Chapter 112 The Good and Bad Sides of Mission Together
Installing such powerful main weapons was the most ambitious project that Arcturus underwent through the Red Queen. On the other hand, the Hyper-Advanced Super Artificial Intelligence was keen on designing more weapons, upgrading the Obscuruus with more powerful firepower than ever.
There was certainly a reason why the Hyper-Advanced Super Artificial intelligence of the Growth-Type was considered living beings in a very true sense. They had their own interests, likes and dislikes...
And everything.
They were entirely like living begins, and obviously, the Red Queen was no different from them because she, too, had her own likes and dislikes, even her own hobbies. The Red Queen liked designing weapons, building droids, and upgrading the Obscurus to a state-of-the-art warship.
It was her favorite pastime.
It was not like she knew the real pain of her master when she drained all of his accounts and Universe Credits because that was something that she was doing with very high precision and expertise like no one else.
Still, at least it was bringing rather good results because when he saw the Obsurus after a few weeks of very hard work from the Red Queen, who was really putting every second into the works on the starship, he knew that the money was really very well spent.
At least something.
Even Zehal was fascinated with the state of the warship because she was far more knowledgeable about the laws of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya and knew what such a starship in private possession within the Empire represented.
In the Empire it was rather rare to own warships privately, not many could boast of such things, unlike in many different Civilizations and Star Nations.
In many other places, it was most common, but in the Eternal Empire of the Asurya, it was rather rare because one would need to have rather tons of legal documents and other things to own a warship privately.
Much less is being said about starships like Obscurus, which were on par with some of the more advanced starships from the Imperial Navy. At the same time, Zehal could tell that this starship was of the Mothership Type, and that was an even more peculiar rarity.
"So far, there have been recorded more than thirty species of the Arachnids, including the rumors of the Brain Bug... hopefully, that would become just the rumors. Aside from them, the most dangerous would be certainly the Titan Bug and Bladed Warrior Bugs that were signed in huge numbers."
Hearing what Zehal said, Arcuturs thought the situation wasn't that bad. Even if the Bug Brain wasn't present on Planet Ziras IV., then the only problem would be the Titan Bug.
The Titan Bugs were powerful as heck; they were usually one of the strongest of the Arachnid Species, and they were pretty rare. They could take a ridiculously enormous amount of punishment, and their regeneration rate was even more frightening.
Killing them was very hard, and to make things worse, they were pretty powerful in the area of destructive strength.
Their physical strength was ridiculous to the degree where they were literarily unmatched at the same Grade while also having the ability to shoot heavily condensed plasma that was able to kill Professionals one or even two Grades above them.
Titan Bugs were troublesome to deal with, mainly due to their defense, regeneration, and stamina. At the same time, they could also deal a powerful punch, so that made them rather fearsome opponents, but Arcturus depended on the Dimension Empyrean to kill the Titan Bug, or he was sure that Zehal also had something in her sleeve for the situation like this.
As someone with the Super-High Risk Psyker Ability, Deus Technicus, her firepower and offensive capabilities were no joke for sure.
"I don't want to say something beforehand, but the situation seems a bit promising right now. If it are just these species of the Bugs, then coupled with the Battle Droid Army at the deck of the Obscurus, we have a rather solid chance. It would also be most preferred if we could obtain some ores for the Red Queen to repair the Battle Droids that would get destroyed in the confrontation."
Actually, contrary to his usual behavior patterns and personality, Arcturus actually saw the situation a bit positively this time. According to his calculations, everything should be going well if there were just these species of the Bugs, hopefully the numbers would be manageable on the Ziras IV. Planet.
The locals of the colony on Ziras IV. were fighting the Bugs from time to time, and they were apparently doing a rather good job of lowering their numbers when the Bugs attacked their settlement.
This was primarily attributed to the very advanced defense systems and the fact that even the average citizens of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya were fairly powerful.
Those who were not Professionals still received basic military training and could handle all types of energy-based weaponry and use them with very high proficiency. Arcturus knew that even the average citizen could shoot better than most of the soldiers from the Low-Level Civilizations.
That was the combination of the advanced genetic engineering and the comprehensive military training. Obviously, even with all of these things being considered, it wasn't really enough for the colony of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya to annihilate the Bugs on their own.
At the same time, appearnly according to the information, the colony on the Ziras IV., lacked any powerful Professionals, the stronger one they had were a few of the Epsilon-Grade and Delta-Grade Warriors and a few Psionics.
Unfortunately, neither of them was really powerful enough to make any difference because that wasn't enough power for a successful offensive against the Arachnids.
At the same time, the Empire was paying close attention to the development of the Arachnid Nest, and they decided that it would be suitable for the Missions for the students of the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy.
"We should finish this and inform Jeniael about this recent development. We have comprehensive data on the Arachnids on the Ziras IV., the only thing that remains is to prepare supplies for the mission. Technically speaking, there is a colony on the Ziras IV., but the Arachnid Nest is on the other side of the planet, so getting stable supply lines isn't realistic."
Obviously, he was planning to stop at the colony at the Ziras IV., but they couldn't depend on the colony to obtain their supplies. The Arachnids were rather smart on this because they chose the place for their Nest within the mountain range on the other side of the Planet.
This means that it was rather problematic to get into the Arachnid Nest, and at the same time, they couldn't even depend on the Obscurus. If there was indeed a Brain Bug present in the Arachnid Nest, then they would be able to detect the starship in orbit and attack it.
He was sure that the Nest had several of the Plasma Bugs, which served in the swarm for the anti-starship and anti-aircraft purposes. They could take down even the most advanced spaceships in the known universe with a few good shots due to the power of the plasma that they could generate in their abdomens.
