Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

The journey to the Frostearth Valley was a relatively smooth one as during the journey.

With the Red Queen navigating through the harsh terrains of the Ziras IV, Arcturus and Jeniael were not really doing anything significant, while Zehal was the one doing most of the hard work.

They were one day away from the approximate location of the Arachnid Nest within the Frostearth Valley as he was on a call with the Imperial Agent from the Directorate to inform him about the latest development.

Now that they have managed to get the accurate numbers of the bugs on the Ziras IV, their strengths, weaknesses, and numbers, as well as the breeds of the Arachnids on the planet, the Directorate can choose a suitable action.

'We managed to identify several people who are infected with the bugs; many of them are high-ranking administrators within the Colonial Administration Office and even some high-ranking officers in the Colonial Defense Forces on the Ziras IV. Right now, the Directorate is in the process of cleaning up, and we are searching for the sleepers within the Ziras IV.'

The elderly gentleman who was on the other side of the call adjusted his mustache as the Directorate had perfect results in uncovering the people infested with the bugs, which was a tremendous achievement for the Directorate.

It was rather disturbing because many of these people had high-level access to the systems on Ziras IV and were basically in the control of the entire colony of Ziras IV. Not only that, but it was clear with the advent of the capture of several infected people who were being controlled by the bugs, the Directorate could uncover their methods.

"We have created a plan of offense onto the Arachnid Nest in the Frostearth Valley. We should be arriving at the Frostearth Valley in something under one day and attacking the Nest. At best, the number of bugs is around five thousand and no more, which is greatly plying into our cards as we speak right now."

Arcturus needed just to inform the Directorate about the recent development because with Zehal's planning, they should be able to destroy a lot of bugs even before the real battle started, and hopefully, everything will work as it should.

Even though he had previously received the mission from the Directorate due to the active Imperial Conscription Order, now everything was changed due to the Cosmic Storm that happened shortly after they arrived at the Ziras IV.

And with the appearance of the Pseudo Queen Bug, Arcuturs planned to capture the Pseudo Queen Bug either dead or alive, even though he would have preferred to take the creature with them alive.

A specimen that was alive would be invaluable for research, though even Zehal had no idea how to capture the Pseudo Queen Bug alive. Still, they decided to pursue the idea because they wanted to sell it.

All of them knew that it would be sold for a tremendous amount of wealth.

'Whatever you obtain from the Arachnid Nest, the Directorate would pay extra for it. Also, try to capture or bring at least the corpse of the Brain Bug. We discovered that the parasitic bugs that were controlling the people have a Psionic Connection with what seems to be the Brain Bug.'

Arcturus and Zehal decided to withhold information about the Pseudo Queen Bug from the Directorate because they wanted it to be a surprise.

Both of them thought that if the Directorate wasn't aware of the Pseudo Queen Bug within the Arachnid Nest, they could use this to their advantage and extort more resources from the Directorate.

If the Directorate was aware of the information right now, then their chances would get lower, because the Directorate would most probably write it off as the risk of the Imperial Conscription Order.

"Obviously."

Even if the Brain Bug couldn't be brought up alive, he was confident in bringing out the corpse because killing the Brain Bug wasn't any big science, in fact. The real problem lied in the successful capture of the Pseudo Bug Queen that was much better protected and was much stronger than the Brain Bug.

***

Frostearth Valley, Arachnid Nest, Some time later

The Frostearth Valley was a stark, unforgiving expanse carved into the heart of an alpine mountain range in the Ziras IV, where the air was thin, the winds were razor-sharp, and the cold was a living, biting force.

Towering peaks of jagged, ice-clad mountains loom on all sides, their summits lost in swirling clouds of snow and mist. The valley itself was a vast, U-shaped glacial trough, its floor a patchwork of frozen tundra, jagged rock outcroppings, and massive sheets of ancient ice that glistened faintly under the weak light of a distant, pale sun.

The ground is a mosaic of frost-heaved boulders and cracked permafrost, with deep crevices splitting the earth like scars. In some places, the ice is so thick and ancient that it has formed towering blue-white glaciers that creep imperceptibly down the valley, their surfaces riddled with deep crevasses and serrated ridges. Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire

These glaciers reflected the faint light in eerie, shifting patterns, casting an otherworldly glow over the landscape. The air was filled with the sound of howling winds that whip through the valley, carrying with them stinging particles of ice and snow.

The temperature was perpetually below freezing, and the cold was so intense that it seemed to seep into the very bones of anyone who dared to venture here. The sky above was a pale, washed-out gray, with the sun barely visible as a faint, cold disc that provided little warmth.

Large swaths of the valley were frozen solid, with ice covering everything from the rocky ground to the skeletal remains of long-dead trees. Everything that has lived in the Frostearth Valley was already devoured by the inhabitants of this place or destroyed in the latest clash between the wildlife.

In the end, in the deepest parts of the Frostearth Valley, there was a sprawling, nightmarish complex nestled deep within a secluded valley surrounded by towering, jagged mountains and protected by its very own nature.

Due to the complex's presence, the valley itself was shrouded in a perpetual haze. The air was thick and acrid, carrying the faint stench of decay and organic matter. The terrain was rugged and treacherous, with jagged rocks and deep crevices leading down into the heart of the nest.

It was the Arachnid Nest that was built by the bugs that managed to find their way on the Ziras IV. If one took a look at the Arachnid Nest and its location within the Frostearth Valley, then it would become clear how strategic the location of this nest was.

The entrance to the nest was a massive, gaping maw carved into the side of the valley, resembling a grotesque fusion of natural rock formations and organic tissue. The walls of the entrance are slick with a viscous, bioluminescent slime that glows faintly in the dim light, casting an eerie greenish hue over the surroundings.

