fear, I’m not human!”
Come on, then—if you want to disturb Lin Xiaohe, you’ll have to step over our dead bodies first.
Through the command ship’s screen, the Black Beetles’ ferocious mouthparts loomed right before their eyes. Everyone on board was prepared to face death with unwavering resolve.
The Black Beetles devoured the command ship at breakneck speed. But just as they were about to swallow it whole, they were met with an unprecedented barrage of artillery fire.
Everyone inside the command ship had already boarded their mechs, ready to engage the Black Beetles in hand-to-hand combat. They sensed the beetles’ sudden disturbance, and then—a message came through the comms channel from the Fifth Star Ring Military Region.
It was a voice they knew all too well, one they often heard during briefings—the voice of the Fifth Star Ring Military Region Commander.
“Boys, hold tight—we’re here!”
Every available space fleet from the Fifth Star Ring Military Region had converged near Gonggong Star. They surged forward in a mighty formation, standing out sharply against the sea of Zerg that filled the cosmos.
The Fifth Star Ring commander quickly assessed the battlefield situation.
Lin Xiaohe must have reached a critical moment—she couldn’t afford to be distracted by the outside world. The defenders of Gonggong Star were trying to establish a barrier to hold off the Zerg and buy her time.
“Come on, come on—let these damned bugs see what the Fifth Star Ring spirit is all about!”
Compared to the 53rd Division’s desperate straits, the Fifth Star Ring commander had far more resources at his disposal. At the very least, they still maintained fully organized fleet formations.
Inside the bridge of the Olympus-class battleship Steadfast, only the faint glow of holographic star charts and the low hum of instruments filled the space.
The [Nuwa] system had completely lost contact.
They could only rely on their own experience, their own judgment, with the help of auxiliary systems to make decisions.
Inside the Steadfast, the staff officers were bustling like a beehive, constantly feeding information to the commander.
The commander stood like a cast-iron statue before the command podium, his gaze locked onto that oval-shaped Black Beetle swarm, and onto Lin Xiaohe, who stood atop ten small giant mounds.
“All units, maintain the Solid Wall formation. Shield ships move to the front of the formation and synchronize shield frequencies.”
The order came down, and the massive fleet moved with the precision of a finely tuned clock.
The I-Class shield ships at the very front sailed up before Lin Xiaohe and slowly unfurled their curved prows. The massive energy generators began to resonate. A pale blue联合 shield, spanning thousands of kilometers, suddenly unfurled in the vacuum—like a crystal wall rising in the cosmos.
Next came the thick hulls of the Olympus-class battleships, their side-mounted missile silo hatches already sliding open, revealing the grim launch tubes within.
Even larger Hyperion-class dreadnoughts stood at the center of the formation, their signature Zeus’ Spear-class heavy particle beams slowly rotating as they locked onto their targets.
“High-energy biological signals detected! Black Beetles—contact in ten seconds.”
The Fifth Star Ring Military Region Commander’s voice remained as steady as ever: “All gunnery officers, free-fire. Target: Black Beetle swarm!”
