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Chapter 159

The broken communication equipment in front of me ceased operation, sparking its last spark. I scattered cables and bundles of wires on the floor.

Thanks to Number 26 hidden in the garbage disposal, I could easily disable the security of the communication room. Seizing the opportunity when the security androids were momentarily halted due to the EMP effect, I sneaked in here unnoticed.

‘Number 26 can maintain power, though.’

The reason I’m doing this rather clumsily is because there’s a possibility that enemies might trace the psychic power traces used by that guy. Even apart from the APD, there’s a tracking function attached as an auxiliary function besides blocking psychic powers.

Although hiding places will eventually be discovered, it’s not good to be exposed too soon.

Having wrecked all the machinery, I opened the door of the communication room and stepped out. Androids still not fully recovered due to the EMP effect stood with their heads drooped.

The psychic power shot by Number 26 produces a similar effect to EMP, not an actual EMP. It’ll return to normal in a few minutes.

Of course, by then, I’ll probably be gone already. I moved my steps towards the next target.

Originally, after disabling the engine, I planned to hit the drone control center instead of the communication room. This facility is unique to the StarUnion, unlike other species’ ships like MegaCorp or Cult.

‘StarUnion relies heavily on machines.’

At the central top or bottom of the rectangular box-shaped StarUnion ship with protruding thorns, the longest cylindrical thorn is the drone control center. As the name suggests, it’s a control center for managing drones and androids.

Destroying that facility won’t stop all drones and androids. After all, they are managed primarily by the ship’s central computer.

However, it can disrupt the actions of drones and androids. In other words, without the drone control center, it becomes easier to take control of the ship.

So, I intended to target the engine next, but the situation changed abruptly.

While moving towards the drone control center, attached to the ceiling, I sensed a change in the movements of drones and androids. Machines from outside the ship weren’t entering one after another.

In the midst of battle, the reason why drones that should be focused on repairs are returning is one.

The end of the battle. To return to where they came from after the fight, they need to enter superluminal navigation mode, so they collected all the drones.

‘It ended surprisingly early.’

Immediately realizing this fact, I swiftly crawled towards the communication room. Along the way, I signaled to Number 26 to send out waves instructing the ship’s machinery to malfunction.

‘It was a timely move.’

Before making a mess of the communication equipment, I checked the communication records once. The last record was about contacting the headquarters, probably reporting the fact that the warp engine was damaged.

‘If the communication blockade had been delayed a little longer, they would have definitely requested backup.’

Feeling the uniform vibration from my fingertips and toes, and a much stronger heat than before, I could tell that the thrusters attached to this ship were moving fiercely.

It was clear that they had chosen to move to the safest territory possible to carry out self-repairs.

‘That was the captain’s biggest mistake.’

Choosing to repair on their own rather than requesting repairs or reinforcements. That decision sealed the fate of this ship.

***

“External communication is severed, and mobility is limited.”

Fortunately, it’s an environment where I can frolic around.

“Can you see? This isn’t damage from a collision.”

“Captain, it seems like there’s something other than us on this ship.”

“… ”

Cain, who received the video through the cable, let out a sigh.

“After the engines, now the communication equipment, and even the drone control center have been neutralized.”

He knew what that implies.

Ship 98 is under attack by an unidentified entity. And not from outside the hull, but from inside.

“Is there any way we can’t recover?”

“Is this an acidic solution in the circuit? It must be because of this, it completely melted. It could take at least 6 hours, or up to 12 hours for the drone control center to be restored.”

“What about the communication equipment?”

“It’s similar here too.”

It means unfortunate fools might have to stay in a dumb state for 12 hours. At least the thrusters weren’t damaged, so there were no issues with moving to another sector, but there was still no assurance.

Though I didn’t know what purpose the entity on this ship had, it was clear they harbored a distinct hostility towards us.

“Damn, I was too careless.”

