The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2793, A New Line of Defense

“But you only mentioned one of them. The… Invisible Queen,” said Protoss bioengineer Shul-Dal.

“There is another person, whom we have never met. He was already here when I embraced the Swarm. He controls the Swarm, he transforms the Swarm, and because of his existence, the Swarm continues to grow and expand. Because of his existence, the Swarm will surely devour the entire galaxy!” Wilke replied with a smile, “He is the King of the Swarm.”

"The Swarm King? Who is this guy? Where did he come from?" Severance Tann asked.

“I don’t know anything about him, but I can feel his immense power and vast spirit every moment,” Wilke said. “If you want to know anything about him, you should go and see for yourselves.”

“Then tell me about your other companion. Romi Pro, the so-called Invisible Queen, is there anything special about her?” Severance Tann asked.

“You’ll understand when you meet her,” Wilke said calmly.

"So, where is her lair? Is it deeper along the route to Lago?" Severance-Tann asked again.

“That’s right. The prerequisite is… you have to be able to find her.” Wilke answered without hesitation.

“If you’re not going to answer, we certainly have many ways to get you to talk,” Shul-Dal said.

"What do you plan to do? Torture me?" Wilke said sarcastically. "If you're pinning your hopes on your pathetic biotechnology, that's laughable."

Sefrans-Tann glanced at Thranduil beside her and said coldly, "This man has lost all emotion and pain. There's no need to waste any more time. We'll examine his information ourselves."

Shul-Dal bowed to Thranduil and said, “Then I shall begin the dissection of him.”

After saying that, he ended the communication.

Severance Tann also made contact with Cardinal Adela of the Holy Advent Church on Fitz, asking, "What are the movements of the Zerg swarm at the front lines on Fitz?"

"They've stopped sending reinforcements," Adela said. "Bishop Ronis has sensed that the psionic links between the swarms have disappeared. The swarms are now operating only on a planetary scale, posing a significantly reduced threat. However, my fleet's firepower is still insufficient to purify the swarm on Fitz."

“Let’s hold the line on the planet Jobri for now.” Severance Tann nodded, then turned to Thranduth and said, “According to the psionic link that Archbishop Ronis sensed earlier, our current planet Lago is the starting point of the Lago hyperspace route. And Lago is the gateway to the unknown world.”

“You mean that after passing through Lago, there’s a new world—the world of the Kilik swarm,” Thranduil said.

“That’s it,” Severance Tann said. “So what we need to do now is to turn Lago into a fortress, completely blocking the Kylik swarm’s path to invade the galaxy. Then, after we’ve completely wiped out the swarm outside, we can launch an attack in that direction.”

"A fortress? Are you planning to build a stargate?" Thranduth asked.

“A stargate must never be built here. No more stargates can be added to the current territory of Chis,” Severance-Tann said. “This defensive line can only be built by our engineering team, one step at a time.”

“I agree,” Thranduth nodded.

……

Over the next few days, Severance Tann began directing the fleet to completely wipe out the Zerg swarms surrounding Lago.

Because at this moment, a large number of swarms of insects are still heading here from other planets. Although the psionic link has been severed, these swarms are still following the last instructions they received to come to Lago and surround their nests.

In an instant, the planet Lago was besieged by the Zerg swarm.

Tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of insectoid swarms crashed into Lago, forcing Severance Tann to redeploy her fleet around the planet for a defensive retreat.

This battle was extremely dangerous because their fleet had already been severely depleted during the long-distance raid on Lago, and then they engaged in a fierce battle with the Zerg swarm guarding Wilke.

Furthermore, after Darth Lilim and Thoras entered the core lair, Wilke also commanded the swarm of Zerg hidden beneath the planet to launch a counterattack. The swarm hidden beneath the organic matter that covered almost the entire planet also numbered in the tens of millions, far exceeding the millions previously scanned.

