Chapter 148: The Monster From Outer Space
No one knew exactly when they started calling them Plagues.
After the Night of Sorrow incident in 2103, humanity had referred to them as space monsters or metal monsters.
The name Plague came much later.
The reason for the name was clear, though.
Scientists who observed them through various telescopes and detection methods saw that they were eroding planets and called them Plagues.
They looked like a contagious disease that was eating away at humanity.
Red Cloud, also known as the planet’s doom, was the tragic end that a planet could reach after being eroded by a Plague.
Several planets in the solar system had been devoured by Plagues, and only Earth, Jupiter, and the Moon were left.
At this point, there should have been some anomalies in the solar system’s gravity field, but the Sun was too heavy for that to happen.
Instead, the Earth’s orbital path was slightly distorted.
Anyway, despite fighting Plagues for 80 years, humanity knew very little about their ecology.
Most of the observation methods were blocked by the Red Cloud that occurred when a planet was eroded.
The powerful psychokinesis field unique to Plagues also made research difficult.
Still, there were a few things they had learned from fighting for so long.
Plagues had their roles determined from birth.
This could be seen from the Plague Cocoon, which was the smallest of the Beast-class.
It was small enough to fit in a cruiser’s hangar.
Yet it weighed at least 10,000 tons, which was cute compared to its threat level.
Arma, who belatedly caught on that it was a Plague, reported.
「Judging by the size of the cocoon, it is definitely a Beast-class. Estimated weight is 15,000 tons.」
「The cocoon has landed on the seabed and is eroding the surrounding metal. Based on the concentration of the psych field, it will wake up soon.」
“A Beast-class aquatic creature. It won’t be much of a threat at this level, but…”
It could be damaged by a hafnium-2 warhead, not a hydrogen bomb.
The problem was that it had fallen into the French Biscay coast, where there was no response prepared.
The French authorities had issued a tsunami warning and evacuated the citizens at the same time.
Arma showed him the French broadcast.
「They still seem to think it’s a meteorite. They’re going to send an investigation team soon since it’s shallow water.」
“It’ll wake up before they get there. We have to block its psych field first.”
One of the most annoying things about the Plague was that they could communicate over very long distances through their psychokinesis field.
It was a powerful communication method that could make quantum communication look like a downgrade, but fortunately, humanity had devised a way to block it.
The war with the Plague was mostly on a large scale, so it was not very useful, but they could easily block the weakling’s psy-field.
“Psy-field blocker activated, nearby psychers may feel discomfort.”
Now the creature could not send any signals to its kin.
They wanted to secure it as soon as possible, but the French navy had noticed something strange and mobilized, so they expected some friction.
“There’s no way to avoid exposing that strange being that fell over there.”
The problem was that the Settler was with the mining fleet on Mars.
Even if they sent the Earth Fleet, the French navy would have contacted the Plague faster.
The Assault Armor was in Seoul, but it was not ready, and it would take time to get there.
Arma calculated all the possibilities and reported.
“The contact between France and the Plague is the fastest. The Plague will land on the Bordeaux coast as soon as it contacts the warship.”
“It’s a Beast-class, but the damage will be huge…”
It was the one that had a hard black metal as its exoskeleton.
If it was America, they could have hit it with a high-power warhead or a bunker buster.
But that did not mean they could kill the Plague.
It only applied to living creatures, but if they felt like they were going to die, they would run away and enter a cocoon.
The material of the cocoon was a special black metal that even the United Human Federation could not analyze, so it was extremely hard.
It was difficult to inflict effective damage without a reactive bullet.
They decided to wait for it to return to the cocoon rather than taking a risk to capture it alive.
“Let’s hide near it with the Earth Fleet. Let’s designate it as Alpha One.”
“Understood. Master, an Aetheric field has been detected from the cocoon.”
They braced themselves for meeting the Plague again, but they could not help trembling.
The enemy of all humanity and the worst monster that had finally destroyed the Earth had appeared in space.
And much sooner than expected.
Questions piled up one after another.
