Chapter 345, Scar of Plague
Standing in the bridge, Gu Hang stared at Koroga 3 outside the window for a long time in silence.
This is a withered planet.
The water on the planet's surface accounts for less than one-tenth of the surface. From orbit, it looks yellow-green and doesn't look like a good thing - and in fact, that's exactly the case. The water on Koroja 3 is unusable, filled with industrial wastewater and toxic substances that emerge from the earth's crust after over-development.
Even after multiple filtration and purification, it is not recommended for use as it does not meet safety standards.
What's more, in this broken place of Koroja, the purification process cannot be fully guaranteed.
But no one cares, almost all Korojia people use this water.
What else can we use this water for? Can we import the water needed by 40 billion people through interstellar trade?
Except for a small amount of water, the rest of the planet is dry and yellow.
There is no vegetation, all you can see is desert. The ground is yellow, the clouds are yellow, and even the air is yellow in some places.
And in this vast expanse of withered yellow, there are dozens of large, gray-black "spots" distributed throughout. The combined area is also very large when gazing at the planet from orbit.
These spots are the hive areas.
Each hive on Koroja has a population ranging from hundreds of millions to billions.
And now, among these hives, there is one that stands out the most.
It is not particularly big, just average looking, but it has a long tail behind it that is thousands of kilometers long.
Gu Hang knew that it was moving, although it was not visible at the moment. Its speed of about two kilometers per hour was not very obvious when viewed from the track, and it was impossible for Gu Hang to sit here and stare at it for a long time.
But he knew that it was moving.
This is the city of Fino. During the past month of crawling, it created a deep rift several hundred meters deep and tens of kilometers wide, which is called the 'Scar of Plague'.
The Astra Militarum had no way to deal with it, and the Pegasus Fleet, whose main force was not there, was also unable to deal with it.
And this crawling hive city is moving towards its goal with a seemingly slow but actually resolute attitude.
A week ago, it reached its destination: another hive city.
This nest city is relatively small, but it is home to more than 300 million people.
After realizing that the target of 'Fino City' is this nest city, the people on the planet have been trying their best to find a solution.
On the one hand, the hive was frantically evacuating people, but this was not going smoothly. Unrest broke out in the base area of the hive, and the plague cult had infiltrated this area to a certain extent. The cult members who were bewitched shouted the slogan of "becoming one with the loving father" and tried their best to sabotage and obstruct the evacuation.
Besides the obstruction of the cultists, evacuating 300 million people is a huge and impossible task. The internal transportation of the hive is relatively developed, but the "inter-city transportation" was designed only for the exchange of materials, trade, and a small number of high-level personnel. It did not consider the problem of evacuating hundreds of millions of people at once.
There was a huge traffic jam in the hive city, which was almost inevitable.
On the other hand, in addition to the efforts of the hive itself, the Astra Militarum and the planetary defense forces finally gathered together and launched an army-level operation against the city of Fino.
A million troops bravely stood in front of the "Fino City". Heavy artillery bombarded every active building, armored vehicles, tanks and brave soldiers stepped into the carpet of flesh and blood, using flamethrowers and bombs to destroy the city as much as possible.
But their actions ultimately failed.
The number of plague monsters in Fino City was far greater than that of the brave human warriors. They were fiercely counterattacked by the plague monsters and the cultists with deformed bodies. They could not even enter the core of the city and were stopped at the outer edge.
Moreover, this place is no longer the home ground of humans, and the bloody environment is infinitely malicious to humans. The bunkers that have been built may be activated, and in turn open their big mouths to devour the soldiers hiding behind them; after clearing the meat blankets in an area, the trenches and foxholes that have been dug out, the soldiers are still fighting in them, but after a while, pus begins to seep out of the soles of their feet and the walls of the trenches, corroding the soldiers' uniforms and armor, and then corroding their skin; if they enter a building to fight, the building may collapse in the next moment...
