Escape (2)
"...What in the world is going on?"
Having planted the bomb in the reactor, Sihyeon Yujin emerged to find an artillery battle unfolding above the city, and she muttered under her breath.
There was no one here to answer her question.
No one had expected a war to break out in this space city in the first place.
It did strike me as odd that no reinforcements ever came to the reactor.
Before coming here, Sihyeon had obtained a provisional map from the black market—one made before the T&C Special Trade Hub was completed.
Drawn by the construction workers themselves, it marked the temporary passages the laborers had used while the city was still being built.
Of course, even construction workers rarely had reason to visit the reactor directly, so none of those secret passages connected to it.
Instead, part of the secret passage network ran close to the underground corridor leading to the reactor, and that was what Sihyeon had set her sights on.
Her plan was nothing less than to breach the metal wall near that underground corridor and slip inside.
Just as planned, she and her followers had entered the underground passage leading to the reactor through the secret tunnels without incident.
Up to that point, everything had gone exactly as she'd anticipated. But the moment they reached the reactor, events began to drift away from the scenario she had envisioned.
The reactor was the heart of the planet. If anything happened to the unit guarding it, reinforcements arriving was the normal protocol.
She had prepared for them accordingly—yet the expected relief force never showed, not even by the time the bomb was planted.
Now I understand why they never came.
To be precise, they hadn't chosen not to come. They simply couldn't.
Thanks to that, her bombing operation had gone off without a hitch—but a different problem had arisen.
Akira will slip away before the bomb goes off.
She didn't care about anyone else, but Akira Yujin had to die, without question. If she let this chance slip by, who knew when another would come.
"Where is Akira Yujin?"
"According to our checks, the Yujin flagship is still here."
Long before the bombing plan had even taken shape, Sihyeon Yujin had planted a tracking beacon on Akira's flagship while carrying out her work as a Shadow. So that she would know instantly, wherever he went.
Why hasn't he fled?
Every memory of Akira implanted in her mind painted him as an extremely cautious man. If war clouds gathered over a city, he would have left long ago, CEO's dignity be damned.
For reasons unknown, Akira Yujin was behaving differently from the man she remembered.
He hadn't fled. He was still in this city.
Which meant she still had her chance.
"Escape first. I have work left to do."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Akira Yujin must be eliminated here and now."
"My lady, then allow us to accompany you."
At Minseok's words, Sihyeon shook her head.
"Code Black is an opponent only I can face. Give me the tracker."
"...My lady."
At her declaration that she would risk her life to kill Akira, Minseok studied her with an unreadable look.
For the briefest instant, something closer to suspicion than joy flickered through his eyes.
But it was truly a fleeting moment, and his expression swiftly settled into one of gratitude and emotion.
"My lady, I wish you good fortune."
Having received the tracker from him, Sihyeon ran toward Akira's location.
Once he's dealt with, then the next...
Minseok didn't seem to have noticed, but Sihyeon knew full well that he didn't trust her.
She also knew that the original Sihyeon Yujin had placed some kind of binding mechanism on her, the clone—and that Minseok held its leash.
Her eyes turned cold and still.
There was nothing in that gaze that resembled Sihyeon Yujin in the slightest.
The fallen city was being purified by fire.
In myth, the gods would rain down fire to judge humanity.
Here, on the other hand, it was a hail of human-made light that was destroying everything.
Edgerton's true strength really is their ships.
Since I'd clashed with their knights so many times, it would be easy to assume their strength lay in their ground forces—but that wasn't actually the case.
The families renowned for land warfare were the Yujin family with their gene-modded soldiers, and the Garmelda family with their famous powered armor.
Edgerton's specialty, first and foremost, was ship development.
In the game, too, the Edgerton knights were practically a bonus perk.
Sure enough, a single Edgerton warship was currently overwhelming multiple T&C battleships at once.
It wasn't just their cannons and shields that were superior. The ships were far larger, yet boasted better maneuverability to boot. Thanks to that, even though the T&C side had far more vessels, they were being soundly outmatched rather than merely hard-pressed.
That takes me back.
By the time you reach the Adult stage, your traits and Type have multiplied to the point where you can muster the strength to fight an entire fleet and win.
In my case, I'd made so many enemies that I'd been forced to fight player fleets all the way back in my Young Adult stage.
