Starting from the Planetary Governor
Chapter 1228 - 666, Death of the Iron Armor_2

Chapter 1228: Chapter 666, Death of the Iron Armor_2

The scholars boldly hypothesize that the Insect Race has a ’Void Will,’ which is the source of everything.

From this point, it radiates to various Insect Nest will bodies, forming what scholars call the ’tentacle’ swarm. The Insect Nest will then authorize countless Queens, forming one Insect Nest Fleet after another, considered as part of the tentacle. The Queens provide genetic factors, hatching the swarm army, including Biological Ships and advanced Node Creatures, and authorize units like ’Generals’ and ’Overlords.’ These units, as commanders, then authorize the intermediate Insect Nest Tyrants, with one layer of authorization following another...

Thus, a network is formed.

But taking down any node means all units below that node will be ’disconnected.’

This principle is the same regardless of the scale of the Insect Swarm and Infected Army, from small to large. On a large-scale battlefield, the reason killing some mid-to-low-level Node Creatures has almost no impact is due to this. After they die, there are still plenty of same-level node creatures present to take over their authority, and it can even be directly managed by their original superior. The additional computing power cost is negligible.

However, if it is on a large battlefield, and the highest authority node creature is killed, it’s over.

Below it, all the advanced node creatures lose their minds; these advanced node creatures losing their mind will cause intermediate node creatures to lose theirs too... The entire Insect Race or Infected Army will trigger a domino effect, with the final result being that the whole swarm army will come to a standstill.

The death of Humphrey Paul led to a similar effect.

Is there a same-level ’node creature’ that can take over his authority?

No.

Is there a higher-level node creature that can take over his command?

No as well.

There are, of course, higher-level node creatures, like the Queen. However, the distance between him and the Queen is too great, and it is impossible for the Queen to take command of an entire army across one or two star domains, or even temporarily authorize another advanced node creature.

Unless she can dispatch an advanced node creature, gain authorization, come to the west side of the White Curtain Star Domain, and then authorize a supreme node unit, reconnecting the underlying node units one by one.

But that’s not possible; humanity won’t give her that chance.

The death of Humphrey Paul triggered a chain reaction throughout the entire Iron Armor Army.

In front of Salius and Matins, the Iron Armor Soldiers, who were just desperately fighting against the Interstellar Warriors on their side, suddenly became stiff and mechanical. They still engaged in combat actions by instinct, but they were much stiffer compared to the beginning. They would only attack the enemies directly in front of them and wouldn’t care about situations a bit farther away.

Basic combat became like this, let alone executing any sophisticated tactical coordination.

The Titans and Knights on the Iron Armor side were no different.

Salius and Matins immediately ordered the troops to break through and disengage from the battle.

The order was executed quite smoothly.

And after the troops disengaged, the long-range firepower arrived.

This group of enemies was dumbfounded and bore the bombardment.

Even simply bombing them like this seemed too slow.

After rigorous calculations, the Sect of Mechanics Masters accompanying the troops determined several blast points. The troops retreated, and land-based versions of ’Scorching East Wind’ missiles ascended, exploding accurately at the calculated blast points.

At this time, it was no longer advisable to calculate issues such as exposure damage, cover damage, or in-fortress damage. Since the enemies wouldn’t even avoid it, a single Scorching East Wind could sweep across an area equivalent to an ordinary city, and without problem, hundreds of thousands of enemies would be eliminated under one missile.

It can be said that at the very moment when Humphrey Paul was jointly killed by Salius and Matins, the Battle of Wanzhou Star was essentially won.

Of course, a complete victory does not mean the war is entirely over. After all, Wanzhou Star still has countless enemies that need to be eliminated, and it is impossible to bomb every inch of land with ’Scorching East Wind’ missiles; that would be too costly, and the ground forces are still needed to handle it.

The general handling procedure involves dividing ground personnel into teams to spread out and search. When they encounter enemies, if there are few in number, snipers in the team will use ultra-long-range sniper rifles to take them down one by one. If they encounter strong individuals, they will use anti-armor heavy firepower to take them out from a distance. If they encounter large swarms, they will call for long-range artillery to clear them.

There are still risks, such as teams inadvertently running into undiscovered Infected or Insect Swarms, leading to being pursued, or some hiding within buildings, debris, or tunnels, where direct artillery strikes are ineffective, necessitating personal investigation of the situation. If the number is large, the building or tunnel may be directly collapsed to bury the enemies; if few, then there is no other way but to send people in and clear them one by one.

These actions will still cause casualties.

In theory, these casualties can all be avoided, but a single ’Scorching East Wind’ missile costs 800,000 tax coins, while a Star Realm Soldier’s life is only worth 5 coins; the commanding officers above do the math.

As for bunker busters or high-power weapon attacks, unless deemed necessary, let the Army Department use lives to fill the gaps. Losing dozens or hundreds of staff is actually a far more economical approach.

Not only Wanzhou Star, but many star systems and worlds ravaged by the Iron Armor, might turn out similarly.

As of now, Humphrey Paul himself is the largest node creature within the Iron Armor Army. Other Iron Armor units operating in distant worlds have received his authorization to act. With his death, the authorization chain is immediately severed, unable to link back with the Queen. All ’authorizations’ have expired, and they are all disconnected.

Before a new line connecting up to the highest ’Void Will’ can be reconstructed, they cannot move.

Their destruction has been stopped.

Even if humanity still needs many years to deal with these ’disconnected’ swarms without attack, it will essentially be about aftermath operations and the costs will be significantly lower.

In the sky, the Starships controlled by the Iron Armor’s infected also came to a halt, caught by the Alliance and Western Front Army’s United Fleet, and were destroyed one by one.

These ships have no capturing value. Their internal structures have been altered too much, and without bugs or Infected, they can’t be operated. It’s not impossible to tow them back for repair and modification, but the time and cost involved are not worth it compared to building a new one.

Mars took a few ’Infected Warships,’ even forcibly sending people aboard to clear the Infected inside. After completing the cleanup, they would arrange for tugboats to take these spoils away.

Their decision caused quite a bit of resentment. Going aboard to clear the Infected would result in many sacrifices.

But obviously, those gearheads wouldn’t care. They only cared about how many new things these valuable research samples could help them develop in the future.

Salius couldn’t stop this and could only turn a blind eye.

In fact, he delegated all these ’aftermath operations’ to his aides and subordinates.

He and Matins co-wrote a battle report.

One polished version would be sent to Holy Terra, as a victory bulletin to stabilize the Terrans’ emotions and claim credit.

Another version would be sent to Gu Hang.

If everything went as expected, they would leave some of the forces responsible for the aftermath operations to handle the mess in the White Curtain Star Domain and those numerous worlds to the west devastated by the Iron Armor.

Meanwhile, their core main force would launch a counterattack on the east side of the White Curtain Star Domain, breaking through the swarms emerging from the Princess Star Domain, and attempt to penetrate into the Princess Star Domain’s interior to rendezvous with Gu Hang.