Recaps

Aliya sent the insect race’s vanguard through Bug Nest Channels toward the Galactic System, while Lin Tian realized the Federation had misjudged the attack and prepared the Vita Defense Line. When the first enormous channel opened, the emerging insect forces appeared in orderly ranks, startling the defenders.

• Aliya sensed Emil among the human fleets and ordered the vanguard forces to advance toward the Galactic System through channels opened in sixty-seven galaxies.
• The Vita Defense Line detected sixty-seven Bug Nest Channels, and Lin Tian realized the insect race was gathering across the Mels Star Cluster rather than approaching as expected.
• Lin Tian authorized fleet flagships to use Zero-Point Particle armaments and ordered a calculation of the insect race’s arrival time.
• Three days later, a huge Bug Nest Channel opened near the Vita Defense Line, and Lin Tian inferred that Aliya had cultivated a new generation of Tier 1 Queen Bugs.
• The insect race emerged through the channel in orderly ranks, leaving Lin Tian and the other defenders stunned.

Zaka gathered the Zerg armies at the Vita Defense Line and ordered them to attack after twenty armies had assembled. Lin Tian held back the Silencers to study the unfamiliar Zerg in combat, while keeping Zero-Point Missiles ready in case the defense line was threatened.

• Zaka assembled the arriving Zerg armies into orderly formations and waited across from the Vita Defense Line.
• Lin Tian chose to hold position rather than reveal the Silencers before the Queen Bugs appeared.
• Nineteen Zerg armies gathered over the course of a day, and the twentieth arrived alongside dozens of Queen Bugs.
• Zaka ordered all units to attack, sending the Zerg armies forward in formation.
• Bilodis reported forty-eight Queen Bugs, and Lin Tian ordered the fleet to gather combat data before using the Silencers.
• Lin Tian kept more than a thousand Zero-Point Missiles aboard the Union and additional missiles across the defense line ready for launch.

Lin Tian’s Dauntless Fleet fought an advancing insect swarm whose Sprayer Bugs revealed an unprecedented long-range attack. After learning that the projectiles could not threaten the Phase Shield, Lin Tian watched the Warship Bugs open fire from an even more astonishing distance.

• The Dauntless Fleet fired three waves at the swarm, but the insects quickly filled the gaps and maintained their formations.
• Lin Tian ordered the Sprayer Bugs’ new attacks analyzed, and the fleet identified their energy projectiles as High-level Sprayer Bugs.
• Lin Tian sent an unmanned reconnaissance ship to intercept a projectile and learned it produced a million-kilometer blast with energy exceeding Level 11.
• Lin Tian concluded the projectile could not threaten the Phase Shield, but the Warship Bugs then began beam attacks from 3.8 AU away.

The Zerg triggered a vast region of spatial chaos that disabled the Federation’s Space Radar and blocked its long-range spatial attacks. Zaka sacrificed most of his advancing force to cross the deadly region, and the survivors reached within 90 million kilometers of the Vita Defense Line, where he saw something that dumbfounded him.

• The Zerg’s high-rank Warship Bugs detonated the earlier Sprayer Bugs’ energy attacks, damaging space and creating a chaotic region ahead of the Federation’s defenses.
• Lin Tian learned that the spatial chaos had blocked long-range attacks and temporarily disabled the Space Radar across the Dauntless Fleet.
• Zaka ordered his Zerg forces to push through the spatial disasters, accepting severe casualties to get part of the army within 90 million kilometers of the Vita Defense Line.
• After more than fifty minutes, at least thirty percent of the Zerg force had crossed the chaotic region, and Zaka inspected the frontline through the Zerg Mental Network and was dumbfounded.

Lin Tian’s Dauntless Fleet exploited a mental interference device to destroy the immobilized insectoid vanguard and repel the rest, ending the outpost battle. After reviewing the report, Lin Fan called an emergency meeting to prepare for a much harder next battle.

• Zaka lost contact with the insectoid vanguard when Lin Tian’s mental interference device disrupted its command network, leaving the war bugs motionless.
• Lin Tian ordered the Dauntless Fleet to attack with Spatial Tear cannons and destroy the helpless war bugs.
• Aliya ordered Zaka to withdraw the insectoid forces that remained under her control, while the disconnected vanguard stayed in place.
• The Dauntless Fleet eliminated the remaining disconnected war bugs, bringing the outpost battle to an end.
• Lin Fan read the battle report and called Lin Yu and Li Lizhi to an emergency meeting.