Right now I'm far too weak to manage anything like that.
In this state, where even handling a patrol craft or two was difficult, I couldn't possibly wade into that fight. To face multiple warships head-on, I'd have to evolve further.
That's a problem for later.
Neither family looked like it had any capacity to spare for us. Which meant we had to run while the gap lasted.
[Zzzzzzz (Everyone, run)]
I hoisted Denver over my shoulder and dropped low, sprinting in something close to a crouch, running on all three combat arms and my legs, with No. 26 and Adhai following behind me.
"Huh?! The beast is running!"
The knights, who had been staring dumbfounded at the fleet battle, finally snapped to their senses and resumed the chase.
As I wove between them, I noticed we had reached the container stacks scattered across the area.
It was the container yard of the Port District, where I'd once fought the Yujin family's operatives.
One thing had changed since then: through the blast doors set into the inner wall of the dome, ships could now be seen departing in numbers.
The docks aren't far.
While running, I fired a pulse at No. 26.
[Zzzz zzzz (Knock those down)]
｢Okay!｣
Several tentacles rose from No. 26's body and reached toward the containers. From their tips, purple stalks shot out and slapped flat against the metal.
｢Nnngh!｣
As she strained while still running, the stacked containers began thundering down in an avalanche.
"Are you insane! Get clear!"
"All units, activate jetpacks!"
Curses and screams erupted from the knights chasing us. Every one of them was equipped with an Assault Pack, so most rocketed into the sky and cleared the falling containers.
"Gwaaagh!"
"Agh!"
But a few slow to react were crushed beneath containers raining down on their heads.
We'd bought ourselves a step on the knights' pursuit—but a new problem appeared in its place.
A small patrol craft that had been circling the Port District spotted us.
｢The patrol craft is coming this way!｣
｢All of you, stay sharp!｣
The knights' voices crackled through the comm. They'd noticed the incoming patrol craft too.
The craft closed on us at speed and opened fire.
Its targets: us, and the knights chasing us.
All four gun ports mounted along the sides of the rectangular ship blazed at once.
A rain of plasma shells poured down over our heads as we ran between the containers, and every impact sent a nearby container erupting into the sky.
No. 26, with the largest target profile among us, came within a hair of being hit, but each time Adhai unleashed Purple Lightning and detonated the shells in midair, so we got through without serious damage.
｢We will be the first to fall at this rate!｣
｢Tch! Split up! Half of you, deal with the patrol craft!｣
Apparently fed up with the ship, some of the pursuing knights broke off the chase and swarmed the newly arrived enemy.
As the flying knights rained down bolts, the patrol craft's outer hull began bursting apart. Then one of them succeeded in destroying one of its turrets.
Deprived of a turret, the craft gave up chasing us and shifted to actively defending itself against the airborne knights.
Its remaining three turrets churned without pause, hammering the knights with green energy bolts.
Works out well for me, actually.
Thanks to the patrol craft's intervention, the number of knights on our tail had been cut in half.
Now I just have to fool the rest.
Part of me wanted to kill and devour every last one of them, but there simply wasn't time.
We were targets of the defense fleet too—if we got bogged down fighting knights and the patrol craft called in battleships, things would turn very dangerous very fast.
I need to shake them off somewhere suitable.
While running, I focused on my auxiliary organs.
The slender tentacles at the tip of my jaw scurried busily at my will, searching the surroundings for anything useful.
As it happened, there was a large warehouse stacked with containers a short distance away.
That one will do nicely.
[Zzzzz (This way)]
I led the kids into the warehouse near the docks. Inside, countless containers were stacked high, with large cranes installed here and there for moving cargo.
Good. Plenty of cover.
A place like this was more than enough to deceive our pursuers.
[Zzzzz zzzzzz zz (Everyone, head out the far side)]
｢Where will Big Baby go?｣
[Zzzzzz (I have work to do)]
After sending the kids ahead, I hid behind a container and hurriedly got to work.
The knights, evidently flustered that we'd vanished into a massive building, were hesitating at the threshold, reluctant to enter.
Now to shed the powered armor.
In the original game, powered armor counted as player equipment, so it couldn't be removed.
But this was reality.
