Ch.290Moving (3)

In the ion cannon management compartment, the maintenance team leader and members looked up at the ceiling with anxious eyes.

Sharp noises of metal blades clashing against each other, and intermittent explosions. These were all sounds that should never be heard from the Gigacracker.

“Shouldn’t we go check it out?”

“No. If we move, we risk losing control of the ion cannon.”

“Waiting for an hour seems too long…”

“We’re wearing reinforced suits to prevent unforeseen situations. What you’re all wearing are high-grade reinforcement suits. They can’t be damaged by ordinary weapons.”

Doesn’t that mean something capable of neutralizing such exceptional equipment is roaming outside?

The maintenance team leader said this to reassure the team members, but it had little effect. They simply didn’t protest because they understood his intentions.

“Until the rescue team arrives, we need to defend this position. Everyone, please wait at your designated locations.”

“…Yes.”

With those words, the maintenance team dispersed. Dozens of personnel split into groups of three and scattered to maintenance rooms positioned along the corridor.

“Damn, I can’t believe this situation.”

“I know, right.”

In one of the maintenance rooms installed along the massive rails of the ion cannon, three team members were chatting to ease their tension.

“The monthly report was due next week, and now this happens.”

“Come to think of it, I heard you have a family…?”

“That’s right. I got married recently.”

“Good for you. I’m in my fifth year, and I can’t tell if I’m family or just an employee earning credits. Tsk.”

“If you’re planning to have children, report it to House Saintkay. You’ll get subsidies…”

They all fell silent mid-conversation.

Because they heard a sound.

It was similar to what they’d heard in the management compartment, but louder. The team members unconsciously tightened their grip on their plasma rifles.

“…Did everyone hear that?”

“Yes, yes. I heard it too.”

“It sounds close…”

Whatever it is, hearing such sounds nearby is never a good sign. Perhaps another maintenance room was under attack.

The team leader had strictly ordered them not to leave their posts, but this was no time for such concerns. The three maintenance team members took their rifles and exited the maintenance room.

This facility was practically the reason for Gigacracker’s existence. It had devices that could independently supply power in emergencies. A brightly lit corridor greeted the team members.

The distance between maintenance rooms wasn’t far. As they headed to a nearby room, they encountered other team members lingering in the corridor.

“You too?”

“Yes.”

“It’s quiet again now that we’re out.”

“Do you think another team handled it?”

“We need to check to be sure.”

Nothing unusual happened until the team members visited the third maintenance room.

The problem occurred on the way to the fourth room. In the corridor, they witnessed a strange phenomenon.

Small dust particles of unknown origin were floating in the air.

“What is this?”

“Looks like mineral fragments?”

They were particles that looked like finely crushed orange carnelian. In another place, they might have admired these particles that sparkled like stars in the light.

But this was a space handling advanced weapons. The introduction of unidentified foreign matter was never a good sign.

And their anxious predictions soon became reality.

In front of the fourth maintenance room filled with particles, there lay a metal alloy door so crumpled that it was hard to recognize its original shape.

Something had compressed a massive alloy door, tens of centimeters thick, to a third of its size.

“…”

“Gulp.”

The sound of someone swallowing echoed softly in the corridor.

The team members who should have been in the fourth maintenance room were nowhere to be seen. It was easy to guess what had happened to them.

“We should go back…”

Just as one team member opened his mouth, something leaped out from inside the maintenance room where the door had been thrown.

It resembled the foreleg of some feline predator. It was covered in golden fur and was larger than an adult male’s upper body.

Following the foreleg came the head of a raptor with black horns.

The moment its amber eyes turned toward the nine people…

Carnelian-colored particles poured out from inside the maintenance room toward them.

The team member standing at the back had no choice but to witness his colleagues in front shrinking to the size of basketballs as soon as they came into contact with the particles.

Seeing his colleagues turned into red lumps, he tried to scream. But the particles traveling through the air were much faster than the sound emerging from his throat.

There was no pain when the particles touched him. That’s because his body had already become unable to feel pain.

The beast that had instantly turned nine people into lumps of flesh passed by them.

There were still many prey here for this beast, for her to hunt.

–

Tyrun and the surviving team leaders ran through the dark corridor.

Only the research team leader and facilities team leader remained. The rest had been brutally killed by the monsters in the dining compartment.

“C-Captain! This way is…”

“We’re abandoning the engine. More importantly, we need to leave this place immediately.”

“What?”

The two team leaders looked bewildered at the captain’s decision. Even though the captain was a Noble Capital affiliated with House Saintkay, they couldn’t understand abandoning the Gigacracker.

But Tyrun hadn’t made this decision out of fear.

He had participated several times in monster hunting, a hobby of Walter Saintkay, the head of House Saintkay. If asked to pick the most impressive predator among the many they had hunted, there was just one.

‘Sea Demon! That monster is here!’

