Regardless of the reason, development was a necessity.
From the current situation, it appeared this planet was under the control of an unknown civilization. The so-called Dawn Church was undoubtedly a religious tool used by that civilization to control the surface. Whether they used such a method because they lacked the ability to interfere directly, were conducting some sort of experiment, or held some other purpose remained unclear.
No matter how one looked at it, the Zerg could not afford to underestimate their opponent.
Moreover, a civilization capable of traversing the vastness of space to reach this place surely possessed considerably advanced technology.
The insects on the lunar surface were incredibly busy, constantly spreading creep to increase the surface area available for photosynthesis.
Meanwhile, most of Xia Jin's projections remained on the ground.
The intensity of the offensive against the magic beasts continued to increase. In fact, she estimated that if the entire Border Forest were completely conquered, leaving only a few low-tier creatures for long-term farming, she could likely push the Hive to the next level.
As for whether it could reach Level 14, she wasn't certain.
Strictly speaking, the current Zerg could not yet be considered an interstellar civilization; they had only just barely left their home planet. Although they could now build leviathans, such units were essentially little more than cannon fodder in the context of cosmic warfare.
One had to remember that the current effective range of the green slime attacks launched by the leviathans was only a few thousand kilometers. If dropped onto a planet's surface, they couldn't even travel halfway around the world.
“The Swarm units designated for magic beasts are already sufficient. Although the costs have risen, I can perhaps divert a portion of the forces to prepare for a major offensive against the Dawn Empire.”
The Goddess of Dawn's assistance to the Empire seemed limited to sending so-called Divine Messengers.
However, judging by the individual strength of these Divine Messengers, being at the Tier 12 to 13 level, they did not pose a significant threat to the Zerg.
It was possible that the ship was a remnant escape vessel from some fallen civilization.
“Alright, let's begin supporting the south starting today.”
Sometimes, quantity was more useful than quality. Fighting the Empire relied more on firepower—it was a contest of whose weapons were more devastating.
Simply upgrading tiers was somewhat inefficient, so Xia Jin continued to deploy large numbers of the older rocket bugs and missile bugs. Meanwhile, the Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs were replaced by the latest ravagers.
These fire roaches were already capable of launching precision armor-piercing missiles from over 30 kilometers away. Whether in terms of power, range, or accuracy, these missiles completely outclassed the former rockets. Since the cost was only double that of a rocket, the strategy was simple: use rockets for saturation bombardment and then use these missile bugs to target key objectives. Victory in this war was essentially guaranteed.
Furthermore, she had a massive stockpile of ravagers, which could be put into service with only minor modifications.
A large number of ravagers were prioritized and sent to the front lines one by one.
Production of Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs had ceased. Despite this, over 2,000 of them remained on the front lines, engaging in direct combat with the enemy's armored legions.
When missiles began accurately piercing through the Empire's artillery and armored units from dozens of kilometers away, the soldiers finally understood the meaning of a total collapse.
In a single day, 20,000 cannons, 10,000 armored combat vehicles, and an even greater number of mages were pelted by missiles raining from the sky.
This single wave caused the Dawn Empire's frontline forces to lose eighty percent of their heavy weaponry.
The remnants were then surrounded as the Swarm launched a general offensive from multiple directions, led by 2,000 Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs and over 100 ultralisks that had yet to be upgraded.
An unprecedented, massive encirclement with a width of 800 kilometers was slowly taking shape.
By fully utilizing the Swarm's speed advantage, the Dawn Empire's legions within the encirclement had no time to escape. Before they could even react, the massive pocket had been sealed shut.
Over 3.6 million troops were trapped in the center.
The entire Swarm, along with 2 million human troops recruited from Clear, the city states, and the northern occupied territories, launched a powerful assault on the enemies within the pocket.
Nearly 80,000 unicycles, over 40,000 captured cannons, 2,000 Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs, hundreds of thousands of scourges, and thousands of mutalisks unleashed their firepower upon the trapped enemy.
The volume of fire projected in a single day reached a historical peak.
In just one day, 20 million rockets were launched, along with countless shells.
Final statistics showed that the Zerg dropped approximately 1.6 million tons of shells that day. This mass was equivalent to the total bombardment volume of a certain country over more than two years during the Vietnam War in her previous life. Even more staggering was that this did not even account for the firepower of units like ravagers and hydralisks.
Such a terrifying offensive left the 3.6 million people inside the encirclement completely defenseless.
On the day after the pocket was sealed, the Swarm's bombardment volume rose to 2.7 million tons. Combined with precision strikes, by that night, less than 1.9 million of the original 3.6 million people were still alive.
The highest commander of this force, Marshal Zhen Long, who had recently been promoted to the rank of marshal, was forced to surrender.
By the time the Swarm accepted the surrender and ceased its attack, their army had only 1.6 million men left.
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