Chapter 48: Scouting the Alaric Star Domain
After spending more than twenty days training at the Dojo of the Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir, his Master sent Arcturus to complete the scouting mission at the outskirts of the Alaric Star Domain.
This was a mission personally assigned to Arcturus by Bashar-General Varathar Medes of the Starfort Lycurgos. Bashar-General Varathar Medes chose him specifically for this mission because right now, the fleet that was under his command was already stretched pretty thin.
There were not really enough people to send out to carry out the reconnaissance mission against the Mind Flayers. It was rather a dangerous task, but without the danger and opportunities, there wouldn't be room for him to grow properly.
Right now, most of the naval power under the command of Bashar-General Varathar Medes was preparing the fortifications and positioning themselves against the Orkish WAAAGH!!! that was coming to the Alaric Star Domain.
Arcturus decided to undertake this mission due to two reasons.
One of them was the order of his Master, who told him that fighting the Mind Flayer Scouting Ship would greatly temper his abilities to fight against the Psionics and Psykers, and the second reason was that Bashar-General Varathar Medes paid really well.
Not to mention, the Mind Flayers or Illithids, as was the name of their species, represented a grave threat to the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya.
They were very technologically advanced, probably ranking at the top ranking of the High-Level Civilizations in the known universe, and at the same time, they had a large number of extremely powerful Psionics and Psykers.
"We are nearing the outskirts of the Alaric Star Domain. Approximately seventeen hours ago, the Imperial Military detected the specific Psionic Signals that are used only by the Mind Flayers. We are getting the life feed from the Imperial Military and information in real-time."
Red Queen, as the central artificial intelligence of the Obscurus, was communicating non-stop with the military channels that Bashar-General Varathar Medes gave him access to.
This was almost invaluable because they were getting all the necessary information in real time, so they were able to quickly arrive at the Star Systems where the Mind Flayers were registered last.
"Have you finished integrating the hardware and software that the Imperial Military gave us to trace Psionic Energy?"
Before Arcturus embarked on the mission given to him by the Bashar-General Varathar Medes, he was also given a lot of equipment by the Imperial Military of the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya.
This allowed Obsurus to detect the Psionic Energy, especially the particular breed that the Mind Flayers were using to power up their technology, their weapons, their ships, and even sustain their very own existence.
"Yes, and everything is already usable. Right now, I am tracking the remnants of the Psionic Energy. I have caught trace three Star Systems away from our current position."
Arcturus nodded, hearing that, as they were nearing close to their target. His primary mission was to find and capture the Scouting Ship of the Mind Flayer Fleet that was carrying out reconnaissance around the Alaric Star Domain.
The moment he captured the vessel, he would be able to hack into their database and search through their logs, star charts, and other information so they could obtain information on the Mind Flayer Fleet that was encroaching on the territory of the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya.
***
Unknown Star System, sometime later...
The most common type of ships that were utilized by the Mind Flayers were the Nautiloids.
Nautiloid was a category of Spaceships that was utilized by the Mind Flayers, which the Illithids used to travel directly between the stars and cross the galaxies with ease.
Typical Nautiloids looked like enormous nautilus shells fitted with an exterior deck and rubbery tentacles protruding from the forward section. They were extremely silent and almost impossible to detect in the dark.
The coiled shell in the aft section of a Nautiloid served to protect the Mind Flayer crew from the sun, as well as to provide a comfortable closed space, as their species hated the sun. It wasn't deadly for them or whatever, but it was highly uncomfortable for the Mind Flayers.
The shells were harvested from enormous snails indigenous to an unknown world. The tentacles were used to examine the surfaces of planets in search of specimens or prey.
Smallest Nautiloids that belonged to the scouting ship category typically had a crew of between 10 and 15 Mind Flayers, plus a complement of slaves to operate risky positions on deck.
The maximum complement a Nautiloid could hold without compromising its air supply was 35 individuals, though because most of them were slaves, the Mind Flayers didn't really care about the slaves.
"Master, the Mind Flayer scouting ship has been detected, more than ten thousand kilometers away from us; they are not even shielding. The class of the vessel is very small; it should be one of the smallest ships that they have in their arsenal. It is only around a hundred meters long and should have space to accommodate a few tens of people... should I attempt to scan the ship?"
Arcturus pondered over the question, he decided to give a green to the Red Queen on this matter. He knew that the Mind Flayers were arrogant beyond reason; he knew that they saw themselves as superior to everyone else...
And as they said, arrogance always preceded their doom.
"Can you take out their shields and engines in one shot?"
The Mind Flayers that were tasked with carrying out the reconnaissance here were so arrogant that they didn't even activate their shields or their stealth. It was due to this that they were able to find them easily.
"Yes, fortunately enough, they didn't activate any sort of protection; I can then beam Master and the Battle Droids onto the ship. From what I can see, there should be only four Mind Flayers on the deck of the ship, then there are another eighteen signatures, but they belong to the slaves of unknown humanoid origin, probably some sort of subspecies of humans."
Humanity was one of the most spread species across the Milky Way Galaxy, though that was understandable as they were spread across several galaxies in the Primeval Era by some unknown civilization.
What was peculiar, though, was that on each planet where Humans were left, they evolved and adapted to the environment and created countless sub-species of Humanity. Asuryani Species or Earthling Species were nowadays just one of the branches of the broader Humanity.
Just as he gave her his confirmation, Obscurus fired several shots at the scouting ship of the Illithids, one hitting the place where the engines of the starships were located and another one at the place where the shields were installed.
In one fast moment, the space vessel was crippled.
"Good work... any casualties?"
Hopefully, it will cause several of the hostiles to be with it.
"Ten of the humanoid signatures are down. Though with the eruption of the Psionic Energy from the Illithid spaceship, I analyzed that the Mind Flayers are all at the limits of the Epsilon-Grade Psionics. When you enter the starship of the Mind Flayers, you should be careful..."
This was certainly good news, evened the numbers, so together with the Battle Droids, the walking and talking squids would be slaughtered one by one. Mind Flayers were often taking slaves that were rather powerful Warriors, so each one that died was most probably a Warrior on the Evolutionary Pathway.
Obviously, each one that was dead was only a bonus because they wouldn't be able to destroy the Battle Droids once they were teleported to the Nautiloid of the Mind Flayers.
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