I can vaguely guess where that entity came from. Ship 98 is a bioship belonging to the Nemea fleet that came to the JP-99 sector. It’s likely that the intruder boarded his ship when it collided with that.

“For now, send available repair drones and androids there.”

“Thank you.”

“And are there any intruders caught on surveillance?”

“Strangely, there’s no footage of the communication room or the drone control center on the cameras.”

The StarUnion officially espouses atheism. To androids made of metal parts and synthetic fiber modules, the afterlife holds no significance.

Cyborgs like Cain didn’t believe in ghosts or such superstitions, but at this moment, it felt like it might not be entirely out of the realm of possibility.

“Ship 98. Have you confirmed where the EMP was fired from?”

“The traces and information are too scant to confirm. Only the fact that it originated internally is confirmed.”

“It means it’s somewhere inside this ship. Arrange a mixed patrol of cyborgs, androids, and drones to monitor.”

“There’s a shortage of cyborg personnel on the hull.”

“Tsk, fill the shortage with screamers.”

“Confirmed.”

Just hold out for 12 hours. Cain thought so.

He realized he was wrong about that thought three hours later.

All cameras and lights in the ship’s corridors were off.

“Damn! Only cameras and lights went off? It couldn’t be that the ship’s reactor was attacked, right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the reactor. Error in the wiring. Presumed to be due to external factors.”

“But still, no footage on the cameras at all? Does that make sense?”

It was incomprehensible.

There were hundreds of cameras on this ship. High-performance cameras equipped with various vision functions including thermal detection, not just basic surveillance functions.

Special care was taken to ensure that cameras placed in important facilities didn’t get disabled.

But the fact that they weren’t catching anything was absolutely impossible.

He tried to somehow comprehend this inexplicable situation, but the true disaster was only just beginning.

“All security units, prepare for assault! Use all available weapons, just kill the bastard by any means necessary!”

“Damn it!”

“Field of view transition complete.”

“Defense readiness complete.”

As soon as the orders came down, six combat androids immediately responded.

Unlike MegaCorp androids, which are much more humanoid, these ones looked much more mechanical and were also quite efficient in terms of performance.

Unlike MegaCorp, which had fears about robot uprisings, StarUnion had no such constraints, so continuous improvements were made.

Models with quadrupedal locomotion, or models with five arms and two heads, and so on.

Models optimized for combat, departing from human forms, activated their weapons equipped with heavy launchers that explosively enhanced both firepower and rate of fire, commonly known as Stormgunners. These heavy launchers, resembling multi-barreled rocket launchers, unleash tremendous firepower in an instant, but they suffer from low accuracy. They are difficult to control for unmodified cyborgs to the extent that Heavy Launchers are primarily used by StarUnion androids. However, in a battlefield like the one with one-way corridors, such as now, the low accuracy might not be as much of a disadvantage.

“If you see them, shoot them on sight!”

“Affirmative.”

Two cyborgs positioned three on each side of the corridor controlled terminal devices for drone operations. Normally, they would have joined the battle as well, but given the situation with the drone control center malfunctioning, it was impossible. To precisely control the drones, they had to operate them while checking through the terminals.

As the cyborgs operated the terminals, spherical drones with three barrels each floated into the air.

They were StarUnion support drones. They could be useful for detecting unseen enemies like now or assisting androids’ field of vision.

Finally, they adjusted their own eyes, replaced by special cameras, to thermal detection mode. Because all lights in the corridor were completely off, nothing could be seen. Thus, after completing all preparations, the two cyborgs vigilantly monitored the front and rear.

On the ashen-colored corridor, characteristic of thermal detection, not a single ant could be seen. The corridor remained silent to the point where it was hard to believe someone was targeting them.

The only sounds were faint metallic noises and murmurs coming from the hull. Was it because of this atmosphere? The sound somehow felt unfamiliar to them.

“Wait, a noise?”

