Uninvited Guests (1)

"Tch. Must be tougher than it looks, if it didn't blow up on impact."

"Destroyer-class, then. No idea where a monster like that even came from…."

Sanada-F, acting fleet commander of the Nemea Fleet, had been monitoring the battle through the external cameras. Under his orders, Ship 98 had succeeded in ramming the unidentified bio-ship.

"Where's that bastard Mackay?"

"I'd love to capture him and wring every secret out of him, but orders are orders."

According to the Machine Council, that bio-ship was an entity of extreme danger—approach was forbidden. Because of that warning, Sanada-F had attempted to subdue it with long-range fire, but it hadn't been easy.

He'd initially assumed four ships would be enough. They were all sent to the bottom in short order. Whoever was piloting the thing was maneuvering that massive frigate like a squadron of fighters. He'd fought countless enemies over the years, but few dodged torpedoes with that kind of skill.

The creature had torn through every cyborg vessel sent after it, then wriggled about as if deliberately taunting him—right within the flagship's field of view, no less.

So he'd sent ten ships after it. Even the creature found ten to be a challenge, apparently, and didn't last long.

It could have lived a little longer if it had run. Foolish thing.

At the top right of his view, the wrecked creature's form came into focus. The bow of Ship 98 had punched in so deep it was no longer visible; the thing would hardly be able to move now. As a ship, it had been given its death sentence by this one strike; as a living creature, it had suffered a mortal wound no recovery could undo.

Either way, all that remained for it now was death.

"Just in case, let's finish it with torpedoes and clean up the rest of the debris—"

"Damn it! Ships 1 through 12, evasive maneuvers! Ships 70 through 80, deploy APD defense!"

"Have Ship 98 handle itself and log everything. I'm reporting to the Machine Council, so record it in as much detail as possible."

He would have relished watching that bio-ship—a thing not even worth chewing—blow apart, but a battle was still underway.

Swallowing his regret, Sanada-F pressed on with his command.

"Insane! Twenty percent? The second we pull back, open fire with torpedoes."

Keynes-Q, captain of Ship 98, checked the state of his hull. Above his eyes, linked directly into the ship's computer, a 3D model of the vessel bloomed into view. Just as the readout said, most of the cannons positioned along the bow were damaged.

All of it traced back to that recent collision.

"We had APD support. Why is this happening?"

"Tch. So that's why. Contact the other ships—have them fire the instant we disengage."

"Fire the intact bow rockets and engage the lateral thrusters. Once we're clear, send in drones and the engineering teams."

At Keynes-Q's command, Ship 98 immediately fired its rockets. As the hull shifted, gravity inside lurched to one side and the interior fixtures rattled with a faint tremor.

Barely minutes had passed since the collision, and they were making a hasty escape—when a vibration far greater than before suddenly shook the ship.

"What now—"

"What? You son of a—! Double the output on the lateral thrusters!"

The moment the words left him, a pressure beyond anything before crashed down on Keynes-Q. Metal shrieked and burst along the inner walls, and in several sections gravity went haywire—objects clung to the ceiling or drifted weightless in midair.

"The second we're clear, pull straight back!"

Ship 98, along with the other vessels, drew distance from the bio-ship. The cameras mounted on the hulls captured its image: the black outer plating split open like a cracked egg, and purple light came pouring out from within.

"Good idea! Drones, push that ship toward the Cult!"

Another cyborg connected to Keynes-Q's comms scattered the drones. Construction drones tasked with repairs swooped in fast and shoved the bio-ship away.

The Cultists, too, seemed to have sensed something wrong with the bio-ship—a vessel eerily similar to their own—and had begun to fall back.

"Too slow!"

A searing violet flash ripped through space. Two nearby Cult ships were caught in the blast and detonated in a chain of explosions.

"And that's that. Ship 98, you got all of it recorded?"

"Log the interior damage too and pass it along to the acting fleet commander on the flagship."

"Hmm. Pulling out that openly feels wrong. How are the lateral thrusters?"

"Tch. Fine, no choice. Let's fall back for now."

Keynes-Q's duty ended there. Escorting Ship 98, the cyborg vessels withdrew to the rear.

