Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 673

Chapter 671, Rescue Tribunal

pursues Qin Zhiping and his subordinates from the Anti-Foreign Inquisition. A small number of Zerg swarms originate from the heavens, but a greater number originate from the Zerg forces already present on the planet, Taiyuan, where they have been forced to land.

Taiyuan was once a commonplace industrial world, with a population of 3.8 billion, primarily engaged in primary industries.

But now, it is completely deserted. All that

remains is devastation.

Zerg flesh blankets blanket the planet, absorbing nutrients from the earth and acting as primary decomposers and digesters. Countless worker insects feed vast numbers of living organisms into the digestion tanks. These include not only humans, but also the various insects, rodents, and other creatures that inhabit the planet.

The digestion tanks transform these corpses and living creatures into pure biomass, a small portion of which is then transferred to the incubation tanks to produce more workers and soldiers. The former transports, devours, and brings back biomass from the outside world; the latter hunts and kills.

There might still be a few infected, or even uninfected, survivors scattered across the planet, but a dozen or so survivors here and there are no different from non-existent.

The difference is that the Zerg can still conduct a blanket search, recovering more biomass.

Besides the biomass sent to the incubation pools to generate new Zerg, the remaining biomass, the largest portion of it, is stored in warehouses, awaiting the arrival of Zerg transport ships.

These biomass storage warehouses are topped with towering “capillary spires.”

These spires appear useless now, but once the Zerg transport ships arrive, they will simply stay in orbit, extending giant bio-tubes from top to bottom, connecting to the towering spires. Then, the processed biomass, now significantly reduced in volume, is sucked up by the Zerg’s bio-ships and transported to the core area, where it will be used to build its army and catalyze the bio-ships.

However, when the remnants of the Anti-Foreign Order led by Qin Zhiping arrived on Taiyuan Planet, the Zerg’s strategy changed.

They no longer stored most of the biomass, but instead used it to hatch insects. The proportion of decay was no longer dominated by worker insects, but by soldier insects.

Of course, there was a considerable lag between the strategic shift and the actual hatching of a large insect swarm, posing a threat to Qin Zhiping and his forces. The Inquisition’s forces certainly couldn’t eliminate every threat from the entire planet within that timeframe, but by clearing out the hatching nests and biomass storage facilities near the forced landing site, the subsequent pressure on them would be much less.

However, at this stage, Qin Zhiping’s judgment was miscalculated.

He was more pessimistic and acted conservatively.

Although several elite Argent Watch teams were dispatched to destroy a few key points, their efforts were insufficient. The majority of the forces were focused on salvaging supplies from the crash-landed starship and gathering food reserves from the surrounding city ruins or wilderness. The latter proved ineffective, leaving only a few scraps of food where the insects had roughly scavenged.

But then again, if they waited until the worms had thoroughly licked the ground a second time, nothing would be left.

Another portion of the troops was tasked with building defensive fortifications on the spot.

To put it bluntly, Qin Zhiping felt it was impossible to solve the current problem with his current strength. He knew that although most of them had survived the starship’s forced landing, it had only prolonged their lives by a few dozen days or even months. Without the starship escape, the remaining sixty or seventy thousand men under his command, even the most elite, would not have survived.

All he was doing now was simply trying to survive as long as possible, knowing they were doomed.

Even killing the enemy wasn’t the key. If the worms ultimately won, the worms killed in battle would be of little significance. They would recycle the bodies. Although some biomass would be lost, as long as they weren’t incinerated, the majority of their bodies could still be recycled into biomass and eventually hatched into new worms.

However, the final outcome proved Qin Zhiping to be unlucky.

In other words, no matter the circumstances, perseverance is meaningful.

He armed his men, young and old, whether they were professional soldiers or ship operators, even the woman in charge of cooking in the ship’s cafeteria. For over two months, they fought a bloody battle against the endless swarm of insects that had evolved on Taiyuan Star, killing a third of the population.

No one escaped.

They all knew that running away was pointless in the current situation; it was better to stick together and die more slowly.

And two months later, a turning point actually arrived.

They received an unexpected message from the Alliance.

They claimed to be an Alliance exploration team, claiming that the Alliance’s main force was four star systems away. They hoped that Qin Zhiping and his companions could hold out, and that the Alliance would rescue them.

The survivors’ morale was boosted!

While they didn’t know when the Alliance would arrive, or whether they could hold out until then, at least there was hope!

They began to defend more aggressively.

And the Alliance’s support arrived even faster than they had expected!

A month later, they observed a human fleet in orbit around Taiyuan.

It wasn’t strong, consisting of just one destroyer, two frigates, and four patrol ships.

However, this configuration was sufficient.

The Zerg bio-ships that had been pursuing them in orbit and posing a significant threat to their ground fortifications for the past three months were driven off.

Then, the starships rained down several heavy artillery rounds on the ground.

The destroyer’s ground support capability wasn’t very strong, but it was enough to temporarily rescue Qin Zhiping’s troops.

The transport ships landed on the ground and picked up the remaining troops of the Anti-Foreign Inquisition in batches.

At this point, Qin Zhiping and his men were saved.

…

For the Alliance, sending a fleet of ships to a place four star systems away to rescue the remnants of a northern legion certainly involves risks.

But they aren’t that big.

The biggest trouble is on the way back and forth, but the Alliance is currently on the defensive on the planet ‘Nocras’. It’s not that they can’t win, but they’re just waiting for progress on the western front, just attracting and consuming the Zerg’s power.

If they really wanted to take the initiative, Gu Hang was confident that he could repel the enemy forces besieging Nocras.

Not to mention sending out a fleet and then picking them up when they return.

There’s not much pressure.

————

Being able to update one chapter at this point means there will definitely be another chapter in the evening!

(End of this chapter)