Planetary Organisms Can Reproduce Too

On the Dias Empire's capital planet, countless Diasians took to the streets.

On the dome-like sky above them, the round, brilliant orb that had gently illuminated their race for countless years had now grown a long, slender "tail."

Ever since the imperial fleet defending their capital planet had been defeated, this "tail" had appeared on their parent star.

In space, vast amounts of stellar matter were drawn out by the planetary organism's immense psychic power. This matter was gathered together by psychic power, then naturally formed into a sphere of plasma under the force of gravity.

Gravity itself could contain matter, so there was no need for the planetary organism to deliberately use psychic power to hold those plasma-state materials together.

The planetary organism only needed to use psychic power to give the plasma sphere an initial velocity to orbit the star. All that remained was to continuously inject stellar mass into it, allowing it to grow larger and larger.

Once the plasma sphere reached the same size as itself, the planetary organism would place it within a warp spacetime bubble and throw it far from the star. It would then envelop the plasma planet in psychic power and stretch spacetime with the planet as its center.

The searing radiance of the plasma planet visibly began to dim.

As everyone knew, according to the scale contraction effect, if space was compressed, time would also be affected. Thus, the closer matter was to a black hole, the slower its entropy increased.

Conversely, if space was stretched, as it was during the expansion of the universe, time would pass faster as well.

Immense psychic power stretched the spacetime around the plasma planet. While one day passed in normal spacetime, a year or even longer passed for the plasma planet within the expanded spacetime.

Once the planet's surface had completely cooled, the swarm organisms could begin incubating this planet, made entirely of stellar matter, into a planetary organism.

As time passed, the Diasians on the capital planet discovered that another long, slender "tail" had appeared on their parent star, and the bright star had dimmed slightly.

Yet even such a tiny change had an enormous impact on the Dias Empire's capital planet.

Surface temperatures plummeted, and regions across the globe began entering an ice age. Rain no longer fell anywhere in the world; all precipitation had turned to snow.

In the end, before there had even been any contact or negotiations, the government of the Dias Empire's capital planet was already desperately begging Lu Shang's swarm to infect them all with swarm spores.

The fall of the Dias Empire's capital planet spread at tremendous speed to every member power of the Galactic Alliance on the very day its defense ended.

Without question, the news threw the Galactic Alliance's other member powers into extreme panic.

They had thought that even if the Dias Empire could not defeat the mutated swarm, it could at least hold out for some time. They had never expected the enemy to simply storm and take its capital planet.

Although the Dias Empire's strategic command center was not located on its capital planet, this was an unprecedented blow to imperial morale. It also made it difficult for the Galactic Alliance's other member powers to believe the Dias Empire could continue holding on.

"We can't wait any longer! The new weapons must be deployed as soon as possible!"

"Many safety tests have yet to be completed. Recklessly deploying new weapons to the battlefield would be irresponsible toward our soldiers' lives!"

"Responsibility? Will the Babel Swarm give us the chance to act responsibly?"

"We're next!"

Spurred by the fall of the Dias Empire's capital planet, the Galactic Alliance quickly reached a consensus internally. Weapons still undergoing safety testing would be rapidly installed in the fleets. As for safety and other issues, they could only discover them during combat and slowly make adjustments afterward.

With the living intelligence network previously spread through swarm-spore infections, Lu Shang naturally learned of this news within days of the Galactic Alliance's decision.

"New weapons?"

Lu Shang frowned. He had known about this matter for a long time. The new weapons were not much of a military secret, and publicizing them could boost public confidence and raise friendly morale.

However, Lu Shang did not know exactly what these new weapons were. Based only on the Galactic Alliance's official announcement, they seemed to possess extremely powerful lethality against swarm organisms.

Lu Shang had been rather nervous before. After all, this was an interstellar alliance formed by multiple civilizations. What if they suddenly experienced a technological explosion?

But now, Lu Shang felt that the Galactic Alliance was mostly bluffing. It was not that he had let down his guard; he simply could not imagine what the Galactic Alliance could still create that could contend with his planetary organisms.

"Let's wait and see."

After thinking it over, Lu Shang still felt it was not safe enough. He ordered, "The solid planets will suspend operations for now. Focus entirely on incubation and transformation into planetary organisms."

Planetary organisms were not specialized units. They were mass-produced units!

If one planetary organism's psychic power was not enough to solve the enemy, then send another!

What the swarm lacked least was numbers!

On a desolate planet covered in yellow sand stood an area enclosed by a transparent dome.

In contrast to the barren wasteland outside, the inside of the dome teemed with life. Animals and plants could be seen everywhere. Yet it was also the same as the outside in one respect: rows of tombstones silently conveyed the theme of this place—death.

This planet had once been the Yinlun Sea Kingdom's most prosperous commercial hub. Countless trading vessels docked here to load and unload cargo. Every inch of land was worth a fortune; the price of one house could buy a habitable planet.

The Yinlun Sea people indulged in extravagance on this planet, and countless people flocked here because they could buy anything they could imagine—and anything they could not.

Until the swarm arrived. After its brutal orbital biochemical bombardment, it occupied the planet and devoured everything on its surface, only to then endure the orbital cleansing of the arriving Galactic Alliance fleet...

Now, only the Kambelo Star Cemetery remained, commemorating those who had died on this planet.

At the very center of the cemetery stood a massive obelisk, its surface engraved with densely packed words.

A Yinlun Sea man wearing military exo-armor stood quietly before the obelisk. He remained there for a long time, like a statue.

"Commander Beint, you really are here."

From afar, a Yinlun Sea man in lower-grade military exo-armor approached.

"It's time to depart."

"Sorry, Baosi. I've made a habit of coming to say goodbye to my family before every battle." Beint turned to look at his adjutant, his expression apologetic.

The adjutant came over and saluted. "I understand."

"No, you don't. Everyone's pain is unique." Beint shook his head slightly, then turned back toward the obelisk. After a moment of silence, he asked quietly, "I heard the Dias Empire's war marshal was executed by his own people?"

The adjutant nodded. "Yes. The swarm organisms have undergone another mutation. The strategy devised by the Dias Empire's war marshal became useless. According to the battle reports, a planetary-level swarm organism seems to have appeared. Its psychic signature even surpassed that of a Void God. Most of the warships involved were violently crushed into balls of metal. Only a small number of ships escaped the battlefield."

"Is that so? Then that really is good news." Beint sighed.

"Ah?"

The adjutant froze, unable to understand his superior's words.

The Babel Swarm was the common enemy of every race in the galaxy. Even if two civilizations had poor relations, their interests aligned when it came to the Babel Swarm.

The fall of the Dias Empire's capital planet showed that the gap in equipment between the swarm organisms and the Galactic Alliance fleet was far too vast, to the point where quantity alone could no longer make up for the difference in quality.

Why would his superior call such a grim situation good news?

"An old friend has brought me good news. Now, I have a fifty percent chance." Beint smiled and offered no further explanation.