Walk into the engine room.

The cabin was now quiet and empty, except for the queen and a soldier, and the huge swarm was completely gone, neither in sight nor found by sentience. He continued forward until he reached the edge of the attack radius, and then the Soldier Worm stepped forward to block him, taking Tia with him. Dürer.

Tia. Dürer's body.

The soldier's jaw ran completely through her abdomen, and the tips of both chelicerae were inserted into her brain. Mo Fei knew what the queen was going to do with her, so she wasn't surprised when she spoke.

What surprised him was the content.

"I found it very difficult to communicate with you through consciousness, it took too much power, and I didn't find a way to use a living human as a communication tool, so unfortunately, I had to kill her."

Mo Fei put his hands behind his back, looked at the insect queen with great interest, its body, and said half-jokingly, "This is not like what the Zerg Queen would say. ”

"I admit, it does."

"It's not like having 'I' as a pronoun."

"You can see it as an awakening of my sense of self."

"Self-aware? It's even less like what the Zerg Queen would say. Then, Mo Fei changed the conversation and went straight to the point: "So, what are you inviting me here for?" ”

"As I said, fix things here."

"How to fix it?"

"An armistice, between you and me."

Mo Fei's eyes flickered. "We?"

"You, outsiders." The queen explained, "You don't belong to this world, and the war between my race and humans has nothing to do with you, so I suggest that we stop fighting, and then I return to the planet controlled by the Zerg, and you return to your world." ”

"Sounds good." Mo Fei nodded, secretly observing the situation, trying to figure out if he could get closer in order to solve the negotiation partner. But the queen immediately sensed his intentions.

The soldier insect took another step forward, completely blocking Mo Fei.

"Don't even think about it, outsider." The queen of worms issued a warning, "I know your abilities and your weaknesses, if you attack me, I will kill He Xie." ”

It was a contemptuous smile in return. "You think I'll care about him?"

"Your bluff is useless." If the queen of worms is able to make Tia. Dürer let out a laugh, and it must have done so. "You have to care about him, because you don't know if your Lord God will assign you a new leader."

The defeat was infuriating, but it was more directed at the Lord God. He accentuated his tone: "It is not my Lord God. ”

"That's your problem." The queen changed to a satisfied tone—for the victory it had won, "Now, do you want to listen to my advice?" ”

At times like these, temporary concessions are necessary. It was a false gesture of grace. "Please continue."

"You have only come to this world because your Lord God sent you to this world, and your sole purpose is only to earn bonus points. Considering the outcome of your battle with my swarm, I believe you have achieved most of your objectives, so it is in our best interest to have a truce now. You can leave with the points you earn, and I can retreat into worlds beyond the reach of humans. ”

"What if I reject your offer?"

"Then you'll lose your leader and two important teammates, as well as the bonus points they earned." The Worm Queen's answer made Mo Fei seem to understand his thoughts, because that was exactly what he was worried about, "In the next world, you will get a few teammates who are completely incapable of fighting, and they will not bring any help, but will only slow you down, make your disadvantages more obvious, and then jeopardize your safety." You are smart, outsider, and will not choose this outcome. ”

"Looks like I don't have a choice." Mo Fei paused for a few seconds, and then asked curiously, "But I want to know, why are you giving up the upcoming victory?" ”

"Victory? There is no victory, outsider, we all know what you can do, in the most extreme case, you have the ability to destroy this battleship directly-"

"But you just need to use your psionic energy to buy a little time to complete this invasion."

"I'm not going to finish this invasion."

"Why?" Mo Fei raised his eyebrows, "You originally had the opportunity to become the first Zerg leader to invade Earth. ”

"It's undoubtedly a huge victory for my race, but not for me." The Queen of Worms is completely negating its previous actions, "Earth is a wrong target, maybe I can complete the invasion, but the defense force here is more powerful than any human-controlled planet, and it won't be long before the human army will completely destroy me." ”

"You're going to avoid this?"

"Invading Earth was not my own decision. So, yes," the queen admitted, "I'm going to avoid that." ”

"So that's your decision?"

This time, the queen didn't answer him with a simple "yes". "I took a moment to think deeply about my situation." She said, "I have long been faithful to the mission of my race to exterminate humanity, but I have never considered why it came from or from whom, even after suddenly attaining unprecedented power and the ability to think commensurate, until I discovered in your brains the ultimate secret of this world. ”

"It's really an unfortunate thing." Mo Fei commented, heartily.

"Luck and misfortune just depend on the way you look at the problem." "The important thing is that I finally realized that the mission of my race and my race as a whole is nothing more than an entertainment product created by some humans to please others, a fantasy story, and that they have decided my fate. It's funny," under the control of the Soldier Bug, Tia. Dürer's corpse made a shaking motion, making the queen's self-deprecation even more ironic. "My fate was decided by some human beings outside the world."

Could it be that she already knows the true intentions of this self-conscious Zerg Queen: to rebel against the fate created by the film's screenwriters, just like some people.

He laughed a little, didn't rush to make more comments, and waited for the queen to finish.

