West Continent, Kingdom of Clear, southern countryside.
Two zerglings arrived here towing a massive trailer.
The doors opened, and many chitinous creatures tumbled out with a series of clatters.
Their shells were pitch black with a faint metallic luster; in appearance, they were undoubtedly rockets.
However, these rockets had two small eyes, and their tail nozzles had been modulated into something resembling vector thrust ports.
A projection of Xia Jin walked forward and picked up one of the projectiles.
“Quite heavy, about 45 kilograms, I’d say.”
It was 1,000 millimeters long and 150 millimeters in diameter.
This was a type of small missile bug intended for mass production on the ground.
Recently, Xia Jin had begun categorizing the Zerg's long range, single use consumable artillery bugs.
Rocket bugs were the imprecise type that could only attack in a general direction after being launched. Since they didn't prioritize precision and were meant for area saturation, their cost was very low. The ones before her, however, could actively change direction, identify targets, and adjust their trajectories. Therefore, even as missile bugs, their unit price was as high as 3 units of standard energy.
In contrast, if the vector nozzles and judgment were removed to create a low level mindless bug that simply fired straight, the cost would drop to 1 unit of standard energy per projectile. Their interiors were purely composed of explosives and combustibles, plus some magic crystals.
An elf bug boarded the trailer and lifted down a rack.
The rack featured a row of launch tubes. It was made of metal and weighed only 20 kilograms, allowing five missile bugs or rocket bugs of the appropriate size to be launched together.
“Let’s test it. If it’s successful, we can start mass production, especially for models that can be equipped with ten or twenty launch tubes at once.”
“Understood.”
The elf bug immediately began loading.
Once finished, everyone moved back a certain distance.
A command was issued through the Swarm network, and two missile bugs and three rocket bugs ignited automatically. Like a real rocket launcher, they flew out one after another.
Intense light flashed, accompanied by billowing clouds of thick smoke.
One could only imagine how spectacular the scene would be if launched at night.
“The range is a bit further than the BM 13 on Earth, reaching 12 kilometers. Not bad at all.”
The small size resulted in a lack of propulsion fuel.
With subsequent genetic adjustments and improvements, they could likely be launched even further.
Since these were intended for mass production to bolster firepower, the tests had to prioritize convenience and speed.
The results came back quickly.
“The missile bug's basic deviation is within 2 meters, while the rocket bug's deviation is within 120 meters. The launch tubes are stable. This metal can be produced by civilian factories in the Kingdom of Clear at a very low cost.”
“Good.”
Organizing the intelligence in her mind, Xia Jin immediately ordered production to begin in various locations.
With a high number of queens now, there was no need to worry about larvae. To accommodate these small ammunition bugs, Brain Bug No. 1 had created a new type of small larva. This was a rather peculiar direction for the Zerg's development.
“It’s not that I’m learning from technological civilizations; it’s just that the Zerg cannot be suppressed by the enemy in terms of firepower.”
Most bugs were melee units, and the attack range of their ranged units was insufficient, so they had to take this unconventional approach for now.
If the final results were good, these traits could naturally be integrated into the genes.
After the testing for the missile bugs and rocket bugs was complete, another large monster crawled out.
A 200mm heavy artillery... bug.
This one had incorporated genes from a turtle like creature. Its back was hollowed out to mount a cannon barrel, and its body contained biological chambers.
It moved relatively slowly, but it could still maintain a speed equivalent to a human's slow jog, making it a sort of super turtle.
As artillery, they would mostly be stationed on the second line for fire support.
A 200mm caliber was a definitive super weapon in land warfare.
To increase the rate of fire, the giant turtle’s back had a specialized miniature chamber where energy could be rapidly injected. This allowed the miniature bugs inside to grow quickly into shell bugs and be automatically loaded.
At this moment, the shell bug hunkered down, its legs firmly gripping the ground.
“Fire.”
At Xia Jin’s command, a thunderous boom echoed, and the area was instantly shrouded in thick smoke.
With an ear splitting blast, the muzzle retracted slightly, and a heavy shell exited the barrel in a flash of fire.
After waiting for a while, the shell finally landed at its maximum range.
Somewhere 22 kilometers away.
Thick smoke rose into the sky as a rectangular eight story building, 100 meters long and 30 meters wide, completely collapsed from the explosion.
“As expected of a large caliber cannon.”
The power was truly formidable.
When the war with the Empire officially began, this would surely give the opposition a fright.
“Let’s hold off on adding this cannon bug to the Zerg's main production sequence for now. Hmm... Brain Bug No. 1 also agrees it’s best not to.”
The Zerg would have many long range methods in the future. Currently, the two hive levels were in a bit of a transition period, neither here nor there, and they just happened to encounter a troublesome enemy like the Dawn Empire.
By now, the Zerg had already dispatched large numbers of low cost locusts into the territories of the southern nations.
Even their intelligence gathering had become blatant.
Rate on N.U.
