Chapter 400: Seal the Wormhole! Lock the Door and Beat the Dog! A Desperate Gamble!
After a moment of contemplation, David Martinez added, "Try to hold out until the last moment. Only if we absolutely can't hold the line should we activate the psionic pulse to clear out the Zerg."
David still wasn't sure what kind of ace units the Zerg had in reserve, so he had to prepare for the worst. If it came time to use the trump card, he wouldn't hesitate.
"Yes, sir!"
Paul nodded and led his squad toward the frontline. After conserving their energy for so long, it was finally time for a showdown with the Queen of Blades.
After more than ten hours of rest and recovery, the Megacorp soldiers were in high spirits. Compared to the battered and bloodied Zerg, who had taken heavy losses, the Universal Megacorp clearly held the upper hand.
"Everyone, the final showdown is here. We've successfully stalled the Queen of Blades. In less than an hour, the psionic pulse from the Keystone will wipe the Zerg clean."
Paul issued the rallying call over the internal comms: "Victory is right in front of us. Your only job now is to hold the line. Whether it's repairing the AI turret network or joining me to resist the Zerg, do whatever it takes."
"You must hold on for this final stretch. Live to witness the moment of triumph and unification!"
As his words ended, calm, steady replies rang out over the comms: [Copy that—!]
[Understood.]
Everyone tried to suppress their excitement, bracing themselves for the toughest fight ahead, determined to survive and bask in the dawn of victory.
Weapons were loaded, soldiers clenched their jaws, and each unit began mobilizing in sync with central command.
Meanwhile, the Queen of Blades descended with her flagship, the Leviathan, drawing ever closer. Its vast, looming shadow turned pressure into something tangible. As one of the Zerg's top-tier warships, this Leviathan spanned nearly seven kilometers in length. But unlike mechanical starships, this was a colossal living vessel.
This monstrous space beast was covered head to tail in extendable, razor-sharp tendrils, each capable of sweeping away any surface defense with ease.
Worse yet, those tendrils could pierce ships and structures alike. Were it not for the shielded energy field surrounding the base, Leviathan's attacks would've already crushed Universal Megacorp Headquarters.
At this moment, the Leviathan was flanked by a sky-blotting swarm of Mutalisks and Corruptors. These elite Zerg units formed a thick biological barrier around the Leviathan's massive form.
The AI turret arrays on the ground kept blasting into the sky, taking out Mutalisks by the dozens with every volley. But none of that was enough to penetrate the living shield and reach the Leviathan directly.
Now that it had entered the atmosphere, the Leviathan's escorts clung tightly to its body, intercepting any hardlight artillery aimed its way.
As long as the Zerg continued to spawn reinforcements, this bio-shield would never vanish.
In contrast, the Megacorp's shield field was being relentlessly pounded by Leviathan's tendrils. Each impact rang like a warhammer slamming into taut leather, producing deafening shockwaves.
The shield's integrity was visibly degrading, cracks beginning to spiderweb across its surface—clear signs that the energy barrier wouldn't last much longer.
To keep the shield online a little longer, David ordered part of the engine's power output diverted to reinforce the field generators.
But with the Queen of Blades dispatching other Zerg forces to attack orbital warzones elsewhere, the other fronts were becoming stretched thin again, leaving them without enough energy supply.
This meant the Micro Starfall Spear Towers couldn't be reactivated.
"That damn Queen of Blades is cunning," Paul muttered. "She timed this assault perfectly to coincide with gaps in other sectors' defenses."
He could tell she'd figured out the Spear Towers required extra energy to operate, so she had deliberately sent forces to disrupt those sectors.
Now, with only the Zerg's elite remaining at the frontline base, the Queen of Blades had clearly gone all-in, likely hoping to force a mutual kill with Megacorp HQ.
Once Leviathan's exact location was confirmed, David Martinez immediately contacted the fleet.
"Leviathan has arrived. Is your team in position?"
A response came quickly through the comms: [Ready to strike at any moment!]
"Good. Proceed with the operation."
At that command, the Universal Megacorp Expeditionary Fleet emerged from hiding behind the nearby star.
This elite fleet had been concealed for over ten hours, lying in wait. Now, with Leviathan fully committed to the frontline and unable to psionically jump away, it was the perfect moment to strike.
