Dust Eaters

After the Collectors inferred from the disturbance at the stargate that the Coordination Council intended to enter this colonial star through the gate, they shut down the Ripple Megastructure, which had still been operating.

The Collectors planned to use the leaping biological swarm as bait, luring the enemy into the colonial star before activating the Ripple Megastructure and trapping them like turtles in a jar.

Though this was somewhat risky, it was worth attempting. Otherwise, if the enemy passed through the gate and discovered that the spirit domain could not be used normally within the colonial star system, they would likely turn around and flee at once. It would then be extremely difficult to wipe them all out in one stroke.

After all, the vicinity of a stargate was unsuitable as a battlefield, since it could easily trigger the gate's defensive retaliation.

Events unfolded exactly as the Collectors had expected. The Coordination Council combat-unit group that had completed its passage through the gate prioritized locking onto the leaping biological swarm, while ignoring the inactive Ripple Megastructure.

Although the Ripple Megastructure was something the Coordination Council combat units had never seen before, and was unimaginably huge, their past experience told them that such things were non-aggressive. Megastructure organisms were not uncommon among the Collectors' other colonial stars. At first, the Coordination Council combat units had considered such organisms to be relatively formidable figures on the Collectors' side. But as the war dragged on, although the Coordination Council never figured out what megastructure organisms were actually for, they had basically concluded that they were merely large and intimidating-looking.

On one side was the leaping biological swarm, which possessed combat ability and considerable destructive power. On the other were megastructure organisms with virtually no offensive capability. It was only natural that the Coordination