The cyborg guarding the rear wanted to focus on his guard duty, but the unknown noise kept bothering him. It was as if a warning was coming from some modified part of his brain, telling him not to miss it.

In the end, he slightly adjusted the system responsible for his hearing.

Thanks to that, the sound became louder than before. It sounded like something soft hitting a hard metal plate.

“What’s this?”

He remembered the sound from when he used to walk barefoot before his legs were modified. As his gaze turned towards the direction of the sound, suddenly, his colleague from the front tapped his shoulder.

“What’s up?”

“Shh.”

The colleague pointed across the dark corridor. There shouldn’t have been anything visible except darkness. At the end, heat emanating from a living being was faintly visible.

Soon, dozens of small heat clusters began approaching rapidly towards them.

“Damn it! Commence firing!”

“Heavy Launchers, engage.”

From six androids with eerie appearances, an immense amount of bullets were unleashed. The terrifying weapons, firing hundreds of incendiary uranium rounds per second, decimated the targets.

“Beep, enemy flanking detected.”

“Response initiated.”

The targets, or rather, the creatures, clung to the walls and ceiling, dodging the bullets as they moved.

But to prevent this, drones were deployed. The support drones hovering in the air simultaneously relayed the targets’ movements to the androids while providing cover fire.

The battle ended quickly. As the androids confirmed the annihilation of the enemies, they ceased fire, and the two cyborgs stepped forward.

“I wanted to see what kind of creatures they were, but this is how it turns out.”

“Indeed.”

The Heavy Launcher is a weapon that makes heads and upper torsos disappear when aimed at human heads. There were no traces left by those hit with this weapon.

The largest remaining part among the targets was the upper torso of one of them.

“These bastards look disgusting.”

“Their teeth are excessively developed for bugs. Look at these mandibles. They’re not even human teeth.”

“You son of a bitch, it’s scary to even think about them appearing in your dreams.”

The two who confirmed the body fragments shivered at the gruesome sight.

“These damn bastards might still be around. Let’s check ahead first…”

The cyborg who was about to report to the captain stopped speaking. It was because that noise came to his ears again. His gaze turned towards the area near the ceiling where the noise was coming from.

“Drones… are missing”

The three drones that were there just a moment ago couldn’t be seen anywhere.

To inform his colleague of this fact, he quickly turned his head. As soon as he turned his head, warm liquid splattered on his face.

Gulp?

And the sound of his colleague coughing. His colleague, visible in the thermal detection view, slowly floated up into the air and was split into thirds.

“Kill that… thing!”

The cyborg recoiled in horror at the sight, and the androids retreated behind him.

However, even at his command, the androids showed no reaction. They looked remarkably docile, almost unbelievable considering they had just indiscriminately poured out firepower.

“Shoot! Shoot and kill that thing!”

“No enemy detected.”

“Fire con…trol…looooooost.”

Subsequently, the androids met the same fate as his colleague. Something unseen mercilessly tore the androids apart.

As the android with five arms was torn apart, synthetic petroleum flowed onto the floor, and the quadrupedal android had its upper and lower body separated and pinned to the walls and ceiling.

The wide corridor, which only smelled of metal before, was quickly filled with the smell of blood and petroleum. The provocative smell woke up the cyborg who had fallen into panic.

“I…I have to run!”

He sprinted down the corridor as far away from the creature as possible. Amidst his running, he faintly heard a sound from afar.

It was the sound of gunfire.

Somewhere else, similar events were surely unfolding here.

“I…I have to hide!”

A door on one side of the corridor caught his eye. It was a food storage room for cyborgs. He hurriedly opened the door and hid in a corner.

“I…I should be safe here!”

Cyborg combat rations had a smell as repulsive as their distinctive tire-like taste. With his body crouched down and holding his breath, the sounds from outside seemed even clearer. The gunfire he heard before entering here still hadn’t stopped.

Perhaps the situation on the other side wasn’t any better. He swallowed hard.

