Ch.447Battlefield (5)

“What? You need more support?”

“Yes, sir! The enemy is too powerful…”

“Damn it! It’s just one ship and you can’t defeat it!”

“Eek?! I-I’m sorry!”

Jacob’s angry shout made the man displayed in the hologram shrink back.

‘A gateway city at risk of collapse because of just one ship!’

Even superweapons rarely destroy space fortresses alone. No matter how powerful their firepower or battlefield control, without a supporting fleet, they’re just large targets.

Yet the entity currently destroying the fortress and fleet was just one ship. And it wasn’t even a superweapon.

Jacob glared at the video displayed on the left side of the hologram.

The footage captured by an allied vessel showed a black ship. Judging by its appearance, it seemed to be a Star Union destroyer, but its performance far exceeded that of a typical destroyer.

The enemy had just broken through the allied formation. Then it mercilessly rammed another ship. The collided vessel exploded into pieces.

Yet the black destroyer that had rammed it emerged unscathed. It escaped without any damage and unleashed red torpedoes in all directions.

Star Union ships are known for their thick frontal armor. That’s why they occasionally use ramming tactics during battle.

However, that doesn’t mean they can ram other ships indefinitely. After two or three collisions, they sustain serious damage to their front section.

But the destroyer in the footage defied common sense. It had already destroyed hundreds of ships without sustaining any damage.

As if the hull’s exterior was somehow repairing itself.

“Can’t you shoot it down from a distance?”

“We’ve already tried, but our attacks don’t hit. It seems to have some kind of unknown defense shield…”

Unfortunately, that statement was true.

Battleships positioned far from the enemy had fired multiple times but failed to land a single hit. Laser beams would distort in direction as soon as they approached the destroyer.

Instead, allied ships near the target suffered damage.

‘I heard those crazy androids recently developed drones that manipulate plasma energy. Was that true?’

Recently, spies had reported that the Star Union had developed anti-plasma weapons.

It seemed those reports were accurate. The enemy destroyer was clearly a new weapon developed by the Star Union.

‘Disgusting tin cans! I thought something was off when they readily agreed to the peace treaty. They had a scheme all along.’

He had suspected this would happen when the Megacorp CEO pushed for an agreement with the Star Union. That those evil machines would definitely betray them. His prediction was correct.

‘That destroyer must be a prototype.’

It seemed they had deployed it here, where intense battles with Outspacers were taking place, to see how well it functioned. Surely a fleet observing the destroyer was waiting somewhere outside the system.

‘…This won’t end with just that destroyer.’

Jacob felt a headache from the complex situation, but he couldn’t keep stalling.

After organizing his thoughts as quickly as possible, he broke the silence.

“Change all weapons on the supporting ships to old-model missile weapons. They might be able to neutralize the energy field that distorts plasma.”

“Understood! We’ll prepare right away!”

“And deploy Gigacrackers with the reinforcements.”

“What?”

The subordinate’s face showed bewilderment at the word “Gigacracker.”

“S-Sir Jacob! The Gigacracker’s ion cannon is too powerful! The city could be damaged!”

“No need to worry about that. I’m deploying it as a deterrent.”

Jacob had no intention of activating the Gigacracker. He had important assets in that gateway city.

His subordinate who had secured the Outspacer parasite hadn’t left the gateway city yet. Live parasites were essential assets for developing weapons against Outspacers. They must be secured.

‘They’re just doing this to test their new weapon anyway.’

They would surely retreat when they saw two Gigacrackers. They wouldn’t want to lose their valuable prototype.

“Ahem, I’ll contact the Gigacrackers right away.”

“Hmm.”

The subordinate who received Jacob’s order requested support from the Gigacrackers. Meanwhile, other ships continued to engage the black destroyer to buy time.

About 20 minutes later, two marks representing superweapons appeared on the holographic map.

When the Gigacrackers arrived, the black destroyer reacted. The enemy, which had been engaging allied forces, began to retreat quickly.

“It’s withdrawing!”

‘As expected.’

The enemy that had been mercilessly slaughtering ships was now frantically fleeing.

Seeing this, Jacob and his subordinate smiled.

But their smiles didn’t last long.

“Send pursuit forces… Huh?”

The destroyer, which they thought was fleeing, changed direction and headed toward the gateway city. Then it entered the city.

