Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 355 The Second Attack

After nearly a week of breeding, the hive regained its strength.

This is true even in the mechanical clan's logistics area.

It can even be said that the Zerg breeding speed in this logistics area is much faster than the Zerg covered by the Black Mist prosthesis, and the number of Zerg bred is far greater than that of the Black Mist Zerg.

Although the Mechanic race had already anticipated another outbreak of Zerg plague near the Logistics Star Field, they had also prepared an alarm system on any planet that was likely to have come into contact with the Zerg.

But when the alarm sounds simultaneously in every galaxy and almost every planet in this area, the meaning of the alarm becomes almost non-existent.

Thousands to tens of thousands of Zerg cruisers took off from each planet.

Although it doesn't look like much.

But just think about it, this is just the number of Zerg cruisers produced by the hive in less than a week, not the number of ordinary Zerg.

And when the number of hives expands from one planet to hundreds of planets.

Then the number of Zerg fleets that will eventually be assembled will be even higher than the last attack launched by Chen Ming.

This is not a question of whether the number is less or more, but whether the Zerg fleet can directly confront the mechanical race of an entire star field head-on when the main battleships are included after the numbers are added up.

Of course Chen Ming wouldn't do that.

He still likes to keep a hand when he is not absolutely sure about things, and this time is no exception.

He did not completely convert every hive on every planet into Zerg cruisers.

The Zerg hive is still breeding on the planet, and as long as it is not destroyed, it will continue to provide him with a steady supply of Zerg fleets.

Millions of Zerg cruisers have appeared in a large area, posing a constant threat to the rear of the Mechanical Race.

The mechanical race reacted very quickly.

All the colonies within the neighboring galaxies that belonged to the Mechanical Clan and were responsible for tasks such as material mining, alloy smelting, and parts production, completed production at an extremely fast speed at the same time the alarm was sounded.

Relying on the transfer methods that have been prepared in advance, including various transportation channels and transport spacecraft, most of the resources that have been produced on the planet are taken away.

At the same time, these mechanical tribes also directly deployed a large number of self-destruction devices in the colonies, and then destroyed the original colonial buildings and factories, leaving no complete equipment for Chen Ming.

They chose to completely abandon the planet occupied by the Zerg.

In order to prevent Chen Ming from taking over the entire colony easily without any pressure, he chose to self-destruct.

But this time they were not like last time. The Destroyer mothership did not come and send the planet to destruction.

It may also be because the Mechanic race knows that there is not much point in destroying planets after the Zerg has developed from multiple planets.

After destroying one planet, the Zerg still have hundreds of planets available for breeding Zerg eggs.

Even if the Destroyers could really destroy hundreds of planets, they would not be able to determine how many Zerg planets there were in the entire universe, or even if it was narrowed down to the vicinity of their own star region.

So for them, it would be enough to disgust Chen Ming a little without doing too much.

While the Mechanical Clan was dealing with their own resources, they assembled a fleet as soon as possible.

Starting from the direction of other star systems in the logistics area that had not yet been occupied by Chen Ming's Zerg, they attacked the Zerg fleet that had just emerged from the planets and gathered in the star system where the Zerg nest planet was located, and had not yet assembled.

The mechanical race killed several fleets that emerged from different planets at the fastest speed.

But what they did was just a drop in the bucket compared to what Chen Ming did.

They can't produce cruisers like Chen Ming does, by digging them out of the ground.

If we don't count the reinforcements that haven't shown up yet, the Mechanic clan only has about 40,000 cruisers in total.

During Chen Ming's last attack, they had already lost nearly half of their forces, and even one-third of their destroyers. Only the frigates were relatively intact because they generally did not participate in large numbers in battles with high-level ships.

But Repulsors and Guardians are almost meaningless when fighting against the Zerg.

Only the number of cruisers is
In short, under such circumstances.

The existing strength of the Mechanical Race can only cause sufficient damage to Chen Ming's Zerg fleet when led by a mothership. Otherwise, it cannot even defeat the Zerg cruiser fleets that grow out of the ground.

So far, the Mechanical Clan has a total of eight motherships.

One of them was the mothership that was attacked by the Zerg fleet at the earliest time.

Three of them were in the last war and are currently being sent to the Black Mist Zerg.

There was still one Destroyer still inside the stargate system and no further action was taken.

In addition, there are three Zerg motherships that just appeared today to handle logistics near the star field.

Eight in total.

Perhaps we can also count a mothership that was destroyed by Lu Bai on its way to the Empire.

This total number is very close to the ten motherships Chen Ming had previously speculated.

But Chen Ming felt that there should be more, because the reinforcements of the mechanical clan have not appeared yet.

Putting aside the Destroyer mothership, the other motherships can actually allow Chen Ming to make some moves.

