Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 694

Chapter 692, Titan Showdown, Battle of Rheaduches (VII)

Witnessing a Warlord-class Titan from distant Mars being captured by the ferocious appendages of a Zerg Saint Titan, its massive chainsaw sword swinging in vain, Gu Zhouhua frantically controlled the action system and ordered fire.

The plasma cannon aboard Gu Zhouhua’s Warlord-class Titan blasted out, striking the Zerg Saint Bio-Titan in the side at a range of less than 500 meters.

The plasma cannon was incredibly powerful, especially at such close range.

A massive hole was melted through the Zerg Saint’s body.

Like Zerg bio-ships, Zerg Saints lacked void shields or energy shields. Instead, they possessed thicker, higher-performance armor. Furthermore, as organic entities, they possessed a formidable internal self-repair capacity after damage.

Despite this, the wound Gu Zhouhua had just inflicted was still the largest on this Zerg Saint.

However, this didn’t stop the Insect Saint from slaying the Martian Cult’s Warlord-class Titan.

Ignoring Gu Zhouhua’s plasma cannon fire, it thrust its massive blast into the chest of the Titan it was crushing.

The cockpit, along with vital chest components, was instantly destroyed.

The Martian Warlord-class Titan was utterly annihilated.

Then, its sharp appendages sliced downward, ensuring the Titan’s demise.

However, Gu Zhouhua’s Titan had just closed in.

A sinister stab of a long blade was launched, but Gu Zhouhua dodged it.

With his maneuver, his Warlord Titan slammed fiercely into the Insect Saint’s side, knocking him off balance.

Then, a massive chainsaw sword ripped a large gash into its flesh.

The roaring Insect Saint turned, intending to attack Gu Zhouhua at close range with the cannon extended from its mouthparts. But before it could fire, it was struck by a powerful punch, its head twisted.

Immediately, Gu Zhouhua thrust the cannon barrel back into the Insect Saint’s wound.

With another fierce blow ,

the chainsword slashed again!

Despite its immense vitality and armor, the Insect Saint couldn’t withstand the blow and was completely destroyed.

Gu Zhouhua was overjoyed, but the next moment, he felt a tremor throughout his body.

While he had charged to rescue his allies, but failed to kill a vital target, he was also receiving concentrated enemy fire. His

void shield was now overloaded.

At least four Holy Servant Insects—also known as Little Insect Saints—were already within reach.

He swung his cannon around and blasted one dead, but as he tried to dispatch the second, another violent tremor struck.

His Titan froze.

Gu Zhouhua’s face paled.

In such a fierce battlefield, a broken void shield and a loss of mobility—what did that mean? It

was doom.

To say he wasn’t afraid would be a lie.

Especially since he had a bright future ahead of him.

As a member of the Gu clan, he’d risen smoothly from Zhongsi Academy to the National Knights. He’d even participated in the previous battle of Wanzhou Star, defeating the Iron-Armored Fallen Titan Legion and making great contributions.

He was expected to rise quickly upon his return. But he

hadn’t expected to die here.

Despite his fear, he still maintained his basic judgment.

“Quickly adjust the plasma cannon, mark target B4! Quick, quick! It’s targeting us!”

“The damage report’s in, and it’s not fatal. Damage Control, hurry!”

He made his final struggle.

The little bug saint, marked as B4, had still landed a blast. The overloaded void shield couldn’t stop it, but the warlord-grade armor provided a surge, holding off the blow once.

However, two more attacks were imminent.

Unable to move, relying on armor to withstand the blow seemed inevitable.

But at that moment, Gu Zhouhua saw a burst of flames erupt from each of the three Insect Saints.

From behind him, a group of Knights rushed out.

Six Rangers, two Overlords, and a Nemesis led the way.

The Nemesis stood fourteen meters tall, almost the size of a Warhound Titan, though a bit slimmer. The Overlord was eleven meters, and the Ranger was about eight meters.

Compared to the Warlords, which stood at nearly thirty meters, they were practically miniature. But in reality, they weren’t much smaller than the Insect Saints. While their firepower was significantly less than that of a Titan, there were still nine of them.

The three Insect Saints were blown to pieces, and Gu Zhouhua’s Titan took the opportunity to destroy the B4 target.

Then, working with the Knights, it eliminated the remaining two.

The Knights had also lost two Titans.

But at this moment, Gu Zhouhua wasn’t optimistic.

From afar, he spotted a Worm Saint, accompanied by several smaller Worm Saints. It seemed to have noticed the fighting going on. Having just dispatched two War Hounds, it seemed ready to come over and finish off the immobilized Warlord-class unit he was on.

With the Knights’ cooperation, they were able to take out the Holy Servant Worms, but not the Grand Master Worms.

A voice call came through, and after answering, it turned out to be from the Knight of Vengeance.