‘Why did it appear so early? Where is the main force now? What is the relationship with the prophet?’
Yu Ji-ha’s head was filled with confusion.
He had hardly any preparation, but he had to face a war with the Plague.
He had no answer.
He was lucky that it was only a Beast-class, but if a Goliath-class or higher had appeared, he would have had to expose the Settler and the reactor.
At least a million deaths would have been inevitable.
He apologized to the Russian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov, and headed back to his country.
The Russians had many events planned ahead, but they were disappointed when the protagonist disappeared. But that was only for a moment.
A frigate that had gone out for reconnaissance with only Biscay Bay encountered something of unknown origin.
The sailors on the frigate, which was close to 3,000 tons, were startled when a rock that was half the size of the frigate appeared.
“It’s huge… It’s a huge rock!”
“It looks like it’s made of black metal! I repeat, it’s all black metal!”
As France flipped over, the Plague Beast named Alpha One activated its bio-ion thruster and rose into the air.
“Huh…?”
“Where have I seen that before…?”
The sailors’ eyes were filled with doubt as they saw the bio-ion thruster.
Wasn’t it too similar to the ion thruster that Korea developed for the first time?
When the frigate was slowly circling around, the Alpha One that looked like a rock began to transform.
‘Transform start. Changing body to suit the sea surface.’
With a clanking sound, Alpha One changed its appearance to a lizard shape.
“All hands, battle stations!”
The frigate quickly went into combat readiness as it detected the danger belatedly.
Finally, an anti-ship missile was fired and hit, but it seemed like it didn’t do any damage to the creature.
It was natural since its body was made of black metal.
“Contact the homeland quickly! We don’t stand a chance with our firepower!”
When the frigate captain shouted, several gun turrets popped up from various parts of the creature’s long body, which was over 50m long.
“Is that a railgun?”
“No way, it can’t be… A monster like that…”
If the creature had heard the officers’ conversation, it might have felt wronged.
The current railgun was made by copying the Plague’s weapon by the United Human Federation.
The Plague side was the original one.
An arc formed on some of the railgun barrels and projectiles were fired.
The news of a metal monster appearing in the Biscay Bay spread across the world.
Everyone dismissed it as a hoax at first.
There had been many strange things happening lately, but a metal monster was something out of science fiction.
Even if aliens were discussed positively because of the Ether Core, a metal monster that was tens of meters long was a different story, wasn’t it?
But everyone was speechless when they saw the video filmed by a brave French broadcaster.
The monster, which looked like a dark dragon, was smashing the warships mercilessly.
“…What the hell is that?”
“Nobody knows…”
Even President Baldwin and his aide Guerrero, who were not easily surprised by anything, closed their mouths.
It looked like a sci-fi movie to see a monster from space that was tens of meters long destroying the frigate with turrets from its body.
But this was reality, and the whole world was watching it.
A real space monster had appeared.
But why did it seem to have something to do with Yu Ji-ha?
“Did President Yu know about that thing’s existence or not?”
“Maybe they’re on the same side. Oh, now it’s shooting lasers too. It looks very similar to Ion Beam’s laser.”
Railguns and golden lasers.
It was as if it was fighting against the Earth Fleet of the United Human Federation.
“He can’t deny any connection. Anyway, we’ll investigate that later. The important thing now is to stop that monster from landing.”
Indeed, the monster from space was heading towards land quickly while engaging with the French navy.
The staff analyzed its speed and the time it would take to reach land.
“It’s about 200km to land, and at its current speed, it should arrive in less than an hour.”
“Do we have any forces nearby?”
“The 6th Fleet’s destroyer squadron is preparing for battle. Oh, and there’s a call from the Secretary of Defense.”
President Baldwin took the phone.
“Mr. Secretary, I’m here. I’m afraid we’ll have to face that metal monster with France.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. President, but the French navy has declared that they will block any external intervention.”
“What are they talking about? Are they going to fight a monster from space with their pride?”
“They said they will lure it to land and feed it a hafnium-2 warhead since the anti-ship missiles didn’t work…”
“That’s crazy.”
