Evolve (32)
「The resolution to the commotion was actually very simple compared to the disturbance caused. Since we couldn't afford to waste time, I planned to access the control center as soon as we settled in. During the operation, this AI would be defenseless. I requested to be guarded.」
"I know."
I replied as I brushed the Lemora components from my hands. The last of the Lemoras that had remained for security rather than being drawn into the sabotage carried out by Orca had just shut down.
Guided by Orca, I was able to enter the control center via the shortest route. Together with Celestia, we finished clearing the interior and settled into position.
"Hyun-woo, I'm ready here too. The access control is solid, right?"
"Yes. If what Orca says is true, what remains of the main force will rush to Gate 6."
"Gate 6... Honestly, its location isn't ideal. Because it's partially obscured by facility structures, if they come in all at once, it could be hard to control."
"There's nothing we can do; that's the only controllable gate right now."
Like Celestia, I looked around with some regret. The control center was a spacious cavern. In the center stood a cylindrical pillar densely packed with various sensors.
A red light was blinking everywhere, signaling that there was a problem. Once Orca confirmed we were in position, she approached the pillar at the center of the control center.
She thrust her hand straight into the pillar. A short electronic beep sounded, and a panel opened.
「Attempting to access the main system.」
Orca began pouring all her computational abilities into the task. If she could fix the main system's errors, things wouldn't be too difficult from then on.
Once the Lemora control program was normalized through a reboot, the Lemora units that had been pursuing us until moments ago would become reliable allies.
'We just need to hold out a little longer.'
It seemed that the suppression operations in the areas where Orca's sabotage had been executed were already nearly done. The Lemoras within the control center rushed out, and soon after, the sounds of explosions began to subside.
Because of the explosion in the storage bay, the catapult for launches and landings was disabled, but there were no units to use it anyway—and the Lemoras had their own booster packs, so it hardly mattered.
What was holding back the Lemora force that had gone that way was the automatic sealing system. They were probably doing everything they could now to dismantle that bulkhead. The Lemora control program was an independent activation system almost as advanced as Orca, so it would probably break through soon.
"If possible, rather than completely disabling the Lemoras, maybe we could just put them into a groggy state."
"That would be great, of course... but is that possible?"
"That's why I said if. During combat, don't worry about that, just stay mobile. We can't let down our guard and get caught off guard."
"Okay!"
That's when Celestia and I were preparing for the imminent battle. Just then, orca, who I thought had succeeded in accessing the main system, suddenly and forcibly withdrew her hand from the pillar densely packed with sensors.
That wasn't all; she even backed away from it. Before we could even ask what was going on, startled by her sudden behavior, orca spoke.
「... Something is wrong. The main system is still unresponsive.」
Was it just my imagination? Orca's voice trembled. I didn't have time to dwell on how uncharacteristic that was of an AI—I asked urgently.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
「The hull's contamination level greatly exceeds expectations. The isolation system had been preventing the spread of contamination after the initial outbreak, but at a certain point it started skyrocketing.」
The Sky Whale was contaminated. Here, 'contamination' must refer to biological infection—I'd seen infected Lemoras with my own eyes.
「The contamination level of the Lemoras is also far higher than expected. It is increasing in real time.」
By the way she talked, orca hadn't been unaware of their existence either. She seemed flustered, her optical sensors flickering, and continued.
「The main system is also contaminated. All requests from this AI are being invalidated. The sea fog cannot be deactivated.」
Not being able to disable the sea fog meant we couldn't communicate with the outside. We were as good as blind. The anxiety I had been trying to ignore surfaced.
"You said it started at a certain moment. When was that? It must be in the logs. Until then, we were at least holding out against the contamination."
「Stand by... Confirmed. The isolation system was forcibly deactivated the moment a warp reaction was detected inside the hull. The acceleration of internal structural transformation seems intended to speed up contamination progression.」
Warp reaction. Celestia and I looked at each other, realizing the same thing as soon as we heard that keyword.
"Lobelia..."
Groaning through a sharp headache, I let out a sigh. A warp reaction within atmospheric limits could mean only one thing: a biological gate used by Lobelia.
I didn't know how, but unlike conventional warp technology, the biological gate didn't produce a shockwave when traversing space.
'What is she scheming this time...?'
Things had gotten seriously tangled. The fact that Lobelia, who had remained quiet until now, had taken action could mean there was also trouble for Licorice, who was aboard the Albatross.
The Beta series were always stationed by her side in case of emergencies, but that hardly reassured me—it wasn't enough. After all, Lobelia was better at hacking than Licorice. Or rather, Licorice's skills were inherited from Lobelia to begin with.
