Excitement surged, not wild, but focused. This was no longer a feeding mission. This was merit.
This was a test. This was the kind of contact that earned a General a stronger place beneath the queen's will.
The General remained still.
It did not roar. It did not celebrate.
It simply watched, and its patience was colder than space.
On the other side of that "empty" sector, the Xu family ships held position in silence.
They were not large compared to the Zerg hive ships, but there were many of them, and they moved with quiet coordination.
Their hulls were dark, layered with a special coating that made them hard to read, not only by human instruments, but by anything that relied on predictable energy reflection.
The coating did not make them invisible in a childish way. It did not erase their existence.