Li Lizhi explained the King of Heaven Plan, which gave the Neutron Battle Star’s outpost the ability to travel between star clusters, and Lin Fan ordered the Neutron Battle Star kept in reserve for the coming war. Lin Yu and Li Lizhi then began its final test by sending the outpost toward the Vita Defense Line.

• Li Lizhi told Lin Tian and Lin Yu that the King of Heaven Plan had modified the Neutron Battle Star’s outpost for hyperspace travel and that final acceptance testing remained.
• Lin Fan decided to deploy the Neutron Battle Star in the Galactic System war as the plan’s final test, but ordered it to stay in reserve unless the defense line faced a breach.
• Lin Fan appointed Lin Yu as the Neutron Battle Star’s first commander and Li Lizhi as its technical advisor.
• Lin Yu and Li Lizhi reached the outpost control center, completed preparations, and activated the Hyperspace Engine for the Vita Defense Line garrison headquarters.

Lin Tian prepared the Vita Defense Line for the approaching bug army and identified a new formation of Aliya’s Imperial Guards. When the bugs resumed their advance, he realized they were using the familiar Sprayer Bug assault to screen the Imperial Guards and ordered the fleet to target the guards directly.

• Lin Tian assessed the Dauntless Fleet’s limited stockpile of Zero-Point Particle weapons and decided to focus on positional defense, keeping a decapitation operation as a possible fallback.
• Lin Tian and Bilodis compared a newly detected scorpion-like bug with records from the battle against Alba and confirmed that it was an Imperial Guard bug, prompting Lin Tian to raise combat readiness to Level One.
• Aliya’s bug army, including more than ten billion Imperial Guards, advanced toward the Vita Defense Line and ignored the fleet’s repeated spatial strikes.
• As Sprayer Bugs attacked from the front, Lin Tian learned that the Imperial Guards were in the formation’s third section and ordered the fleets to bypass the first two sections and attack them.

Lin Tian anticipated that the Zerg would use spatial chaos and expendable combat bugs to bring their Imperial Guard into range, so he ordered the Dauntless Fleet to target the Imperial Guard first. His long-range piercing attack broke through a Spatial Shield and pierced seven bugs before it was finally stopped.

• Lin Tian deduced that the Zerg's forward combat bugs would create spatial chaos while the Imperial Guard advanced behind them, using its Space Cut attacks to threaten Phase Shields.
• Lin Tian concluded that the Imperial Guard was the Zerg's true threat and worried that Aliya had upgraded its range and abilities over the past hundred thousand years.
• Lin Tian prepared to strike the Imperial Guard before the Zerg could create enough chaotic space to block the Dauntless Fleet's attacks.
• Across 9 AU, the Dauntless Fleet fired a piercing spatial attack that drilled through a Spatial Shield and pierced seven Imperial Guard bugs before it stopped.

Lin Tian discovered that the Imperial Guard Bugs’ Spatial Shields made his initial attack plan far less effective than expected, so he revised it to exploit hidden Zero-Point Particle Mines. Headquarters sent the new plan to Lin Kexin, who dismissed it as underwhelming.

• Lin Tian learned that Spatial Pierce could eliminate only 32–33% of the Imperial Guard Bugs within an hour because their Spatial Shields weakened its attacks.
• Lin Tian ordered staff to mark the thirty-seven Zero-Point Particle Mines along the Zerg’s route and calculate a new attack plan.
• The revised plan avoided bugs within the mines’ lethal radii and raised the projected elimination rate to 89–92%.
• Lin Tian ordered the plan sent to Lin Kexin’s Second Division Fleet for immediate execution.
• Lin Kexin read the plan aboard the Luoshen and complained that headquarters had taken too long to produce it.

Lin Tian’s strike plan confused Aliya as she prepared a hidden force, while Lin Kexin carried out the planned mine detonations across the defense line. Lin Kexin noticed a problem in the Nineteenth War Zone as space turbulence began again.

• Lin Kexin ordered her fleets to follow Lin Tian’s revised, seemingly chaotic strike plan despite disliking it.
• Aliya revealed that her more than ten billion Imperial Guard were only a feint and sensed that the time was nearly right.
• A hidden army of Stealth Blade Bugs advanced toward the Nineteenth Defense Sector, undetected by the defenders’ Space Radar.
• Lin Tian ordered Lin Kexin to detonate the Zero-Point Particle Mines before the approaching attacks caught up with the Imperial Guard.
• Lin Kexin’s fleets detonated the mines, triggering space turbulence across the defense sectors.
• Lin Kexin spotted something wrong in the Nineteenth War Zone on her terminal.