The reason they had to drag it to land was because France had not properly weaponized the hafnium-2 warhead.
They had not tested the dedicated missile yet, and the only way to project firepower at this point was an unguided bomb.
So they had to hold the monster on land to detonate the hafnium-2 warhead.
President Baldwin, who knew the situation, clicked his tongue.
“Are they planning to evacuate all the citizens of Bordeaux? It’s over a million if you include the metropolitan area.”
“Currently, a massive evacuation order has been issued. They seem determined to end this.”
France was acting so extreme because of the meeting at NATO headquarters.
They had nothing to gain and had to back down because the US supported Yu Ji-ha, so they wanted to salvage their pride here.
If they succeeded, they would get the glory of annihilating a monster from space…
“But if they mess up, they will be the culprits who brought the monster inland. Connect me to the Elysee Palace.”
“France is not taking your call.”
“…”
They really meant to do it.
The US couldn’t do anything if they were so stubborn.
The monster had entered the French territorial waters, and from now on, it was entirely France’s responsibility.
President Baldwin watched the dark lizard advancing to land while reversing the coastal artillery fire.
He had a feeling that it was not the only one.
***
The monster that appeared on the French coast shocked not only the governments of various countries, but also the people.
The topic of every community was switched to the monster, and they were busy sharing the news that came in real time.
The media also did not miss this and completely switched to emergency reporting mode.
—It’s Godzilla! Godzilla!
—Does it die? It didn’t even flinch after taking so many anti-ship missiles.
—It looks like a movie when the fighters fire missiles one after another…
—Is this fake? It’s not a real monster, right?
They couldn’t believe what they saw on the media.
It was an era where artificial intelligence could create CG videos on the spot according to the user’s preference.
In other words, anyone could produce high-quality CG movies.
Of course, only the residents of Mega City and the Koreans with high CP could use the computing power of artificial intelligence, but there were still quite a lot of them.
As a result, many videos were produced in a short period of time, and the popularity of Hollywood movies and dramas had decreased significantly.
People found the videos made by individuals more interesting than the ones made by big capital that were standardized and emphasized political correctness.
Yu Ji-ha did not impose any restrictions on the producers, so all kinds of ideas poured out.
Among them, there were also pornographic and violent videos that would shock the censorship agencies of various countries, but he did not care.
—As long as you keep the minimum line, I will not interfere with any video you make.
They could also sell their videos on the Mega City’s market.
The commission was not cheap, but the producers were satisfied enough since they could not even try without Russia’s computing power.
Anyway, people lived in an era where high-quality videos were rampant, so they did not trust the videos that came out on the news.
But this was real.
The world’s leading media reported on the French army’s struggle against the monster.
It was doubtful whether it could be called a struggle since there was hardly any damage, but anyway, the French army was doing their best.
The screen switched and President Marie Le Pen declared a total war at the Elysee Palace.
“We have over two thousand years of history behind us. Therefore, we will not run away from anything. Mobilize all available firepower and defeat the monster. Let us show the world the great power of France!”
President Marie Le Pen’s declaration certainly gave courage to many French people, but reality was cruel.
The monster that landed on land was trampling on the fields and approaching Bordeaux.
It became the target of the French army and air force and was exposed to tremendous firepower.
In less than 30 minutes, more than 100 attack packages were carried out.
Despite the firepower that could destroy a small city, the monster did not stop advancing.
The French army made a serious decision when the monster reached 10km near Bordeaux.
A Rafale fighter jet equipped with an unguided bomb took off from an air force base and headed straight for the monster.
The bomb dropped and opened a parachute over the monster’s head in the fire and exploded.
Suddenly, the air and fields around it were swept away and a huge mushroom cloud rose.
It was a hafnium-2 warhead that exploded.
“Yes!”
“Die, monster!”
The French people watching the TV, as well as the whole world, clenched their fists in unison.
When the explosion subsided, a gruesome sight was revealed.
The monster’s body, which had shown an incredible durability, was disintegrated and sprawled on the ground.
