bestfiction #145 - A battle between one-man armies
#145 - A battle between one-man armies
Anyone who has participated in cold trade knows that there are two cold trade groups in the Misty Starfield that the Empire Enforcement Department can never completely eliminate.
One is the Orne Group, formed by the Orne people, famous for their cockroach-like reproductive ability and abuse of accelerated hormones.
The other is the Black Scythe Group, which started with the transformation techniques of the Arsians.
Not long ago, under the guidance of the Lord, the Black Scythe successfully obtained the long-awaited strain and actively infected Ak-Haires.
Thanks to the Lord's grace, the Black Scythe Group still maintained its self-awareness after being parasitized by the fungal alien known as the Bone Drinker.
They did not become slaves of the Bone Drinkers and had absolute control over their bodies.
Moreover, they also gained a great deal of knowledge and powerful abilities from the Bone Drinkers.
Now, the Black Scythe Group can not only change their bodies and biological characteristics at any time using the Arsians' transformation abilities, but also achieve interstellar communication through the Bone Drinkers' mental network.
Using the Bone Drinkers' parasitic spores to control mortals has also become a secret skill of the Black Scythe Group.
Niedlewen XV was implanted with parasitic spores by Black Scythe 1, and since then became a slave of the Black Scythe Group.
The Lord taught Black Scythe 1 a psionic ritual.
He held this ritual in a closed room, helping Niedlewen XV quickly get through the initial stages of infection.
The infection process, which originally took 24 hours to complete, was compressed to only half an hour.
When Niedlewen XV walked out of the reception room, his every move was exactly the same as usual, but his consciousness and soul had been completely controlled by Black Scythe 1.
Niedlewen XV led his son to the Governor's office and relinquished control of the Thinker.
Black Scythe 1 could freely use the power of the Sector Governor.
He opened the database interface and entered a string of spatial coordinates.
About five months ago, under the guidance of the Lord, the Black Scythe Group looted a planet with a primitive civilization, and obtained parasitic spores, gene editing equipment, and breeding machines from the Bone Drinker's vault on it.
It was this looting and massacre that attracted the attention of the Empire Enforcement Department, leading to nearly two months of hiding.
A few days ago, the Orne Group also discovered a planet with a primitive civilization.
After hearing the news, Black Scythe 1 bribed two Ornes to act as his eyes and ears, closely monitoring the situation on that planet to see if there was also a Bone Drinker's vault.
Black Scythe 1 was lucky, and a Bone Drinker's vault also appeared on that planet.
Praise the Lord, this must be a gift from the Lord.
The spatial coordinates that Black Scythe 1 entered at this time came from a spy he had personally placed in the Orne Group's raiding fleet.
The pixel blocks on the screen flashed rapidly, and the Thinker found the corresponding location in the Human Empire's territory based on the spatial coordinates.
On the plane map of the Milky Way, in the northeastern corner of the Misty Starfield, the outermost area that the light of the Star Beacon could reach, there was an area called the Midlark Expansion Zone.
The light of the Star Beacon flickered there, and the Midlark Expansion Zone often lost contact with the Empire, so it has not yet been officially incorporated into the Empire's territory.
The planet that Black Scythe 1 wanted to find was in this expansion zone.
There was a Bone Drinker's vault buried deep underground on that planet, which contained a very precious Bone Drinker breeding machine.
Black Scythe 1 had one such machine in his hands, and now he planned to obtain a second one.
"Look here, this is that planet, the breeding machine is on it."
Black Scythe 1 pointed to a small white dot on the screen, asking Niedlewen XV to take a closer look:
"Arrange for an armed merchant ship team to set off with my raiding fleet, taking the shortest route. We must grab the machine before the Orks dismantle it. Understand?"
Niedlewen XV had become Black Scythe 1's slave, codenamed Black Scythe 15.
The two could have communicated through the Bone Drinkers' mental network, but Black Scythe 1 liked the feeling of ordering the Sector Governor around, so he chose to order the other party in a more primitive way.
Niedlewen leaned closer to check the planet's code on the screen, recorded it on a data pad, and bowed respectfully to Black Scythe 1:
"Yes, sir. I will arrange for five armed freighters to cooperate with your operation. Rest assured, the navigators on the freighters are all trained by the Niedlewen family, even if I set the destination in the border area of the Empire, they will not disobey my orders."
Black Scythe 1 sat in the Governor's chair, placed his feet on the ebony desk, and said, shaking his ankles:
"Your five armed freighters must also participate in the battle, and everyone on board must be infected with the Bone Drinkers' parasitic spores. You have no objections, do you? Governor."
