“To carry out the mission, the colony needs a complete overhaul.”
Elise had roughly finished her calculations. To execute the operation to raid the disputed territories of enemy gods as instructed by Lin Miao, her current combat strength was entirely insufficient.
The colony needed more powerful and diverse capabilities. The Phase Resonance Core, the initial core for crafting warp engines, and the resonance spindle, a bio-power generation device for synthesizing and producing ether energy, were all designed to obtain additional power.
“Gaia, take charge of the research topics I have assigned.” This was a task that required mobilizing the entire strength of the colony.
As the overall person in charge of the colony and the Evolution Queen, Elise had to seek help from her well-behaved younger sister, Gaia. Gaia's mission was to repeatedly experiment and verify the research topics conceived and designed by Elise, identifying errors and bringing them to fruition.
【Kerrigan asks if help is needed】
At that moment, Kerrigan asked if there was anything she could do. Through the hive mind, Elise saw Kerrigan practicing with Yuno and couldn't help but sigh softly.
“No.”
“Understood.”
In truth, Elise hadn't expected much. Kerrigan didn't truly want to help her sister with those headache-inducing matters. Besides, Kerrigan lacked her own auxiliary brain, making her unsuitable for research.
“Celia, you do it.” Elise instead assigned the tasks to her reliable subordinate, Celia. Celia could not refuse and bowed her head in understanding.
Of course, Elise knew that Celia did not possess an auxiliary brain capable of freely manipulating extraordinary computational power like herself, so she did not give her tasks that exceeded her limits.
“I need more information on the condensation of ether particles and their eruption in a specific direction—that is, ether torrenting.” To solve the research topics she had been assigned, Celia frequently sought out Adian and other Zion prisoners.
She constantly interrogated them as if trying to squeeze every last drop of knowledge from their minds. After this routine continued for some time, Adian spoke up while blankly watching Celia's experiments.
She was attempting to combine the magic circles appearing in her hands with the produced ether. “Do you really think that absorbing and learning a few techniques like this will allow you to stand against us?” Adian finally asked.
Celia arched an eyebrow and asked back with a hint of composure, “Do you think it's impossible?”
Adian quickly waved his hands, explaining in a cramped and flustered tone, “I-I know how powerful you all are. I'm not calling you savages.”
As the defeated party, there was little point in talking much, but it felt strange to him that they, who were merely mercenaries, were being treated as representatives of Zion.
“You might not know this, but Zion's influence is vast and powerful. Our ships were merely modified old-model vessels. Even if a hundred such ships surrounded it, they couldn't defeat a single new-type flagship.”
Adian's words were not lies. The Great Devourer was indeed growing stronger at a rapid pace after absorbing new technology, but existing high-tier civilizations also possessed foundations accumulated over a long time.
That power was not to be underestimated. Adian had thought a regular fleet would arrive immediately to sweep this place clean and rescue them, but the delay left him puzzled.
“Existing civilizations, including Zion, are indeed powerful. We know that the Goddess of Light Association, from whom we took the Pioneering Zones, has home planets that are too powerful to even covet.”
Celia stopped her work and turned to look at him. Her eyes, originally blue but now stained red after merging with the colony, gazed at Adian.
“The history the colony has accumulated has been like this from the very beginning. Fighting those stronger than us, devouring them, eventually becoming stronger than them, and then achieving victory.”
“But...” Adian's eyes wavered.
Celia spoke softly, her expression slightly wistful. “Are you afraid of this place being bombed? Or do you hope they bomb us, erase us, and then rescue you?”
She thought to herself that if Adian knew what plan the colony was brewing, he would surely be shocked. “The possibility of that happening is not high. It is difficult to invest a massive amount of capital to start a war just to avenge ‘mere’ merchant ships and their crews.”
Adian was startled by Celia's words. To emphasize Zion's strength, he had belittled himself as a mercenary on an armed merchant ship.
As a result, it became difficult for him to refute Celia's claim that the Zion coalition government would find it hard to decide on a war just to rescue them or seek revenge.
“From what I've observed during this time, this is the biggest difference.” Celia looked at her hand with a peculiar expression.
It was a monster's hand, covered in black exoskeleton and leather, yet it moved perfectly according to her will. “Our billions of individuals only need a single command from him to act with one heart and mind.”
“Even if the number increases to tens of billions or hundreds of billions, it remains the same, and the destructive power will continue to grow. But what about you?”
Adian's lips moved, but he could not find an answer. No matter the civilization or faction, the larger the scale, the slower the movement speed inevitably becomes.
The more one possesses, the more there is to protect. The calculations of individual interests also become complex and troublesome.
This was a reality that even sacred civilizations unified by faith could not avoid. If their members possessed high levels of self-awareness, rejecting this reality was nearly impossible.
Unless they implanted their own power into each of those countless servants, even gods who equated their control over servants with their own Divine Status could not completely ignore these changes.
...