Phew. That was close.

The enemy ship had plowed deeper into my body than I'd anticipated, and the reactor had nearly gone up. While I maintained control of it, there was no problem—but it was a different story when Nightmare ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Horizon was deactivated.

A ship that has finished eroding ends up so thoroughly ruined that recovery is impossible. The reactor fails along with everything else, so I'd assumed there was no need to worry about it overloading.

Turns out I was wrong.

The enemy's bow had smashed into the reactor on impact, and because of that, the kids had come within a hair of dying. No. 26, the most adept of us at wielding psychic power, would somehow survive by shielding herself from the blast—but Adhai and Mother of the Sky would be vaporized instantly.

I was in danger myself, for that matter.

I was currently in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠special state of Clever Underdog, one of the transformations granted by Organic Evolution. In my normal form, my thick plating would have let me walk away without a critical wound. Not anymore.

Shrinking down had cost me my defenses along with my size.

A blessing in disguise, maybe.

I'd nearly died, true—but the reactor blowing up had let me divert the enemies' attention.

Anyway, we're in.

I was mulling over where we might hide when Adhai poked at me with the tip of her wing.

｢Big Adult｣ ｢Right?｣ ｢Checked｣ ｢Needed｣

[Zze(Hmm?)]

She kept tilting her head back and forth, as if my change felt deeply strange to her.

Adhai's reaction wasn't really surprising. Even I found my own transformation unsettling.

What had happened to me didn't fit words like change or even transformation. It was, quite literally, closer to evolution.

My overall size, tail included, had shrunk to around five meters. The tail made up roughly two of those; my body stretched across the remaining three.

The shortened tail had reshaped my whole frame—the combat arms near my armpits and pelvis ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had shifted downward to serve as legs. Simply put, my silhouette now resembled the centaur of Greek myth.

Losing four of my combat arms seemed like it would gut my fighting power, but surprisingly, it hadn't. The small arms near my chest had grown to match my old combat arms in size.

The shape's a bit different, though.

The small chest arms—or rather, what were now my long arms—struck me as strikingly developed, with prominent musculature and the same chitinous outer covering the combat arms had worn. They looked too frail for defensive use like my other arms, but I had no doubt they could crush a human skull without the slightest effort.

Aside from the reshaped frame and arms, little else had changed: the six horns, the massive cranial carapace, the pincer at the tip of my tail—all as they were.

The only real difference? With my body smaller, the faces from my Human-Faced Beast trait now took up a proportionally larger share of it?

No. There's a far bigger change than that.

The reason I'd called it evolution wasn't the new body plan.

It was the fur.

Fine, long hairs had sprouted all over my body. Everything except my cranial carapace was covered in dark purple fur. From a distance, I probably looked like a creature wearing a pelt draped over itself.

Amorph. With fur.

To be fair, the game had traits that granted fur—but none that transformed the entire body the way this one had.

And I wasn't the only one unsettled by the change.

｢Big Baby got weird.｣

｢Me｣ ｢Small Adult｣ ｢Agree｣

Even No. 26, who always had only kind words for me, looked at me and offered that opinion. In all the times she'd watched my evolution unfold from start to finish, this was the first time she'd ever called me strange.

When I stayed silent, No. 26 hastily added,

｢But you're still Big Baby, so I like you!｣

｢Horns｣ ｢Cool｣ ｢Fur｣ ｢Weird｣

Apparently, my new look was a miss by both aliens' standards.

When I finally turned to the last holdout, Mother of the Sky, she shook her head with an awkward flutter of her eyes.

｢With fur everywhere but the head, you look like a Wendigo.｣

[Zzzzzzz zzzz(Not a centaur?)]

｢…More like a Wendigo that grew eight legs.｣

Among the phantom beasts a Wolf could transform into was the Wendigo. It wielded tremendous power, if I remembered right, but its looks had never earned much praise.

Tch. I think I look pretty decent.

Whatever the naysayers thought, there was one piece of good news: this was no ordinary fur.

Transforming into Clever Underdog supposedly restricted a few traits in exchange for a new perk. And just as promised, this fur was an entirely new body part born of a powerful perk effect.

