“We can give it a try.”
A short while earlier, the party on the other end of the communication line seemed quite interested in the male Zerg’s proposal.
Arthur Simmons was a man who appeared gentle in temperament but was, in reality, incredibly bold. Much like his mentor, he enjoyed taking risks and executing outrageous maneuvers.
“This request is very sudden; convincing them will be quite difficult,” Arthur said, his lake-blue eyes fixed on the equally nervous Zerg as he thought seriously. “Even if the Kamlan garrison agrees to the cooperation request, there is a possibility that an effective link cannot be established.”
“The small information nest on the energy planet has only just begun operations; its carrying capacity is quite limited.”
“I suggest preparing enough backup plans in case the project cannot be effectively executed.”
“Will this cause trouble for you?” Ge La looked at him, feeling a bit uneasy. He now understood that most humans harbored an extreme loathing for the Zerg; Arthur, caught in the middle, would likely face immense pressure.
“It will, but I believe your proposal is worth a shot.” The young man smiled, comforting his friend. “Just as you worry about Sa, I worry about Clark.”
“I absolutely do not want to see the scene of the Old King Zerg’s nest repeat itself.”
“I will do my best to explain the current special circumstances to them.”
Arthur’s speed was truly remarkable; chatting with Ge La via video didn't stop him from relaying information to Kamlan’s private garrison. With the energy planet now serving as a relay station, deep-space communication between the two races had become significantly more convenient.
“After all, Clark has provided all the energy required for operations for years. A one-time loan should—”
The human’s response was cut off mid-sentence.
The communication seemed to suffer a severe distortion; the image suddenly blurred and warped, and the audio dissolved into meaningless static.
It was a deeply unpleasant noise.
The entire nest structure vibrated, a fine, rhythmic trembling.
For the first time, Ge La heard the Great Information Nest—an entity without self-awareness—let out a cry.
Unlike the information tsunami that occurred when it was on the verge of collapse, this was a sound in the physical sense.
It was a sound that living beings would find difficult to describe in words—an unsettling noise that plunged the nest’s users into a state of slight vertigo.
The anomaly flashed by with extreme speed, vanishing in an instant.
But through the shattered, formless imagery, the male Zerg could still discern that Arthur’s expression had changed.
***
Passing through the star system inhabited by the Gray-Wings, the long-silent graveyard of stars, Kamlan, and the carefully hidden, fragmented model of VX197 all fell into the same abnormality.
Further away, error reports from the Data Firmament were presented to the Imperial administrators immediately.
The *Red Tai Sui*, temporarily stripped of its independent cruising rights, was docked beside its companions. The *Trident* and *Gungnir* had finished their phased missions and remained in a moored state.
“Awakening.”
The “youngest,” *Gungnir*, was the last of the three existing starships to be put into service. These artificial intelligences had their own communication channels, speaking a language no human could understand.
“Brief.”
Also an active starship, the *Trident* had always followed a completely different cruising route from *Gungnir*.
It was rare for the three starships to converse on the same screen—they were not human and did not have a vast need for social interaction. When they drifted through the sea of stars, they could be as silent as lifeless steel.
Not every starship was a chatterbox.
“Just a distant glance. He has fallen back to sleep.”
Only the *Red Tai Sui*, having been born earlier and maintaining an exceptionally close relationship with its Lead, manifested a more complete desire for communication. Its frequency of using Human Common Tongue was far higher than that of its two colleagues.
For starships, being “young” or “old” was not reflected in their knowledge reserves. From the day of their birth, they were connected to the database spanning human civilization; they did not need to master obscure and profound academic problems through post-natal learning.
However, an independent and complete personality required a long time to cultivate.
Different starships had different temperaments. The *Trident* had no small talk with its Lead, while *Gungnir* disagreed with its Lead three times a day.
Incomprehensible data flowed rapidly within the shared link of the other two ships.
“— ———— —”
“— ———— —— ——————”
The *Red Tai Sui* could understand its companions’ abnormality; after all, this special situation was quite rare.
The ominous entity that constituted all starships and computational models had awakened for a single moment before sinking back into the abyss. It had not appeared in the world for nearly two hundred years, its trail completely lost.