The parts that were almost torn apart twitched intermittently and a sound like a groan echoed.
In the middle of it, the Plague Core was exposed, but no one noticed it because it was at the epicenter.
Yu Ji-ha watched the scene through his Siber satellite.
“That’s dangerous… It’s not dead yet.”
“Should we tell them to back off?”
“They won’t listen to anything we say. They’ll learn from their own experience.”
He was glad they didn’t curse at him for being on worse terms than their archenemy, Cheoljeonji.
There was already a commotion at the Elysee Palace where people were clapping.
A mobile unit consisting of tanks and armored vehicles approached to check the monster’s corpse.
When many infantrymen broke through the heat and cautiously approached the monster’s corpse, something unexpected happened.
The black metal around the Plague Core began to recombine.
The infantry unit sensed something strange and took cover, but they couldn’t escape the sudden attack.
As an ether shockwave spread from the core, the black metal fragments became weapons and swept the surroundings.
There was no way humans could survive when tanks and armored vehicles were smashed at once.
Only after the mobile unit was annihilated did Alpha One slowly try to recombine.
Its life force had dropped to the bottom after being hit by the bomb, and it had lost most of its body due to the shockwave, but it was alive.
“It’s still moving!”
At a general’s report, President Marie Le Pen stared blankly at the screen.
The monster that killed hundreds of soldiers fled to the sea.
It didn’t look well, but they couldn’t let it go like that.
She gritted her teeth and asked in a growl.
“Where are the hafnium-2 warheads?”
“They’re being transported from Lyon, but it will take some time.”
“What about the strategic submarines nearby?”
“The Temeraire is on standby, but… Madam President, that’s not an option.”
An M51 nuclear missile would surely kill that damn thing.
But they couldn’t use a nuke on French soil.
“There’s nothing impossible in this world! We have to kill that monster no matter what! Before it returns to the sea!”
President Marie Le Pen shook with rage and her aides tried to calm her down.
Meanwhile, Alpha One was moving slowly toward the sea.
The White House offered a joint attack, but the president refused.
“How dare you side with that monster! Just watch how we deal with it!”
She reasoned that the US was in cahoots with Yu Ji-ha, who was clearly in league with the monster.
President Baldwin was speechless, but he had to reaffirm the fact that he couldn’t break the French pride.
“They’re going to use a nuke after all.”
They were still pouring all kinds of firepower on the monster that was fleeing to the sea, but they couldn’t tell if it was hit.
In the end, the only effective attack was the hafnium-2 warhead, and France knew it well.
But France couldn’t use a nuke even after the monster entered the sea.
There seemed to be a dispute over this issue among the naval command.
Yu Ji-ha gave an order to the Earth Fleet that arrived near him.
“Retrieve it and bring it here as soon as it merges with Cocoon.”
「The French navy knows where Cocoon is, so they won’t give it up easily.」
“Just snatch it and don’t fight back. Just bring it here.”
But there was no way they wouldn’t suspect Yu Ji-ha when Cocoon disappeared intact.
He had already brazenly taken the ether core that fell near Japan.
Anyway, Alpha One drifted slowly to the seabed where Cocoon was.
During the process, various depth charges and torpedoes were attempted, but it didn’t die and succeeded in merging with Cocoon.
At a depth of 400 meters, a transform phenomenon occurred and Alpha One disappeared, leaving only a 40-meter Cocoon.
A supply ship from the Earth Fleet that was waiting nearby transformed its hull and picked up Cocoon.
As the Earth Fleet escaped to the deep sea, a nearby submarine noticed it and reported.
“The monster and something like an egg disappeared at once!”
“Are you sure? Check again!”
“There’s no signal at all! It’s clear!”
When this news reached the Elysee Palace, President Marie Le Pen lost consciousness and swayed.
“Madam President!”
As her aides supported her, the Earth Fleet escaped from France’s surveillance network and rose to the sky one by one.
Yu Ji-ha turned his back and said.
“Bring it to Terra Island. We need to check if it’s the same kind as the Plague we know.”
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