“It’s freaking huge,” I remarked half unconsciously as the space monster came into view.
It resembled a gigantic jellyfish. A gigantic jellyfish that glowed like a star in the sky. It had appeared right next to Riche III and was absolutely gigantic—so gigantic that the word “gigantic” felt presumptuously inadequate in its gigantic presence.
“Did the sensors’ automatic scaling stop working?”
“Uh…the creature’s bell alone seems to measure at least a hundred and fifty kilometers…”
“The Lestarius looks tiny in comparison… How the heck are we supposed to deal with that thing? Will lasers even work on it? Are we going to fight it?”
If you include its extended tentacles, it’s roughly five hundred kilometers long, I thought, frowning. The Krishna was a mere ant before it; even the much larger Lestarius was comparatively puny. I’ve never seen a space monster that big before. Not even playing Stella Online.
“Mimi, start analyzing,” I directed. “Kugi, prepare—crap! It’s coming! Dodge it!”
Sensing the monster’s hostility—or, well, its desire to eat us—I immediately directed the Krishna to execute evasive maneuvers. In the next second, the astral jellyfish fired countless light orbs at us. It was a scene right out of a bullet-hell game.
The light orbs, as that term suggested, traveled at light speed; they were much slower than laser cannons. Several ships failed to dodge the orbs in time, however, perhaps stunned by the astral jellyfish’s appearance.
“Those went straight through our shields?!” someone cried. “Shields aren’t effective against the unidentified enemy’s attacks!”
“One of the mercenary ships it struck just exploded! Ship down!”
“Damage control, stat! This is mercenary vessel Stiletto! We suffered severe damage from that bastard jellyfish’s attack!”
It was utter pandemonium. Shields apparently wouldn’t ward off that thing’s attacks; depending on where its projectiles struck, it could take down mercenary ships with a single hit. Do those light orbs work like plasma accelerators? Plasma accelerators fired high-energy plasma projectiles enclosed within a barrier, but although they were powerful weapons, they weren’t overpowered enough to penetrate a ship’s shields from a long distance. Those light orbs might be similar, but they were far more dangerous.
“Front vessels, prioritize evading those orbs as you retreat to the capital ships’ position! Capital ships, maintain your distance from the alien lifeform and commence firing!”
We then received intel from the Lestarius on the expected range of the astral jellyfish’s attacks. Its previous wave of attacks had only reached those ships deployed in front—namely destroyers and smaller craft. If we outrange it, we might be able to deal with it by shooting and retreating.
Keeping an eye on the astral jellyfish, I began to retreat toward the capital ships’ location. As I did so, those capital ships—led by the Lestarius—fired their long-distance, high-powered, large-caliber laser cannons at the astral jellyfish.
“Landed a hit…! But it doesn’t seem to have done any damage!”
“Keep shooting! Fire reactive warhead missiles too!”
The capital ships proceeded to launch anti-ship missiles outfitted with reactive warheads. In typical fleet engagements, battleships like the Lestarius didn’t need long-range missiles. Such battles were typically fought from a distance using large-caliber laser cannons; the other party’s anti-missile lasers would simply have shot down slower weapons like missiles. Thus, capital ships mostly just used whatever missiles they carried to finish off enemy ships or strongholds no longer capable of intercepting them.
But anti-ship missiles with reactive warheads carried much more destructive force than high-caliber lasers, and since our enemy this time was a gigantic astral jellyfish, there was no need to worry about it somehow evading the missiles. Even if it managed to intercept some of them, most would still land. At least, that was probably Colonel Serena’s rationale.
“The reactive warhead missiles exploded before making contact with the alien lifeform!” one ship reported.
“Laser cannons don’t seem to have an effect!” another added.
Unfortunately, things weren’t working out according to the colonel’s expectations. The astral jellyfish didn’t seem to care at all about the lasers striking it, and the anti-ship missiles—though not intercepted—somehow exploded before even reaching their target. Perhaps the astral jellyfish radiated heat capable of melting and burning to a crisp anything that approached it, the way a star would.
“Mei, did the EML work?”
“No, Master. Extreme heat turned the projectile into plasma before it reached the enemy.”
“Not even that worked? This’ll be tough.”
Among projectile weapons, EMLs were the fastest, and they had the most penetrative power and force. If even EMLs didn’t do the trick, that pretty much ruled out any projectile weapon working effectively. But laser weapons seemed not to work either, and missiles detonated before reaching the enemy. At this point, we’d need to try a disruptor weapon that bypassed shields and plating, or some charged-particle cannon—AKA a “beam weapon.” Unfortunately for us, neither the Krishna nor anyone else in the fleet had anything like that; the Grakkan Empire had yet to adopt such weapons officially.
That meant that we had no effective way to fight this astral jellyfish.
“If only the Grakkan Empire had developed and adopted gravity cannons, we might’ve taken it down easily!” I complained.
“What’s the point of wishing for things we don’t have?” Elma responded. “Ah!”
The astral jellyfish had just launched another wave of countless light orbs, once more leading to pandemonium on the communications channel. Elma had seemingly survived, though.
Hm? Wondering about us in the Krishna? I kept our bow trained on the astral jellyfish and dodged while retreating backward. There was no way I’d ever get hit by such an indiscriminate attack.
The capital ships under Colonel Serena’s command likewise continued to retreat while zealously firing their high-caliber lasers at the astral jellyfish. Still, there weren’t any signs of those lasers doing anything. They were definitely hitting their target, though; they weren’t passing through the jellyfish’s body, nor were any shields blocking them.
“Looks like we’re out of options. We should retreat—hm?”
For a moment, I experienced a pressure similar to what I’d felt when the astral jellyfish appeared. Then, on the astral jellyfish’s other side, there was a bluish-purple explosion. It dissipated in a literal flash, and unfamiliar ships appeared in its place.
“That’s them, right, Kugi?”
“Yes. There’s no mistaking them. Those are my homeland’s combat ships,” Kugi confirmed, magnifying the images the Krishna’s optical sensors picked up.
There were fewer vessels than I’d expected; they totaled only eighteen. Still, they were all larger than the Lestarius. The Verthalz ships were reminiscent of sailing vessels, their graceful, aerodynamic white hulls adorned with golden ornaments. Three sets of gigantic pink wings of light, their purpose unclear, extended out behind each vessel.
“Quite a flashy design, though I’m not sure what those ornaments are for,” I commented. “I guess they have something to do with the fact that these are psionic ships?”
The ornaments seemed pointless from an outsider’s perspective, but I speculated that they served some psionic purpose. After all, psionic powers were basically magic.
“This is the Holy Verthalz Empire’s immediate-response fleet,” came a new voice. “We hold no hostile intention toward the Grakkan Empire’s fleet. We will handle the Planet Eater. Please retreat.”
“This is Colonel Serena of the Imperial Fleet’s Pirate-Hunting Unit. We can’t just tuck our tail between our legs and run away against a space monster. We’ll at least distract the creature for you.”
“…Understood. We will prioritize your wishes and inform you as needed of our attacks’ expected area of effect. Whatever you do, please avoid becoming collateral damage. All ships, suppress the target with Soul Crush.”
“Roger,” other voices said in unison.