'There's no point hiding it.'
Just as I was about to tell Orca about Lobelia, the sound of a whale's cry rang out. But this time, it felt different. Whereas once it was mysterious though unfamiliar, now it had lost all its mystique and had become grotesque, like the screech of a mutant.
「Kiiiiiiiii-!」
The moment the cry swept through the control center, every panel inside opened. Countless monitors showed us various scenes.
The view from the external cameras was different from what we'd expected. The ECM chaff emitter was still on, so there was still fog, but the density had changed.
The Sky Whale seemed to be moving—the scenery was shifting and changing rapidly in real time. The dense fog would become thinner as the whale moved, then thick again, over and over, just like a whale's spout shooting above the water's surface.
「The Sky Whale's sea fog generator, the Blue Hole, has entered combat status. To create a supersaturated state around the Sky Whale, the fog that had filled its interior is being released to the outside.」
"Damn it..."
Even without Orca saying it, I knew the Sky Whale was engaged in battle. The images from the external cameras showed everything.
The Sky Whale was attacking the Albatross, which was blocking the pureblood supremacist fleet. No, to be precise, it was fighting everyone within the Baelum Spaceport premises, friend or foe.
Many ships, including the Albatross, were unleashing all weapons and pouring out heavy firepower, but nothing touched the Sky Whale. Its energy field, powered by the abundant energy of the reactor, blocked it all. Thanks to that, most attacks dissipated harmlessly in the air.
The pureblood supremacist fleet was taking plenty of damage too. Before the Sky Whale surfaced, they'd supposedly been pounding the Albatross and Griffin, but now they seemed overwhelmed just repelling infected Lemoras ejected from the Sky Whale with small arms.
I didn't see Nadia, but assumed her team was still inside the Sky Whale, considering the occasional massive explosion within the energy field.
Explosions lit up the air like fireworks, the fog swallowing the flames and expanding its territory instead of subsiding. After all those scenes flashed by, every monitor went dark.
Almost simultaneously, I felt a gaze from somewhere. A sensation as if my innermost thoughts were being read. By instinct, I knew the identity of the presence.
"... Whiteout."
No, this gaze was even more dangerous than his. I knew another twin variant—a counterpart to Whiteout.
Blackout. Like Whiteout, a mutant with a jet-black body, as its name implied. It was presumed to have powers like Whiteout, but since I'd never faced it, I couldn't be sure.
One thing was certain: where Blackout was, Lobelia would be too. The twin mutants were practically her pets.
At my muttering, orca responded.
「Requesting information sharing.」
"I was going to tell you anyway, orca. I don't know much, but at least I know who caused that warp reaction. Her name is Lobelia. Former pureblood supremacist group member. A warp reaction detected inside means she used a biological gate to cross over. I've seen one just like it before, at Heaven Mine's central sector."
I also informed Orca of the two mutant variants that move with Lobelia. Orca's visual sensor flickered—a typical AI reaction when running several thought processes in parallel.
... Thud! ... Thuum! ... Thoooom-!
Loud tremors rolled in from beyond the thin fog. We glanced unconsciously toward the 6th gate, wondering if the Lemora unit had already solved the sabotage and returned.
But the sound wasn't from there. Or rather, what we heard wasn't that sound. Noise and presence could be sensed from the open 6th gate too, but it didn't feel like something was beating on the walls.
Creak—creak creak...
Instead, a severely damaged Lemora was crawling along the floor. Transparent coolant dripped steadily, and it forced its wrecked joints to move, creating the characteristic metallic screech.
「In, in, intruder— elimination at—failure ━......」
It made glitchy, corrupted audio, and then its red glowing eyes flicked off. Suddenly, the Lemora's rear armor was pierced by a newly formed laser lance.
The now-disabled Lemora was slowly lifted, then dropped like trash. The next to appear was an infected Lemora, its eyes shining red but of a completely different nature.
At almost the same moment, all the pounding at the gates leading to the control center ceased. The threatening presences converged on a single point from all directions.
The Lemora units boasted far better performance than the infected Lemoras. For such units to appear infected didn't simply mean the original unit had lost.
It was highly probable that Whiteout or Blackout had caused chaos within the squad with their powers. Their abilities didn't only affect living humans—they worked on robots, too.
Kiaaaaak—!
The jarring sound of metal being torn pierced my ears. An energy lance, not wielded by uninfected Lemoras, had pierced the bulkhead. Had they not been infected, we might have hoped to retake control later, but with infection, that hope was gone.
「Kiaaaah!」
Sensing the infected Lemoras surging into the control center, orca, for the first time, armed herself. With the distinctive hum of an energy weapon, a long lance was formed.