"Of course not, it is my humble insect's lifelong honor to serve you, sir."
Niedlewen bowed deeply, his face full of obedience, with no trace of the Sector Governor's inherent arrogance.
"Very good, Black Scythe 15. Call your lovers in one by one. I've long heard about the tricks you governors play, and today I must broaden my horizons."
"As you wish, sir. It will be our honor."
Niedlewen's lovers entered the Governor's office one by one, and a series of terrified screams echoed in the closed room, as if something terrifying was happening.
At the same time.
The armed freighters arranged by Niedlewen met with the Black Scythe's raiding fleet.
The two fleets had a minor conflict.
There were secret agents arranged by the Empire Enforcement Department among the crew of the armed freighters.
After discovering that they were being forced to infect some kind of strain, the secret agents united to launch a rebellion, inciting the freighter crew to riot, so that they could take the opportunity to sneak into the shuttle and escape the armed freighter.
The raiding fleet used bloody means to suppress the riot, captured the secret agents of the Empire Enforcement Department, and brought them back to the ship.
In the subsequent parasitic spore implantation process, some Enforcement Department secret agents who were hiding very deeply and did not participate in the riot were ferreted out.
What ferreted out these secret agents was the characteristic of the Bone Drinkers—Gestalt.
All those who are completely parasitized by spores have their memories and knowledge inserted into the Bone Drinkers' mental network, allowing all individuals in the network to share them, commonly known as the brain network.
Each individual will have all the memories and knowledge of all members, the individual is the whole, and the whole is the individual, which is the most significant feature of Gestalt civilization.
The parasitic spores infecting the crew were modified by Black Scythe 1's psionic energy, carrying the Lord's power.
Ordinary parasitic spores would share the infected person's knowledge and memories with all other Bone Drinkers.
The parasitic spores modified by Black Scythe 1 with psionic energy were different.
When an infected person joins the mental network, their knowledge and memories will only be known to Black Scythe 1, and other members have no right to know.
The control of the infected person is also solely in the hands of Black Scythe 1 and will not be contaminated by other members.
After the secret agents of the Empire Enforcement Department were completely parasitized, all the information they received from the Enforcement Department, their life experiences, the information of their wives and children, their contact information with their superiors, etc., all entered Black Scythe 1's mind.
Such terrifying information gathering ability and group control power all depend on the parasitic spores blessed by the Lord.
It is hard to imagine what Niedlewen Sector would become when tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions of parasitic spores are widely sown.
For Black Scythe 1, it is by no means a luxury to become an army by himself.
After a long time, the fleet's riot subsided and officially set off for the Midlark Expansion Zone.
Inside the Sector Governor's office, the screams gradually subsided, the expensive carpet was stained scarlet, and the scene was ravaged.
As an Arsian, Black Scythe 1 liked the soft mud-like body, which brought him an almost morbid desire for torture.
At this time, Black Scythe 1 was lying on the sofa in a bathrobe, with a look of contentment and enjoyment.
"Black Scythe 15, before the breeding machine arrives, I want you to use the parasitic spores I gave you to infect everyone who can directly contact you, and also prepare a space workshop to replicate the breeding machine."
"Yes, sir, I will prepare a space workshop for replicating the breeding machine as soon as possible. But there is one thing that you must know."
Niedlewen knelt on the ground:
"My lord, those who can directly contact me include a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. His name is Morg. I'm afraid I can't parasitize him because he's an alien physiologist."
Hearing the title "alien physiologist," a hint of fear flashed across Black Talon 1's face.
Before the Nidelaven Sector was incorporated into the Imperial territory, there were a large number of alien civilizations.
After these alien civilizations were destroyed, they left behind immeasurable alien legacies.
The Adeptus Mechanicus is very interested in this and has assigned a group of Tech-Priests in the field of alien biological research to be stationed here permanently.
Nidelaven XV himself is also very interested in aliens and alien creations.
He collects aliens through the Black Talon Group and the Guards, secretly playing with them under the noses of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a tense and exciting endeavor that he never tires of.
Because of this, Black Talon 1 understood Nidelaven very well, and after careful planning, he transformed him into a servant.
Now, the problem facing Black Talon 1 is how to deal with the Tech-Priest named Morg.
This guy is specifically responsible for contacting Nidelaven XV, and the two often communicate through the internal network and occasionally meet.
A meeting is bound to reveal flaws.
It is impossible for the strains in Black Talon 15's body to avoid Morg's alien biological scanner.
