Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: qiqi iykow gkk-152i
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Trapped in the Living Ship
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"Entry complete."
｢Good. The ship's defense systems are still offline.｣
"Conjay? You seeing this? I've never seen a ship using biomechanical metal like this."
The six cyborgs, synchronized with their Walkers, set foot inside the mysterious ship. They hadn't noticed when they breached the hatch, but once inside, it was clear this vessel was anything but ordinary.
Aside from the pitch-black exterior and inner walls, it didn't look much different from a standard Cult escort ship at first glance. But when they scanned it with the bio-signal detection module attached to their Walkers, the results were entirely different.
Faint life reactions throughout the entire ship, a warmth reminiscent of living flesh, humid air utterly unlike anything in a spaceship. It was far removed from the characteristics of a normal vessel.
"The Cult developed this kind of metal? That's bizarre."
"Something they got from the Outspacers?"
"We've got time. Let's take a thorough look around."
The ship's interior wasn't what they'd expected, but the cyborgs weren't worried.
The Walkers they rode were the heavily armored combat model 'Sentinel,' equipped with reinforced shields typically mounted on warships. They were powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the Cult warrior squads.
Not the kind of firepower you'd find on a mere freighter, these Walkers had all been supplied by the Star Union's Population Management Division to ensure smooth cargo transport.
On top of that, they had support from small combat drones and a full arsenal of weapons. It might be tough to achieve total victory against a Cult warrior squad, but defeat was out of the question.
Thus, the heavily armed cyborgs, led by McKay, deployed their scout drones. The small spherical flying orbs zipped down the ship's corridors, vanishing into the depths.
According to V's analysis, this ship was carrying over 700 units of cargo. With about 200 Cult aboard a typical escort ship of this class, that meant more than three times the crew.
With so many people on board, they'd spot them soon enough.
Just then, the scout drones began transmitting footage from all directions. Watching the slowly completing internal map of the ship, they pressed onward.
"Hey, McKay. Take a look at this."
"What the hell is that?"
"Looks like some kind of plant species."
It was all black, so they hadn't noticed at first. Only after a fellow cyborg pointed it out did McKay realize the corridors were covered in what looked like wooden vines or stems.
｢V cross-checked it against the Starlink database. No matching bio-data.｣
"Not Outspacers either. What the hell is all this?"
"I'll take a sample for now."
The cyborg manipulated the Walker’s utility arm to rip a stem off the corridor wall. Black slime oozed from the torn end.
"...Good thing we're sealed in these Walkers. If it were a light model, I'd be puking."
"Didn't you mod your guts too?"
"Feels like I'd spew oil everywhere."
"Cut the crap. Sample collected—let's move."
"Yeah. Just registering it in the database."
And so they gathered data as they advanced. The corridors grew narrower, the Walkers' edges barely scraping the ceiling.
Yet there were no signs of the Cult anywhere. The only lifeforms they'd seen so far were the vines everywhere and spores spewing foul-looking mucus.
And that wasn't the only strange thing.
"Next turn should be to the right... Huh?"
"What's up?"
"There should be a junction here."
"What are you talking about? It's a straight shot."
"The map's acting weird. Everyone, check yours."
At McKay's words, they each pulled up the maps from their scout drones. Staring at the virtual overlays, they froze in shock.
"The maps don't match?"
If the ship's structure was changing in real time, this is what you'd get. None of the six drones' maps aligned even slightly.
"Drone malfunction? Maybe signal jamming."
"That wouldn't cause glitches like this."
"Conjay, you seeing this? Things are getting dicey."
｢Damn... Head back to the ship for...｣
The moment they heard Conjay's voice, the ship lurched violently.
"What was that?"
"Hey, Conjay! What's going on?"
｢The ship is moving—static—warning—static—｣
"Conjay? Conjay... Ugh!"
"Nngh?!"
A blast of intense noise erupted from the linked Walkers' receivers, forcing the cyborgs to cut comms. McKay rebooted the system to reach Conjay, but only static came through.
"Damn it, comms system must be fried."
Walker-to-Walker links were fine, but the freighter was completely dark.
No contact with the freighter, a ship with a bizarre layout, corridors filled not with people but strange spores and stems.
Emotions long locked away in the cyborgs' minds began to creep out.
Fear, by name.
"Everyone, stay calm. Back to the shuttle."
The cyborgs turned to retrace their steps. To steady his anxious comrades, McKay took point.
The heavy thuds of the Walkers echoed through the corridors. Each footfall shook the metal walls, making the black vines snaking across the hull twitch like living things.
It couldn't be real, but the sight made McKay think the ship felt like a living creature.
The guts of some massive monster. The cyborgs here already digested, halfway to oblivion.
What nonsense is this?
McKay shook off the thought. He needed to keep his head clear now more than ever.
But cruel reality crushed his efforts.
"F-Fuck, what the hell is this?!"
"......"
A straight path on entry now split into a junction. One panicked cyborg let out a curse-filled scream.
McKay even desynced from his Walker, thinking he'd seen wrong. No such luck—the fork remained.
"Damn it, what do we do?"
"Send out scout drones again..."
"Fuck that, it'll just change again!"
"Calm down! How about we just blast through the walls?"
"Blow the walls?"
"The Sentinel's oxy systems let us survive in vacuum. We go outside and walk to the shuttle."
Risky, but better than wandering a ship that rearranged itself constantly.
