Chapter 26 - Battle Between Biological Spaceships and the Mineral Lifeforms
~The Outer Rim of the Former Gialpha Galaxy Alliance's Controlled Space Zone, Adjacent to the Unexplored Space Zone on the Opposite Side of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire~
Sangou had entered a combat state against Futagou, which, based on the Deltania Star System's military records it possessed, it could only consider as something that 'should not exist'.
Why had such a situation come about?
Well then, let us organize the flow up to that point in chronological order.
The strongest duo of Sangou and Jin had roughly resolved the space locust problem requested by the Emperor and Empress Laura of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire, finishing the extermination phase that began with the so-called 'lure operation'.
Next, they moved on to the task of confirming that, within the Gialpha Galaxy Empire's territory, there were no longer any space locust survivors 'at a level where they would grow into a threatening swarm'.
The reason Sangou did not withdraw to the Imperial Capital immediately after finishing the extermination battle was because, if they did not eliminate the possibility of swarms growing to a level that the forces held by each planet or star system could not handle, the same thing might happen again.
During the voyage for this final, finishing confirmation, Sangou noticed a single spaceship approaching at high speed.
Furthermore, the identification signal that spaceship was emitting was one issued by Sangou's manufacturer, and it was that of the 'Futagou' that Sangou knew.
Sangou conveyed this fact to the Captain.
At that time, well, there was also surprise.
That Sangou uttered the name 'Futagou' with an interrogative nuance was not a matter of great consequence; it was merely a trivial detail.
However, it was only natural that Jin, upon receiving the report, would ask for more information about the suddenly mentioned 'Futagou'.
"Sangou. What the hell is this 'Futagou'?"
Jin's statement might have been too roughly phrased a question.
But between Jin and Sangou, this alone was enough to convey the intention.
While hailing Futagou, Sangou also began disclosing information about Futagou to Jin in parallel.
The 'Futagou' that Sangou knew from records was the 'Biological Spaceship with Mechanical Artificial Intelligence, Prototype Unit 02'.
Unlike Sangou's organic type, the installed artificial intelligence was a normal mechanical computer, built with the aim of operation in a form that controlled the biological parts via electrical signals.
Incidentally, before Futagou, there were two prototype units that were failures, and from the lessons of those failures, Futagou was made as a 'specialized bombardment ship' with a reduced hull scale.
Although control was unstable, its firepower was very high for its relatively small hull size, and during the trial manufacturing of 'Sangou', which was being developed in parallel and had started production, Futagou was undergoing test operations in actual combat.
However, during that test operation, in the final stage, Futagou went berserk.
According to the Deltania Army records held by Sangou, it was recorded as having been destroyed to stop its rampage.
Sangou roughly disclosed the contents of its own 'records of the Deltania Army related to Futagou' to Jin.
"Hmm. Something that should have been destroyed, huh. Wait, hey, isn't this Futagou going on the offensive against us?"
"It's firing! Evasion won't make it. Direct hit, incoming."
Until just before, Sangou had not judged Futagou as an 'enemy'.
Therefore, Sangou was flustered by the situation that occurred, but Jin, who had deployed a shield magic on the outside of Sangou as soon as he sensed the attack posture, had some leeway.
The strong defense provided by Jin's shield magic left him unlikely to suffer damage from something like Futagou's bombardment.
The magic of the Hero, infused with the Origin of Dragon Vein, had evolved into something of that level, even if Jin himself was barely aware of it.
"Captain. Thank you for nullifying the direct hit. But isn't your 'shield magic' a bit too powerful?"
"I'm the Hero, ya know."
"That's true. So it is. Fine, forget it."
Jin's reply to Sangou seemed like an answer but wasn't one at all.
Sangou gave up and simply recorded and accepted the actual phenomena.
This aspect was where an organic artificial intelligence excelled, something impossible for a mechanical one.
"So, about this. Can I counterattack? It's still firing. Is this 'Futagou' an ally?"
Just in case, the possibility of it being friendly forces crossed Jin's mind.
