Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 257
Only Noblemtl
Ep. 256
–
In the past, there were intelligent beings that entered space before mankind.
A race of people who have weak bodies but are blessed by God and have special powers.
They came into space under the guidance of God’s ‘providence’ and called themselves a ‘cult’.
At first, it was only possible to travel between satellites. God’s protection did not help with space exploration.
However, the cults did not give up. Rather than relying solely on their innate psychic powers, they focused on developing their technology.
Satellite travel led to the colonization of other planets and the exploration of their own constellations. Intelligent beings born on small planets soon established great empires encompassing several constellations.
Of course, this is just a moment in time by the standards of the universe. Countless civilizations have risen and fallen before them, and they will be no different.
The prosperity of the Cult Empire was not long. Internal strife, corruption of the rulers, and constant wars drastically shortened the lifespan of the Empire. As a result, it has now fallen to the point where it has not even regained half of its former glory.
The Kesha Arma Space Fortress was also one of the shadows left behind by the once shining empire.
Translated into Megacorp’s language, this space fortress, which means ‘Rich King’, was built to protect a mining planet.
During the empire’s prosperity, mining ships from various races used this fortress. As befitting the name of the wealthy king, this was the place where the empire’s wealth was concentrated.
It would still be like this if the mining planet hadn’t run out of minerals.
As the planetary resources that were the reason for the fortress’ existence were depleted, Kesha Arma’s importance fell sharply. In the past, it may have been different, but the empire that was falling apart by the minute could not afford to maintain a space fortress that was only losing money. What had been the empire’s stronghold just over 100 years ago was now a complete burden.
When the costs of maintaining the fortress far outweighed the benefits, the empire’s choice was simple.
Abandoning the space fortress that marked the end of the golden age.
After all the stationed cult warships withdrew, this space fortress became a no man’s land. In theory, it belonged to the cult empire, but in reality, there were no administrators or military forces.
The abandoned megastructures were home to only those who made a living by selling to miners and outsiders who needed empty homes. It was inevitable that the city without owners would become a slum.
Kesha Arma has become one of the abysses of the universe.
Those who took over the fallen king of wealth are the Marcio Cartel.
It is a cartel that is so strong that it can be counted among the top five in the entire Space Dogs.
Spacedog cartels are generally reluctant to settle on planets or space cities, as they have many enemies and are afraid that a punitive force will come at any time. Instead, they are more interested in arming ships that the cartel members can live on.
In contrast, successive leaders of the Marcio Cartel took a completely different approach.
They earned credits by ‘facilitating’ other pirates’ crimes, such as setting up black markets for smuggling cartels or connecting human trafficking cartels with Megacorp executives.
Just as Kesha Arma made money by brokering mining planets and mining ships in the past, she made money by brokering pirates and crime.
Ironically, this approach allowed Kesha Arma and Marcio Cartel to survive, as Spacedog’s clients included Megacorp and Star Union.
A lawless zone tolerated by the great powers of the universe. That was today’s Kesha Arma.
And even today, crime is rampant in the pirate fortress.
“Fuck! Break my head! My head! F**k!”
“You, I only trust you, please! I gave you all the credit!”
“Kyaaaaah! You fucking bitch! Why did you cut off my arm there?!”
A place once called the Fifth Armory.
The place where all kinds of weapons were displayed was now filled with an angry crowd.
Human, Cyborg, Wolf, Coldblood. Intelligent beings from different cultures screamed at the sight of only one thing.
Where their gaze was directed, inside the iron bars, two naked men were fighting.
Their appearances, skin colors, and the weapons they held were different, but they had two things in common. They both had heavy restraints around their necks, and their entire bodies were covered in blood.
This is a pirate-run arena. It’s one of the city’s most common abysses.
“Yeah! Just a little harder! You can do it, you little punk!”
“Huh, huh huh huh?! What’s wrong with that kid? Aaaah! Shit!”
“Waaaaaaah! I won! I won!”
“Ughhhhhhhhhh! My credit! Ughhhhhh!”
The brutal fight ended with the axe-wielder beheading the spear-wielder.
The conflicting emotions of life and death did not only linger within the iron bars. The crowds in the arena also shuddered with emotions of joy and despair.
