Evolve (40)
"It sounds like the mission succeeded thanks to the program called Orca, huh... From what I've heard, it would have been a huge help if I'd joined in. That's a bit disappointing."
Those were Licorice's words after she was briefed, alongside the key members gathered on the bridge, about what had transpired on the Sky Whale.
After hearing about the giant unmanned weapon, the Sky Whale, which had been dormant at the Baelum Spaceport, and the Remora that served as its carrier craft, her expression hardly relaxed at all. Her already tired face now mixed with annoyance, making her look even more irritable than usual.
Licorice showed a strong interest in Orca but then shook her head in dissatisfaction. That dissatisfaction was not directed at the pureblood supremacists, but at something else.
"The damned Earth Government bastards... I have no idea what else they're hiding or where it all starts and ends."
Licorice clicked her tongue. Perhaps it was the lingering unease despite the successful operation. She ruffled her carefully arranged hair in frustration.
"The degenerate drive, the gravity cannon... All those were supposed to be technologies that hadn't even begun development, and yet somehow they've already been deployed for real use... It's just full of impossible things, really."
Degenerate drive. A power engine that uses a black hole as its energy source.
When I first heard such things from Celestia, I couldn't believe my own ears. I had good reason—the idea of using a black hole for energy seemed impossible with current technology.
Hadn't Licorice just said so? That development of such technology hadn't even started? That's what everyone thought.
With the discovery of blue crystal, civilization evolved in a leap to an incredible degree. Thanks to it, technologies including terraforming became commercialized, and there was almost nowhere humans hadn't set foot.
Even that much alone was impressive technology, but maybe technology had advanced much further than we'd realized. And the Earth Government was no doubt involved at its core.
"I'm starting to suspect the Earth Government is controlling technology... It's not just me, right?"
Nadia shuddered as she mentioned the gravity cannon. Her tail puffed up as if recalling that moment, even the fur on her ears bristled.
If I closed my eyes, I could still clearly recall the memory. The final scene I had witnessed was so shocking it was burned into my mind.
The gravity cannon. An attack firing highly-compressed degenerate matter in a straight line. The black streak that struck like lightning pierced not only the surface but even burrowed deep underground and exploded from within.
The penetration was unbelievable. If the Sky Whale hadn't acted as a buffer, the damage could have been much worse. No—there was no doubt about it.
'The thing that obliterated Europa must have been that satellite cannon.'
It wasn't just Titan that had protocol sequences. After the Immortality Experiment incident broke out on Mars, the Earth Government had taken extreme measures to prevent such disasters in the future. Any colony of a certain size or larger probably had such measures implemented.
Unlike the mining satellite Titan, Europa was developed purely as a tourist and residential satellite. Maybe it didn't have a satellite gravity cannon, but it surely had a similarly dangerous protocol.
'Gedric didn't know more about the details.'
The Reformist Gedric only knew about Europa's destruction—not what had destroyed it, nor how. Was it information control? Or did everyone who knew just die, leaving no one to tell?
If even a single person had survived, one would think there'd be a clue about what had destroyed Europa.
'Whether the degenerate drive or the satellite cannon, I doubt either are small structures...'
Even maintaining invisibility mode, if it's on Titan's orbit, its presence should eventually be detected. That was because pureblood supremacist forces completely surrounded the outside of Titan now.
The only explanation for why they hadn't found it must be some additional, special technology. Just hiding in orbit couldn't be enough—Titan simply wasn't large enough a planet for that.
But if that was the case, then why had the frontlines fallen all the way to Mars orbit? Why hadn't there been any move to prevent this disaster in advance? I couldn't make sense of it.
That wasn't a feeling unique to me. Everyone felt the same. People even joked that maybe the Earth Government was the true mastermind behind it all.
The only plausible theory was that there must be some kind of restriction on using that special technology.