However, in this case, 'friendly forces' would refer to the Deltania Army of the Deltania Star System, not the Imperial Military of the Gialpha Galaxy.
If the current situation was a mistaken attack on the opponent's side, then counterattacking would not be good.
Unable to make that judgment, Jin had no choice but to focus on blocking attacks from the opponent with his shield magic.
"No. It is emitting an identification signal showing it was made by the same manufacturer as Sangou, but it is not emitting a Deltania Army identification signal. Above all, communication via Sensory Waves, which should be possible, is not possible. Unfortunately, with this, I judge that 'we have no choice but to dispose of Futagou as an enemy'."
"I see. So it's an 'enemy', huh."
A situation where they had confirmed the existence of a biological spaceship other than Sangou for the first time.
That fact alone made Jin a little excited.
Precisely because of that, it was very sad for Jin that Futagou had been determined to be an 'enemy' by Sangou.
But no matter how intriguing a being it might be, if it was Sangou's enemy, then...
That meant it could only be Jin's enemy as well.
"In comparison to Sangou, Futagou's performance is: firepower double, mobility fifty percent higher, defense one-fifth. As a so-called specialized bombardment ship, it is specialized in attack and evasion. That one should have higher firepower than Sangou, but thanks to your shield magic, Captain, it's completely fine."
"I might not have been able to block it in the past. But now, I kinda feel like 'I have too much magic power!' or something."
"No, that's actually a part I'd like you to be confident about, though."
"Well, don't sweat the small stuff. So, if it's an 'enemy', what should we do about an attack from our side? If 'Sangou feels reluctant to attack', I'll do it."
"That's true. The question is 'whether Sangou's current power can land an attack on Futagou'. At any rate, let's give it a try. Please leave the first move to me."
Through this series of events, the battle between Sangou and Futagou began.
This led to the situation at the beginning.
In the midst of the battle between biological spaceships, unprecedented in the Deltania Army as well, Jin basically maintained an observing stance until there was a request from Sangou.
The reason Jin could hold the 'principle of not actively intervening' at this time was because he thought 'it's a good opportunity for Sangou to gain experience'.
Since Sangou was also a living organism, 'optimization through experience' existed.
Jin understood this from the knowledge that had been poured into him via Sensory Waves in the past.
And he judged that 'if the opponent is superior even partially, there will probably be a lot to learn'.
Of course, this 'so-called playing it easy' was only possible because of the leeway afforded by 'Sangou being perfectly protected by Jin's shield magic', but such things were trivial.
"They don't hit. The number of times we've been hit has decreased, though."
"Yeah. It could be because 'Futagou is fast', but it also feels like 'they're predicting Sangou's attack patterns'."
"Is there such a possibility? Then, please let me try a bit more."
"Sure. It's valuable experience. But if things get dangerous, I'll step in on my own. Until then, try various things."
With such conversations interspersed, two hours had passed since the start of the battle.
The attack accuracy of the enemy Futagou was quite high.
Precisely because of that, Sangou's evasive maneuvers were steadily improving and becoming more adept.
Also, Sangou's own attacks were reaching a level where they 'seemed like they might hit?'.
But could this practice-like state continue forever?
There was no way that could happen.
Because there certainly existed finite factors that affected the battle.
While this was happening, the situation shifted.
It transitioned into a state where the number of bombardments from Futagou gradually decreased.
It was only natural.
There was simply too much difference in energy conditions between Sangou and Futagou from the start.
Sangou, which could be supplied with unlimited energy from Jin.
No matter where or how you searched, a ship that could win a prolonged battle against such a cheat-status ship probably did not exist.
From Sangou's perspective, Futagou seemed to be running low on energy reserves at this point.
Thus, Futagou gave Jin and Sangou a sense of 'retreat' intention and entered preparations for withdrawal.
Well, there was no way the Hero, who was in spectator mode, would miss such a change in Futagou, and there was also no way he would silently see it retreat.
"Whoa. Can't let 'em get away, huh. Okay, at this distance, I can do it with magic. Status ailment infliction: Paralysis."