Like everything in the Arachnid Swarm, they were specifically tailed killing machines for the swarm and were dangerous like heck. If it came to it, Arctrurus would have preferred for the Obscrurus to remain as far as possible from the Arachnid Nest.
The last thing that he wished to see was his ship being destroyed by the plasma barrage from the bugs.
"I will make some adjustments to the Droids with the Red... I have some expertise in them because I have been designing them for Starlight Drive Yard Industries since I was little... I noticed that you have some good army down there."
Arcturus raised his brows at that, but he wasn't really that much surprised by that because, well... she was a genius.
He already started calculating in his head, how much of improvement she could make to the Starship, he could see that she was far more than open to such proposal and would gladly working on the Obscurus if he asked for it.
"I will inform Red Queen about this and tell her to provide you with everything that you could ever need..."
He said as they went to finish the compilation on the Arachnids, and he then passed them to Jeniael through the Imperial NetSphere. He really hoped that she would at least look at it even once because it would be pretty helpful...
However, he didn't have that many high hopes for that because, as he knew Jeniael, she would be more inclined to kill the bugs. Even though having the necessary knowledge about the Arachnids was already half of the victory.
Arcturus knew that the bugs were a specific type of enemy that was rather problematic to deal with, and having enough information about them was half of the success.
***
The Spacedock at the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy, several days later
In the following days, Arcturus was gathering more information about the Bugs from the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy library and uploading them to his own database in the Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants for the later use.
He didn't know if it would be useful or whatever, but he would rather be safe than sorry; thus, he was stashing any information about the Arachnids so they could be exploited at times of need.
Arcturus was also studying the weaknesses of the Bugs that were sighed on the Ziras IV., so he would be able to kill even the strongest ones among the Bugs. Many of the Bug Types that were signed on the Ziras IV. were completely very problematic, especially the Titan Bug and the Plasma Bug.
Much less being said about the Brain Bug, so he needed to know everything about them, their strong sides and weak sides, so he would be able to dispose of them much easier when it came to the confrontation.
Meanwhile, Arcturus was studying the information about the Arachnids, and Zehal was working very hard on the upgrades for the Obscurus together with the Red Queen.
Apparently, Zehal was rather fascinated about the Hyper-Adavced Super Artificial Intelligence like the Red Queen.
Arcturus even suspected that she was friends with the Red Queen, which wasn't actually that surprising because even though the Red Queen was Artificial Intelligence, she was sentient and capable of self-thought.
Not to mention, she was constantly evolving and growing.
Perhaps in the future, she will be on the same level as the most advanced Automatons of the Automaton Collective in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Still, she made extensive upgrades to the Obscruus, especially to the Laser Cannons, and increased their power by at least 30%. At the same time, together with the Red Queen, she also adjusted the Droids and increased their systems and combat prowess.
He was really proud of himself because it seemed like everything was going alright until the day of departure. Due to the situation at the Ziras IV., the mission couldn't be put on hold indefinitely, so they would need to depart as soon as possible. Even these few days spent on the Phoenix Prime were putting them behind schedule.
Much less being said about the journey itself to their destination, which was located at the very fringes of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya, in an entirely different Star Region that would take them around four weeks.
Unfortunately, the Obscurus's engines remained one of its most significant weaknesses. They were not very advanced compared to the different types of engines most commonly used in the Eternal Empire of the Asurya.
Every single High-Level Civilization and High-Level Star Nation had its own branch of technology, and one of the most notable and important ones was their own branch of interstellar travel.
One of the things that was extremely hard to get their hands in the Empire was the Engines, which was something that the nations controlled extremely strictly and guarded with great jealousy.
What the Obscurus was using right now was one of the more basic forms of the Hyperdrive Engines that were used by the High-Level Civilizations and High-Level Star Nations, and technically speaking, it wasn't genius Type 3 Technology.
It was also the thing that needed the upgrade the most on the Obscurus among all of the things in the starship. He knew that in the future, he would need to get his hands on the better Hyperdrive Engines, perhaps some of the unique technology of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya.
Every single High-Level Civilization and High-Level Star Nation had its own branch of technology, and one of the most notable and important ones was their own branch of interstellar travel.
Arcturus was leading Jeniael to the Obscurus with a frown on his face, because it was clear she was going to meet with Zehal and they would be locked together for several weeks. Just thinking about it... he wanted to jump out of the airlock to the void and kill himself because even right now, he was feeling the tension in the air.
"Going to the Nihilus Star Region would take us several weeks... so for the sanity of all people involved, please try to keep your animosity with her at the minimum."
He said with a stern voice to the white-haired young woman who already had her hand on her power sword. She was much less than thrilled at the idea of spending several weeks with Zehal, and if not for the Arcturus's assistance, she would have never agreed to it.
Now that she thought over it, she already regretted choosing this mission, because it meant that she would need to work with her nemesis.
"I already told you several times, Jen-Jen, that If not for the Zehal's presence, then I would have never agreed to this mission, never, ever... so, this was your idea, so try to live with it and play nice. I don't think that Zehal would create any more troubles during the journey..."
Arcturus knew that Zehal was rather busy with the Engine Room in the Starship and wasn't really in the mood for anything else as she was playing with the Red Queen. Even though, Zehal had tons of snarky remarks, he noticed that most of the confrontations were actually initiated by Jeniael.
So he really, really hoped that Jeniael would try to control her battle urges, which were sometimes a little too much.
Even for his tastes, and he was speaking from the position of a proper battle maniac.