am-books Chapter 115 Uncanny Possibilities
Chapter 115 Uncanny Possibilities
Obviously, the best thing about the entire aspect of Zehal working on the upgrades for the Obscurus was that it was entirely free. This was probably the best benefit from the entire ordeal because he didn't have to invest anything in it, and she did everything for free.
However, that was questionable because, well, they were taking her together with them on the mission against the Arachnids on the Ziras IV, and she would be getting one-third of the overall reward.
Thirty thousand or so Academy Points was a high number overall. Still, Arcatrurus was very satisfied with the outcome because having someone on the deck who was constantly carrying some upgrades on the ship was like heaven's gift.
Zehal was working on the various project digilently like a bee and during around two months that they would be spending on the Obscurus traveling to the Ziras IV and then back to the Phoenix Prime, she would do a lot of work.
When he saw how hard she was working on the upgrades of the ship and helping Red Queen with her projects, he seriously considered that having some living crew on the deck wouldn't be the worst idea around.
While the bots and droids were rather good and everything, in the end, there were large areas where they were absolutely inefficient and useless. Having a living crew would be rather useful in several situations, especially in one that required creative thinking, which was something that even the Red Queen was struggling with.
The Artificial Intelligence were not really good with any kind of creative thinking and creative work, that was rather a serious aspect of their weakness, and in fact, it was their most glowing weakness.
Only when they evolved to the true Machine life forms would they be able to remedy this weakness in their overall design. Arcturus hoped that the Red Queen would be able to repair this weakness of hers.
"The work she had done on my starship would otherwise cost more than several tens of thousand Universal Credits. Not talking about the fact that the quality of her work is absolutely superb, and I would be very hard-pressed to find a more qualified engineer to work on the starship than her."
Arcturus said as they continued eating.
Even though the Eternal Empire of Asurya was advanced very much compared to the other High-Level Star Nations and High-Level Civilizations, finding some freelance engineer who was capable of working on the most advanced technology wasn't an easy feat.
Most of these qualified people were already working either for the state, various corporations and companies, or for the Noble Houses of the Empire. There was a very high demand for people with such a high degree of technical skills and education within the Empire.
So, in a certain sense, Arcturus was very lucky that he managed to get Zehal onto his ship and carry out the upgrades for free. The work she was doing at the same time, was of really superior quality.
"Hopefully, she will finish all the things that they are working on with Red Queen during the time we are on the Obscurus."
He really hoped that it would last, though he even considered hiring her afterward if she would be open to the proposal. Zehal was rather a curious soul who loved discovering and researching new technologies, something that he would gladly provide her with.
He planned to travel around the entire Desolate Cosmos Territory and search for the advanced pieces of tech that could be adjusted by the Red Queen and then sold domestically within the Eternal Empire of the Asurya and the Andromeda Galaxy if possible.
They already had the engines from the very old space hulk whose schematics Arcturus obtained during the invasion of the Greenskisn into the Alaric Star Domain.
A certain part of his was already scheming on how to get Zehal working on those projects as well and join his ideas for creating a new corporation manufacturing space travel engines and other things that he would find during his journey.
He knew that the nature of the business would be very appealing to someone like Zehal because it would mean that she would get to work with very exotic pieces of technology, something that was rather rare within the Eternal Empire of the Asurya.
Many things, like the technology from the Mind Flayers, were under heavy lock by the Imperial Decrecee, and only a few selected scientists were in charge of researching and adapting things like Mind Flayer technology and similar objects that held strategic importance to the Empire.
He knew very well, that the technological capabilities of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya was very high and the energy-based weapons of the Imperium were highly effective against the bugs and various Archanid Species.
So it was rather suspicious why they were not able to exterminate the Arachnid Nest with all of the arsenals they had there.
"I didn't think about that...yeah, it sounds a little weird; either the local garrison didn't really care enough to bring themselves to exterminate the Arachnids. It is also very possible that due to the various factors, it is possible that the local forces are reluctant to fight against the Arachnids in their fortified positions, especially when the Imperial Forces lack powerful Professionals that would break the tide of the battle."
Jenaiel stated her opinion on the matter because now that she had heard it from Arcturus, she too found it rather weird that there was no advance from the Imperial Forces on the planet.
They should have been able to destroy a smaller Arachnid Nests like the one that was created on the Ziras IV, but for whatever the reason, they were not, and that itself was rather suspicious on itself.
There was also the possibility that the colonists were already infected by the Bugs and someone was manipulating the defense forces on the Ziras IV to leave the Arachnids be.
"I, on the contrary, think that it is very highly possible that one of the high-ranking personnel of the colony on the Ziras IV is infected by the bugs. While I am aware that there are protocols on the protection against the Arachnids, there should always be some possibility to bypass it."
Arcturus knew from Irene that the Empire had rather extensive protection against the possible bug infestation in their cities. The Arachnids could infest people and insert a tiny worm-like bug into their brains, which would then control the person who was infested with the bug worm.
This was a rather serious problem for most of the Civilizations and Star Nations fighting the Arachnids, as the enemy often came within. Nothing was better than an indoctrinated slave to the will of the Bugs.
Once such indoctrinated individuals returned back to their targetted destination, they would start to create a cult or secret organization among the locals and convert them to their cause through the pretense of salvation and power.
They would do this either to grow as a tumor in the society, sabotaging either the effort of the military forces to defend against the Arachnid invasion of a certain world, outright helping the Arachnid, or even opening wormholes for the entire Arachnid Fleets.
There were even several cases when even the entire High-Level Civilization and High-Level Star Nations fell to the Arachnids, through the enemy within that destroyed them before they even realized.
If this were the case with the Ziras IV, it would be far more problematic than anyone initially anticipated because it would mean that the Imperial Forces were infected. The worst thing about this infection was the sheer possibility that it could not end with the Ziras IV.
The infected ones could have spread towards the other colonies of the Eternal Empire of Asurya and other regions under Imperial control.
If the Arachnids were indeed capable of bypassing some of the scans of the Imperial technology, then it would be possible that some of the infected Imperials across the different Star Systems in the Solitas Star Domain.
If it was indeed true, then it would be catastrophic for the Empire, and it would be a situation that would need to be resolved as fast as possible.
"That would be rather serious trouble... something like that infestation of the Arachnids on the Imperial Forces didn't happen for a long time already, and the last time it happened to the Empire, we lost several entire Fleets to the bugs many decades ago."
From there on, the Empire implemented rather serious contra-measures against the possible infestation of the Arachnids, which could happen at any given time. The infested Asuryani were dangerous as fuck, and the possibility that they could create cults that would then destabilize the entire world.
"You should try and report it to the Imperial Military if it gets to it. The significance that the House Luxford carries within the military is something that they would take into consideration and resolve the situation very fast... considering the number of your relatives in the Imperial Military, be it in the Army or the Navy."
Arcturus proposed because if there was a possibility that the entire colony was being slowly infested by the Arachnids through some new methods that the Empire couldn't detect, then it became a matter of national security for the Empire.