Ch.216A Sky Full Of Stars! (4)

#216

Dexter felt the thumping sounds getting closer from behind and began to rack his brain.

‘A way, a way… some way to get out of this situation…’

There was none.

He figured he’d just have to wing it with his body.

‘I’m really fucked.’

Dexter forcibly relaxed his tense muscles, preparing to dash forward at any moment.

[Can’t you hurry up?!]

-Boom, boom…!

When Olivia urged again, the Abomination’s footsteps quickened.

Soon, as the Abomination charged forward and approached, Dexter prepared to dodge and move ahead.

When the distance between Dexter and the Abomination was less than 10 yards (about 9m), Dexter glanced back to assess the situation.

“…?”

The Abomination wasn’t even taking an attacking stance toward Dexter; it was simply moving forward.

Its destination was the captain’s quarters.

The Abomination literally just came to the front of the captain’s quarters.

The Abomination’s blind spot.

Dexter recalled Olivia’s orders given through the speaker.

‘The Commander didn’t tell the Abomination to catch me.’

The Abomination passed by Dexter and faithfully arrived at the captain’s quarters as per Olivia’s orders.

The mercenaries, who had been shooting at Dexter, stopped firing when they saw the Abomination suddenly appear.

While the Abomination was a loyal experimental subject that followed orders, it didn’t have the intelligence to figure out what to do on its own.

[No… Abomination! Don’t just stand there, catch Dexter! Now!]

“Dex, ter…?”

The Abomination looked around with a stupid expression.

This was his chance.

“That one’s Dexter!”

When Dexter pointed at one of the mercenaries, the Abomination looked at Dexter’s finger and stomped toward that spot.

“What the… It’s not me, it’s that bastard who just spoke!”

When the targeted mercenary pointed at Dexter indignantly, the Abomination tried to turn around again.

But true to the method Dexter had just demonstrated, he didn’t panic. Instead, he approached the Abomination with something clutched in his pocket and shouted at the mercenaries.

“What, that bastard? Abomination, he just used foul language in front of the Commander! Punish that bastard quickly!”

[Dexter Hughes! How dare you use my name to insult others?]

“Oh, Commander! I’ll handle this myself!”

[Abomination, the one clinging to you is Dexter! Catch him now!]

The Abomination, who faithfully listened to Commander Olivia, turned to grab Dexter, who was closest to it.

This was his chance.

Dexter pulled something out of his pocket.

It was the cord with the lock attached that he had used earlier to crack a mercenary’s skull.

Dexter twirled the cord a few times, then threw it toward the Abomination’s neck.

“Ugh, no… way!”

While it successfully wrapped around the neck, the cord was too thin to strangle and bring down the Abomination.

But Dexter hadn’t wrapped it to bring down the Abomination with the cord.

Dexter jumped high and lunged at the Abomination in that state.

Then, while firmly gripping the cord wrapped around the Abomination’s neck, he clung to its back and fired his rifle toward the mercenaries from the side of the Abomination’s waist.

-Ratatata, ratata!

Many mercenaries had aimed to shoot Dexter, but the Abomination was the problem.

The massive Abomination had effectively become Dexter’s shield.

-Ratata!

“You dirty bastard!”

“Yeah, keep shooting! Try your best!”

Dexter just needed to use the Abomination as a shield and dodge.

After Dexter’s bullets claimed two mercenaries’ lives, the remaining mercenaries had no choice but to attack the Abomination while trying to target Dexter to save themselves.

-Ratatata!

-Thud, thudthud!

As the mercenaries’ bullets sprayed all over the Abomination, it writhed in pain.

“No, ahhh…!”

And the Abomination charged at the mercenaries who were attacking it, and what followed was predictable.

“No, aaaaargh!”

The Abomination approached a mercenary who had shot at it, clenched its fist, and brought it down.

-Crash!

The force was enough to momentarily shake the ship.

‘Holy shit.’

Dexter clung even tighter to the Abomination to avoid being caught.

When the Abomination withdrew its fist, not only was the ship’s floor slightly dented, but the mercenary who had taken the direct hit looked like nothing more than human dough.

Witnessing this scene firsthand, Dexter recalled the times he had teased Rascal.

‘If I had messed up, I could have ended up like that.’

Even as Dexter involuntarily trembled, he kept firing his rifle from behind to prevent other mercenaries from targeting him.

* * *

Judy, rubbing her buttocks and wiping away a tear she had shed, asked Emily.

“…How did you know the ventilation duct would open this way?”

“Intuition.”

“We passed through the ventilation duct based on just intuition?”

“It worked out, didn’t it?”

Emily’s nonchalant response and Judy’s incredulous reaction.

The reason for Judy’s disbelief was that they had been able to safely move to the lowest level of Jupiter through the ventilation duct Emily had discovered.

It was good that they had passed through, but when they reached the vertical drop from the ceiling, Emily hadn’t properly warned them, causing Judy to slide and land on her buttocks.

Himena, trying to dry off Judy, attempted to change the subject.