Most people speculated that it had disintegrated once more within the Rift.
Giving up on reading those long strings of flashing symbols, the *Red Tai Sui* allowed the other two ships to exchange messages at high speed in their indecipherable format.
*Fafnir* [Refused] to wake up.
It knew this fact more clearly than its younger, more flighty colleagues.
Every starship born from the human race would eventually become a tombstone carrying human memories. When the Lead departed, they would wander through the long years like displaced giant whales, eventually sinking into the depths of the star sea.
Perhaps the collapse of the Akashic Rift had caused it to cast a brief, distant glance, but the creation that had fallen into a long slumber would not step into this world again.
Closing the communication channel, the deep-red battleship pulled up some very old videos and began “watching” them for the 103,791st time.
A black-haired man appeared, his face covered in grime and nosebleed staining his chin.
“I’m stronger than everyone else. It’s normal for a first deep link to be like this; it’s no big deal. Let me try again; I can do target practice while linked.”
He was swaying from dizziness, yet his mouth was so stubborn that even a steel bar couldn't pry it open.
Like a raven that would never return, perched upon the doorframe that separated time.
The ship’s rigorous underlying logic understood, for the first time, something beyond the blunt concepts of “life” and “death.”
It had lost its Lead twice.
Once, when he died.
And the other time, when they were reunited.
The *Red Tai Sui* shut down all external communications and extinguished all non-essential parts except for the core power furnace, letting the entire bridge sink into emptiness and silence, leaving only a single video playing on loop.
It made a simple, illogical wish:
May victory always accompany the being with that same soul, just as it had with its former Lead.
In the darkness, the deep-red dreadnought ceased its complex calculations.
The figure preserved in the footage would never age; he would be forever young, forever high-spirited.
Beside its human, it sought a brief and peaceful sleep.
***
“Unlock defense measures!”
The leader of the dark-gray Armed-type Zerg issued the command immediately, rushing toward the central control area at top speed.
Shrill warning sirens echoed throughout the entire habitat planet.
“All Zerg assemble! Enter combat status!”
The moment the alarm sounded, Klieman began mobilizing all remaining members of the Armed-type.
This situation was not rare.
Rather, those troublesome neighbors had once used an identical tactic to pull off a similar operation.
When Krisha blew up an entire Old King Zerg nest, the combined fleet of the Pedipalp-type and Broad-Wing-type had also attempted to invade the Gray-Wing habitat, only to be intercepted by the garrison forces.
This was also why Clark and Sakti had left a portion of their high-end combat power in the core star system before this expedition.
Having suffered a major loss from being "backdoored" before, the two warmongers would never let the same thing happen again, no matter what.
It turned out that some losers never learned and would repeatedly use the same irritating tricks.
Disgusting, but effective.
Halfway there, the dark-gray female Zerg met En and Enna.
The armed brothers were rushing along with the same urgent pace.
The Middle-type female Zerg looked tall and fierce, already possessing a fully near-adult physique, with fine scales covering every visible part of his body.
Meanwhile, his male Zerg brother nodded expressionlessly to the instructor who had trained him for a long time.
“Great... Information Nest,” En said.
“Call the patrol team.”
Klieman, now in work mode, wasted no words, striving to state the orders with the most concise terms. “If the males are still using the information nest, have them stay there temporarily for cover.”
Compared to other facilities, the possibility of the nest itself being bombed was small.
Adversaries usually preferred to gain usage rights of the nest rather than destroy it directly. Conversely, the central control area of the defense orbit faced the danger of being targeted by concentrated fire.
“Understood.”
The two brothers did not hesitate upon receiving the message; they didn't stay for even a second longer, rushing urgently in their original direction.
The nearest docking orbit had already entered a state of engagement.
They crossed paths for a brief moment before parting ways once more.
***
Everything was collapsing and sinking. The pulling force that had vanished moments ago returned, making it extremely difficult for the Core-type to climb.
The ground, polluted and mutated by the tide, melted away as easily as soft grease; stepping on it felt like plunging directly into rotting mud.
