5. Dead(?)

The broadcast connected him to star network and the whole of the empire, he took a breath before opening,

"Dear Citizens of Eloten, this is the first prince, Louis de Eloten. Many of you may be shocked by the recent lockdown of the capital city, but don't fear; those are just but preventive measures, in case something happened. By no means will the Military harm you, this I vow on the name of the First Prince of the Empire", he paused for a second.

As he looked straight into the camera, as if meeting everyone's eyes, he continued in a deep voice, "I'd like to bring a certain truth in front of my people, I hope you won't be disheartened by the matter and pray for our soldiers' victory..." The whole network was silent as if waiting for the final verdict....They heard him continue,

" The Empire's first fleet led by Marshall Snow Ledwig, have waged an all-out war on the Zergs as of yesterday"...

There was a buzz this time as the people across the empire were in a frenzy, everyone was silent because nobody expected such a thing.

Shock, fear, expectation; all kind of emotions were jumbled up before a sense of dread and fear came out from the deepest corner of their hear, though they have forgotten about the war and were living with an illusionary peace, the threat of the zergs was a deep-rooted scar that was a symbol of despair for them.

But just in time, the deep voice of the man came to give them a sense of relief, " Citizens, do not panic. Next, I'll be playing a message from the Marshall herself!"

Inside the room, the Emperor and Empress were already shocked by what Louis said, but just then their eyes lit up when they heard that he had a message from Snow...

'She will definitely protect them...'

The next moment a woman in proper military attire stood before everyone, even though it was a virtual image, the aura surrounding her could outshine anyone, nor the Emperor nor Louis could stand beside her.. Her aura of dominance was something that broke through space and sent a sense of relief to all, her proud look and dependable gaze was enough to calm everyone, 'as long as she was there, there was nothing to fear about'

She was what all the Alphas over the Empire strived to be... the epitome of her class.

Her arms were crossed behind her back and she seemed to be standing at ease, but just this image made everyone sit or stand straight... This was the respect she had earned!

She opened in a majestic voice that went straight into the heart for people, "Citizens of the Holy empire Eloten, this is the Marshall of the Empire, Snow Ledwig. I assume the First Prince has already spoken about the war and by the time you receive this message I'd already be in the war. This will be my last message as your Marshall, I hope glory and prosperity to the empire till eternity"

The network froze, as everyone had the same thought when they caught the keywords;

"What did she mean by the last message?"

The image continued,

" My team has been clearing out the bad blood in the empire for some time now. In the last 6 months, we took out each and every one of these corrupted individuals... I declare the Empire to clean, or so I would have wished to see before I went to the war... I've cleaned up most part of them and I declare that with my power as the only Marshall of the state at the moment, I, Snow Ledwig, supports the new Emperor of the Empire, His Royal Majesty Louis de Eloten.... All your doubts will be cleared by his majesty, but from this day forth, the Army of Empire will be under the new ruler, as he will also undertake the role of Imperial Marshall of the Empire. The previous Emperor, Michael de Eloten will be given the title of archduke and will support the empire, in case any problem arose over the throne, he and his family will be given another star to reside in, in other words, they will be exiled", she had a cold look on her eyes.

The blood of Michael went cold hearing her words, but she didn't stop.

" About the sudden war, I found out that the zergs are not creatures without a brain and the reason why the nobility of the Empire was trying so hard to erase them was so that, they didn't take away their powers and position... In case, the zerg leader got a safe haven to reside in, they would have left the Empiralonee since ages ago, but because of the greed of some people, I and my fellow countrymen were put in the harm's way and have suffered."

Yes, the nobility had time and time again disturbed their dwelling, resulting in their ire to deepen and hence, their attack.

"The previous Emperor was ignorant of the matter and hence, not competent enough to sit at the throne... Louis de Eloten is a better leader and will work for the empire on the behalf of its people, I vie for him with my name still, in case any vile decision was made in his tenure that may cause unrest in public, I swear on my title as the Marshall that he will be executed publicly and he, is aware of it...It was the condition I put in front of him. I understand that this is unfair towards many and tyranny on my part, but with the limited time I have, I only had this option... I will definitely send good news, it is the last thing that I will do. I pray for the Empire's glory and prosperity for eternity", the always stoic Marshall had a gentle smile on her face as she gave a deep bow towards the people, so came the end of her final message.

.......

.......

At the same time, lightyears away from the empire.

Near Erth....

Snow Ledwig was in her mecha and was surrounded by over a billion of zergs...

Over the duration of their travel, she had changed to over 20 different mechas and had killed over 10 billions of them.

