Chapter 99: 099
Ep. 99
–
The Loose Rock Cartel is slightly different from the regular Space Dogs.
Usually, Space Dog cartels make money by raiding ships of other races. If you succeed in plundering a superior ship, you will abandon the existing ship and switch to a new ship.
As a result, most cartels only focus on the armament of the ships they operate and neglect other aspects.
However, the Rusrock Cartel was not like that.
Their main means of making money is capturing and smuggling rare animals. Looting was nothing more than a side income.
So there are many things they need to take care of other than the ship's armament.
Facilities to safely store caught animals, facilities to store food for the animals, facilities to mount aircraft used to capture creatures living in outer space, etc.
Because they needed a lot of things, the Rusrock Cartel's ships were relatively large compared to the size of the cartel.
It is a space ship with a total length of 300m and a height of 70m, and in terms of size, it is comparable to Megacorp's small destroyer.
The name of the Loose Rock Cartel's ship is the Calvin.
This is the name Milo gave it after he hijacked the Star Union trade ship a long time ago.
The huge predator was approaching new prey.
"We have 10 minutes until we reach the signal."
"We're all here, why can't I see you?"
All that can be seen from the large display installed in front of the situation room is endless darkness.
Sky Whale is a creature that emits light from its body like an animal that lives in the deep sea. The light is so beautiful and clear that it can be easily seen from a great distance.
It should be much more visible in space, which is just a black space.
Milo ordered his subordinates.
"Check the signal again."
"You should be able to see it by now…"
At that time, an emergency signal rang in the situation room. It was a signal sent by Calvin, the central AI computer that controlled the ship.
"Beware of collision! Be careful of collision!"
At that moment, a pitch black ship appeared on the display. The distance from the ship is literally a stone's throw away.
Milo shouted in astonishment.
"Fuck you! Emergency avoidance!"
"Everyone be careful!"
The ship's hull shook significantly due to the evasive maneuver. The black ship seen on the display passed them and disappeared beyond the screen.
The pirates in the situation room were screaming and rolling around on the floor.
Milo was a wolf and an excellent warrior, so there was no need for him to lose face by falling. He shouted urgently.
"You lazy monkeys! "Don't get carried away and make sure the product is in good condition!"
"Yes yep!"
The captain's angry shouts made his subordinates quickly tap on their computers to check if there was any damage on the ship.
"There's a ship right in front of me, why didn't I detect it?"
"Uh, let me check.
Vice Captain Stax massaged his numb buttocks and operated the terminal in the situation room. Then his expression became strange.
"Captain."
"why?"
"Did you know that Star Union's ships capture the flow of energy like a ghost?"
"Of course I know."
"I can't detect any electrical signals from that ship?"
"what?"
The vice captain displayed the information confirmed on the terminal on the display.
Milo was taken aback because what he said was true.
"what? So does that mean the ship that almost got hit just now is already a dead ship?"
"It's not just that. "The signal we identified is coming from that ship."
"…."
In other words, the ship they passed by is a contradictory entity that continues to emit vital signals even though its machinery does not operate at all.
'What kind of monkey situation is this?'
While Milo and Stax were pondering, someone in the situation room muttered.
"It's a ghost ship…"
Milo frowned at those words.
"What kind of monkey bastard was talking about? "Where are the ghosts in space?"
"Captain Seo knows this too! "The Dvara Cartel was caught by a ghost ship and was ruined…"
A few months ago, the Dvara Cartel, which was considered the loser of the C-08 area, completely collapsed due to a mysterious incident.
According to rumors, the captain and vice-captain of the Dvara Cartel went to plunder as usual but encountered a ghost ship and disappeared.
"We may be pirates, but we can't defeat ghosts!"
"We must run away now!"
Milo put his foot down and hit the floor of the situation room. The pirates all fell silent as their footprints were left on the solid metal plywood.
"Everyone shut up. "There are no ghost ships."
"Captain! but…!"
"Think about it with common sense. "If it's C-08, it's hundreds of light years away from here, so how did the ghost ship come here by traveling at faster than light speed?"
"Wouldn't it be possible since it's a ghost ship?"
"Fuck, just say that the ghost shoots plasma cannons and puts up shields. "What nonsense."
The pirates regained their stability thanks to Captain Milo's carefree attitude.
After seeing that the fear had disappeared from the pirates' eyes, Milo gave an order.
"I need to check what that ship is. Stax. "You go in with the kids."
"yes?"
"It's more dangerous to send only the cowardly monkeys, so you take command yourself."
"…."
"Baby, I'll be watching everything, so you don't have to worry."
"Tsk. yep."
Stax nodded with a hesitant expression.
Whatever it was, if the ship was captured, the benefits outweighed the losses.
Because all the cargo inside becomes their property.
'What can there be?'
Milo, who sent the vice captain, kept an eye on the mysterious ship floating on the display.
–
'I came.'
When I felt the approaching ship, I opened my eyes.
It's been a week since I came here to the I-97 sector.
