Different tribes responded to major crises in different ways.
In the face of the Schism War, the Klisha tribe’s primary strategy was to go equally mad and trample everyone in their path.
The Broad-wings chose to endure invasions with bitter persistence, attempting to stall until their early-stage development was complete.
The Limb Species, however, unexpectedly used their brains, engaging in intermittent, clever, and purposeful bouts of madness. In terms of function, this breed—which had primarily been responsible for the transport of food and other supplies during the era of the Great Kings—had always maintained a quiet, unassuming demeanor. This time, they had unexpectedly become the most tenacious opponents, sinking their teeth into the Grey-wings during this death-match.
All their remaining forces were split into two groups. One half turned back on the spot to counter-attack Clark’s fleet, taking advantage of the fact that their ferocious enemies were momentarily stunned by the unexpected collapse of the rift. They sought to surround and annihilate the frontline troops, who were currently idling without direct command.
The Sub-king of the Grey-wing tribe had indeed avoided being sucked into the Akasha, but he had personally descended to the surface for recovery work. Because he was too close to the tides, he was currently disconnected from the main fleet.
The neighbors’ grasp of timing was so precise that even Sakerdi would have praised them as masters of rhythm.
Meanwhile, the other half of the Limb Species bypassed the front lines and lunged directly toward the Grey-wings’ home territory.
The Zerg had never been known for martial honor, and humans were no different in war.
*Strike while they are down.* This was a principle that every creature in the universe followed instinctively, without needing to be taught.
The last neighbor who had been indecisive had already been wiped out by Clark. In a struggle against the Grey-wings, even a moment’s hesitation meant defeat.
The Limb Species were no fools. Their Sub-king had fully absorbed the lessons of the past and opened with a series of trump cards.
Even though the Armed Species raised their defense grid at maximum speed, a large number of light ships still slipped through while the enemy’s twelve main cannons were firing from deep space.
Three gadfly-like assault boats zipped around at high speeds, carrying explosives. Trapped inside the closed defensive walls, they began blowing up everything they could find.
The attacks did not distinguish between military bases and residential nests. Toppling buildings showered the ground with debris.
In addition to the males working in the Great Information Nest, a large number of other males and larvae lived on this planet. They were now swarming out of the crumbling structures in a state of panic.
This raid had gone undetected until the enemy was practically in their faces, a feat clearly attributed to the Limb Sub-king’s extensive research into the tides, which had allowed them to devise new methods of shielding and concealment.
Once the vanguard broke through the blockade, they simultaneously dropped devouring-type pollution weapons. Thin, rapidly sprouting tentacles began to spread and grow along street after street.
The females of the patrol teams, who had originally intended to head for the Great Information Nest, were forced to begin localized rescue operations.
On a small slope far from the military base and the docking rails—the point closest to the Great Information Nest—two fast-moving figures emerged.
Enna hauled the heavy equipment all the way to the target location. Scales covered his body, allowing this female in the late stages of sub-adulthood to forcibly drag a lethal weapon weighing several tons up the incline.
The superiority of the female physique was fully displayed in this moment.
It was precisely because of this that humans, despite possessing star-swallowing weapons, had once struggled so hard against the Zerg. A single mid-rank female in late sub-adulthood could pull a seven-ton steel beast equipped with mobile modules. That was a mass dozens of times her own weight. Just as a leafcutter ant could easily carry twenty times its own body weight, it was only logical that a Core Species could tear through the outer hull of a new-model warship.
Once the weapon was fixed in its designated position, his brother, En, took over the subsequent operations.
The low-rank male looked much thinner, the gap in physique between him and his female companion already widening. However, as he pulled the flesh-like interlocking parts and adjusted the cannon’s body, every movement leaked a savage nature.
That heavy sniper was tall and heavy, nothing like what the word "sniper" meant in human languages; it was more akin to a massive anti-aircraft gun.
Based on male physiological conditions, they were fundamentally unqualified to use such a thing.
In the records of early humans on Old Earth, this type of heavy anti-air vehicle weapon usually required multiple people to operate. From aiming to reloading, it required a squad of seven to eight people to support one another.