Magic that inflicts a status ailment on a living being.
Jin used that against Futagou from his position on Sangou's bridge.
"Captain! What is that?!"
"No, I told you, it's 'Paralysis'. Sangou is also like this, but 'Futagou' is a biological spaceship, meaning a 'living organism', right? Then I thought 'status ailment infliction magic that paralyzes the body' would work. If they don't know about magic power or magic, they probably have no magic defense from the start."
"Really, Captain... You're just too outrageous."
In reality, Futagou, like Sangou, was a biological spaceship created from the same space beast base, so it could partially use magic power as energy.
Therefore, since it had the aptitude itself, it wasn't as if it had 'zero magic defense'.
However, while it wasn't 'zero', how would it fare against Jin of the present?
Such defense was merely 'a tiny bit exists', falling into the so-called 'margin of error'.
Incidentally, Sangou's current state, being continuously supplied with magic power from Jin, was essentially the same as having the entire hull enveloped in magic power.
As a result, Sangou's magic defense was vastly higher than Futagou's.
Also, Jin's status ailment infliction was not an area-of-effect magic, so it could only be used on a single target.
Hence, it was magic ill-suited for opponents that attack in large groups.
Well, it was possible to cast it repeatedly if one wanted to.
In short, it was difficult magic to use against opponents like the space locusts they had recently wiped out, but such a thing had no relevance to the current situation.
At any rate, Futagou, having fallen into a paralysis state, was now moving only by inertia.
If that was the case...
Since it was no longer a threat, Sangou developed a desire to 'investigate Futagou'.
Sangou then asked Jin for permission.
"We will come alongside; making contact."
Having matched relative velocity with Futagou, Sangou moved to action for investigation.
"Yeah, go ahead."
"This is! Emergency purging of contact point. Confirmed erosion contamination. Detached contaminated hull section. Captain, no good. Futagou is being controlled by something."
In truth, this Futagou was currently in a state of having merged with something called 'Mineral Lifeforms'.
Due to that merger, it was in a state of being completely dominated by the Mineral Lifeforms.
Naturally, there was no way Sangou could understand such circumstances.
External analysis could not discern the true nature, and attempting contact analysis would result in Sangou itself being eroded and contaminated.
In other words, it couldn't even be investigated.
"Then there's no need to force an investigation. If it's dangerous, the only option is disposal."
"That can't be helped."
"Now, I'll ask just in case, but does Futagou have something like a 'vital point'? A place like 'if you destroy only that, it dies'. If not, I'll attack with enough force to annihilate the whole thing, but?"
"You mean parts corresponding to a brain or heart. Unfortunately, within the scope of the Captain's understanding, Futagou does not have such parts. Please proceed with annihilation disposal."
"Understood. Then I'll go for a bit. Stay back a little and wait for me."
With that, Jin jumped out using short-range teleportation.
The Hero took out the Holy Sword from his Storage Space.
"Here I go! Annihilation Slash!"
Against the Hero's ultimate strike, Futagou, not only unable to move on its own but also unable to deploy a defense field, had no means to counter.
The ship, broadly classified as the same type as Sangou, was easily obliterated by Jin's attack.
Although such an unexpected incident occurred, the main job related to the space locusts was completed with the navigation to confirm a specific space zone.
Things related to Futagou were full of unknowns, and frankly, there was much they didn't understand, but the main job was done.
Therefore, Jin and Sangou put an end to this matter.
Sangou departed for the Imperial Capital.
Arriving at the Imperial Capital, Jin reported on the work.
That said...
Since Sangou created the report data, what Jin actually had to do was just skim through it and approve the submission of that report.
After confirming the reward was deposited into his account and checking his balance, he returned to his long-unseen home.
Jin could only be surprised that Miu greeted him by hugging him.
(Did I set up a flag?)
Jin even ended up thinking such things.
Next, the baby dragon started playing around with Jin.
(Kichou isn't growing at all, huh...)
While petting the baby dragon, he felt a little anxious, wondering about the lack of physical growth despite feeding it properly.
