Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

Regardless of the enemy's purpose, the priority is to eliminate the threat of Ligadron—it is heading towards Earth and is expected to reach the Delta Space Station's attack range in 21 hours. If the monster adopts an attack posture, the Delta Space Station will be the first to engage in battle, with the Caro Base stationed on the moon providing assistance.

"Can the purity and content of the radioactive material be determined?" Nanase Makoto asked, voicing the question that the 278 members of the Delta Force were most concerned about. No one wanted a nuclear explosion to happen right above their heads.

“In fact, the biggest threat is the higher concentration of the compressed energy chambers we use for space jumps,” the Raichuran’s voice sounded somewhat frightened. “It just appeared out of nowhere and swallowed up our logistics ship… My wife and daughter were on that ship, and we really didn’t know what to do.”

Logistics spaceship... Without needing further explanation, Nanase Makoto could already imagine a monster covered in weapons appearing at the edge of the universe, if that unknown life form was indeed as they described, possessing considerable "copying" and "learning" abilities.

The fact that his wife and daughter were swallowed by the monster was extremely regrettable, so it's not hard to understand why the Reijuran aliens would desperately seek help from Earthlings. Nanase Makoto already believed half of what they said: "If your spaceship's power plant explodes, how far will the radioactive material kill you?"

"Uh... May I ask how far your space station's weapons have a range?" The Reicuran hesitated for a moment: "Ah, I'm not here to spy on you. I'm just afraid that if you attack rashly, the explosion might cover the space station as well, which would be a loss. There isn't much conventional nuclear energy left; it's mainly used as an energy chamber for jumps."

"Furthermore," before Nanase Makoto could ask for more specific data again, the Reicuran alien added, "Ligadron may have gone to Earth just to get some conventional energy... The logistics ship's reserves are insufficient, and the energy used for jumps is extremely precious. We originally planned to replenish conventional fuel on Jupiter, which is also its top priority according to the ship's basic operating logic."

……

The Delta Force is negotiating with the Reicuran aliens, while the TPC Far East headquarters, the Victory Team, and the police department have already made preparations for possible scenarios.

The Victory Team was deployed en masse to the energy warehouse of the space development center, the most likely location for Rigadron to visit, while the defense forces of each branch were placed on guard near the civilian nuclear power plant as a precaution. The air force was ordered to remain on standby, as the energy source for the headquarters base was also quite tempting.

The sea breeze on the deck for too long was really uncomfortable; I felt like a fish, with salty grains mixed in the air, waiting to hang me up and dry.

Sōsuke Fujisawa stretched under the blazing sun, as if doing so would shake off the salty, seafood smell that clung to him.

"Captain—, Captain—!" he shouted again, "That Li Long, the speed observed by Delta Space Station can't even keep up with the Flying Swallow. If it's coming this way..."

As Aiba Yu was wiping the windshield of TPC-α, Fujisawa Sousuke was jumping around and waving. He looked down and saw the other man smiling brightly in the sunlight: "Am I going to die with my superior again?!"

Ralph kicked him in the butt: "You'll suffocate if you don't talk."

"You don't know anything," Fujisawa Sosuke turned around and grabbed his hair. "The last time I said that, we escaped unscathed, but now..."

I'll say it again...maybe I'll get lucky!

"This person started chasing other emotional support after losing the Teru Teru Bozu doll?" Aiba Yu silently concluded. He ignored the two teammates who were starting to fight again and focused on cleaning the windows.

We'll deal with them later.

But finding peace and quiet isn't always easy. Aiba Yu climbed down the ladder to clean the opposite half when Fujisawa Sosuke came over with a bucket. He slammed the bucket down, splashing a few glistening drops of water along the edge. Fujisawa Sosuke looked quite obedient: "Captain! Let me help!"

Aiba Yu carefully examined him for a while, then suddenly patted his shoulder: "The monster won't eat you, don't be afraid."

When someone starts making a fuss at an inopportune time, it's usually because something's on their mind—what could it be at this moment? Aiba Yu guessed that he was probably worried about Ligadron. The hardest part wasn't the few minutes when the monster suddenly appeared, but the countdown to its arrival.