The Stormgun barrel on a Walker aimed at the corridor wall. Terrifying firepower poured into the alloy.
By the time the wall's spores and branches charred to ash, a massive hole gaped open. A new corridor lay beyond, but the cyborgs didn't flinch.
Fuck it, let's see who wins.
After blasting through several more walls, they finally reached the outer hull.
"Just through here!"
"Yes!"
Uranium rounds from the magazines slammed into the wall, carrying the cyborgs' hopes.
They kept firing until the overheating Stormguns forced a shutdown. At last, they broke free.
But the view beyond the hull was nothing like they'd imagined.
"Huh?"
The first thing they saw was a ship's hull. A long, rectangular gray-gleaming form they knew well—their freighter.
It was bisected. Massive claws swam through space, methodically shredding it.
Containers spilled from the freighter into the void. Slender, serpentine tentacles harvested the floating debris.
All the cyborgs thought the same thing.
Their freighter.
Was being devoured by this monstrous ship.
'Just as I thought—clear pros and cons.'
The wreckage of the bisected manpower supply ship drifted before me.
Larger than my commandeered escort ship by several times, the massive vessel had been utterly pulverized by claws tens of meters long.
'Destructive power is leagues above normal state...'
But there was a critical flaw.
Manifesting claws, the essence harvester's jaws, tail, and such on the hull slowed my movement speed. The manifested body parts moved sluggishly too.
If that ship had been a combat warship instead of a standard one—or if they'd reacted even a bit faster to my approach—I couldn't have shredded it this easily.
'Specimen 026 getting stronger helps in times like this.'
Having absorbed the C-Demon's power, 026's psionic might was incomparable to before. Plus, this Cult escort ship I'd taken over was built from Moon Silver alloy, which amplified psionic effects.
Thanks to those two factors, 026 could unleash a new ability.
'Psionic EMP, huh.'
026 had condensed psionic power at a specific point to create a zone that neutralized electronics. EMP tech existed in games, but it never distinguished friend from foe.
In other words, 026's technique that only disabled the manpower supply ship was its original creation.
'Lasts only a few minutes at most.'
Plenty of time for me to close in.
They'd spotted the massive maw and claws emerging from my escort ship and tried to pull away, but it was too late. Midway through retreating, the supply ship got snagged by my claws and split apart.
'In fleet battles, this approach could work.'
Against small numbers, I could clean them up easily like this.
Of course, against dozens of ships, psionic vortex wouldn't cut it—I'd need other strategies.
'Feeding sure is convenient, though.'
The colossal jaws protruding from the escort ship's prow devoured every spilling container from the shattered hull. The 'Essence Harvester's Jaws,' formed from Moon Silver alloy and living tissue, crushed the containers and absorbed their contents.
In an instant, the genetic essence of hundreds seeped into my body. Multiple text boxes announcing the Predation Effect popped up.
Sealed in cryo-pods under anesthesia, they wouldn't have felt any terror or pain of death.
'Not all of them, though.'
Those desperately fleeing me, or fighting back—they wouldn't go quietly.
A few shuttles and combat drones burst from the exploding ship. Lightweight Stormgun-equipped drones unleashed a barrage on me.
The shuttles trying to slip away amid the chaos, using the drones as decoys.
'Can't let you escape.'
Dozens of erosion tentacles surged from my synchronized hull. Like a mythical serpent with hundreds of heads, they pursued the shuttles' tails.
The shuttles thrashed to break free. But the tentacles overwhelming them were far too many.
In the end, not a single shuttle escaped—they were all caught.
Slender erosion tentacles coiled around the shuttles, shattering the alloy glass over the cockpits. They ripped out the cyborgs, still linked to their craft, whole.
A tiny female cyborg, like a distant star, wailed in the void. No sound in space, but I could guess her pleas.
Spare me, I was wrong—something like that.
'Sorry, can't do that.'
They came for me first. If I'd been weaker, they'd have killed me without hesitation.
They chose wrong in the wrong place.
One by one, the shuttle cyborgs became nourishment for the erosion tentacles.
'Hm?'
Then I felt eyes on me.
I split my focus from the supply ship's debris, checking inside and out.
'When did these guys show up?'
Six Walkers that had entered my body were tearing out my side, staring at my creations. Heavy armor hid their faces, but they had to be shocked.
'Time to clean them up too.'
I ordered the nearby erosion tentacles. Capture all Walkers.
"■■■! ■■ ■■!"
"■■ ■!"
Spotting the incoming tentacles, the Walkers scrambled back inside me. Only the rearmost one failed to dodge, snared.
"■ ■■ ■■■! ■■!"
The wriggling Walker fired its arm-mounted Stormgun at the tentacle, but it was futile resistance. There were plenty more tentacles.
The struggling Walker was eventually torn apart, body and all.
'Five left.'
I could reshape the ship to crush them all, but decided against it.
'A couple could serve as human faces.'
I had plenty of intel from the Cult. Introducing them to some new friends wouldn't hurt.
'Adhai seems bored anyway.'
Adhai mostly played with 026 or trained hunting with Mother of the Sky, aside from occasional route assistance.
Especially under Mother of the Sky's tutelage, it had mastered 'Super Acceleration' and 'Purple Lightning' far better.
'Hand this to Adhai this time.'
I fired a pulse carrying my will to it, then refocused on feeding.
Even as the manpower supply ship emptied, space remained utterly silent.
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