My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 138

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑𝟖: 𝐘𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲, 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 (4)

This is Jiannettera’s star system.

Dozens of bulked-up Hailspatters lined the hill, changing the landscape of the battlefield.

Jiji-jiji-jiji-jiji!!!!

Black liquid poured like endless rain. Deployed on the surface of this planet, the Federation ground forces were consuming their output, opening their shields like umbrellas, or constantly firing toward the sky to vaporize the black liquid in mid-air.

At first glance, the Hailspatter swarm might not seem like they were doing much damage to their enemies, but in reality, the enemies were constantly expending energy to defend themselves from the black liquid.

Inside the colony were Gnox and Jiannettera, who was ranked 21st in the hierarchy.

“Jiannettera. Any outside support yet?”

“Hecartra’s main force is prioritizing the Human Galaxy. Word is that the top fleet and motherships of the Lomro-or have appeared there.”

“This is getting dangerous.”

The Federation’s quadrupedal war machines were expanding the front lines. Unusually, they moved on four legs and had caterpillar tracks like old-fashioned tanks instead of feet.

Ku-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaak!

And rolling through those machines, destroying the front lines, was a giant, gear-shaped war machine tank that tore through the ground, cutting off Skeletunnel’s approach from the source.

“Ludwig-nim gave me information and hints about our enemies.”

Listening to Jiannettera’s explanation, they weren’t such a formidable race.

The Drataiden. A race of synthetic intelligence that resides in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Their race’s bodies are living beings, but if there is anything left of living beings in their bodies, it’s only their brains connected to machines and networks.

Having set the direction of their race as transcending machines, the Drataiden have no particular deity or ideal target as their predecessor race, and they are said to be composite intelligences with the consciousness of their race merged with the synthetic intelligence they created.

“So they’re not 100% machines. Are these guys attacking us just because they belong to the Federation?”

“I’m not sure about that. Can’t Gnox-nim hack their systems?”

“It’s difficult because it’s not binary. It’s not impossible, but the colony will be overrun before we can successfully hack them.”

Gnox analyzed the information he had obtained so far.

Aside from their brains, the Drataiden, whose bodies were entirely mechanical, did not use nuclear weapons when attacking Jiannettera’s territory.

Machines without genetic systems are almost immune to radiation. They would hardly be affected even by scorching heat storms or intense flashes of light.

‘Then why aren’t they using nukes?’

They successfully broke through the fleet battle and landed on the surface but still didn’t use nuclear weapons.

That led to the analysis that their race’s weapons were not suited for the environment created by a nuclear explosion.

In that case, what other environmental changes would occur when a nuclear weapon exploded?

‘. . .Electromagnetic pulse.’

That might be the Drataiden’s weakness.

“Jiannettera. This might sound a little crazy, but hear me out.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Firing Organic Accelerator Cannons from individual Lemegeton warships onto the ground.”

“It is possible, but. . .”

The Drataiden ships looked like several gears intricately meshed together.

Their self-rotating fleet made it difficult to employ the Chimeraz’s signature encirclement strategy effectively since their cannon fire could respond to all angles and directions.

On the other hand, trying to overwhelm them with numbers would result in an unfavorable exchange ratio because the Drataiden had a considerable number of cannons equipped per ship.

Furthermore, their army, which had landed on the ground, was highly capable of breaking through the front lines.

The weapons fired by the giant, rolling war machine tanks and the quadrupedal war machines were advanced Gauss weapons, and the projectiles accelerated by extreme electromagnetic force were alloy shrapnel rounds of rotating saucer-shaped obsidian and Lonsdaleite.

The saucer-shaped rotating alloy shrapnel rounds were essentially microscopic cutters, and these highly penetrative bullets were weapons that could pierce through Mindrocker’s bio-barriers and the exoskeletons of ground units with relative ease.

As a result, the fleet battle was at a standstill, and the front lines on the ground were continuously expanding in favor of the Drataiden.

“If a few Lemegeton warships drop out of the fleet battle, there will be an immediate gap in our forces. And since the enemy’s front lines have been advancing on the colony for a long time now, we might end up vaporizing the Xenotera, which is slowing down their advance, with our own hands.”

