The fleet covered the twenty light-years in less than two months. Two light-days from the planetary system, it dropped out of warp. The system's star was slightly smaller than the Sun and had only one planet, which was currently on the far side of the star. In the two months the fleet had traveled, the planet had moved through ninety degrees of its orbit; its year was roughly two-thirds the length of Earth's. To examine the planet firsthand, they would either have to send a survey ship or wait patiently for it to orbit into an observable position. The main fleet would not risk entering the system without knowing what lay ahead.
A small survey ship soon emerged from an engineering ship and headed into the system under the protection of ten Stealth Killers. In half an hour, it would examine the planet firsthand to determine whether there were signs of civilization and whether the planet was worth modifying. From what they could tell so far, the chances of an advanced civilization being present were slim. The enormous fleet was only two light-days from the planet, and at that distance, a stellar-level civilization would certainly have detected it.
The survey ship soon swept past the star and dropped out of warp, but the sight before it stunned the scientists and crew aboard. This was no planet-it was an insect ball. There was not a single patch of open ground larger than one square unit left on the planet. The sky and the ground swarmed with terrifying, revolting insects of every shape and size. Vast, uncountable numbers of them also floated in high and low orbit, twisting their bodies idly as they followed the planet's orbit.
Anyone who saw the scene would feel their scalp tingle. Even the smallest of the giant insects were over ten meters long, while the largest were several times bigger than a Stealth Killer. Most had multiple legs, and every insect's mouth was lined with backward-pointing fangs and curved mandibles. Humans would probably be too small to get stuck between these monsters' teeth. There were enough of them to cover the entire planetary surface and the airspace for hundreds of kilometers above it, likely numbering in the tens of billions.
The survey ship quickly circled the planet without disturbing the swarm and gathered more information. Once the data had been transmitted to the fleet, the survey ship was ordered to return immediately, leaving only the unmanned Stealth Killers to continue the work. This place was still at least ten to twenty thousand light-years from the front line between the civilizations of the Milky Way and the Insect Race. By rights, the swarm should not have penetrated this far. When had these insects arrived, and how? Had they come to wipe out the civilization on this planet, or to use it as a springboard to advance on other planetary systems?
Humanity's knowledge of the Insect Race extended only as far as sixth-tier insects; the other scattered scraps of information were of no real use. This was an excellent opportunity to study the Insect Race. He did not know whether the Patrols and Destroyers had learned of the situation here. The front line between the civilizations and the Insect Race was not very far away, and other advanced civilizations might come to investigate. To be safe, Hu Yu ordered the Deep Blue Fleet and eight million Stealth Killers to bypass the system at full speed and continue onward, leaving only two million Stealth Hunter-Killers on standby.
The biology ship stayed behind as well. Given such a fine opportunity, the biologists would not rest without studying the creatures thoroughly. Hu Yu knew it was no use trying to persuade them otherwise, so he could only approve the biology ship's stay. During the twenty-year voyage, all ships except the Stealth Killers had been fitted with antigravity defense systems, greatly improving their survivability. The biology ship was only a small-to-medium-sized vessel, and it could also reach five hundred times the speed of light. Under the protection of two million Stealth Killers, its safety should not be a problem.
To avoid alerting the swarm for the time being, ten Stealth Killers quietly released satellites disguised as interstellar meteorites, then flew toward the surrounding star systems to check for traces of the swarm.
The meteorite satellites remained in orbit around the insect-covered planet without attracting the swarm's attention. Some also passed through the sky filled with insects and landed among the piles of them on the surface. Data streamed back to the biology ship for compilation and analysis.
"That one's an eighth-tier insect, and this is a seventh-tier one. This one should be eighth-tier too..."
"Everyone, look! This one should have reached the thirteenth tier. It's a hundred and fifty meters long..."
"What's a hundred and fifty meters? Look at this one. It's over three hundred meters long and at least sixteenth-tier. I'd guess it's the insect king here."
"I'm afraid that one isn't the insect king either. We've only collected data on a little over ten thousand insects. It's too early to draw conclusions; there must be even higher-tier ones."
"Right. There are at least several billion, if not tens of billions of insects here. I'm afraid even more formidable ones are hiding among them."
Aboard the biology ship, the biologists exchanged excited comments, seemingly having forgotten that every one of the things they were looking at was an utterly terrifying devil. According to Mr. Daozi, every five tiers corresponded to one civilization level, so a sixteenth-tier insect should have reached the level of a small star sector civilization.
"General." Academician Xiao sought out Hu Yu.
"Academician Xiao, what is it?"
"Would it be possible to bring a few live ones over? We need to dissect them for our research. Observation alone won't give us any more useful information."
"Academician, I guessed long ago that you'd want live specimens. Don't worry. Once the attack is over, I'll have the fleet leave a few alive for your research."
"General, are you going to attack this swarm now?"
"Yes. It's rare to run into a high-tier swarm that's just the right size for us to take on. It'll give the troops more experience fighting the Insect Race. We have a great deal of enmity with the Insect Race, and the commanders have long been itching to kill insects and vent their anger. It'll do them good to release some pressure. If the Insect Race's combat strength exceeds our expectations, we'll blow up this star."
"General, why haven't the Destroyers and Patrols come here? By rights, this is their job. With so many high-tier insects here, they should have made dealing with them a priority."
"I'm not quite sure about that either. We don't even know their operating procedures. Most likely, they overlooked it. I remember a Patrol saying that after the space alarm near the Solar System went off, it took him three months to get there. Given the speed of a Patrol from an advanced small star sector civilization, he must have been traveling at least five thousand times the speed of light. That means the Patrol was a full fifteen hundred light-years from the Solar System at the time. The area the Patrols actually have to monitor may be much larger than that. On that scale, it's perfectly normal to miss a planetary system."
"There's another strange thing. Our observation satellites still haven't found a First-Tier Mother Insect. Could the insects here have been transported over in four-dimensional space bubbles too?"
First-Tier Mother Insects were fundamental. Though they had little offensive power, they could give birth to all kinds of higher-tier insects. Of course, they could not simply give birth to whatever they wanted. First-Tier Mother Insects had to devour one another to accumulate Chong Element, which was unique to the swarm. The more Chong Element they accumulated, the higher the tier of the insects they produced. No matter how high-tier an insect was, it had been born from a First-Tier Mother Insect.