On the contrary, their enemies can use the entire revitalized city to appear anywhere quickly and stealthily...
For humans, the city of Fino has turned into a bloody hell. And in the main arena of hell, fighting against those plague demons is simply an impossible task.
The million-strong army collapsed after suffering more than 200,000 casualties.
Even if it doesn't collapse, it has no fighting power.
There were also huge losses during the withdrawal process.
And after paying such a high price, it only delayed the progress of 'Fino City' for about five days before it set off again.
When 'Fino City' touched the other hive city, there were still at least 100 million people inside who had not had time to evacuate.
Then, people outside witnessed a 'fusion of cities'.
Physical fusion.
The city of Fino was like a giant beast of flesh and blood, moving step by step, wrapping its tentacles and every part of it around every building and structure in the hive city.
The places that were entangled began to become alive at the same time.
Three days, just three days later, the city of Fino "swallowed" the nest city, along with the 100 million people inside who did not have time to escape.
Then it just stopped for about a week.
It's 'digesting'.
As of today, based on the information transmitted from the surface, Gu Hang learned that "Fino City" should have completed the digestion work and officially started moving again today.
Its next target is Yancheng, the largest hive city and capital city on Korojia with a population of three billion.
The distance between the two places is 2,700 kilometers. According to the speed of Fino City, it will reach its destination in three months.
To think more horribly, it might be planning to visit dozens of nests on Koroga one by one at a speed of two kilometers per hour, or about thirty kilometers per day.
It will eat up the entire planet.
Gu Hang looked at all this and felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
He arrived in Koroja's orbit today, invited by Neil Laois.
The star field's chief tax officer now has the authority of a special envoy urgently granted by the star field government to solve the problem of Koroja 3.
Gu Hang had already learned about Korojia's information through star communication.
But there was a world of difference between reading the report and standing on the bridge of a starship in planetary orbit and witnessing the huge sore on this huge planet with your own eyes.
"What is the solution?"
Gu Hang muttered to himself.
Even he was at a loss.
The alliance has developed rapidly in the past four years.
The three major industrial centers of Black Arrow Star have absorbed a large population, and the industrialization process is very rapid; agricultural production has also basically completed mechanization, which has greatly reduced the consumption of population by agriculture while ensuring further increase in output.
The population of Angry Owl Star has grown to 110 million through immigration, encouragement of childbirth and other means, and productivity has continued to grow rapidly along with the increase in population.
The combined annual output value of the two planets has exceeded 600 million; with the continuous improvement in people's quality of life, the fiscal surplus can reach nearly 150 million per year, while the annual tax revenue is only 45 million.
Everything is on the right track. The alliance no longer needs to pay taxes, and a large amount of output can even be put into production. The future looks so bright. If Gu Hang is given another four years, or even longer, he can build two rich and powerful planets with powerful technology.
But before that, his next-door neighbor had already done him a huge disservice.
Gu Hang had thought before that if Korojia's condition continued to deteriorate, it would eventually get out of control.
But this situation came too fast.
No matter how fast and well the alliance develops, it is still too small after all, and the huge hole of Koroja cannot be filled.
Of course, this is not his responsibility per se.
This is the duty of the Empire.
In fact, it doesn’t mean that the empire really has no way to deal with this kind of thing.
The 'General Cannon' equipped by some armies is a weapon that is powerful enough to pose a terrible threat to void shields. Even city-level void shields can be overloaded after a few shots, and another shot can almost destroy a city. There are also some powerful bombs that can be brought in to blow up the city.
Not to mention, there are terrifying weapons right at hand: starships.
If the Empire wants to launch an extermination order against a planet, there are actually many ways to do it. The dumbest one is to use starship cannons to carry out detailed, comprehensive, and devastating attacks on the surface, thoroughly bombing every inch of the planet's surface, commonly known as burning glass.
