Ch.202Flying Object (2)

In mythology, the sky is an object of admiration. The vast firmament holds the divinity of a father or mother and is closely connected to creation.

Even without divinity, the sky was considered a space where godlike beings resided. Sometimes as heaven where the dead find salvation, sometimes as a place where beings beyond human dwell.

Even after the age of ignorance ended and the era of reason and technology arrived, the sky remained fascinating.

This is also true in Space Survival. In a game set against the backdrop of the vast universe, the sky inevitably becomes an object of challenge and conquest.

But one must be careful.

Because you never know what beings might lurk in the unknown realm of the sky.

Snow, rain, hail. And storms. My wings swim through the symphony played by nature.

Light flashes followed by thunder. With each lightning strike, my shadow flickers in the ash-gray clouds.

Strength enters my shoulder blades and shoulders, muscles covered in carapace and scales undulate. The membrane connected to my elongated fingertips cuts through the clouds. Each fully extended wing spans over 40m in length. Just one wing is longer than my entire body.

‘Considering my size and weight, I suppose this much is needed to fly.’

And the Cult members under attack from me probably aren’t too pleased with the situation. My body is much smaller compared to cruisers that exceed hundreds of meters, but the Cult members watching me through cameras wouldn’t think so.

‘I’d rather not make them crash.’

I just rammed the front section housing the command center with my body. It was to throw them into confusion.

As I thought, the cruiser’s crew couldn’t make proper decisions. They were counterattacking with ship cannons when they should be fleeing at full speed.

The sound of psychic batteries spitting fire mixed with the eerie noise created by snowstorms and lightning. I adjusted my wing arms to dive sharply downward. The enemy’s attack barely grazed the tip of my tail.

“Be, be careful flying! If we fall, we’re done for!”

“I was designed with planetary atmospheric descent missions in mind, so that doesn’t apply…”

“Shut up!”

“Wow! Flap flap! This is fun!”

The kids are riding on my back as I fly at tremendous speed. I’ve extended my infection tentacles to gently wrap around them in case they fall. As Sky Mother said, falling wouldn’t end well.

‘That’s unexpected.’

Despite her name, Sky Mother doesn’t seem pleased with my flight. She’s been clutching my infection tentacle like a roller coaster safety bar since earlier.

[Zzzz zzz zzzz zzzz zzzzzz(I heard you were good at piloting fighter jets?)]

“Sitting in a cockpit and controlling is different from this! Imagine riding an airplane with your bare body!”

Now that I hear it, she has a point.

While Griffon has the ability to glide momentarily in midair, that doesn’t eliminate primal fear. Understanding immediately, I didn’t question her further.

[Zzz zzzz zzzzz(Are the others okay?)]

“Yes! It’s fun!”

No. 26, who likes everything I do, seemed to enjoy the flight. In contrast, PS-111, who is more than half machine, appeared to feel nothing.

‘I guess I’ll cut off their feet first.’

Though unlikely, it would be troublesome if their captain activated the hyperdrive engine. Unless they’re lucky enough to jump into a star, escaping safely would be bad for me.

‘They might bring reinforcements from the Cult Empire.’

This situation differs from last time since this planet isn’t designated as sacred ground. One wrong move could lead to fighting the entire empire. I need to prevent them from escaping.

‘I’ll target the thrusters first.’

I slowly flapped my wing arms, gliding on the clouds. The enemy cruiser’s cannons continuously fired at me. Purple energy shells over several meters in diameter punched holes through the clouds, closely following me.

I’m someone who easily avoided attacks even when synchronized with a spaceship. I entered the dark clouds and effortlessly evaded the enemy’s attacks.

‘They probably can’t use the main cannon.’

Cult cruisers are equipped with main cannons possessing powerful firepower.

Previously, Muriel’s pirate group, Humanity Cartel, tried to intercept me from a considerable distance. I had taken control of a Star Union cargo ship, but one shot from their main cannon split that massive vessel in two.

Despite its destructive power, they likely won’t use it now. When the main cannon activates, it concentrates enormous psychic power. It would essentially advertise their presence to nearby Gallergorn.

‘Of course, they might be crazy enough to just fire it anyway.’

I need to finish this quickly before that happens.

Hidden in the clouds, I rapidly approached the cruiser’s side. The cannons that spotted me as I burst through the clouds hurriedly turned their barrels.

Some quick cannons succeeded in hitting me, but it didn’t matter much. I had already closed the distance to the cruiser sufficiently.

Judging the distance close enough, I stretched my wing arms backward and spread the membranes wide. My body, which had been advancing fiercely, abruptly stopped in midair.

Simultaneously, I transferred that momentum to my tail. My elongated tail swung forward like a pendulum, and the pincer at its end smashed into the side of the diamond-shaped cruiser like a flail.

With an explosion and erupting flames, the Cult ship tilted heavily to one side. It lost balance as the thrusters on its side were destroyed.

While the enemies were confused, I landed on top of the cruiser. The cannons couldn’t target me properly due to the ship’s overall shaking.

Before the ship stabilized, I had work to do. I activated my “Acidic Fungal Gland” trait after a long time. Acidic mucus mercilessly poured down from under my split jaw.

The cruiser’s smooth ivory exterior armor melted away with a sour smell. The fungi instantly penetrated through the outer wall into the interior sections.

‘This should be enough?’

I widened the hole with my combat arms, then thrust my head inside. I saw a Cult member looking up at me with a blank expression from the corridor inside.

Before he could react, I opened my jaws wide and bit him.

“Hee, heek!”

“The monster is infiltrating the ship!”

