A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 19: A multitude of unusual bee colonies

"What should we do?"

Lu Shang closed his eyes and connected to the swarm network, observing the interstellar battlefield of Kao Star, where fierce battles had recently taken place, through the sensory organs of planetary creatures.

The battlefield was littered with numerous pieces of space debris, the most numerous of which were molten planetary fragments that scattered and flew in all directions like fireworks.

There's really not much left to investigate in this space battlefield, because the enemy has already revealed what Lu Shang wants to the public, and then Lu Shang has learned about it through the intelligence network.

Many planetary creatures remain here simply because they haven't received an evacuation order from the land entropy.

Lu Shang is now thinking about how to defend against the Star River Alliance's weapon that can induce the formation of microscopic black holes.

Black holes are the most extreme form of matter in the universe, bar none. No amount of psionic energy can destroy such terrifying things, at least not by planetary life forms. At most, they can only use psionic energy to throw away black holes with relatively small masses.

Actually, if the Star Alliance fleet only drops a small number of microscopic black holes, Lu Shang isn't too worried. At worst, he can use psionic energy to throw the microscopic black holes away as they devour planetary matter.

If a microscopic black hole cannot devour matter, it will naturally evaporate and disappear.

However, the Star Alliance fleet's weapons seem capable of continuously bombarding microscopic black holes near celestial bodies, and when combined with a salvo from the entire fleet, it becomes a deadly threat.

"How about we go find the new overlord of that swarm and ask for a brain template? I remember the mastermind said that the new overlord can unleash level twelve psionic power..."

Lu Shang muttered to himself, then shook his head and rejected the idea.

"No, this won't work at all. It's just a temporary fix. Leveling up only extends the range of psionic influence. While level 12 psionic energy can influence farther, its range is still limited. The enemy fleet can easily create a much greater distance to induce a microscopic black hole."

The range of effect of level 12 psionic energy is definitely greater than that of level 10 psionic energy.

But it's only larger. A level 12 psionic brain also has a limit to its range of operation. The Star Alliance fleet could easily hide in a much farther place and continuously induce the formation of microscopic black holes.

A level 12 psionic brain, at most, can utilize a wider range of effects than a level 10 psionic brain in a single battle, catching the enemy off guard, and then...

And that was it; the enemy wasn't brainless.

After thinking for a long time without finding a feasible direction, Lu Shang asked in the swarm network.

"...What are your thoughts on the Star Alliance's black hole-induced weapon?"

Under Lu Shang's command, the swarm of bee creatures, which had been busy, suddenly stopped moving and then sent out a large amount of information in the psionic network.

"Watch quietly."

"No, no, no, we should look closer; that way we can see it more clearly."

"If you're near danger, you should maintain a safe distance."

……

Snapped!

Lu Shang slapped his forehead, both amused and annoyed, and said, "I'm asking you what good methods you have to deal with the Star River Alliance's black hole attack, not what methods you want to use to observe the enemy's weapons."

"I need you guys to use your brains and give me some ideas."

After this explanation, the direction of the responses in the swarm network changed abruptly.

"Layered thicker shells."

Lu Shang was speechless. Isn't the crust of a planet thicker than the one on your body?

He rubbed his forehead and said, "This one's IQ is low, next one."

"Add lots more spikes."

Lu Shang's eye twitched slightly: "Meaning unclear, next."

"We could try to eat the black hole."

After thinking for a moment, Lu Shang kindly offered the bee creature a suggestion: "Your brain probably had some problems during hatching. I suggest you go find a nearby beehive to check it out. Next."

……

He didn't know which individual bee in the swarm had answered Lu Shang's question, but just when he was feeling numb, suddenly an individual answered.

"Expanding perception".

In an instant, Lu Shang felt the fog that had been troubling him dissipate from his mind.

Lu Shang immediately slammed his fist in his hand and said, "Yes, that's the direction! If perception isn't enough, expand it!"

"We need to have perception capabilities that exceed the speed of light, so that all attacks that travel at the speed of light will be rendered useless."

The Star Alliance's light-speed attack weapons simply rely on the fact that the swarm's perception is limited to the speed of light, making it impossible to detect an attack early and defend against it.

According to the swarm's memory, the highest speed at which the Star River Alliance could strike was only the speed of light. If the swarm could extend its perception to speeds above the speed of light, this would be a dimensional reduction attack against all civilizations in the Star River Alliance!

Lu Shang already had a clue what to do, and without further ado, he immediately gave orders to the bee swarm.

"All hives, edit genes, I need you to design a creature."

"There is only one design condition for this creature: it must be very small, the smaller the better. There are no other requirements."

The planetary hives, which were originally busy incubating other bee colonies, have begun to bustle with the design and incubation of new members of their kind...

Banner Consortium, a red dwarf star system.

After returning heroically from the fallen star system of the Dias Empire, the fleet commanded by Bernt received orders from his superiors to undergo repairs and refitting.

The fleet commanded by Berndt was a prototype, and its safety and system reliability still needed to be improved.

In addition to determining the combat pattern with the mutated bee swarms in the occupied area, this campaign on Kao Star also served to collect battlefield data.

Around the red dwarf star is a ring of man-made machines that continuously extract stellar matter from the star and feed it into the massive man-made machine group. After a series of complex rough and fine processing steps, the massive warships are finally pushed out like cans in a canning factory by an orderly flow of water.

The Star Alliance has confirmed the effective strike capability of the new equipment; all that remains is to continuously plunder stellar matter and increase the quantity as quickly as possible.

There are countless star factories like these in the vast Star Alliance, scattered throughout the galaxy.

When the Star Alliance needs it, it will rapidly expand its army and overwhelm its enemies with overwhelming numbers.

In fact, the strategic thinking of the Star Alliance was influenced by the Tower of Babel swarm.

On past battlefields, the sheer number of individual swarms that outnumbered their own forces had driven the military commanders of the Star River Alliance to despair.

If it weren't for industrial innovation and technological progress, the various factions of the Star Alliance would have perished long ago.

With some free time to rest, Bennett and the war machine group's supervisor walked onto the observation deck. From their vantage point, they could clearly see countless warships neatly arranged in the space warehouse, densely packed together, a sight that dazzled the eyes.

The supervisor opened the projection blueprint of the warship and introduced it to Bernt, who was visiting the ship: "We have made some improvements to the internal structure of the new warship, optimized the kinetic energy defense, and in particular, the reactor inside the gravity-damaging ship has also been structurally adjusted. Even if it suffers penetrating damage at sub-light speed, it will no longer be as prone to secondary explosion as it was in the Battle of Kao Star."

"It won't be long before all the Alliance's fleets are able to use these high-performance weapons."

(End of this chapter)