181: Chapter 181 For Our Homeland! Long Live the Alliance!

They were given generous laboratory environments, allowing them to develop various convenient household appliances or inexpensive electronic devices for their companies.

The appearance of the entire Coastal City was improving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Walking down the street, the faces of the lower-class civilians were no longer numb and sallow, but had become rosy, with a light in their eyes.

But just now.

A terrifying tsunami suddenly struck the outskirts of Coastal City, destroying many newly built facilities.

However, after the tsunami subsided.

What the residents of Coastal City displayed was a shocking and unprecedented unity!

Whether they were the once high-and-mighty nobles or the filth-covered bottom-tier laborers.

No one took advantage of the chaos; instead, they spontaneously took up tools and began disaster relief and silt-clearing work in various neighborhoods.

This was a miracle that would have been absolutely impossible during the previous imperial rule.

In the past, the governor was high and mighty, viewing human life as worthless grass.

When disaster struck, besides exorbitant taxes and layers of exploitation, the civilians were left to fend for themselves.

But now, the constitution had granted them their basic rights as human beings.

They truly began to recognize in their hearts that this Coastal City belonged to them—it was their home!

To defend their home, they were willing to give everything!

Kolom stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

He looked down at the civilians in the central square below, who were working together to clear the silt.

Some had mud on their faces, yet they were joking and laughing with each other.

A genuine smile appeared on Kolom's lips unconsciously.

"Praise the God-Emperor, praise the Dawn Leader." Kolom made the sign of the Aquila on his chest.

Just then.

The giant electronic screens around the square and along several main roads, which were originally used to play commercial advertisements.

Suddenly flickered with intense static at the same time.

Then, the image changed abruptly.

A familiar face appeared in the center of all the screens.

Kolom was stunned at first, then immediately stood at attention, his eyes becoming fanatical: "It's the Leader!"

On the screen, Lin Li was wearing his signature red Power Armor, without a helmet.

He was sitting upright at a metal table, and the environment behind him appeared to be the bridge of a spaceship.

The civilians in the square who were clearing the silt all stopped what they were doing.

The entire city fell silent instantly, and everyone looked up, staring at the screens.

Meanwhile.

In Kolom's office, at the market in Shahe Town, on the streets of Red Lake Town, and even in those hidden mining areas.

All radios, broadcast speakers, and electronic screens capable of receiving signals turned to the same image and sound.

Amidst the bated breath and gaze of hundreds of millions of people.

This young leader, who had brought them rebirth and hope, spoke slowly.

His voice was low, yet it carried a power that struck directly at the heart.

[Citizens of the Alliance, I am sorry, but at a moment when you have just experienced a disaster, I need to take a little of your precious time.]

[To inform everyone of an important crisis that concerns the fate of us all.]

Lin Li crossed his hands on the tabletop, looking at the camera with sharp eyes.

[I believe you have all seen or personally experienced it. In the regions where you are located, some terrible natural disasters have just occurred, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and storms.]

[But what I want to tell you all is that these are not natural phenomena caused by planetary tectonic movement.]

[This is a death notice issued to us by a group of extremely terrifying enemies before their arrival.]

Lin Li's voice echoed over the empty city.

[This type of enemy is not the imperial rebels, not the Chaos heretics, nor the demons hiding in the Warp. It is a terrifying alien species known as the Tyranids!]

As Lin Li's voice fell.

The image on the electronic screen was suddenly cut off.

Replaced by a deep, boundless, cold space flickering with points of starlight.

For the vast majority of civilians who had lived in the bottom of the Hive City all their lives, this was the first time they had seen the scene of outer space so clearly.

However.

Before they could even gasp in amazement.

The image began to zoom in rapidly.

They saw, floating silently outside the orbit of a yellowish-brown planet, a terrifyingly massive fleet!

Those were not ships forged from metal at all!

They were living biological behemoths, several kilometers long, with their bodies covered in twisted, thick purple carapaces, and covered in tentacles and huge compound eyes!

They were packed densely in the void, their numbers so great that it was despair-inducing.

Just then.

The biological fleet seemed to have detected the reconnaissance probe in the distance.

A frigate-class giant bug suddenly opened its abyss-like mouth.

A blinding high-energy bio-plasma cannon shot instantly crossed the void and smashed over fiercely!

"Crackle—"

The image disappeared amidst a harsh sound of electrical interference.

Returning to Lin Li's serious face.

The crowd in the square erupted into a collective gasp.

Kolom subconsciously clenched his fists tightly.

As a former senior clerk who had been by the governor's side.

Kolom had heard of this brutal race in some incomplete imperial secret scrolls.

