The Loya people's mechs boasted formidable combat power, but against the overwhelming tide of the Zerg army, they were at a severe quantitative disadvantage. After slaying three Zerglings, they were immediately met by thirty more rushing in.

The prolonged combat had coated their mechs in a thick layer of gore, leaving their pilots in a state of extreme tension.

One careless moment, and a limb could be torn open by a claw slashing in from an unexpected angle.

The Zerg likely possessed the galaxy's most outstanding combat instincts. Their movements were sudden and without warning, instinctively choosing the most opportune moment to attack, and their developed nervous systems allowed them to react in less than a millisecond!

The Loya side was equally relentless. Some of their high-grade mechs moved with spectral quickness, appearing and disappearing as if defying the laws of inertia. Acceleration and directional changes were flawless. They charged into the Zerg swarm, slaughtering all around them; every punch and kick carried the crushing force of annihilation, spraying blood wherever they passed.

A small Zerg rushed toward one such mech—a white unit nearly three and a half meters tall, designed with a sleek, streamlined profile that made it look exceptionally lean.

Before the Zerg could even close the distance, the white mech unleashed a lightning-fast punch, driving directly into the creature’s abdomen and into its chest cavity. This wasn't all; the mech’s fist carried a strange field of energy that detonated inside the Zerg, instantly blasting the entire creature into fragments!

A volley of Hydralisk spines shot through the pulverized remains of the small Zerg, heading for the white mech. The white mech paid them no mind, raising a hand to catch them. An invisible force field erupted from its palm, stopping the spines mid-air. It then swept its hand aside, sending the spines careening sideways, impaling over ten small Zergs.

Then, forty more Zerglings surged forward, surrounding the white mech. The mech thrust its arms outward to the left and right, the force fields suddenly expanding into a ring of explosive shockwaves, instantly blasting all the Zerglings away. The creatures thrown outward resembled cannonballs, taking down another large swath of Zerg units behind them!

Just then, sharp spikes suddenly erupted from the ground beneath the white mech’s feet. Lurkers hidden beneath the surface had seized the opportunity to assault the mech!

The white mech tapped its toes, its chassis tracing a series of phantom images, and in the blink of an eye, it reappeared fifty meters away, evading the Lurker’s strike. However, an unknown substance suddenly descended from the sky. As it neared the ground, the sphere burst open, transforming into a massive web glowing with an eerie, neon-green light, instantly enveloping the white mech!

This was a signature ability of the Zerg Queen Bee: this sticky, corrosive net could reduce the target's speed by more than half.

Smoke billowed from the struck white mech, accompanied by a sizzling sound as the net ate into the outer shell, leaving deep scars. The white mech's movements were immediately significantly hampered.

The fearless Zerg seized the opportunity and swarmed forward, submerging the white mech. Soon after, a brilliant flash of light erupted, blowing nearby Zerg units far into the air. When the light faded, both the white mech and the Zerg units covering it had vanished; they had all been vaporized.

The battle continued. The white mech was neither the first nor the last high-grade Loya mech to be annihilated by the Zerg tide.

As time wore on, the outer walls were carved with large breaches by the Zerg’s relentless hacking. Vast numbers of Zerg units poured through these gaps, while the air force provided cover for the ground troops. Numerous Overlords patrolled the center of the Loya military base. Whenever they encountered resistance, they crashed into it without hesitation; some self-detonated as an attack, while others rebounded toward the next target.

The Loya defensive forces dwindled, but the endless Zerg army outside seemed inexhaustible. Even when the Loya gained local advantages, those gains were quickly ground away. The initial attacking Zerg horde outnumbered the defenders by a factor of fifty, an advantage that became starkly evident in close-quarters combat.

In addition to the frontal assault, the Zerg dispatched Burrower units to tunnel through beneath the outer walls. When the first wave of Burrowers appeared inside the base, the Loya scrambled their remaining reserves, paying an enormous price to wipe out that advance force and destroy all the tunnels.

However, before the Burrower units were eliminated, they had coordinated with the main forces attacking the outer wall, allowing the Zerg to capture several vital sections of the fortification.

One hour later, the main Zerg army breached the outer wall and surged into the base like a tidal wave. They quickly disabled the base’s last anti-air defenses.

A swarm of Overlords descended from the sky, bringing numerous troops that were directly deployed into the core areas of the base.

Another wave of Burrower units breached the underground passages. The Zerg then launched a total assault on the Loya base from the sky, the surface, and below ground.