“Greetings, Colonel. I am Grand Knight Commander Rudolf Hart. Is it possible to repair your Titan?”

“Yes.”

“How long will it take?”

“Eighteen minutes, but I’m afraid I won’t survive that…”

“Please expedite your efforts with your men. We’ll buy you eighteen minutes.”

“What?”

By this point, Grand Knight Rudolf Hart had stopped responding.

But Gu Zhouhua could hear voices from outside.

The Nemesis Knight roared, “For the Empire! For the Alliance! For the glory of the Black Arrow! Black Arrow Knight Squadron, follow me and charge!”

Hearing this, Gu Zhouhua understood that these were knights from the same homeland as him, Black Arrow Star in the Pegasus Sector.

Only then did he notice that, in addition to the livery of the Alliance National Knights, these knights also bore a small black feathered arrow emblem on their chests.

Watching them charge toward the Insect Saint Titan, Gu Zhouhua couldn’t help but burst into tears.

“I swear, I will either die here or I will destroy that Insect Saint!”

…

Leroy observed the battlefield from afar.

The massive Titan battle unfolded before him.

In fact, he could probably tell that this new Zerg reinforcement wasn’t specifically coming to support this particular battlefield.

It was more likely that the Zerg had already been preparing a large-scale attack on the human base, and this force was on its way when they collided.

Coincidence?

Not at all.

Just as the humans, intent on breaking the current stalemate, launched a massive airborne assault followed by an all-out offensive, the Zerg had similar plans.

It was perfectly natural.

They had gathered their forces, preparing for a major attack.

The Zerg Queen could no longer tolerate the humans occupying and expanding a base on the planet’s surface.

As each air defense nest was eliminated, the success rate of the humans deploying their extermination weapons would increase. Until a critical point was reached, even with backup plans and targeted interception, they might not be able to stop them.

At that point, it would be the end.

Rather than waiting to see the humans deploy more troops and expand their base bit by bit, it would be better to wipe out this small base in one fell swoop. Then, before the next large-scale human airborne landing, the air defense nests in the area would have to be rebuilt.

The Queen knew that if she wanted to win this war, she couldn’t count on a quick victory; she had to drag it out until after that year, when reinforcements from her tentacles arrived, before she could truly compete with humanity.

She had to prepare for a protracted war.

Although the biomass she currently controlled was limited, and after humanity blockaded the entire planet, she had no way to replenish it, it was precisely for this reason that she saw the millions of humans in her base as a tonic.

The idea that the Zerg needed only biomass for growth wasn’t wrong, but it was incomplete.

Biomass wasn’t entirely equivalent to organic matter.

If it were simply organic matter, why would the Zerg devour worlds? Why

not just find a planet and cultivate it?

The boundless stellar energy, converted into organic matter on a scale far greater than the meager gains from consuming an entire world’s biomass.

However, human scholars had not observed a similar mechanism within the Void Zerg.

Analysis of the seized biomass indicates it’s more than just organic matter. The presence of a “soul” has been detected within it.

This “soul” isn’t the pre-existing form of the devoured individual. Rather, it’s something transformed through consumption and digestion into something that the Zerg can exploit. The process of digesting the dead or the living represents not only a physical transformation, but also a spiritual one.

For the Void Zerg, flesh imbued with a living being’s wisdom, experience, strength, will—these soul-level qualities—is the most delicious.

Eating an adult human is far more rewarding than simply consuming a patch of grass or a forest; similarly, consuming a powerful individual is far more rewarding than simply consuming a group of ordinary mortals.

Weak souls, or even those devoid of souls, are merely ordinary plants and animals. After being consumed and digested, they might only yield ordinary workers and soldiers. However, flesh imbued with a powerful soul is the essential ingredient for creating some of the most powerful Zerg creatures. This

was true for the Zerg Tyrants, Bio-Titans, and Bio-Warships alike.

It was precisely for this reason that the Zerg Queen yearned for the “delicacies” within the human base.

Though few in number, each one was a veteran of countless battles; there were also numerous generals, even mortal generals and officers, whose experience and wisdom were highly sought after.

Not to mention the Space Marines and numerous other champions.

From both a strategic security perspective and the need to replenish biomass resources, it was inevitable for the Zerg to mobilize a massive army to attempt to capture the human base.

They had already been accumulating forces,

and the encounter between the two armies was only natural.

The Zerg, judging that this crucial nest could not be captured by the human army, had mobilized their forces in advance to provide support.

Just as Leroy lamented that they were about to engage in a decisive ground battle with the Zerg without any preparation, so too were the Zerg about to face the humans without even having their forces fully assembled.

Fair enough.

On the current front, the human army and the Zerg are about evenly matched.

Leroy turned away, no longer watching the battle.

He had his own battles to fight.

————

I’ll try to write another chapter, but I’m afraid it will be a little late.

(End of this chapter)