The T3 Self-Detonating Beetle and the T3 Corrupted Wyvern were both bug-race arms cultivated and hatched by the T3 hive mother-ships.
The T3 Self-Detonating Beetle was only the size of an adult human individual, and its combat power wasn't strong — weaker even than a T1 flying-bug.
But it possessed one astonishing trait.
Self-detonation!
The force of its self-detonation was enough to blast a great hole in a T2 warship's hull armor, and posed a grave threat to a T3-grade warship's hull armor too.
And its self-detonation consumed an enormous amount of a star-shield's energy!
One can imagine the scene if 100-plus self-detonating beetles pounced on a warship and successfully blew up at close range.
Luckily, the T3 Self-Detonating Beetles were exceedingly few in number; one T3 hive mother-ship could cultivate and sustain only somewhere between 10,300 self-detonating beetles at a time.
Aboard the hive, most of these self-detonating beetles were in a dormant state.
One might even put it this way: the moment they were roused was the moment they were to carry out the death-bound mission that was theirs.
A single T3 Self-Detonating Beetle's true lifespan often did not exceed half an hour.
Whether it was for fear they'd run out of control and blow up the mother-ship itself, no one could say.
The T3 Corrupted Wyvern was a mutated, evolved version of the T2 Thorny Serpent; its individual size was 10 times a T2 Thorny Serpent's, with two pairs of wings, its bulk even the equal of a T1 warship's.
It could fly in the interstellar environment, and possessed a short-range rapid-assault ability besides; its mouthparts could spray high-concentration biological sulfuric acid — medium range, blazing-fast fire-rate!
Once a T3 Corrupted Wyvern punched through a ship's armor, it would deposit an astonishing number of bug-eggs into the compartments within the hull, and these eggs would hatch out a great many T1 alien-bugs.
These T1 alien-bugs would, in exceedingly short order, invade every department of the whole ship, and the fluid they sprayed carried strong corrosive and electromagnetic-interference properties.
At this moment these terrifying bug-swarms, like an abyssal maw already gaping wide, swept in upon the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser from above, below, left, and right of its face — to swallow this tiny quarry.
"Report — the enemy's flying units will be first to enter our ship's attack range!" a crewwoman reported.
"Bow-cannon, main guns — hold at the ready. Secondary guns, deliver precision strikes on the enemy's T3 bug-race units; close-in guns, open fire full-bore to intercept the enemy bug-swarms! Interstellar drones, enter defensive automatic-combat mode," Charlotte ordered.
Zhao Chen stared at the holographic imagery, that picture like a game.
The model standing for the T3 Blizzard had, at this moment, begun to fire.
The great mass of T1 flying-bugs charging at the fore were shattered by the swathe.
The T3 Blizzard's 72 Medium close-in guns fired without a moment's pause, the rounds they loosed forming great sheets of barrage.
Because of the bug-swarm's dense nature, even a single round could often kill several T1 flying-bugs.
A Medium Pulse-Laser secondary gun swung its aim, trained on a spot amid the swarm, and fired at once!
A beam of laser shot out, and after punching through dozens of T1 flying-bugs, struck true on a T3 Self-Detonating Beetle hiding among them.
Because of the T3 Self-Detonating Beetle's own frailty, it often needed other bug-race units to fight in concert, using them to hide its own shape.
Another laser shot out, this time striking a T3 Corrupted Wyvern, punching a great hole in its body.
The interstellar drones too kept up their attacks on these bug-swarms.
In a mere few dozen seconds, the T3 Blizzard had killed at least several thousand bug-race units, and the number kept climbing.
Even so, these bug-swarms swept in fearless of death, drawing nearer and nearer to the T3 Blizzard.
Some T2 Thorny Serpents even sprayed venom to attack the ship.
But luckily it was all held off by the T3 Blizzard's forward star-shield.
"Report — one enemy T3 hive mother-ship and four T2 hive mother-ships have entered the range of our bow-cannon and main guns." a crewwoman reported.
Charlotte gave the order without hesitation, decisive: "Fire!"
The Blizzard-class Heavy Cluster-Laser Bow-Cannon, long charged, loosed a vast blue energy beam; wherever this blue energy beam passed — never mind T3 Corrupted Wyverns or T3 Self-Detonating Beetles, still less T2 Thorny Serpents and T1 flying-bugs — all of it was blasted to ash and vapor!
Unlike the earlier pulse laser, the cluster-laser was a sustained attack.
So from outside one could see the T3 Blizzard's bow-cannon pouring out energy without pause, the blue energy beam surging ever forward, tearing a rent through the pitch-black bug-swarm, until at last it laid bare the quarry it sought.
A T3 hive mother-ship!
Zhao Chen watched the cluster-laser in the picture strike straight onto the heavy armor of the T3 hive mother-ship's skull.
BOOM!
Though in truth he heard no sound, in Zhao Chen's mind it was as if he heard that violent crash.
The instant the cluster-laser struck, it didn't destroy the T3 hive mother-ship outright, but kept hammering at the T3 hive mother-ship's heavy armor.
Rather like a warship — the interstellar bug-race, from the T3-grade unit up, were the truly "militarized" interstellar bug-race.
The T3 hive mother-ship didn't have a star-shield like a T3 warship, but it had developed an exceedingly terrifying biological armor — its average strength per unit of area was dozens of times higher than a T3 warship's armor!
At the same time a T3 hive mother-ship's individual bulk was dozens of times a T2 hive mother-ship's.
A T3-grade warship, set before it, was as small as a little grape before a watermelon.
If Zhao Chen were now to ram a T3 hive mother-ship with the T3 Blizzard, which of the two would end split open and mangled was anyone's guess.
In the T3 Blizzard's hangar compartment, the narrow porthole was now crowded with several professors and instructors, those behind unable to see a thing.
"The hell — is that attacking a T3 hive mother-ship!"
"Though we can't see the ship's weapon structure, by that attack it should be a cluster-laser sort of weapon."
"This T3 warship is an interstellar battlecruiser; the cluster-laser it mounts still can't kill a T3 hive mother-ship outright — a T3 hive mother-ship's heavy armor is a terror that can hold off even a T3-grade interstellar battleship's main gun!"
The professors and instructors talked among themselves without let-up.
The teachers and students behind them could only hear their words, unable to see the scene beyond the porthole at all.
Teacher Qin suddenly had the professors and instructors up front give way, then worked her handheld terminal a few times, capturing the scene beyond the porthole and projecting it into the hangar.
That way everyone could see the battlefield picture.
In the hangar, all the teachers and students watched that blue beam, holding their breath…
"What an amazing cannon…" Xue Xiaoxiao stood open-mouthed, a picture of astonishment.