In this situation, an orbital bombardment of the ground required careful consideration.

“There aren’t any free leaders right now, so we can’t expect support. Each of us has to protect our territories on our own.”

At this rate, the colony itself would be directly hit. If the Drataiden were to advance to this location, where the main nests, structures, and Mindrockers in the rear were located, there would be no chance of victory. The moment would come when there would be nothing they could try.

“Let’s just go for it, an orbital bombardment right over our colony. Trust me on this.”

Jiannettera responded in true Jiannettera fashion.

“I was merely expressing my concerns. . . I have no qualms about trying new strategies. After all, if we stick to our current methods, we won’t be able to stop the enemies invading my territory.”

🔷🔷🔷

A single-braided bob cut with waves in it, vertically slit dark blue eyes like a reptile, and a jagged fang tattoo etched below the left eye.

She was known to have the highest individual combat power among the Human Assets.

“I’m so tired of this.”

Vatory was stomping on a Drataiden war machine much larger than her body.

The short swords she held in both hands, curved like a beast’s fangs, tore through the Drataiden’s armor and broke the circuit boards inside.

Kwak!

The Drataiden war machine’s chest housed its brain. It was a brain with unidentified machinery and electrodes embedded in it.

“So you are a living being? I thought you were a robot.”

“Tetorop. . . Fractosum. . .”

“What are you mumbling?”

Its body destroyed and its brain exposed, the Drataiden spoke in a mechanical voice.

“Vimasseptotedranta. . .”

Vatory brought her face close to the Drataiden’s brain. Her reptilian eyes were already bloodshot with primal sadistic instinct.

Ji-ji-jik!

She scratched the Drataiden’s brain with her fingernails.

“Su-su-sujit. . .”

“Does it hurt?”

“Ji-jit. . . Su-su-sujit. . .!”

“It hurts? So you can feel pain?”

The Mindrockers connected to Vatory were pleading with her, saying that her actions were unnecessary for the battle.

“Su-sut. . . You, are you Human or Chimeraz?”

“Oh.”

The moment the Drataiden spoke in Human language, the Mindrockers who had been appealing to Vatory through waves fell silent.

“If you’ve defeated me, kill me! You devil!”

Jijik. . .!!!

Vatory scratched its brain again with her fingernails. Her hands were now stained crimson with the blood flowing from its brain.

Something soft and brain-like was stuck under her fingernails.

“Your fleet. The captain or. . . the executor, was it? Anyway, where’s the guy in charge of you guys?”

“You monsters with evil in your nature! You Humans and the Chimeraz must be eliminated for the future of this universe!”

“Who gets to decide that?”

Her voice suddenly dropped.

“Have you listened to our thoughts?”

The expression on her face, which had been twisted in a maniacal grin, turned chillingly cold.

“Who gets to eliminate whom at their own discretion?”

Her face showed no warmth, emotion, or humanity whatsoever.

“Listen, friend. . . We never started a fight with anyone. We only do this because the other side does something bad first. If you keep picking fights, we won’t be able to fight anymore. . .”

“Do you think we’re scared?!”

“I’m not trying to scare you, you bastard. I’m talking to the big shot behind you. Do you think we’re a race that scares you with our tongues?”

Her sudden emotional shifts were unpredictable.

“Right. . . What’s the point of me badmouthing you and talking to you like this? You’re just a foot soldier following orders, after all. I guess it’s the big shots who sent you out here who are at fault. I’m sorry for tormenting you.”

She was an odd sight, torturing someone, getting angry, randomly understanding them, and then apologizing.

“What, what are you trying to say. . .”

Puk!

A sword pierced the Drataiden’s soft brain.

Swaaaaaaaa. . .

From high above, streams of black liquid traced parabolic trajectories, pouring down extensively somewhere on the front lines.

This was a battlefield.

Chimeraz carcasses and Drataiden debris were strewn everywhere. The Xenotera, scorched and sticky, was being covered by fresh Xenotera approaching from the rear, and in the distance, the crocodile-like snout of a Skeletunnel was breaking through the rocks and spewing out its legion.

