My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 29.1

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟗: 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬 (4)

The passageway is filled with the corpses of Hounz.

Apoptology, which boasted clean interiors and spacious hallways, has become an ant nest splattered with bloodstains.

Thud! Thud!

The war machines with workers riding them and armored soldiers have set up semi-transparent energy shields like barricades.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

On the opposite side of the passage, the chimeraz are fiercely pounding the ground. There are no pupils or focus to be found in the monsters’ eyes, like soulless heteromorphic lifeforms.

“Tritulas!”

“Damn. . . Here they come again?!”

Without needing a separate order to fire, they mobilize all weaponry. Energy ammunition, armor piercing rounds, plasma, high-powered lasers, grenades and more blew the chimeraz at the front to bloody bits.

But no matter how many are killed, they do not cease.

While their side has an end when they die, the other side has no end. It seems this battle may never conclude.

𝘊𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦. . .

Tritula’s snout opens up like petals, baring its empty throat.

From inside, a highly toxic bone dart is fired out like a bullet, inflicting casualties.

“Argh!”

“Block them! Keep firing!”

Tititititick!

Several Cresecters infiltrate along the ceiling. Hanging upside down, they flutter tentacle-like filaments from their heads like ghosts. Their crescent-shaped heads and flashing red outer eyes are the stuff of nightmares.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!!!”

The Cresecters arch their bodies forward, aiming their rear ends at the humans, and shower them with plasma from their backsides.

The deployed energy shields instantly lose power and the armored soldiers explode without even having a chance to feel pain.

“Stay back! Don’t come!”

“Get this thing off me! Aargh!”

“Aaaahhh!!!”

𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩!!!

The few surviving soldiers and war machines not caught in the plasma explosions are soon trampled and torn apart by the incoming pack of Hounz.

The opposite end of the facility that has not yet become a battlefield is also complete chaos.

“Retrieve the Chief first! Hurry!”

𝘙𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢!

The entire Apoptology facility is crumbling like a dam filled with holes. The wave of chimeraz that started at the spaceport has engulfed Block A in an instant, sweeping away facility forces.

Heading to the spaceport on the opposite side of Block A are crowds of people escaping the facility, escorted by soldiers.

Among them, Francis Darwin, who is receiving special protection, keeps looking back.

“This. . .this was the utopia I created. . . I devoted all my time and effort. . .”

“You need to run now!”

“Chief! The extermination troop and security escorts have been wiped out. . .!”

“We’ve also released our bioweapons! Why are we still being pushed back so quickly?!”

“Their numbers are overwhelming!”

“For them, anything living is just prey!”

The burning, exploding facility keeping erupting behind him is reflected in Darwin’s pupils.

He mutters,

“It’s Medusa-class. . . Yes, Medusa-class. . . We couldn’t have stopped it without the main force. . . Kreion is already. . .”

“This way onto the high-speed ship, hurry!”

“Wait! There are still people trapped inside!”

“Damn it, we can’t save everyone!!”

“Chief! Get a grip!”

He thought he had it under control.

He was arrogant.

Conceited.

“I raised a monster spawn. . .”

Darwin, pushed from behind, safely boards the emergency escape vessel. Just then, a soldier runs up and urgently asks,

“Chief!”

“. . .”

Darwin was stunned. Though he could hear the soldier’s voice in his ear, his gaze remained fixed on the fiery scene.

And in one corner of his field of vision, far away in the facility, he saw Lemegetons of a form he had never seen before, engaged in a fleet battle.

“It has only been over a week. . . They evolved that much in the meantime. . .?”

“Chief Francis Darwin.”

The helmet of the soldier called leader blocked his line of sight.

“Why. . .?”

“We have to blow up all the experimental blocks. Over 70% of the facility’s forces have suffered catastrophic damage.”

“I see. . .”

“We’re telling you there’s no chance of victory for us. I know the facility and personnel are precious to you, but now is the time to make a cold-headed decision.”

The high-speed ship departed the mechanical landing area, heading towards the Nemean stellar state.

And the burning facility receded farther and farther, out of reach.

“My soldiers are desperately holding out with their lives on the line. The most important research team and officials have boarded, so all that’s left is to relieve the suffering of the others. And if Kreion has entered the facility, blowing it up is definitely. . .”

By this point, he had no choice but to accept it.

They had come too far. There was no going back.

“. . .APT2620. E164189FD. That’s the code.”

“Letters first then hexadecimal?”

“After APT. Yes. . .”

“Got it.”

It was a large-scale facility that handled dangerous bioweapons and research specimens. Naturally, a self-destruct function in case of worst case scenarios was essential to Apoptology.

After communicating with someone, the soldier approached the chief again.

“By procedure, I will detonate it after a quick 5 second countdown. This measure will dispose of all personnel remaining in the facility and any rampaging bioweapons that infiltrated it.”

The soldier’s words seemed to fly by as quickly as this situation.

“As the person in charge and owner of both this facility and Apoptology, Chief Francis Darwin, must take responsibility and accept any follow-up measures.” Do you consent?”

“I consent. . .”

“Commencing countdown. Five, four. . .”

All sorts of thoughts and experiences intersected in Darwin’s mind.

“Three, two. . .”

The feeling of destroying with his own hands the castle he built himself.

After dedicating his youth, working till he bled, pushing himself till he vomited. Launching Apoptology into the Opeltes clouds and solidifying its position over the years.

“One. . .”

Gaining recognition from the world, rising meteorically. Finding a way up and sprinting here.

All those things crumbled to dust in an instant, perhaps due to a single mistake, or repeated mistakes, arrogance, or even laziness, negligence.

What gave him the right, after all, to create and dispose of life however he wished?

“Detonate.”

“. . .”

“. . .?”

Nothing had happened.