Negotiating Again

In the middle of their conversation, a cry of alarm suddenly rang out from another ship thirty meters away.

“Look! Bugs are coming from over there!”

Over a dozen scourges had somehow managed to break through the magic planes' fire network and reach the fleet.

Undoubtedly, the arrival of these scourges meant that the Zerg had pinpointed the fleet's location.

“Anti aircraft fire!”

On a nearby anti aircraft escort ship, several soldiers turned massive wheels. A large device with 20 launch tubes rotated, and with a thud from its base, over a dozen projectiles trailing long plumes of flame soared into the sky.

Perhaps it was better to call them rockets.

Curiously, these rockets possessed a degree of tracking capability. They left trails spanning hundreds of meters in mid air before exploding near the scourges.

The sudden high pressure caused nearly half of the scourges to plummet into the sea.

The remaining few charged to within a hundred meters of the hulls, only to be covered by a crossfire network formed by over a dozen anti aircraft guns. In the end, only one managed to strike the deck, resulting in an explosion.

A small crater was blasted into the surface.

“Dammit, they still managed to break through,” one soldier cursed, nearly spitting in frustration.

“What the hell are the anti aircraft gunners doing?” the General asked, his brow furrowed.

However, he didn't place any specific blame. The Empire's navy had never prioritized anti aircraft defense. Even on this massive carrier, only two of those 20 tube anti aircraft rocket launchers were equipped.

“Send the combat data and intelligence to headquarters. Oh, and make it sound desperate. Did you take the photographs? Let those lords see exactly how trash our navy's planes have become.”

“Understood, understood!”

It was a perfect excuse to ask for more funding.

The navy was in a sorry state; they could barely afford to eat.

The Empire had previously been a land based power, but now that they were expanding into the sea, they couldn't continue to suppress military spending and equipment upgrades.

Thus, a black and white photo of scourges diving toward the Dawn Empire's naval fleet, along with a picture of the crater on the ship's deck, was transmitted back.

Attached was a document explicitly stating that the performance of the navy's aircraft was far too obsolete, claiming they couldn't even keep up with Zerg units.

...

Xia Jin, on her end, was unaware of the internal situation within the Empire.

From what she could see on the West Continent, the Empire's army showed no signs of moving north. This meant they were simply engaging the Zerg in a naval and landing operation along the coast of the East Continent.

The landing of over 3,000 soldiers seemed small in number, but they made things extremely difficult for the bugs.

The high individual quality of the soldiers wasn't the main issue, as the current Zerg could still match them in average individual combat power. The problem was that the Empire's weapons could actually one shot the members of the Swarm.

With heavy firearms in every hand, each weapon was comparable to an anti materiel rifle loaded with explosive armor-piercing rounds and magical enhancements. They could blow away half the body of a zergling from a kilometer away.

Even Tier 6 zerglings were often blasted in half. If the target were Tier 7, the rounds would still likely leave massive holes or penetrate completely.

These weapons kept the Empire's morale at an all time high, and the entire nation was swept up in expansionist ideology.

Their propaganda was incredibly effective. Using faith in the Goddess of Dawn as a pretext, the entire country was filled with war fever.

Furthermore, the Empire's military had developed mortars.

Designed specifically to deal with enemies hiding behind cover, these curved fire devices functioned similarly to the mortars on Earth. The difference was that these shells were detonated by magical power.

It was a true combination of technology and magic.

Of course, the Zerg were not lagging behind. The roaches' plasma cannons were no less powerful than the enemy's artillery. Their only disadvantage was the brightness of the flames, which made them easy to target. Regardless, given the velocity, it was still difficult for enemies to predict where the shots would land.

Consequently, the battle evolved into a stalemate of heavy fire support from the rear, a struggle for air superiority above, and a ground war of zergling ambushes against the long range sniping of the Empire's soldiers.

A day after the fighting began, the Emperor of the Yelu Empire in the north laughed heartily with excitement.

“Now we don't even need to negotiate. The Zerg have no choice but to ally with us.”

The ministers below all wore smiles on their faces.

“The strength of these Zerg cannot be underestimated. It seems they were originally on the same continent as the Empire. Now that they've become enemies, the ensuing war will surely weaken both sides, which is good for us. The Mis Kingdom is already completely under Zerg control. We should take this opportunity to unite with Sailing; we cannot let outside enemies control our continent.”

“That makes sense. You handle the arrangements,” the Emperor replied.

...

The unfortunate Yelu ministers had no idea that their entire conversation was being watched by scouting mosquitoes.

The funniest part was that the envoy they later sent to Sailing was killed by a group of elf bugs disguised as a bandit troupe while trying to sneak through.

However, the nation of Sailing was indeed on bad terms with the Zerg. When the Swarm attacked Lümingte, Sailing to the south became extremely nervous. They actually dispatched troops into Lümingte's territory, joining forces to fight against the Zerg.

The Swarm's forces in that region were already insufficient. Dealing with an Empire fleet was difficult enough, and now they were being backstabbed by a third party.

Most critically, as the Empire invaded, Guluo—which had already become its colony—and the Meien Kingdom, which was not yet a colony but had trade ties, suddenly launched attacks on the Huiwei and Lümingte regions under pressure from the Empire.

This situation put immense pressure on the primal brain bug's command.

After careful consideration, Xia Jin once again dispatched a diplomatic team to the Yelu Empire, demanding that they form an alliance with her.