This was the last batch of them.

Her team was stationed such that they kept clearing and guarding the red zones when their commander fought, they were under strict orders to not let a single fly pass them over.

Snow Ledwig finally stopped...

This last group of zergs were in a formation and had a structure similar to the army.

Snow knew that they have evolved once again, and now their intelligence should be at the level of a human baby.

Around 4-5 generation later, they will probably regain their former intelligence.

Yes, 'former'

In the last 6 months, she had studied every book and paper in the library, the result?

...It had made her blood run cold...

The so-called 'Zero counterattacks' was nothing but a hoax, some nobility back then had wanted a 'better' world and had decided to cleanse the poverty at one go...

She wasn't aware of how they did it, but the cause was a biological weapon, maybe it was spread in areas with people who were struggling to survive or maybe all such nobility decided to stay in a single place and the other areas were bombed, but the result was that most of the affected people turned into eggs which couldn't be destructed no matter what, as a result, the unaffected who were in the know-how were killed and the eggs were transported to outer space...

That is how the zergs first came into existence...

So, in a roundabout way, Snow and others who have killed the Zergs are actually sinners, they were committing genocide...

In her last message to Louis, she has shown him the results and had wanted him to take the throne because the then Emperor wasn't powerful enough to take this burden.

The zergs had returned to take their motherland, in no way was it harming anyone, just that the nobility had feared them because they were guilty.

In case the zergs regained consciousness and intelligence they will definitely seek revenge or so they thought and used this a san excuse to kill them....

Once they started it the revenge played in a loop, they were guilty of sin and had still continued to continue their atrocious behaviour, the result was as seen in some heretics who seemed to have evolved faster than other. They had actually tried to attack the empire, though the same couldn't be an aid for every zerg out there, their recent movements, their need of more allies and that drug that could change humans into zerg, it was probably the retaliation of those successors whose family were killed and who have been living in the shadows since then along with the zergs, they were fighting for their survival and rightful place in the world.

Snow was not a saint, the best possible way to save her mother star was only this, and as a form of repentance, she will die with them...

She knew it wasn't fair, nor was it righteous, it was just her ego....

She will finally become the greatest of the villains by killing these innocent beings,... she was sure she won't regret it, but she was definitely tired... both because of her over-exhaustion of mental spirit and physical body as she kept changing mechas like clothes when synchronising with one took years of practice!

"This will be my final order to you", she ordered in a solemn voice to the intercom.

There was a pause before she got a thundering reply, " Sir, yes, sir! "

"I, Snow Ledwig, declare that this will be the last battle against these beings... I hereby declare that the first fleet will disband and be merged into the army, all your ranks will be raised by 3 positions and you will be regarded as the heroes in the Empire's history ... This will be my last order... ", there was silence throughout the zone....

Even the usual flapping and screeching sounds from the zerg were no more... as if, respecting the life of this woman....

" Get outside the radius of 3 lightyears... I won't be able to do anything else except to keep these in place for 20 minutes sharp... Am I clear? "

"Sir, yes sir! "

Snow fought hard, hard to kill them, hard enough to not let them get behind her and follow her comrades... Now that it was coming to an end, everything was still...

For reasons unknown, the zergs hadn't moved a step for a while now.

Snow will never know this, but she fought hard to save these pitiful beings in front, too.

The whole population of zergs didn't grow to a huge amount, the reason being that even when their life span had increased, so much so that, the first generation zergs were still living, they had become less potent...

They couldn't reproduce much.

So in case they recover their intelligence in about another 100 years or so and regained their memories from when they were humans, the result was unknown.

What will happen to them?

They will remember the pain they suffered, the years of anguish they went through just someone deemed them unworthy.

Because of some zergs who had regained even a little bit of it, had attacked the current empire, in case they remembered everything, the situation couldn't be controlled.

So, even if she will be treated as a cold-blooded killer after the information about it was out, she didn't care.

She may be selfish and an unfeeling demon, who is working on her own beliefs and pride now, she still can't let the future continue to be like that, she couldn't let the future generation suffer because of the mistake of their ancestors.

.....

After around 20 minutes, when she got the signal that they have flown far away, she finally let her sabre down, her stance became full of holes, but the zergs still didn't attack her...

Somehow everything happened in a slow-motion, Snow issued the auto-destruct order...

Her whole life passed by her head like a film....

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

Before she lost her last bit of life, she heard a simple glitch and another buzzing sound ...

"Tha--- yo--"

.".... WOR..."

She didn't survive to hear the whole thing.....[.WORMHOLE DETECTECTED].....and [Thank you for saving us..]

.............