208: Chapter 28 Zerg Main Group

The smoke of war in the Taiping Star Domain had not yet dissipated, and the Reshaping Crucible transformation for the masses of Imperial civilians had just begun, when an alarm from the edge of the Milky Way tore through the Human Federation's brief period of digestion.

It was not Chaos, nor the Empire, nor the Aeldari; it was an existence older, purer, and hungrier than any of them.

The Tyranid Main Hive Fleet.

An emergency report from the Ockupas Passage in the fringe sectors: a massive biomass signal detected! The scale was immeasurable! The monitoring officer's voice trembled with extreme shock, "Source: The edge of the spiral arm directly below the Milky Way, the Ockupas Passage! Signal density covers 0.3 light-years! It is advancing toward the galactic core at a speed of 0.7 light-years per day!"

On the holographic star map, an indescribable expanse of crimson, like a tide of blood gushing from a galactic wound, spread frantically along the interstellar highway known as the Ockupas Passage toward the core regions of the Milky Way—including the recently occupied Taiping Star Domain, the Ultima Segmentum, and Holy Terra.

The Tyranid Main Hive Fleet—not Behemoth, not Leviathan, nor any previously named splinter tendril, but the main fleet itself.

That ultimate natural disaster, which had devoured countless star systems, absorbed countless civilizations, and continuously evolved during its trans-galactic migration, had finally arrived at the edge of the Milky Way after a long journey spanning tens of thousands of years.

Its scale exceeded any known unit of measurement. Counted by ships, it was in the trillions; counted by biomass, it was of stellar mass; counted by threat, it was incalculable.

"Main fleet scale projection complete," the adjudicator's voice took on a rare gravity. "Calculating with the Human Federation's entire current military strength, the probability of victory in a direct confrontation: 0.37%. With the Empire's total remaining strength, victory probability: 0.12%. With the current remaining strength of the Four Chaos Gods, victory probability: 1.4%. Combined victory probability: less than 2%."

The Command Center fell into a deathly silence. What did a 2% victory probability mean? It meant that if The Swarm were allowed to advance, all intelligent life in the Milky Way—Humans, Aeldari, Orks, Necron remnants, and Chaos—would be completely devoured within thirty years.

It meant that the five hundred years of struggle by the Human Federation would vanish into nothingness within The Swarm's digestive system.

It meant that the cold observer might reformat this reset star domain after The Swarm devoured everything, as if no civilization had ever existed.

"2%," Han Zhe repeated the number, his voice as calm as ever. "That's enough."

Everyone's gaze focused on him.

"Five hundred years ago, when we had just escaped the Empire's pursuit, our victory probability against an Imperial patrol fleet was 0.01%," his voice sounded like it came from ten-thousand-year-old ice. "Two hundred years ago, when we first fought Chaos demons, the victory probability was 5%. One hundred years ago, when we faced the Necron Dynasty, the victory probability was 8%. Fifty years ago, when we faced the Silent King, the victory probability was 12%."

"2% is the highest initial victory probability we have faced in five hundred years."

He stood up, walked to the star map, and stared at the crimson expanse spreading toward the galactic core.

"Because we are no longer the Human Federation of five hundred years ago."

"We have Source of Order-class ships. We have Causality Weapons. We have Void Barriers. We have star god fragments. We have every essence fragment extracted from the Chaos Gods."

"A 2% victory probability means we only need to do one thing: make The Swarm our next target for extraction."

Supported by the adjudicator's massive computing power, an unprecedentedly bold plan took shape within seven days:

Phase One: Lures and Traps.

Utilizing The Swarm's instinctive craving for high-quality biomass, a giant bait would be set on the mandatory path through the Ockupas Passage, composed of abandoned colonies, captured Imperial prisoners, and most crucially, life-cycle energy extracted from Nurgle. The attraction of this energy to The Swarm, like blood to a shark, would cause them to temporarily deviate from their direct route to the galactic core and enter a pre-set slaughterhouse by the Human Federation—a dead zone surrounded by three thousand Void Barriers, twenty thousand Nullifier Nodes, and twelve Source of Order-class battleships.

Phase Two: Causality Chain Excision.

The most terrifying thing about The Swarm is not the individual, but the hive mind. It is a collective consciousness spanning light-years that covers the entire Swarm, capable of coordinating tactical movements of trillions of units in real-time, instantly reorganizing formations after local losses, and rapidly evolving resistance after encountering new weapons.

To defeat The Swarm, the hive mind must first be paralyzed.

Method: The Causality Eradication Cannon, but instead of attacking The Swarm directly, it will target the causal connection between the hive mind and individual Swarm units. By deleting that connection from the causality chain, every Swarm unit will become an isolated individual, unable to receive commands or transmit information.

Without the hive mind, The Swarm is merely a pack of beasts.

Phase Three: Biomass Harvesting.

Once The Swarm loses its unified will, they will no longer be a natural disaster, but a resource.

Every corpse of the trillions of Swarm units is high-purity biomass, which can be processed into raw materials for Living Alloy, converted into fuel for zero-point energy, or parsed for the codes of evolutionary genes.

"We are not going to eliminate The Swarm," Han Zhe concluded at the final plan review meeting. "We are going to harvest The Swarm."

"Let them become the nutrients for the Human Federation's next stage of evolution."