The recent monster events have been too frequent. It can even be said that since Golza and Melba appeared, TPC has not had a moment's peace. It's as if those two monsters flipped a switch, opening an unknown door to the stable human society—a door filled with unheard-of monsters and curses.

Researchers with strong learning abilities like Dr. Mizuno are relatively good, but some researchers who realize that existing theories cannot explain monsters and bizarre Earth creatures have fallen into a self-contradictory nest. In addition, the TPC Medical Bureau's psychological clinic is much busier than usual because of the staff who have faced monsters and giants.

Aiba Yu saw all of this. The Earth is now like an artificial ecosystem with an external circulation. The exchange of gases between the inside and outside, and the invasion of new species, always disturb the small animals that are resting peacefully inside.

When Aiba Yu said that, Ralf finally realized what she meant: "When I feel anxious, I tend to find more things to do. How about we go help out with the ground crew?"

Yota Watanabe and Herman, who were taking care of Beta, also greeted him. The former threw a small thing over from a distance. The soft, fluffy object hit his chest, and Sosuke Fujisawa reached out and caught it, only to find that it was a teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll).

Yota Watanabe winked at him: "Think about it this way, if Rigardron really comes to the base, maybe we'll see a Titan? You saw him on Kurara Island last time, and you've been bragging to me about it every day since you came back."

Fujisawa Sousuke pinched the soft face of the teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll), while Aiba Yu carried the bucket to the other side of the windshield, the ladder creaking under his feet.

“Even giants can't save everyone in time, like those two workers who perished,” Fujisawa Sousuke said. The sound of the ladder stopped, and Aiba Yu saw through the smooth paint of the airplane that he was looking down at the doll’s beady eyes.

“Yota,” he said, his voice thinned by the sea breeze, like a thread of hair, “we’re the only ones left in our year.”

Chapter 41 Ten Thousand Miles Away

The Rechulan aliens did not deceive them regarding the information about Ligadron.

Ligadron withstood the Bakir Cannon from the Delta Space Station. According to the Rechulan aliens, "it does hold the energy we use for warp drives." The Bakir Cannon only produced a few insignificant sparks when it hit Ligadron.

Ligadron completely ignored the TPC facilities stationed in space. It acted with extreme urgency, and the fighters at the Carlo base could not keep up with its speed. It was single-mindedly heading towards the ground facilities.

"If possible, could you grant us landing clearance?" The Reicuran aliens made a timely request to the Delta Space Station: "As you can see, our logistics ship has been swallowed by the monsters, and we urgently need supplies—we can gather our own living necessities, but could you convert some of our energy into electricity?"

"Of course, this isn't free. Since you want to eliminate Ligadron, we can provide you with an analysis of the operating modes of the power reactors in our two spaceships."

Leaving aside the hesitation of Delta Space Station, the Victory Team has set its sights on Ligadron's target—Kashima Beach, where the Space Development Center has a high-purity energy reserve base.

"How did they know about such a secret location? The reserve base is disguised as an ordinary factory!" Horii was troubled by the data transmitted back from the Delta Space Station—the Bakir Cannon couldn't even penetrate the Ligadron's defenses! What exactly did those Reicuran aliens stuff into their ships?

What could a logistics ship possibly carry? An armory? An energy storage tank? Mountains of supplies that don't all meet human needs?

Ligadron plummeted into the atmosphere like a meteorite, its edges glowing red from the intense friction, like boiling blood. A sonic boom cloud exploded behind it, and it was instantly flung tens of kilometers away—it hadn't controlled its descent speed, as if it had forgotten about it.

Horii stared at the radar, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets. He suspected that Ligadron would smash him to pieces on the sea surface. Under such a high-speed impact, the water surface would become as hard as steel. Perhaps what the Bakir Cannon couldn't do, Mother Earth would accomplish for it.

Ligadron, the monster formed from a completely blank, unknown life form that devoured something, did not slow down at the last moment, just as Horii had predicted. It let out a sharp, long howl and embraced the blue water.

