Chapter 603, Lord of the Swarm
During Moreau's narration, Gu Hang heard a story.
In this story, the Iron Armor Chapter was not much different from many other loyalist Chapters in the Empire.
They are loyal, brave and wise. In the Queen's Star Territory, they united with the two battle groups of Raging Flame and Rock Shield to firmly lock the place known as the 'Insect Disaster Star Area'.
It was a star region originally named 'Ankaya', but it had been destroyed long ago. An insect plague broke out here. From the uninhabited void, the Zerg fleet appeared and destroyed this star area in a short period of time. The Iron Armor Chapter, whose home star was within the Queen's Star Territory, responded to the request for help and defeated this not-so-powerful Zerg fleet.
But the crisis had just begun, and what they had fought back was only the outpost fleet.
In the 14 worlds in this insect-infested star area, bugs appear continuously. It seems that there is an entire fleet of huge Zerg tentacles on the way, wave after wave of space navigation that does not pass through the astral tunnel, and wave after wave of space navigation, rushing towards the 'Insect Disaster Star Area'.
The Iron Armored Regiment is here to stay, working diligently.
They built a defense line in the 'Insect-Stricken Star Area'. When the enemies were not many and not strong, they were able to control the situation in this star area. But sometimes when the situation is bad, the defense in the star area collapses, and the enemy ravages the entire star area, and even expands to the universe.
First the Eternal Territory Government, and then the Imperial Central Government, gradually paid attention to the persistent ills in this region. All parties have begun to continue to increase investment in the defense of the insect-stricken star area. Naturally, the first priority to be supported is the Iron Armor regiment that has always been fighting on the front line.
In fact, the empire knew from the beginning that the number of people in the Iron Armor Chapter exceeded the limit. But they turned a blind eye to it because it was necessary.
First of all, people are always dying and sacrificing in iron armor, so the troops must be replenished at any time. Even the support provided by the empire includes the population support of all parties, allowing them to better screen new recruits and allowing them to recruit troops from every world in the Queen's Star Territory. There is no way to strictly control the number of people at 1,000. Otherwise, in a big war, hundreds of people will be lost, and it will not be possible to make up for it temporarily.
Secondly, if the number is strictly limited to a thousand people, the situation in the Queen's Star Territory cannot be controlled at all. Either the empire will invest more resources, more battle groups, and more fleets, or it will allow the Iron Armor troops to exceed the standard. You have to choose one. And the result is obvious, the empire chose the latter. Instead of pursuing Tie Kai's supernatural behavior, I will give him more support. I just need to stop the Zerg.
The reality was just as the empire expected. The Iron Armor Chapter itself, together with at most a few surrounding allied war groups and the power of the Queen's Star Territory, were able to withstand the insect plague.
For disasters of the same magnitude, the empire often has to pay a price that far exceeds this figure before it can be quelled. Not to mention, the insect-stricken star area is a continuous disaster. Unless a dark expedition is carried out towards the place where the insect fleet came from, targeting the dark outer realm that is not connected by the astral tunnel, to eradicate the problem, otherwise the insect swarm here will look like It is a place that is constantly refreshed, some big and some small.
It's great to be able to get it done at the current price.
It was also during this period that the Alfonzo Sect, paid by the empire, provided resources for the Iron Armor, and then established a very good trade relationship with the Iron Armor Chapter. Their lair, Alfonzo, is right next to the Queen's Star Domain, and they have to rely on the iron armor to block the bugs. In addition, the large number of corpses of void insect beasts and even living samples provided by Iron Armor are also things that the Alfonzo Sect wants very much.
These strange, powerful and instructive creatures were of great help to the Alfonzo cult in carrying out some special research. Even the corpses of some low-level Zerg species have strong biological material value when recycled.
Some of the armored units produced from the Alfonzo sect are reshaped and built using the Zerg's chitin shell, which is comparable to steel.
They have been cooperating for a long time in this way, and their relationship is getting better and better.
In this case, the empire is actually not very worried that the situation will get out of control. Although Iron Armor received tacit approval and even had additional support, a star field as its backing, and a powerful Mechanical Cult with three forging worlds as allies, the threat they faced from the Hive was always present. It exists, and it is very serious. Their strength is always being depleted, which should be about the same as the reinforcements they receive.
