The Second Kraken Hatches

To be precise, I was also using the wait the same way I had before — gathering resources, then gathering more resources, then gathering still more resources on top of that.

But unlike last time, there was a reason this particular pupa had taken so long to open.

"Still, I never would have thought of that. That a Behemoth-class needs enough time to grow."

"Yeah. Last time, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spent plenty of time getting here from the beast faction's territory. This time, not so much."

Exactly.

Previously, the thing had had to crawl all the way from the beasts' main base to our doorstep on pure brainless instinct, which meant our pupa friend had had more than enough time to grow nice and big. But now?

The beast side had just rock— no, warp-delivered the thing straight to our front door. With no time to grow on the journey, the pupa had been forced to do all its growing right here inside our base.

On top of that, this particular pupa was structured so that the ship-construction acceleration items I sometimes used simply didn't work on it. There was nothing to do but wait. And wait some more.

The weird part, though, was that for something called a "pupa," it had cheerfully chomped down every resource and ship we fed it without complaint. For the past month I'd been raising a creature whose only job was to sit there looking grotesque and take whatever we gave it — and somewhere along the way I'd started thinking, Is this what it feels like to raise a bonsai? Or an orchid?

But that strange little life was finally coming to an end today.

Thud. Thud.

"Commander, the Behemoth-class mobile growth platform is about to open!"

"Oh…"

Whatever ship came out after a full month of waiting, it was free firepower for our fleet. I figured I'd be a happy man if even a pair of medium-class beast twins — their equivalent of a cruiser — crawled out of there.

And what actually came out of that pupa was…

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! CRUNCH! FWOOOOSH—!

"Oh, holy shit."

Squish-squish.

"…Commander?"

"Uh."

"Sir?"

"Uh— ngh— UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!"

A Kraken.

Against all odds, our one-in-a-million Kraken had just produced a second unit.

"Hah— haaah—!!"

"C-Commander?!"

"NUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!!!!!!"

"Commander? S-snap out of it!"

"WAKYAPAHUKNONGJJUKTEUNBBANGMALANGMALANGBBANGPPYONGNOOOONGUOOUONOOUOOONGNONGNONGNONGNONGJJUUUUUUUUUUK!"

Faced with that kind of miracle, my brain briefly short-circuited under a dopamine overdose. After screaming that unholy string of nonsense, I promptly fainted on the spot.

But only for a moment.

Pssh! Hissss—!

"Ngh—?!"

"You're finally awake, Commander."

The second I'd gone down, Jessica had jammed a stimulant into me and hauled me back to consciousness. Thanks to her, I got to meet Kraken Unit Two in a somewhat calmer state of mind.

Naturally, word that a second Kraken had appeared sent Belial and Tiamat — who handled fleet and aircraft command respectively — sprinting to the command center the instant I called for them.

"A new Kraken ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠has appeared, Commander?"

"Our main force's carrier aircraft are finally going to break ten thousand!"

I nodded along, radiating pure happiness.

"A one-in-a-million chance hit twice. I could die right now with no regrets."

"Of course, the price for that was you nuking a hundred-pull right before this."

"…Tch."

Joy aside, Kraken Unit Two was literally a newborn — Level 1.

"It's a lot smaller than I expected. Is that normal?"

"Well… the original Kraken grew through constant feeding and combat. This one's just been born."

Compared to Kraken Unit One, it was roughly a quarter of the size — a fact there was no getting around. Then again, Krakens were so massive to begin with that even at this size it was still larger than a battlecruiser, which was its own ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kind of absurd.

Given the situation, I packed Unit Two's hangars full of carrier aircraft first, then turned to the two of them.

"Belial, Tiamat — take that thing out and run some combat. Level it up."

"Understood."

"Yes, Commander!"

I handed the leveling work off to them and checked the fleet status while I was at it.

While the pupa had been growing, construction on the additional docking facilities had finished, which had unlocked another hundred points of fleet capacity — and a whole assortment of new ships had been added along the way.

Not long after I sent them out, though, I ran into something completely unexpected.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

"Huh?"

"Uh— Commander?"

An alarm blared through the command center, and one of the NPC operators called out in a panic. Jessica stepped over at once, checked the situation, and came back with news that hit like a brick.

"Commander… this is looking bad."

"That signal means someone's breached from outside, right? More unaffiliated pirates, or some wild beasts wandering through."

"No. Another clan's fleet is attacking our forward bases."

"…Come again?"

Before I could even get out a proper What the hell are you talking about, Jessica, an event message appeared in front of my eyes to prove her right.