Reboot the Galaxy

Chapter 20 Egg

"What the hell is this 'egg'?" Ruan Zhicheng looked at the broken corpses scattered on the ground with disdain.

"It seems the complexity of the alien community is far greater than expected," Ruan Huzhong pondered.

"Let's hurry up and go, they'll hatch if we delay any longer!"

Charon strode forward, clearly taking on the role of leader.

As Mpuent passed by Di Yan, he made a "I'm watching you" gesture, and Di Yan responded with a thumbs-up.

The group crossed the hall and, guided by Xavier, entered a cave. The surroundings were quiet, with a sense of impending storm; they all raised their electromagnetic guns in a state of alert.

Since entering the lower space, Di Yan found that the situation here had become completely different.

The upper tunnels were mostly free of debris, and looked like an ordinary excavation project.

The ground here, however, was covered with a layer of sticky black slime, just like the one in the hall earlier.

The mucus is everywhere, but its purpose is unknown.

The lower tunnels are no longer straight and continuous, but rather crisscross and meander, forming an unfathomable underground network.

This network has many layers, with numerous small caves connecting them. The group proceeds along a complex route, and without Xavier's guidance, one could easily get lost after a few turns.

Although we didn't encounter any more alien species along the way, this was not a good sign, as it most likely indicated that they were gregarious.

Judging from the current battle situation, they may possess a certain degree of intelligence, since they know to run away even when they are outmatched.

Long-term mutual elimination has led to significant evolutionary results, allowing the alien species to evolve faster speeds, more resilient bodies, and a greater desire to attack.

However, to make matters worse, the mechs did not have heavy firepower capable of causing large-scale damage.

Di Yan had speculated about the reasons, and finally came up with a plausible explanation:

The reason why large-scale weapons have the effect of causing massive damage is that their power actually comes from the shock wave generated by the explosion.

The atmosphere on this planet is so thin that it is almost non-existent, so using weapons like bombs here would be much less effective and inefficient.

Moreover, these mechs were probably not designed with the current situation in mind.

Who could have imagined that the alien species would later build such a massive underground nest, not only possessing air pressure but also developing to such an astonishing scale?

"Go straight ahead, turn left at the second fork, watch the wall on your right, and stop at the first opening."

Knowing they were nearing their destination, Di Yan communicated in advance via the channel, instructing everyone to walk quietly.

Finally, the seven people gathered together against the stone wall. The target cave entrance was just ahead. Di Yan peeked out and secretly checked it.

Dust-like particles floated in the air, so dense they resembled a thick fog, obscuring some of the lights. He couldn't see very far, but the scene before him alone was enough to overturn his understanding of the alien species.

The ground was still covered with black, shiny slime, but the difference was that many reddish-brown "vines" had grown on the surrounding stone walls.

They climb the ground and walls, growing wildly and aggressively, their roots clearly in deeper spaces.

Large areas of the tunnel were covered by these thick, reddish-brown "vines," which looked like a network of blood vessels.

Moreover, the "vines" were covered with numerous orange-yellow eggs, like fruit, numbering in the dozens at first glance.

These eggs are generally about two meters in size, with a standard egg shape. The surface is covered with a light golden film, which is made of maltose. The wrinkled surface is cloudy and semi-transparent, and the internal details are not clear, but you can roughly see a strange black shadow inside.

Those "vines" are living things; they occasionally wriggle and travel along their direction of extension, eventually reaching the base of the egg.

Di Yan guessed that these "vines" were supplying the contents of the eggs with the necessary nutrients.

The incubation process seems to be nearing its end. Some of the eggs are even trembling slightly, with the outer shell bulging out as if they will hatch at any moment.

Di Yan immediately shrank back behind the wall, breathing heavily. His tense heartbeat caused his adrenaline to surge, and the scene truly made him uneasy.

Undoubtedly, the mission objective is to destroy these things before they hatch.

"How much charge are your plasma guns?"

When Di Yan asked in the channel, the answers he received were generally between 14 and 17 shots.

"That's enough. Once we're out, try not to use firearms. Conserve ammunition and prepare for any unforeseen circumstances."

Di Yan drew a machete and held it in his hand. "There are a lot of 'eggs' inside. Unless the situation gets out of control, try not to fire."

"What exactly happened next?" Charon asked.

"There are eggs." Di Yan looked at him. "Lots of eggs."

