Chapter 157
Chapter 157
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: Beholder
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Beholder.
“How the hell is that even possible?”
The superhumans murmured among themselves.
The ability the alien had demonstrated defied all the principles we had come to know.
And even more worrying...
“Isn’t even psychic power ineffective against that thing?”
“...Maybe.”
That was the fear that our own attacks might be absorbed and thrown back at us.
I thought that guess was pretty plausible myself.
‘I’ll have to get up close and personal first.’ There wasn’t much confirmed intel yet.
Which meant our assumptions could be wrong.
“Captain, what’s that thing’s designation?”
“It doesn’t have an official name yet. So I came up with one.”
“Really? What’d you go with?”
“Beholder.” A monster from some fantasy world that’s immune to magic.
I couldn’t think of a more fitting name for that alien.
*
“Drive Out!”
A hole tore open in space.
The ship that had followed the Allied fleet out of the rift into realspace quickly scanned the surroundings.
“Strong alien signatures detected within observation range!”
“We’re colliding! Brace for impact!”
The coordinates had been calculated successfully.
But maybe too successfully.
The ship slammed right into the swarm of aliens clogging the space ahead.
“Kyaaak!!”
The shock rippled through the barrier, shaking the hull violently.
Several crew members lost their footing and crashed into things.
“Rapid deceleration! Everyone, tighten those seatbelts!” In that brief moment, we must’ve hit at least a few hundred.
The alien bodily fluids spreading across the barrier obscured our view for a bit.
But the crisis didn’t end there.
“The aliens are coming at us.”
“Activate the secondary batteries! Take out the closest ones first!”
Chaos erupted.
The secondary batteries spun wildly, targeting nearby aliens.
Loaded missiles launched, triggering a chain of intense explosions.
‘There’s too many.’
Amid it all, I hurriedly checked the data popping up on the table.
Uranos’s orbital path was swarming with aliens.
The surface didn’t seem fully overrun yet, but they were isolated and couldn’t help us.
‘Too many survived because of the consecutive assaults.’
Normally, the fleet’s firepower would’ve cleared them out the moment we emerged from the rift.
But the double rift assault meant twice as many breaches to plug.
No way the orbital fleet could’ve handled it alone.
‘And that Hive Nest...’
The radar had it pinpointed clear as day.
Two of them, in fact.
The defense fleet had clearly failed to destroy them.
One was heading our way, probably having spotted us.
The other...
‘It’s gone planetside.’
It had already touched down.
If it took root like that, it’d morph into a hatching colony.
It wouldn’t take days before it started sucking up the planet’s energy and churning out more.
That would be a nightmare.
“Captain! We’ve got a recommendation to join the dense formation.”
“Fall in!”
“Yes, sir!”
We couldn’t go lone wolf surrounded by this many aliens.
Sticking together was our only shot right now.
The positioning stood out, though.
The Alliance must’ve pegged us as a valuable asset.
Our ship was slotted into the interior of the dense formation.
‘A breather at last.’ We complied without complaint.
Once we’d painfully formed up, the flier attacks dropped off sharply.
We kept adding our firepower as we were pushed outward by the alien pressure.
“Attack incoming from the Hive Nest!” Guess it didn’t want to let go of the prey that wandered into its grasp.
While the fliers kept our feet pinned, the closing Hive Nest opened fire.
“Intercept! Barrier to maximum output!”
Spore clumps that pierced the flak screen slammed into the barrier.
Each hit triggered a rebound, thinning the barrier at the impact site before it regenerated, over and over.
To make matters worse, long-range fliers showed up.
These had spines protruding from their bodies as their signature feature, firing them off—and each impact exploded. ‘This is bad.’
The burden on the outer ships skyrocketed.
In a situation like this, you’d rotate positions with interior ships to spread the load, but there were too many fliers to maneuver freely.
The Alliance knew it too, throwing everything they had into defense.
‘Even the main guns.’
The bridge lit up with the main gun’s brilliant flash.
The beam lanced straight out, swallowing every flier in its path and vanishing into the void.
The other battleships fired theirs in sequence.
Droves of fliers got swept away each time.
But it wasn’t effective.
Main guns weren’t suited for scattered enemies like this.
It’d just strain the engines for nothing.
They were firing anyway out of desperation to thin the approaching horde. ‘Like fish in a net.’
We couldn’t even build proper speed trapped in the encirclement.
The outer perimeter had less pressure, but maintaining formation meant matching speeds across the board.
“Fire! Don’t let them get close!”
The secondary batteries skipped the charge-up sequence and spat fire.
What we needed now was rate of fire over raw power.
Even so, some aliens broke through, clinging to the barrier before belated shots blew them apart.
“Aaah! Quillern’s barrier is down! Aliens breaching!”
“Support fire!”
In the end, one Alliance battleship couldn’t hold and exposed its hull.
It was a Murdoch-class, same as ours.
But under concentrated fire, there was no saving it.
The Quillern vanished in a swarm of fliers in seconds.
Moments later, comms cut out.
“Damn it!”
Losing a battleship like that, so pointlessly.
The curse slipped out.
But there was no way to help.
