The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

1949. Terrifying infection

"What is biochemical infection? Do you mean these people are infected?" Lieutenant General He Ru asked.

"That's right." The intelligence officer called up the combat video. In the drone footage, it was clearly shown that the bodies of the infected people exploded, and a large amount of living sludge appeared. This sludge was mixed among the infected people, making it difficult to prevent them.

And according to the video, people who are contaminated by the sludge will soon be drilled into the body, and then the person will be controlled in the shortest 10 minutes and no longer than an hour. There is no doubt that the source of infection is that sludge!

In front of several defense lines established by the army, there are already some Wolf Warriors equipped with flamethrowers clearing the mud. After that kind of silt is burned by fire, it will soon be charred and carbonized, and then completely lose its vitality.

But there is still too much silt. I don’t know how many people this thing has infected. It’s completely overwhelming!

Now that the air force knows what to do, the Banshee fighter jets began to carry incendiary bombs to clear the sludge in the infected area.

"How many people are there in the prison area where the infection broke out?" Lieutenant General He Ru asked.

"Prison Area V, which is the area where serious criminals are mainly held. There are 12,000 guards, 450 office staff, and 2,000 handymen. The prisoners held there are mainly rioters captured during riots across the planet, about 1,600... ...But the biggest problem is..." The intelligence officer's expression became solemn, "Due to the execution of the extermination order, about 80,000 Xilu people were temporarily resettled here...all the guard troops were temporarily dispatched."

Lieutenant General He Ru's expression also became solemn, "So, did the infection start from the Xilu people?"

"It's not confirmed yet, but it's very likely," the intelligence officer said.

He Ru nodded and fell into deep thought...

Although the extermination order was very satisfying when it was issued, it was extremely difficult to actually carry out the order. Because the population of Xilu people has reached 10 billion! And more importantly, there are still a large number of Piek people living on the planet Levik. And this planet is also an important advance base for the Dawn Principality. You can't blow up the planet, right?

With this number, it is no longer possible to rely on methods such as shooting and trap killing to carry out extermination. Moreover, the impact of exterminating a race with such a large population is extremely bad. No matter what this race has done, executing such an order is undoubtedly an act of inhumanity!

Therefore, only a few people know about the extermination order, and the process of extermination must be kept strictly confidential. Until now, the Principality of Dawn has only arrested some Xilu people who launched a rebellion on the planet Levik, and then sent them to the colony for orbital bombing to eliminate them. And this efficiency is very low. In this week, less than 2 million people were executed.

In the end, Tang Xiao and the senior officials of Liming Principality made a decision to let Umbrella Pharmaceutical Group handle this matter. Umbrella Pharmaceuticals will develop a virus that will sterilize the Xilu people, allowing the race to die out naturally.

But now, in such a stall, such a terrible virus infection has broken out! If this virus started from the Xilu people, then nearly 10 billion Xilu people on the entire planet are potential sources of infection!

Looking at the living sludge, once 10 billion Xilu people are infected, what will happen on Levik's planet is unimaginable! !

"How many people are there in the virus spreading area?" Lieutenant General He Ru asked again.

"There are about a little more than 30,000 residents, and most of them failed to escape," the intelligence officer said.

"The vast majority? In other words, some people have escaped?" A female voice came from the side.

The intelligence officer turned to look, but there was a red-haired woman wearing an N-7 combat uniform standing there. Judging from her armband, she was just a first-class soldier.

This intelligence officer served on the Eternal and did not know Shepard, but he was a major himself. How could he answer a soldier's question? But he wasn't stupid either. This type of ridicule could only be found in Xiao Bai's novels. He glanced at Lieutenant General He Ru and found that the Lieutenant General was nodding at him, signaling for him to answer.

So the intelligence officer said: "After the infection broke out there, about 4,000 civilians were evacuated by us."

"Isolated?" Shepard asked again.

"Isolated." The intelligence officer nodded.

Shepard frowned, and then said to Lieutenant General He Ru: "Seal the star gate, no one is allowed in, no one is allowed out. This virus must not spread to the principality itself."

"The situation will not be serious enough to block the star gate." The intelligence officer said, "We only need to mobilize reinforcements from other parts of the planet and cooperate with the aerial bombardment of warships to clear this infected area soon. But it will definitely It affects our battle plans elsewhere and therefore requires General He’s approval.”

Shepard shook his head and said: "No, the problem is very serious. We must seal the star gate before the situation gets worse, now."

The intelligence officer turned to look at Lieutenant General He Ru again, only to see the Lieutenant General nodding, "Tell me about it."

"But this..." The intelligence officer still wanted to distinguish.

But Shepard interrupted him directly and said: "Think about it, when did this incident happen? I just read the report, it was during the defense change in the morning. And looking back, last night's defense change, Everything is normal. So, this large-scale infection affecting more than 100,000 people broke out overnight. What does it mean?"

"The infection speed is very fast and it is extremely contagious." The intelligence officer also understood and nodded.

Shepard shook his head and said, "The most deadly thing is concealment!"

She looked at Lieutenant General He Ru and continued: "80,000 Xilu people and 12,000 guards are not decorations. But there was no abnormality in the entire prison area last night! What does it mean? It means they were quietly arrested. Infected! So how long is the infection period? How long is the incubation period? Do you know? If the incubation period is longer than one day, then if time continues to move forward, there will be more people coming and going near the prison area, and maybe the virus has spread to other places! Under such circumstances, if we don’t seal the star gate, do we really have to wait for the virus to spread to Dawn Planet?”

Lieutenant General He Ru's expression changed and he said sternly: "That's right! Hurry!! Block the Star Gate! Immediately! Immediately!! Send 5 warships controlled entirely by robots to guard the Star Gate! No one is allowed to leave from the Star Gate!!"

"Yes!!" The intelligence officer also realized the seriousness of the situation. He answered loudly and ran out to make arrangements.

Lieutenant General He Ru wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said: "Fortunately, you reacted quickly, otherwise, it might really cause a disaster. We need to report what happened here to the Dawn Planet as soon as possible."

He shook his head and sighed, and then said: "This happened only after the Star Gate was built... It's too passive. We can't give up on this Star Gate, we can only fight against this virus."

"There are no absolute coincidences in the world." Shepard said, "If the virus breaks out sooner or later, it must be manipulated by someone if it breaks out at this time. Judging from the time, there is a high probability that it will be the same as this time. It is related to the counterattack of the remaining human fleet. Immediately thoroughly investigate the detention situation of all prisoners of war this time, and focus on supervision!"

Lieutenant General He Ru nodded, "No problem, I'll have someone make arrangements."

Although Shepard is now only a first-class soldier, Lieutenant General He Ru still respects all her opinions. After all, such a legend can no longer be defined by mere military rank.

Shepard also became thoughtful, and she said: "Actually, one thing I care about very much is...do you remember what happened when we first arrived in this star area?"

"Remember. You attacked a Xilu outpost, and then attracted their warships, and the conflict broke out." Lieutenant General He Ru said.

"That's the problem. We now know that the Xilu people have exterminated all the alien races in this star region, and not a single one is left. In addition, the hyperspace in the unknown star region is very chaotic, and there is almost no long-distance hyperspace. The possibility of navigation, then..." Shepard looked serious, "What are these outposts guarding against?" (End of Chapter)