Ch.100Into the Darkness (1)

“Stacks? I can’t see your signal from here.”

“Crackle, help, crackle”

“What? I can’t hear you! Say it again!”

“Cracklecracklecrackle, this is, crackle, G, O, crackle”

“Damn it!”

Milo cursed roughly as the communication ended.

“Hey! Can’t you fix this communication?”

“I’ll check.”

There was nothing unusual until they passed the docking port. The signal was displayed well thanks to the signal chip attached to the spacesuit, and communication was carried out without any problems except for some static.

However, after they entered the ship, one by one they disappeared from the detector, and communication went dead.

“The signal is transmitting fine, but there seems to be something interfering in the middle.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

“Well, um, I think we need to go in and handle it directly.”

How could he send more people in when he didn’t know what happened to those who already went?

‘Should I just abandon them?’

Like any cartel, Milo doesn’t value the lives of his subordinates. The reason he’s hesitating is because there are useful talents among the pirates dispatched to the ship.

‘But Stacks and Justin are quite valuable.’

The first mate is a smuggler who has worked with Milo for a long time, and Justin is a rather precious engineer within the Space Dog.

While he was contemplating whether to abandon them or not, a subordinate in the situation room called him.

“Captain, there’s a signal appearing.”

“Huh? Who is it?”

“It’s Justin.”

Speak of the devil. Justin’s movement appeared on the detector.

The light on the detector was getting closer to the connected docking port.

“Wasn’t he supposed to go to the engine room? Why is he coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Switch to the docking port camera.”

A camera feed appeared at the bottom of the large display in the situation room.

A moment later, Justin walked into the docking port.

He had removed his transparent helmet, having discarded it somewhere. Thanks to that, his dazed face was clearly captured by the camera.

“Huh? Why is he without his helmet?”

“Holy shit! That bastard is holding a bomb!”

Justin was holding the bomb that Milo had given to the first mate to blow up the ship if there was nothing worth salvaging.

“Since it’s inside the docking port, the damage will be significant if it explodes!”

“I know that, you idiot! Hey! Turn on the speaker!”

Milo hurriedly picked up the microphone and called out to Justin.

“Justin! What are you doing?”

“Captain.”

Justin, who had been walking with the bomb in a dazed state, stopped in his tracks.

“Where’s Stacks, and why are you holding that bomb?”

“Captain, I…”

From Milo’s perspective, Justin didn’t seem to be in his right mind.

It was suspicious that he had the bomb that was given to the first mate in the first place, and it was also strange that he was walking around without a helmet when they didn’t know what might be inside the spaceship.

But if he were to detonate the bomb at the docking port, it was clear that the Calvin would suffer significant damage.

“I’m afraid.”

“Hey, what are you so afraid of? You’re a pirate, what could possibly scare you?”

While talking to Justin, Milo gestured to his subordinates.

It was to shield all areas connected to the docking port from the Calvin.

“Forget it. Put down the bomb and come in so we can talk, okay?”

“Captain, you don’t know anything. I’m trying to protect the Calvin.”

“What?”

Justin, who had been saying strange things, stared at the camera and then laughed grotesquely.

“Kekek, no, it’s already too late. The darkness, the darkness will devour this ship.”

“What?”

“Kihihi, kihihihihi!”

“Wait…!”

Justin pressed the switch on the bomb while laughing with his mouth torn wide.

Before Milo could stop him, the bomb exploded, causing the hull to shake violently.

–

‘Done.’

As soon as I felt the vibration from the ship, I prepared to leave.

‘First, the structure.’

I changed the ship’s structure to create a straight line connecting the area where the explosion occurred, the engine room, and the space where the kids were.

The black walls squirmed and changed shape, and the space where No. 26 and Adhigh Orr were became connected to the engine room.

No. 26, who was breaking the helmet of a spacesuit and pushing dozens of tentacles inside, and Adhigh Orr, who had removed a helmet and was sucking blood, acknowledged me.

“Big guy!”

“I” “hunt” “success”

[Zzu zzu zzuzzu (Everyone did well)]

About half of the enemies who entered the ship had become deceased after falling into the traps I set.

Some tried desperately to escape, but they were handled by No. 26 and Adhigh Orr.

‘It’s fortunate that the corrosive tentacles can also produce a predation effect.’

The AMorph’s predation effect doesn’t activate just by eating dead bodies.

More precisely, I need to consume creatures ‘I killed’ for the predation effect to appear. Similarly, for evolution conditions that require capturing intelligent species, only creatures I killed are counted.

However, samples are treated as genetic essences refined with inferior technology, so they are not subject to the restriction of ‘creatures I killed’.

Anyway, the predation effect activated without any issues when I killed enemies with traps while being integrated with the ship and then ate their flesh.

‘Thanks to that, I got an interesting fusion characteristic, but I’ll check that later.’

Now is the time to change the ship.

[Zzu (Let’s go)]

“Yes!”

The wall in front of the engine room disappeared, revealing the vacuum of space.

The outer wall of the pirate ship was visible about tens of meters away from us. Through the hole in the damaged docking port, debris and pirates who were inside the ship were being sucked out into space.

I released the corrosive tentacles.

With a sense of loss as if I had lost my body, all my sensations that had spread throughout the ship disappeared.

Along with that, the black mucus covering the ship began to rapidly dry up and shrivel.

I put strength into my two legs and then kicked off forcefully.

My body, enlarged by the carapace, glided through space.

Following me, No. 26 propelled itself by pushing with its fins to gain momentum. Beside No. 26, Adhigh Orr was flying leisurely like a space dragon without any constraints.

Before us, the entire massive ship operated by the pirates came into view.

