Even on the frontline battlefield, Zerg nests are very rare.
It was not until Rong Heng crossed the defense line during a Zerg tide and searched for the Zerg base that he discovered the Zerg nest.
Since the Empire and the Zerg fought for thousands of years, no one knew where the Zerg's earliest nest was. They only knew that they continued to pour into the Empire's star field from an unknown place. They were blocked by the first line of defense, so they looked for suitable planets outside the star field to build temporary nests, and then used the temporary nests as bases to attack the Empire's defense line.
The planets chosen by the Zerg as the target of the Zerg swarm are like this. The surface vegetation is completely destroyed, and countless gray rocks cover the ground. Underneath are huge, complex, and criss-crossing Zerg nests.
In the hive, there are countless insect eggs. Once these eggs are bred, the empire's defense line will once again be hit by the insect tide.
In the past, Zerg nests only appeared in the star field outside the imperial defense line, but now, the habitable planets within the imperial administrative area have become Zerg nests so quietly.
The spaceship was now quite close to the port, and the passengers could even see the high gray rocks on the ground and the Zerg crawling on top of them through the portholes.
There was a sudden cry of surprise in the cabin. The passengers looked panicked and instinctively wanted to escape, but they didn't know where to go.
The cubs looked serious when they saw the Zerg on the ground. They looked at each other tacitly and had already consciously guarded the hatch. If necessary, they were ready to go out and join the battle.
Garland followed behind the group of cubs and observed that they showed no fear in the face of the Zerg, and were even a little surprised. Then he remembered the information he had found when searching for the b3024 planet before - this garbage planet had once encountered a Zerg tide, but finally survived.
It seems that these cubs are no strangers to the Zerg.
The dragon cub looked back. He thought Garland was also afraid. After all, Hector said that Garland's father was a scholar who did research. He thought about it, stretched out his claws and pushed Garland back, and said seriously: "Don't be afraid, we will protect you."
Say "to protect you" in a serious tone.
Garland did not refute the situation of the cub. He said "hmm" and retreated to the floor-to-ceiling window to continue observing the situation on the ground.
At this time, Ruan Xiqing had already rushed to the cockpit with Rong Heng.
After getting close enough to the ground, the captain apparently realized something was wrong. He slowed down the landing speed and kept trying to contact his superiors.
But the communication signal here was very weak, and his request message was not sent out.
Seeing that the spaceship was about to approach the port, Ruan Qing rushed up to him and interrupted his constant requests for help and instructions, and said in a tone that did not allow for argument: "Immediately terminate the landing and leave Driftwood Planet as quickly as possible."
The captain still didn't know what had happened: "I haven't contacted my superiors yet."
"The ground is a worm nest!" Ruan Qing said sternly, "If you don't want everyone on the boat to die, turn around and leave now."
Insect nest.
The captain was shocked by this word, and subconsciously terminated the landing and turned around as he said.
Ruan Xiqing was already very familiar with this type of spaceship. He placed Rong Heng on the console and tapped quickly on the control panel. He first activated the protective shield and then called up the weapon system to stand by. At the same time, the infrared scanner had already sent back the analysis data - under this lifeless gray land, there was a dense patch of bright red.
The captain looked at the image and was shocked: "How is this possible?"
The images show that beneath the ground, there are densely packed insects, or in other words, insect eggs.
These insect eggs are obviously about to hatch successfully. Once they are allowed to hatch, the consequences will be disastrous.
Countless thoughts flashed through Ruan Xinqing's mind, and finally he thought of the passengers on the spaceship. If he took the initiative to bomb the Zerg nests on the ground, although it would prevent the Zerg eggs from hatching, it would also inevitably cause a crazy counterattack by the Zerg, and then these passengers would likely be implicated... He clenched his five fingers into a fist, closed the image, and urged the captain to speed up.
At the same time, he used the signal-enhancing intelligent brain to send coordinates and information to Hector and others far away on the planets Barham and B3024, asking them to bring people over as soon as possible.
If the spacecraft can successfully leave the floating wood planet, they can land on the next planet and then ask the imperial army to come to rescue. While the imperial army is coming, they will stabilize the situation and prevent these insect eggs from hatching in large numbers.
However, things did not go as smoothly as he expected.
As they approached the atmosphere, the defense system of Driftwood was broken. The defense system that was originally intended to protect the planet was broken here, blocking their way.
"What's going on?" The ship tried to contact the space station, but there was no response.
Ruan Xinqing stared at the huge protective shield spread out above his head, and his heartbeat suddenly slowed down. He confirmed with the captain: "Before the spacecraft lands, do we need to get the consent of the Driftwood planet? Is this process an intelligent program, or does it need to be manually controlled?"
The captain looked stunned: "It needs manual confirmation."
Each spaceship's route must be applied for. Before landing on a planet along the way, the spaceship needs to send its own information, and will only be released after confirmation by the space station staff. This can prevent some interstellar pirates from sneaking in disguised as passenger ships.
"But if I'm not mistaken, there are no living people on this planet." Ruan Xinqing's jaw tightened: "Who is confirming the release?"
The captain opened his mouth in horror.
Ruan Qing didn't look at him again. His heart was beating fast and something was about to come out of his mind.
So his panicked gaze could only fall on Rong Heng.
Rong Heng had now changed back to human form. His expression was calm, and he even showed a hint of gnashing teeth: "It's the Zerg. They are trapping me."
The tourism industry on Driftwood is developing very well, and many spacecraft routes will pass through this red planet. But after they boarded the spacecraft, they did not hear any news about Driftwood being occupied by the Zerg.
This shows that the news about Driftwood was deliberately concealed.
Neither the Driftwood government nor the locals would do this, so the only possibility left is the Zerg.
Ruan Xinqing immediately understood what he meant. He used his smart brain to log on to the official website of Fumu Star, and saw that there was indeed a notice on the official website that "receivers of tourists have been temporarily suspended." The statement was issued a week later, saying that the environment of Fumu Star needed to be rectified, and that receiving tourists would be suspended.
Therefore, many tourist spacecraft have stopped going to Drifting Wood in the near future. Only passenger spacecraft that have applied for routes early will stop at Drifting Wood.
He searched the news again and found that in the past week, several passenger ships passing through Driftwood had crashed. All the passengers on these ships were missing without exception, and only the wreckage of the ships with holes in it was found in the star field that had deviated from the route. So far, the murderer has not been identified...
"The IQ of these Zerg may be higher than we imagined." Ruan Qing's face turned slightly pale.
When he encountered the Zerg on planet b3024, he had already realized that the Zerg possessed intelligence, but judging from the situation on planet Driftwood, the IQ of these Zerg might be much higher than they thought. It could even be said that they were no different from humans.
Not only do they know how to conceal their whereabouts, they also know how to deceive people and divert attention. Just the notice of closure on the official website is not something that a low-IQ Zerg can do.
Without tourists coming, the possibility of Driftwood's true situation being exposed would be reduced. And the occasional passenger ship passing by, if it landed in the port without any precautions, would be doomed.
What is even more disturbing is that they actually knew to transport the wreckage of the spacecraft to a star region far away from the route, thus avoiding the possibility of Driftwood being investigated to the greatest extent.
This is no longer ordinary wisdom, it is more like a conspirator hiding in the dark and planning.
No wonder the Zerg disappeared after the news of Lenka's capture. It's not that they have retreated or been destroyed, but that they have learned to hide.
Perhaps there are countless "drifting wood planets" within the empire. Once the eggs in the insect nest hatch, the entire empire may be involved in the war.