Lin Kexin suspected the bugs had exploited the nineteenth defense zone’s unusual deployment to prepare an undetected attack. A scan by the 101 Special Fleet revealed countless hidden bugs just 2 AU from the defense line.

• Lin Kexin noticed that the bugs and defenders in the nineteenth defense zone were concentrated in the center, leaving its outer regions unoccupied.
• After spatial disturbances halted combat, Lin Kexin scanned the undisturbed parts of the nineteenth defense zone and suspected the bugs might be invisible.
• Lin Kexin sent the 101 Special Fleet to the zone and ordered it to scan routes not blocked by spatial disturbances, despite Lin Tian’s objections.
• Lin Tian realized what Lin Kexin suspected and watched the fleet’s scan results.
• The 101 Special Fleet detected countless bugs in the previously empty regions, with their vanguard only 2 AU from the defense line.

Lin Tian authorized the 101 Special Fleet to use Zero-Point Particle Missiles against Aliya’s hidden Stealth Blade Bugs, which the fleet had exposed and begun attacking. The bugs then revealed an ability that erased themselves and nearby Zerg from Federation surveillance as the offensive continued.

• Lin Tian realized trillions of Stealth Blade Bugs were approaching the defense line and gave Lin Kexin unrestricted authorization to use Zero-Point Particle weapons.
• The 101 Special Fleet attacked the exposed bugs with Spatial Tear cannons, killing at least a billion before they could respond.
• Aliya inferred that humanity had detected the bugs through their energy signatures and ordered them to use an ability to disable energy scans.
• Lin Kexin’s staff estimated that the fleet would eliminate only 69% of the bugs within an hour, prompting her to question the attack’s effectiveness.
• Lin Kexin reviewed footage showing a Stealth Blade Bug self-destruct and erase nearby Zerg from surveillance, after which the effect spread throughout the swarm.

Lin Kexin discovered that the insectoid race had concealed itself with an energy field that obscured its units, then used Spatial Pierce attacks to locate enemy concentrations. After confirming 392 targets, she ordered the 101 Special Fleet to launch Zero-Point Particle Missiles at them.

• Lin Kexin learned that the insectoid race’s self-destructions had released energy that concealed the bugs and masked their positions across a vast area.
• Lin Kexin ordered the fleet to spread out and use Spatial Pierce attacks to probe the concealed enemy’s advance.
• The 101 Special Fleet’s first volley struck scattered Stealth Blade Bugs and provided data for a target model.
• Lin Kexin ordered the fleet to attack 392 confirmed targets with Zero-Point Particle Missiles.
• The arsenal ship deployed and launched 392 Zero-Point Particle Missiles.

Aliya watched humanity’s forces destroy nearly half of the Stealth Blade Bug army with carefully calibrated Spatial Pierce attacks and Zero-Point Particle Missiles. Judging the battle a probe and unwilling to reveal her hidden trump card, she ordered a full retreat, leaving the Vita Defense Line intact.

• Aliya questioned why humanity had switched from broad attacks to low-hit-rate penetrating strikes against the Stealth Blade Bugs.
• Humanity launched 392 Zero-Point Particle Missiles through Hyperspace Windows, destroying at least twenty percent of the Zerg army.
• Lin Kexin’s forces used the results of successive Spatial Pierce attacks to improve their targeting, then launched another wave of missiles that brought the army’s losses to nearly half.
• Aliya weighed continuing the assault, retreating, or revealing her hidden trump card, then chose to withdraw rather than risk her forces.
• Aliya transmitted a full-retreat order, and after spatial disturbances stabilized, humanity found that all the Zerg armies had withdrawn.

Aliya withdrew after her Stealth Blade Bug ambush failed, while Lin Tian recognized her tactical skill as a serious threat to the Vita Defense Line. Both sides needed time: humanity to advance its technology and Aliya to move her vast forces, and the Federation hoped the Dauntless Fleet would make her cautious enough to delay a full offensive.

• Aliya judged that continuing the attack would waste her forces and ordered a full retreat amid the spatial turbulence.
• Lin Tian learned of the Zerg retreat and feared Aliya's tactics, noting that she fought unlike the reckless King Bugs and had likely not revealed all her weapons.
• Lin Tian began writing a report, aware that humanity needed time to develop beyond its current civilization level to survive a full-scale Zerg assault.
• Aliya also needed time because moving her main forces from the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster to the Mels Star Cluster would take at least a dozen years.
• Aliya mistook the Dauntless Fleet for a small human force, while the Federation intended its advanced technology to make her wary and buy humanity time.