I see.

If King of Monsters, the other special state of Organic Evolution, was the combat mode, then Clever Underdog leaned toward survival. I couldn't yet gauge how potent the Fur of the Unknown Creature would prove, but judging by King of Monsters, the stealth effect promised to be substantial.

The drawback is that some of my physical abilities are sealed.

Losing the Erosion Tentacles—both a side effect of Nightmare Horizon and one of my primary weapons—was especially hard to swallow. In the spots where the tentacles used to emerge, the faces from my Human-Faced Beast trait now sat in their place.

Shame about the combat power.

But for a situation where we'd stowed away aboard an enemy vessel, it was actually a fitting trait set.

I'll worry about that later.

We were inside a cyborg warship. When the Cult frigate rammed us, its bow had been damaged—and through that breach, we'd slipped in.

The repair drones will be coming for the damage soon.

Until then, we needed somewhere safe to hole up.

Just as I had back in my Hatchling days, I pressed my auxiliary organ against the ship's inner wall. The heavy thrum of the reactor turning over, the footsteps of androids and cyborgs hurrying through the corridors, drones zipping about with shrill alerts, and the mingled smells of rusted steel, synthetic petroleum, and sweat-damp flesh.

That sensation of being linked to a living, breathing ship. Not even the cyborgs hardwired directly into it could perceive it as finely as I could.

I used this trick constantly on the research vessel, tracking enemy movements.

The auxiliary organ's performance now was in a league entirely apart from back then. This cyborg warship was vastly larger and more intricate than some research vessel. In an instant, I read out the structure of half the ship.

[Zzzz(this way)]

Having found somewhere safe, I led everyone there. Drones and androids crossed our path along the way, but we were never spotted.

Having dodged every threat, we arrived at the safest place on this ship.

｢Trash processing plant?｣

[Zze(That's right)]

｢…Yeah, that's safe alright.｣

There were no surveillance cameras inside the processing plant. Except for the single one near the entrance, that is.

The entrance was right in front of us, but I brought the group to a stop.

[Zzzz zzzzz zzzz(hold on, wait a moment)]

｢Testing out that fancy fur of yours?｣

Fellow rankers understand each other fast. Before going in, I intended to run a little experiment on that camera.

This should be just inside the blind spot, right?

I hugged the wall and crept forward until the camera's field of view grazed the very edge of my body. Then I extended my tail just far enough to show in its frame.

The Fur of the Unknown Creature is supposed to nullify detection equipment.

Cyborg cameras supported a wide array of detection systems, and even in standard mode they offered image quality leagues beyond any Mega Corp surveillance camera. So if any android or cyborg glanced at that feed, they would unquestionably dispatch a surveillance drone.

And if they don't…

I flicked my tail out several more times, making sure it was caught on camera. But no matter how long I waited, no drones came.

It works.

I waited more than ten minutes longer—still nothing. Climbing the wall, I adjusted the camera's angle slightly.

That should do it.

As long as I moved hugging the wall's edge, the camera wouldn't catch me. For the ambiguous patches, I could duck behind large cover—like the cranes that hauled the trash—on the way into the processing plant.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

With the camera neutralized, my last stop was the terminal beside the plant entrance. I wanted to know the garbage processing schedule.

One look confirmed the next scheduled processing was still a long way off. With every check complete, I called the kids over.

[Zzzzz zzzzzz zzzzz zzzzz(go around behind the cranes and head in)]

｢What's a crane?｣

｢You just go over there.｣

And so we leapt safely into the trash processing plant.

｢Wow! So many toys!｣

｢Fascinating｣

｢Stay away from the compactor. It's dangerous.｣

No. 26 and Adhai seemed absolutely delighted with the inside of the processing plant. Mother of the Sky trailed after the two, warning them off anything reckless.

There's a certain famous sci-fi film—one that ended up in museums long before I was ever born—where the protagonists fall into an enemy trap and get trapped in a garbage processing plant.

Wasn't there a robot that saved them in the end?

In the movie, it was a place of peril for the heroes. Here, it was anything but. This filthy place was going to be our way out.