Chapter 24: Brood war
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
After listening to lieutenant colonel Dundee’s explanation, Sheyan and Mogensha finally saw the light; no wonder the entire ‘P’ planet had such a peculiar conflict. Naturally when humans encountered arachnids, both parties would fight against each other. But without the presence of an alienated race, no matter humans nor arachnids; both were united in appearance but divided at heart. They all had their personal motivations for war, and constantly wrestled internally.
Mogensha abruptly interrupted.
“Then for every human base, they are all constructed on a Pandora ore mine?”
Dundee nodded.
“Even the arachnid bases are the same.”
Sheyan suddenly chipped in.
“What do the arachnids need these minerals for?’
Dundee choked and coughed violently, before speaking.
“Only with the aid of the ore’s internal energy can they survive and propagate. The Pandora crystal ores are akin to our daily bread and butter; moreover the arachnid’s hunted prey can only make up their salads and flavor seasonings.”
“Woah ohh. Hmmm, so these arachnids are thinking of using us ‘salads’ to help them search for more ‘bread’?” Mogensha interrupted.
“No.” Lieutenant colonel Dundee honestly replied. “This empire of ‘Blackthorns’ arachnids are extremely fortunate, they have already found their own heavenly banquet – an astonishing reserves of pandora mineral ores. Bluntly speaking, based on the sheer quantity only, it should be at a tenth of the entire ‘P’ planet reserves; adequate for these arachnids to harvest for another 10 years. When their Overmind frantically absorbed the energies to mature and even expanded the entire tribe, a disaster occurred. Three nearby covetous tribes sensed the impending threat and became green with jealousy. They banded together and launched a coalition against the Blackthorns tribe! Actually such actions according to the laws of the jungle, are exceedingly commonplace.”
“The ultimate conclusion of the battle was shocking. The Backthorns were infiltrated all the way into their core mother nest, with casualties immeasurable. However, by relying on the immense amounts of Pandora crystals for their indomitable regenerative capabilities, and an unending breeding stream of new foot soldiers; they managed to completely crush and laid waste to two of the enemy tribes! The two opposing tribe’s Overmind were taken and absorbed by the Blackthorn’s Overmind.”
“Overmind?” Mogensha asked curiously. “What’s that?”
Lieutenant Colonel Dundee earnestly replied.
“That is equivalent of the queen bee or the ant empress. Its capabilities is entirely devoted to controlling the entire arachnid tribe, its development and evolution direction and possessed an insanely formidable thought capability. Simply putting, it is the brains behind the entire arachnid tribe. The mother of the Blackthorns that guided us here is primarily in charge of breeding and some base functions. Of course, every arachnid tribe will only have 1 Overmind. If there is a second, the two Overminds would wrestle aggressively against each other, and break the entire tribe into two factions.”
Sheyan silently absorbed the information Dundee was pouring into them, he continued listening.
“After the Blackthorn’s Overmind had absorbed the enemy Overminds, it fell into advanced hibernation due to consumption overload. The final ‘Thick-liquid’ tribe seized the opportunity and amassed their remaining strength, initiating an all out skirmish against them! Because the Blackthorn tribe was still in the midst of restoring their defence, the Thick-liquid tribe managed to successfully infiltrate into the core zone; and kidnapping the hibernating Blackthorn Overmind. Hence, the entire tribe became like a dragon without its head, only capable of relying on its system defences to fend for itself.”
Authors note: (Some of you may be unsure of the capabilities of the Overmind. Citing an example, the mother of the Blackthorns would be the equivalent of the starcraft base nest while playing the game starcraft. Then the Overmind would be the equivalent of the human behind the computer, controlling the units in the game. If the player was captured, then the base’s self defensive mechanism would still be in effect. The established patrolling units/offensive commands that the players had set beforehand would still follow according to their latest orders. However, without the player they would become extremely inflexible.)
“For now, the Thick-liquid tribe would constantly breed out new forces daily to engage in wild assaults against this place; trying to find a weakness to capture and occupy this Pandora crystal ore mine. Moreover, the main function of the mother of Blackthorns is to reproduce and not to dictate the battle. Her mental powers are only adequate enough to mobilize only a third of the new forces for battle, and her tactics would be relatively rigid. Hence after discovering that we were locked in battle with the Thick-liquid tribe, she spared us but wished for our help against the Thick-liquid tribe! Furthermore, once the mother dies, then the Thick-liquid tribe can very easily control the entire area and buildings; our deaths would be guaranteed!”
