A is in StarCraft, just disembarked from the Zerg Prince spaceship.

************

......

By evening, they had collected more than ten kilograms of spores.

The ship's mechanics quickly assembled hundreds of buoyancy devices without firepower braking.

It resembles a string of transparent bubbles of varying sizes, containing dozens of balloons filled with spores.

The spore powder is mixed with gold powder, making it sparkly and looking like a cute decorative balloon.

They hung the string of small balloons on the outside of the spaceship, and also added some roses and fairy lights, making the flower boat look beautiful.

Small balloons and roses swayed in the sea breeze.

The guards saw it but didn't pay attention.

The spaceship had undergone a rigorous inspection when it landed. These things had no energy or complex devices; they were just a string of colorful balloons. What kind of destructive power could they have?

Then the crew went back, as if they had just put up some cheap holiday decorations.

......

The night was deep.

The chill of the night deepened, the distant noises thinned out, and only the sea breeze and the sound of the waves grew stronger.

The Blackwater Star logistics zone also fell silent.

The forklifts and workers stopped working and returned to their respective spaceships.

The lights were still bright, but the logistics area was filled with boxes of all sizes that hadn't been moved yet, and guards were patrolling.

Actually, the guards were also a bit sleepy. Those on patrol were fine, but the guards standing still were starting to doze off.

Inside the balloons hanging on the flower boat, there is a string with a pre-installed miniature fuse that is sensitive to temperature. Once a certain critical point is reached, it activates silently.

The string of one of the balloons seemed to have broken accidentally. The little balloons, now freed from their restraints, were immediately pulled away by buoyancy and the sea breeze, and were blown away in an instant.

Like tiny dandelion seeds, they detached from the stationary spaceship hull and were instantly blown into the sky by the sea breeze, flying towards the dark dome of the logistics area.

Because it had no firepower, no metal components, and was very small, like grass roots, leaves, or even a piece of trash blown away, it was blown away in an instant, almost a natural phenomenon, and did not trigger an alarm from the protective shield's AI.

The balloon floated higher and higher, merging into the leaden gray night sky of Black Mercury.

The balloon floated all the way up into the high-altitude, moisture-rich cumulonimbus clouds.

Then the balloon popped with a few "pop" sounds—

A surprise attack with fungal bombs.

Fungi thrive in damp, cool environments, and the weather on Black Mercury is damp and cold year-round. Mushroom spores, mixed with the overwhelming moisture, spread out instantly in the clouds!

The golden spores refracted the faint sunlight in the clouds, forming a hazy and dreamlike band of light, which combined closely with the ubiquitous water vapor molecules to form countless tiny water droplets.

Water droplets in cumulonimbus clouds collide, merge, grow larger, and begin to fall.

......

It's raining.

The fine drizzle quickly turned into a continuous downpour, enveloping the entire Blackrock Island and every corner of the pirate base.

It landed on the bare black rocks, on the cold surfaces of metal buildings, and on the space pirate soldiers patrolling outside.

It doesn't matter if you're not outside.

During the heavy rain, the air humidity was almost 90%, and water vapor was everywhere.

The overwhelming moisture, carrying spores, silently seeped into the carapaces, joints, eyes, mouths, and noses of the insect-type and semi-insect-type pirates, entering their bodies with each breath.

Spores prefer damp and cool environments.

The night rain on Black Mercury is cold and continuous.

Cold-blooded insects have a cool body temperature and are rich in protein.

When Cordyceps fungus invades, the host will not feel anything.

They slept soundly in their seemingly safe nests, accompanied by the patter of rain.

......

Its daybreak.

Caught off guard, the pirates suffered heavy losses, and strange occurrences suddenly appeared throughout the base.

Countless star thieves, having been exposed to a lot of rain, became poisoned by fungi and began to stiffen and convulse.

Similar situations spread like a plague across the base.

Joints locked, stiff, convulsing, loss of mobility... the symptoms varied in severity, but more and more Zerg soldiers fell, with the lower-ranking soldiers falling the most, while the leaders were relatively unaffected.

Nearly a third of the soldiers developed similar symptoms, plunging the entire pirate hideout into panic.

The medical ward diagnosed fungal poisoning.

