Even Lieutenant General Neali, an Imperial general who prided himself on his emotional control, felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
Though the ghostly enemy had not fully revealed itself, its hazy silhouette immediately brought to mind the Imperial military's latest major victory—the "space leviathan" that looked like a "cocoon."
For a year of counterinsurgency operations, they had been the Imperial military's primary target.
Lieutenant General Rowenthor had submitted a highly detailed report to the Grand Marshal's office, analyzing these cocoon-like "xenobionts" in depth.
She believed that the specimens they had killed and captured were merely individuals of a hive-like species, much like crystal clusters, void clouds, and nuclear insects.
The large cocoon leviathans she had killed and captured were nothing more than somewhat oversized worker bees.
Whoever heard of worker bees as big as battleships? Even those weird creatures from the spirit realm didn't have anything like that in their design, did they?
This was certainly a rather earth-shattering idea, but the bigwigs of the Privy Council and the Grand Marshal's office were willing to trust Lieutenant General Rowenthor's judgment.
The general believed they had to capture the hive's queen to complete their mission.
And so this operation had come about.
Now, the queen they had painstakingly planned to capture had indeed appeared—but in a way no one had expected.
She had gone from prey to predator. She was far larger than they had estimated at first, as huge as a Titan.
On a battlefield like this, she was like a starving lion descending upon a flock of sheep.
Of course, terrifying as all that was, it wasn't the most frightening part.
What truly made Lieutenant General Neali and his subordinates quake with terror was where she had appeared.
Her outline was clear enough