"Yes, General, we'll go immediately. Control of the fleet is now handed over to the Chief of the General Staff."
"Hurry up, stop dawdling."
The Number One of people happily went to find the two academicians. If these two technologies are used well, the fleet's strength will be greatly enhanced, and it may even reach the Small Star Sector Advanced Civilization.
"These kids are really good," Wen Zhonghua praised.
"Yes, what's remarkable is their unwavering loyalty to humanity. It's unbelievable that Academician Xiao helped them escape their predicament, and now they've become a Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilization, and even an important ally for us. It's truly unexpected."
" Old Hu, can we give them the Reversed State Armor?"
"Not yet. They still have potential. If we push them a little harder, they'll achieve even greater breakthroughs. Once Reversed State their fortunes, they'll be even more carefree."
"That's true. They have strong survival skills, so there's basically no need to worry about their safety. Let them suffer a bit more and see just how much potential they have."
"Direct the battle. Continue moving the star as usual, but we need to change our strategy. The star's role is no longer to drive away the swarm, but to prevent the swarm from scattering on a large scale after the antimatter star explodes, and to let the two energies impact the swarm simultaneously to maximize the destructive power."
"Clear."
Of the 40 billion warships of the Aquila Civilization, 20 billion had already arrived near the giant insect swarm. Wen Zhonghua immediately dispersed these warships completely, continuously using the consciousness impact devices around the insect swarm. As expected, the insect swarm retreated continuously. The fleet did not use the consciousness impact devices at full power to avoid the insect swarm's reckless rebound.
All the relocated stars were handed over to the Gemini Civilization fleet for management, while the Aquila Civilization fleet that arrived later supplemented the main battlefield. The impact of the Consciousness Field, which was neither too big nor too small, immediately slowed down the advance of the swarm, especially some of the lower-level swarms, who fled to the middle of the swarm in an unavoidable manner, leaving some of the relatively higher-level swarms to continue attacking the defensive line.
Under the influence of the consciousness-impact device, the swarm's impact was significantly weakened, the pressure on the front lines decreased instantly, and the retreat speed slowed down considerably. With a limited number of fleets, apart from the Reaper, the other fleets tried to avoid contact with the swarm, fighting and retreating simultaneously. In just two months, the front lines retreated more than thirty light-years, which was almost faster than the speed of light. However, without the fleets, the swarm might have already advanced to the edge of the Alliance.
After the fleet retreated another ten light-years, all 800,000 stars were finally in place, illuminating the entire sky with dazzling light. The swarm caused quite a stir, but it was clear that the swarm's Insect King was not concerned; its goal was to destroy the civilization's settlement.
This Insect King is covered in sharp spikes, resembling a giant mantis. However, its size is only relative to humans; it is inconspicuous among the insect swarm, measuring only 100 kilometers in length, making it one of the most ordinary sizes.
It mingled at the rear of the swarm, maneuvering the giant swarm forward. The fleet's transport of stars naturally did not escape its notice, but these stars were only good enough to destroy a third of the cannon fodder. Moreover, these were just cannon fodder; the elites would not suffer much damage, and the overall combat power of the swarm would not decrease by more than five percent.
Since the civilization's fleet did not launch a large-scale attack, the Insect King was happy to remain quiet. Fighting here would inevitably result in the loss of a large number of elite Zerg, but the effect would be different if the battle were fought near the civilization's territory. The primary objective now was to travel to the civilization's territory 160 light-years away to cause destruction and annihilate all civilizations there.
" Chief of Staff Wen, all stars are in position," the Gemini Civilization reported.
"Follow the Aquila Civilization fleet and continue moving the star forward."
The Aquila Civilization fleet immediately activated its consciousness impact device at full power. The swarm, impacted by the powerful Consciousness Field, accelerated its retreat. The Aquila Fleet immediately moved forward, continuing to pressure the swarm, while the Gemini Civilization fleet took the opportunity to advance along with their star.
The swarm continued to shrink, quickly decreasing in diameter from 30 billion kilometers to 10 billion kilometers. Even so, there was still a great distance between the swarm members. However, the actions of the Aquila Fleet had already attracted the attention of the Insect King, who immediately ordered hundreds of billions of elite swarm members to the outer perimeter of the swarm, preparing to launch an attack on the fleet.
Surrounding the Insect King are not only a large number of elite insects, but also several giant insects of the 27th or 28th order with a length of 100,000 kilometers. Its own safety is the most important thing. As for the life and death of other insects, it does not care. As long as it can destroy civilization, it will not have any worries even if all other insects die.
These elite insects were giant insects, each thousands of kilometers long. After swimming out from the middle of the swarm, they immediately separated to prepare to attack the Aquila Fleet. However, they seemed to have underestimated the power of the consciousness impact device. They involuntarily stopped thousands of kilometers away from the Skyhawk warships, writhing in pain in the air.
Upon seeing this, Wen Zhonghua immediately ordered the Aquila Fleet to charge forward and conduct a long-term, uninterrupted targeted consciousness attack right next to the elite insects' brains. After a dozen meters, the insects began to stretch their bodies, showing no further reaction except for their legs and bodies still trembling slightly.
It seems that the consciousness-impact device is still effective against the swarm, but it requires a long-term, targeted attack at extremely close range. Its effectiveness is much lower if it is used for area-of-effect attacks. Moreover, these are just some elite swarms, and their rank is not very high, generally around rank 22 to 23.
Wen Zhonghua knew that the first attack had failed and the Insect King would definitely change its strategy. The Aquila Fleet would not have this opportunity again, so he charged towards the Zerg swarm once more for one last effort.
The worm cluster shrank to 5 billion kilometers in diameter and could no longer advance, because many worms tens of thousands of kilometers long had appeared at the edge of the cluster.
" Old Hu, it's time."
"Okay, let's begin."
The Reaper fleet left behind a billion ships to continue protecting the two stars, while the rest began a full-scale breakout towards the outside of the Zerg swarm. Space cannons and various weapons cleared a path, forcefully carving a tunnel through the dense Zerg swarm. The Zerg swarm was helpless against the Reaper, and after leaving behind countless corpses, they could only let the Reaper leave.
After the Reaper main fleet broke through the insect swarm's encirclement, the remaining billion Reaper also began to retreat. Two stars, one an antimatter star and one matter star, were only a little over two thousand kilometers apart. Without the Reaper's interference, they began to accelerate towards each other under the influence of gravity. In less than 30 seconds, the outer layers of the two stars had made contact, and a second later, the two stars collided violently.