“These vermin robots, until the end!”

The enemy’s intention was clear. Unable to directly confront the Gigacrackers, they were taking the gateway city and its residents hostage.

“W-What should we do?”

“……”

Instead of answering, Jacob operated his terminal.

A short message was sent to Blair, his most important asset at the moment.

It said that a Gigacracker attack would begin soon, so leave the gateway city immediately.

–

‘Was that too much?’

After using “Nightmare Horizon,” I’d destroyed roughly 40 to 50 destroyer-class ships or larger. Plus, I’d completely annihilated one space fortress.

I expected them to be furious after suffering such losses, but I didn’t think they’d bring out a superweapon.

I can sense massive energy far behind the fleet I’m engaging. The Gigacracker, an absolute weapon equipped with an ion cannon capable of easily splitting asteroids. Two of Megacorp Saintkay’s superweapons are here.

‘Two Gigacrackers? As expected of a core Megacorp system.’

I might struggle against a Gigacracker in my current state. I have energy manipulation abilities, but I’m not sure if they can block a super-sized ion cannon.

‘Time to retreat.’

PS-111’s task should be complete by now. There’s no need to fight superweapons.

I immediately disengaged from battle and headed toward the gateway city. No matter how much they hate me, they wouldn’t use a Gigacracker in a situation where they could blow up a space fortress.

I accelerated quickly and entered the damaged space fortress.

The interior of the dome was a mess due to my earlier rampage. The panels creating the artificial sky were damaged, leaving much of it in darkness, and below was a city engulfed in flames.

Various ships moved busily above the burning buildings. These were visitors who had come to enter the system but got caught in the battle.

‘The kids should be… over there.’

Just as I was about to fly toward the center of the burning city, I felt a dull impact on the rear of the infected ship.

‘Torpedoes?’

The pursuing ships were launching torpedoes from a distance.

Typically, Megacorps prefer plasma weapons, while the Star Union mainly uses drone-type torpedoes. However, both factions sometimes use each other’s weapons depending on the situation, given their common origins.

The torpedoes they fired had their control computers removed. They’re essentially just large projectiles without guidance functions. They must have switched weapons since energy-based ones weren’t effective.

‘Not that it matters now.’

I focused on flying without counterattacking. Hundreds of torpedoes kept hitting the ship, but it didn’t matter. I was planning to abandon it before leaving anyway.

Upon reaching the central district where administrative facilities were concentrated, I spread waves using the monster’s tentacles. A signal asking where they were.

In response, I felt familiar energy from the basement of a nearby large building. Adhigh Orr, sensing my wave, emitted a bit of “Dragon Power” as a signal.

‘There it is.’

I rammed straight into the lower part of the building.

No matter how superior the technology used to construct a building, it couldn’t withstand a collision with an object hundreds of meters in size. The massive building collapsed without resistance. The debris piled up on top of the ship.

Outside the collapsed building, I could sense the ships that had been pursuing me drawing closer. They hovered above the ruins of the building, having ceased their attacks.

‘They must be perplexed.’

The enemy that had been slaughtering them suddenly rammed a building and crashed. It’s natural they don’t understand.

Perhaps fearing I might go on another rampage, they cautiously circled around without approaching.

‘Now’s our chance.’

I deactivated Nightmare Horizon. The infection tentacles connecting me to the ship detached, and my body floated up due to the energy field’s effect. Simultaneously, the sensations spread throughout the hull were cut off.

The ship, now free from infection, is just garbage shaped like a vessel.

Of course, the enemies outside don’t know that.

‘Let’s begin.’

I pointed all three of my heads toward the floor and opened my mouths. It’s time for my “Acidic Fungal Gland” to work after a long time.

Green spheres created by the organ in my throat poured onto the floor.

When “Twisted Abomination” was applied, the characteristics of “Great Infector” changed. The additional effects of features I had designated for enhancement, like the acidic fungal gland, were all deactivated.

That’s why fungal masses are created instead of breath.

‘Still, melting the floor is easy enough.’

The acidic masses spewed from my three mouths created a large hole. Below it, I could see the debris of the building I had destroyed.

After discharging more fungus, a wide and deep hole leading to the underground was created.

[Zz zz (Shall we go?)]

“Yes.”