Gid-Q, a cyborg who recently joined the Marcio Cartel, was among the cheering crowd.
“Haha, how much is this?”
It was a reverse bet that I don’t usually do, but I never thought it would pay off like this.
KidQ plugged his terminal into the settlement machine placed in the arena. The corners of his mouth went up involuntarily as he saw two zeros added to his credit in an instant.
“Wow. Damn it.”
“I envy you…
The gazes looking at him were never kind, but no one dared to attack him, because everyone knew that he was a member of the Marcio Cartel.
He left the arena, enjoying the gazes mixed with hatred and envy.
The cyborg, half of whose body was replaced by a machine, was greeted by a light so intense it was blinding to the eyes.
A feast of artificial light from the neon signs of the entertainment establishments. The streets were filled with all kinds of lights, including red, blue, yellow, and green. Thanks to this, it was impossible to tell what people on the street were wearing.
It wasn’t just the billboards that were a confusing jumble. The buildings were the same. Some, like the arena that was once an armory, were heavily influenced by cult traditions, while others were sloppily constructed by outsiders who had moved in.
In front of the shops that looked like they could collapse at any moment, all kinds of people, including pirates, vagabonds, slaves, and mercenaries, were wandering around.
If you want to feel a glimpse of the past in a slum-like place where nothing is unified, just look up at the sky.
Above their heads, ‘another ground’ looks down on them.
Kesha Arma is a space fortress that moves along the planet’s orbit. The abandoned planet looks down on the fortress’s inhabitants through its transparent outer walls. No matter where you go in Kesha Arma, you can see the landscape of a devastated planet.
Even when faced with the essence of cult civilization, Gidq felt no emotion. It wasn’t something he had seen for a day or two, and the credits printed on the terminal were more important to him.
“Should I have a drink?”
He had enjoyed his entertainment to the fullest, so it was time to fill his stomach with oil. He headed to the bar he usually frequented.
As I entered the store, there were people like him killing time by drinking synthetic liquor.
“Return all the synthetic liquor to this place.”
KidQ joined their table naturally, and the other pirates looked at him in surprise.
“Oh, what’s with the can?”
“Looks like that kid got some money. He always loses, so did he get a payout or something?”
“… Oh, dear, that’s what I was going to say.”
After a few drinks like that, the pirates, including Gidque, quickly became drunk.
“Kangtong, let me ask you one thing. I heard that in Star Union, you can’t even play alone. Is that true?”
“Oh. It’s illegal because of the population control policy or the production policy. They do regular memory tests every year, and if you get caught then….”
The other pirates frowned as Gidky spread his index and middle fingers to make a scissors shape.
“Oh my, that’s the scariest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“You can’t even have sex freely, and you can’t even hit your daughter. Living in a country like that for decades is terrifying. F*ck.”
“Now that you mention something scary, I’m reminded of that. Have you heard the rumors? The recent one about the Satua Cartel.”
“Satua? Those guys? Why them?”
“My friend knows the Satua Cartel guys, but he said he lost contact with them for the past two months.”
“Ugh, shit. I’m more shocked that you know those Satua guys. Get out of my presence right now.”
The other pirates jeered at the fox-wild pirate who said he knew the Satua Cartel. Then a human pirate with a scar over his eye joined in the conversation.
“I’ve heard similar stories.”
“what?”
“They say the Satua Cartel’s slave market disappeared without a trace. They say the cartel itself was destroyed because of it.”
Gidque was slightly surprised by the human pirate’s words.
The Satua Cartel is a fairly notorious cartel. Their main business is human trafficking, capturing and selling primitive people from undeveloped planets. They are so powerful that they even have a large slave market on an uninhabited planet, along with the Marcio Cartel. The market size is not small either, and I heard it is comparable to this space fortress.
“I don’t care if the Satua bastards are fucked or what, but there’s been a lot of turbulent stuff going on lately.”
“That’s right. The TNC space city was destroyed, so there’s no place to play.”
“That crazy guy, it’s been a while since he went bankrupt and he’s still acting like a bastard.”
“I heard that outspacers are very polarized these days.”
“Thanks to that, I’m having a good income these days. There are tons of guys looking for mercenaries.”
