Origin (43)
【Warning. Molten material is leaking. Activating emergency fire suppression system—ERROR. Device is damaged. Nozzle is blocked. Facility temperature rising.】
The massive circular chambers were tilting, pouring out the liquefied blue crystal ore they held within.
Because Molten material radiated intense heat like lava, blue flames erupted and died down repeatedly wherever it touched any object, whether it was a mimic or a creep—it made no difference.
While these mutants preferred blue crystal and heat, trying to absorb it straight without any filtering seemed impossible, and chaos erupted below.
A spreading blue haze was engulfing the sector. 'Burning' didn't do it justice; 'being charred to a crisp' was closer. Accordingly, in every direction, wails and screams echoed.
At first, the creatures were only interested in causing a commotion. That didn't last; as soon as a mutant dangling from a cable shrieked and pointed at the control room, order was rapidly restored.
Dozens of parasites began crawling up the walls at nearly the same moment. Up till then, they'd just been watching, but now, one had stepped forward.
A tension was tightening around my throat. As I squeezed my hand to fend off the pressure, the scene felt oddly familiar. Was it because I'd experienced a similar situation back in the residential area at the start of the crisis?
'This reminds me of Ted.'
Back then, all I had was an unmodified plasma cutter, so conditions were far worse than now. Now, things were different. I was in a custom suit I'd never imagined wearing, equipped with various extra gadgets.
More importantly, I had experience—a wealth of data I couldn't help but accumulate while bouncing between life and death. I never wanted it, but it helped us respond to the situation much more proactively.
"Hyun-woo, I'll protect you."
Nadia picked up her laser deployer. We had enough launchers to block off one entire direction.
【٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و】
Carry raised its flamethrower, as if insisting it was here too, thank you very much. The two of them quickly turned to cover the sectors assigned to them.
Nadia laid down laser launchers to prevent the mutants from approaching, and since Carry didn't need to use its flamethrower right away, Carry helped her.
"Celestia, how long do we have to hold out?"
"To destroy the facility to a degree we want, at least up to Chamber 5 has to be fully emptied. That way, it'll trigger a chain reaction and destroy the whole facility."
The system's homeostasis was trying to restore normal operations, so even now, my own control was clashing with it.
If we backed off now, the chambers would stop tilting, which would only inflame the monsters without achieving our goal, putting us in a far more dangerous situation than planned.
That's what Celestia was saying.
Of the dozens of chambers, five. It sounded like such a small number it could be called 'only' five, but the tilting was slower than I'd expected. I was worried we wouldn't make the timing.
Seeing my concern, Celestia added,
"It won't take much longer. When one collapses, the ones connected to it will be affected too."
【Alert. Chamber 1's Molten material leak is ongoing. Completely disconnecting raw material intake pipes.】
A system broadcast echoed along with Celestia's words. I glanced beneath the control room. The pipes that had constantly spewed blue crystal powder were disconnecting one by one, flopping about in the air like hoses dropped from a hand.
At that moment, the chambers' tilting sped up. The contents shifted restlessly, quickly reaching a critical point where they couldn't be held back.
... CRACK!
Parasites climbing the walls started slamming into the control room. They'd always run from us, but with their nest melting away, their rage had clearly boiled over.
Parasites, slimy and dripping with mucus, plastered themselves onto the glass one by one—soon there were hundreds. I could only see a few dozen, but there were likely many more out of sight.
The parasites had mouthparts like suction cups, each filled with hundreds of tiny teeth, a design that screamed, "Once I bite, I'll never let go."
"... Nasty."
"These things burrow into mutants' bodies. If you get caught, it'll be ugly."
Eric responded to my mutter. He was right; it would not be pleasant. I didn't know how they entered, but just picturing them emerging from someone's eyes or mouth halfway gave me chills.
"Hyun-woo, my side's ready."
Nadia said this after mounting the laser launchers on the wall. Behind her, I could see a tight grid of devices. No matter how thin or long the parasites were, there was little chance anything could get in.
'The monsters don't only have those, though—that's the problem.'
Since entering this place, we'd seen parasites, mimics, and monsters like stalkers. There were no ghouls—or rather, we simply hadn't been able to see them.
