Chapter 589: Seizing the Starship

In the sky, white aircraft roared past, and the thunderous sound of bombs continuously came from afar; after a carpet bombing, the insectoid creatures on the ground had become scarce—only a few survived the bombardment, while the rest perished, leaving behind a ground littered with corpses.

Even the mycelium blanket that had gradually spread across the entire planet had become riddled with holes from this series of bombings.

White, milky fluid seeped from the mycelium blanket, and some injured but still-living insects instinctively sought out and consumed this fluid.

Some insects that ingested the fluid became energized, their wounds healing at a visibly rapid rate.

Others, whose legs had been blown off or whose nearby mycelium blanket had been destroyed and who could not reach the distant fluid, suffered terribly—their unceasing wounds slowly consumed their lives; barring an accident, they would die in this state.

As the bombing ended, a group of paratroopers began descending from the aircraft, all uniformly clad in white protective suits that concealed their faces.

“These are clone soldiers,” Ye Nan said coldly, watching the soldiers land in the distance—he understood this was the Galactic Empire in action.

Unlike other civilizations, the Galactic Empire extensively used clone armies with no hesitation whatsoever; it was precisely because of their indiscriminate deployment that, when the Iron Curtain of the Dark Side of the Force descended, Emperor Palpatine’s clone army swept everything away.

The clones descending from the sky were not fortunate—once the bombing ceased, all the insects began to counterattack, especially those that had ingested the fluid, which triggered their evolution upon encountering the landing soldiers.

The fluid itself was food for the insectoids, containing all energy absorbable by them, with an astonishing conversion efficiency of ninety-nine percent.

With the mycelium blanket severely damaged, the energy stored within was forcibly released; although much of it evaporated during the bombing, some transferred to other mycelium blankets, making the fluid more energetic than usual.

These insectoids evolved into Dragoons capable of spitting missiles, granting them strong anti-air capabilities.

Soon, the evolution was complete—dozens of Dragoons stood atop the earth, roaring toward the sky.

Roar!

The Dragoons flapped their wings and rose from the ground, spitting missiles from their mouths toward the descending clones.

Puff!

The moment the missiles struck the clones, they exploded—microbes and acid mixed together, rendering the clones’ protective suits useless; with a scream, the clones lost their lives.

Screams rose and fell continuously; clones died without end, slaughtered clean under the merciless gaze of the Dragoons—even some aircraft were blown apart and crashed under missile fire.

Ye Nan squinted, gazing into the distance; his body shot forward swiftly toward the horizon, with Superman Clark following behind like a loyal guardian.

Hmph!

Clark’s eyes flared—two beams of super heat vision shot out, piercing the incoming missiles and then the Dragoons that fired them, knocking them down.

“These aircraft have been confirmed in the southeast—looks like the Galactic Empire’s starship has arrived from outer space to this planet. But why are they fighting the insects? Do they think they can clean an entire planet of insectoids?”

Without the Death Star, a single starship could never defeat the insectoids of a whole planet—you never knew where hidden insects lurked; one slip, and they would spontaneously reproduce and return in force.

To completely eradicate insectoids from a planet, only the Death Star could do it—by destroying the entire planet.

“This method only kills a thousand while losing eight hundred,” Superman Clark suddenly said—he had discovered from the Empire’s database that this approach had serious drawbacks.

Humans differ from insectoids: insectoids can comfortably survive on any planet, but humans cannot—they rely on planets with healthy ecosystems, which is precisely why human civilizations are so few.

As for planetary terraforming technology, it is a massive undertaking—even an entire civilization cannot accomplish it in less than centuries, because they are not insectoids who can continuously regulate climate via mycelium blanket; for them, adjusting a planet’s climate demands an enormous cost.

“But some civilizations can exterminate insectoids without destroying the planet,” Chen Xu mused. “According to some intelligence we’ve gathered, the Protoss’s global Psionic Storm can achieve this, and so too can the legendary Jedi—but our current opponent is not the insectoids.”

From the moment the Cosmic Emperor appeared, it was destined that he alone was the greatest enemy; whether Beth’s intelligence was accurate or not, the Cosmic Emperor’s existence acted like a master general—without even striking, he crushed his enemies under pressure. Otherwise, the Hive Queen Harris would never have contacted Ye Nan, and Ye Nan would never have used cloning technology to create a body and, under the guise of attending a ceremony, probed the Cosmic Emperor.

“Our opponent is the Cosmic Emperor!” Superman Clark knew his enemy too—but he didn’t understand why Ye Nan was so wary of the Cosmic Emperor. He remembered that in the Empire’s Academy of Sciences, there was a Cosmic Crusher; with it, their Time Empire could crush all enemies.

As if sensing Clark’s confusion, Ye Nan smiled bitterly. “The Cosmic Emperor is truly powerful. I can feel it—even with the Cosmic Crusher, I have no confidence. After all… he is too strong.”

Boom!

Another aircraft was hit by a missile and plummeted from the sky; as it passed before Ye Nan, he could see the pilot’s shock and disbelief on his face.

“Unconscious clones don’t resist—they’re perfect war expendables. But pilots need awareness, so are these people?” Though he thought this, Ye Nan had no intention of rescuing them—he merely watched the falling pilot with a thoughtful gaze… and then, nothing more.

The imposing starship loomed faintly on the horizon—a steel hull, streamlined body, one main cannon and three secondary cannons snarlingly mounted, all pointed at Ye Nan.

“I sense danger,” Superman Clark warned.

“I feel it too. Looks like they’re not exactly welcoming our arrival.”

Inside the warship, several personnel were frantically operating the starship’s ascent, fingers rapidly pressing buttons.

“How can humans fly?” A pilot stared at the screen, rubbed his eyes, then cried out in disbelief: “How can humans fly?”

“Who knows how humans fly?” Another operator dripped sweat from his forehead, his fingers forming blurs over the buttons. “I suspect our scanners are malfunctioning—enemy jamming, feeding us false imagery.”

“You mean the insectoids?” The only person in the command room who wasn’t working, lounging calmly, glanced at the screen and sneered. “Stupid insectoids don’t have this tech. Everyone on this planet is dead—no one could interfere with our scanners. We can confirm these two are truly flying.”

“Secondary cannons begin charging—prepare to fire. Let’s see if these two flying men can withstand our firepower.”

The main cannon was discarded due to its long charging time; though weaker, the secondary cannons charged quickly and packed sufficient punch. Weapons requiring no charging were fine against large starships, but useless against two human-sized targets—like using artillery to swat flies.

These weapons lacked AI control and could only roughly adjust aim—fine for large targets like starships, but nearly impossible to hit tiny, moving humans.

“Secondary cannons fully charged,” an operator nervously watched the screen, seeing the two rapidly moving figures. “Hurry, lock onto them!”

“I’m locking,” another operator, drenched in sweat, frantically tapped buttons and keyboards. “No good—they’re moving in a zigzag pattern. Lock onto them, I need help pinning their position.”

“I’ll help.” One operator tapped his console several times; dozens of small cannons on the starship erupted in furious fire, blue ion projectiles blasting out, instantly turning the space before the ship into a solid wall.

“They’ve changed their movement pattern!” The operator seeking help shouted excitedly. “Perfect! I can lock them now!”

“Hurry!” The only standing figure in the command room stared at the red dots rapidly approaching on screen, his expression fierce. “If I kill them here, we’ll earn great merit.”

“Yes, Commander!” The operator slammed his finger down. “Super particle cannon—fire!”

“The Emperor foresaw you long ago, troublesome fools,” the commander murmured softly, his gaze toward Ye Nan brimming with smug satisfaction. (To be continued.)