‘Looking at the damage, it’s not bad.’

I controlled the pirate engineer, Justin, with a parasite to blow up the docking port.

I aimed for two things.

First, to create a hole in the enemy ship’s outer wall so that I could safely infiltrate the ship.

The ship they use has numerous plasma turrets installed, and it’s also equipped with systems that can detect me if I attach to the outer wall.

So, to divert their attention and infiltrate the ship, I needed to both draw their attention and create an entrance in the outer wall that I could safely enter through.

‘That was Justin’s role.’

The bomb’s firepower was stronger than I expected, and the hole in the enemy ship was quite large. Thanks to that, it seems I’ll be able to achieve my second intention without any problems.

‘They won’t be able to use FTL travel for a while.’

My second intention was to prevent the pirate ship from leaving this place via FTL travel.

I know there’s a pirate hideout in this vicinity.

If this ship flies to the hideout via FTL travel, I would be at a disadvantage.

To prevent this, I needed to create a situation where they couldn’t use their FTL engine recklessly.

‘When a ship is damaged, they generally don’t run the FTL engine.’

It’s not impossible, but during FTL travel, the strain on the hull increases. If something goes wrong, the ship could split apart during FTL travel.

‘In wartime they might not care, but not now.’

They will refrain from using the FTL engine unless they somehow patch up the hole in the outer wall.

Anyway, with this, all my intentions have been achieved.

We entered through the broken hole without any interference.

After setting foot inside the ship, I continued running down the corridor in the area without stopping.

‘It’s not over yet.’

We need to get past before the blast doors surrounding this area close.

No. 26 and Adhigh Orr, who landed almost simultaneously with me, followed behind me without hesitation.

In the distance, at the end of the corridor, I could see a blast door that wasn’t fully closed yet.

‘Camera.’

Through my auxiliary organs, I sensed the movement of a surveillance camera beyond the blast door.

While running, I extended a corrosive tentacle and destroyed the surveillance camera.

Eventually, I’ll have to face the pirates directly to take over this ship, but there’s no need to get caught early.

After destroying the surveillance camera, we were barely able to get past the blast door.

‘Entry successful.’

Soon, people will come to repair the ship. We need to leave this place before then.

[Zzuzzu (That way)]

Using my auxiliary organs to detect, I found stairs in that direction.

We ran towards the stairs. I neutralized the camera installed on the stairs by shooting barbed hairs.

Only after hiding in a corner of the cargo hold on the first floor could we catch our breath.

‘Good. Now that we’ve come this far, next…’

While I was thinking about what to do next, I heard an explosion from above.

It was the sound of the plasma turrets mounted on the pirate ship spewing fire.

The target would be the ship I had controlled and then abandoned.

All the pirate explorers were dead, and the ship was damaged, so the captain of this ship must be quite angry.

‘Enjoy your captain’s seat while you can.’

That position will soon be mine.

–

“What a mess they’ve made.”

“How are we going to patch this up?”

The engineers of the Ruslock Cartel sighed while wearing their spacesuits.

“The captain is pissed, so we need to handle it somehow. Hurley and I will take care of the outer wall part, Cooper, you handle the inside.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cooper grabbed a metal injector to repair the damage that occurred inside the ship.

The metal injector, which looked like a welding machine the size of a person, is a tool mainly used for repairing massive artificial structures like ships.

After connecting several alloy plates to the device and activating it, liquid alloy comes out from the end of the injector to weld the damaged parts.

While repairing with the metal injector for quite some time, he noticed something strange.

“This wasn’t caused by the explosion?”

The hole in the floor in front of the blast door was in a state where the edges had melted, as if some acidic solution had been spilled.

He leaned his head in to check the lower part.

At that moment, a hand shot out from inside the hole and grabbed his helmet.

“!”

He was dragged into the hole without even being able to scream.

Only the metal injector remained lonely in the place where Cooper had been.

A few minutes later, Hurley, who had been repairing the outer wall, came inside for a short break.

“What? Where did that bastard Cooper go?”

He tilted his head in confusion when he saw only the metal injector left in front of a large hole.

“Cooper! Where did you go?”

“Down·stairs.”

“Why did you go down there?”

There was no answer. Hurley waited for Cooper to come up, but there was no sign of him.

With no other choice, he jumped down into the hole.

“Hey! What are you doing in the cargo hold?”

“This·way.”

The cargo hold had minimal lighting to avoid stimulating the smuggled animals.

Hurley knew this fact, but even considering that, this place was much darker than usual.

“Is the light broken?”

Still not sensing anything strange, Hurley walked towards where the voice came from.

‘It came from the stairs, right?’

As far as Hurley knew, there were no stored creatures or cargo on the first floor currently. Thinking they might just be slacking off together, he went down the stairs without suspicion.

“Cooper?”

He thought the second floor was quite dark earlier, but the first floor was incomparably darker.

Even for Hurley, who wasn’t the brightest, entering such a dark place alone required quite a bit of courage.

“Cooper! It’s so dark I can’t see anything!”

As he shouted, a white light turned on in the distance.

Realizing it was a flashlight attached to a helmet, Hurley followed the light with relief.

“What on earth are you doing here…”

Following the light, Hurley finally met Cooper, whom he had been expecting.

But Cooper was very different from what he had imagined.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

To be more precise, Cooper didn’t have a head to wear a helmet on.

Then where was this light illuminating them coming from?

Hurley’s gaze followed the light upward.

At a height of about 5 meters, four long fingers were holding Cooper’s helmet.

“Why·come·now”

With those words, the flashlight attached to Cooper’s helmet turned off.

What remained afterward was only a terrible darkness that would swallow even death screams.