LKDW291

To the Riken Star System, at a distance of approximately 9.6 light-years, lies the border of the Duoqi Race's territory. But in between, there is an unclaimed star system designated LKDW291.

Although the Swarm is unregistered, the Riken Race is registered with the Epoch Clan. Due to the protection of their internal rules, established powers are not allowed to enter the star systems adjacent to the Riken Star System, such as the Proxima Star System and the LKDW291 star system.

However, fifty years after the Riken Race joined the Star Sea Alliance, the protection rules automatically expired. The Duoqi Civilization, which was adjacent to LKDW291, sent troops and engineering teams to the star system, attempting to be the first to occupy it and expand its own territory.

Unfortunately, this star system, which has only recently begun construction, has now encountered an even more powerful colonizer.

The Duoqi Race army stationed here began an emergency evacuation as soon as the Swarm made its move. They took everything they could carry, destroyed what they couldn't, and laid various Dark Mine in an attempt to cause some trouble for the Swarm.

At the end of the tenth year of the New Era, the vanguard of the Swarm arrived at the LKDW291 star system and found a scene of devastation. In the orbits of several planets, a large amount of destroyed and abandoned engineering debris floated, among which many explosives of varying power were hidden.

The advance force ignored the space debris and instead dispersed to search for hidden monitoring devices within the galaxy. The Swarm was extremely experienced with these small, concealed objects, and its various targeted functional units were able to locate them by precisely capturing signals in relevant frequency bands.

As more Swarm forces arrived, the Swarm increased the number of search troops and began cleaning up the space debris.

The Ancient Class Storage Sac opened, releasing a large number of Larval Form and Mature Form, who nimbly darted among the debris, searching for suspicious explosives.

Flashes of explosions appeared intermittently. The Space Octopus chose to destroy these Dark Mine remotely with energy weapons. However, many of these Dark Mine were equipped with small radars and smart chips, allowing them to be activated proactively upon detecting enemy activity. Moreover, the more advanced Dark Mine typically possessed tremendous explosive power, causing some casualties among the Swarm.

But these losses are nothing to the Swarm; the injured Space Octopus are simply dragged to the edge of the star to lie dead, while the dead are directly recovered.

In this way, the Dark Mine left behind by the Duoqi Race were quickly cleared, and some Ancient Class organisms equipped with special functional organizations ejected huge spider webs in the planetary orbit.

These genetically optimized and specially modified spider webs possess strong resilience and good resistance to radiation and energy impacts.

Once these spiderwebs are spread out, each one can cover an area of three to four square kilometers. They cover, overlap, and connect to form a huge interception net in space, capturing all passing space debris with the help of the traction of the orbit.

Subsequently, the Ancient Class tightened and gathered the large net into a huge metal sphere. These spiderweb-like balls, generally over ten kilometers in diameter, floated in planetary orbit like satellites.

Afterward, the Ancient Class planted Creep Seed in the spiderwebs, then pulled them away from planetary orbits and dragged them to near the star's orbit. Before long, these spiderwebs would develop into the Megastructure of the Swarm.

While cleaning up space, the Swarm also began developing planets; purple patches began to appear on planets and moons of all sizes. Large numbers of native Larval Form began to gather near the stars, where they would grow to the appropriate level before being added to the Swarm army.

Everything appeared orderly and well-organized, showcasing the Swarm's remarkable discipline.

--

"The Zerg have stopped and haven't advanced any further, which is good news for us."

"They won't stop, they're just choosing to proceed cautiously and steadily; their purpose is obvious!"

"Even if we take a cautious approach, it's still good news for us, as it gives us more time to prepare."

"The problem now is that we don't know how long the Zerg will need to regroup, therefore, I don't agree with establishing a defensive line within the territory of the Duoqi Race!"

"Bullshit! We must hold off the Zerg on our borders, or our race will suffer enormous losses."

However, the relationship between the Koya Alliance was not close enough for them to fight to the death for each other; they weren't even birds of a feather, so it was impossible to ask for more.

"How many troops can we deploy at the earliest on the Duoqi front?" a representative of one of the civilizations asked.

Soon, Adjutant and strategist provided data. "Within five years, at the fastest, 35 million main warships can be deployed; within ten years, at the fastest, 60 million warships can be deployed."

"According to calculations, in swarm warfare, each of our allied warships can exert the combat power of 5-8 500-Meter Class Octopus Monster on average. That means our 35 million main warships can withstand about 200 million Zerg troops."

Representative Duoqi's eyes lit up. "According to the information provided by the Epoch Clan, the Zerg have only dispatched a total of 200 million troops to LKDW291. They can't possibly use all of these troops for an attack. Therefore, setting up a defensive line on our border will definitely be enough to stop them."

"Representative Duoqi, that's not how you calculate it! Our forces will take five years to deploy. Can you guarantee the Zerg won't attack within three years? Even if they wait five years, nobody knows how many troops they'll have deployed in LKDW291. Latest news: their reinforcements haven't stopped. Two hundred million troops are just the vanguard."

"That's right. In the comparison just now, although our 35 million warships could withstand the attack of the Zerg's 200 million troops, the final result was total annihilation and mutual destruction. Now the Zerg have gone mad, courting death and trying to take a few down with them before they die. I don't want my warships to be among them. Therefore, I think we should prioritize avoidance and avoid direct confrontation with the Zerg unless absolutely necessary."

"You're talking nonsense! Your territory is hundreds of light-years away, of course you can be in no hurry. Besides, your reinforcements won't arrive for decades, you won't be able to participate in the war during that time, what right do you have to speak!"

"My race is a member of the Koya Alliance, having joined ten thousand years earlier than yours. In terms of seniority, seniority, and strength, we are Duoqi to your Duoqi. For the sake of the alliance's future, I believe I am absolutely qualified to speak. Besides, if it weren't for your Duoqi Race's instigation and agitation back then, how could our Koya Alliance have become so sworn enemies with the Zerg? I propose that we expel the Duoqi Race from the alliance and let them fend for themselves. Perhaps once the Zerg have wiped them out, their anger will have subsided considerably, and they won't continue to attack us."

"You... you...!" Representative Duoqi was so angry he couldn't speak, his three eyes bulging as if they were about to bleed.