More precisely, she pointed to the glass tubes in front of them and spoke.

“Let’s focus on this.”

Drawn by Himena’s words, Emily and Judy looked at the glass tubes she was pointing at.

The glass tubes, much larger than a person, had black markings drawn on them, and inside was a viscous, dark red liquid.

A sinister-colored liquid they had all seen at least once.

“Liquefied Negative.”

Jessi spoke while keeping her distance from the glass tubes, as if she didn’t even want to touch them.

“These fucking tons of… Negatives were made by showing all sorts of terrible videos to those many people, making them feel like shit, and then squeezing them dry… That’s what I’m saying.”

“Must you always talk like that.”

Himena glared slightly at Jessi’s caustic expression.

“It’s true. How scared must the people in the warehouse be right now? Well, OSA will have to wipe their memories clean…”

“Ah, that’ll be another job when we get back. I wonder if the memory erasure machine will catch fire.”

It was OSA headquarters’ work method to pull in employees from any department if they seemed to be slacking off when work was piling up.

Even as they chatted lightly, the four women looked at the large machine connected to the glass tubes.

The circumference of the machine was so large that even if the four women held each other’s arms and formed a circle, it wouldn’t be enough.

The machine, which at first glance looked like a large astronomical telescope, was attached to the outer wall of the ship and covered with a translucent, roundish object.

“This couldn’t be… an orbital bombardment turret, could it?”

Himena hoped that this massive machine wasn’t meant for bombarding Earth.

After carefully examining the machine, Jessi looked at the old computer connected to it and shook her head.

“…I think it is.”

“Then we need to destroy it right now! Look at the direction this machine is pointing!”

Himena exclaimed, pointing at the machine.

The tactical orbital bombardment turret was pointing directly at the North American continent, and although the four women didn’t know it yet, the exact location it was targeting was none other than Las Vegas, Nevada, where OSA headquarters was located.

“It’s not a machine that can be cut off just by cutting it off. If it malfunctions, orbital bombardment could be executed.”

“If we just smash all the Negative glass tubes that act as ammunition…”

“We could temporarily stop it. But what if we die in an accident or get kidnapped? The personnel here could attempt to restore it. Not everyone on this massive spaceship is combat personnel.”

“…That’s true.”

“So in times like these, we shouldn’t panic and should find a way to prevent the machine from operating.”

“How do we do that?”

“I can’t promise I know exactly, but we have to try somehow. After all, this is a spaceship completed before we were born, and it’s a weapon.”

After saying this, Jessi looked at the computer screen connected to the tactical orbital bombardment turret.

“…Hmm.”

Green letters, black screen, that much she could tell.

Jessi’s biggest problem.

While she knew alien technology inside out through study, she didn’t know how to operate a computer made in the early 1970s.

“Do something!”

Urged by Himena, Jessi racked her brain and then typed in a computer-related word she knew.

[1q2w3e4r!]

Enter.

“……”

Of course, there was no response.

“That’s not it?”

Jessi scratched her head.

* * *

At the same time, Earth.

In the temporary OSA headquarters barracks in Las Vegas, Nevada, Director Makoa was letting out a sigh.

“…Three hours after losing contact with five people, a massive ship leaving Earth was detected, and it was identified as Jupiter, a tactical orbital bombardment ship secretly developed by Howard Hughes.”

The director’s aide was briefly summarizing the current situation to Director Makoa.

With a stern expression, Director Makoa said to his aide.

“What are other branches or agencies saying?”

“NORAD and other OSA branches are collaborating to keep a close watch, and the White House has been informed. However, the White House has indicated a willingness to accept ‘small sacrifices’ to prevent mass destruction.”

“‘Small sacrifices’?”

“Well……”

When the aide visibly faltered and lost his words, Director Makoa glared at him and said.

“What is it?”

“The, uh, there’s talk about using the planetary defense system currently being developed at the Pentagon to… launch nuclear missiles at Jupiter.”

“Is that something that should come from the White House?!”

-Bang, bang!

Director Makoa slammed his desk forcefully in frustration.

“We know full well that the Commander’s group is responsible for abducting citizens! Agent Hughes, Agent Himena, and about 50 civilians are likely on that ship, yet they’re talking about nuclear weapons instead of trying to save citizens!”

Originally, the planetary defense system was designed to prevent asteroid impacts with nuclear-level power by either blowing them up or altering their orbits.

Director Makoa had just learned that the recent civilian abduction incident near California was also related to the Commander.

Given that Jupiter’s original purpose was to deliver orbital bombardment with strong firepower using Negatives, it was speculated that civilians were abducted to extract Negatives in real-time.

“We must somehow prevent the White House from taking such action. Someday, information related to OSA will be disclosed, and if it comes out that we lost citizens’ lives so carelessly when we should have protected them, the outcome is predictable.”

“…I’ll try my best.”

After the aide left, Director Makoa rested his head on his interlocked hands with an anxious face.

‘Is there no way to contact them somehow?’

Director Makoa showed a troubled expression as he thought about Jupiter, which still wasn’t receiving communications.