Lin Kexin’s fleet found Emil cocooned in the abandoned Triangle Empire capital, where its energy suggested it was evolving into an Emperor Bug. The Federation’s think tank advised supporting Emil’s gaming addiction to keep it under control, but its energy surged to Alba’s level, prompting Lin Kexin to request a Zero-Point Particle Missile.

• Lin Kexin led the Second Division Fleet to the former Capital Sphere and located Emil inside a massive energy cocoon.
• Lin Fan wondered whether Emil had naturally evolved into an Emperor Bug and suspected that gaming might have triggered the change.
• The think tank advised Lin Fan to give Emil greater access to human networks and games, and Lin Zhen considered creating a department to manage its gaming and use the approach with Aliya.
• Lin Kexin’s adjutant reported that Emil’s energy was rising exponentially and had reached Alba’s recorded level.
• Lin Kexin requested authorization to use one Zero-Point Particle Missile against Emil.

Emil completed its natural evolution into a Bug Emperor, drawing Aliya’s excited attention and leaving Lin Kexin’s fleet on guard. After emerging in a humanoid form, Emil realized its communication device had broken and waited for the humans to replace it.

• Aliya sensed Emil’s evolution from the Kate Galaxy and became excited, judging it more promising than Alba for breaking the Zerg evolutionary limit.
• Lin Kexin’s crew reported that Emil’s energy was stabilizing, and half a day later its energy cocoon dispersed.
• Emil emerged as a humanoid Bug Emperor and was bewildered and distressed by its appearance.
• Lin Kexin ordered an engineering ship to replace Emil’s damaged communication device and kept the surrounding warships’ weapons trained on it.
• Emil noticed the billion warships, failed to contact Lin Kexin, and obediently waited for the engineering ship.

After evolving into an Imperial Bug, Emil learned that his month-long disappearance had disrupted the Federation’s plans, and Lin Kexin persuaded him to help the Federation during negotiations with Aliya. When Aliya contacted him the next day, she abandoned her plans for war and asked him to return with her to the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster, leaving Emil searching for an excuse to stay with humanity.

• Lin Kexin contacted Emil through his newly installed brainwave conversion device and scolded him for disrupting the Federation’s plans.
• Lin Kexin told Emil that his evolution had taken more than a month and dangled the promise of games and a higher allowance if he helped the Federation.
• Emil agreed to support the Federation and persuade Aliya to grant it more benefits during negotiations.
• A day later, Aliya contacted Emil through the Zerg Mental Network, confirmed his successful evolution, and said she no longer needed to rescue Alba or wage war on humanity.
• Aliya told Emil to return and accompany her to the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster, but Emil claimed humanity had taken him prisoner because he wanted to stay and play games.

Lin Zhen’s think tank analyzed Aliya’s changing attitude toward Alba and Emil, concluding that Alba was likely a flawed, artificially evolved Emperor Bug while Emil was a complete one. They advised keeping Emil in the Federation, and Lin Zhen’s meeting received Emil’s request to connect.

• Lin Zhen asked the think tank why Aliya had lost interest in Alba after learning that Emil had evolved.
• Zhang Kai reported that Farn had likely used biotechnology to make Alba a half-evolved Emperor Bug, and that Aliya now saw Emil as a better option.
• Zhang Kai said Emil wanted to stay in the Federation and advised against returning him to Aliya, suggesting Alba could be offered instead if necessary.
• Lin Fan supported the think tank’s assessment, arguing that returning Emil could let Aliya break through the Insect Race’s racial talent limit.
• Lin Zhen learned that Emil was requesting a connection and ordered his secretary to bring him into the Virtual Meeting Room.

Emil sought the Federation’s help to avoid returning to Empress Aliya, who wanted him back in the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster. Lin Zhen persuaded him to sign a three-hundred-year employment agreement, leaving Emil bound to the Federation under a contract packed with harsh terms.

• Emil told President Lin that Aliya insisted he return with her and begged the Federation to protect him.
• Lin Zhen claimed the Federation had planned to return Emil to avoid war, and Emil offered Alba as a substitute.
• Lin Zhen proposed a three-hundred-year Employment Agreement, and Emil eagerly agreed after learning he could use his salary to play games.
• Lin Zhen ordered Zhang Kai to draft the agreement, and Zhang Kai included clauses permitting invasive scientific procedures, including slicing.
• Emil signed using biological feature recording, becoming an employee of the Federation.

