The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 324: Anti-aircraft gun crew on full alert
This new electromagnetic rapid-fire machine gun structure is designed to compete with the Firestorm kinetic close-in defense system used by the Ezki people, which is why it uses specialized compound eyes rather than radar as a fire control system - in space, passive observation is stronger than active observation.

Those used in underground environments at this time are just miniaturized versions with fewer barrels and smaller volumes, and the firing rate and initial bullet velocity are also reduced. They are specifically used to bully these small animals.

The true complete form has eight similar electromagnetic railgun barrels and more complex structures. Its firepower after full firing is close to that of the Firestorm close-in defense system on the Ezki battleship, which is enough to intercept incoming missiles.

Lin Yi has obtained a lot of relatively intact wreckage of the Ezki battleship, and has basically studied all the various close-in defense systems on it. Among them, the Fire Storm system has not yet been truly developed into a nest version due to some shortcomings of its biological structure.

The main problem is that the Firestorm system uses the rotating tube continuous firing principle, which is the structure invented by a certain savior and compassionate person in later human civilization to save all living beings, and it requires an axis.

For a biological structure, achieving a rotating axis means sacrificing most of the advantages of the biological structure, which is totally not cost-effective. Therefore, after a series of fine-tuning, Lin Yi finally achieved such rapid-fire firepower with a multi-barrel parallel structure.

The relevant structure was improved by Lin Yi based on the concept of the later tracking-searching dual radar system, and with partial inspiration from the Anomalocaris nest group, he referred to the arrangement of the compound eyes of the three-eyed Hurd shrimp, and finally formed this appearance.

While the complete structure was being tested in space, the underground world's need to clear out a large number of seekers prompted Lin Yi to hatch a simplified version of this system in the underground world of Dikla Star, forming that "anti-aircraft artillery group".

The underlying logic of the Seeker's genetic sequence possesses the fearless instinct of a true social creature, and it seems that because it is easy to mass-produce, there is not even any reaction to retreat and preserve strength.

Even though the sky was raining blood and the ground was littered with corpses, the remaining pursuers did not retreat. They continued to rush forward with roars, diving into the dense barrage of fire, turning into a ball of falling flesh, adding a touch of crimson to the ground covered with blood and flesh.

The seekers did not have any other offensive structures in their bodies. From beginning to end, no seeker could cross the sky above this firepower network and complete their mission. The number of seekers was decreasing, and the number of anti-aircraft turrets firing was also decreasing.

The battle, or rather the one-sided massacre, had basically entered its final stage. When the scream of the electromagnetic rapid-fire cannon gradually weakened, the few remaining pursuers seemed to have finally reacted, flapped their wings, and left the scene without looking back.

On the ground, the fungal blanket tissue began to spread as early as the beginning of the battle, wrapping and absorbing the corpses, or minced meat, of the pursuers, and transmitting nutrients back to the rear to avoid waste.

While the pursuers were being slaughtered here, more structures were still continuing to grow at the mother nest on the ground - the second tunnel worm had been produced by Lin Yi, and it quickly began to dig more passages.

The purpose of the first channel is to directly connect the surface and the underground world, providing a convenient way for the entry and exit of graded individuals and some large objects that may need to be transported as a whole. More channels will serve as the basis for large-scale nutrient delivery pipelines.

Several tunnel worms have already laid the foundation for the tunnel. At this time, the first batch of fungal tissue is attached to it and is preparing to form a hardened outer wall skeleton to attach large pieces of smooth muscle tissue to form a pipeline that can transport nutrients over long distances. Once formed, there will be a constant supply of nutrients from the surface and even space, enough to produce a structure that can cover the underground world and solve the mysteries of the underground world.

After the first batch of pursuers were repelled, the sound generator extending from the land mother nest could not attract even a single pursuer no matter how it operated. No one knew what had happened.

According to the known information, the series of structures with the unknown giant tentacle as the core must be the form of existence of intelligent creatures. Perhaps the other party took quick measures according to the situation to prevent accidents.

In other words, it is meaningless to continue the sting operation now. It is better to take the initiative to attack directly the location of the opponent's lair that was previously exposed, and then analyze the genetic sequences of the opponent's flesh and blood tissues one by one.

On the fungal carpet tissue, a large number of pupal sacs began to appear around the land mother nest. Inside, ant-shaped figures with a pair of claws began to appear in outline and then gradually took shape.

Crazy-toothed Saw-ants, the first land combat class of the hive that was born completely for the terrestrial environment, once again exists as the basic land combat class of the hive after repeated improvements. Although the inland combat power of the entire hive has been peaceful for a long time due to various reasons, it does not mean that their combat effectiveness is no better than before.

The existence of the hive has ensured that the experience accumulated over billions of years from battles with hostile hives, wild animals, the Marines of the Ezki Exploration Fleet, etc. has been stored in Lin Yi's consciousness and in the verbalized genetic sequence.

As soon as the new combat-grade individuals are born, the combat instincts deeply engraved in the bottom of the gene sequence will make them the best fighters. And Lin Yi's micro-manipulation as the cluster consciousness network itself can also allow them to deal with the enemy with the most tacit cooperation.

While thinking, the first Crazy-toothed Saw-ant tore through the disposable pupa sac wrapped outside its body with its claws, and the scrapers at the end of the nodule and the front end of the abdomen made a hissing sound - in a sense, this was also an opportunity for the armed forces on the planet of the hive to accumulate experience in improving themselves.

The pupa sacs burst one by one, and pairs of claws and mandibles unfolded under the dim fluorescent light, accompanied by intermittent hissing sounds. The pairs of blood-red night-vision compound eyes looked forward, which was the direction where the structures in the body of the parasitized seeker last disappeared.

Large groups of ancient web-winged flying insects also flapped their wings and took off at the same time. In the narrow underground space where the giant-winged diver and gastrocystis cannot unfold their bodies, they will be the main force of reconnaissance and air support for the nest.

Reconnaissance flies equipped with echolocation systems, suicide flies with jet propulsion and medicine bags, parasitic flies carrying fungal spores, and all kinds of strange functional ancient web-winged flies all took off at the same time and hovered in the sky.

A large number of individuals have gathered, and groups of ancient web-winged flying insects flapped their membranous wings in the direction where the target last disappeared and began to move forward. On the ground, a large number of crazy-toothed saw-ants followed closely behind, and the battle was about to begin.

(End of this chapter)