However, under Severance Tann's sharp command, they still managed to break through Wilke's defenses and, when the Wheel of Fate went berserk, managed to send three Protoss carriers into the planet's atmosphere to reinforce the decapitation operation against Wilke.

In fact, the operation was already on the verge of failure. The Wheel of Fate had gone berserk, Darth Lilim was seriously injured, and Therath was no match for the Wheel of Fate. If reinforcements had arrived any later, the consequences would have been unimaginable!

However, this has also led to their joint expeditionary fleet being in less than ideal condition, and they are once again struggling against the continuous attacks of the Kilik swarm.

Severance Tann also discovered in actual combat that, despite the Protoss's usual boastful and arrogant demeanor, their carriers were actually not very suitable for fighting against such a large-scale Zerg swarm.

Those unmanned interceptors are indeed incredibly powerful in combat, but they can only kill one insect at a time. Faced with a super swarm of tens of millions of insects, how long would it take to kill them one by one?
If aircraft carriers were to use the purification beams intended for orbital bombardment to wipe out the swarms, it would indeed be very effective, but it would be like using a cannon to kill a mosquito, with an astonishing energy consumption. After all, these are weapons designed for orbital bombardment, so the higher the power, the better. Now that they have just experienced a major battle, energy usage must be extremely conserved.

Therefore, after overwhelmingly destroying the infected Imperial fleet, the Protoss carriers' combat effectiveness plummeted.

In contrast, as the battle dragged on, the newly built Royal Beast-class heavy cruisers from Tyron Heavy Industries became the main focus.

Under the leadership of energy expert Zhang Jiarui, this heavy cruiser underwent significant improvements to the iconic Yamato gun, reducing its power, decreasing its range, and adjusting the performance of the electromagnetic field that bound the plasma cluster.

As a result, the Royal Behemoth-class Yamato cannons had a very short recharge time and could pre-store energy for two shots. Simultaneously, each plasma burst fired would spread out dramatically under the influence of the electromagnetic field, with a single shot potentially reaching a range of tens of kilometers! In actual combat, the Royal Behemoth-class was a devastating weapon against the Zerg swarms. Once these warships opened fire, the dense, cloud-like Zerg swarms would be blasted into vast, empty spaces in a short time. It was precisely because of the support of these warships that other warships, including Protoss carriers, had enough time to recharge and adjust their formations, gradually stabilizing the battle line.

After Darth Lilim left, Zhang Jiarui finally regained his tough-guy demeanor. Since fighting the Zerg swarm didn't require sophisticated tactics, he simply kicked out the firepower commander of his warship and took over the role himself, directing the warship to fire.

He filmed himself laughing loudly, intending to send the video to Rory Swann to mock the kinetic energy maniac.

The defense of Lago lasted for four full days before the Zerg swarm ceased its frenzied attacks. According to Archbishop Ronis of the Holy Advent Order, after this great battle, the psionic sensing on many surrounding planets had weakened considerably, indicating that the Zerg population in those areas had begun to decline.

Only then did Severance Tann begin ordering the orbital bombardment of Lago.

Furthermore, in order to conserve energy, the Protoss carriers do not participate in orbital bombardment operations; instead, other warships launch nuclear missiles to carry out the bombardment.

Huge mushroom clouds continued to explode on the planet's surface, tearing the planet's protective membrane to literal shreds of flesh and blood. A terrifying stench permeated the entire atmosphere, which was teeming with insect spores and visibly transformed into a nauseating mix of pale purple and pale green.

Meanwhile, Governor Sheehan Morabito also dispatched a fleet of robotic transport ships to resupply the fleet. Furthermore, at Severance Tann's request, the transport fleet also delivered two production lines for manufacturing nuclear bombs, allowing for on-site production and immediate deployment.

There was no other way; before the spaceport was truly completed, their fleet had to maintain sufficient combat power to prevent the Kilik swarm from breaking through from the other side of the Lago Channel.

