Chapter Summaries

Lin Tian received a Level 7 Civilization device called a Phase Prison and arranged for Alba to be contained. With Emil translating, Alba entered the glowing passage that led to the prison.

• A field-grade officer delivered Lin Fan’s briefcase to Lin Tian and relayed that the device had cost Lin Fan half his savings.
• Lin Tian opened the case, learned the metal sphere was an auxiliary unit of a Level 7 Civilization Phase Prison, and ordered Bilodis to use it on Alba.
• A mech squad activated the sphere near Alba, creating a glowing passage into a temporary phase confinement space.
• Bilodis asked Emil to tell Alba to enter the passage, and Emil warned him that he had three minutes before the human warships fired.
• Alba decided the prison was preferable to being killed and moved into the passage.

The Federation questioned Emil about the bug race’s past and learned that the First Holy War had nearly destroyed a powerful Level 7 Civilization. Emil warned that the bug race’s apparent weakness did not tell the whole story, explaining that Queen Aliya had sent Queen Bugs to build forces across the Laniakea Supercluster.

• Lin Zhen introduced Emil to the Federation leaders in a virtual meeting, where Emil was eager to leave and play games.
• At Lin Zhen’s insistence, Emil recounted the First Holy War, which lasted over twenty thousand years and nearly destroyed the Holy Victory Empire.
• Emil revealed that the bug race had once possessed more than a hundred Tier 1 Queen Bugs, shocking the Federation leaders.
• When Saunders asked why the bug race now seemed to have only Emil and Alba, Emil explained that evolving into a Tier 1 Queen Bug was nearly impossible without a Queen’s help.
• Emil said that after the war, Queen Aliya sent the Queen Bugs to expand their forces across the Laniakea Supercluster, and that he and Garcia had not returned to the Virster Supercluster in a hundred thousand years.

Emil warned the Federation that Queen Aliya might command a Zerg force close to its peak strength, and that Phase Shields alone would not be enough to stop her. Lin Fan proposed using captured Bug Emperor Alba to buy the Federation time to develop, hinting at a way to exploit Queen Aliya’s special attachment to him.

• Emil said Queen Aliya may have cultivated at least a hundred Tier 1 Queen Bugs during the hundred thousand years since his return, and warned that Phase Shields would not suffice against her full-scale offensive.
• Emil advised the Federation to use Zero-Point Particle weapons without restraint, as the Holy Victory Empire had done against the Zerg.
• Lin Fan explained that Phase Shields had been installed on only a small, secret fleet, and Lin Zhen stopped the conference from pursuing the matter further.
• The leaders considered whether the Federation could afford a prolonged war of attrition, given its limited industrial capacity and lack of time.
• Lin Fan said the Federation needed time to absorb and develop, and proposed using captured Bug Emperor Alba to secure it.
• Lin Fan confirmed that Alba was the only known male Bug Emperor and that Queen Aliya cared deeply for him, then hinted at a way to use that attachment.

Lin Fan deduced that Alba might hold the key to Zerg evolution and proposed using him to buy the Federation time. The meeting ended with Emil agreeing to help the Federation contact Aliya, tempted by the promise of more games.

• Lin Fan argued that Aliya’s unusual support for Alba suggested the first male Zerg Emperor was connected to the Zerg’s evolution.
• Lin Fan proposed using Alba to negotiate for more time, and Ed asked how the Federation could communicate with Aliya.
• Lin Fan suggested Emil act as a bridge to Aliya, and Ed and the others pressured him by calling him humanity’s friend.
• Emil agreed to help contact Aliya after Lin Fan promised to have Elder Bai install more games for him.
• Ed accepted responsibility for carrying out the plan.

Lin Tian kept the Dauntless Fleet on alert while the Zerg Empress Aliya and her forces entered the Mels Star Cluster. Unable to find Alba, Aliya detected the human fleet in the Galactic System and headed toward it.

• Lin Tian ordered continued monitoring and kept the fleet at Level Two combat readiness while awaiting Aliya’s arrival.
• Zerg forces emerged through Bug Nest Channels in every galaxy of the Mels Star Cluster except the Galactic System and formed defensive perimeters.
• Aliya emerged in the Kate Galaxy with more than a hundred thousand Queen Bugs around her.
• Aliya sensed across the cluster but could not detect Alba, so she searched for humans to question.
• Aliya detected the Dauntless Fleet gathered in the Galactic System and identified it as her likely target.

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.