Chapter 164
Chapter 164
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 164
Chapter Title: Prime Head Conclave
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Star Union's capital planet, Saks-01.
A place defined by its densely packed factories, choking smog, and relentless acid rain. Amid all that stood a peculiar structure.
Spires of white and black, their outer walls entwined with countless pipes, batteries, and machines of all sizes. Clustered together, they formed an imposing pyramid of thorns.
This bizarre yet awe-inspiring edifice was known as Prime Head.
It housed the Mechanical Committee, Star Union's highest authority.
And at the pinnacle of the tallest spire in Prime Head lay the office of the Great Leader, father to all cyborgs.
The space was always one of solemn silence, but not today. From behind the firmly shut door came a barrage of voices.
"A not insignificant loss, but a failure nonetheless."
"Indeed."
A white man with one eye replaced by machinery sat before four diamond monoliths, conversing with their projections.
His mechanical eye gleamed alongside a finely groomed mustache and a solidly muscled frame. He was Star Union's Great Leader, Jubaka.
"The abilities we've confirmed so far: body swapping. And..."
"It seems to possess the power to integrate ships into its own body."
"Fortunate we verified it this time. Heh heh. Jubaka, you've done us a great service."
"...Akira. What the hell did you take my report for?"
The damn Morph bastard had inflicted massive losses on Jubaka. The Nemean Fleet was nearly annihilated, and the supporting Arrow and Redtail Fleets had taken heavy damage too.
'That's not all.'
Thanks to the bastard's scheming, relations with the Cult had soured badly. Storming their territory and smashing an Imperial ship left little room for anything else. Talk of war with Star Union had even surfaced in the Cult Council.
Wars without profit were to be avoided, so Jubaka had dispatched envoys to apologize. Mega Corp's Noble Capital, Chloe Carmel, had pressured the Cult's reformists to back him up.
Full-scale war between Cult and Star Union had thus been averted.
But the incident had badly tarnished Star Union's supreme dignity. Properly screwed over by a single Aimorph, Jubaka could barely contain his irritation.
Akira responded calmly to his anger-laced words.
"Did you think it'd be that easy to catch it? You still don't know it well. Be grateful the fleet wasn't completely wiped out."
"...Tch."
"Lord Akira, is the body-swapping ability one it gained from Muriel, perhaps?"
"Who knows. We'll have to watch that closely. Assume it holds between two and three abilities."
"What's the point of figuring out its abilities now? We've lost all leads on its location."
"Wasn't the biosample logged in Starlink? We could track it from there."
"The scanners couldn't detect it anymore, for some reason. It was fine up until we were tailing Vessel 98."
The moment Star Union supply ships reported a suspicious organism, Jubaka had sprung into action.
Syncing the bioscanners with Aimorph samples from Star Union's proprietary Starlink database, plus the warp finder for FTL tracking.
With every tool at the Great Leader's disposal, pursuing the Aimorph hadn't been hard. They'd even located Vessel 98 without issue—distance and time were the only hurdles.
The problem was that it had been a trap.
"Likely due to the nest-related trait, Filthy Mixture. It randomly alters the nest's composition to evade tracking."
"Damn it! If you knew, you should've warned me beforehand!"
"Heh heh heh, no need for anger. Thanks to you, we've learned something new: it can recreate a nest-like environment inside a bio-ship."
"Which means it can probably use its other abilities too."
When Jubaka spotted it, he'd relayed the info to the others. Akira had just laughed without a word.
But his tone now suggested he'd predicted this. He'd used Jubaka as bait to test his own hunch.
"Gritting my teeth here, and you're so damn nonchalant. Akira. We lost it. Next time we meet, who knows how much more dangerous it'll be."
As he'd said, the thing had vanished like a ghost after ditching Vessel 98. They'd scoured neutral space, but no trace remained.
"Warp finder not working?"
"Vessel 98 was last seen in neutral space. Dozens of ships jumping in and out via FTL every minute—impossible to pinpoint."
"Makes sense if we don't know the model of its new ship."
From confirmed intel, the Aimorph could contaminate and control ships. It might modify them too, but not FTL engines—hence trackable via warp finder.
The issue was not knowing the new ship's type, as Akira noted.
"Checked for assaulted vessels—no links to it."
"What if Rank 5 traded for a ship? Via ability effects or companions..."
"Ridiculous! A personality like that having allies? Ha, can't even imagine."
"Heh heh heh heh, Cynthia's making rare jokes these days."
All present had clashed with Rank 5 at least once. They knew its terror well, but their intel varied.
Cynthia had fought it twice; Jubaka eight times. Akira, higher-ranked, far more.
Thus, Cynthia knew the least relatively.
"Heh heh, if it has companions, it'd just carry them as feed. Or dominate them as parasites."
"Hmph. That Morph bastard's exactly the type."
"Then it could puppet cyborgs via parasites to buy a ship."
"Obviously checked that too. Problem is, it takes time."
High-spec androids were combing neutral sector transactions. A month might yield results, but it could switch ships again by then.
Then Akira spoke.
"Hm. Do we really need to chase its tail?"
"What're you saying?"