However, upon thinking about it, Jin had no particular knowledge of the relationship between a dragon's growth rate, changes in appearance, and the passage of time.
Incidentally, though Jin didn't know it, it was only natural that Kichou's body couldn't grow.
Because the magic power necessary for a dragon's growth simply didn't float around in this world.
The baby dragon, being highly intelligent, was aware of this fact.
But if its body grew too large, that would create a problem of where to stay.
Therefore, it was just maintaining its current state on its own judgment.
Eventually, Kichou would come to live aboard Sangou, and the time for it to grow as a dragon would come, but that is a slightly distant story.
To add, by continuously bathing in high-concentration magic power, the baby dragon would also undergo evolution as a species.
From Wyrm to Elder Wyrm.
From Elder Wyrm to Dragon.
Beyond that, it would evolve in the order of 'Elder Dragon' and 'Divine Dragon', but even in the world of the Louvre Empire, from which Jin was summoned, there was no precedent of anything evolving beyond the Elder Dragon stage.
At any rate, Jin was being healed by the fluffiness quota and the pet baby dragon immediately after coming home, but given the circumstances before his departure, things couldn't end there.
In the direction his gaze happened to turn, the three beautiful elf sisters whose eyes were not smiling at all, and Silk—his four wives—were standing there silently.
Needless to say, an intense scolding followed endlessly from that point.
Even so, Jin was once again able to return to his relaxing days at home.
(Prototype Unit 02 showed up with the name 'Futagou'. That means Unit 01... no, will the first unit show up eventually too? But thinking about it more, I feel like Sangou said 'there were two failed prototypes before Futagou'. That would mean there's also a Unit 00?)
While relaxing leisurely, such thoughts occasionally crossed Jin's mind.
While Jin spent such time, Sangou, having nothing in particular to do, floated on the surface of the capital planet's sea, maintaining a standby state.
When there was nothing physically that needed to be done, Sangou would spend its days thinking about various things.
During such standby, Sangou was investigating records about Futagou.
A ship that should have been destroyed, according to records.
Moreover, how physically far was the current location, the Gialpha Galaxy, from the Deltania Star System?
Considering not just mere distance but also the case of the event that occurred to the Captain, there was even the possibility that this universe was a completely different world from the one where the Deltania Star System existed.
The unexpected encounter the other day meant that Futagou had suddenly appeared in a place that should have had no connection or relation to the Deltania Star System.
And Sangou did not know the cause of that.
Therefore, Sangou was meticulously investigating the detailed combat records of Futagou from the Deltania Star System that it had on hand.
From shortly after Futagou was prototyped and during its tests, action logs where 'the artificial intelligence momentarily output an obviously strange command, then immediately corrected that strange command' appeared frequently.
This was a known bug from right after Futagou was manufactured as a prototype.
However, the fact that 'it corrected itself immediately' was evaluated positively, and the military that would actually use Futagou judged that 'there is no problem in operation'.
Thus, Futagou moved to the stage of test operations in actual combat.
In the first and second short-duration actual combat deployments for military testing, Futagou achieved scores destroying more than three times the expected number of enemies.
Because of this, the military became enthusiastic about full-scale adoption.
The third and final test was set as a long-duration actual combat deployment.
During that test operation, Futagou went berserk.
It fired indiscriminately at friend and foe alike, and the load from its insane high-maneuverability was too much for the crew inside Futagou, resulting in all of them dying.
Futagou, berserk and flying around the battlefield in complete chaos, refused to accept orders from the Deltania Army outside the ship.
What was truly frightening was that at this time, due to the 'death of the Captain', restrictions that should have been in place were not in effect, perhaps because of the berserk state.
In response to this situation, orders for the destruction of Futagou were naturally issued.
However, due to its incredible combat maneuvers, it was impossible for the Deltania Army's normal attacks to land a proper hit on it.
Taking the situation seriously, the commander of the force permitted the mass use of the latest Hyperspace Missiles and issued a concentrated attack order.