After all, mimics are mutated ghouls. There being mimics but no ghouls made no sense. So where were the ghouls that hadn't mutated—yet or ever?
I wanted to solve that mystery, but the situation wouldn't allow it.
"They're coming."
Eric armed himself, watching the glass fracture. I also readied myself, and as if on cue, the glass exploded all at once.
"Carry!"
【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】
We'd been waiting too. At my shout, Carry sprayed flames toward the outside. The lingering toxins in the air were swept away by the blast, and the parasites charging in hastily spewed more mucus.
They tried to withstand the heat—at first, it seemed they could stand the momentary flames, but we weren't about to leave them alone.
Attacks hidden behind the flames battered the suddenly hesitating parasites—slash, stab, stomp, knock down, stomp again.
Because they kept swarming in, after that, it was just a repeat of the same motions. Dealing with them wasn't difficult; there were just a lot, but each one was weak.
If you started getting bitten, it'd snowball—but as long as you didn't, you'd be fine.
【Screeeeeee!】
As I grabbed a parasite flung at my helmet and crushed it, a broadcast played.
【Extreme damage detected to bottom of Chambers 2 and 3. Heat resistance reaching its limit. Facility destruction possible if this continues. All personnel in sector, evacuate immediately.】
As liquefied blue crystal began pouring from Chamber 3 as well as Chamber 1, the stalker let out another shriek.
It stretched out its long neck, mouth gaping. I thought it'd spit at us again—but instead, the stalker spewed a suspicious liquid all over the many cocoons beside it, as if puking out its guts.
"What the...!"
Just as Eric was about to curse, one of the cocoons covered in creep suddenly turned transparent, letting us see what was inside.
"...!"
There was something in there. It wasn't just random liquid—there was a form, curled up like a fetus.
As the cocoon absorbed the stalker's bodily fluid, something inside twitched as if waking from a long sleep. A finger, maybe?
A cocoon—a shell to protect a pupa. I'd never seen insects on Titan, but I'd found info about them when searching Earth's database.
There's a stage before metamorphosis, where an insect melts its own body with digestive fluids. It's called liquefaction.
Watching the mutant break out of its cocoon in real time was eerily similar to those videos. Butterflies emerging desperately from pupae look beautiful, but what I saw now conveyed only horror.
'... So that's why.'
Suddenly, I realized why creep reacted so strongly to the liquid that emerged from the cocoon. The samples we'd collected were the very essence of a ghoul.
No wonder the creep had ravenously absorbed it. To creep, it was concentrated nutrition.
【Kiiiiiiii!】
Ghouls that had broken free utterly from their cocoons flexed their throats with a sloshing motion, then let out deafening shrieks as if clearing obstructed throats.
Their bodies, which before had seemed haphazardly mutated, now looked more orderly than before.
But not all individuals were like that. Some seemed half-mutated, mixed with junk, or didn't even break out of the cocoon and died inside.
'So are those the buds?'
No. The feeling was different. Very different. They were threatening, but couldn't compare to the special variants called 'buds'.
Shape, weight, aggression—all inferior. If each one was blue-eye class, our control room would have vanished long ago.
Inside, now completely transformed into a nest with cocoons everywhere, the newborn ghouls seemed to obey the stalker.
Even as I watched a monster carrying parasites within its body, I thought to myself—even though 'stalker' fit, 'queen' seemed more appropriate.
"Celestia!"
"Three more minutes!"
【Alert. Chamber 4's Molten material is leaking.】
Three minutes left until we reached the minimum needed to neutralize the facility and nest. In daily life, three minutes passes in a blink, but in battle, three minutes could be fatal.
'Still, we have to do it!'
We'd come this far—surely we could last three more minutes. We didn't have twelve ships, but—with Nadia dividing up our sectors and Carry belching fire, I felt confidence, even without a sturdy shell.
【Kyaaaargh!】
The ghouls that had just emerged from their cocoons were headed straight for us. Apparently, unlike the parasites, they couldn't crawl up the walls with creep and instead used the normal route.