“Wait!” Sheyan suddenly interrupted. “I have an important question. Where is the Overmind of the Blackthorns? I noticed you saying it was kidnapped but not killed.”
Lieutenant Colonel Dundee was slightly startled. “That I don’t know, but i can confirm it was taken.”
At this moment, a throb emerged within everyone’s thoughts, followed the voice of the mother of the Blackthorns.
《Mozi is still alive. After swallowing the two Overminds, it has successfully attained the basic requirements of evolving to a ‘Dark Iron Lord’ rank! Even if it doesn’t evolve successfully, its power is at least 2-3 folds of the Thick-liquid Overmind. An absorption between Overminds isn’t like what you think, ravaging the physical body; but it is absorbing its level of mental energies. The Thick-liquid Overmind wouldn’t kill it, instead it will do its utmost to protect Mozi’s body. That weak bug will surely enslave Mozi, and slowly drain its mental force; before using its brainwaves to slowly attempt to absorb the mentally exhausted Mozi. Because the disparity between their mental force is so wide, the entire process will definitely persist for above 120 hours》
Sheyan calculated in flash. That means that Overmind, Mozi, can still endure for another 2-3 days… His thought process started to swiftly churn up.
Suddenly, an unexplainable gloomy sound terrorized the entire base. Its sound was like the rumbling of an aeroplane as it ascended into the sky. The ten over survivals leapt up in shocked, swiftly grabbing their weapons as they starting putting on their battle armour; obviously preparing for combat. Even though they hadn’t recovered from their injuries, their movements were extremely nimble. Mogensha was a little stunned.
“What, a battle?”
“Gogogogogo! Lieutenant Colonel Dundee shouted towards the soldiers as he equipped on his battle armour, as well as his C-14 Impaler Gauss rifle. “Lads, you guys take a rest. We will be back after wrecking havoc to those scum arachnids.”
Mogensha was about to suggest something; but several enormous elite zerglings appeared, and swiftly but fiercely mixed within the bunch of humans as they ferociously charged away. Mogensha didn’t even have the time to say anything, he only glanced towards Sheyan.
“What should we do now?!”
Sheyan instantly ordered.
“Obviously we have to follow, at least Dundee mustn’t die at all cost. If we can receive a mission from him, then at least we wouldn’t have to worry about being expelled from this world if the other side is exterminated.”
The pair swiftly raced after the rest. On the way, they witnessed numerous amounts of prune colored organism structures (or organs). The shortest was as tall as 2-3 storeys, evil and monstrous; covered with thick arms of veins and arteries at the top. It was secreting various kinds of gooey fluids, emitting growling and hooting sounds. The atmosphere was drenched with a peculiar smell.
Within them, the largest core structure was the place where humans hailed as the ‘Mother nest’. Its exterior was like a majestic and towering flesh hill, as tall as 5-6 floors; occupying 1 kilometre. Its surface was covered with ridiculously thick prune colored veins. Several hundreds of table-sized mauve colored, 6 legged beetles were excavating a nearby rocky hill; before gathering its stored crystals as they repeatedly travelled to-and-fro from the mother nest and the hill.
The beetles had a unique mouth system. Firstly spraying acidic fluids to dissolve the solid rocks, before using its teeth to chip at the rocks; finally collecting the excavated crystals. Apart from that, amongst the crystal was another resource called ‘Vespene gas’, a yellow-greenish substance that was also harvested by them. This things were not like the crystals to the arachnids, it wasn’t an essential mineral to survive; but was a crucial element for them to morph into advanced units. According to Sheyan’s knowledge, these beetles were the production units of the arachnids known as ‘Drones’. Their offensive capabilities were weak, but their importance was ranked above all armed units.
The surroundings of the mother nest was distributed by 7-8 gigantic ‘lairs’. The lairs had roughly the same composition as the mother nest, except for its smaller volume and inferior capabilities. They had only 1 function, and that was to breed larvas. These things were like the embryos that the mother nest could pour hormones and energy into it, morphing out various kind of military arachnids. After the mother nest is destroyed and with a substantial period of maturing, the lairs can be used to replace the mother nest’s capabilities. Normally, the mother nest would be able to produce 15 larvas, while the ordinary lair could only produce approximately 5.
The intense battle signal was released from a place not far from the mother nest. As the Sheyan and the rest sprinted to the front, they witnessed incredible amounts arachnid units idling lifelessly where they stood. They couldn’t sense the intense battle that was erupting at most 500 metres away, an evidence of the missing Overmind.