The team turned right and entered the tunnel. The others exclaimed in surprise in the channel when they saw the scene before them.

Di Yan raised his machete and swung it at the first egg that was closest to him.

The machete was sharp enough to easily slice through the eggshell and strike the dark shadow inside.

But suddenly he felt as if his knife had struck some kind of gelatinous substance, encountering tremendous resistance.

The moment the egg burst open, juices flowed out, and a translucent amber liquid gushed from the opening, washing over the mecha's feet.

A scream like an axe splitting wood came from inside the egg, and the previously blurry black shadow was finally exposed to the light.

Its body is a smooth, dark brown, with dark halo-like patches in some places. Its surface is covered with some kind of dense, transparent gel, and it is currently struggling in the remaining liquid. Hitting it is like hitting sticky cement with a stick.

In shape, it is similar to some variants, but it has more than ten long limbs and a coiled tail at the back, which is not fully extended and its length is not apparent.

Its body has a tube similar to an "umbilical cord" that connects to the base of the egg, and it is this tube that provides it with nutrients.

It has no head; in front of it are only two tall, slender tentacles that sometimes curl and sometimes extend, as if expressing the pain it felt after being struck by a cleaver.

Di Yan's slash penetrated deep into the alien creature inside the egg, but the creature remained remarkably active, which surprised him.

He tried to pull the knife out, but when he pulled, he actually pulled the alien out of the egg!

It arced through the air before crashing heavily to the ground, screaming and struggling in a piercingly loud voice. Its umbilical cord was nearly severed from its body, a thick, black substance oozing from the junction. And that wasn't all; the wounds inflicted by the machete were also oozing this disgusting substance.

At this moment, the alien was struggling frantically on the ground, its movements so fast that it even appeared as a blur, as if it might leap up and attack the mech at any moment.

Di Yan felt a chill run down his spine. With extreme disgust, he kicked the alien creature, barely managing to pull out his knife, and then slashed down with it again.

This strange creature was incredibly resilient; it was still resisting even after being slashed twice.

Its body is extremely tough; a machete will be "clamped" in its tissues halfway through the cut.

After being slashed twice more, the alien's voice became much quieter, and several dark wounds on its surface oozed a viscous liquid, but it was still moving.

Finally, Di Yan thrust his sword straight through the alien creature's body, and it slowly came to a stop moving.

"Oviparous organisms have been discovered and confirmed dead. Please remain vigilant and indiscriminately exterminate all living xenobiotic species."

The name "oviparous" is quite descriptive. Di Yan sneered and flicked the black liquid off his knife, only to find that it was too sticky to shake off.

"This thing is really tough to deal with." Mpuente's voice trembled, sounding somewhat pessimistic.

"I suggest we use a gun."

Ruan Huzhong pulled out a plasma gun. "There are seven of us, each with a dozen or so rounds of ammunition. If it's one bullet and one shot, that might be enough."

Looking at the oviparous creatures on the ground, Di Yan hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "Okay, but you have to cut open the eggs first before firing to make sure the shot hits their torso directly."

Ruan Huzhong responded affirmatively, carrying the plasma gun and walking ahead. He instructed Chalong to cut open the egg with a knife, and then immediately opened fire on the oviparous organism inside that was just beginning to awaken.

A blinding white light flashed, and before the oviparous creature could even let out a scream, the entire egg was almost completely shattered into pieces. The ground was covered with translucent liquid and broken tissue, and black paste slid off the egg's base, merging with the dark, viscous liquid on the ground under the light.

"We have to hurry, they're already showing signs of waking up," said Ruan Huzhong, scanning the dense cluster of eggs around him.

Thus, the other six people, excluding Di Yan, were paired up, with one person responsible for cutting open the egg and the other firing inside to ensure that the high-temperature plasma light cluster could directly contact the oviparous body and exert maximum effectiveness.

Di Yan's approach, however, was completely different.

He walked ahead with a gun in his hand, stepped directly into the testicles, and then fired a shot into the hole he had created.

This made him much faster than others. Like a skilled assembly line worker, he could execute an oviparous creature in seconds with a single step and a single shot.

Chalong stared at Di Yan's figure, seemingly lost in thought.

Just as he cleaved open another egg, Nguyen Hu Trung ran out of charges. He then sheathed his knife, drew his gun, and pulled the trigger on the oviparous creature wriggling inside the egg.