Aliya met with Federation representatives to demand Emil’s return, but Lin Zhen refused because Emil’s three-hundred-year employment agreement was still in effect. The talks ended with the Federation promising to honor Emil’s choice after the contract expired while warning Aliya against using force.

• A Federation warship delivered and installed the brainwave conversion device needed for Aliya to negotiate with humans.
• Aliya appeared in the Virtual Meeting Room in a humanoid form, shocking Emil, Lin Fan, Lin Zhen, and Ed.
• Lin Zhen told Aliya that the Federation would not release Emil before his employment agreement expired.
• Aliya demanded that Emil return with her to the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster and threatened the possibility of all-out war.
• Lin Zhen warned Aliya that force would fail and that a Zero-Point Armament inside Emil could kill him, while promising to respect Emil’s wishes after three hundred years.

Lin Zhen offered Aliya Alba in exchange for keeping Emil under his three-hundred-year Employment Agreement, after humanity discovered Alba’s altered cells were harmful to the insect race. Aliya accepted the deal and arranged to collect Alba in one week, leaving Lin Fan responsible for the handover and giving the Federation three centuries to grow stronger.

• Bai Zixuan informed Lin Zhen that Alba’s evolution had been artificially modified and that Alba’s cells degraded when fused with Emil’s.
• Lin Zhen proposed returning Alba to Aliya while keeping Emil until his three-hundred-year Employment Agreement expired.
• Aliya considered using Alba for experiments and asked how humanity would guarantee Emil’s release after three hundred years.
• Lin Zhen argued that refusing to release Emil later would lead to the same war Aliya could start now, and Aliya agreed to the proposal.
• Aliya required regular access to Emil through the psychic network and scheduled the Alba handover at the Vita Defense Line in one week.
• Lin Zhen assigned Lin Fan to handle the handover, and Lin Fan resolved to use the three hundred years to strengthen the Federation.

At the Vita Defense Line, Lin Tian arranged for Alba to be released from the Phase Prison as Aliya, the original Imperial Bug and bug queen, arrived. Alba regained awareness but was left bewildered by the familiar aura of the enormous bug before him.

• Lin Fan aimed to use the Federation’s three hundred-year truce to advance toward Level 8 civilization, after learning how swarms of Primary Sprayer Bugs had destroyed a Holy Victory Empire trade hub.
• Alba remained isolated in the Federation’s Phase Prison at the Vita Defense Line, unaware why he had been brought there.
• Aliya emerged from the bugs’ largest Bug Nest Channel, while Lin Tian joked about her figure and Bilodis startled him with her killing intent.
• Lin Tian ordered the bridge crew to convert Alba’s cell to a normal phase and release him.
• Lin Tian told Alba he was free, and Alba noticed Aliya’s familiar aura but could not understand why she seemed familiar.

Alba recognized Aliya and left the Federation fleet to rejoin the Zerg, while Lin Tian prepared to oversee their withdrawal from the Mels Star Cluster. Aliya opened a Bug Nest Channel and ordered the Zerg to withdraw, leaving her strained relationship with Alba unresolved.

• Alba mistook Aliya for an ugly human-like bug until Lin Tian's warning made him realize who she was.
• Alba flew back to the Zerg rather than risk being sent back to prison.
• Bilodis reminded Lin Tian that the Dauntless Fleet had to oversee the Zerg withdrawal and clear the Mels Star Cluster for Lin Fan's planned fleet headquarters.
• Lin Tian ordered the fleet to monitor the Zerg as they prepared to withdraw.
• Alba arrived before Aliya, who scolded him for failing to recognize her and opened a Bug Nest Channel.
• Aliya ordered all the Zerg, including Alba, to enter the channel and withdraw.

Lin Fan prepared to secure the Mels Star Cluster as the gateway between the Virgo and Kebiniah Superclusters, while Aliya brought her Zerg forces to the Moras System. Aliya then ordered Alba to open his mental domain for inspection and demanded he address her as Empress.

• Emil explained how the Cosmic Current connected the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster to the Laniakea Supercluster through the Kebiniah Supercluster and the Mels Star Cluster.
• Lin Fan planned to use the Mels Star Cluster as a military stronghold and launch point for campaigns across the Virgo Supercluster.
• After the Zerg withdrew, Lin Tian sent half the fleet from the Vita Defense Line to scan the Mels Star Cluster for hidden Zerg.
• Aliya arrived in the Moras System, ordered her Tier 1 Queen Bugs to establish camp and receive reinforcements, then demanded that Alba open his mental domain.
• Alba objected, but Aliya told him he was only a Quasi-Emperor Bug and ordered him to address her as Empress.