But he still wanted to wait a little longer, because he felt that the Destroyer was the truly valuable existence.

To put it bluntly.

If he wanted to, he could get a mothership from the Empire at a small price, or even other types of battleships from the Empire.

So he didn't want to stop there.

He wanted more.

No matter how much the loss is, it doesn't matter.

Whether it is the Destroyer or the Stargate.

Moreover, if he had not insisted on using cruisers and motherships to fight head-on, he could even use many different methods to pull back the mechanical race.

At most, the Mechanic can take advantage of the initial attack to launch a surprise attack and destroy one or two Zerg fleets, but their motherships will never see a Zerg battleship.

But there are also advantages to being tough.

At least all the motherships used by the Mechanical Clan, except the Destroyer mothership, have been stained with the blood and flesh of the Zerg.

The Zerg's fearless fighting style allows them to easily get close enough to splash blood and flesh onto the armor of the Mechanical warships.

As long as Chen Ming wants, he can do more.

And these are just appetizers.

The main course hasn't even started yet.

After the mechanical clan launched a counterattack near the logistics area.

Their warp systems will be temporarily unavailable.

Chen Ming's Zerg fleet quickly assembled in a galaxy within the mechanical star field.

At present, Chen Ming has locked onto the movements of several motherships of the Mechanical Clan, and also knows that the Destroyer is still inside the galaxy where the star gate is located.

Therefore, in order to achieve its goal, it must first lure out the Destroyer mothership.

All the Zerg fleets were assembled and redistributed into eight Zerg fleets.

Each fleet had over half a million cruisers, totaling over four million.

This number is enough to crush any fleet.

But considering the existence of the Destroyer, which has a wide range of attack capabilities, and the density of the fleet when the number exceeds a certain level.

Chen Ming still chose to divide his troops and use the most reliable means to deal with the next matters.

The eight fleets that were separated alone already had the scale of all the Zerg forces that Chen Ming had launched in his last attack, enough to destroy any mechanical colony.

This time, with such power.

Chen Ming no longer needs to worry about anything else except the Destroyer.

There was only one thing he had to do.

Randomly select a few lucky mechanical colonies, drive the fleet to the face of the colonies, and attract the Destroyer mothership to dispatch.

However, Chen Ming still doesn't know where the mechanical clan's reinforcements are.

He had to be prepared for this.

If the external reinforcements also include something similar to the Destroyer, it is possible that they will cause terrible damage to his Zerg fleet in a short period of time.

After the Zerg fleet regrouped.

A huge leap began.

The eight fleets each locked onto a galaxy within the mechanical clan's logistics area and began their jump.

This time, Chen Ming’s goal is not to seize the technology of the mechanical race. He has already obtained enough technology from the mechanical colony he had captured before.

Continuing to seize colonies would only shorten the time it took for his mechanical race to develop.

And when it comes to achieving a greater goal, he can accept some necessary losses.

Moreover, although doing so would result in the loss of the mechanical colony, a new insect nest planet would also be acquired.

It’s not a big loss.

And just as Chen Ming's fleet was making the jump.

Of course, the mechanical race also detected those jump fluctuations.

They will definitely respond immediately

The logistics star field was destroyed, and their front line would inevitably be pushed all the way forward.

The mechanical race had some of its logistics galaxies destroyed by Chen Ming, and the star field defense force that could last for a few years could only last less than half of the previous time in front of the empire.

This was Bai Quan's personal answer when Chen Ming asked him how long the Mechanical Clan could last if it lost half of its logistical support.

And if this logistics area located in the resource-rich nebula area is completely destroyed.

The mechanical race will completely lose the sources of some important materials and most of the basic materials.

They might not even be able to launch a final, dying counterattack against the empire.

Therefore, the mechanical race soon became restless.

Chen Ming, who was at the edge of the stargate galaxy where the mothership was resting, quickly captured the stargate being activated and signs of mothership activity inside the galaxy with his remaining reconnaissance means.

However, any signs of activity from the mothership soon disappeared.

Chen clearly knew that this was the Mechanical Clan once again sending the mothership into the phase space.

Rely on the power of phase space to suppress the normal universe to prevent the Zerg from causing damage to the mothership from the normal universe environment.

This allows the mothership to focus on output without having to worry about being attacked.

Even after leaving the port, this Destroyer mothership showed no signs of assembling an escort fleet and just started the jump directly.

Anyway, the escort fleet will be killed by the Zerg fleet in the end, so there is no need to waste time fighting the Zerg.

The Destroyer mothership's jump wave soon appeared on the face of the Zerg fleet closest to the Stargate system.

Although the Zerg fleet here could not see the whereabouts of the mothership, Chen Ming could see the mothership that suddenly appeared in the phase space here. The energy dissipation light on its spine cannon destroyer seemed to be magnified to the limit and completely dissipated in the next moment.

