Seeing everyone around him move like they were facing a great enemy, the mercenary looked left and right. "What do you mean, 'chariot'?"
"Exactly what you think it means."
A second round of explosions followed immediately. This time, the entire armored vehicle nearly flipped over. Under the interference of the electronic mist, the precision instruments all malfunctioned, spinning out of control.
Exposed wires sparked and flickered. Detecting massive internal damage, the outer layer of protective armor lowered automatically, and the interior of the vehicle instantly plunged into darkness. The mercenary lunged toward the periscope, wanting to see exactly what had attacked them.
His vision scanned a hundred meters away. On the distant horizon of the highway, the silhouette of a bizarrely shaped 'armored vehicle' slowly appeared. It looked like a product of flesh fused with metal, with outer muscles twisted tight like steel cables. It was covered in a dark green carapace, and thick scales rippled like breath before snapping shut like castanets!
That biological chariot... No, a whole convoy followed behind it, moving toward their direction with great momentum. The light on the turret bases lit up one by one at a fixed frequency, and a dark green glow spread along the ducts to the barrels as energy began to fill them.
"God, what the hell is that..." the mercenary screamed.
"That is a Zerg army," a first sergeant said, exhaling a long breath.
"The Zerg..." the mercenary was stunned. "An army?"
In his impression, the Zerg were merely a primitive and savage race that relied on overwhelming reproductive capabilities to swarm and devour everything in their path, leaving nothing behind.
He could not imagine the word 'army' being associated with the Zerg in any way.
"You've been fighting against beings like this all this time?"
"Those damn bugs' research capabilities aren't strong, but they are exceptionally good at copying," the first sergeant said. "Whenever we develop a new generation of war machines, they copy them at the fastest speed and put them into use."
"Isn't there core technology involved?"
"God knows. The copying is left to the 'arsenals.' Those high-tier Zerg probably don't even understand the principles of how those war machines work themselves," the first sergeant said coldly.
He stood up and loudly commanded the mechanized unit to counterattack.
"Radar, find the enemy 'arsenals' quickly! Their goal is to hijack these people; they need the knowledge in their brains. If the defensive line falls, you must kill them with your own hands. Do not let them fall into the hands of the Zerg, no matter what."
"Kill them?" The mercenary’s eyes widened as he looked at the research scholars sitting steadily on both sides, only to find that these seemingly weak figures remained expressionless, their bright gazes resolute and firm. When that moment truly came, they would choose to end their own lives.
Soon, those dozens of Toxic Ravager Chariots finished charging and began to exchange fire with the unit. The sound of artillery was deafening as streams of fire flew across the battlefield. The predator army rushed into the convoy like a flood, and soldiers jumped out of their vehicles one after another to engage in a life-and-death struggle with the approaching predator swarms.
The first sergeant raised his bolt cannon, blowing apart a nearby Zerg with a single shot. The thermal blade from the Logic Studio snapped out, slicing a lunging predator in half from bottom to top. Simultaneously, the steel blade on his right hand extended, thrusting straight into the head of a predator trying to ambush him from behind.
The Zerg let out a roar, and the man responded with an even more spirited battle cry, violently kicking the predator away. He pulled out the steel blade, turned to rush toward the other side, grabbed an elite predator by the throat, plunged the thermal blade into its lower jaw, and then physically grabbed its jaws and tore them open!
Such scenes were happening all over the battlefield. Looking around, soldiers were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with predators, fearless of death like wild beasts, which made the mercenary marvel.
"Fine, I'll admit you Red Heaven people are pretty cool, even if you are old-fashioned." Two mimicry twin guns appeared in his hands, crossing over his shoulders.
"Come on then, I'm paid to handle the mess!"
With that, he also lunged into the swarm, unleashing full firepower like a walking arsenal. The swarms of bugs flying through the sky let out shrieks, their limbs torn and shattered by the dense volleys of bullets!
The two sides continued to clash until the sky began to brighten. The battlefield was already a mess of corpses. There were the remains of Zerg and soldiers alike, their thick blood flowing together. The first sergeant, both of whose legs were broken, tied himself to an armored vehicle and roared hoarsely that no one was allowed to retreat, waving his thermal blade to command his few remaining subordinates and shooting a deserter who tried to run.
"Press forward! Damn it, press forward! Don't retreat until the last drop of your blood is shed!"
This scene was just a microcosm of the larger battlefield. Here and there, such tragic battles were happening constantly. Isolated and without help, they had already prepared to be buried in the bellies of the bugs the moment they faced the main Zerg force. Fortunately, their breakout team had left with the research scholars; what they were doing now was merely delaying for as long as possible.
