Chapter 17: On an Ice Satellite (5)
【Screeeeech!】
'...... It's coming.'
Nadia and I swallowed hard as the thumping noise grew louder. Maybe it was because we felt the tightening sensation bearing down on us. The pressure was unimaginable.
This was true even though we hadn't faced it directly yet.
Every elevator we had taken up and every section-dividing door was all in emergency lockdown. It was an attempt to block the monsters' invasion as much as possible.
The creatures couldn't break through the doors, so we thought that if we could just hold out, it might end without much of a fight.
'Please.......'
However, contrary to our desperate hopes, the situation didn't go as planned.
The monsters that had been relentlessly hammering on the closed doors seemed to back off when the doors merely crumpled and didn't break open, and then started heading somewhere else. It was as if they had found another way.
Bang, bang, bang, bang—!
The sound of metal plates resonated. We had heard that sound before. It was the sound of them coming through the ventilation shafts.
"Hyun-woo, above!"
With keen ears, Nadia sharpened her gaze toward the ceiling. The ceiling came crashing down almost simultaneously.
Thunk—!
The metal plate covering the ceiling vent tumbled to the floor. Along with it came a monster with protruding blue crystal ore all over its body.
【Screeeeech!】
A creature that showed its impatience through its actions. Like a petulant child, it thrashed about, then suddenly rose. Its joints cracked audibly as it moved.
Viscera dripped from the parts undergoing transformation, and its mouth gaped open as if torn by force. Its leg joints bent in the opposite direction, and blue light leaked from between the tattered suit.
And it stared at me with murky eyes.
It was doubtful whether that eye could properly see ahead, yet I could clearly feel it, as I was staring directly into those eyes. I was certain that creature in front of me was taking in my every move.
Just as I was watching it, it watched me. In the charged standoff, as tension peaked and exploded, my eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.
Ted was startled but didn't take his hands off the control panel, and Nadia, trembling, was holding onto a plasma cutter, ready to defend us.
After seeing Carry firing a cutting laser, I readied myself in a crouching stance. I was scared and fearful, but everyone was doing what needed to be done. I had to, too.
Tap!
I turned the plasma cutter to maximum output and charged forward. The target was the monster that split its mouth open, screaming. A pulsing mass of plasma shot towards that mouth.
I couldn't afford to give it any distance. These creatures wielded power beyond what humans could handle. Getting too close would put me at a disadvantage.
So, I needed to maintain the plasma cutter's range and chip away at it from the outside.
【Alert. Tram replacement has commenced.】
With the broadcast from the control center in the background, the end of my plasma cutter sank into the monster's arm. I aimed for the head, but the creature raised its arm to block it.
【Screeeeeech—!】
As the high-temperature plasma burned through its tough skin, the monster let out a painful scream and burned with murderous intent. Instead of backing away, it chose to move forward, just like me.
"Hyun-woo!"
"Don't come! More will be coming soon! Prepare for them!"
Since that was the case, I had to retreat. Clenching my teeth, I stepped back to regain my balance and lowered my arm down.
The monster's arm fell, revealing a scorched, blackened surface. The cutting surface quickly began to change with a bubbling sound.
It was regenerating. No, it was mutating. To offset the injury.
'I can't let this drag on for just one creature!'
It was just one creature that had fallen from the vent. But killing this creature didn't mean it would be over. Rather, it was just the beginning.
Bang, bang, bang—!
The sound of creatures moving through the vents was incessant.
As the monster faltered momentarily due to its missing arm disrupting its balance, I kicked it down. The creature tumbled backward, and one of its thrashing arms smashed a control panel.
It seemed to be a device connected to the control room's lights, as it sparked and plunged the control room into darkness. Thankfully, only the lights were damaged; the rest still seemed to function normally.
The toppled creature tried to get up immediately, but my plasma cutter ran across its neck first. A black line, indicating the scorching of tissue, appeared briefly. As it hadn't been entirely severed, signs of recovery were evident.
"Gasp...!"
With a swift spin of my plasma cutter, I struck down without hesitation. The blue energy penetrated the head completely, dispelling the darkness within the control room as it slashed through the creature's neck.
Even with its head severed, the creature continued to struggle until I painstakingly dismembered its limbs and it finally quieted down.
My foot throbbed. I had merely kicked it, yet the recoil I felt was no small thing.
Just then.
【Kiaaaaaaak!】
【Kieeeeeeek!】
Monsters began to drop one by one from the ceiling vent.
Nadia was waiting below, and she wildly swung her plasma cutter set to maximum output at one of them, rendering it groggy. Meanwhile, Carry tackled another, using a multipurpose laser to burn out the creature's eyes.
Even if it was a monster, losing its sight suddenly seemed to throw it into disarray, and it couldn't carry out its intended attack. During that time, I punctured the back of its head, slicing it vertically downwards just like the last creature.
The suit, which marked its existence as a humanoid, its sticky skin oozing viscera, the blue crystal, the bones and muscles, and its mutated body all separated with horrific noises. The creature's entrails gushed out, spreading a nauseating stench.
Other creatures attempted to drop down as well. As I looked up at the ceiling, preparing to attack them as soon as they landed, the control room broadcast sounded.