“You idiot, you’re talking nonsense because you’ve never fought an outspacer before?”
“Outspacer, is that tasty?”
“Your mom probably tastes better.”
“Ugh. Is the universe really going to be fucked?”
The atmosphere at the table became strange as the scarred pirate quietly spoke.
As pirates who travel between tens and hundreds of star systems every day, they are quicker than anyone else at learning about changes in the universe.
It was as the Scar Pirate had said. The universe was becoming more chaotic than it had ever been before.
KidQ frowned at the dull atmosphere. He didn’t want to hear such an ominous story on such a lucky day as today.
But his colleagues seemed to find the out-of-context horror stories quite interesting. One by one, they began to bring up stories that everyone knew.
“Do you know why your Dvara Cartel failed? The truth is, they got caught by the Ghost Ship…”
“I heard that from the Humanity kids….”
Rumors of a black ghost ship that eats spaceships, a secret story related to the destruction of a space city, a story about a demon that wears human skin and pretends to be that person, etc.
The more Gidky listened to the pirates, the more excited he became.
Everyone seems to have forgotten where they are. This is a fortress built in the middle of space. They are talking about superstitions on top of the embodiment of technology and science.
What’s more, it’s a mysterious monster. About half of the pirates who visit this fortress capture and sell the ‘mysterious monster’.
KidQ couldn’t understand which part of their story he was supposed to enjoy.
“I wake up first.”
He paid for the drinks with the android and left the store.
‘The monster is Nimi.’
In the space age, monsters aren’t unidentifiable creatures or ghost ships that devour ships.
He was once human, then a cyborg of the Star Union, and now a pirate, and he knows what a real monster is.
“… Let’s go and get some sleep.”
In a few hours he too has to go back to work.
So one cyborg blended into the crowd on the street.
–
While Gidkyu was wasting his life away at the bar, the fortress’ naval port was welcoming new customers.
As expected from a city ruled by disorderly space dogs, its visitors were also inconsistent.
A pirate assault ship with the cartel emblem painted on it, a Megacorp warship that pursues clean and efficient operation, a Star Union cargo ship with a rough image that is the opposite of Megacorp, and even ships operated by civilians.
Various types of ships were easily coming and going from the city. The purpose of visiting the pirate fortress was obvious, so there was no need for intensive inspection. In the first place, it is ridiculous for a group of criminals to prevent others from committing crimes.
Hundreds of ships came and went from the military port. Among them, there was one ship that stood out.
“Hey. Is that the belly of one of the Satua kids?”
“Wasn’t that their submarine? Why did they come here?”
The Satua Cartel’s assault ships were known for their unique shape, with long hulls and a wide rear end. They were made by modifying decommissioned Megacorp ships, so they had an appearance that was not commonly seen.
The anchor-shaped Satua assault ship had just docked at the port. A few pirates disembarked from the ship and chatted with the port guards.
The other pirates who were watching from afar tilted their heads.
“What? There’s a Wolf in the Satua pirates?”
All members of the Satua Cartel are human. Other sentient beings are considered potential kidnapping targets. As a result, they are treated as heretics even in Spacedog, where various species are active.
But among the members who had just disembarked from the ship, there was a Wolf with a white bird of prey head and amber eyes. It even seemed as if he was commanding the Satua members.
Something happened that was beyond the pirates’ common sense.
The guards also seemed suspicious of the assault ship, as what would normally be a brief inspection turned into a search of the ship.
As the guards followed Wolf into the assault ship, the pirates thought, that fake Satua assault ship will be driven out of the fortress.
But the results of the guards’ search were completely different from what they expected.
The guards who came out of the ship did not take any action. Rather, they treated Wolf as if they had received a bribe or something, and treated him with respect as if they were the head of a cartel.
Even the guards went so far as to help the Satuah gang members. Only after the two containers on board the ship were lowered to the military port did they return to their main business.
“… What the hell is that?”
“What the hell is on that boat?”
It was the first time I had seen guards act like that. The pirates’ eyes were turned towards the assault ship.
Most were curious, but some were thinking further.
I decided to find out for myself what was on that ship.
If you have something valuable, you should take care of it appropriately.