「Changing the plan completely. The Sky Whale is determined to be unrepairable. Control of its reactor—the Reactor—could also be lost. We must stop this at all costs.」
"So the plan is...?"
「Forced breakthrough. I have the location of the Reactor.」
Orca shared a new route with us. Up until now, the atmosphere had been one of reluctant cooperation. But after decisively judging the main system as beyond repair, that mood was gone.
"So it turns out it wasn't a defensive battle after all."
"There wasn't even any time for contingency."
"Seriously. Why are my worst predictions always right?"
「The wind always comes without warning. That's what an engineer once said.」
Orca's voice came through the muttering. "So not robot-like,"
I griped, then forced my expression back to normal, as if nothing had happened.
"Orca, don't ever stop. We won't, either."
「Confirmed.」
With that, orca activated the booster pack and charged forward.
***
At the same time, on the bridge of the Albatross.
Boom—!
"Starboard turret hit! We can't fire!"
"Ugh...! Deploy the emergency repair drones, now! If we lose firepower, we're done!"
Licorice shouted, struggling to keep her balance on the violently shaking hull. Every time she moved, she glared at the massive weapon that was cloaked in the fog and hiding its bulk.
While circling the fog zone that covered the Baelum Spaceport area, doing reconnaissance, small armed shuttles had finally found Albatross and Griffin. They'd wanted to avoid battle for as long as possible, but having been discovered, that was no longer feasible.
The combat shuttles were quickly shot down, but communications had already been transmitted. Soon, a hastily assembled pureblood supremacist fleet arrived. The engagement had been one of stalling for time, but then the fog surged—and the giant weapon now dominating the field revealed itself.
Unlike any normal ship, the giant weapon deemed all factions other than itself as enemies and attacked indiscriminately.
Whenever a ball of overcharged energy from its turrets nearly grazed the ship, the resulting shock would rock the hull. The only reason they were surviving was its poor accuracy—if it were otherwise, not just the Albatross but the entire pureblood supremacist fleet would've been annihilated.
Licorice kept adapting to the situation, giving orders to minimize damage. Ironically, there were more pureblood supremacist ships, so the giant weapon mostly targeted them.
'Just what are you doing in there...!'
Licorice bit her lip, thinking of Lee Hyun-woo, who had headed into the fog zone. She couldn't believe a weapon of that scale had surfaced for no reason. Something must have triggered it.
"Rescan the giant weapon!"
"We can't! Scan failed! The chaff disperses all signals!"
"Damn it...!"
They kept trying to scan and get information, but consistently failed. Fair enough—the giant weapon, for its size, would hide itself in the fog immediately after any detection attempt.
Because it was ECM chaff, not normal fog, nearly all electromagnetic functions were paralyzed. Nor did attacks work properly; whether missiles or lasers, everything was neutralized by its energy field.
Damage inside the hull was accumulating faster than the repair drones could keep up, and the pureblood supremacist force was in disarray, overwhelmed by an unexpected foe.
It was clear that if things continued like this, the ending would not be good. All they could do from the outside was hold on—the real breakthrough would have to come from those inside the energy field.
Right then—
- Boss! Open the storage bay door!
A voice Licorice shouldn't have heard came straight to the bridge. It was Roxy, his voice more excited than despairing, even in the face of crisis.
"Roxy?! How did you even...?!"
- That's not what matters now! Load up all the small missile pods! I'll hold out with those and destroy the Sky Whale's ECM chaff emitter!
"... The Sky Whale?"
Upon hearing that keyword, Licorice realized that the giant weapon sweeping the battlefield was the Sky Whale. Now that she thought about it, it did resemble a whale.
She didn't know how Roxy had managed to reach the Albatross in this chaos. What mattered was that he'd come—and that meant he could go back, too. In fact, Roxy said he'd head back and try something.
"Kyle!"
- Already on it! I'd prepared for this, so it's ready to go!
"Roxy, did you get that?!"
- Of course! That's why you're the boss and my brother! We get things done fast!
She could see Roxy's small shuttle sliding into the Albatross storage bay, now half-open. Using reverse thrust to brake, his shuttle quickly became surrounded by the Beta series.
Following Kyle's orders, they loaded everything Roxy requested—fast and efficient.
- Boss, you can tell things are a mess without me spelling it out. I sent Kanna's brief report. Check it and act according to your own judgment.
"... Got it."
- Good. I trust you to make the wise call.
Licorice didn't dare admit that she was anything but wise right now, her heart full of worry for a single person. She finished reading Kanna's report from Roxy.
And, watching Roxy's shuttle speed away, she steeled herself.