Chapter 186
Translator: uly
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: A Multitude of Rifts
You could tell without even measuring it.
That rift was clearly far larger than any ordinary one.
And that wasn't the only problem.
"Good lord..."
Tana murmured in a daze.
If she'd been holding anything, it surely would have slipped from her grasp.
Her eyes were filled with shock.
"Just how many rifts are there...?"
At least dozens.
Like someone had gone wild with a knife on a canvas, small rifts densely packed the area around the massive central one.
"Shouldn't we join the fight too?"
"With rifts that size, who knows how many aliens will come pouring out...!"
This kind of multiple rift event was unprecedented in human history.
There had been times when three rifts opened simultaneously for a joint assault.
Even then, though, they had been similar-sized rifts opening at appropriate distances—not this chaotic mess.
So what might emerge from multiple rifts like these?
Was something humanity had never encountered lurking behind them?
Everyone fell silent, tense.
"............?"
But something felt off.
A fair amount of time had passed, yet not a single alien had emerged from the rifts.
Were all those rifts just a bluff?
Then, out of nowhere—
Something utterly unexpected popped out of the massive central rift.
"...Is that a spaceship?"
A familiar metallic structure.
Badly mangled, with the midsection severed and half the hull missing somewhere, but it was unmistakably a human-made spaceship.
As everyone stared at it in stunned silence, Frederick's voice came through.
"Aliens incoming! Massive numbers! And what about that spaceship—do we leave it?"
"Recover it. And have our fleet join the battle. Turn the gun turrets!"
With rifts that big, the number of aliens pouring out was enormous.
No clue how this situation had unfolded, but first things first: seal those rifts.
I moved the Golden Fleet alongside the defense fleet led by Major General Revel.
"Current superhuman count on Acheron Planet?"
"Thirty-two in total."
Lucky, I guess?
If this weren't Acheron, we might've just abandoned the planet.
Plus, with all the key superhumans—including me—gathered here for evaluations, our superhuman forces were more than ample.
"Wow, damn. Look at those aliens pouring out. Is today the apocalypse or what?"
"That's not the kind of joke you make..."
"I'm just sayin'. How could you not curse at this?"
Shepin shook his head as he gazed at the rifts.
He practically lived on Phlegethon Planet, so it had been ages since we'd seen him on Acheron, but his sharp tongue hadn't dulled a bit.
I was too busy to humor him, though.
'This feels like what happens when you trigger a Breeder's defensive instincts.'
It differed slightly from what I knew, but rifts opening in this pattern only happened in connection with Breeders.
So was this because we'd supported Brother's scouting mission?
'That's not Brother's scout ship.'
No matter how crumpled and wrecked it was, I could tell.
Its basic frame was completely different from what Brother had flown.
So what was it?
"...Stella Walker's main scout ship?"
"What?"
"That spaceship. From what I remember, it looks just like the missing Stella Walker main scout ship."
Tana peered intently at the ship after my words, then nodded.
"Yeah. I think you're right. The Stella Walker scout ships were that model, as far as I recall."
"...You recognized it?"
"It was on the news when it went missing. I remembered because Darmosa seemed really interested in it."
That made sense.
"Now that you mention it, the timing of that scout ship's disappearance is suspicious. Could that hypothesis really be true...?"
I nodded quietly in agreement as Tana pondered.
Her interest in this was a good sign.
Scouting missions were like stepping through minefields.
The moment you poked a sleeping Breeder while exploring deep space—boom.
Humanity didn't know it yet, but expanding territory meant we'd keep clashing with aliens. It was inevitable.
'Stopping now wouldn't prevent disaster anyway.'
The moment even one Breeder awoke, the doomsday clock started ticking.
The forward Breeder had already been active for a century.
At this point, one or two more waking up wouldn't make much difference.
Just a matter of sooner or later.
That's why I hadn't stepped in earlier to stop it.
Claims that scouting brought aliens had circulated before.
Adding my voice wouldn't make more people listen or pay attention.
'What happened to Brother? Is he tied to this mess?'
A few more questions nagged at me, but there was no checking now.
I stayed silent, monitoring the situation.
The onslaught was too fierce.
It had been manageable when the drops first started, but once they poured in earnest, our firepower couldn't keep up.
"They're crawling out nonstop. How far along are we?"
"Time-wise, we're in the third drop wave."
"Look at the surface down there. It's already crawling with aliens!"
Way too many.
Even with the defense fleet unleashing every ounce of available firepower, it was overwhelming.
Worse, Whale Ships—typically late-wave attackers—were already appearing, shielding direct strikes on the rifts.
"Support request from Sector 12!"
"Already? What about their stockpiled weapons? They should use up their reserves before calling! Tell them to hold out longer!"
"Yes, sir!"
I barked the order, but it sat uneasy.