But Zerg technology had no such need.
Their so-called "snipers" included automatic reloading and mobile modules, having long ago evolved a series of autonomous functions.
In the current theater of war, physical ammunition was rarely seen. Most Zerg had already switched to lightweight, easy-to-use, and highly lethal laser weapons, plasma weapons, or the most thorough method of destruction: devouring weapons.
The orbital defenses were filled with high-tech equipment, tearing open a fine "wall" that intercepted almost all large vessels, leaving only a small number of light assault ships to successfully invade.
But this heavy cannon remaining on the surface of the habitable zone was just right for the male. He liked this barbaric product that had been discarded by the era.
It didn't look new; it was quite old, its coarse exterior as low-class and savage as its out-of-place temperament.
En forcefully twisted every control component. His peripheral vision tracked the lightweight aircraft darting across the dome of the sky, and he grinned.
"Shoot... down."
He spoke in poor Lingua Franca, slowly but clearly.
It was not a suggestion or a discussion, but a declaration of a locked-on prey.
The habitually taciturn Enna crouched beside him, wordlessly obeying every decision his brother made.
His goal-oriented brother would never let go once he bit into something he wanted. When they were sold to the energy planet and discovered by the Short-wing tribe, no Zerg thought a thin, small male could adapt to training exclusive to females. But En had done it.
With a low-rank body, an incomplete mimicry, a lack of strength, and a deficiency in self-recovery—almost every disadvantage was embodied in En. He was like a walking museum of every reason one shouldn't be in training.
By the time Enna could withstand attacks from peers, En couldn't even handle a shoulder throw from a young female.
So, the low-rank male put all his effort into memorizing the usage of every weapon, soaking in the training grounds day and night. He tested the limits of the weapons and the limits of his own body, mechanically repeating movements thousands of times until he wore wounds deep enough to see bone.
His proficiency with every piece of equipment was greater than that of any female.
All the effort submerged beneath the surface led the Short-wing tribe to give him an evaluation: "Can proficiently use all primary weapons; higher-level weapons can be mastered with systematic training." Later, he and Enna, who shared his origin and tribe, were transferred to serve as guards under Gera.
A low-rank male raised in the fires of war and sold as cargo had no tribe; all the males living in Ja had raised him.
Sa had kicked apart the iron laws of the energy planet, wringing the old order along with Katra’s head. Afterward, the frantic Short-wings had pulled the two soot-covered cubs out of their cage, and the males, who had never known what a hug was, held the sub-adult Zerg and taught them language and writing bit by bit.
Gera and all the males were his kin. He was their cub, born to protect the tribe.
Taught personally by the leader of the most warlike tribe’s Armed Species and having rolled through the cleanup battlefields of the Schism War many times, his savage and ferocious personality allowed him to step into the exclusive domain of females and walk that path to the very end without looking back.
Pointing the cannon at those scurrying gadflies, the low-rank male focused his attention on the high-angle sight, beginning to adjust the range, elevation, and the mechanism similar to a flight-path speed setter.
Like an innocent yet cruel child who had caught an insect unable to fly, En pulled the firing mechanism. Amidst the thunderous roar, he spat out a soft verdict.
"Fall."
On the other side, far from the Great Information Nest, the dark grey leader of the Armed Species dispatched a large group of direct subordinates.
"Go maintain order on the surface. Kill everyone who broke through the blockade."
His entire body entering a state of deep alienation, Kleman strode toward the lift rail, heading directly for the docking orbit. "Prioritize the protection of males and larvae. Allow them to enter defensive facilities for refuge... Include the defectors from other tribes in the protection as well."
"There are too few members staying behind, and our facilities aren't enough—"
The accompanying Grey-wing frantically synchronized the commands while unable to stop himself from arguing.
Then, he slammed into his commander’s back.
"Then throw the young and strong females out."
His dark grey pupils had elongated into vertical slits. Kleman looked expressionlessly at the subordinate who had questioned him. "Are you telling me that females capable of fighting should crowd into narrow defensive facilities, competing for survival space with weak males and larvae? I don't recall the members of the Grey-wing tribe being this incompetent."
