Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 699

Chapter 697: The Last Line of Defense, the Battle of Rheaduches (12)

If the Extermination Order had already been delivered to the surface via transport ship, launching it from the ground would be much simpler than navigating the numerous biological vessels and ground-based orbital fire from space. It might

even not need to be launched at all; it could simply be detonated in the open air, eliminating the Zerg’s chance of interception.

The estimated detonation time was one month from now.

This month naturally provided time for the ground forces to evacuate.

The fact that the Extermination Order would be detonated was not announced to the frontline troops, and only senior commanders like Salilius, Martins, and Xi Rui knew of it.

This concealment was intended to avoid panic.

The human troops on the ground were undoubtedly brave warriors. However, if the one-month evacuation deadline were known, it would inevitably cause unnecessary chaos.

Avoid it if

possible. Furthermore, the Queen knew of the incoming Skyburn torpedo.

She was desperate, to be sure. But that didn’t mean the master of this hive would give up the fight.

With aerial interception failing, destruction on the ground became the last resort.

A massive Zerg swarm would undoubtedly seize upon the human forces’ weakening and retreat, launching an all-out assault on the Burning Sky torpedo’s location, destroying it before it could detonate.

At that point, a force on the ground would undoubtedly be needed to hold out for a short period during the final detonation.

This force… unfortunately, would be the sacrifice.

Perhaps at the last moment, Alliance Command would disclose the true situation to them.

Or perhaps not.

But in short, they would be part of the “price” of detonating the Burning Sky torpedo.   If

payment was necessary, Gu Hang would make the decision calmly.   Subsequent developments largely aligned with Gu Hang’s plans, assumptions, and predictions.   The ground forces’ evacuation plan went relatively smoothly.   Meanwhile, the Zerg forces were closing in. As the human forces retreated, the Zerg would quickly retake the lost ground.   By the 30th day, only about 20,000 human troops remained on the ground.   Their defensive line consisted of a circle with a radius of approximately 15 kilometers.   The artillery position was crammed in the center, surrounded by numerous bunkers and firepower points in every direction. These had been built over the past month by the engineering corps, working overtime with their machinery.   Meanwhile, the last transport ship had departed.   Of the twenty thousand men, half were from the elite Skeleton Division of an alliance; the other half were from the Solar Legion, an infantry regiment with a glorious history. Their orders were to hold their ground and await the arrival of the next transport ship, with the center of the position serving as the landing point.   Their numbers were relatively small, and even with ample firepower, they were inevitably overwhelmed by the enemy, outnumbering them tenfold, a hundredfold.   Yet, the remaining troops, with high morale, continued to perform their duties, determined to hold out until the very end.   That moment arrived.   The ship they had been waiting for to evacuate them was nowhere to be seen, but a gap had opened in the center of the position, a space reserved for the transport ship’s landing. As the   gap widened, a missile, seemingly enormous to a human, requiring only the largest transport ship to carry it, was slowly pushed aloft.   Ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers might not recognize what it was. However, the senior generals from the Solar Legion and the Alliance Army who remained behind would recognize it.   The moment they saw it, they understood what the Alliance’s leadership was planning.

They had been abandoned. Their mission was to risk their lives to hold off the enemy’s final assault. No transport ship had ever been prepared for them; they were doomed to die.

Faced with this situation, they unanimously made the same choice: silence, continuing business as usual.

They remained calm, facing one piece of bad news after another from the battlefield, listening to the loss of one line after another. When questioned by junior officers about the location of the evacuation ship, even though the time had already passed, they would simply reply, “Follow orders, hold on to the end.”

The Burning Sky torpedo, meanwhile, had already initiated its ignition sequence before it even needed to be fully launched from its makeshift silo.

The

ignition sequence had already begun, but the torpedo hadn’t detonated.

Gu Hang knew exactly why: the Queen was still making her final struggle.

At the crucial moment, she lifted the Warp Shadow’s suppression of psychic energy, and two neurozoans, halfway across the world, began projecting psychic power.

It was this force that halted the ignition sequence.

Gu Hang wasn’t surprised.

It was perfectly natural for the Zerg Queen to fight tooth and nail. It was

something that had been anticipated.

Temporarily lifting the Warp Shadow would liberate not only the Neurozoa surrounding the two Zerg Queens, but also Gu Hang.

In an instant, his psychic energy descended upon the ground.

Gu Hang stopped the Zerg psychic energy that had been intended to destroy the Burning Sky Torpedo.

But the two Neurozoa didn’t retreat. They bit furiously, tangling with Gu Hang’s psychic energy.

Now, they were actually stalling for time,

trying to entangle Gu Hang, preventing him from using his psychic energy to directly continue the ignition sequence.

As long as they could achieve this goal, it would be enough.

On the ground, the Zerg army was drawing closer, and even Bio-Titans had appeared on the battlefield. The small remaining human force was no longer able to stop them. With a little more time, they would be able to destroy the Burning Sky Torpedo from the ground, physically.

Then, the Warp Shadow could be sealed again.

By then, even if the two neurozoa had been ripped apart by Gu Hang’s psychic energy, it wouldn’t matter; they were still a price the Queen could pay.

As for the next similar crisis, how would the Queen, without the neurozoa, respond? That would have to happen first. This time, she’s doomed, let alone the future.

Furthermore, with the humans already evacuated from the surface, she could focus on repairing, reproducing, and deploying numerous air defense nests to recapture the area. Even if humans tried to repeat their tactics and recapture the surface, it would take a long time.

Delaying them for half a year would offer hope.

The Queen’s final struggle seemed poised for success. Gu Hang had completely suppressed the two neurozoa, holding a commanding advantage, but the time it would take to defeat them would still outstrip the time it would take the Zerg to overwhelm the human ground forces.

If this trend continued, the Bio-Titans would likely physically destroy the Burning Sky Torpedoes.

But at this moment, a roaring, giant thunder bear, almost the size of a bio-titan, appeared on the ground battlefield and pounced, knocking down a Zerg Saint.

Then, one after another, giant bears appeared, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of azure heroic warriors, pouring out from the subspace rifts.

They became the last line of defense against the Zerg swarm!

————

More.

Sleep

(End of this chapter)