With this attack, by gouging out a wide area of space entirely, the Deltania Army finally succeeded in disposing of Futagou.
In the military's records, this was recorded as 'destruction', but in reality, it was nothing more than 'flinging Futagou into some other space, making it vanish from before their eyes'.
Incidentally, the cause of Futagou's berserk state was an irregular backflow of electrical signals from the biological parts, and the technical staff of the Deltania Star System were unable to overcome this cause, which inevitably occurred in the Futagou type.
And, 'since it is difficult to control a biological spaceship with the artificial intelligence of a mechanical computer', it was concluded, and Unit 03's control was changed to an organic artificial intelligence midway through the prototype stage.
"In other words, although it was recorded as 'disposal' in the records, it wasn't destruction in the sense of 'explosion' or 'shattering', right?"
From these records, Sangou judged that Futagou, like Sangou itself, had been sent into hyperspace.
Moreover, unlike Sangou, it was likely 'with its hull torn to pieces'.
"Something like, 'they somehow gathered the scattered parts of the hull, came out of hyperspace into normal space, and ended up in this universe', I suppose."
As a result of repeated consideration, Sangou reached a plausible conclusion.
However, although Sangou would never realize it, this 'speculation' or rather 'conclusion' was actually wrong.
As a result of mutual interference from the massive use of Hyperspace Missiles, Futagou, which should have been sent into hyperspace, was for some reason accidentally sent into normal space instead.
And thus, the part containing the artificial intelligence, which could not be overstated as Futagou's 'heart', miraculously remained intact and emerged directly into this universe in a completely whole state.
And the place where it appeared was the Umyu Galaxy, the galaxy second closest to the Gialpha Galaxy, a neighboring galaxy, and coincidentally 'right in front of the Mineral Lifeforms that lived there'. That was all there was to it.
However, Sangou's incorrect conclusion did not particularly affect anything else.
Phenomena one actually encounters are important, but this matter was not one of them.
If one were trying to achieve a specific phenomenon on their own, or to prevent it from occurring, then accurately investigating the cause would have meaning.
However, regarding Futagou, which Jin had annihilated, it was merely a past event, and thus, aside from being a source of self-satisfaction for Sangou, there was ultimately no further significance.
Additionally, as a side note, although Futagou had a part containing the artificial intelligence which served as its heart, when the Captain previously asked about Futagou's weak point, why did Sangou report that there was none?
"It exists, but its location cannot be identified."
In truth, this was the answer.
Futagou's core could be moved to anywhere within the ship.
Therefore, pinpointing its location was impossible.
Hence, strictly speaking, 'a weak point exists', but it was judged as 'equivalent to not having one', and so it was conveyed to Jin in that manner.
Not wasting time on unnecessary detailed explanation might have been a result of their unspoken understanding.
At any rate, the mechanical part containing Futagou's artificial intelligence was merged and eroded by the Mineral Lifeforms it had accidentally encountered, and all functions and stored data were hijacked.
From there, the situation developed into the Mineral Lifeforms regenerating the biological parts of Futagou while examining the data found there.
Next, from within that data, they discovered the details of the development plan for the general-purpose Unit 03 and the mothership-type Unit 04, as well as all the data on the two past units that had ended as failures.
Incidentally, the mothership-type Unit 04 was capable of simultaneously carrying up to ten Unit 02s and five Unit 03s, and was a mothership intended for their operation.
Futagou had prototype-specific limitations imposed as part of its safety devices, and one of these was that an upper limit on the regeneration amount of biological parts was set at the manufacturing stage.
The Mineral Lifeforms that hijacked Futagou's artificial intelligence succeeded in registering itself as the Captain.
From that state, while waiting for the arrival of other compatriots to merge with, the merged lifeform used its Captain authority to regenerate to its limits, increasing the biological parts.
Thus, a total of ten ships—four copies of Unit 02, five imitations of Unit 03, and one imitation of Unit 04—were created in the Umyu Galaxy.
The newly created biological spaceships through such a process had only one point different from the 'originals': 'repair through self-regeneration is impossible'.