The Dreadnought, the Mantle of Legacy, Moon of War, and Hyperion all set course for the outer edges of the star system—to the location of the wormhole—in order to cut off Zerg reinforcements!
That's right—rather than directly aiding the frontline base, the Megacorp fleet was executing a cut-off strategy, using FTL suppressors to seal the wormhole.
The source of Leviathan's Infinity biological shield and the Zerg's relentless reinforcements was none other than their hiveworld on the far side of that wormhole.
If they could shut the wormhole down, the Megacorp could trap the entire Zerg force in this system and execute a devastating lock-the-door-and-beat-the-dog tactic!
This was what the Expeditionary Corps had been preparing for all along. Now, with the green light from HQ, they moved swiftly toward the wormhole sector.
At that moment, swarms of Mutalisks and Swarm Hosts continued to pour from the wormhole, heading straight toward the Leviathan, completely ignoring the sudden appearance of the Megacorp fleet.
Just as David had predicted: with Leviathan personally leading the charge in a last-ditch assault, the rear Zerg lines were left completely exposed.
They had no means to defend against the Megacorp's surprise attack.
Near the edge of the wormhole floated several space beasts smaller than the Leviathan—Zerg Behemoths, another type of organic warship.
Unlike the fully armed Leviathan, Behemoths were used mainly as transport vessels. Their massive, armor-clad bodies weren't built for combat and lacked significant biological weapons.
At this moment, the Behemoths were busily managing wormhole logistics, ferrying Zerg units to and from the hiveworld.
Now, the Megacorp fleet's first task was to deploy FTL suppression devices, sealing off this space-time corridor—and clearing out every last Zerg straggler in the process.
As soon as the Behemoths spotted the approaching Megacorp ships, they began dumping their belly cargo—Mutalisks and Swarm Hosts—to form a makeshift defense.
But it was far too late!
Before the swarm could form up, the Wanderer-class Dreadnought had already opened fire with hardlight cannons, blowing gaping holes through the Behemoth's body.
The rest of the fleet followed suit, unleashing full-powered salvos to obliterate the remaining Behemoths.
And before them, the wormhole—under the influence of the FTL suppressor—began to contract… and then fully sealed shut.
These massive space beasts, shaped like colossal blue whales, let out heart-wrenching, blood-curdling shrieks—only no one could hear them in the vacuum of space.
Under the relentless bombardment of the Universal Megacorp's main battle fleet, the Behemoths' armored shells proved as fragile as paper. A single shot was enough to obliterate them.
Elsewhere, Moon of War and Hyperion each locked onto the remaining Zerg targets, leaving no survivors in their wake.
Thanks to stealth fields, optical camouflage, and top-tier FTL drives, the Megacorp's expeditionary fleet had appeared in the Zerg rear lines in the blink of an eye.
By the time the Queen of Blades realized what had happened, the Behemoth-class transports—the backbone of the Zerg's support logistics—had already been completely annihilated.
With their reinforcements cut off and the wormhole forcibly sealed, the Zerg forces in this star system were now nothing but abandoned pawns, isolated and helpless.
Now she was the one caught flat-footed.
The Queen of Blades simply couldn't comprehend how, despite the brutal pressure on the main battlefield, the Megacorp still had the resources to deploy a strike force and sever her retreat.
The Keystone was less than half an hour away from reaching full charge—maybe even sooner. Once fired, its psionic pulse would wipe out every last Zerg unit in this system in an instant.
For the first time, the Queen of Blades found herself truly cornered.
Escape was no longer an option. If she wanted to make any impact at all, she had only one choice left—go all-in and force a mutual kill. Maybe, just maybe, she could destroy the Keystone before it fully charged.
But David wasn't about to give her the chance.
He still had cards up his sleeve—more than enough to prevent a do-or-die sacrifice play from working.
Above, the Leviathan flagship moved again under the Queen's command. Suddenly, swarms of mutated Banelings poured out from its body like a violent downpour.
These enhanced Banelings had jet-propelled mobility systems, allowing them to slam into targets at high speed, and they carried far deadlier biotoxins than standard Banelings.
At the same time, the Leviathan aimed its enormous head at the shield barrier below and unleashed a blast of bioplasma—a seething, concentrated biological energy discharge.