Destruction was unleashed.

Chen Ming has tried his best to arrange the queen insects in a loose manner, but it is still difficult to disperse the number completely.

And at the moment of destruction, more than 500,000 Zerg cruisers were suddenly bitten by an invisible giant mouth, and one quarter of them melted in an instant.

The remaining Zerg cruisers quickly scattered, but still took the opportunity to concentrate their fire and destroy the colonies in the galaxy.

Destroying hundreds of thousands of cruisers without the protection of other battleships in an instant can be said to be a dimensionality reduction attack on any battleship of the same level.

According to Chen Ming's understanding, the empire currently does not have a mothership or main force weapon capable of doing this.

Although there are problems such as the Zerg fleet has no shields and cannot use shields to block psychic fluctuations, it is specifically restrained by the Destroyer, and because there are too many of them, the fleet formation is too dense in order to activate the colony.

But it is enough to show the horror of the Destroyer.

But this level is not enough for Chen Ming.

He only had a quarter of his fleet destroyed.

He also has seven fleets of the same size.

And at the moment when the Destroyer was dispatched, the seven fleets scattered in different galaxies also jumped together at the same time.

Jumped to the star system of the star gate that the Destroyer just left.

This time, Chen Ming didn't plan to go through too many twists and turns with the mechanical clan.

He was after just one word.

effectiveness.

The jump waves of millions of warships echoed throughout the entire Stargate galaxy.

The remaining traces of the jump almost completely disrupted the space within the entire galaxy.

Chen Ming suddenly discovered that the movements of the Zerg fleet unexpectedly interfered with the jump engines of all spaceships in the galaxy.

It's as if this place was originally an ocean.

When the sea is calm, the warship can float on it, or even use the force to leap onto the ocean and make a jump.

But when the ocean is turbulent, let alone jumping, it would be good enough if your system doesn't have any problems.

Such a huge aftermath will take at least half an hour to dissipate.

During this half hour, the Zerg fleet was unable to use the biomass jump engine to retreat.

But the Mechanic fleet has the same problem, and their reinforcements cannot arrive via jump.

Their only way to get reinforcements is inside the star gate that Chen Ming is targeting.

now.

All the Zerg warships rushed towards the star gate in the galaxy like mad dogs.

Just as Chen Ming's Zerg fleet arrived at the Stargate galaxy.

His Black Mist Zerg fleet, controlled by a Black Mist prosthesis, also engaged in a battle with the Mechanical Clan's fleet in the border star field.

The main body of the Black Mist Zerg fleet is outside the Mechanical Clan galaxy and has not been cleaned out by the Destroyer before. The Destroyer has mainly taken care of the logistics galaxy.

Therefore, when the Black Mist Zerg fleet assembled, its size was almost the same as the Zerg fleet assembled in the Logistics Star Field.

A Zerg hive can produce tens of thousands of cruisers in a week. If hundreds of planets are parasitized, that would mean millions of Zerg cruisers.

If it weren't for the fact that the Zerg in the logistics area could rely on the abundant resources of the planet to develop rapidly, Chen Ming even felt that there would be more Black Mist Zerg this time.

Having more Zerg is not a bad thing.

The Black Mist Zerg fleet was created to fit the character setting that Chen Ming initially gave to the Black Mist prosthesis.

After gathering, they continued to move towards the direction of the empire. On their way, there happened to be several mechanical star systems.

The Mechanical and Black Mist Zerg fleets collided again.

Last time, the mechanical clan had three motherships and a large number of matching mid- and low-level spaceships, and this time they have the same.

But this time, after the Zerg underwent an important evolution of the Queen and mastered the manufacturing method of new biological buildings, it possessed an even more terrifying reproduction rate and a larger Zerg fleet than before.

The Black Mist Zerg warships can do much more than before.

And in terms of combat effectiveness, these Zerg fleets that were given special care by Chen Ming and shrouded in a large amount of black fog were more powerful than ordinary Zerg fleets.

All the warships except the motherships in several galaxies on the border of the Mechanical Clan were destroyed in one encounter.

Even though the Zerg had an overall advantage in combat power due to forced exchange of battle damage, they suffered far greater losses than the Mechs.

But the Zerg's combat effectiveness did not show any obvious decline at all.

Instead, the mechanical clan only had three motherships left struggling to hold on.

Even though the mothership's main weapons left the Zerg cruisers with almost no means of counterattack and defense, the mothership was still somewhat unable to hold out when facing enemies that were not of the same order of magnitude.

The suppression between ship levels seemed to have lost its meaning.