Meanwhile, I was busy checking the functionality of the eroded ship.
'It's encouraging that faster-than-light navigation is possible.'
The biggest advantage of eroding a ship is that you can use most of the functions of the object as if it were your own body.
In addition to basic navigation functions, super-light speed navigation using the light speed engine was also possible without difficulty. In this case, you can use the remaining energy in your stomach instead of your own.
'If not, it wouldn't have been easy to maintain the ship for a long time.'
And this ship doesn't have a turret, so I can't confirm it, but I think it's probably capable of firing from naval guns.
'It would be possible because we can draw and use plasma energy.'
Another advantage is that you can change the structure of the boat into the shape you want.
'You could say it's a nest where I can use my characteristics.'
From the moment the erosion was completed, this ship became nothing more than a living nest.
In addition, thanks to the ability to change the structure of the ship, you can create and use traps with your own characteristics.
Create spores on the ceiling that launch rotting fungus, transform part of the floor to create a claw trap with a ghost claw effect, etc.
'I used the monster's tentacles well.'
That ship that came to visit me also came because I created a large monster tentacle inside the ship and fired a wave.
They probably mistook it for Skywhale or Gallagon.
If you look at it up to this point, it may seem like there are only advantages, but like everything else in the world, there are definitely disadvantages as well.
'It's a shame that I can't move the ship when I'm piloting it.'
The eroded tentacles from my stomach are connected to my stomach, making movement impossible.
In this state, you can call the kids or move your body a little, but not as much as moving.
Additionally, physical attributes are banned and cannot be used.
'If it were possible, I could have used it as much as I wanted while controlling the ship.'
If you can use body-related characteristics while controlling the ship, the uses are truly endless.
You can attach wings to the outer wall of the ship to use it to move around the planet's atmosphere, or you can combine the teeth strength and metal absorption characteristics to bite other ships and strengthen the main body.
'The good news is that the erosion tentacle itself can be created anew even while it is connected.'
The erosion tentacles on my body cannot be used as they must remain connected to the ship, but new erosion tentacles can be created near the inner or outer walls.
'But I don't think you can pilot a new ship while piloting the same ship.'
Once the erosion is complete, my mind connects with the boat.
It will be more accurate to check when that ship approaches, but it is probably impossible to attack a new ship while taking control of this ship.
'It's unfortunate, but the specifications of the erosion tentacle itself are not bad.'
Even if it has no special function, it can use these tentacles to hunt and prey on enemies.
'The erosion tentacle has a mouth, so it will be able to acquire genetic essence.'
I haven't tried this yet because I don't have a test subject, but it seems quite possible.
'Anyway, the boat is bigger than I thought.'
As the ship gets closer, you can clearly feel its size.
It is almost three times larger than the ship I control.
Among space dogs, there are not many who operate ships that large.
Top cartels or people who mainly focus on smuggling usually operate such large ships.
'Based on the number of people detected, it is not a high-ranking cartel. There are too few of them.'
My guess is that they are smugglers. And that's not just half-assed, it's to a significant degree.
'The facilities for smuggling are well equipped. There are also carrier aircraft, although not in large numbers.'
Looking at its appearance, it resembles a Star Union trade ship or a Megacorp assault ship, but I'm not sure.
'For more details, I'll have to go into that ship and check.'
If it's the ship I'm thinking of, it's not a bad ship to upgrade to.
'If it's a smuggling ship, there's probably a lot of food to eat.'
Additionally, if you target a smuggling ship, you can obtain information about smuggled animals stored in the ship's computer.
What lives on which planet, what route can you take to safely infiltrate the planet, etc.
'If you think about the second stage of transcendence, you have to catch wild animals in addition to intelligent beings.'
In fact, not only in the second stage of transcendence, but also in evolutionary conditions, various types of animal genes are needed when moving from a subadult to an adult.
'I think the next place to go has been roughly decided.'
Of course, before that, we have to secure control of that ship.
'It's a bit big, though.'
Coincidentally, a ship over there is attempting to dock towards us.
Before welcoming guests, I need to check whether control is possible.
I concentrated my mind and created eroding tentacles on the outer walls of the dominating ship.
An elongated docking port sprouted from the enemy ship and was mounted on the ship under my control.
Meanwhile, an erosion tentacle secretly clung to the lower part of the docking port.
A semi-transparent text box that appeared when selecting an erosion target guided me.
'It's as expected. 'I can't rule right now.'
Since they were already in control of the ship, they could not invade the new ship.
Still, it was possible to check whether or not to target it.
'Let me see.'
The erosion tentacle that completed the check reported the results to me.
'I'm glad that control is possible.'
It's good news that pirate ships that are more than three times larger can be eroded, but it also comes with some problems.
First of all, the time taken to erode was longer than when this ship was under control.
'It's 5 hours until erosion is complete.'
There was only 10 days to maintain control.
'As the size of the object of control increases, the amount of energy required to maintain it also increases.'
In other words, you must consume as much energy as possible and then erode the pirate's ship in order to dominate for a long period of time.