But he never expected that this catastrophe which devoured everything would actually come knocking on their door!

Lin Li looked at the camera and continued:

[The Tyranids are known as the devourers of the galaxy.]

[The planets they pass by will not have any buildings left, no plants left, and even the oceans will be sucked dry! All life will be turned into flesh and nutrients for them to continue to propagate!]

[In other sectors, these monsters have already caused hundreds upon hundreds of vibrant planets to turn into dead, silent wastelands.]

[Now, they have come, arriving at our doorstep.]

The entire Coastal City was silent.

A feeling of despair began to spread among the crowd.

Facing those space monsters that were the size of mountains, the strength of ordinary people seemed so insignificant.

But immediately after, Lin Li's tone shifted abruptly.

His voice rose sharply, like a booming bell!

[I am here today to release these top-secret images to everyone, not to make you feel afraid! And certainly not to force you to pick up inferior weapons and go to the front lines to be cannon fodder!]

[I want to tell you a fact!]

[We, the Spark Alliance, possess the bravest and most death-defying army in this world! Right now, we are heading there at full speed! To take the initiative to meet and destroy those Tyranids!]

Lin Li stood up abruptly, his hands pressed on the table.

[Leave the front lines to us! However, the consumption of this war will be massive! Our soldiers need bullets! They need shells! They need sturdy armor and abundant energy!]

[I do not wish for any innocent civilian of the Alliance to sacrifice themselves in vain for ridiculous power games.]

[But I ask you, my citizens!]

[Return to your posts! Let the factory machines roar! Provide our soldiers with the most abundant ammunition and military logistics! Use the wrenches and hammers in your hands to forge more chances of victory for our army!]

[For the beautiful home you have just built! For your children to be able to see the light of the stars tomorrow!]

Lin Li raised his right fist and struck his left chest armor heavily.

[I have finished speaking. Long live the God-Emperor! Long live the Spark Alliance!]

The screen dimmed.

The square in Coastal City was dead silent for a full half minute.

Then, not knowing who it was, a dock loader covered in silt suddenly raised the shovel in his hand.

"For the homeland! Long live the Alliance!"

This shout, like a spark, instantly ignited the entire powder keg!

"Kill those alien monsters! Long live the Alliance! Long live the Dawn Leader!"

"Back to the factory! Everyone back to the factory! I'm not sleeping today! Even if I have to run the machines until they smoke, I'm going to make bullets for the soldiers on the front lines!"

The roaring sounds, like mountains collapsing and seas churning, echoed over Coastal City, over Shahe Town, and over every city controlled by the Alliance!

The workers wiped away their tears, pushed aside the rubble, and rushed to their respective factories like madmen.

Those noble capitalists who had just been counting their property losses opened their private warehouses without hesitation, donating all their hoarded refined steel and high-energy cesium fuel to the military logistics department for free.

The entire massive population base of the Spark Alliance was completely ignited at this moment!

Transforming into a giant, frantically operating war machine!

...

A few hours later.

Agricultural planet Ceres, low orbit.

[sea breeze no. 9], leading the massive expedition fleet of the Spark Alliance, finally arrived at the battlefield.

Inside the bridge, there was a deathly silence.

Lin Li stood in front of the wide porthole.

On the holographic projection behind him, it was densely packed with red dots representing enemy signals.

And in the deep space directly ahead, visible to the naked eye.

It was a scene that would make any megalophobe collapse on the spot.

More than three hundred Tyranid biological frigates, over a kilometer in length, were like hideous jellyfish floating in the deep sea.

Their giant mouths filled with sharp teeth and their jointed tentacles writhed slowly in the void.

And in the very center of the swarm.

Was a small Hive Ship nearly four kilometers long!

It was like a purple-black mountain of flesh floating in space!

Its outer shell was covered in horny chitinous armor thick enough to withstand Macro Cannon bombardment.

Countless spore sacs emitting a ghostly green fluorescence rose and fell on its body surface like breathing.

More than thirty thousand assault drop pods, like giant insect eggs, were attached to the belly of the Hive Ship, ready at any moment to carry out a devastating drop bombardment on the agricultural planet below!

The swarm fleet had no roar of engines, no communication waves of conversation.

They just floated there quietly, exuding a suffocating sense of greed and hunger.

That was a pure predatory instinct, an extreme craving for all biomass.

The void was terrifyingly quiet.

Lin Li stared fixedly at that massive Hive Ship.

"All fleet, charge main cannons!"

Lin Li's voice rang out coldly in the public channel, breaking the deathly silence,

"Target, swarm directly ahead, fire!"