Of course, there are other ways to issue extermination orders. Using naval guns to "burn glass" is actually quite costly, requiring a lot of shells, and is expensive and takes a long time, so it is not common. But in some cases where an extermination order is needed and no other extermination order weapons can be obtained at the moment, then we can only make do with this.
However, in order to let the fleet carry out the bombing, it is necessary to ensure that the surface poses no threat to the orbit. Otherwise, the execution of the extermination order will turn into a confrontation with the planet's anti-orbital firepower.
Even if there are some other extinction-order weapons, such as neutron annihilation, sky-burning torpedo, and earth-blasting star destroyer...these extinction-order weapons do not have such high requirements for orbital safety, but it is best to ensure a certain degree of safety before launching them.
Neutron extinction is used to eliminate all organic life on the surface of a planet. The advantage is that after the extinction, the planet can be recolonized and used again after the neutron storm subsides. However, the disadvantage is that it is expensive and it is easy for some organisms that hide deep inside to slip through the net.
The Earth-blasting Star Destroyer can directly penetrate the Earth's crust, detonate the Earth's core, and shatter the planet. Of course, this does not blow the planet to pieces. The matter itself will still exist because gravity will maintain the state of a planet, but this is only maintained at the astronomical level. In fact, after the entire planet is shattered and reorganized by gravity, the entire planet is a large molten state, and it is impossible for anything to survive. This weapon has the best extinction effect, but it is also the most expensive and rarest.
Compared with the first two, the Burning Sky Torpedo mainly ignites the atmosphere, burns all the gases, and burns the surface of the planet. From the perspective of the universe, the entire planet will be like burning amber in a few days. But the disadvantage is that there may be fish that hide deep and slip through the net. After burning, the planet will be useless. The advantage is that it is much cheaper.
But even the cheapest Burning Sky Torpedo costs almost as much as a cruiser. The price of the Extinction Order weapon itself is so high, and the penetration effect is not very good. If the enemy has a stronger anti-orbital firepower, it can be easily intercepted.
If we are intercepted once, one of our extermination weapons will be destroyed, which is too much to bear.
In short, at the level of the entire empire, even an extermination order can be executed, let alone the destruction of a city - even if this nest is moving.
However, when it comes to the Pegasus region, especially to Koroja 3, there is simply no way to do it.
It's nonsense to execute an extermination order on Koroja. This planet has such a large population, plus other industries worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of tax coins. Unless it is completely beyond saving, such a decision will not be made.
To destroy the city of Fino, weapons such as the macro cannon and light spear array on the starship are enough.
But the problem is that it cannot solve the void shield and anti-orbital force on the ground.
It is foolish to use starships to fight the surface of the earth. No matter how powerful your fleet is, it is just a planet. Starships can only be equipped with limited firepower, limited armor, and limited energy shields. If you want stronger firepower, thicker armor, and more energy, the starship must be larger, but the larger it is, the more expensive it will be.
But on the surface of a planet, there are no such problems. Firepower? You can get as many cannons as you can, and there is no need to worry about where to put them; you don't need to consider the armor problem, no starship's armor can be thicker than the earth; you don't need to consider the size of the energy shield or void shield generator, there is enough space on the ground and underground to put it in...
This is the starship that doesn’t move but doesn’t fall!
If the army cannot resolve the anti-orbital firepower, the Pegasus fleet will not be able to resolve the city of Fino.
But obviously, the current army on Koroja is unable to do it.
Unless the main force of the Pegasus fleet urgently withdraws from the battlefield with the green-skinned orcs.
Even if they were to leave the battlefield immediately without any care, would it be in time? It would take three or four months to cross multiple star regions and return to Koroja.
By that time, the famous Yancheng was gone.
The Creeping Hive has been greatly strengthened again, and the strength of the void shields and anti-orbital evil energy cannons will probably be further enhanced. By then, even the main force of the Pegasus Fleet may not be able to solve the problem.
If it really comes to that, it might be too late to even consider an extermination order.
(End of this chapter)
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