My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 31.1

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟏: 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 (1)

Crimson Dwarf Star System, Planet 5: A rocky planet with a thin atmosphere and no oceans, it is home to the colony of Berne, the largest swarm of chimeraz.

In the dark, navy-blue sky without a single cloud, a rare spark occasionally burst forth.

And then the sky opened.

𝘒𝘶𝘢𝘢𝘢𝘢𝘩!

Hundreds of large and small cruisers entered the orbit, looking like a meteor shower.

The chimeraz growling on the ground rushed toward the landing point of the cruisers.

‘𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵.’

With a huge structure and a brain larger than 50 meters, Berne is a living being. Berne’s huge brain was designed so that Berne could control its vast swarm.

‘𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘶𝘱.’

—𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥. . . 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

‘𝘊𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩’𝘴 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮?’

—𝐏𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡’𝐬 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫. . . 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝟑. . .

‘𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.’

—𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝. . . 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞. . .

‘𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥.’

However, the sky opening up in battle meant disadvantage on the ground.

The orbital bombardment fell on the heads of the chimeraz swarm that had gone out to attack the cruiser force. The force of the bombardment was so powerful that it could not be withstood even by the underground Skeletunnel, and it flipped the ground over along with the flesh of the chimeraz.

Berne was amazed.

‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳.’

After the orbital bombardment had massacred the swarm once, the smoke cleared, and from the changed terrain emerged the human army.

“Charge!”

Darwin Foundation’s marines were fully sealed battle suits equipped with boosters and armed with high-powered plasma guns.

They advanced into Berne’s colony territory, overpowering the remnants of the chimeraz swarm that had been swept away by the orbital bombardment with their firepower.

At that moment, Berne felt the humans stepping on the Xenotera.

‘𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.’

𝘒𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘬. . .!

The Pukers that had been hiding underground raised their heads and sprayed powerful digestive fluid. At the same time, the Hounz and Kabana swarms that had been hiding in nearby nests charged, and the Tritulas got into formation and fired their bone darts in unison.

It was Berne’s strategy to overwhelm the enemy all at once, hold them back with a long-range attack, and then send in assault-type chimeraz to push the front lines.

𝘑𝘪𝘪𝘪𝘪𝘪𝘪𝘯𝘨. . .

However, the Tritula’s bone darts and the Puker’s digestive fluid were blocked by the energy barrier they had deployed.

The bone darts, which had collided with the translucent man-made particles of the energy barrier that had been deployed like a wall, dropped like they had really hit a wall, and the digestive fluid also flowed down the energy barrier pointlessly.

“Revenge of the engineering research team. . .!”

“Filthy bugs!”

“Wipe them all out! These monsters killed Staff Sergeant Eric!”

They used plasma guns immediately after deactivating the energy barrier.

Fired and hitting at the same time, the energy-based weapons heated the surrounding air explosively along their trajectory and made the targets explode from the heat.

𝘗𝘰𝘱, 𝘱𝘰𝘱, 𝘱𝘰𝘱, 𝘱𝘰𝘱, 𝘱𝘰𝘱!

The Hounz swarm running at the forefront was swept away, and even the Kabana swarm, which boasted great weight and strength, had their heads burst or front legs severed and fell to the ground just as they were running.

The swarm that managed to penetrate the firepower and approach right before the humans’ noses ended up dying from the drone clusters controlled by brainwaves or the jumping landmines of the blasters.

It was literally a massacre.

The marines that had been deployed to the front secured the landing point and expanded the front lines.

In the meantime, even as the ground battle was taking place, the fleet battle was still ongoing.

Eleven Lemegetons were in orbit, and hundreds of Cresecters coming out of each Lemegeton were firing balls of plasma from their behinds.

In response, Darwin Foundation’s fleet also sent out hundreds of interceptors. Rather than the plasma balls of the Cresecters, which were mere living organisms, the ship-based aircraft equipped with sophisticated target tracking and aiming systems built into their tactical AI gained the upper hand in the battle.

𝘒𝘶𝘯𝘨. . . 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥. . .

Even though there was an explosion in space, it was a battlefield with no sound. However, with the flares and explosions of the projectiles and missiles flashing here and there, this space seemed noisier than the ground.

In terms of numbers, the Cresecters had almost twice as many, but the exchange rate of forces was much more favorable to the ship-based aircraft.

The Lemegeton swarms that engaged in the fleet battle were chimeraz that had been completely born by Kreion. Two of them had evolved into battleships that used pure main guns instead of being ships that carried Cresecters.

𝘡𝘻𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘨. . .

The two Lemegetons opened their toothless gums wide vertically. The humans watching this must have thought that monsters would pop out of there again.

However, what was in the mouths of the two of them was neither countless Cresecters nor makeshift colonys.

What was in them were ‘tongues.’

They were tongues that emitted an unstable green light, like the behinds of Cresecters. There was an empty hole at the tip of the tongue, making it look like it was about to spit something out.

The two Lemegetons stretched out their tongues toward the enemy ships. That was the gun barrel and the muzzle.

They poured out the crimson explosion from their bodies through all the nozzles, as if they were holding an enormous amount of energy. At the same time, a sizzling purple beam of light from the hole in the tongue pierced through two of Darwin Foundation’s ships and extended somewhere into the dark nebula.

𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦. . .!

The incredible firepower fired by the living beings caused temporary communication failure and loss of the energy shield on Darwin’s fleet.

However, the communication failure was restored after 4 seconds, and the ships that made up the fleet adopted a more aggressive method instead of the energy shield.

The fleet commander on the flagship announced from the bridge.

“A thousand people just died from that.”

The energy shield, or the technology called a shield, indiscriminately blocks attacks from both friendly and enemy forces.

Nevertheless, since the ships that launch a large number of ship-based aircraft are the ones that need to be protected as a top priority in a fleet battle, the ships waited with their shields deployed, sending out only the ship-based aircraft.

“All ships. Redirect all engine output to the guns. The shields are useless.”

The Lemegeton’s attack just now had proven that it could disable the shields and directly hit the ships. This meant that the fleet no longer needed to be defensive.

“Main gun usage is now authorized.”

From that moment on, the fleet battle began to flow uncontrollaby. The Cresecter swarm, which had been at a disadvantage even against the ship-based aircraft formation, was now in a worse situation with the enemy ships directly participating in the battle.

Countless guns mounted on the ships fired powerful lasers and armor-piercing rounds, and accurately predicted shots blew up the Cresecters.

Following that, some ships revealed the deadly gun barrels of their retractable weapons and demonstrated the power of their main guns.

In the fleet battle that had become pure firepower without defense, the Lemegetons were destroyed one by one helplessly.

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