Overall, the Drataiden was expanding its front lines, but in the nearby battlefield where Vatory was deployed, the Chimeraz’s defense was the only one that was succeeding.

That spoke volumes about her exceptional individual combat power and the great influence she wielded on the battlefield.

Of course, the fact that the Drataiden were not a race that frequently used nuclear explosions or orbital bombardments was also a special circumstance that allowed her to be on the battlefield.

“. . .What is that?”

Dark shadows emerged one by one from beyond the dark sky.

They were Lemegetons.

Are they trying to drop an Organic Pipe on the ground because they have some time to spare in a fleet battle, or are they trying to drop a Drop Cyst?

Just then, Gnox’s waves came.

➖Sister Vatory.

‘Are the Lemegetons coming down? Did we win the fleet battle?’

➖No, that’s not it. Get out of the front lines for now.

‘No.’

➖I’m going to launch a large-scale orbital bombardment on the battle line. You’re in the blast zone, so get on the Asotus I’m sending you and return to the colony.

‘Hey, do you know how much effort it took to spread out the Xenotera here? Are you just going to burn it all?’

➖It’s a sacrifice we have to make to try a new strategy. Except for the front line where you are right now, everything else is being pushed back.

‘I want to fight more.’

➖Wouldn’t you rather come back and let me do maintenance on you? To be honest, I don’t have enough resources in my body right now.

‘Got it.’

Only the Hounz and Tritula, which did not require much effort to produce, were left on the front lines, and the rest of the legion retreated discreetly.

Immediately after, Lemegeton warships equipped with Organic Accelerator Cannons simultaneously launched an orbital bombardment on the surface.

Throughout the battlefield, the massive volume of air that had been plasmafied caused numerous thermonuclear explosions of varying sizes here and there. Amidst those intense explosions, the Drataiden army was completely powered down or malfunctioning.

After a storm of intense heat and a deafening roar, the battlefield fell silent in an instant.

The Chimeraz units were reduced to ash, leaving no trace, while the Drataiden army, with its sturdy mechanical bodies, stood frozen like scrap metal on the scorched wasteland.

【Gaps have appeared in the enemy’s ranks in the fleet battle. Send out more reinforcements.】

【The Chimeraz have generated an intentional electromagnetic pulse.】

【If they gain an advantage in the ground battle that way, we can gain an advantage in the fleet battle.】

If one were to ask which was more important in modern warfare, the ground battle or the fleet battle, the fleet battle would obviously be more important.

That was because a fleet’s orbital bombardment was more powerful than artillery fire on the ground, and tactically, reinforcements descending from a fleet were more advantageous than self-replenishing troops on the ground.

Therefore, even though the Chimeraz had rendered the Drataiden army on the ground almost defenseless, the price they paid was a gap in the fleet battle and the subsequent invasion of the planet.

【Restore the communication network between the ground and the orbit and repair the internal circuits of the ground troops.】

But there was no way the Chimeraz wouldn’t know this.

The Drataiden failed to predict that ‘there was no way the Chimeraz wouldn’t know this.’

➖The Drataiden army is descending again. They’re trying to revive the machines that have stopped working.

The first of Gnox’s moves was to generate an electromagnetic pulse with the Organic Accelerator Cannon’s orbital bombardment, giving them temporary superiority in the ground battle.

➖Go, Cophilias.

Next came Jiannettera’s second move.

Kwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!

A lightly armed, high-speed aircraft shaped like a rhinoceros beetle with five eyes, two pairs of finger-like legs, powerful twin propulsion engines instead of wings, and an excessively developed mandible.

Referencing the genetic information of Cust, these small creatures flew in swarms at supersonic speeds, firing invisible gamma rays that burned cells and melted circuits.

【A new type of flying unit has appeared on the planet!】

The Chimeraz had grown stronger once again during the war.

They had evolved, however sickening it was.

Even this moment was being used as fertilizer for their growth.

【How many are there?!】

【Too many. . .!】

The Chimeraz now had drone weapons operating in the atmosphere.