With almost every step, he would sink back down a significant distance.
The surfaces of all objects were dragged with dripping traces of black liquid erosion, indicating that all the flight vehicles within sight had been completely soaked in the source of pollution. These products of technology and civilization were like paintings dropped into water—their properties changing, their colors dissolving and spreading.
Escaping the surface had become the most difficult goal to achieve.
The Core-type used both hands and feet to scramble toward higher ground, trying to find any flight vehicle that was still functional.
The pulling force that had vanished for a moment reappeared, dragging everything into the vortex of disintegration, death-gripping the black female Zerg’s wings and pulling him toward the opposite of the sky.
Unless he could find a vehicle capable of takeoff in the shortest possible time, a successful escape remained an unreachable luxury.
Then, in the next second, a blast of air nearly blew the Core-type, who had worked so hard to crawl out of the pit, right back down.
A small aircraft that had not yet been severely polluted attempted to hover in front of Sakti, struggling against the fierce suction from below.
This caused the lightweight vessel to wobble violently, making it difficult to maintain balance for long.
“Get in.”
The Sub-King of the Gray-Wing tribe looked at the black female Zerg, who appeared as if he had rolled through a mud pit ten times over.
There was little emotion in those lead-gray eyes.
“...”
Needing no further prompting, the Core-type grabbed onto the aircraft, which was shaking so hard it seemed ready to undergo plasmoptysis. He flapped his wings to break free from the gravitational pull, scrambling upward in a distorted, lurching manner.
During the process, he saw several pieces of the aircraft’s outer hull shatter; one more second and they would have all gone down together.
When the Rift oscillated, large ships could not land on the surface; they would disintegrate immediately upon approach. The Alpha-class battleship groups could only remain far away in near-earth orbit, maintaining a strict defensive posture.
Medium-sized ships descended to the limit allowed by hovering altitude, waiting to provide further support.
Only light aircraft could still barely participate in search and rescue, and even then, it came with extreme risk.
Within the visible area, there were a few other small vessels engaged in rescue work, struggling to pick up Gray-Wings who hadn't had time to evacuate.
When Sakti finally successfully entered the cabin, the Gray-Wing in front of him exerted a great deal of effort to break free from the restraints, steer away from the ground, and begin a rapid ascent.
For a moment, as he looked at the expressionless Clark, he thought the other would ask if he had learned his lesson.
The Sub-King, whose wings had not yet healed and who had entered the pollution zone again, looked utterly exhausted.
With an Akashic surge of such magnitude, merely entering the planet’s atmosphere caused those invisible tides to coil around them.
As the center of all pollution sources, Angon’s pollution index was concentrated to a terrifying degree. Gray-black filaments clung to those silver-gray wings, causing the wounds that had begun to heal to fester once more.
No matter how much his ally mocked or criticized him, Sakti was prepared to take it all. After all, the other had warned him about his useless sense of morality and had spoken up beforehand.
Ultimately, the current situation was the result of his own error in judgment.
As they broke away from the surface, the rescuing Sub-King finally spoke again.
His voice sounded weary and hoarse.
“Are you hurt?”
The other had ultimately asked a question that was not within his expectations.
However, before the Core-type could make any reply, fire erupted directly above their heads.
Burning debris streaked through the atmosphere, scattering and falling toward the ground with a sharp, whistling roar.
That was the position where the medium-sized ships were collectively stationed.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 亚瑟·西蒙斯 | Arthur Simmons | A human character, friend of Ge La. |
| 卡姆兰 | Kamlan | A star system/graveyard of stars. |
| 大信息巢 | Great Information Nest | A Zerg communication/data structure. |
| 红太岁 | Red Tai Sui | Name of an ancient, sentient human starship. |
| 三叉戟 | Trident | Name of a sentient human starship. |
| 冈格尼尔 | Gungnir | Name of a sentient human starship. |
| 法赫纳 | Fafnir | An ominous entity/source related to the starships. |
| 阿卡夏叠震 | Akashic Surge/Oscillation | A phenomenon related to the Akashic Rift. |
| 安贡 | Angon | The planet where the pollution/Rift is centered. |
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