"We are born from slaughter, we die in slaughter, and we never fear any conflict."
"I was just asking."
This Grey-wing, who had been rebuked to his face, was the same one who had followed Sakerdi to sweep the Broad-wing core stars, handed over that unlucky combustion gun, and suggested, "We can beat their Sub-king until he can't get up, then let Sa cut off his head." He was young and quick-witted; even as he grumbled, he had already disseminated all the arrangements.
"You sound like our Sub-king now, and a bit like Sa."
His voice was very low, but it was still heard clearly by the nearby Kleman.
"Double the terror..."
The Armed Species leader: "..."
It was a bad review. The first half hadn't even had time to bring him joy before the second half made him want to shut down on the spot.
"No need to follow me. I will handle the fleet outside."
Maintaining his cold persona, the dark grey female gave a blank look to his young and flighty subordinate.
"You can join the units supporting the ground."
The situation of the nest area being bombed and polluted moments ago had already been synchronized to Kleman’s information link.
Those scenes of fleeing, shouting, and screaming—things he hadn't paid much attention to in the past—suddenly became glaring. But as the one in charge of all Armed Species, he was destined to be unable to leave his post to join the rescue.
Once the entire defense grid was torn open, what awaited them all was a home planet turned into a sea of blood. He had to intercept all conflict outside the near-earth orbit.
"...Protect as many... males as possible. Those in the nest area, and the users of the Great Information Nest."
He couldn't even specifically express his biased concern or name a particular individual to order his subordinates to give special treatment.
Mixing private feelings into work was something he might have chosen to do a few cycles ago; it would have been all too easy to lift a hand and shield a familiar Zerg under his wing.
But he could no longer do that.
When power was restricted and a muzzle was voluntarily put on, the first things to follow were discomfort and pain.
This was the price of making concessions and destroying a portion of one's freedom.
"Immediately shoot down all light ships entering the planet's atmosphere. Pick the Zerg you need and bring them down at any cost."
The arrogant practice of acting like a weaver of fate, casually picking a few favorites to protect, left a bitter taste in his mouth.
All he could do was cut off this ensuing calamity at its source.
Behind him was an entire habitat; he could not take another step back.
However, a second before the Armed Species leader stepped onto the lift rail, a distant flash of fire appeared.
Like a crimson meteor tearing through the sky, it rose from below, piercing through an enemy assault boat circling above the nest area.
When the heavy anti-aircraft sniper fired, it generated nearly two tons of recoil, making the cannon’s body shudder.
As if living tentacles were wrapping around the shattered ship, a blooming flower of flesh and blood exploded in the air, swallowing all the explosions and pollution before they could reach the ground.
Bright filaments hung from the sky to the earth, like nimbostratus clouds trailing long tails.
The low-rank male gripped the heavy cannon tightly, straddling the bursting steel beast. He bled the same savage blood as his kin, his trainer, and his brother of the same origin, tearing apart the enemy's body.
Like popping a small bubble.
"Bang!"
He said.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 克里沙 | Klisha | A tribe of Zerg. |
| 阔翅种 | Broad-wing | A tribe of Zerg. |
| 足肢种 | Limb Species | A tribe of Zerg, likely referring to pedipalps or arthropod limbs. |
| 恩 | En | A low-rank male Zerg. |
| 恩纳 | Enna | A female Zerg, En's companion/brother. |
| 克里曼 | Kleman | Leader of the Armed Species. |
| 武装种 | Armed Species | A functional class/tribe of Zerg focused on combat. |
| 大信息巢 | Great Information Nest | A central hub for information/data, likely where males work. |
| 吞噬型污染武器 | Devouring-type pollution weapons | A type of biological/chemical weapon that consumes matter. |
| 宜居星域 | Habitable zone | The area of space or a planet suitable for living. |
| 拟态 | Mimicry | The ability of Zerg to take on a more humanoid or specific form. |
| 迦 | Ja | Likely the name of a place or planet. |
| 喀特拉 | Katra | A character mentioned as having been killed in the past. |