“Please, someone come to help!”

Was his prayer answered by Lord Jubaka? The sound of the food storage room door opening reached his ears. His gaze turned to the door, but there was nothing to be seen.

“Why can’t I see anything… Wait.”

Suddenly, a sinister thought struck him. He cautiously deactivated the thermal detection view. Instead, he switched to a mode that used vibration to perceive objects, synchronized with his hearing and vision.

As his view shifted, a new world unfolded before his eyes.

The combat rations pouring in as he rushed in. Neatly stacked boxes. And a tail split into two at the end.

“A tail?”

His eyes moved up from the tail, adorned with pincers.

Four sturdy legs supporting the ground along with the tail. All covered in the same hard carapace and fur as the tail. On top of that, there were the thick torso and four arms. The arms, made of sturdy carapace and strong muscles, had sharp claws attached to them. Like weapons that had torn androids and cyborgs to shreds.

And above that was the head.

With a slender elongated muzzle reminiscent of a cold-blooded creature, a giant carapace extending backwards, and six mighty horns, “it” stared at him.

“Indeed. It seems you can’t hide from vibrations.”

Despite the ordinary female voice coming from its mouth, he couldn’t feel relieved.

Now, “it” was approaching him with its mouth split into two branches, wide open.

Picking up the combat rations scattered on the floor of the food storage, cleared of cyborgs in one go.

‘Cyborgs don’t taste great.’

The flesh itself was passable, but there were so many mechanical parts that it felt extremely gritty every time I chewed. It felt like eating ribs with lots of bones and little meat.

‘What about this one?’

I put a packet of combat rations into my mouth without opening it.

‘Ugh… It’s bitter.’

StarUnion’s combat rations tasted more stale and bitter than the 100% cocoa I had tasted before. While the taste itself was better than MegaCorp’s calorie bombs, the texture was worse.

‘I should eat this after taking over the ship.’

The plan was to infest the ship with parasites implanted in the captain and a few seemingly useful cyborgs.

There were two main reasons for this cumbersome process. Firstly, to prepare for the possibility that cyborgs from other ships might contact this one. Since it was a ship that had left due to malfunction, there might be contact from the command side halfway through.

‘But the inability to use the corrosive tentacles is the biggest issue.’

In fact, that was the main reason. Without being able to use the corrosion tentacles, it was impossible to corrode the ship on the horizon of nightmares.

‘We can’t even confirm if it’s a target for corrosion.’

To dominate the ship, it was necessary to release the “intelligent weakling” state and then seize control with the corrosion tentacles. The transformation ability, ‘Organic Evolution’ had a cooldown period of one month, which was not short at all. Therefore, the plan was to minimize potential risks on the ship and then seize control.

‘Should I go out and clean up the other side too?’

Leaving the food storage, I moved along the corridor. From a distance, I could hear the sounds of Number 26 and Adhai, as well as the noise of the Mother of the Sky raging.

‘Looks like everyone’s been bored.’

Once the corridor was cleared, it would be fine to gather and occupy the important facilities.

Thinking about this, as I moved, I felt something lurking in front of that corridor. Gradually, with rough breathing, it revealed itself.

Kuoo, Kuoo

“Screamer.”

From the previous battle, I knew that androids and drones couldn’t detect me. However, the cyborg I had last consumed was aware of me even before the battle.

‘Sounds and vibrations can’t be hidden.’

The ‘unknown creature’s fur’ property disrupted observation equipment, preventing detection of fur movement. It didn’t hide vibrations or sounds.

Using the enhanced adhesion property to move as quietly as possible, but since I was a living being, I couldn’t completely conceal the sound.

‘If it’s a screamer, what’s going to happen…’

Kuoo

“Enemy detected. Eliminate.”

Kuoo

‘Ah.’

Contrary to my expectations, the screamer looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

A monster half-human, half-machine with six metal legs rushed towards me, its eyes full of malice.