【The servants have found a way to form a new exoskeleton】
【Elise has created a new formation to protect ships arriving via warp】
【The servants have created new sensory organs for use in extreme environments】
Every day, new notifications rang out before Lin Miao's eyes. This scene began to unfold after Lin Miao had suggested attacking the enemy gods' disputed territories first to stir things up before they could gather their strength for a counterattack.
Elise believed that more preparations were needed to execute future operation plans and Lin Miao's orders. To achieve this, she mobilized the full strength of the colony.
Even if it seemed impossible, they had to do it. In this era, the phrase “how is that possible” would be met with skepticism, but they actually did it.
A new exoskeleton. In this day and age, humanity had even ventured into space.
It was an era where they had to wage war against more powerful and diverse civilizations. Just as the materials for the exoskeletons covering the bodies of individuals were constantly reinforced and modified, they were now completely overhauled.
From the outside, it didn't look much different from before. However, the materials, manufacturing techniques, and the power contained within were all more advanced and powerful than before.
“...Fire!” Lin Miao saw on the screen a Zion survivor named Ryan. He was holding a rifle and firing at a worker ant wearing the new exoskeleton.
The rifle in his hand, as Lin Miao recalled, was a special weapon called an etheric phase rifle. It fired bullets by vibrating a built-in ether battery, or something like that.
In any case, Lin Miao understood it was a very powerful rifle. In fact, it was powerful enough to pierce the thick exoskeletons of medium-to-large organisms like decapitating ants or predatory ants.
“At this rate, if the exoskeleton gets any thicker, the rifle bullets won't be able to penetrate.”
“How is this possible...”
However, such a powerful rifle could only barely kill a worker ant the size of a large dog after the appearance of the new exoskeleton.
While Celia's eyes sparkled, Lin Miao watched the worker ants pick up the corpses of their fallen comrades and toss them into the digestive pool with a splash.
It wasn't just the power that had increased. It was said that this exoskeleton was crafted to maximize the use of the psionic energy it contained, allowing for normal activity even in extreme environments like space.
“I am very satisfied with this newly made weapon. In particular, it is interesting how it can resonate with magic power to become even harder and sharper.”
Even those using the exoskeletons as weapons were satisfied with the increased hardness. Yuno's spearmanship had once caused exoskeleton spears to snap under the strain, but now they no longer broke, and she smiled with satisfaction.
Kerrigan felt the same way. The latest model of exoskeleton was the most necessary technology for the migratory colony that had to fight on the front lines.
【Elise states that the energy flow and resource status within the colony are all normal and is satisfied with the calculation results】
Of course, as the strength of the exoskeleton increased, additional energy would be required to replace all the exoskeletons in the colony or increase production.
But Elise had already prepared for this, completing experiments on a new energy system and power mechanism. Lin Miao's servants had not only absorbed holy power but even some ether engineering technology.
They could utilize more energy through a wider variety of methods. “Reveal yourself.”
The final fruit of these accumulated achievements was finally about to tear through its massive cocoon and reveal its true form.
The Chronos, a Great Devourer-style bio-warp ship that had absorbed and replicated Stargate technology, gate technology, and the warp engines of etheric civilizations, began to lift its massive frame into the sky under Elise's command.
“A pill bug?” When Lin Miao first saw it, his initial judgment of its appearance was that it looked like a giant pill bug curled up.
However, when its completely spherical body unfurled, Lin Miao saw the important organs carefully wrapped within its abdomen.
The Phase Resonance Core, the massive tissue that allowed the giant structure to wriggle, was finally complete.
There was also the psionic core and resonance spindle that, along with the magic heart, maintained and supported that massive frame.
Does she intend to use the Chronos as a flagship? That massive body was like a floating island in the sky, already carrying countless troops, including modified large species like the Behemoth that could operate in space.
Elise clearly intended to center her operations around the Chronos, organizing various space mutants like Hive Motherships and Brood Lords into a formation.
“Good heavens...” In the video, the Zion prisoner Adian, who was beside Celia and seemed to have helped her quite a bit earlier, was staring blankly at the Chronos rising into the sky, letting out an exclamation.
To be honest, even Lin Miao, who knew the plans and information in advance, was only watching through a screen. If such a massive creature were truly floating before his eyes, Lin Miao would likely have reacted the same way.
“To think you actually manufactured a warp engine in such a short time... and a large-scale one capable of deploying a warp field for an entire formation?”
“After approximately 1,125 repeated experiments, there are no issues.”
“B-But even with all your effort, you only built one ship! No, what an entire formation can do is still limited, right!?”
Adian slapped his own cheek hard and then whispered to Celia in disbelief. It seemed he mistakenly thought that the Chronos, which the Great Devourer had poured all its strength into creating, was the only individual—the one emerging from Cadia's Nest No. 15.
“...Is that so?” Celia, sharing information through the hive mind, wore a subtle expression. Lin Miao also couldn't help but chuckle.
There were currently twenty-four screens lit up in front of him. On the three planets occupied by the Great Devourer, in twenty-four different nests, more than twenty-four Chronos were already floating high in the sky, each leading its own formation.
Rate on N.U.