At first, they could barely walk, tripping and stumbling, but with time, they learned how to use their strength and grew ever more fearsome.
But waiting for them was a bright crimson laser-filled passage. The monsters, perhaps trusting in their new mutant forms, charged in without hesitation, only to be sliced apart and scatter on the floor with a sizzle.
Recovering the laser launchers would be tough, but we were definitely buying time. As Eric and I fought the parasites clambering into the control room, Nadia and Carry held back the ghouls at the passageway.
"Try breaking through! Is this all you've got?!"
Nadia roared angrily at the monsters slaughtered helplessly by the lasers, her tail fur puffed up. She confidently brandished the deployer.
Not long after, her confidence turned to dismay. The ever-watchful stalker withdrew the ghouls and thrust mimics with strong shells to the front.
It grabbed the small mimics and began hurling them. The ones that stuck to the ceiling reached out tentacles to bore into the wall beyond the reach of the laser grid.
As more mimics piled up, the passage itself began to shake ominously. The laser launchers were mounted outside for safety, affixed to the walls.
In other words, if the passage with the devices collapsed, the launchers could also be neutralized.
Seeing what the stalker was doing, the ghouls didn't charge in recklessly—they started tearing the walls apart with claws glowing blue.
Every time I heard a crack, chunks of the wall were ripped away mercilessly. Their brute strength wasn't much different than before, but their bodies had been reconfigured—their claws seemed optimized for gripping, ripping, and puncturing.
One pair of laser launchers began to lose power balance as their mounting became unstable. The defensive grid twisted from a lattice into a cross, then almost into a line.
Watching the sealed passage being breached in an instant, the ghouls grew frenzied and surged forward.
"... Ah."
【ヘ（。□°）ヘ】
Carry made a face that screamed, "Big mouth strikes again."
It took out a gun kept in the cargo case and handed it to Eric.
After checking the ammo, Eric aimed carefully, taking down the ghouls one at a time with rapid shots. Red goo splattered as they flew backward, but that relief didn't last.
The ghouls rapidly regenerated wounds and immediately closed ranks again. A single bullet wasn't enough to kill them.
【Alert. Chamber 5's Molten material is leaking. Facility destruction accelerating.】
"Hyun-woo! We'll hold off the mimics with Nadia—open the door while you can!"
"Yes!"
As we reached the minimum condition, we also prepared to evacuate. There was no more reason to stay.
Our retreat route was the pipeline attached to the control room. We planned to dash across the top and move on to the next sector.
The pipe was wider than my outstretched arms, so it should support our weight. Though the liquefied blue crystal inside made it hot, our suits should handle it.
After sweeping the parasites back in one go, we jumped outside without hesitation. The clang of metal echoed around us. There were some creaks, but it didn't seem about to collapse.
Moving on, Celestia and I cleared the way for Eric and Nadia, and soon we reached the bulkhead to the next sector.
"Hrrggh...!"
I began forcing open the closed door with Alpha. As it slowly creaked open, Nadia and Eric, seeing the laser launchers still holding the ghouls at bay, sprinted back.
Bang—BOOM—!
Chamber 5 finally collapsed, taking the adjoining chambers with it in turn. All the Molten material poured out, turning the sector into complete chaos.
If our previous commotion was throwing a stone into a still pond, this was like chucking in a boulder.
【ScreEEEe!】
Monsters craving the chamber's heat shrieked as they burned. Even with distance left, I could already feel the heat rushing at us. I needed to open the door before we were swallowed by the wave of liquefied blue crystal, not monsters.
"Hyun-woo!"
"Hurry through!"
Nadia, riding on Carry, got through the door, followed by Celestia and Eric. Just as my turn approached, Alpha held the door steady, its mono eye turning to me.
Just before crossing, I used my plasma cutter to punch a hole in a pipe to the left. Fire-suppression coolant gas began to gush out.
Partly, this was to block the monsters who'd only just noticed us, but also to solidify any splattered blue crystal on our suits so we could brush it off.
The recrystallized blue crystal snapped and fell to the floor.
This was the best we could do. I could only pray we'd make it out safely.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
So the ghouls are upgrading their specs as well.
【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】