No one knows what lies on the other side of the Lago Passage. Even Archbishop Ronis's senses cannot detect the psionic fluctuations in that area, as if they are shielded by some force.

It could be the void, or it could be a much larger Zerg nexus; no one can be sure. But what is certain is that the Kilik Swarm will not retreat easily. The invisible Queen, and another completely unknown Swarm King, are still shrouded in mystery.

That direction might be the real challenge.

The battle report from Lago has been sent to the Supreme Command on Dawn Planet, and a request has been made for more reinforcements, especially Royal Behemoths, hoping that more of them will be sent.

Thranduil also admitted that the Protoss's carriers were not suited to fighting large swarms of Zerg, but she also told Severance Tann that the Protoss had weapons that could deal with such situations, and those weapons would be delivered as long as the Twilight Council agreed.

"Why do you have to get the Twilight Council's approval for everything, big or small?" Severance Tann complained. "From dispatching a fleet to sending a few Templars, do we have to hold meetings to discuss everything?"

“That’s because the Protoss are inherently unwilling to be involved in wars, and if they must intervene, they must strictly limit the scale of the war. In this case, the Twilight Council must play the role of the opponent,” Thranduil explained. “And we must persuade the council, which is on the opposing side, that the issue of sending troops can be passed.”

Severance Tann nodded and did not pursue the matter further.

After all, she had witnessed the Protoss's terrifying technology. Their carriers were simply ill-suited to the battlefield here, not that they were inadequate. She vividly remembered how the Protoss carriers had utterly destroyed the Imperial infected warships in the early stages of the battle on Lago.

Given this, the weapon Thranduil mentioned that is specifically designed to counter such a high density of small units is certainly something to look forward to.

The matter seems to have come to an end, and perhaps what follows is a repetitive cycle of orbital bombardment, swarm purification, and the establishment of defenses.

……

Severance Tann opened her eyes abruptly, and her not-so-powerful Force suddenly sent out an extremely dangerous sensation!

She jumped out of bed and grabbed her yellow lightsaber, which she had almost never used. She glanced at the time; it was 3:47 a.m., Galactic Standard Time.

Fleets typically schedule their sleep according to a unified time standard, which, if there are no other requirements, is the Milky Way Standard Time.

Severance Tann felt a sense of absurdity, because she was still on Thranduil's flagship, the Judgment of Destiny. Where could the danger come from?

Her bedroom was specially arranged for her by Thranduil, according to human standards. She stepped out of the bedroom and found Thranduil standing in the control center, a holographic projection in front of her.

“Shull-Dal?” Severance Tann recognized the other person as a Protoss bioengineer. “Could there have been some major discoveries from that Wilke autopsy?”

“Indeed.” Shul-Dal said calmly as he saw Severance Tann approaching. “I performed a thorough autopsy on Wilke and found that his brain had been enhanced by the Swarm. The current Wilke is no longer the same person he once was; he is an aggregate of the Swarm’s will.”

Severance Tann still felt something was off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

Thranduil, who was standing nearby, asked, "So, through your dissection, can you find information about the Invisible Queen—Romeo Prowl? Or, information about the Lord of the Swarm?"

“We still know nothing about the Lord of the Swarm, but I have discovered crucial information about the Invisible Queen. She is on Grogo, in the middle of the Lago Channel,” Shul-Dal said. “Come to my lab, and I will show you my findings.”

Thrandus fell silent for a long time before slowly saying, "Fire! Sink Shul-Dal's flagship."

Severance Tann was shocked. "What are you saying? You actually want to sink..."

Suddenly, she realized something and turned to look in the direction of the holographic projection. Sure enough, the aura of the Protoss bioengineer Shul-Dal seemed slightly different from a few days ago.

Since the Kilik swarm can control the Jedi, they naturally have the ability to control the Protoss!

“Even without Kara’s link, I can clearly sense Shul-Dal’s changes.” Thranduil’s emotions fluctuated violently, then he repeated, “Fire!” (End of Chapter)