A deafening roar could be heard nearly a hundred kilometers away. A mountain of spray erupted, and ripples from the impact pushed outwards in concentric circles toward the Deer Island beach. The seawater pounded against the wave-breaking boards, causing them to creak and groan with difficulty. Amidst the cacophony of waves and wave-breaking boards mingled with the screeching of Ligadron, it was fortunate it wasn't a truly out-of-control asteroid; otherwise, such a blow could have razed the entire energy storage facility to the ground in a crater.

level.

"Is this monster not working properly?" the observer wondered. "It ate a spaceship, and the spaceship can only execute code. Maybe its instructions are broken, otherwise why would it crash into an unknown life form—so the monster that 'learned' from it inherited this trait?"

Inside the cabin of the Flying Swallow II, Horii received a message from Nozue:

"There is a plaintext signal, the source of which is Ligadron, but it cannot be drawn or parsed in any text. It's time for your general language translator to come in again."

Horii replied, "The panlinguistic translator only works with languages ​​that have appeared on Earth. Ligadron came from outer space, and the spaceship it swallowed belonged to the Reicuran aliens. How could my machine possibly do that?"

As he spoke, he turned on the machine, hoping to dissuade the person on the other end of the PDI: "Look, even if it's a plaintext signal, the translation will still be gibberish..."

Don't go.

“Gibberish.” Horii uttered the last two words.

You can't play here.

“…I really suspect my translator is broken,” Horii said. “The original is with Dr. Mizuno, so is there something wrong with this new one?”

As it spoke, Ligadron, which had crashed into the sea, floated up, its arms and feet spewing blue flames and steam, like a floating machine running at full power.

People can finally see its true appearance under the glowing red atmosphere.

Leaving aside its silver-gray shell, bone horns, and the yellow crystal on its head, the most peculiar thing is the cavity in its chest, where a piece is missing and inlaid with a dark, transparent sphere. Specks of light float within it, and the densest part almost solidifies into a single piece, dividing the sphere, which rotates quietly like a nebula.

"Is that your warp drive?" Nanase Makoto asked the Reicuran alien who stepped off the spaceship and into the Delta Space Station. The translucent, glowing spheres on the monster's body looked exactly like energy sources.

The Reicuran alien was expressing his gratitude for the permission granted by the Delta Space Station. Upon hearing this, he looked at the screen, the light spot on his cheek flickering several times, and said, "It's not an energy chamber... but I don't know exactly what it is either. I don't remember having an energy source of this kind."

Of course, there is no such energy source; it is merely a "useless" decoration.

"Any other news from the Reicuran aliens?" Ligadron stepped into the shallow sea, churning the emerald green water. Lina, piloting the Flying Swallow II, remained above the facility at the space development center, its launch port aimed at the slowly approaching monster. But before pressing the launch button, there was one thing she needed to confirm:

"They said their wives and daughters were still on the spaceship. Were there any signs of life detected? Inside the monster's belly."

The same conversation also took place on the Delta Force space station.

Stationmaster Nanase Makoto, Nanase Reina's father, could completely understand how the Reicuran alien felt about his wife and daughter being swallowed by a monster. "He probably doesn't want to talk about it right now," Nanase Makoto thought, "but it's also about their chances of survival."

To this question, the Reicuran alien merely flashed the light on his cheek: "The life signs on the spaceship disappeared long ago, while it was still in orbit around the sixth planet of the solar system. You probably couldn't detect it either. Unfortunately... please make sure to destroy it."

The cyan laser cannons slammed into the silver-gray shell of the Ligadron. With the Basil Cannon failing to penetrate the defenses, the lasers from the two Flying Swallows were naturally unable to break through either. They could only hope to slightly slow down the monster's advance and buy time for the Space Development Center to activate the DCS defense system.

Nanase watched anxiously as his daughter piloted the Flying Swallow II into battle against the monster, while he himself was tens of thousands of meters away in space, completely unable to help.