"Listen carefully, you and Morg must not meet within three months. When the expansion area's breeding machine is delivered to you, you must do your best to imitate the machine and spread the parasitic spores, and strive to infect 10% of the population in the sector within these three months. By then, even if the Mechanicus scum discover the existence of the Bone Drinkers, they will not be able to stop this feast."
"As you command, my lord."
The Sector Governor's obedient appearance pleased Black Talon 1.
It's a pity that he still has other breeding machines to acquire and doesn't have time to enjoy the Sector Governor's good life here for the time being.
The first breeding machine obtained by Black Talon 1 was placed on his own territory, producing parasitic spores day and night, infecting the Arxians.
The upcoming second one is specifically for infecting the humans of the Nidelaven Sector.
The subsequent third, fourth, and fifth ones all have their own infection targets.
Before the Adeptus Mechanicus discovers the traces of the Bone Drinkers, the Bone Drinker plague must be spread as much as possible, and there must be no slackening.
"Alright, Black Talon 15, I'll leave by ship now, and you will still be the Governor of this sector." Black Talon 1 stood up, put on his clothes, and walked towards the door.
"You are welcome to visit me here at any time." Nidelaven followed behind Black Talon 1 like a lapdog.
Black Talon 1 stopped, looked at the stardust outside the colorful floor-to-ceiling windows, and asked:
"How long will it take for the fleet to reach that planet?"
"My lord, thanks to the protection of my lord, the warp route is smooth all the way. At most 18 Terran days, the fleet will be able to reach there."
"Good, I know, I will personally command the fleet to fight the Orks and take down that machine in one fell swoop."
The Lord taught Black Talon 1 a mysterious psychic ritual.
Relying on this ritual, Black Talon 1 can control tens of thousands of Bone Drinkers to fight for him at the same time, becoming an army all by himself.
...
...
13 days later.
5 p.m. Terra time.
Li Nuo came out of the private laboratory with a faint smile on his lips.
The gene recombination experiment was successful.
He fused the genes of the Orks and the Mudmen to create Kommandos that can transform.
Kommandos are Orks who specialize in infiltration, sabotage, and espionage. They are smaller in size and weaker than ordinary Ork Boyz, but they are light and agile.
The reproductive spores separated from these Orks, after Li Nuo's deep modification, fused with the Mudmen's transformation ability.
Isn't the Alpha Legion good at disguise?
Okay, everyone, the preparation plan for the Alpha Ork Legion has taken a big step forward.
From today onwards, Orks can also have the ability to transform.
After dinner, Li Nuo couldn't wait to log on to the "account" in space in the bedroom.
In the past 13 days, the clan's population has achieved rapid growth with the "Growth Spirit", and has now reached a level of 30,000 people.
This only counts Orks, not Gretchin and Squigs.
Counting everyone who can breathe, the total number of the Space Beast Clan may exceed 40,000.
With so many Orks and Gretchin, it is of course impossible for them all to squeeze into the cave outside the vault.
Under Li Nuo's careful arrangement, 30,000 Orks were divided into 10 Ork companies, surrounding the vault and digging new underground caves.
Each underground cave is arranged with 1 Ork company, scattered and laid out to avoid being wiped out by the enemy.
There are secret passages in each cave, connected to the cave complex where the vault is located.
The Orks are fully armed, carrying heavy firepower weapons, consolidating fortifications in their respective caves, ensuring that each cave can resist strong acid, poisonous gas, liquid fire, collapse, and explosion.
When necessary, 30,000 Orks can collectively return to defense.
The latest novel is first published on Liu9 Shu Ba!
The Space Beast's First Company is the most elite, with the Beast serving as the company commander, and the remaining companies are commanded by Ork bodyguards.
Little Creek's primitive revenge team is defined as an auxiliary mortal army, following the First Company to spray alchemical potions.
After Li Nuo "went online", he went straight to the breeding machine.
His research task tonight is to find a way to perfectly hide the Kommando in the breeding machine.
This requires the use of various Ork witchcrafts such as "Moe's Black Hair" and "Moe's Quietly".
The Kommando will arrive at the Bone Drinkers' territory with the machine.
Li Nuo only needs to find out the location of the Bone Drinkers' lair through the Kommando to circle out the Bone Drinkers' activity range and the main infected population.
In this way, his own hive can be effectively prevented from being infiltrated by the Bone Drinkers.
Time passed quickly in the research, and it soon came to the second half of the day.
Just as Li Nuo stuffed the Kommando into the machine, the noisy box on his waist transmitted the Beast's voice.
"Boss! There's a reaction in the warp. A fleet is approaching our planet from the warp! Come and take a look at the star chart!"
"Okay, I'll go over there."