No. 26, who had been watching the floor melt beside me, jumped onto my head. I floated using my energy field and descended into the hole with it.

After passing through several floors, we reached the bottom of the basement where damaged rails and a half-collapsed tunnel were visible. This was a subway tunnel running beneath the building. Familiar faces greeted us there.

“Great One” “Welcome”

“Good work.”

“Did you get what you wanted?”

In response to my question, the winged mutant screamer PS-111 pointed to its head.

“I copied all the data to my auxiliary brain and already confirmed where we need to go.”

“Great. So we can go there right away?”

“Yes.”

“Waiting” “Boring” “Quickly” “Let’s go”

Then Adhigh Orr approached me and lightly touched my head. I had assigned it as PS-111’s escort, which must have been quite tedious.

“They should have arrived by now, right?”

“Of course.”

[Z zzz zzzzzz (Yes. Let’s depart)]

We moved along the tunnel.

And after a few minutes, we stopped in the middle of the tunnel.

This is our destination. Now it’s time to make a hole in the ceiling, opposite to what we did earlier.

After shooting a few acidic spheres at the ceiling, the tunnel collapsed.

“I’ll help too!”

“Rocks” “Remove” “Easy”

Seeing what I was doing, No. 26 and Adhigh Orr also used their abilities to help clear the collapsed debris.

Before long, a hole large enough for me to pass through was created in the ceiling. We climbed up through it.

As soon as we reached the surface, we saw collapsed building debris and black smoke filling the area. In the distance, we could faintly hear people screaming and things burning and collapsing.

Ignoring those, I first checked what was in the sky.

Right above my head floated a warship converted into a rescue vessel. It was Egerton’s rescue ship, controlled by Isabelle, MPSs, and crew members infected by parasites.

As previously arranged, Isabelle was waiting for us at the designated location with the hangar door open.

We quietly flew up and entered the open hangar. Some people on the street saw me, but there’s no need to worry. They’ll go insane due to my energy field that induces madness.

The rescue ship carrying everyone departed immediately. The spacecraft accelerated quickly and escaped the city, blending in with other departing ships.

‘Seems like everything ended well.’

Just as I thought that while lying down in the cramped hangar, my auxiliary organ detected two massive energy reactions.

“Oh no! Everyone be careful!”

Suddenly, Isabelle’s voice came through the ship’s speakers. At the same time, the massive energies detected by my auxiliary organ passed near the rescue ship.

Then, a tremendous energy storm erupted from the place we had left. It was so intense that the auxiliary organ under my chin tingled. The resulting shockwave greatly shook the ship.

‘Could it be?’

Two massive energy reactions and a powerful explosion. Prime Capital Egerton had fired Gigacrackers at their own city. Just to kill me.

‘I thought I might have tormented the enemies a bit too much…’

It seems my thoughts were correct.

“Big one, it went BOOM over there! BOOM!”

“That” “I” “Can do” “Too”

“This is an irrational decision where the losses outweigh the benefits. I estimate it’s influenced by stress from prolonged warfare.”

The kids also felt the explosion and each made a comment.

‘Well, at least this eliminates any chance of my traces being found.’

Although their reaction was more intense than expected, this outcome is quite favorable.

Soon, the news about the space city being destroyed will reach the Fourth, where I planted parasites. They’ll postpone their attack until they figure out why this happened. Meanwhile, I can travel within the system without interference.

Additionally, this revealed the personality of the system’s ruler. Arrogant and never forgetting humiliation. A typical trait of Megacorp’s upper class. I should use this information later in the war against Outspacers.

“Though different from expectations, it seems to have ended well. Where should we go next?”

“NOX-02.”

I know the planet he mentioned.

“There’s a research facility there?”

“Yes. All of Pyrrha Eleven’s cargo was transported there.”

The place I know has special environmental conditions, making it quite different from typical colonies. If anything, it has an atmosphere closer to a space city. It doesn’t seem like a place that would have facilities related to mutant screamer research.

‘Or is it precisely because of that they placed a research facility there?’

Rankers like me wouldn’t think there’s anything there. From that perspective, it might be the optimal location for conducting secret research.

“Interesting. Let’s go there.”

“Yes. I’ll tell my sister.”

With that, our next destination was decided.

The place we’re heading to is NOX-02, a planet containing the secrets of mutant screamers.