Evolve (38)
As the facility gradually became unstable and began to collapse, the corridor's structures and lighting were being destroyed in real time.
There were two figures who, despite staggering, refused to give up moving quickly. It was me and Celestia.
"Huff... huff..."
"Hyun-woo, lean on me more! We only have a little further to go!"
Celestia bit her lip as she looked at me, struggling to catch my breath. I wanted to pretend I was okay, to act like I could still hold out, but I was in no state to do so.
When I stayed still, it had been bearable. But as soon as we started moving intensely, my body immediately screamed in pain. Every time I took a step, the shock made my legs give out, and my lungs, already worn to their limit, felt nauseous from the slightest jolt.
My vision was almost completely black, so I was relying entirely on Celestia to guide our direction. Had there not been someone to support me, I wouldn't have made it this far.
I thought about stopping for just a brief rest. But it remained only as a thought. I knew that if I stopped now, I wouldn't be able to move again for a while.
I wiped away the sweat that had beaded up and immediately turned cold due to the temperature outside, then took out another high-grade medical pill and swallowed it. Even chewing was hard. I was too busy just breathing.
Rumble...
A menacing sound, like a beast scratching its throat, echoed menacingly. There was no longer any whale song to be heard. Since Sprout (Sae-sak) absorbed the core of the reactor, the facility had begun deteriorating faster, probably as an aftereffect.
'How much farther do we have to go?'
I glanced at the holographic screen displayed ahead of us. While it was hard to see, I could make it out by squinting my eyes.
It was the quickest route from the reactor room to the surface of the Sky Whale that Orca had given us. By moving without rest, we had already passed the halfway point.
All we could manage to take from the reactor room was our bodies. Well, that's not entirely accurate—I did grab some odds and ends. To be precise, we left Ian behind.
I had wanted to bring him, but we weren't in any shape to do so. In a way, it might have been better this way.
Even though Ian had turned into a bud-type mutant, there were still parts of the real Ian left. It would have felt uncomfortable in many ways to subject him to all sorts of experiments.
So, I only grabbed his gloves. They looked completely ruined, but maybe we'd find something if we analyzed them.
"Hyun-woo, behind you!"
Celestia suddenly came to a stop, adjusting her position to protect me. At almost the same time, we saw that the Remora squad was pouring into the corridor we needed to go through, heading somewhere.
The infected Remoras had completely lost control and were running amok everywhere inside the Sky Whale, seemingly spinning around before finally heading out.
"Phew... Are there a lot of them?"
"Don't worry. Fortunately, we don't have to fight. They're all gone now."
The route that Orca had given us occasionally forced us to glimpse the Remora squads like this. But we never actually collided with them. Whether the route was plotted that way or it was by design, either way, it was a stroke of luck for us.
Once the Remora squad was out of sight, we resumed our movement. There really wasn't much further to go. Just a bit more effort and we'd be out.
'Why isn't the comms working?'
Even with the suit broken, the bracelet should have enabled short-range communication, but for some reason, the communication functions weren't working. I figured there must have still been ECM chaff interference lingering outside.
But this anxiety would soon be over. Soon, we could just talk face to face. We went up the stairs, turned through the corridors, and passed through gates still tainted by contamination yet to be erased.
Soon enough, I felt a strong wind blowing from ahead. It wasn't coming from a proper gate. It was flowing in through gaps in the damaged external armor, possibly from an explosion.
The gap was wide enough for two people to walk through side by side. Without unnecessary struggle, we went straight out through the gap onto the surface of the Sky Whale.
In an instant, the scenery changed. Not the inside of a giant weapon, but its exterior—a place where much fiercer battles were underway.
Whoooosh—!
A gust of wind blew. Smoke and the sounds of explosions were mixed into the air. Celestia and I quickly scanned the surroundings, hoping to reunite with Nadia's group, wherever they might be.
The first thing I saw was the huge energy field surrounding the Sky Whale. The semi-transparent field was dispersing shocks widely, minimizing damage each time it absorbed an outside attack.
With the solar core removed, was it because it wasn't receiving proper energy anymore? The energy field had holes everywhere. The spot we emerged from seemed to have been created by an external attack breaching the field.
'Albatross...'
I quickly spotted Albatross and Griffin. Though far away and hard to see, the ships kiting and whittling down the pureblood supremacist fleet had to be them.
Closer by, I saw that the Remora squad had formed a graveyard of wrecks. At the end of that scene stood a mechanical giant, still diligently taking out enemies.
"Celly, I found them! Over there!"
"I see them too! Let's go!"