A fleet is approaching the planet. Could it be the Bone Drinkers' fleet?
Li Nuo told the Kommando to hide well in the machine, turned around, ran wildly, and rushed into the cave where the First Company was located.
In the center of the cave are the Finder and the Dot Map.
These two devices were built by Li Nuo himself, all of which are the highest specifications under the current production conditions.
The Dot Map projects a holographic image 1.5 meters above the ground, depicting the fleet's situation with a virtual pixel dot matrix map.
A fleet is sailing in the warp, and it is currently unclear how many ships are in the fleet.
The warp observation image of the ship is a large mass of dark red color blocks, which represents non-Ork life forms in the Ork star chart.
15 minutes later, the Dot Map issued a warning sound of the warp entrance opening and closing.
The Dot Map's screen automatically switched from the warp observation map to the star remote sensing map.
1200 kilometers away from the planet, eleven ships sailed out of the warp entrance.
Six of them are Raider ships of unknown origin.
They are modified from Sword-class frigates, solid, heavy, and have void shields. The original laser turret array has been removed and replaced with missile launchers that can be used for air-to-ground.
Five are armed cargo ships, the specific model is unknown. It looks like the cargo holds on the outside of the transport ship's sides have been removed, and missile launchers have been installed, and there are no void shields.
It is worth noting that there is a huge spray paint on the armed cargo ship, which reads "Nidelaven Sector - No. 65 Armed Freight Formation".
Li Nuo was stunned when he saw these words, feeling that his head was a little down.
What's the situation?
The armed cargo ship in the Nidelaven Sector was hijacked by the Raider fleet?
"Beast, pass the order, let all companies prepare for battle, stand by in place, and do not leave the underground area."
"Yes, Boss!" The Beast picked up the noisy box and conveyed the order wowing.
On the holographic image, eleven ships arrived at the uppermost layer of near-Earth orbit, flying directly above the vault.
The Dongdong Detector detected an increase in electromagnetic signals above the planet, indicating that the Auger matrix on the ships was scanning the planet.
Due to the low level of the ships, their Auger matrix performance was limited, with both scanning range and penetration far inferior to that of cruisers.
In the human empire's ship system, only cruisers and higher-level ships have the ability to scan the entire planet, but even they can only penetrate about one hundred meters of soil. Encountering rock layers or mineral veins will greatly reduce penetration.
The Bone Drinker's Vault and the caves that Lino had the orcs excavate were very deep, about five hundred meters below the surface, far beyond the scanning depth of these eleven ships.
As expected, the ships failed to discover the orcs hidden deep underground, and Lino's Dongdong Detector did not issue any alerts about being scanned by the Auger matrix.
To prevent ambushes underground, the fleet sent personnel in shuttles to observe the cave entrance at close range on the ground.
Lino pressed the switch button on the Dongdong Detector.
The holographic image switched from the star map to a monitoring view, showing the scene near the cave entrance.
Four shuttles landed, and about two hundred shrimp soldiers came out.
They were wearing plastic bulletproof armor and holding laser rifles and automatic pistols.
Judging from their appearance and build, they were indeed consistent with the human empire.
"Boss, this time the enemy is shrimp soldiers, I thought it would be purple skins." Beast pointed to a corner of the holographic image, "Those unlucky guys are about to step into the minefield."
The area within a three-kilometer radius around the cave entrance was a minefield, with mines randomly distributed, depending entirely on the Gretchin's preferences. Some places had dense mines, while others were sparse, all about randomness.
Ten shrimp soldiers rashly entered the minefield, and explosions soon erupted from within.
At this moment, a strange scene appeared.
The shrimp soldiers landing on the ground were not equipped with communication equipment, no tactical headsets, no communication backpacks, and even the Dongdong Detector did not show any extra communication signals.
Yet, they all gathered in an orderly manner towards the explosion site, without any verbal or eye contact from beginning to end.
This phenomenon was very abnormal.
Beast didn't notice it, but Lino would never miss it.
"These shrimp soldiers have a problem."
Lino said in a deep voice:
"The highest-level single-soldier communication device for shrimp soldiers is the communication rosary. It can achieve encrypted communication, making the communication signals difficult for our Dongdong Detector to detect. But this thing is very expensive, and these shrimp soldiers are just grunts, so they can't possibly be qualified to equip communication rosaries. But look, they didn't even conduct basic communication, and they alternated covering each other to go to the explosion site. Do you know what this means?"
Beast knew the characteristics of the Bone Drinkers, and after a little thought, he understood:
"Boss, I understand. These shrimp soldiers are parasitized by the Bone Drinkers. They are all infected, and they communicate only through the mental network, without speaking or using sign language at all."
