A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1426 - 965: The Worst Start

Chapter 1426: Chapter 965: The Worst Start

Continuing to push inward, the group did not come across any useful information along the way. Everything here seemed to be abandoned, the only sounds were the periodic beeps from the Bird Divination Tool echoing through the space.

"There are battle scars everywhere here, including bloodstains, but not a single body."

Mary stared at the surroundings and spoke in a low voice.

"I’ve got a really bad feeling about this, Mr. Duanmu."

"Indeed, I noticed that a while ago."

"What do you mean, both of you?"

Axelle, following behind Duanmu Huai, stared blankly at the dim corridor ahead, appearing like an overexcited husky, eager to run out and play, thoroughly absent-minded.

"It means that the likelihood of this being a trap is over ninety percent."

Lumiaire quietly sighed. Although she had considered the possibility of a miracle before, it now seemed that this world truly had no miracles.

"Mary, stay close to me. Gavi, you’re in charge of the rear, and everyone else, stay alert."

Duanmu Huai issued the orders again. Even if this was a trap, it did not mean there was no need for them to enter. At the very least, they wanted to understand what had happened here. If this planet had not been attacked by the Chaos Intergalactic Warrior Legion, then who had turned this place into a land of death?

The signal wasn’t coming from above, but from below. According to Lumiaire, there was a hidden underground command center beneath GOTT, but she wasn’t sure it could have survived a battle of this magnitude. Moreover, everything they had encountered along the way confirmed that this war had been over for some time, at least half a year. It was improbable that there would be any survivors left here, without food, reserves, or even ammunition...

And another point, where had all the bodies gone?

"Crash."

The heavy concrete rubble was kicked away by Duanmu Huai, the large fragments rolling and falling down the stairs, echoing sharply. Mary swallowed hard. She disliked this kind of environment— silent, full of danger, reminiscent of scenes often seen in movies. Because of her work, Mary often visited ruins or relics, and each time she entered buildings like these, she experienced this feeling. It was as if these cold buildings were alive, or had once been alive. And now they were either dead or still sleeping.

Every sound they made seemed like the building’s own moaning...

"Bang!"

The armor-clad Duanmu Huai landed heavily on the ground, turned around and took the lead forward. The lights next to his head illuminated the pitch-black tunnel that was not visible to the naked eye, and at the same moment, several beams of guidance lights emerged from the other side of the darkness, shining on Duanmu Huai’s armor. Duanmu Huai looked up to see several soldiers wielding weapons poking their heads from behind the opposite barricade. They were wearing somewhat tattered armor, with goggles and triangular scarves on their faces, looking more like bank robbers.

"They’re soldiers from the Interstellar Union!"

Seeing the armor they were wearing, Axelle immediately became excited and wanted to rush over but was grabbed by the collar by Duanmu Huai, pulling back the overeager husky.

"Who are you?"

"That’s our question."

The fully armed soldiers on the other side gripped their weapons tightly, eyeing Duanmu Huai and the others.

"Who are you? And why are you here?"

At this moment, Lumiaire coughed slightly and stepped forward.

"Sorry, we’re ES members of GOTT, Lumiaire and Axelle— may we come in?"

"...ES members?"

Upon hearing Lumiaire’s words, the leading soldier fell silent for a moment.

"Fine, you can come in, but those others can’t!"

"This..."

Hearing the other party’s response, Lumiaire hesitated, but by then Duanmu Huai had already given his answer.

"Quit wasting words with these scumbags! Take them out!"

While speaking, Duanmu Huai swung the War Hammer forcefully forward. The spinning Thunder Warhammer flew out and struck at the soldiers, knocking them to the ground.

"Attack!"

Seeing Duanmu Huai make his move, the soldiers on the other side also raised their weapons and fired, launching an attack on Duanmu Huai. Gunfire erupted, and the two sides were immediately embroiled in battle.

"Wait, wait a minute, those are our people!"

Axelle attempted to stop the battle that had started so inexplicably, but Lumiaire grabbed her, shaking her head.

"Something is not right, Axelle."

"Wait, what do you mean? Lumiaire?"

While Axelle was still confused, the battle had nearly come to an end— the bullets of the soldiers were completely unable to pierce through Duanmu Huai’s Power Armor and the Star Union Armor. In almost an instant, the soldiers who had been defending behind the barricades were wiped out by Duanmu Huai and the others, leaving only bodies on the ground.

"Why did you do that!"

After Duanmu Huai took down the last soldier, Axelle also hurriedly ran over to ask, but Duanmu Huai just glanced at her and then threw a body over.