The defensive lines began to collapse piece by piece until they were completely lost. The predators occupied the entire sky, overturning armored vehicles. Soldiers screamed as they were tackled to the ground, and even the hard alloy became food in the bugs' mouths.
"Don't..." Before the first sergeant could finish his roar, a dark green shell whistling toward him blew him into fragments.
"Damn... damn it..." Looking at the pieces of the first sergeant that fell in front of him, the mercenary crawled miserably on the ground, blood streaming from his eyes. The mimicry twin guns had drained his psyche.
"I guess I'm done for today."
Facing the boundless tide of bugs, even though he had exhausted his psyche, the scale of the swarm had not diminished at all.
He gave a bitter smile and raised the gun against his jaw, intending to save the last bullet for himself. He didn't want to be slowly devoured by these bugs.
He pulled the trigger, but only a faint click of a dry fire sounded. His psyche was insufficient to even fire the bullet. The mercenary’s face instantly twisted into an expression of agony as he screamed in collapse. He was dragged into the swarm by several predators, his belly ripped open. The man went through screaming, struggling, and finally numbness, dying a painful death without any surprise. The live broadcast frame froze on the man's graying face.
After five hours of resistance, the mechanized unit's lines had completely fallen. A tattered flag fluttered before the blood-stained morning sun.
Inside a dim room, red notification boxes flickered across the screen.
"Jackdaw squad has disconnected."
"Forest Sheep squad has disconnected."
"Clear Egret squad has disconnected."
"Desert Fox squad has disconnected."
"Damn it!" Snow Crow Ji hammered the control console with a loss of control.
On the battlefield, disconnecting meant sacrifice—buried in the bellies of bugs, leaving no bones behind.
Over ninety percent of the squads sent out had been sacrificed. Including herself, the command level had seriously misjudged the hazard-level of this event.
In the latter half of the night, the Zerg had concentrated their forces, abandoned the siege on Stations No. 169, 167, and 165, and suddenly turned toward the battlefield outside the city.
This was a premeditated attack. By the time they realized it and requested support from the city, the routes had been completely blocked. Due to the failure in decision-making, the new recruits of this year had been nearly wiped out.
The cold notification sounds rang out one after another, and the avatars of various squads darkened one by one. Even the team she had sent to meet Akabane Tsubaki had lost contact.
If these bug swarms took this opportunity to gather their forces and drive south through this breach, reaching the settlement area before the military could intercept them, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Just then, a steady voice spoke up, sounding so abrupt in the silent combat channel, yet like a tiny spark of light in the darkness, giving people hope.
"I have reached the vicinity of the Wayfarer squad's coordinates. What are the next combat instructions?"
"Akabane!" Snow Crow Ji was startled and quickly responded, "Why didn't you go to the rendezvous point according to instructions? Why are you acting alone?"
"Because I am a scourge," Akabane Tsubaki replied. "Everyone associated with me becomes unfortunate. If there are no surprises, the squad sent to meet me has already lost contact before reaching the coordinates, right? So, I am better suited to treading alone. Some things can only be done by a scourge like me."
"Get back here," Snow Crow Ji barked. "This is a military order! A soldier's duty is to obey orders!"
"Is this a military order or your own selfishness?" Akabane Tsubaki suddenly asked back. "You are just my superior, and I am just a soldier. That is all. You've given me plenty of trouble these past six months, and I have no favorability toward you. After tonight, I won't have to see you again anyway."
Snow Crow Ji's expression froze on her face. A moment later, she lowered her eyes.
"What do you want to do?"
Akabane Tsubaki did not respond, and Snow Crow Ji felt a sense of helplessness.
Just as the girl lowered her eyes slightly, the woman's equally steady voice echoed in her ear.
'Just do it.'
Akabane Tsubaki's gaze moved slightly, and she quickly gave her answer. "Understood."
Receiving the woman's reply, Akabane Tsubaki injected herself with a stimulant. Recalling the bits and pieces of her time with the woman over the past six months, her brow twitched. Everything she had just said came from the heart. Who would truly like someone who gave them trouble every single day for no reason? She didn't have Stockholm syndrome. And being a scourge was real, too.
"Come out," Akabane Tsubaki said.
Seeing there was still no movement behind her, she turned around and threw a Spider-Gu Fang, piercing through a tree trunk.
The bushes beneath the trunk moved slightly, and then two terrified figures slowly walked out. They were the two members of the Wayfarer squad.