Compared with their growing strength, the Empire was more worried for a long time about whether the iron armor would receive insufficient support to resist pests.
Tie Kai himself was also worried.
Of course, it is also possible that Humphrey Paul already had some ambitions at that time.
Things changed one hundred and eighty years ago, when they captured a... strange larvae.
Later, the Alfonzo Sect studied this and believed that it was a queen of the Void Zerg, or the larvae of a mother worm.
The birth of the Void Zerg mainly relied on the Insect Queen. She designed and produced all the Void Insect beasts in the entire Zerg Hive Fleet, including the living ships of the Zerg.
The Queen is also the core of the Hive Fleet. Once it is eliminated, it means that the Hive Fleet has lost the ability to reproduce. Whether it is on the living ship or the incubation pool dropped on the surface of the planet, it will no longer reproduce. effect.
At the same time, she is also the highest node creature of the entire Hive Fleet. Her death also means that the entire Hive Fleet has lost its unified coordination and command at the macro level. Lower-level node creatures, such as the Hive Overlord, the Hive Tyrant, and the Neuroprotozoa, can still command their troops, but they have directly lost their ability to coordinate. No longer able to support each other quickly, the insect swarm will be easily divided and destroyed.
Of course, the insect swarm also has a reaction mechanism.
Before the queen does this, multiple larvae will hatch. This is the only Zerg creature known to have a larval stage.
These larvae are inactive while the queen is present. Once the queen dies, they will be activated, fight and devour each other, and eventually grow into new queens.
The lower-level insect swarm creatures will quickly reconnect with the new insect queen. At this stage, it means that the new insect queen takes over the mother's entire insect swarm.
Iron Armor, under the personal leadership of Humphrey Paul, raided the core of an invading, small-scale Hive Fleet. They were very brave, even desperate, and jumped into one of the largest Zerg ships.
Said to be ships, they are actually specialized giant creatures as huge as starships, and they are alive. Jumping to help this thing is tantamount to sending yourself into the belly of a huge beast.
Inside, they not only have to face the huge number of hatched enemies, but also the changes in the internal structure of the biological ship itself. These changes are all aimed at killing them, such as suddenly spraying strong corrosive fluid, such as shooting bone nails...
No one knows how Humphrey Paul did it, but he completed this almost impossible task, decapitated the queen of the insect swarm, and returned successfully.
Taking this opportunity, the Hive Fleet was completely annihilated, and humanity once again achieved a glorious victory.
However, only a few people know that Humphrey Paul also brought back larvae when he returned.
They killed all the other larvae and removed this larvae before it could grow and take over the hive fleet.
After the insect swarm was eliminated, the larva had no one to command, its development was severely slowed due to malnutrition, and there was no more biomass available for her to produce insect beasts... She was imprisoned and sent to Alfonzo Cult here.
They called her 'Princess'.
The Alfonzo sect found a treasure, but this was not a gift from Paul. Instead, it was a top-secret mission: to study the insect queen in order to control the insect swarm.
……
This is all Sebastian Moreau knows.
He is a high-ranking member of the Alfonzo sect and one of the three foundry generals, but even he only knows about this incident that happened one hundred and eighty years ago.
In fact, except for the scenes he shared with Gu Hang, which he saw with his own eyes, many other things were his own investigations or even guesses, which may not be completely reliable.
But that's about it.
As for what happened next, he had no definite information or evidence at all.
The Great Sage Martin Varuk personally took over the research work, with only Sage Dubo as his assistant and involved in the project. At the same time, the Great Sage also regarded it as the top secret of the sect. Among the people who accompanied him to receive the larvae, except for the three foundry generals and one main business sage, the rest had all the self-awareness and memory parts of their brains removed and were made into servitors to ensure that The information will not be leaked.
In other words, in the entire Alfonzo sect, no one knows except the five of them - oh, it should be four now. Sage Dubo died when the previous sect attacked the Proud Claw Star Territory.
However, not knowing the exact situation does not prevent Moreau from guessing.