Short of artifact-grade gear that defied the laws of physics, mechanical powered armor could be stripped off with physical force.
With my combat arms, I tore away the outer plating of Denver's protective armor. The limb armor wasn't critically important, so I dismantled it roughly.
I only need to be careful with the power source and the helmet.
Activating Ghost Claws, I slid my fingers inside the chest plate. Dancing past the wiring and machinery within, I cut out, one by one, only the joints fastening the armor together.
And then, like prying apart a boiled crab's shell, the chest plate split cleanly front from back.
I pulled Denver's body free of the separated armor. Bare-skinned, he wore only a thin, lightweight full-body suit.
Finally, I lifted off his helmet and saw his eyes shaking wildly.
He seemed to be terrified of what fresh horror I might inflict on him next.
He needn't worry. He'd find out soon enough.
From here, I'll use my small arms.
Switching to the small arms ideal for delicate work, I connected the armor's power source to the helmet.
Thanks to Amorph's transcendent senses, sharpened further by the Hijacking trait and the mechanical understanding it granted, the task came easily.
Power flowed into the source unit mounted on the breastplate, and a red light flickered to life in the visor of the helmet's eye slits.
Lifting the powered chest plate and helmet carefully, I stashed them inside a nearby container.
Only then did Denver grasp what I'd done, and his whole body began to shudder.
There's a signal chip in powered armor helmets, after all.
The chip I'd switched off when I first captured Denver was live again. Knight or warship, whichever side found it, they'd have no choice but to fixate on the signal Denver's armor was broadcasting.
The moment I finished, a voice sounded from the warehouse entrance.
"Word from the warship! His Lordship's camera has been reactivated!"
"What?"
Judging they could delay no longer, the knights stormed inside.
That was close.
They'd tear the warehouse apart searching for that armor instead of me.
I grabbed only the comm unit from the wreckage of the shattered armor and slipped quietly out the far exit.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Denver writhed, desperate to warn his men somehow, but it was useless. The paralytic toxin would take more time yet to leach out of his body.
Outside the warehouse, the kids popped out of their hiding container to greet me.
[Zzz (Let's go)]
Most of the ships my auxiliary organs had judged viable had already left the city.
Only three or four vessels remained at best.
I need to hurry.
Carrying Denver's limp body, I moved with the kids toward the docks.
Fragments of the knights' chatter drifted in through the comm, but they didn't seem to have located the helmet's beacon yet.
Naturally—they still believed I had Denver in my grasp.
It would never occur to them that only the helmet lay buried in some random container.
Just past this container...
Beyond it waited the ship we'd ride out on.
I ran one last check through my auxiliary organs. The crew appeared to be hastily loading cargo.
Nothing that gave me cause for concern.
So thinking, I was about to pass the container when my auxiliary organs shrieked—a long, high whine.
Unknown danger lurks on the other side.
■■■■ is ■■■ me
Predator Sense had fired, out of nowhere.
What was that just now?
I hastily backed away behind the container.
The sense had triggered before—but this felt different from usual. The flashing frames still flickered past like a film projector running at speed, but something was wrong with them. Static was mixed in.
The images were blurred, as if mosaicked over, and I couldn't make out at all what the danger was.
[Zzz (Stop)]
｢Big Baby? What's wrong?｣
｢?｣
I called the kids to a halt. Something far from ordinary waited beyond that container, near the ship.
Until now, Predator Sense had only ever jolted me with hasty warnings when a threat was right on top of me. It had never once shown me something this ambiguous.
Which left two possibilities.
Either the enemy possessed a means to deceive Predator Sense—or they were strong enough to remain beyond even its grasp.
...Either way, no easy opponent.
My deliberation was brief.
[Zzzzz zzz (Let's take another route)]
I gave up on that ship.
Whatever the enemy was, if a fight started here we'd lose every vessel in the dock.
There's still one other ship left.
Far smaller than the one I'd originally chosen, but not a bad option in its own right.
With the kids, I turned back the way we'd come and bolted for a different path.
As I ran, I kept checking behind us in case the mysterious enemy gave chase, but no one followed.
My auxiliary organs picked up nothing, forcing me to glance back again and again even mid-sprint.
An enemy that even my auxiliary organs can't detect.
Fortunately, the mysterious foe did not pursue us.