Of course, those weren't hornets. They were countless creatures the size of fists, pitch-black all over, and shaped like gnats!
They had sharp mouthparts, wings as thin as cicada wings that vibrated at incredible speed, and tails glimmering with an ominous green light. Their bodies were packed with immense high-explosive energy. Their very forms were the deadliest weapons of all: each one was a brilliant hive missile, enhanced with advanced intelligence and the ability to burrow through armor.
These were the improved Universe 2.0 Plus version of the explosive mosquitoes.
Of course, these tiny insects couldn't make hyperspace jumps on their own. They had to ride in their own hive ships to travel through space.
They were disposable weapons for suicide attacks, and the egg-shaped hive ships that carried them were disposable too.
Once the latter began to disintegrate, all the suicide bugs, coated in biological plating resistant to heat and shock waves, would be activated. They would receive one final burst of energy from their collapsing hive ship, and then launch their charge.
In a sense, the Imperial Army's barrage had only prompted them to begin that tactical maneuver ahead of schedule.
The explosive mosquitoes surged like a swarm of locusts spewing from the bottomless pits of Hell. They became a silent cloud of fire, spreading toward the Imperial Army. Each was barely larger than a sparrow, but when they gathered in the thousands and formed a gravitational resonance, they somehow gained maneuverability like sublight-speed cruisers.
The Imperial officers and soldiers stared in stunned disbelief as the fiery clouds began to accelerate, each one seeming like a cluster of energy shells hurtling toward them.
"This... this effect? A gravitational harmonics engine?" cried a quick-thinking staff officer with a strong scientific background. But it was precisely because he knew his