"If this is just an ordinary cinematic world, I will have to submit to the fate determined by the creator and never realize it, but it is a semi-natural world created by your Lord God based on the story and allowed to evolve on its own, and I have perceived the truth, then I will no longer follow my fate." After a pause, the queen reiterated her decision, with a reason: "I will not follow the fate that humans have decided for me, no matter what world they belong to. ”

"Well said." Could it be that he applauded, gently, but actually unmoved - the spirit of resistance of the insect queen was not his concern, what did it want to do.

He had a guess that wasn't so good for him.

"That is, you have not only decided to abandon this invasion, but also intend to withdraw from this war? Or go a little further and push the Zerg to achieve peace with humanity? ”

"There is no peace between my race and humanity." Dead Tia. Dürer shook his head again, "And, I don't need peace, and neither do humans, what do you think, Karl. General Jenkins? ”

Mo Fei quickly turned around and saw that the person in charge of the Occult Department was walking into the engine compartment, followed by Guo Bo, Conventional and He Xie, and everyone's faces were not very good-looking.

He knew why, but he didn't care.

They don't matter anymore.

Mo Fei put away his thoughts and greeted Jenkins: "General." ”

"Lieutenant Colonel." Jenkins replied calmly, as if he had seen an old friend for many years, and then stopped beside him and nodded to the queen bug.

His attitude made Guo Bo quickly roll his eyes. "It's unbelievable that just a few hours ago, they were bitter rivals."

"yes, we're sworn enemies with that big bug." He Xie said with difficulty, constantly pumping - those few broken bones made him very uncomfortable, Jenkins once proposed to treat him with psionic energy, not to heal the wound but to make him not feel pain, so he refused without hesitation, and now regrets it to death.

"And I shouldn't have followed him here to meet the big bug." He then told Guo Bo.

Guo Bo immediately stood to the side a little. "Boss, if you mention that title again, I'm worried if your head will explode all of a sudden-"

"Quiet, my friend." Mo Fei interrupted him and turned to the bug queen, "You asked General Jenkins to come here, why?" ”

The queen did not hide its thoughts. "In addition to you, I need to make a deal with humanity."

"Wait." He Xie called out—Mo Fei asked Guo Bo to be quiet, and didn't ask him to do this, "You just said that you don't need peace, and neither do humans." ”

"Yes, so I'm not going to discuss peace with General Jenkins."

"So you're going to make a deal with him, that you each go home and regroup your forces for another big battle? The kind that can decide the winner at once? ”

"Nope." The queen and Jenkins said at the same time.

"What's that?"

I've already thought of it. "A long war that will be good for the Queen of Worms, General Jenkins, and the federal government."

"And you." Added to the postworm.

"The Queen of Worms needs this war to elevate her status among the Zerg, and by the way, get rid of some of its fellow tribes that refuse to obey it or may pose a threat to it." Jenkins went on to reveal to He Xie what an awakened Zerg queen would do.

The same is true for the queen worm. "General Jenkins also needs some victories to cement his position. And the federal government of humanity, we all know very well, needs this war more than I do—the federal needs an enemy who will not compromise and cannot negotiate in order to maintain its deformed system. Robert. Heinlein built a government based on complete idealization, and it wouldn't be long before it collapsed without my race. ”

He Xie felt that this was an extremely strange thing: a bug was mocking its original creator with impunity. But then again, satirizing the federal polity has always been the main tone of the movie, from the first to the Martian traitor, anyone who has seen it can feel it, and since the queen has seen his and other people's brains, of course it will also be affected.

He scratched at what little hair he had left. "So you agreed that the war can't end, but it should be done the way you need it to?"

"Correct."

"Okay...... "He Xiebei shrugged, "and one more question, you want to make an agreement, but can you trust each other?" ”

"No, but right now, we don't have any other choice." Once again, the voices of the Queen of Worms and Jenkins coincided, "No one intends to die together. ”

That's right, everyone wants to live to the end, and it's better to live a lifetime of old age. He Xie thought about it and nodded. "Count me in."

Ten minutes later, a shuttle left John, who had miraculously returned to space and was heading at full speed towards the Martian wormhole. A. Worden, flew to the L-6 base. Carmen. Ibana was its pilot, Carl. Jenkins was the passenger – but not the only one, there were the remaining motorized infantry in the cramped cabin: Varro, Doherty, Hax, Rat Warrior, Ace, Mike, and the Saint. They all survived, but no one could say for sure how they escaped the Zerg.

All they have in their minds are vague memories.

Ibana was unhappy with the condition of the soldiers. She still lost her battleship and could only watch as she flew into the unknown, with a bug queen and a boatload of bugs, and strangely, the Federation did not send a battleship in pursuit. She wanted to know the truth: "Carl, what happened on my ship?" ”

Jenkins gave her a stiff smile. "All I can say is that it's confidential."

"What about the special forces soldiers?"

"Carmen," he said, raising his right hand, solemnly announced, "I promise you, you will see them again." ”