The Cult crew members screamed as they saw their colleague enter my stomach with only his ankle remaining.

‘It’s too narrow for me to move around here.’

My body had grown too large to navigate the corridors. Unless I was in my Cunning Lesser form, I could barely enter, let alone move around.

‘I’ll target the runway area.’

After shooting fungi at the fleeing Cult members, I pulled my head back outside.

[Zzzzz zzz zzzz zzz(I’ll go to another section)]

“Got it. We should clear the command center and engine room first, right?”

[Zzzzz(For now)]

“Big baby, see you later.”

“This is an opportunity to update our database on Cult cruiser structures.”

I carefully placed the kids I had been holding with my infection tentacles inside the ship. After feeling their presence move away, I spread my wings again.

–

“Report the damage!”

The captain shouted as if cursing. He had injured his head from the recent impact, but that wasn’t important.

“Hull damage at 9%! 23% of internal sections destroyed!”

“Crew status unconfirmed!”

“The, the unidentified psychic creature is heading toward the engine room! The warrior unit assigned to defense has been annihilated!”

“Damn it! What are the Temple Guardians doing?!”

“They’re busy fighting the monstrous creature that appeared on the runway…”

Though he said that, the captain already knew. He couldn’t help but know. The numerous video images floating in the center of the command center showed the current situation all too clearly.

All 12 Temple Guardians were on the runway. They were currently preoccupied with facing a flying creature vastly larger than a Gallergorn.

Actually, “facing” wasn’t the appropriate expression. To be precise, it was a massacre.

The long, thick tentacles protruding from its back were as fast and deadly as energy shells. When caught by the appendages at the ends of the tentacles, even the dragon scale armor worn by the guardians was of little use. What good was defense when being devoured by tentacles dissolved one’s entire body?

That wasn’t all. The creature was incredibly tough, living up to its enormous size.

“D-damn it! It reflects psychic power!”

“Then what are we supposed to do?!”

“The demolisher… AAAAARGH!”

While looking away briefly, another guardian died. His head, with his waist bent backward unnaturally, was covered in unpleasantly glowing bubbles.

He had been a guardian protecting the Cult members on this ship until departure, but the opponent was too formidable.

That flying monster was excessively powerful.

After seeing another guardian’s limbs torn off, the captain turned away.

Those guardians had been their remaining hope, but even that was gone now. He needed to devise another plan.

‘Should we abandon the ship?’

Using escape vessels might allow them to get away from these monsters.

The problem was that escaping wouldn’t necessarily improve their situation. Even if they abandoned the ship, surviving long on this planet with its terrifying monsters and harsh weather conditions would be impossible.

At best, it would only extend their lives by a few days.

“…Prepare the hyperdrive engine.”

“Captain! That’s insane!”

The crew in the command center protested, but the captain shook his head. This was the only option left.

With the ship significantly damaged, it might split apart during navigation, but they would die either way.

Moreover, with one of the monsters heading toward the engine room, this option would be unavailable in a few minutes.

‘We’ll fly to a nearby planet using hyperdrive, then escape.’

The identity of the attacking monsters was unknown, but they were surely native to this place. Whether they could survive easily in a completely different environment remained uncertain.

“I’ll order again. Prepare the hyperdrive eng—”

As the captain tried to reissue the order, the floor shook violently.

‘No.’

It wasn’t the ship shaking. Currently, the ship was maintaining balance in the air with emergency thrusters operational.

The flying monster capable of destroying the ship was still fighting the Temple Guardians on the runway.

‘It’s not the ship shaking…’

His gaze turned to the tightly sealed blast door. Since an attack on the bridge’s command center would be fatal, all intermediate sections connected to this area were completely sealed off.

‘Could it be?’

As if answering his question, the command center shook again. This time, the impact wasn’t felt by him alone.

The crew members busily adjusting the ship’s status stopped moving. They looked at the blast door just like the captain.

“…Check the status of all nearby sections.”

“Y-yes, sir…”

Then came a thunderous sound. A noise similar to an energy shell being fired from a cannon was heard very close by.

Close enough to be just behind that blast door.

And the captain’s prediction was accurate.

The blast door shook violently from a strong impact. After trembling several more times, it became quiet.

“……”

“……”

Although the attack had stopped, none of the Cult members present believed the enemy had retreated. Some crew members drew weapons stored on the bridge at the captain’s signal.

While they armed themselves, the blast door changed again. A red dot suddenly appeared in the middle of the door. The red dot rapidly expanded until it became a large hole.

The material composing the door had decomposed as energy became highly concentrated.

Everyone in the command center stared through the hole. The screams of crew members could be faintly heard through it.

And in that place filled with deep darkness, “it” revealed itself.

Blood-red eyes, and in contrast, an incredibly pale face.

A woman’s face that might be called beautiful if her eyes were closed was glaring into the command center.

“A, a woman?”

Someone’s incredulous remark. But he soon had to retract his statement.

When the white face floating in the darkness opened its mouth wide, everyone thought the same thing.

That was no woman.

After all, neither human nor Cult women’s mouths could split that wide.

A mouth that opened as wide as a Cult’s face. Seeing the navy-blue flames rising from within, the captain tried to give an order.

To fire immediately at that monster.

But he couldn’t.

Suddenly the world twisted, and the smooth ivory floor rapidly approached. Along with it came the familiar sight he saw every morning through the mirror.

His upper body with its splendid emblem.

Only then did the captain realize his head had been separated from his body.

Numerous arms tearing through the hole, the silent screams of the crew members—these were his final memories.