【Warning. The claw is misaligned. Please realign to prevent a fall risk.】
Outside the control room, creatures swarmed the station where the tram replacement was happening. They clung to the tram claw or attacked the tram itself.
Though the replacement facility was sturdier than others, holding out against initial assaults, as their numbers increased, the claw holding the tram began to falter.
Ted yelled, close to a panicked scream.
"Damn it...! I can't manipulate it properly without an arm! Hey! One of you, come here! Now!"
"Nadia, go!"
Aligning it wouldn't require a specific skill, but I judged it better for Nadia to go. Being adept with various tools, she would be of more help to Ted. Holding off the monsters was something I could manage.
【Screeeeeeech!】
As I blocked a monster that had landed while I wasn't looking from grabbing Nadia, I refocused ahead. Monsters were now not only dropping from the vents but climbing up the exterior walls.
There were over ten monsters trying to break through the control room's glass with their characteristically sharp hands. Dodging those obscuring the view and operating all the external cameras, Ted carefully maneuvered the tram's locking claw.
With a face soaked in sweat due to tension and pain, Ted did not blink, as if only the tram existed.
Carry and I moved tirelessly to push back the encroaching monsters. Searing red beams scorched their flesh, and blue flames cleaved them in half.
Every time a blue streak lingered in the air, a monster's limb was sent flying. The deafening sound of their death throes made my head buzz. The ringing didn't disappear.
I was out of breath. A mutated arm of a monster struck my abdomen. Already short of breath, I could no longer hold it in.
My vision swam for a moment, but I held firm with strength I didn't know I had. A piercing scream assaulted my eardrums. I too let out a roar and swung my plasma cutter.
Blackened blood splattered within the control room. As if alive, it wriggled momentarily, then helplessly fell to the floor.
Crunch!
A monster clamped its teeth onto the shaft of the tool I held. Despite my hopes that it would hold just once, the tool was destroyed and disgorged its components entirely.
Had I taken that attack myself, I would have ended up the same way. The protective suit alone wouldn't be enough to hold out.
I took a great breath. Blood scents permeated deeply with every inhale. My heart pounded fiercely.
I hadn't brought just one tool. I quickly pulled out a spare. The safety device on the tool was unlocked thanks to the hacker's program provided by the broker, releasing a bright blue light.
Seeing the world tinted red—whether because my forehead split open from narrowly avoiding a monster's attack—I ended yet another creature. After much grappling, my arms felt numb, almost paralyzed.
Barely holding on through determination, I wasn't sure how much longer I could endure.
"Are we nearing completion?!"
"It's almost done! Just a little more...! Just a bit more......!"
Ted and Nadia drove the monsters clinging to the tram away with a coolant spray. Their expressions of desperation soon turned to joyous ones, almost in no time at all.
【Notification. Tram replacement completed.】
"It's done! Now get on it!
"Damn it...! How do we get there! Wasn't it supposed to come up to the control room?!"
"Look at it out there! I barely managed to secure it on the track!"
Sure enough, as Ted said, any additional manipulations appeared realistically impossible. Ultimately, there was no choice but to descend to board the tram. To the station, or at the very least, to where the tracks were.
The relentless creatures showed no inkling of giving up as they persistently advanced. The control room glass was thoroughly cracked, on the verge of shattering. The station where the tram was, buzzed with monster presence.
Nadia was the first to take action in such circumstances. Having been looking around as if searching for something, she suddenly raced towards somewhere, shouting.
"Everyone, jump forward!"
"What?"
"There's no time to explain! Just jump!"
Looking closely, Nadia held my discarded, broken plasma cutter. She detached its battery, inserted it into a wall-mounted device, and, ensuring complete destruction, jabbed with its shaft.
As energy coursed through the device, the now unstable battery radiated heat and melted all the circuits.
Ted's face turned even paler almost simultaneously.
"You, you......! Do you even know what that is—!"
"It's a breaker! We'll knock down all the creatures clinging to the track!"
Breakers prevented excessive energy from the base from transmitting through. Its destruction meant an incapacity to block the surplus energy, thereby channeling all remaining energy down the tracks.
【Warning. Abnormal energy detected on the tracks. Engage the breaker immediately.】
【Warning. The breaker is destroyed. All personnel cease operations until the facility is restored.】
【Caution. Severe damage detected on the tram. Contact maintenance immediately.】
As control room notifications were issued, intense light burst out, enough to blind.
【Screeeeeech!】
Their wails resonated beyond the light breach that seared through closed eyes. It was the creatures, absorbing all the energy flowing through the tracks, shrieking in agony.
As cacophonous cries erupted and reverberated through the residential area, Nadia laid a hand on the hovering-at-max-functionality Carry and shouted.
"Now!"
"You crazy...! I should have realized when you came here with just a tool! Seriously, even reaching there—"
"Instead of talking, jump!"
"—Ahhh!"
On her cue, Ted and I crashed through the control room glass and leaped into the outside.
Towards where the tram, now autonomously moving due to malfunction, awaited.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Damn, ngl, that is badass.
This novel is surprisingly action-packed.