Di Yan advanced quickly, leaving some of the eggs for his teammates behind him to deal with.

After running out of power, he turned around and found that the tunnel had also come to an end not far away.

He walked over out of curiosity, but the moment he stood at the entrance of the cave, he suddenly had the urge to give up.

Before me lay an endless cave, deep and dark, with a ceiling nearly ten meters high. The uneven ground was covered with eggs; there were hundreds just within the range of the light.

This cave is very similar to the place where everyone fought fiercely against the alien species. Various stone pillars and walls divide large areas, but everywhere is covered with thick, reddish-brown "vines" and huge eggs growing on them.

This is practically a giant hatchery, where hundreds or even thousands of agile yet deadly oviparous creatures may soon hatch.

Now Di Yan increasingly felt that it was a mistake for the higher-ups to send them deep into the area so rashly.

If we had received intelligence in advance and prepared some powerful explosives, the situation wouldn't have been so passive.

But right now they only have a few weapons, which is probably just a drop in the ocean compared to an incubator of this scale.

"Oh my God!"

Mpuent suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "How can there be so many? Can we manage this?"

"Even if you can't do it, you should still try."

Di Yan exhaled a long breath, ejected the electromagnetic gun, and resolutely walked out of the cave entrance into this vast area.

The others behind them finished clearing the tunnel one after another, but when they saw the scene inside the hatchery, they hesitated at first, but seeing that Di Yan had already walked ahead, they followed one after another.

The sound of an electromagnetic gun firing is similar to the sound of air leaking, but it has a muffled quality that makes it sound very powerful.

It turns out that the projectiles from the electromagnetic gun can easily penetrate these eggs and shatter the oviparous organisms inside.

These oviparous organisms are very thin, curled up inside the eggs, and their bodies are only about half a meter wide.

They are incredibly resilient; to kill them, you must severely damage their bodies.

The plasma gun is extremely powerful; its ultra-high temperature can instantly vaporize any foreign tissue within its range. Combined with a powerful shockwave, it can kill one enemy with a single shot.

Electromagnetic guns are essentially just metal projectiles. They have strong penetrating power but lack sufficient lateral destructive force. Therefore, to kill an oviparous creature, it would take at least several shots.

Each mech has a capacity of 5,000 electromagnetic gun bullets, and can be used for single shots or bursts.

The screams of the oviparous creatures echoed throughout the hatchery. Seven mechs cleared them along the walls, so that even if the oviparous creatures woke up and hatched midway, they wouldn't be surrounded immediately.

Several minutes passed, and Di Yan had destroyed countless eggs. But as he approached a new egg, aiming at the orange-yellow membrane to fire, he suddenly saw the egg rapidly deforming.

His heart tightened, and he quickly took two steps back. He saw the dark shadow inside the egg struggling fiercely, clearly trying to break through the membrane and emerge.

Di Yan gave it no chance, repeatedly pulling the trigger at the dark figure.

The dark figure let out a scream, its voice muffled by the membrane, and quickly fell still. But this time, the amber-colored liquid did not flow from the broken membrane.

Di Yan became suspicious, took his knife and stepped forward to cut open the membrane. He saw that the oviparous body inside had become much thicker, and the fluid inside the egg had disappeared.

He then understood that before an oviparous organism awakens, it absorbs all the "culture medium" from the egg, thus filling itself up.

Once hatching is complete, there will inevitably be a second and a third...

Di Yan immediately shouted a warning in the public channel: "Attention everyone, they're about to wake up."

As soon as he spoke, a series of rustling sounds came from all around.

The lights on the team members' mechs helplessly swept across the vast incubation area, illuminating one egg after another undergoing bizarre changes in shape, with the dark creatures inside poised to break free of their membranes at any moment.

"Damn it! Retreat, retreat! Don't stay here!"

Charon shouted and fired at the nearest oviparous creature that was about to hatch.

The sounds inside the hatchery grew louder and louder, soon merging into a surging tide as hundreds and thousands of oviparous organisms were reviving.

"Let's go, let's go quickly!"

Ruan Zhicheng pulled Cha Long along, while Ruan Huzhong followed silently behind. The trio quickly retraced their steps.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek rang out, and the first oviparous creature hatched. Its cry was slightly different from before, becoming lower and hoarse.

Then came five, ten, twenty...

They are now surrounded.