"Use your brain, idiot. These guys aren’t even human!"

"Huh?"

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, Axelle was taken aback. She looked down at the corpse in front of her and noticed for the first time the soldier’s bald head, devoid of hair, and the sharp teeth and long tongue resembling a lizard’s in his wide-open mouth—clearly, although they looked human, they were ultimately not humans.

"Indeed, I felt something was off just now."

By this time, Lumiaire had also come over, her expression grave as she looked at the scene before her and spoke in a low voice.

"Eh? Lumiaire? You noticed something earlier?"

"Of course, Axelle, have you forgotten why we wear this space armor?"

As she spoke, Lumiaire gestured to the spacesuit she was wearing.

"It’s not because of the radiation and poison gas on the ground... Ah...!"

"Right, according to the instruments, the radiation levels here far exceed what humans can resist. Only with full-enclosure armor like ours can we enter. But these people are only wearing regular military uniforms with a triangle scarf—if they were real humans, they would have died from radiation overdose long ago."

"But, what exactly is this? I’ve never heard of such a thing before."

Axelle gazed at the corpse in front of her, her eyes unable to hide her bewilderment, but Duanmu Huai soon provided an answer.

"Genetic Thieves."

While speaking, Duanmu Huai tightened his grip on the War Hammer and looked ahead.

"I must say, your world is truly dire. With wolves ahead and tigers behind, targeted both by the Chaos Evil Gods and the Tyron Swarm... this galaxy is beyond redemption."

"Tyron Swarm!?"

At these words, both Axelle and Lumiaire suddenly looked alarmed. After joining the Tribunal, they had learned about the Tribunal’s knowledge and naturally understood what a terrifying race the Tyron Swarm was.

"How can it be? Why would the Tyron Swarm appear here?"

"The Tyron Swarm is infinite; no one knows exactly how many there are. Even though we’ve eradicated a large number of them before, that was only the part that invaded the Milky Way. There are still many of them outside the Milky Way—In short, as I said, this is a long-term war, and it seems we now have a battle on our hands."

"———————!!"

Before Axelle could ask anything else, suddenly, from deep in the passage, a shrill scream rang out, and then, under the bright searchlight, hundreds of dark shadows crawled out from the ground, ceiling, and walls like geckos, moving towards Duanmu Huai and the others with speed and agility comparable to cockroaches.

"Charge! Wipe out these bastards!"

Meanwhile, on the warship, Aikute was also observing the reports from various reconnaissance teams.

"This galaxy... well, to be honest, I feel it’s very dangerous. Most of the planets have almost been destroyed due to various disasters and wars, and... why are the Tyron Swarm appearing? And why are they clashing with the Chaos Legion?"

Aikute was puzzled as she looked at the report, but if Duanmu Huai were here, he would understand.

The Tyron Swarm would increase their strength by devouring biomass, while on the other hand, the Chaos Legion’s need is almost entirely for souls.

Logically, if the Chaos Legion devoured the Tyron, wouldn’t they obtain souls?

However, that’s not the case.

For both the Chaos Legion and the Tyron, neither can—devour the other.

That’s right, for the Chaos Legion, the Tyron Swarm lacks souls, unified by a single will; eating them would cause stomach troubles.

Similarly, for the Tyron Swarm, beings polluted by subspace like the Chaos Legion have no value for absorption; eating them would also cause stomach troubles.

In other words, eating each other would not benefit them, only cause loss.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the Tyron Swarm and the Chaos Legion tend to ignore each other.

However, there is one exception—when their target is humanity.

For the Tyron Swarm, if humans are contaminated by Chaos, they have nothing left to eat.

For the Chaos Legion, if humans are devoured by the Tyron Swarm, they are left without souls.

Thus, the current struggle Aikute saw between the Tyron Swarm and the Chaos Legion was almost entirely for the remnants of humanity. Neither side was willing to let the other have the spoils, and the battle was desperately fierce.

"Beep Beep—————!"

Just as Aikute was lost in thought, a sudden urgent alarm sounded.

"Alert, strong spiritual energy signal detected!"

"Huh?"

Aikute was startled and quickly looked up at the screen. In the originally colorful star sky, a strange, mist-like entity suddenly appeared, spreading gradually—then, accompanied by flashing lightning, a massive creature emerged from it!

"What is that?!"

"I remember seeing it in the Tribunal’s records, this seems to be the Tyron Swarm’s Mothership!"

"What? What should we do now?"

"Immediately notify Mr. Knight! This is not a problem we can solve!"