Incidentally, the Mineral Lifeforms originally had only two methods of attacking others: ramming and fusion erosion.
Therefore, a biological spaceship that could use energy to bombard was immediately adopted as a 'new weapon'.
This might be similar to how firearms were introduced to warfare during Japan's Warring States period?
Though the difference is that, 'unlike the guns of that time, they cannot be mass-produced'.
The Umyu Galaxy is a neighboring galaxy located in the opposite direction from the galaxy closest to the Gialpha Galaxy, and it is also a galaxy where the Mineral Lifeforms hold hegemony.
These Mineral Lifeforms are, as a racial trait, mysterious creatures whose knowledge is constantly shared among all individuals.
This means that communication-based information transmission is unnecessary.
At one point, the Mineral Lifeforms detected information important to them.
From a faraway neighboring galaxy, they detected the existence of a metal unknown to them: 'Mithril'.
This unknown metal was highly likely to be usable for their species' evolution.
Knowing that, there was no way they could leave it alone.
Therefore...
Using the FTL jump navigation technology obtained from Futagou, they were already capable of reaching the Gialpha Galaxy, and they made the decision to send one copy of Unit 02 towards the Gialpha Galaxy.
The main purpose was reconnaissance, but 'if possible, collect 'Mithril'' was also implemented as a target goal in the plan.
Sangou happened to possess a sample of that Mithril, and coincidentally, Sangou was the closest from the Umyu Galaxy side.
Thus, the encounter between the copy of Unit 02 and Sangou was inevitable.
The circumstances leading to the encounter battle between biological spaceships during the finishing stage of the space locust case were as such.
That aside, Rouj and the others in the Imperial Capital, as well as Renju on the main planet of the Betasia Star System, also possessed Mithril.
However, the reason the copy of Futagou did not head towards them was simply 'positional coincidence', or rather, 'they were just lucky'.
The copy of Unit 02, which Sangou recognized as 'Futagou' and which was annihilated by Jin.
Up until the moment of annihilation, the memory of the individual Mineral Lifeform fused with that hull was shared with all the Mineral Lifeforms in the Umyu Galaxy.
The Mineral Lifeforms of the Umyu Galaxy naturally felt anger that their comrade had been killed.
Also, they thought of capturing and utilizing the Sangou they had encountered, and found that appealing as well.
Thus, in addition to the original goal of 'collection (seizure?) of the unknown metal', for the entirely selfish reason of 'capturing Sangou and using it', the Mineral Lifeforms dispatched troops from the Umyu Galaxy.
When the reconnaissance force of the dispatched troops approached the Gialpha Galaxy, it may have been inevitable that they encountered Imperial Military vessels on patrol duty.
Naturally, a certain amount of time was necessary for the situation to progress this far.
While the duo of Jin and Sangou spent a relaxed time without any major incidents occurring, the situation was moving.
It was probably a matter drawn in by the Hero's fate power.
"Sangou. Sounds like it's our turn."
Thus, the Hero Jin and Sangou completed their battle against the biological spaceship that Sangou identified as 'Futagou', and returned to the Imperial Capital having 'completed the space locust case'.
If they had done nothing, they had prevented the massive damage that would have likely occurred to the Imperial Military.
Furthermore, they had successfully prevented the occurrence of a situation where a part of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire's territory would have been devastated on a scale that was no laughing matter.
In the process, Jin incurred the wrath of his four wives and received a tremendous scolding, but that was a personal matter on an individual level, unrelated to the fate of the galaxy, and a trivial detail.
The case, which appeared settled at first glance, would connect to the occurrence of another case after some time.
What was the 'turn' that Jin had told Sangou about?
No one knows the future.
The Hero-sama, who had grown curious about the codenames of the earlier prototypes following the encounter with Futagou, nevertheless did not bother to confirm them with Sangou.
And so, mumbling within his heart something like, "With things like this, it's important to enjoy the process of letting your imagination run wild, so there's no need to rush to know the answer," Jin wondered just who he was trying to convince with that excuse.