‘At least we’ve almost broken through.’ This brute-force push was working, at least.
The fleet had torn halfway through the net and poked its head out.
No matter how hard the aliens tried to hold us, they couldn’t drag down a clustered fleet indefinitely.
‘But no more losses.’ Losing one battleship was damage enough.
We couldn’t afford another.
“We’ve still got margin. Prioritize aiding the other ships!”
If push came to shove, we could send out the superhumans.
That’d let us hold even without a barrier for a while.
‘Should’ve done this sooner.’
Too late for regrets now.
The crew hesitated at my order but followed through.
They half-ignored the fliers diving at us to provide support fire.
“Just hold out a little longer!”
Frederic kept rallying the crew.
His hands never stopped, moving in a blur.
So focused he didn’t even wipe the sweat drenching his forehead.
“...Huh?”
Then one of the crew snapped his head up.
He shouted at whatever he saw.
“Allied fleet! The Alliance fleet just appeared over there!”
I spotted it too—a fleet mid-Drive Out.
Not Acheron’s group, but reinforcements from another planet.
Phaethon or Lethe, didn’t matter which. Their arrival was like rain in a drought.
‘Now we really just need to hold a bit longer.’ Morale soared with the reinforcements.
Hands flew over controls with renewed vigor.
“Transmit our data and request support!”
The newcomers would handle it themselves, but I couldn’t just sit idle.
The more intel they had, the faster they’d assess. So I gave the order.
“Support fire incoming!”
Hope paid off.
The fresh Alliance fleet opened up with secondary batteries before we could even exchange comms.
Thousands of shells arced over 3,000 km, hammering the aliens around us.
Pressure eased on one flank, giving us breathing room.
‘Good!’
Our fleet’s commander wasn’t about to waste the opening either.
The formation shifted rapidly in the lull.
Outer ships swapped with interior ones, and the worst-off pulled back to safety.
‘We can finally catch our breath.’
The aid and response were spot-on.
We’d nearly escaped the encirclement.
The Hive Nests and fliers trailed us, but they weren’t the threat they’d been.
Then something familiar caught my eye. ‘That’s...?’
Beholder.
The one we’d been talking about during AD Drive, back with the superhumans. It appeared.
It was closing fast on the fleet’s position.
“Beholder! Launch missiles now!”
“All pre-loaded missiles expended. Reloading will take time!”
We already knew energy weapons were useless, so secondary batteries weren’t an option.
I broadcast the Beholder’s presence to the Allies.
Only then did they notice and open fire.
Dozens of missiles and mass drivers targeted it.
“That’s...!”
But the attack was blocked by fliers that threw themselves in the way.
Follow-ups met the same fate.
The fliers were shielding it with everything they had.
‘Can’t even call it cowardly.’ Under their guard, the Beholder closed the distance relentlessly.
‘But if they’re this desperate, maybe physical attacks work?’
Otherwise, why bother?
While I pondered, the fierce exchange continued—Alliance trying to keep it at bay, Beholder pushing forward.
Some ships, figuring the fliers made it safe, even unleashed secondaries.
Frederic, watching closely, piped up.
“It’s actually helping.”
“Yeah. They’re bunching up so tight to protect the Beholder they’re turning into perfect targets.”
Attacks on the ships tapered off too.
We’d mostly broken the encirclement already, but this sped up stabilization.
‘Great. Pull ourselves together, link up with that fleet, and we’re good.’
Keeping the Beholder pinned was win enough—its threat level was still unknown.
Wait for the final reinforcements, merge, then counter. That’d put us in the driver’s seat.
But then, movement that flew in the face of my plan.
The entire allied fleet suddenly started charging main guns.
“What’re they targeting?”
“The Beholder.”
“...Planning to alpha strike it?”
A quick think, and yeah—no brainer. Right call.
A full regular fleet main gun salvo.
Against one lone specimen.
No alien could tank that.
Didn’t matter if it was estimated 8th-grade with energy absorption.
‘Bring it on, then.’
The Alliance probably saw it as an opportunity.
An 8th-grader loitering in main gun range.
Might be a future threat—who wouldn’t want to erase it now?
‘But it feels off.’
I figured even this wouldn’t stop it.
No matter how good its absorption, there had to be limits.
So why the unease?
‘...If it feels wrong, stop them.’
Might be meddling, but I sent a message anyway.
Don’t target the Beholder.
Hit the Hive Nests first instead, I suggested.
No dice.
“They’re pushing ahead?”
“No proper response.”
No reply until the guns charged.
Straight-up ignored.
No hard evidence or certainty on my end, so I dropped it.
“Firing.”
The main guns unleashed in unison.
Dozens of beams vaporized the fliers around the Beholder and struck home.
‘...Missed?’
Not quite. Grazed it.
The Beholder’s reaction outpaced our predictions.
It must’ve sensed the alpha strike, slipping to the edge amid the fliers blocking visual.
‘How’d it fool the radar?’
Couldn’t have masked its high-grade bio-signs.
No clue how.
Either way, it avoided a direct hit.
It was absorbing as much energy as it could from the edge of the massive vortex where the beams collided.