Two hours later, the fighting within the base gradually subsided. The Loya had ultimately failed in their resistance. The Zerg's supreme commander, a giant creature named Augan, successfully captured the Loya base’s highest-ranking officer and extracted crucial intelligence from the captive.

Augan used this highest-ranking officer to unlock the access to the Loya's massive underground supply depots. These reserves were originally set for self-destruction upon the base’s fall, but Augan controlled the officer in time to halt the sequence.

The depot held all the supplies the Loya had prepared for this colony world: industrial materials, biological components, special materials, and more.

The Burrower units once again played a crucial role. They spent half a day tunneling fifty kilometers underground, carving out a massive cavern and establishing passages from the central depot to this new lair.

Subsequently, large numbers of Drones entered the depot, carrying various related resources down into the cavern. A small portion of the Drones even began constructing local facilities inside the cavern, initiating transformations into Zerg structures on the spot.

By the next day, the cavern had become a Zerg hive.

Thousands of drones began laying eggs in the hive. The Loya's reserved resources were entirely repurposed to sustain the hive and the development of the next generation of Zerg units. The Zerg army itself had suffered significant losses attacking this base; they needed to replenish their forces here to prepare for the next phase of operations.

Meanwhile, the leading Loya expeditionary forces were rushing back. During this period, they had established just over a hundred colony worlds, all situated within two adjacent star sectors. Now, nearly half of these colonies were engulfed in the flames of war with the Zerg, inflicting immense losses.

However, due to the placement of the Zerg-infested sector, the Loya fleet was currently traveling at maximum warp speed through hyperspace, still three to four days away from their colonial territory.

In that intervening time, the Zerg had already extended their reach to nearly half the colonized planets. Taking Loya Empire Colony World No. 14 as an example, the Zerg established extensive underground tunnel networks and countless subterranean nests scattered across every corner of the planet.

These nests were so ubiquitous that unless the entire planet was obliterated, perfectly eradicating the Zerg infestation was an almost impossible task.

Similar situations were occurring on the colony worlds of other races. The Zerg, relying on their tenacious vitality, were deeply entrenched, burrowed far beneath the surface, determined to see the sustained guerrilla warfare plan laid out by their overlord, Yang Ying, through to the end.

In the following days, the main fleets of the various races returned to their respective colony worlds to begin the extermination of the Zerg. They easily reclaimed the surface bases; the Zerg did not offer significant resistance.

However, problems arose once the various race armies occupied the bases. The Zerg launched nightly assaults, and sometimes even daytime raids.

The attacking Zerg forces were phantom-like, suddenly emerging from underground tunnels to assault the garrisoned troops within the base. While the size of each raiding party was small, the cumulative effect of constant attrition caused the casualties of the allied races to steadily mount.

All races understood that the Zerg had established secret subterranean nests, but the obvious tunnels leading to the surface had been sealed by the main fleets before their return. The allied races had to find the Zerg hives themselves, by actively searching.

Through the concerted efforts of the various races, some of these nests were discovered and quickly destroyed. But this accounted for only a small fraction of the hidden Zerg forces.

More nests were preserved, and as time passed, the Zerg continued to build new ones, with each successive layer growing deeper underground.

The pressure and temperature increased significantly the deeper one went, but this posed no issue for the Zerg. They could survive in the most hostile environments: surrounded by magma, enduring air filled with deadly radiation, water and air saturated with corrosive elements, or under extreme pressure or vacuum—none of these environmental factors would destroy the Zerg; instead, they spurred evolution, allowing them to adapt.

After the main forces returned, sustained, large-scale rampaging by the Zerg became more difficult. Consequently, the Zerg ceased their open incursions and instead lay dormant, accumulating troop strength while only launching sporadic harassment attacks against the allied races to erode morale.

Simultaneously conducting intense purges while evading localized counterattacks, the conflict entered a stalemate. Under these conditions, the hundred-plus planets overrun by the Zerg became relatively quiet.

Although all races left small garrisons to form a diminished combined fleet meant to suppress any potential Zerg counterattacks from their star sector, this reduced fleet posed little threat to the Zerg.

Furthermore, because the colonies of the various races had been ravaged, intense friction flared within the unified fleet, making unified command almost impossible. Although the alliance appointed Betak, the Guardian Deity of the Garan Republic, as the supreme commander, friction remained friction. Even if suppressed superficially, underlying currents of issues persisted, dragging the efficiency of the joint fleet to its lowest point.

(The busy days finally conclude. Starting tomorrow, we return to the usual two chapters per day!)