Orion immediately realized that there must be a problem with the air.

Their rooms on the upper floors have central air conditioning, and the air is filtered through multiple layers, so they were not infected.

Orion stood before the enormous panoramic observation window, watching the initial signs of chaos emerging within the base below.

His face was expressionless, only a cold flame burned deep within his eyes.

He doesn't need to wait for detailed pathology reports; the island-wide outbreak speaks volumes.

Unexpectedly, after he tricked Bishenmantis by poisoning him, he was then poisoned by someone else.

Fungi, spores.

His little nephew is quite capable, finding something that can threaten the Zerg.

Things were going very smoothly, but humanity did not expect that the Zerg's technology had advanced to such an extent that they could even control the planet's airflow.

Om-! ! !

The entire Blackwater planet emitted a low hum.

The planetary barrier that once covered the entire globe has become a massive, reverse-flowing vortex.

The powerful directional energy field generated a terrifying suction force, instantly tearing apart, shattering, and pulling away the thick cumulonimbus clouds.

The gloomy sky became transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The humid air was rapidly drawn away, becoming dry.

The soldiers' skin quickly lost its moisture.

The clearance process lasted less than ten minutes.

The light from the barrier returned to calm.

The dark clouds that always shrouded the sky of Blackwater disappeared, and sunlight shone down.

The air was so dry it had a pungent smell.

In addition to the spores that have already invaded the body and begun to multiply, the spores still floating in the air and the moisture that could supply the spores for germination were completely removed.

The Zerg's technology is despair-inducing.

The fungal bomb failed.

Orion ordered an investigation into the source of the fungus, and the news flew to Orion's command center like snowflakes.

The results were quickly presented to him.

Last night, a flower-themed ship carrying mushroom spores entered the country. Because the spores were non-toxic, they were not classified as toxic or hazardous materials and were allowed entry.

The flower boat is still docked in the logistics area.

Orion smiled.

His laughter was terrifying.

Humanity.

I never imagined that he would suffer the biggest loss of his life at the hands of humans.

"Arrest them all, immediately. Alive. I want them to pay the price."

At his command, the alarm immediately went off.

The soldiers in the flower boat knew things were going badly, so the boat immediately started moving, intending to break through the barrier.

In fact, they all knew that this small civilian starship from Earth, which was not equipped with any weapon systems, could not possibly break through the planetary barrier of the advanced insectoid race.

They would rather be destroyed than fall into Orion's hands.

However, the advanced Zerg could dismantle a small, not-so-sturdy starship without destroying it.

The space pirates spread their wings and took off, surrounding the flower ship from all directions.

Metal fragments fell like rain.

The hatch and outer shell were violently torn apart by sharp claws.

Pirate soldiers poured in through the broken hatch and the ripped side windows.

The soldiers didn't even have weapons.

The soldiers were roughly dragged out of their hiding places. Some tried to resist, but were instantly pinned to the heads with several gun barrels.

The cabin was a mess.

The equipment was smashed, and the flowers were trampled into mud.

All the human warriors were captured.

Their arms were twisted behind their backs, and their wrists and ankles were tightly locked with high-strength alloy shackles.

Gun barrels were pressed against the back of their heads and temples.

Everyone had wounds on their faces, blood trickling from their mouths, and their eyes were filled with resentment and anger.

It was so close.

If planetary barriers cannot control the air, they cannot control the climate.

If only we could give them a little more time...

The space pirates found the communicator they had destroyed but hadn't managed to completely destroy and delivered it to Orion.

Orion glanced at it and ordered his men, "Restore it."

The repaired chip was inserted into the new communicator, and Orion looked at the restored information.

Wow, it wasn't his little nephew who caused the commotion, it was the human military.

Orion should give them a round of applause.

A group of ants almost broke an elephant's leg; how can that not be considered amazing?

However, if he were the elephant that almost had its leg broken, then he wouldn't be very happy.

Orion looked at the message on the screen that the soldiers had reported the start of the operation the night before.

He suddenly smiled, and then wrote down new information word by word.

—[Operation successful, everything went smoothly. The space pirates have lost their fighting capacity. Our side has successfully met the Crown Princess. The breakthrough operation can now begin.]