Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

Chapter 128 Arachnids on the Ziras IV

even though the psychic links between the bugs were cut due to the activation of the psychic disruptor, as the device was doing a splendid job on this one, the bugs were wasting no time in the reorganization after the first attack.

the commander warrior bug immediately released some weird screeching sounds that were rather high-pitched and pretty annoying, as all of the bugs that were present immediately got into the formation and started acting together.

the communication between the arachnids was weird. most of the time, they were communicated through the psychic links as they were very potent psionic species, but that didn't mean that it was their sole method of communication.

even though it was their sole method for long-distance communications.

but in the short range, they also communicated through these weird, creepy-sounding screeching sounds that the commander warrior bug was releasing or through the usage of the pheromones.

though the last one was limited only to queen bugs and emprress bugs, while the first two methods of communication could be used by any bug in their swarm. when the highborne auryani trio noticed that the commander warrior bug had taken control of the situation, they needed to act swiftly.

all of them knew that the commander warrior bug would start escaping, using the other bugs in the group as the decoy to get out of the range of the psychic disruptor. even though the range of the psychic disruptor was considerably big, it wasn't actually that kind of big.

the aim of the commander warrior bug was simple.

as long as it could get out of the range of the psychic disruptor, it could send a message back to the nest that they were under attack, so the arachnids in the nest would prepare for the potential assault and lock down the entire nest.

arcturus noted that the bugs were pretty vicious when it came to the traps and meticulous when it came to the defenses of their nests. their species were master builins and crafers of various nasty surprises and one of the state-of-art defenses around their nests.

so, to prevent such an outcome, zehal, who was hovering in the air and unleashed a barrage of energy beams directed toward the warrior bugs that were protecting the commander warrior bug.

in a split of a moment, jenaiel and arcturus started cutting their way through several tens of bugs that were protecting the commander warrior bug at the price of their very own lives, not like they cared or had any choice on the matter.

in the arachnid swarm, everything aside from the control-class bugs that were in charge of controlling and commanding the bugs and ruling-class bugs that were the same as controls but also ruled the nests, hives, and fleets, everything was expendable.

for the ruling bugs it doesn't matter if millions or billions of warriors, scouts, drones, workers or anything died. while some other bugs, like the praetorian bugs, titan bugs, or other specific types of bugs, would be considered as high loss, it was still inconsequential.

aside from a few very special specimens in the arachnid swarm, everything and everyone was replaceable with enough biomass. the commander warrior bug belonged to the control-class category, even though it was on the rock bottom of the ladder.

in a case like this, when one was fighting many enemies, the swordsmanship wasn't that efficient, actually, and jeniael wasn't doing much aside from specifically targeting the most powerful of the bugs in the group.

thus, their strategy was that with arcturus carrying her while she was playing the role of the heavy-hitter, and he was dealing with the numbers around them, which was equally problematic.

still, it was working very well for them...

'i am sending waves of my nanites to surround the bugs and prevent them from escaping the radius of the psychic disruptor with the commander warrior bug.'

both jenaiel and arcturus received the message from zehal, who was controlling the nanites while attacking the bugs. what made the situation rather problematic was the resistance of the commander warrior bug and the fact that the commander warrior bug was delta-grade on the psionic scale.

when the commander warrior bug started using the psionic blasts to attack jenaiel and arcturus, it was rather a hassle to defend against.

despite the fact that the commander warrior bug was the delta-grade, the potency of its attacks was even above that, but fortunately, as the psychic links between them were destroyed, the power wasn't reaching the gamma-grade psionic.

when the commander warrior bug sent anything at them, it was jenaiel who, with the usage of her super-high risk psyker ability, the holy judgment of god deserted at psionic attacks of the commander warrior bug, while at the same time, arcutrurs used the dimension empyrean to counterattack.

when all of the bugs were killed, and the commander warrior bug was essentially crippled, arcturus and jenaiel cut the anthenas and everything that the commander warrior bug could use as a potential weapon, and at the same time, zehal used the nanites to bind the crippled commander warrior bug in one place.

beucase arcturus was barbarian he was, he was using the most basic and barbaric usage of the memory extraction skill.

he would basically breach the mind forcefully and try to extract anything that was possible to take out of the mind of the commander warrior bug. unfortunately, arcturus wasn't skillful at the usage of the memory extraction skill aside from the rudimentary use.

even though the memory extraction skill was a rather simple technique, it was very complicated on the inside and very hard to use properly. it was a psionic skill that required a lot of fitness and skill to use properly and to have the best result.

and as arcturus didn't have either, he could use it only in its most basic form and forcefully break into the commander warrior bug and extract what could be extracted. arcturus prepared for the process a bit and also rested for a few minutes before he attempted to do anything.

to be sure, he took out a small psionic energy crystal that he had prepared for the trip; it's sole purpose was to refill his reserves of psionic energy without using the psionic energy in his soul dimension through the dimension empyrean.

"once i start, don't do anything, and don't disrupt me no matter what happens. red queen will monitor my vital signs and brain waves through the neural extranet terminal gene implants in case something goes wrong. if yes, she will notice you and jeniael will use the holy judgment of god to break the connection, and zehal, you will kill the commander warrior bug."

the arachnids were dangerous, and doing the memory extraction skill of the commander warrior bug was very reckless and dangerous. he still didn't believe that he was going to do something like this because it sounded like utter foolishness.

yet, at the same time, due to the circumstances, it was the best time to do something like that, and it was their best chance to gather information about the arachnids on the ziras iv.

"i am going to start."

arcturus said when he felt that he was ready and jenaiel and zehal stood on guard in case something went wrong. both women knew that this was a dangerous thing that he was attempting to do.

he carefully used the memory extraction skill on the commander warrior bug and started exerting more and more psionic energy through the memory extraction skill on the mind of the commander warrior bug in the hopes of breaking through.

even with the cosmic storm that cast a psiionic shroud over the ziras iv and with the psychic disruptor being activated, the mind defenses of the commander warrior bug were still rather strong.

it took arcturus around ten minutes to breach through the mind defenses of the commander warrior bug and start browsing through the memories. it was a weird experience, like if someone was watching a movie, but instead of one screen, there were hundreds of them, and behind those hundreds were even more...

thousands upon thousands of screens.

each one showed some memory that the commander warrior bug had seen.

arcturus knew that he needed to act very fast, so he started furiously skimming through the memories of the commander warrior bug because he felt that his time was going to be rather short.

the toll on his own mind was high.

it wasn't easy to search through someone's memories, especially if the one who was doing the search was absolutely untrained and unskilled and the target was exceptionally resistant and resilient.

on the outside, both jeniael and zehal noticed blood started flowing from his nose, and in just another three minutes, arcturus cut the connection because his head was hurting like he was kicked by a donkey.

"are you alright?"

jenaiel asked as she noticed that he was holding his head and absorbing the psionic energy from the psionic energy crystal because his own reserves were depleted. arcturus knew that he really needed to polish this skill to use it in a more efficient way.

"yes... just a toll from overusing the skill to grab as many memories from the commander warrior bug as possible. but i got the information that we were looking for, and it seems that we are in luck..."

arcturus stated, because the results were better than expected and finally lady luck has smiled upon them for the first time.