Celestia, supporting me, headed toward the ongoing battle. She was careful not to lose her balance in the strong wind. We were at a higher altitude atop the Sky Whale than expected—falling off would have been a disaster.
As we drew closer, I could see the power loader more clearly. Its condition was no better.
The cannon it had carried with such grandeur had burst at the muzzle due to overheating, and its shield, impaled by a lance, was shattered.
Yet it never stopped for even a second. As if to say, "make do with what you have," it used the high-speed vibrating blade mounted on its forearm to slice up foes. Sometimes, it just mowed them down with the rapid-fire gun.
Kanna and Eric were in view too. They were taking cover behind Remora wreckage, holding off enemies.
Just as I was about to call out to let them know we were here, an armed shuttle appeared in the sky a beat faster.
- Friend!
"Roxy...!"
Celestia and I shouted, our faces brightening. He might always act slippery, but this was why it was impossible to hate Roxy.
- From the looks of it, you're in rough shape! Stay right there! The wind is nastier than you'd think!
Roxy's shuttle activated the side lights and blinked them toward Nadia's position. With communications spotty, he seemed to be using the lights to communicate.
Receiving the signal, Nadia stopped separating the Remora's upper and lower body and sprinted toward us. Eric and Kanna followed close behind.
- Friend, get on! New boss, you too!
The shuttle lowered its altitude, its thrusters angling down. Its weaponry was more or less intact, but practically useless. The ballistic weapons seemed out of ammo, and the laser cannon appeared completely inoperative, likely due to severed circuits.
Celestia and I exchanged glances and nodded. We entered the gate, which was waiting for us to board. After all the running, rolling, falling, and standing, finally sitting down made me groan involuntarily.
The makeshift seats that were usually so uncomfortable, now felt incredibly cozy. I pulled down the ceiling intercom. Since it was wired, it wasn't affected by the ECM chaff.
"Roxy, get everyone else on board and let's escape immediately. The orbital cannon is about to—no, it's targeting the Sky Whale right now."
- Oh... The orbital cannon, huh... Must be the purification protocol. Brutal!
Roxy immediately agreed and turned the shuttle. The power loader approached, close enough to secure itself to the side of the shuttle.
A heavy weight shook the shuttle as it loaded onto the rear. Nadia's voice rang out loudly from the comm device near my ear almost simultaneously.
- Hyun-woo!
"Nadia..."
I looked at the holographic screen in front of me. It had now switched to live video, showing Nadia, drenched in sweat from the fierce battle.
As I looked at her, she likewise looked at me. Even with only my face and upper body visible, it was easy for her to see what condition I was in. That she was on the verge of tears was only natural.
However, Nadia did not show intense emotion. Or rather, she composed herself much more than before. She was worried, but she didn't act as if the world was collapsing. She was trying her best.
Because now we both knew. Ultimately, if we returned alive, it was enough.
- ... You did well. And thank you.
"You too."
It hadn't been easy for Celestia and me to overload the reactor, but holding out here wasn't any easier. At least we'd had brief moments to breathe, but there would have been no such luxury on the Sky Whale's surface.
It was no wonder their weapons were trashed. Equipment specially designed to avoid overheating for sustained combat had still ended up over-heated. That spoke volumes about how frantic things had been.
If anything, I was the one who should be thankful. They had hung on until now, allowing us to escape quickly.
Eric and Kanna darted in, pulled out wires, and strapped themselves down instead of using seatbelts. My suit was wrecked, so I shared Celestia's harness. With a click, we were pulled tight.
- Everyone on?
"Wires are secured! Go!"
- Good, hold on tight.
Roxy checked the cargo area and, as soon as he spoke, I heard the output surge. The thrusters' glow grew longer as the shuttle accelerated.
"Ugh..."
The movement against gravity pressed down on my whole body for a moment. Fortunately, it didn't last long. Then, I was flung backward as the force shifted.
We didn't have time to explain what had happened to Eric and Kanna. Speaking in a violently shaking shuttle like this could result in unexpected injuries.
They seemed curious, but they were keeping their mouths shut. Clearly exhausted, they hung on to stay in their seats.
- It's going to get bumpy. Just trust me.
I wondered if "a little" and "a lot" could ever coexist, but the thought quickly vanished. As the shuttle began truly breaking through, the deafening sounds of the battlefield flooded inside, clearing my mind of all other thoughts.
With the booming explosions and the sound of thick metal armor tearing, all I could do was forcibly swallow the thing that kept rising from my gut.