The sheer number of aliens flooding the surface had to be panicking the sector commanders.
"...Still, we can't ignore it. Prep Teams 3 and 4. We'll send them to Sector 12 soon."
"Two teams? What about the other sectors?"
"Send other teams there. And you go too, Senior. We need every hand right now."
"Got it."
I sent Shepin off and kept watching the situation.
Weapons that had filled cargo holds, meant to last, were being expended mercilessly—yet the alien numbers didn't thin.
In the end, they fired the main guns.
The blasts pierced space, vaporizing hordes of aliens midair.
But it was fleeting. Fresh aliens from the rifts quickly filled the gaps.
The defense fleet's warships followed suit, firing main guns sporadically.
"Firing them off like that already..."
Tana had reason to worry.
The assault had raged for less than an hour. Straining the engines now meant the ships might not last till the end.
But that assumed a standard assault.
"It's fine."
"...Fine?"
Tana turned to me in surprise.
Her face mixed curiosity with a hint of "How do you know?"
"These rifts are abnormal. We don't know the total aliens committed, but they can't keep this up forever at that rate."
"You think?"
"Probably. That's why Major General Revel's doing it."
Leaving these aliens unchecked would devastate the surface.
The rear defense sectors might survive, but the rest would be obliterated.
The losses would be catastrophic.
"Makes sense. But even if we stop the drops, how do we handle the Hive Nests that come next?"
"Well..."
I grinned at Tana.
Her puzzled look turned to wide-eyed realization.
"You don't mean...?"
"Done it once, what's twice?"
"...You're the only superhumans dumb enough for that."
"I'll take it as a compliment."
Hive Nests were tough, but me, Roze, and Merdi could smash them.
No Beholder this time, so even easier.
Shortly after I told Tana, Major General Revel commed directly, confirming my hunch.
Yet over two hours later, the alien numbers hadn't dropped.
From firing main guns early on, every ship was at its limit.
To give engines a breather, Revel split the fleet in two for alternating barrages.
Tensions ran high across faces when Frederick's voice rang out.
"The number of aliens emerging from the rifts is decreasing!"
"...Really?"
"Yes! And look at that!"
Frederick pointed to the large rift.
Up close, it was shrinking bit by bit.
"It's closing!"
"Already?"
"It's barely been any time since the assault started...!"
Incredible.
Nor was it just the big one.
Watching closely, one small rift suddenly collapsed inward—like a popped bubble—sealing shut instantly.
Even as aliens were still crawling through it.
The bisected ones thrashed in agony.
As if on cue, small rifts began vanishing sequentially.
"One more closed. And another...?"
Frederick trailed off.
Everyone else froze in shock, but Jim—now a regular crewman—boomed alone.
"What the hell? Am I seeing things? That rift just got bigger!"
A small rift was expanding.
But it wasn't just growing.
Something burst from the enlarged rift, shaking the bridge again with Jim's voice.
"Something's coming out... Th-that! Land Crawler! It's a Land Crawler! But... did those things ever fly...?"
Short legs, plump lizard-like body—the alien was a Space Crawler, the evolved form of the Land Crawler.
The rift it emerged from shrank back to size, then vanished.
No one paid it mind.
"...Just how big is that thing?"
"Over 10km for sure. Head to tail, estimated 10.8km!"
"Longer than a Hive Nest. But how's it flying through space?"
Even hundreds of kilometers away, its shape was visible to the naked eye. Absurd.
But a Space Crawler's terror wasn't size alone.
People here didn't know that yet.
"I do."
"Huh? You know it?"
I blinked at Tana's words.
"Yeah. About ten years ago? Ran into one on the front lines."
"The front lines..."
That tracked.
Most info from there stayed classified, so divergences from canon weren't plot holes.
"It always just crawled on the ground. Then one day, months later, it was flying around, opening rifts. Impressive, right? Cost two rear planets heavy damage."
Then Jim's shocked voice filled the bridge again.
"Uh... Another rift's expanding!"
While we fixated on the first Space Crawler, the small rifts had been closing steadily.
Two among them suddenly swelled.
"...No way."
"It can't be..."
Everyone prayed otherwise, but no dice.
Two more Space Crawlers slithered from the pair of rifts.
Now three Space Crawlers total over Acheron.
'This is bad.'
Three of them.
Ultra-large type: weaker barriers and production than Hive Nests, but excelled in melee.
And not slow—get careless, and even warships got grabbed.
Then they'd go down too.
"Tana."
I called after eyeing the Space Crawlers.
"Yeah?"
"You said earlier they can make interstellar jumps solo?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Isn't its behavior weird?"
I pointed to the first one out.
Since emerging, it moved sluggishly—unnaturally so.
Not stationary, but like it had zero interest in Acheron: head turned away, body curled up.