Chapter 4056  A Swarm

"Evacuate to the bunkers!"

"Get to safety!"

"Emergency has been declared!"

The sound of sirens, the chilling vibrations, and tremors spread across the entire ship. The thundering metallic thuds of running personnel and other members on board.

Most people on board Pioneer XIII weren't combatants. They were analysts, employed in systems maintenance, crew members off-duty, and many other important but mundane roles.

Martial Artists accounted for only a portion of them, and they ran in the opposite direction.

"Go! Don't stop!" The Flickering Elder yelled as she waved the civilians in an urgent manner, while zooming through the crowd.

It was very odd to see a little girl tell everybody to run away, but everybody aboard was aware of the esteemed Flickering Elder. She was among the oldest and most esteemed Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire, part of the original fifteen who made the Kandrian Empire a Sage-level powerhouse. She had long since become a peak Martial Sage and had been entrusted to ensure that the Panamic Space Organization would never lean too far away from the Kandrian Empire.

Now, she was tasked with protecting the omni-ship from an attack that they couldn't even fathom.

Her eyes sharpened as the very flow of time in them slowed down to a crawl.

WHOOSH!

She shot past the running crowds, reduced to frozen statues in her mind. And yet, she couldn't operate with her full power while within the Pioneer XIII ship.

The biggest problem was that just because there was ground beneath her feet, it didn't mean that it could withstand her power. If she utilized her full power as a Martial Sage, she would easily destroy the ship with a single step. She couldn't activate her Martial Soul within the omni-ship.

However, she could activate her Martial Mind, allowing her to zoom through the ship without inflicting much damage on it. Of course, even Martial Masters possessed the power to inflict tremendous damage to the omni-ship from within it, but Martial Masters also had great control over their power.

So much so that they could fight without inflicting passive damage to their environment, allowing them to use their great power even when limited within the environment.

The crew had been trained to withstand Martial Embodiments without experiencing neurological damage, too, allowing them to get away with going all out with the power of the Martial Mind.

WHOOSH

They zoomed across the ship, arriving at the transit hatches that had opened to allow the entry of unknown entities. Yet, when they arrived at the transit hatches, their eyes widened with shock.

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE…

Before them was a swarm of what appeared to be a strange fusion of ants and drones. The tiny creatures were distinctly not organic, composed of what appeared to be some kind of technological apparatus, with lines of circuitry running along metals and other substances composing their body, giving them an unrefined gray appearance. They possessed both legs and a series of fans that allowed them to hover in the air above the ground of the omni-ship.

It was hard to tell whether the creatures were alive or not. However, what the Flickering Elder could detect was a surge of electromagnetic pulses and other energy transmissions emerging with them, interacting with not just their immediate environments, but also the systems of technology in ways that the Flickering Elder didn't understand.

They were responsible for the malfunctions of the ship, without a shadow of a doubt. The moment the Martial Artists arrived, the strange things turned in their direction in a hostile manner. The artificial lens in their eyes adjusted, processing the information of the arrived Martial Artists.

Then, they attacked.

VMMM!!!

The motors of their propelling systems whirred with great speed as the strange army of things charged towards the Martial Artists, clearly expecting to overrun them in the blink of an eye. There were too many of them, and it was impossible for even the most elite of infantry to overcome them with just projectile weapons.

Unfortunately, the strange things had underestimated Martial Artists.

Time slowed down in the eyes of the Martial Artists as they charged forth, wreaking havoc upon the strange things. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

The Flickering Elder became a streak of destruction, breaking each and every single strange creature/bot in her path. She still could detect, even with her powerful senses, whether they were alive or not. The Emperor of Water had shared with the more elder Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire the truth about consciousness, but even with those insights, the things that they fought were too strange for her to judge.

Regardless of whether they were alive or not, it didn't matter. She destroyed them nonetheless, without so much as inflicting even a scratch on the environment around her. A single finger poke was all it took for each of them.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

She didn't know what these things were thinking, if they even were thinking, when charging towards them in such a manner, but the Martial Artists utterly mowed them down.

"And done…" the Flickering Elder remarked with a knowing expression, turning towards the transit hatches. "Now, let's report to Admiral Renhea—!"

CLACK!

The hatches opened into outer space in the blink of an eye, unexpectedly.

WHOOSH!!!

The sheer surge of an outflow of air overwhelmed them, catching them off-guard as it flung them into outer space, causing them to gasp for air, before activating their exo-Martial suits.

CLACK CLACK CLACK

The suits fully wrapped around them, allowing them to breathe. And yet, their eyes widened as they found themselves confronting an army of what appeared to be space drone-like entities.

A seemingly endless army that stretched as far as the eye could see.

They propelled, unleashing ignited gas from boosters to push them forward as they converged upon the Martial Artists from all directions!

VMMM!!!

"Rgh!"

"Ball up!"

"We can't fight so many from all directions in outer space!"

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!

A large number of hostile entities blasted into them from all directions, exploding upon contact.