The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 345: Detection and Attack

Dikla Star, the underground world.

Previously, the cave occupied by the giant creature had been completely occupied by fungal mat tissue and various organ modules based on the fungal mat tissue. Under the excavation of the tunnel worms, another transport pipeline extended directly from the previous mother nest group in the rear, transporting a large amount of nutrients from the surface and even space.

At the temporary forward base on the surface world, from time to time, the huge bodies of pioneering star scorpions would enter from outside the atmosphere with blazing tail flames, fully loaded with nutrients and various special minerals from space, and land on the fungal blanket tissue layer, quickly dissolving themselves, and the nutrients were absorbed by the nearby fungal blanket tissue.

In the Tianyuan IV system, the asteroid belt and some other barren rocky terrestrial planets have basically realized the complete coverage of fungal carpet tissue and the transportation structure composed of large electromagnetic launch orbits, which can produce star scorpions.

Although it is not as terrifying as the production capacity of Gondwana and other planets that have the conditions to build a large number of space elevators and use new egg-clip pupal sacs as the main star scorpion breeding bases for dock production, it is still easy to produce a few pioneering star scorpions occasionally and transport nutrients to Tianyuan IV nearby.

The fusion fuel and propulsion fluid in these pioneering star scorpions are basically the minimum reserves, and the remaining space is all concentrated nutrients based on special high-efficiency energy-conversion microorganisms, which is a considerable amount for the grade of the planet.

These amazing nutrients are basically used for the current carpet search of the underground world and to deal with possible battles. A large number of individuals of varying sizes are produced and patrolling around, looking for any suspicious signs.

Previously, after the tunnel worm appeared, the opponent simply gave up on the huge tentacle and threw it away. The back half was completely dissolved, cutting off the possibility of following the clues and continuing exploration.

But this did not affect anything - a large number of tunnel worms emerged from the cave in the underground world that was originally occupied by the giant tentacle, and quickly dug out passages and moved towards the rest of the radiation zones around it.

Gastrocysts and tunnel worms are giant planetary species that only appeared in the fusion era. In the initial era of nest hegemony, each of them was a super monster that even the "Kraken" and leafclaw worms could only look up to. With the productivity of the original nest, the cost of hatching one was staggering.

However, now, the terrifying productivity brought by the fungal mat organization that uses the heat energy generated by fusion reactions and the inexhaustible inorganic substances from various barren planets for autotrophic synthesis has made such costs insignificant, allowing these two super-large grades to be mass-produced as before, just like the production of soldiers and workers.

Of the two, the Gastrocysts serve as the main means of transportation in open spaces within dense atmospheres, while the Tunnel Worms are responsible for rapid excavation and transportation in narrow underground spaces. Moreover, their design concepts make them both multi-purpose large-scale platforms within nest planets, and these functions are just one of them.

If necessary, the gastrocysts can also be equipped with a heavy exoskeleton layer and various offensive symbiont levels to become a hive version of the Ezki armored gunship. Although the tunnel worm is currently considered a semi-emergency product and its functions are not perfect, its structure is strong enough to perform some attack tasks.

During this period of time, more than a hundred tunnel worms have escaped into the rock strata of the underground world and spread out to search. Their special echolocation systems that can transmit and locate in the rock strata are operating at full capacity, looking for holes in the strata.

According to the location of the enemy's nests discovered so far, it is speculated that the enemy's stationing location is based on various small caves in the underground world's strata, which cannot be hidden in the echolocation system for the rock environment. Of course, the environment of the underground world makes such structures absolutely not rare, and not all caves may have traces of the enemy. These tunnel worms must have certain auxiliary sensory means to confirm the specific situation.

The positioning of tunnel worms determines that they do not need to install visual senses. They mainly perceive through the echolocation system. In other cases, they can use the characteristics of spatial synapses to locate or directly share the vision of individuals of other levels.

However, this batch of tunnel worms required more detailed observation, so Lin Yi made a few improvements to them so that they could also use their visual organs for perception under certain circumstances.

The huge worm-like shape of the tunnel worm, which resembles a tunnel boring machine, means there is no space in the front of its head to install compound eyes. Installing them on the side of the body will not only limit the field of vision, but also affect excavation and drilling, which is not worth the cost.

Therefore, Lin Yi improved a series of tissues below the open scale-like structure on the original head or neck of the tunnel worm, which was connected to the sac-like structure below. He folded a pair of compound eyes similar to those of Anomalocaris on the eyestalks under the huge scaly armor plates, and stretched them out when drilling out of the ground to observe the surroundings.

The eyestalk-type compound eye structure has a wide field of view, but it is still not completely sufficient. However, this is not a big deal. If a compound eye directly connected to an individual is not enough, let other individuals become its compound eyes.

The sac structures connected to the rear of some other scale-like structures can accommodate some small ancient web-winged flying insects, all of which are reconnaissance insects. After all, compared with the destructive power of the tunnel worms themselves, the power of the suicidal ancient web-winged flying insects is not enough, and the task of the spore-sprinkling insects can also be completed by the tunnel worms themselves.

A series of structures allow the tunnel worm to have a certain reconnaissance capability in the underground world, and is sufficient to achieve integrated detection and attack. As long as a target is found, it will attack without giving the opponent any time to react.

At this time, Lin Yi had already discovered the exact location of the enemy's nest, but it was not discovered by the tunnel worms, but by the reconnaissance-type ancient web-winged flying insects that found it after discovering the traces of the pursuer.

This time, the ancient web-winged flying insects approached very carefully. Lin Yi was not sure whether the other party was alert or not, but now, a large number of tunnel worms have surrounded this place in a position where the other party cannot clearly feel the vibration, and have built a mother nest underground to store nutrients.

In short, after confirming through various means that the inside was indeed another lair of the enemy, Lin Yi did not launch an attack immediately, but waited for a series of things - including his own grade individuals and some other objects - to be in place, preparing to make this action have some additional effects.

He was prepared to use this enemy's nest to prove something - across the distance of astronomical units, in the spatial synaptic structure, segments of nerve signals quickly traveled back and forth, then converted into radio signals and transmitted forward.

(End of this chapter)