The experience of fighting that monster, also known as the God of the Sea or Demon of the Deep, remained the most nightmarish memory in Tyrun’s life.

The moment he saw the pink jellyfish in the dining compartment, the nightmare came back to life. Even if it was smaller, it was definitely a Sea Demon.

‘We can never defeat it.’

Why the Sea Demon was on the Gigacracker, why those fierce creatures were with other monsters.

There were many things he couldn’t understand, but that wasn’t what mattered. Now that it had taken over the ship, they had to inform the rescue team about this fact. Otherwise, a massacre would occur.

“Captain, please reconsider abandoning the Gigacracker…”

“I’m not abandoning it.”

“Pardon?”

“If we don’t pass on information about those monsters to the rescue team, who knows how many lives will be lost. If that happens, recovering the ship will become even more difficult.”

“W-well, that’s true.”

“If anything goes wrong, I’ll take responsibility.”

When the captain said he would take all responsibility, the team leaders fell silent. Continuing to run in silence, they reached the area containing the captain’s quarters.

The hangar bay was just beyond this area. Once there, they could escape using the emergency escape vessels.

But their ordeal wasn’t over yet.

What awaited them, who had come running with just one hope, was a scene of utter devastation. The corridor leading from the captain’s quarters to the hangar bay was completely destroyed.

The walls on both sides of the corridor and the ceiling were smashed as if something larger than the corridor’s width had twisted its body while moving through. The gravity maintenance device must have malfunctioned, as metal debris and objects floated in the air.

This wasn’t the work of the Sea Demon or the white lizard with wings. The being that turned the corridor into ruins was a much larger creature.

“…”

Tyrun and the team leaders moved cautiously through the damaged corridor.

Objects that had flowed out from the captain’s quarters collided with them. A portrait of a woman showing only her face and upper body because the top part of the frame had flown off, a grandfather clock that was broken so the second hand didn’t move properly, broken glass cups, and more.

Everyday objects now seemed terribly eerie.

Fortunately, the corridor leading to the hangar bay wasn’t long. The three barely reached the shielded door connected to the hangar bay.

The monstrous creature that had reduced the corridor to this state must have moved elsewhere, as it wasn’t visible. As soon as the research team leader opened the shielded door, Tyrun and the facilities team leader leaped into the hangar bay.

“Close it quickly!”

“Y-yes!”

They didn’t know when the creature might return. The research team leader quickly closed the shielded door with trembling hands.

Only after the eerie corridor was hidden behind the door could the three feel at ease.

“The gravity is still working here, so it seems the creature hasn’t come here.”

“Seeing that all the escape vessels are still here, we must be the first to arrive.”

No one mentioned what might have happened to the others.

“The captain’s escape vessel is this way.”

“Captain, the code.”

“Yes.”

In front of the escape vessel adorned with particularly elaborate decorations, Tyrun entered the emergency code into the terminal.

“Gigacracker No. 14 Captain, ‘Tyrun Saintkay’ confirmed.”

After a brief message from the terminal, the escape vessel’s door opened with a hissing sound. Just as Tyrun was about to step in, something dripped onto his shoulder.

“Huh?”

When he touched his shoulder, a sticky liquid came off on his hand. He slowly looked up.

There was a ‘monster’ on the ceiling of the hangar bay.

It pounced on him as it hung upside down, dripping saliva.

–

‘Just as I thought.’

I was hiding in the hangar bay to see if anyone might try to escape, and sure enough, the captain and what looked like the leadership had fled here.

‘Doesn’t seem like anyone else will come.’

Sky Mother was in the ion cannon management facility, No. 26 and Adhigh Orr were in other facilities, and PS-111 was in the control room. By now, all the crew members on this ship should have been dealt with.

The superweapon capable of destroying planets is in my hands.

‘Not quite yet?’

I looked down at the captain, Tyrun, my new friend.

Like me, the face-bugs had also grown in size. Previously about 1m in length from head to tail, they now reached 3m.

The face-bug with a middle-aged man’s face bowed its head as soon as it felt my gaze.

He said that a rescue fleet located in a nearby star system would arrive here in an hour. Until we deal with them too, it would be difficult to say we completely own the Gigacracker.

‘What should I do?’

In the game, I fought several times with superweapons comparable to the Gigacracker. I know how much effort rankers or NPCs put into protecting this weapon.

Moreover, I know the level of the rescue fleet in much more detail thanks to what I heard from the face-bugs. They are merely good prey for me.

For instance, I could directly engage and destroy the fleet. With my adult form and powerful unique traits, the rescue fleet wouldn’t be a difficult opponent.

Or, as usual, I could lure the enemies into the Gigacracker and eliminate them together with my children.

‘Or…’

I looked up at the massive metal structure surrounding my enormous body.

Something I never got to use in the game and only encountered as an enemy.

‘I’ve got a good idea.’

I smiled, thinking about the moths that would eagerly fly toward us, knowing nothing.