'We'll have to move carefully.'
I recovered the erosion tentacles sprouting from the exterior walls.
'It's already been a week, so moving the ship itself is no problem.'
However, I don't have much energy, so I'll have to prepare first when I go over to that ship.
'I need to hunt appropriately and gather energy first.'
If you eat the smugglers and smuggled animals on that ship, you will be able to secure enough energy to control the ship for a long time.
After that, when the opportunity comes, if I finish the erosion, that ship will be mine.
'Before that, let's deal with those who boarded this ship first.'
A group of people, perhaps an exploration party, began crossing this way through the docking port. I weakened the ported door to make it easier for them to enter the ship.
< What? Why are you so weak? >
< Thanks to you, I'm glad I didn't waste time. >
< Stop talking nonsense and go in. >
The voices of the pirates entering the ship are transmitted into my head.
Because this ship is like my nest and body, I can know everything about what they say, what they do, and what their physical condition is.
'I'm wearing a spacesuit.'
The pirates knew in advance that this was a dead ship and were wearing space suits. In addition, each person brought with them various types of weapons to respond to any emergency situation.
They even brought bombs with them, as if they wanted to completely destroy this spaceship if it was judged to have a problem.
'Well, it doesn't make any sense.'
The weapons they are holding may be useful for catching dangerous wild animals, but what awaits them now is not a simple creature.
Who could imagine that the ship they were stepping on would target them?
< Then let's split up and search. >
< Yep. >
< Ah, Justin. Go to the engine room and check its condition. >
< Engines are expensive. Okay. >
The group of pirates that came in began to split up to quickly search the inside of the ship.
'good.'
Before they arrived, I drastically changed the structure of the ship's interior. It could even be called a maze.
'Plus, there are a lot of traps.'
I closed my eyes again.
One of the twisted passageways in the ship led to the engine room where I was.
< Amy, it's so fucking eerie. >
In the passage that changed in an instant, a person called Justin was walking towards the engine room without knowing anything.
–
"Huh? "This must be the engine room."
Justin, who worked as an engineer at the Loose Rock Cartel, was familiar with the structure of ships, regardless of whether they were Megacorp or Star Union.
Currently, the passenger ship they entered has a three-story structure, of which the engine room is located on the bottom floor.
Normally, he should have been able to see the stairs going down by now, but all he saw in front of him was a passage so long that he couldn't tell the end.
"what is this?"
This ship is not as large as the Rusrock Cartel's ship, the Calvin. Since we had been walking non-stop so far, we should have reached the other side of the ship by now.
'Something is strange.'
Justin activated the communicator inside his spacesuit in an ominous mood.
"Vice-Captain Stax?"
｢Chijijik, chijijik, chijijik, this is chijijik｣
"Vice captain?"
｢Chijijijik monster, chijijijijik retreat, chijijijik｣
Only unintelligible words and unpleasant noises could be heard from the communicator.
"…Nothing will happen, right?"
The Calvin is waiting outside. If something had happened on this ship, action would have been taken a long time ago.
So he forced himself to reassure himself and kept moving forward.
The only light in the dark passageway was the light attached to the spacesuit.
Darkness and darkness again.
Even the light from the lamp seemed to be absorbed into this eerily black wall.
While walking like that, Justin heard something in his ears.
"Crackling."
"!"
He looked back in surprise.
Even though it was clearly the hallway he had walked through, it felt very unfamiliar. It was as if the passage moved randomly as he walked.
"Well, I guess you heard wrong, right? I'm sure it will. Ah cancer. "Don't do that."
He muttered something awkward to himself and started walking again.
The moment Justin took a step, the sound was heard again.
"Kyahahaha."
"Who the fuck is there?"
The sound he heard in space, on a ship that had stopped operating, was clearly the laughter of a young girl.
Even though he was wearing a spacesuit, he could clearly feel that he had chicken skin growing all over his body.
'There's also a motion detector! If you turn it on…!'
He quickly took out a small machine from the tool pack on his belt.
It is a motion sensor that detects the movement of living things and displays it on the radar attached to the machine when there is movement around it.
When I activated the motion detector, a green light came on from the machine.
"Okay…huh?"
When he saw the results on the radar, he couldn't believe his eyes.
Signals were showing all around him.
"What is this?"
A signal was displayed right in front of him. Shocked, he raised his head and came face to face with "them."
Eyes appeared throughout the hallway where he was standing, glaring at him.
Eyes shining purple on a black wall.
Justin, who met their eyes, was already screaming.
He ran like crazy, avoiding those terribly fearful gazes.
As he was running away, there was a door in front of him.
The door leading to the engine room, which had never been seen until now, was waiting for him.
｢Li·ri·oh·ra··
Was it an auditory hallucination caused by extreme fear? Or was it the heart of the stomach that called to him?
Justin didn't know who called him.
The problem was not important to him, who was desperately hoping for someone's guidance anyway.
Justin obeyed the call and opened the door to the engine room.
.
.
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