"I get that feeling too. And yet, there are just so many explanations that don't make sense, it's unsettling. One thing for sure is that we were arrogant. If I'd realized the satellite gravity cannon using the degenerate drive was the purification protocol, I would have reconsidered activating it. If things had gone a little wrong, we'd have died right then—without a trace."
"The fact that it activated weakly was pure luck for us."
"Pure luck... If it was just a coincidence, we could leave it at that. But..."
Licorice couldn't shake her suspicions. She wondered if the degenerate drive having been imperfectly activated and the satellite cannon firing was all someone's doing.
I knew who she was suspecting. But I held my tongue for now. Everyone was caught up in their thoughts, wearing serious expressions.
"For now, there's no further degenerate drive readings detected in orbit. I don't know whether it's become impossible to scan again, or if the gravity cannon's recoil temporarily stopped it, but either way, it's too late to amend our plans now."
"Oh, speaking of plans—Orca predicted exactly where we'd be headed next—even though we never brought up anything about the Archive."
As I brought up more about Orca, Carry reacted. Bored, he had been wandering the bridge when his flight units perked up.
"That program does seem to know a lot, but then again, the Archive can be considered a product of the Earth Government itself, right? So maybe there's a connection between government creations. Even if SSTC cooperated, the Earth Government was still the lead."
At my added comment, Licorice leaned back deeply in her chair, thinking for a moment. Then she suddenly leaned forward, focusing her gaze on Celestia.
"There was a bio-gate reaction inside the Sky Whale, right?"
"Yes. I didn't see it directly, but the main system detected a warp reaction according to Orca. Orca also said internal contamination levels skyrocketed after that reaction occurred."
"Lobelia..."
Licorice bit her lip hard. To be honest, the reason Albatross was able to endure against a powerful enemy was ironically thanks mostly to Lobelia.
It wasn't because Lobelia did anything—but because she did nothing at all. If Lobelia had manipulated Licorice's body and caused chaos like before, the impact would not have been small.
Licorice understood this too, so she was both relieved and annoyed. The others didn't know she was a clone of Lobelia—but Licorice and I knew.
I didn't know why Lobelia contaminated the Sky Whale this time, or why she didn't intervene through Licorice. We simply didn't understand Lobelia's motives—everything was a mystery.
Yet one thing was certain: I couldn't shake the feeling that once again, we were being toyed with by Lobelia. I found myself fidgeting with the restraint button I'd prepared just in case Licorice lost control.
Celestia spoke.
"I guess we should find it lucky, but that woman didn't appear this time. Instead, as if playing a mischievous prank, she sent a mutated being that looked exactly like my brother..."
Nadia and Licorice glanced briefly at Celestia. It was an open secret that Celestia was searching for her brother. Of course they were curious.
But then the two of them tilted their heads, confused. Celestia's response was somewhat different from what they'd expected. Although plenty of emotions—anger, irritation, sadness—were flickering across her face, none of them were very intense. It was as if only the embers remained after the fire had burned out.
Celestia, unconcerned with their stares, fiddled with the bandage wrapped around my wrist. Nadia's eyebrows twitched. Licorice also furrowed her brow, but soon lost interest.
"That's what's strange. Why send only that thing? It doesn't feel like she's being hostile. If she were, she'd have sent the twin mutants she usually brings, just to be sure to wipe us out if we're recognized as enemies."
"Maybe she was targeting Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo, didn't you say you were bound by some sort of contract?"
"Hm..."
Licorice's red eyes turned to me. She was asking wordlessly whether I had remembered something more. I shook my head. If there had been anything more I recalled about that contract, I would have spoken up first.
In the end, Licorice leaned back again into her chair with a long sigh and then spoke up.
"In any case, the Purification Protocol was definitely activated. Now it's time to move on to the next phase of the plan."
With a gloved hand, Licorice tapped the air and a holographic display appeared on the central monitor of the bridge. The terrain of Titan was rendered in three dimensions, filling the screen.
