A 'wall'!
A pitch-black 'wall', but a fleshy one.
Yet it was not a wholly sealed 'wall'; drawing closer, one would find it was in fact a 'wall' riddled with holes.
"Is this the Hive Nest? This… this… you can't make anything out at all. All you can make out is that it's disgusting." Tao Beibei, at his side, covered her mouth and muttered with a frown.
It was the gut feeling of nearly everyone who saw the sight.
As the Owl Dragon main fleet groups drew near.
All of a sudden, on the great fleshy face of this 'wall', lumps of flesh began to bulge out, one after another.
Marshal Chu Xuan of the Second Imperial Fleet Group, as commander of the main force, at once ordered her fleet to defend with care.
All interstellar escorts raised their star shields and star-shield fields, protecting the fleet groups.
At the same time every defensive weapon stood ready to fire.
Ready to meet anything that might happen.
Unlike before, the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet, which had always led the charge, did not stand at the front like cannon fodder, but sheltered under the Second Imperial Fleet Group's star-shield field, the two advancing together.
A great part of the Owl Dragon hive-race's role was indeed as cannon fodder.
But that did not mean Zhao Chen would truly let them be used up for nothing.
Even cannon fodder should be cannon fodder of value.
Not these hive-race combat units thrown away for nothing.
Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on the great tumors appearing one after another on the great wall of flesh on the screen; not a few of the women crew felt sick at the sight.
It was like pimples springing up one after another on a face in a short time.
From afar they looked densely packed besides,
enough to set off a horror of clusters.
At last, when these great balls of flesh had swollen to a certain point, they burst.
Where they burst, snake-like creatures appeared one after another, turned toward the Owl Dragon main fleet, and spat bio-plasma cannon fire!
"Watch your defenses!" Chu Xuan ordered.
Zhao Chen watched the scene.
Those snake-like creatures seemed to serve as something like gun barrels, parasites of this Hive Nest, or something like symbionts.
They would appear when the Hive Nest was threatened, serving much as close-in guns.
And each differed in size.
Some were very small, with small range and power, but a somewhat faster rate of fire.
Some were very large in bulk and length, four or five times the ordinary, even ten times.
Their power was great, and their range long, but the interval between shots long as well.
When these attacks struck the star shields of the interstellar escorts, the force they produced was recorded in full.
Detailed data soon came of it.
The weakest of these hive 'close-in guns' had the power of a T3-grade interstellar main gun; a handful had the power of a T4-grade starship main gun.
And the largest had the power of a T5-grade interstellar main gun.
This sudden fire was very strong.
It fell thick upon the star-shield fields of the interstellar escorts at the very front.
In an instant this echelon of interstellar escorts was in trouble, reporting its straits to the flagship.
Marshal Chu Xuan looked at the interstellar holo-table, where the star-shield field at the very front was for the most part a sheet of red.
And by the data coming back,
this Hive Nest's defensive fire was terrifying.
Even with the defensive fire and star-shield fields of their T5 King-of-the-Hill-class Heavy Interstellar Comprehensive Strategic Escorts and T4 Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Frigates,
the first echelon at the front could hold out less than five minutes.
"Your Majesty. I request fire support from the Hell-Angel ace fleet group!" Chu Xuan looked to the window at the very center of the command channel.
On this command channel were the leaders of every fleet group and ace fleet group.
That way orders could be passed as quickly as possible.
"No need for my consent; just tell Baixue what you need done," Zhao Chen said calmly.
The wolf-girl Baixue at once looked eagerly at Marshal Chu Xuan. "Marshal Chu Xuan, just say it. Where do you need us to hit!"
The wolf-girl Baixue looked ready to spring.
Marshal Chu Xuan, very direct, sent the wolf-girl Baixue a fire-coverage zone, telling her simply to lay a round of blanket fire on those areas.
The main aim was to destroy those hive 'close-in guns'.
"Got it, leave it to us!"
The wolf-girl Baixue read over the target map and passed it straight down to her fleets, assigning tasks.
Then, out of habit, she planted one foot on her captain's chair and pointed at the ugly great wall of flesh across the way. "Everyone get ready and blast that disgusting thing over there for me. Hell, seeing that thing, I won't have any appetite for dinner tonight!"
Every interstellar missile ship of the Hell-Angel ace fleet group stood ready.
Interstellar missile launchers opened one after another, and with the launch orders from every department.
Interstellar missiles trailing flame launched one after another, a truly spectacular sight.
These interstellar missiles struck the hive 'close-in guns' across the way with precision.
Above all the largest of the hive 'close-in guns'.
After a round of fire that swept the ground clean, the enemy's fire had plainly died down by at least seventy or eighty percent at a stroke.
This at last gave Chu Xuan's fleet group and the Hive Princess's hive fleet group their chance to attack.
"Close the distance. First bombard the target's surface!" Chu Xuan did not rashly charge straight in.
She kept a suitable attack distance.
And had every interstellar warship of the fleet group open fire.
The Hive Princess did the same; Hive Mothership after Hive Mothership fired bio-plasma cannons.
"That's no hive-race at all! Don't sully our hive-race with filthy stuff like that!" The Hive Princess glared furiously at the great wall of flesh across the way.
The thing's biological features were much like the hive-race's.
But she was sure it was no creation of her hive-race at all.
It was surely a counterfeit.
And she, the Hive Princess, would never allow such a counterfeit to exist.
Under this fire,
things like 'meteor craters' appeared on the great wall of flesh, blasted out one after another.
Zhao Chen watched the battle footage.
Above all those blasted-out 'meteor craters'.
They had no power to repair themselves quickly.
That let Zhao Chen breathe a little easier.
They had had a suspicion before: whether this huge thing had the power to repair itself quickly.
If it had, it would have been very dangerous.
"Something this huge, to destroy it entirely, how many shells will it take?" Zhao Chen frowned.
He even felt a pang for all the shell resources he was spending.