"If we know where it's headed, we can set up in advance."
"That's why we're in this mess—we don't. Akira, spare me the nonsense..."
"Heh heh, so impatient. Listen. Like in the game, it hates waste. As a Near-Adult, it'll rush to become an Adult."
"...Right."
"Its fastest path to evolution conditions is hunting special creatures called Apex. So it'll target a place teeming with them."
"The Dragon's Nest, you mean?"
Akira didn't answer Cynthia's question. Instead, a star map projected from his monolith, marked with branching routes.
"Estimated paths based on its direction and trajectory. See? It went straight until neutral space, then veered sharply."
"Meaning?"
"Without pursuit, it'd have continued this way."
"Damn it! Get to the point. What're you driving at?"
"Follow this path, and it ends at the Dragon's Nest."
"What?"
A red marker appeared on the map's outer edge.
"Where the Yujin Family sources Galleron genes—and my 'old subordinate' resides."
"How would it know a place not even on maps?"
"No idea. But that thing will surely target this planet."
Jubaka glared at the red mark. Uncharted, no data showed.
"It's heading there..."
"I'll alert my old subordinate. A Near-Adult Aimorph is no match."
"Who the hell is it that you're so sure?"
"Heh heh. An aged Black Galleron ring a bell?"
"!"
Jubaka started at the words.
Black Gallerons ranked second-highest in Galleron growth stages. Red Gallerons topped them but were exceedingly rare.
Thus, Black Gallerons were the mightiest wild Gallerons.
'A Black Galleron—even an Adult Aimorph would stake its life against one.'
No matter how potent its abilities, a Near-Adult couldn't beat a Black Galleron. Not just its power, but the whole nest pack.
"Lord Akira, may I send the coordinates to Jason? He wants to salvage this mess."
"Heh heh heh, that'd seal its doom. Go ahead."
Plus Cult player Jason, Rank 10. Lower than Akira or Jubaka, but a top-tier ranker.
Black Galleron pack and a Rank 10—Morph bastard's fate was sealed.
After final coordinations, the meeting ended. Confirming the monoliths deactivated, Jubaka picked up his comm.
"You heard everything, right?"
"...That damn geezer. Still using others."
After learning of Akira's spy, Chloe had skipped monolith meetings with excuses, eavesdropping via Jubaka instead.
"Chloe. I need a favor."
"Hm?"
"Thinking of sending Pyra Eleven's Screamer unit."
"What?"
"Cover as a field test for operational review."
"Wait! Brother Jubaka! They're still prototypes. Incomplete—who knows what glitches?"
"Don't you need Aimorph genes to finish your 'plan'? Not a bad deal."
"True, it'd help, but..."
"Plus, if it's a Galleron gene hub, even better. If Gallerons 'die fighting the Aimorph unavoidably,' it'll sting Akira too."
"Hmmm, tempting."
"Send the updated Hulk mutants. Convert to Screamers on-site."
Jubaka had never let attackers off the hook—in reality or this dystopia.
He had zero intention of forgiving the Morph bastard that screwed him proper or Akira content to snipe from afar.
'I'll pay you all back.'
Jubaka's mechanical eye flashed menacingly as he spoke with Chloe.
「Blue」 「Star」 「Ring」 「Confirmed」 「Nest」 「Yes」
I nearly cheered as I deciphered Adhai's thought waves from outside the ship.
'Took a long time.'
After a month and ten grueling days in this cramped vessel, nonstop, we'd finally reached the planet housing the Dragon's Nest.
A sky-blue world evoking an ocean stretched before us.
Like Saturn, it bore a ring—rock fragments caught in its gravity, orbiting to form it.
The glowing azure planet and its pale drifting ring felt like finely crafted aquamarine jewelry.
'Want to admire it longer.'
But hunger gnawed at me and the kids alike.
Our rations— ample at the time—had run dry two days ago. No ships or creatures sighted lately, so foraging was impossible. Press on or perish.
'If Adhai miscalculated even slightly, we'd have been goners.'
A botched coordinate, and we'd drift starving in this backwater.
'Starving as an Aimorph.'
A death I'd never seen in-game, nearly real.
'Land first, feed up.'
I prepped to enter the nameless blue planet. Recalled Adhai inside, then boosted speed.
Closing in revealed the ring's details.
Plain rocks and ice, mysterious metal chunks, ship debris from who-knows-where—all swirling in unison.
A normal creature would shred on entry. But I wasn't normal.
My metal-bio hull shrugged off the debris onslaught. Passing the ring unscathed, I plunged toward the atmosphere.
Unlike Earth’s varied blues, browns, whites—this planet was uniform.
Sky-blue and white. That was it.
'Ice world.'
In-game, Galleron habitats were extremes like this: volcanic hells or sub-hundred-below-freezing ice realms. Harsh environs one reason they were tough foes.
'Fine for me, but the kids...'
Adhai said everywhere but the nest was brutally cold. It'd nearly frozen post-abandonment otherwise.
Save deep-sea 26, it'd be rough on the other two.
Such thoughts raced as I pierced the atmosphere.
Bursting through thick clouds, what met my eyes:
An endless icy plain.