"Is that you, Meijiu? What's the situation outside? I thought you were a disguised enemy just now, so I..." Celine explained hurriedly.
The other person also looked terrified, fearing she would strike them.
At this moment, Akabane Tsubaki's lips moved slightly, vibrating at a fixed frequency to emit a hiss that was somewhere between a spider and a cicada. The two members of the Wayfarer squad were stunned by the sound. One of the team members' eyes slowly widened.
Seeing that the two did not respond, Akabane Tsubaki did not speak this time. Her throat contracted and began to vibrate at high frequency as well, once again emitting the insect-like hiss, looking as if she were using her abdomen to produce the sound.
"You want to... join us?" The other person had not finished speaking when he was killed by a suddenly attacking Celine.
Celine’s terrified appearance was gone, replaced by indifference as she slowly pulled her hand out of her companion's chest. "How do you know our language?"
Akabane Tsubaki did not respond directly. Blue-black patterns suddenly appeared on her body, looking from a distance like a struggling spider face, and spider compound eyes quickly crowded into her left pupil.
"Mastering your language isn't difficult for me. My purpose in breaking away today was to join you."
"How can I trust you?"
Pointing toward the young man's corpse on the ground, out of whose eye socket crawled a bug-like thing, Akabane Tsubaki pointed calmly.
Celine said nothing.
The name of this bug was 'the Yi.' By entering a human body and extending its tentacles to attach to the host's nervous system, it could control the host's every move. It was effective for ordinary people, but for this little family head, it likely wouldn't work. Was the other party trying to gain their trust this way? How naive.
The other party clearly overlooked that the moment the Yi's tentacles touched the nerves, the host would be watched by Mother. All children receive Mother's love equally, without exception. Receiving such warm care, even if modern medicine could remove the Yi, those ghosts would still want to return to Mother's embrace.
The corner of Celine's mouth curled into an imperceptible arc. She saw Akabane Tsubaki actually step forward and place that Yi on her eyelid, letting it crawl inside. Celine let out a bizarre, creaking laugh.
Sure enough, the moment the Yi entered her body, Akabane Tsubaki's body began to tremble uncontrollably. She clutched her eye and let out a wail, her back arching from the violent spasms.
The world before her eyes suddenly shifted, as if she had arrived in a completely pitch-black space. She was standing on a deep pool of water that rippled gently, and before her was a giant bed with a sandalwood frame and gold-copper corners. Silk curtains hung down, and someone was calling her name, the voice drifting lightly in her ear, causing a slight itch.
Akabane Tsubaki looked up, only to find that the thousand-foot-high curtains had been drawn back at some point. A long neck extended from within, and a woman's face with indistinct features appeared before her eyes. The long hair at the back of her head was coiled into a bun with a brown bamboo shoot. It was she who was calling her.
'Child...'
'You... you truly are my child...'
'My blood flows within you...'
'Why... have you not yet returned to my embrace?'
A misty and ethereal voice drifted over. It sounded both far away at the edge of the sky and close beside her ear. For some reason, the woman began to weep softly, her sadness like water, flooding the pitch-black space.
Was the being before her the Eight-Spider Hive Mother?
Akabane Tsubaki looked up at the bed that was so magnificent it resembled a giant tower city, and at the silhouette coiled together behind the silk curtains—a figure that inexplicably felt beautiful and graceful to her. Her breathing quickened.
"Where are they?" Akabane Tsubaki asked hoarsely.
'Come into my embrace, child, and you will see everything we see.'
The woman embraced her.
There was clearly no physical contact, yet Akabane Tsubaki could feel the other party embracing her. It was like her body was slowly soaking into a hot spring, so warm and intoxicating that one would want to stay immersed in it forever.
'How is it... my child?'
"I see it all." Akabane Tsubaki's eyes gained many new visions. Countless soldiers were still fighting, holding the last defensive lines. Every second, lives were lost, and families were broken. People stood before the martyrs' cemetery in silence; old men's hair turned white, and children huddled with their dependents, weeping together.
Inside the tower city and outside of it, even if their broken bodies were devoured, even if they shed their last drop of blood, as long as the flag fluttering under the blood-colored morning sun fell, thousands more would rush forward to stand it back up.
She could easily distinguish which visions came from the Syndicate. They blended into people's daily lives—smiling and communicating with others at work, or enjoying themselves in entertainment venues. They thought they were seamless, but at this moment, they were full of flaws.
"I feel very good now."
Akabane Tsubaki let out an excited laugh.
"Thank you for your cooperation. I'm going to go kill them all right now."
Rate on N.U.