Otherwise, the larvae cultivation failed, but this possibility now seems extremely low.
How did the neuroprotozoa imprisoned on the war ark Alfonzo II come from? Where did the technology to enslave and control it come from?
I'm afraid they are all the results of research on the insect queen.
But did they just use the insect queens for the development and application of these technologies?
Moreau didn't believe it.
He believed that the Great Sage did not refuse Humphrey Paul's request and mission. The technologies related to the Void Zerg, including the neuroprotozoa, may just be by-products of research. The ultimate goal of this project is to produce and control insect swarms.
Not one or two bugs, but a whole swarm.
Humphrey Paul wants this, and rightfully so!
This would directly solve the current problems facing his Chapter.
Being able to control the insect queen means that you can raise an army of insect swarms to fight against the invading insect tribe. When facing the invading insect tribe, if you have a insect queen, you can even compete for control of the opponent's lower-level creatures.
Going one step further and solving the current problems of the war group, how can it be the limit?
After mastering the insect queen and a swarm of insects that can be expanded at will, there are too many things that can be done in the future.
Judging from the current situation, Varuk's research is likely to have been successful.
Based on this premise, we can explain the problems that Gu Hang was thinking about before.
There are swarms of insects blocking the northern front, 'mortal' troops that are different from ordinary people on the western front, and enslaved neuroprotozoans encountered on the southern front...
And why Humphrey Paul wants to fully attack the Maigret universe.
According to normal logic, he really cannot quickly convert the production capacity and population of Maigret Space Domain into his own war potential. But if you look at it from the perspective of him being able to control a swarm of insects, it's completely different: if you let the swarm go and let them eat a few large waves, how powerful will the swarm it raises be?
Gu Hang didn’t even dare to think about it!
Why didn't Tie Jia come up with this trick before? The possible reason is that this matter is still too nonsense. Letting swarms of insects eat the world will greatly shake the foundation of Iron Armor, or they may still have some bottom lines.
But as the war situation worsens, it will obviously not work if Tiejai does nothing and relies on their own original strength.
Defeating and defeating the Phoenix on the Western Front was obviously an act of breaking through the lower limit. The power of the Zerg is definitely involved.
However, the degree of involvement may not be strong, and may even only be involved in key battles. Many Imperial survivors who were in the battle could only tell some ambiguous information after the war, and they themselves had not witnessed it with their own eyes.
However, the breakthrough of the bottom line will not happen just once.
After defeating the Phoenix, what they will face next is the more ferocious anger of the high lords. The alliance of the Otaupis Chapter and multiple war groups, and the attack of the Imperial Solar Astra Militarum and the Solar Fleet will all lead to Come more pressure.
On the contrary, Tie Jia suffered heavy losses after the victory.
In this situation, why are they beating McGregor? Just for fun?
Gu Hang could already imagine countless digestion tanks and incubation tanks being erected in each world on Maigret, and the world of the empire fell into deathly silence, and the insect swarm was born from them.
……
Heaving a long sigh of relief, Gu Hang saw Sebastian Moreau off.
He sorted out the materials himself. What is certain information and what is speculation must be written clearly.
He wants to distribute these as detailed reports to the center of the empire and the battle situation on the northern front.
You figure it out.
The sky fell, and the tall man held it up.
So you tall guys, you have to be mentally prepared.
Although Gu Hang had conveyed a warning to them before, it was still just a conjecture and a possibility after all. But now, they are basically able to take action, and they have roughly estimated the methods they may use, and guessed their strategic goals in the Maigret space.
Much more convincing.
The other thing to do is to start a public opinion war.
Humphrey Paul and Martin Waruk are not afraid, does every armored warrior below know it?
Do you know about the other war groups that followed Paul?
Do you know every world controlled by Iron Armor?
Insects want to eat people.
Now, how will the big guy you follow to feed his swarm of insects when the war becomes difficult?
The alliance's intelligence organization is about to start exerting its strength.
At the same time, Gu Hang also had to consider whether he should continue to stick to his plan of waiting for a year and a half.
The information Moreau brought was of extraordinary value.
————
This chapter makes up for yesterday.
There are also nights.
(End of chapter)