"After the gravity cannon vaporized Baelum Spaceport, a hole was torn in the blockade around Titan. Maybe those gaps have already been filled, but since we have no reason to go back there, it doesn't matter."
The impact of the gravity cannon shifted the positions of everything in orbit. The military satellites encircling Titan were now strung out a little farther than before.
More precisely, they were no longer in optimal positions. Not exactly a fatal gap, but it had downgraded from impenetrable to just 'hard to breach.'
"The blockade is much looser now. We're going to punch through using signal amplification via relay equipment."
"Where are we setting up the relays?"
"The Mistlim Montes mountains. It's where the tallest peak on Titan is."
At Licorice's gesture, a marker on the terrain map moved, highlighting a rugged ice mountain range. According to her plan, multiple relay devices would form a relay array for communications, centered on the mountain peaks.
Finally, Kanna, who had been silent until now, raised her hand to speak.
"My team and I can handle the relay installation. We've done this kind of work before, so we won't need much time. But even if our signal reaches Myosotis's fleet, the bigger problem is what comes after. We still haven't pinpointed the location of the Archive. Isn't that our priority right now?"
"You're right. We still haven't identified the exact location. We've launched scout drones and narrowed down a few candidate sites, but the situation is too dangerous to check each one in person. The pureblood supremacists are on high alert—and many drones have already been shot down."
Licorice's brow furrowed. She was worried about the very same thing. She brought up a hologram of a small reconnaissance craft bearing the pureblood supremacist emblem—one they had managed to capture by luck during a firefight.
"That's why we're going to use this. We're currently modifying it for high-speed maneuvering, and Roxy will pilot it to visit the candidate sites I've selected to confirm the Archive's existence."
"Roxy going alone?"
"There's no other choice. The scout craft seats two, but nobody else can handle Roxy's piloting. Even if someone could, they'd have something else to do."
There were uneasy murmurs from all around. Sending Roxy alone essentially meant asking him to shoulder all the danger by himself. Surrounded by enemies in every direction, if his cover was blown, he would be in serious trouble.
"Besides, it was Roxy who volunteered."
At Licorice's added comment, I couldn't help but slap my forehead. I should've guessed as much.
Everyone else's expressions soured for a different reason now. We all knew Roxy's tendency to seek the rush of dopamine from facing and overcoming danger, but if he kept on taking such risks, sooner or later he'd end up dead.
Even if we wanted to suggest alternatives, none came to mind, so we kept quiet.
Licorice wrapped up the meeting by saying she wasn't insisting it be done this way, so if anyone had a better idea, they could always speak up.
"That's all the urgent announcements for now. I'll narrow down the Archive candidates further, so go get some rest. None of us look great—including me."
The bridge crew dispersed. Albatross and Griffin completed basic maintenance and decided they would head for the Mistlim Montes mountains next.
With the alert level set higher than ever, everyone on board retreated to their cabins to grab whatever rest they could.
I did the same. I gazed out the window at the dark night sky. Saturn, which I hadn't seen for a while due to the thickening clouds, finally revealed itself through a break.
Its outlines were so sharp it was chilling. The atmosphere felt almost spellbinding. As I looked at it, I thought—I survived again today.
After a quick wash, it was only once I lay down in bed that I was finally able to relax. Celestia, who had been helping me up until then, looked like she had something to say, but merely shook her head.
Taking advantage of the moment when Nadia and Carry were distractedly bickering, Celestia quickly pressed her lips to my cheek and pulled away.
"Hyun-woo, don't worry too much. From now on—or rather, from now as always—Myosotis will be with you."
Celestia gently stroked my furrowed brow with her finger, telling me not to look so tense. With the warmth of her touch, my hardened expression melted away as if it had never been there.
I was surprised at how her actions were noticeably bolder now, but before I could say a word, I just moved my lips and fell asleep as if I'd fainted.
***
An outpost somewhere on Kraken Sea, Titan's largest ocean.
"You idiotic fools!"
Someone's roar shook the calm surface of the water.