Chen Ming felt terrified just by looking at the huge amount of energy and supplies being consumed and the swarm of Zerg cruisers that seemed to have no end in sight no matter how many they were killed or destroyed.

Although the mechanical race cannot sense terror, they can understand what inevitable failure means.

This scene at this moment was seen not only by Chen Ming and the mechanical clan.

Obviously, it will be discovered by the Empire.

Previously, when the Black Mist Zerg were releasing their eggs, the entire process was being monitored by the Empire's reconnaissance fleet.

Therefore, when the last battle between the Black Mist Zerg and the Mechanical Clan was paused.

The Empire has already quietly dispatched a fleet to drop reconnaissance devices.

Chen Ming knew the locations and functions of these detectors. As long as he could connect to the external communication device, he could send the information back to the empire as soon as possible.

So after dismantling a lot of them, he also deliberately left some holes for the Empire to release detectors, so that they could transmit the news of the Black Mist Zerg back as soon as possible.

After almost all the Black Mist Insect Nests have come out, the news should soon reach the hands of the relevant people.

The behavior of the Black Mist prosthesis and the terrifying number of Black Mist Zerg will surely make many people drop their jaws.

It can also expose some of An Wuping's abilities.

This will make the people of the empire indirectly wonder whether An Wuping also has such ability, and make more and more people focus on An Wuping rather than himself.

More and more people are paying attention to the existence of the black fog, leaving Zuo Jing, who is hiding in the dark, with nowhere to hide.

soon.

The firepower generated by the three motherships of the Mechanical Clan has gradually begun to become sparse.

The three motherships carry three types of spine gun bows: energy, bound energy, and plasma.

Each weapon can cause considerable damage to the Zerg after reaching the level of a main weapon.

But it doesn't make sense.

If you kill one Zerg, there will be another one. If you kill a group of Zerg, there will be another one.

Every cruiser destroyed meant more Zerg cruisers came pouring in.

Zerg ships can also capture the corpses of their dead peers during battle, relying on the corpses to gain stronger combat power in battle.

The other side in the battle almost never sees hope of victory.

The Zerg really lived up to the meaning of the word "Zerg tide" in the battle.

The three motherships suddenly stalled.

The Zerg fleet burst out with new power again, like a shark that smelled blood.

But unfortunately, this is not a sign that the mothership is about to be overwhelmed by the insect swarm.

Because just when the Zerg fleet was approaching in large numbers.

The three motherships launched another wave of fierce firepower in a short period of time, completely clearing out the surrounding Zerg.

The Mechanical Clan's mothership was just showing weakness, luring the Zerg fleet closer and making the Zerg fleet's formation more dense, so as to create greater results.

However, the three motherships seemed to have finally reached their limit, and after releasing this wave of firepower, they started their jump engines.

Taking advantage of the time when the Zerg warships were unable to get close, they disappeared into the galaxy, abandoning the message that they were coming to rescue.

Chen Ming has means to block the jump, but it can only target cruisers, and it is difficult to deploy, so he cannot stop the mothership from retreating now.

But at the same time, he also has the means to track jumps.

Even a battleship that can use multiple jump engines in a short period of time cannot escape the pursuit of Zerg cruisers.

Chen Ming immediately confirmed the direction of the mothership by analyzing the jump waves.

They leapt into the passage where the Empire, the Mechanical Race, and the Afterglow meet.

Chen Ming first made a simple calculation of the losses.

About four hundred thousand.

All we can say is that the number of fleets has increased. A thrown brick can hit more than a dozen Zerg cruisers, and the mothership's weapons have a high probability of hitting them when firing randomly.

The Zerg were not afraid of death and fought head-on, so the losses were indeed quite large.

But compared to the number of Zerg left, these losses are really not a problem.

After counting the losses, Chen Ming continued to order the Zerg fleet to initiate the jump and follow again.

However, at the moment when the Zerg fleet jumped and arrived.

The three motherships chose to start their jump engines again, and their jump waves were locked onto three different locations.

Chen Ming's expression suddenly changed.

Because one of the three coordinates is located in his hometown, the pirate space station galaxy.

A branch of the Legion, now on the front line of the war between the Mechanicus and the Empire, the galaxy where Baiquan is located.

Another mothership's jump destination was a galaxy in the Mechanical Star Territory that was captured by the Empire's subsequent reinforcements.

Chen Ming's face suddenly turned dark, not only because the Mechanical Clan chose to lead the Black Mist Zerg to the Empire, but also because of other reasons.

But he made no plans to change his plans.

Still let the Zerg fleet jump again, ready to catch up.

However, after giving this order, he did not continue to pay attention to the movements of the Black Mist Zerg.

He chose to focus on the Zerg that were attacking the Stargate system.

Because this is where the mechanical race will inevitably launch a crazy counterattack.

(End of this chapter)