Maintaining top speed, we shot through the battlefield filled with all kinds of weapons in operation. I wondered how we'd get out of the Sky Whale's energy field, but it turned out to be unexpectedly easy to pass through.
It was possible only because the field was riddled with holes. The real problem was what came next. Having realized that we had exited the field, the pureblood supremacist fleet immediately shifted their target to us.
Likewise, albatross and Griffin, recognizing us as allies, began actively providing cover, but sheer numbers could not be ignored. Red beams brushed dangerously close to the shuttle's armor, and the heat was palpable.
Perhaps because these were the main guns of warships, the energy interference was stronger than expected. Internal devices momentarily malfunctioned, causing noise.
An ordinary person would have lost their composure and screamed. The only reason we managed to keep straight faces was because Roxy was the one piloting the shuttle.
I might curse him as a madman sometimes, but when it came to piloting skills, no one could match him. If he couldn't do it, nobody else could. If he said it was possible, it was possible.
Albatross opened its aft storage bay doors just enough for us to enter. It wasn't fully open, because the degree of door opening restricted the ship's speed. In a battle like this, opening the doors fully was just begging to be targeted.
The shuttle lurched and shook. But thanks to not slowing down, we were able to almost reach Albatross.
As we drew closer, the pureblood supremacist fleet grew increasingly frantic.
Their target was us, so they had no intention of letting us go. The enemies increased the ship's output, risking ramming to stay on our tail.
Or they would have, had the Sky Whale's attacks not intervened at just the right moment.
Perhaps by coincidence, the rampaging Sky Whale launched indiscriminate attacks at the pureblood supremacist fleet. Occasionally, some stray fire grazed Albatross, but by proportion, it was less than 20%.
'... Orca.'
That name rose in my mind. I looked back at the Sky Whale. Amidst the destruction of its facility, ominous flames were bursting out everywhere. I couldn't tell if the resonant sound was the whale's song or just the scream of torn metal.
I couldn't gaze at the Sky Whale for long. As Roxy piloted us through the partially open storage bay gate of Albatross, the whole view around me suddenly changed.
Clang—!
Without reducing speed to ensure a safe landing, the shuttle's hull scraped along the floor. Fortunately, a Beta series unit had prepared a net beforehand, preventing the shuttle from bouncing dangerously.
My head spun and I could barely get up. Roxy hurriedly notified Licorice on the bridge about our situation, sounding urgent yet still cheery.
- Docking complete! Boss! Can you hear me? We have to get out of here right now! Friend says an orbital cannon strike is incoming!
- Orbital cannon?! Don't tell me that anomalous reaction in orbit before was...! Full power to the engines! Get us out of here, now!
At Licorice's shout, albatross banked away. Rather than evading, the goal was to put distance between us and the threat, so minor attacks hit the ship's stern. Though violently shaken, the retreat continued undeterred—in fact, we accelerated.
Using up all remaining supplies, we shook off pursuit by the pureblood supremacist fleet. With the Sky Whale no longer interfering, the distance between us and them widened steadily.
As soon as we cleared the Velum spaceport site, a black line shot down from somewhere in the sky, striking the Sky Whale directly.
━━━━━━━!
The black line appeared for only a split moment—but even that glimpse was deeply disturbing. Normally, the thickness of an energy beam weapon corresponds to its power.
By that standard, the black line should have been feeble—it was no thicker than a lightning bolt.
But in reality, it was the opposite. The instant the black line struck the Sky Whale, sound and light vanished. Or rather, to be exact, were sucked into it.
As if nothing could stop it, the orbital cannon shot pierced the colossal form of the Sky Whale. And the resulting impact was transmitted directly to the ground.
The black line drove deep into the earth. What happened next was unmistakable before our eyes.
As if a nuclear explosion had gone off underground, giant fissures spread out and then erupted. It was literally an explosion. Countless pieces of land were flung skyward as if swept up by a gravity fluctuation, while ominous blood-red sparks scattered everywhere.
It looked as if space itself had swallowed everything in those cross-sections. Not just the Sky Whale, but the entire nearby pureblood supremacist fleet—all evidence of their existence vanished.
"..."
All of us were speechless in shock. We'd known orbital cannons were terrifying, but we hadn't expected destruction of this scale.
The remnants of the fleet could be seen scrambling to retreat. We watched as burning wreckage plummeted to the ground. Strange phenomena flickered in the air amid flashing lights.
The forcibly exposed ground below now boasted a new canyon. It wasn't just a crevasse, but a gigantic abyss that could only be described as apocalyptic in scale.
What kind of attack could cause such devastation? The answer came in Licorice's trembling voice.
- ... Gravity cannon.