Its destructive power was comparable to a human warship's supercharged plasma cannon. And with a single blast from its "main gun," the Megacorp base's energy shield was completely shattered.
Originally, this was the Queen of Blades' trump card—reserved for eliminating the Megacorp's ground forces and headquarters in one decisive strike. But now, she had no choice but to deploy it early.
As soon as the shield fell, Zerg drop pods began pouring out from the Leviathan's body, followed by a torrential onslaught of Corruptors and Swarm Hosts.
With the shield gone, Mutalisks could finally go on an unrestricted rampage. Air superiority at the Megacorp base now belonged fully to the Zerg.
Even so, the ground-based AI turret arrays were still operational. Countless anti-air cannons hurled glowing projectiles into the sky, bringing down Mutalisks and Swarm Hosts in waves.
Thousands of Sentinel drones and AI defense units were also deployed, launching a fierce counterattack against the incoming aerial threats.
The battlefield instantly descended into chaos.
With no shield field to block them, the Zerg drop pods landed deep within the base, sparking brutal close-quarters battles between Zerg ground units and the Megacorp's AI Sentinels.
And because the hardlight turrets were programmed with strict IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) protocols, they couldn't risk firing into areas where friendly units were engaged—rendering them momentarily useless.
Fortunately, the Megacorp had prepared a vast reserve of combat drones. Even in melee combat, their numbers and programming gave them the upper hand against most Zerg units.
Despite the loss of the shield, the Megacorp still had more than enough AI drones in the air to continue fighting back against the Leviathan, the Mutalisks, and the Corruptors.
As both sides clashed in brutal combat, the Queen of Blades personally descended in a Zerg drop pod, landing somewhere deep within the Megacorp base.
This creature—bearing the appearance of a human woman, her body clad in purple bio-armor—was the supreme commander of the Swarm.
Since her transformation by the Overmind, every strand of her hair had morphed into sharp, writhing tendrils, giving her a visage like Medusa from Norse myth.
Combined with her slender, alluring figure and seductive, devilish beauty, she radiated a deeply sinister charm.
Behind her, bone-like wings stretched outward. When fully unfurled, they resembled the scythes of death itself—razor-sharp blades capable of slicing through any enemy who dared approach.
As the Zerg's central mind, the Queen of Blades had more than just tactical brilliance. Her personal combat capabilities were nothing short of terrifying.
Now, in this final moment, she decided to act herself—to claim the Keystone sealed within the Megacorp base and end it all.
Using her overwhelming psionic powers, she warped bullets, redirected plasma blasts, and even deflected heavy hardlight cannons with casual ease.
Under cover from nearby Zerg forces, the Queen strolled leisurely toward the planetary engine complex that housed the Keystone. Her long-awaited prize was within arm's reach.
But just then—a swift figure darted into her path.
The Queen instantly sensed it. The newcomer was radiating an equally intense psionic aura.
It was Paul Atreides.
Conventional weapons meant nothing to the Queen of Blades. The only one who could stand against her was someone with comparable psionic mastery.
This battle was destiny.
Liquid metal in gleaming silver began to ripple and mold itself around Paul's body, forming a suit of symbiotic armor. From his wrist, a blade of pure psionic energy extended—like a giant mantis scythe, a signature weapon of the Megacorp.
In the Queen's eyes, this high-tech battle form wasn't impressive in the slightest. She sneered with condescension and mocked:
> "Psionic blades? Symbiotic armor? You think wrapping yourself in that junk is going to stop me?"
Her arrogance wasn't without basis. Whether in psionic power or raw physical might, she was already approaching demigod levels.
One-on-one, even with tech enhancements, Paul stood no chance.
But Paul smiled and replied calmly:
> "Who said I'm alone?"
As his voice fell, a thunderous chorus of arrivals descended from the sky—
Luke Skywalker, Megatron, Panny, Optimus Prime, Master Chief, and the fully cybernetically enhanced Adam Smasher all landed around the Queen in perfect sync.
The Queen was surrounded—cut off from every direction.
This kind of outnumbered, outmaneuvered scenario was textbook Megacorp strategy. After all, in this day and age, who still believed in honorable one-on-one duels?
Outnumbering your enemy was the only efficient way to win.
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