I wonder if the Reicuran alien next to me had the same thoughts? When the unknown life form devoured their spaceship, did he regret not saying more to his family—and the gifts he never got to give due to various misunderstandings and reasons?

"Shirakawa, transmit the data on the spaceships provided by the Reijuran aliens to headquarters as soon as possible," he urged his subordinates with concern. "Ligadron's defensive capabilities are extraordinary. We must find a viable weakness as soon as possible! The Victory Team is mostly just a group of young people. We can't just leave them at the front. We also have things to do!"

Chapter 42 Legacy of Generations

After connecting to the corridor, the members of Delta Space Station couldn't wait to peek into the Reicuran aliens' spaceship. The allure of extraterrestrial technology capable of soaring through space, along with the chance to satisfy their curiosity about the "true appearance of a UFO," made it difficult for them to resist staring at the spaceship.

Without Nanase Makoto urging them, Shirakawa and the others were also looking forward to stepping onto the spaceship as soon as possible, scanning and mapping its internal structure, and sending it to the TPC headquarters so that the research institute, which gathers global wisdom, could thoroughly analyze it inside and out.

Perhaps it will be a great help to Earthlings in their journey into deep space.

The Reijuran aliens were very friendly. One of them went to negotiate with Nanase Makoto and sent two more members to escort him. The others stayed quietly in the spaceship, very self-disciplined and obedient, and were very considerate of the other party's vigilance.

"This is our power room," the Reicuran alien who led the way pointed to Shirakawa and his group. He spoke Earthling language quite well. "Although it's shut down, the normal temperature is still a bit high. You won't be able to stay here for more than a few minutes. Be prepared."

Shirakawa nodded, and he led

The Reiculan alien stepped forward and pressed a button. With a "click," the heavy latch loosened, and some dust wafted out from the crack in the door.

"Don't they maintain their own engine room?" Shirakawa wondered as he watched the dust being sucked up to the top of the cabin through the ventilation vents, while at the same time, a pale blue light seeped out from the slowly opening door.

Along with this came an unusual suction force—as if someone had hooked his back and legs, and he was almost pushed and staggered into the metal door.

"What is this?!" Shirakawa subconsciously looked at the guide. The Reicuran alien had stopped at the outer doorway since he came in. He shook the remote control in his hand and watched as the five terrified Earthlings were pulled into the power cabin by an invisible force.

That's right, this is indeed the power bay. The Reicuran aliens didn't set up any traps or lie. It's just that it's not a conventional power source, but rather a place where the energy source for warp jumps is buried.

Shirakawa fell into the cabin, and a series of crashing sounds followed. Due to inertia, they slammed into a transparent wall, and Shirakawa was stunned by the impact.

What should a power plant for interstellar travel look like? The door closed, and Shirakawa looked around in the azure light filling the room, hoping the Reicuran aliens might have missed one or two hidden doors or something. But things didn't go as planned. This power plant wasn't sophisticated. He didn't find any maze-like pipes or walls with gears stacked on top of each other; there were only perfectly square walls, cast in solid concrete.

“There’s only one place left.” He turned around and looked at the transparent “glass” that had stunned him – it definitely wasn’t glass, but Shirakawa didn’t know what to call this kind of material.

He pressed himself against the wall and looked down.

"Ah!" His hands, gripping the "glass," trembled. The sudden visual shock made him feel his blood, which had been rushing with tension and fear, rapidly cool to freezing point.

What kind of creature is that!

Twisted and knotted... perhaps thorns, a slender body and tail, coiled together like brains, a dull gray color. Its skin looked smooth and elastic, with some scales still visible. Shirakawa couldn't help but think of some kind of bony fish living in the deep sea—it had large eyes, closed, with only a slit like a crevice embedded in its flesh.

The most peculiar thing is the fin standing high on its back. Because it is close to the bulkhead, the dorsal fin curves and wraps around its body, like the wing of an angel, protecting the torso inside.

Scattered throughout its body are crystal-like pillars, which are driven deep into its skin like nails and take root in its bones. Something like smoke or wisps of smoke is constantly being drawn up from the bottom and locked inside those crystals.