"That's right." Lino nodded and ordered:
"Have each company check the traps in the tunnel and, after confirming that everything is ready, enter a state of silence. Whoever dares to make noise for me, I will kick his ass. Once you find the enemy passing through the traps, open fire immediately."
"Yes, Boss." Beast picked up the noisy box and conveyed Lino's order in a low voice.
In a short while, the communication signals on the Dongdong Detector disappeared one after another, and the communication network in the underground area was silent, with no extra sound at all.
When the orcs become disciplined, they will show extremely terrifying cohesion and action, which is the huge transformation brought about by genetic editing.
Time passed as the shrimp soldiers continued to step on mines.
Within half an hour, more than a thousand shrimp soldiers were killed by landmines.
From this, it is not difficult to see that the shrimp soldiers in front of them lacked large-scale team battle experience.
Very, very lacking.
Lino even suspected that this group of shrimp soldiers infected by the Bone Drinkers had never experienced a large-scale team battle, so that after their casualties exceeded a thousand, they thought of using missiles to actively detonate the landmines.
A rain of missiles fell from the sky, dust flew, thick smoke billowed, and the landmines were basically cleared, and the road to the cave entrance was unimpeded.
But, the traps planned by Lino were not that simple.
After hundreds of shrimp soldiers entered the cave entrance, Beast pressed the button at the right time.
"Rumble—"
The cave exploded, sand and stones fell, and the original entrance, which was more than a hundred meters wide, was suddenly filled with rocks and mud.
The shrimp soldiers quickly began the work of excavating and reinforcing the cave.
But after digging through the road, they found that it was a dead end.
Yes, a dead end.
About six hundred meters from the cave entrance, where the entrance to the Howling Passage was originally located, was now blocked by a solid steel wall, leaving no gap for outsiders.
When they saw this "Wall of Sighs," all the shrimp soldiers uniformly raised their arms and made obscene gestures towards the direction of the steel wall, spewing out the same swear words:
"Damn orcs, you rotten maggots in the cesspool, you are even more cunning than I imagined, I #$@#!"x9999
Thousands upon thousands of repeaters complaining together, what a grand scene.
Beast was dumbfounded.
Lino's face darkened slightly, realizing that something was wrong.
These shrimp soldiers were controlled by the same consciousness.
According to the knowledge possessed by Cloud Hammer, the Bone Drinker civilization does not have a higher consciousness capable of controlling all individuals.
Multiple individuals being controlled by the same higher consciousness is a characteristic unique to hive civilizations, such as the Tyranid swarm.
Bone Drinkers are a gestalt civilization.
Each individual has distinct characteristics and independent consciousness, but they only share the entire civilization's spiritual wealth with each other.
It is impossible for all Bone Drinkers to perform the same action at the same time.
But the scene in front of him violated the knowledge possessed by Cloud Hammer.
The only reason is that the Bone Drinkers who arrived on the planet this time, one by one, were all corrupted by Tzeentch, so they would obey the unified command of a certain higher consciousness.
In other words, after being corrupted by Tzeentch, the Bone Drinkers are no longer simply a gestalt civilization, but a collection of gestalt and hive minds.
They can not only share information on the spiritual level, but also obey the instructions of the same higher consciousness when necessary.
Such an alien civilization is chilling to even think about.
"Beast, pass the order down, let all the lads be twelve times more vigilant, and don't be infected by the Bone Drinker's parasitic spores. You must prioritize killing anything with blue-purple light or feathers, and you must not let any of them go."
"Yes, Boss."
Lino turned his head to look at the creek beside him and instructed in the Bone Drinker language:
"Take good care of your people, don't let them be infected. All the humans on the surface are hosts of the Bone Drinkers, and the Bone Drinkers on them have been modified to turn the hosts into servants of a certain higher consciousness. If anyone is infected, and the Phage Fungus Virus doesn't work, then they must end themselves with poison as soon as possible, understand?"
Creek was inoculated with the "Phage Fungus Virus Wart" and had a capsule made of highly poisonous substances in her mouth, unable to speak, so she could only nod solemnly as a reply.
The Avengers behind her were also like this, each with the belief of perishing together with the Bone Drinkers, resolutely stuffing the poison made by Lino into their mouths.
The "Wart" and the deadly poison capsule formed a double insurance, ensuring that the primitive people who were easily infected by the Bone Drinkers would not be parasitized.
Lino solemnly promised them that after the end of this battle, the survivors could enjoy his genetic modification, and from then on get rid of the genetic defects that made them easily parasitized by the Bone Drinkers.