This slime was a byproduct of the Arachnid's hive biology, serving both as a structural reinforcement and a means of communication through chemical signals.

Once inside, the Arachnid expanded into a vast, labyrinthine network of tunnels and chambers, all carved out of the rock and reinforced with the same organic material. The tunnels were wide enough to accommodate the largest Arachnid subspecies because they were needed to be as large as possible to house even some Titans, which was one of the bigger breeds of the Arachnid Race.

The walls of the Arachnid Nest pulsed faintly as if they were alive, with veins of bioluminescent fluid running through them. However, it wouldn't be really wrong to say that they were alive because everything within the Arachnid Nest, including the nest itself, was alive in a certain form.

When the bugs were creating their nests, they were doing it to create a living fortress in the truest sense, as everything was created from biomass and infused with the Arachnid essence.

This was done for the purpose because it not only allowed the Arachnids to create an ever-expanding nest that could slowly cover even the entire planet, but also, it was impossible to hide once someone invaded the Nest.

If the invaders didn't have very advanced stealth methods that could hide from the Nest's subconsciousness, then everyone who entered the Arachnid Nest would be constantly monitored by the bugs; nothing would escape them.

In regard to this, any possible infiltration of the Arachnid Nest was ranking very high on the list of "How to die like a mentally retarded idiot in the Cosmos", it was between challenging Ork Boss into war and attempting to negotiate with the Mind Flayer over the slave ownership.

The air inside the Arachnid Nest was humid and oppressive, filled with the sounds of skittering legs, chittering mandibles, and the occasional guttural roar of distant bugs that were practically everywhere.

The central chamber of the nest was a colossal cavern, its ceiling lost in shadow, supported by towering organic columns that seemed to grow directly from the floor. This chamber served as the heart of the hive, where the Brain Bug, the central intelligence of the Arachnid species, resides.

The Brain Bug was huge in size and it was carried around by other types of bugs, because it was too huge to move around on it's own. Thus, it needed to be carried around by many smaller bugs.

The Brain Bug, aside from being huge, looked grotesque from a certain perspective because it was huge and reminiscended huge brain, thus the name Brain Bug.

The Brain Bug is surrounded by a swarm of Worker Drone Bugs and Warrior Bugs, all moving in perfect synchronization, driven by Brain Bug that was acting as the leader of the entire Nest, until the Pseudo Bug Queen has healed from her injured that were caused by the Cosmic Shroud.

Right now, the Arachnid Nest was in a deep state of emergency and crisis because it lost the majority of its forces and its leadership was crippled. Even the Brain Bug was barely able to survive as it needed to constantly feed on the brains of the Asuryani colonists to start its regeneration.

Another major reason why the Brain Bugs were called the Brain Bugs by the other sentient species of the Cosmos was due to their ability to devour the brains of the other species to enhance their own potential, strengthen their abilities, and even advance their cultivation.

This was making the Brain Bugs especially dangerous because once they absorbed the brain of their target, they were able to assimilate all of the information in the brain of their target, which was making the Brain Bugs extremely dangerous Arachnids.

The floor of the chamber was covered in a thick, spongy organic material that muffled footsteps and absorbed sound, creating an unsettling silence despite the constant movement.

Scattered throughout the nest, were smaller chambers dedicated to various functions: breeding pits filled with writhing masses of eggs, nurseries where larval Arachnids were tended by worker drones, and storage areas stocked with the remains of captured prey, both human and otherwise.

The entire nest was a living, breathing organism that constantly expanded and adapted to the Nest's needs.

The Brain Bug, which was right now coordinating the rebuilding efforts of the entire hive, suddenly stopped in its tracks because it felt that something was happening on the outside of the nest.

Because the Pseudo Bug Queen was right now crippled and on the verge of death due to the backlash of the Cosmic Shroud or the Psionic Shroud, the Brain Bug was in charge of the entire Nest, and it was tasked with protecting the Nest.

Thus, it closed the entire nest and increased the defenses around the nest to the maximum due to the critical status of the Pseudo Bug Queen. Without the Queen, the Nest couldn't survive because there were no new eggs, and this wasn't an advanced nest that had the Biomass Genetics Pools, which could be used to create Arachnids outright.

However, even with the Biomass Genetics Pools, they would be maximally able to create some basic bugs and not the most advanced ones that could be created only by the Queen Bugs and Empress Bugs.

Suddenly, the Brain Bugs spread their Psionic Energy throughout the place, soon enveloping the entire Arachnid Nest and using the whole Arachnid Nest and all bugs within it as a Psionic Amplifier. This was a common strategy for the bugs when they used Psionic Energy Skills and Techniques.

Soon after that, the Brain Bug released some chittering sounds as it commanded all of the other bugs in the place and soon enough, all Arachnids in the whole nest started panicking as hell.

It was clear that something had spooked up the Arachnids to attack, but the Brain Bug wasn't holding anything back because it needed to ensure the safety of the Pseudo Bug Queen as she was the future of the entire Arachnid Nest and their presence on this planet.

***

Some time earlier

The valley surrounding the nest was heavily guarded, with Arachnid sentries patrolling the perimeter and ambush points strategically placed along the approach routes. The mountains themselves were riddled with hidden tunnels and escape routes, ensuring that the nest was nearly impregnable.

Any intruder foolish enough to venture into the valley would find themselves facing an endless onslaught of Arachnids of various classes, all driven by the singular will of the Brain Bug to protect their home and, most importantly, to protect their Queen at the cost of their very own lives.

This was something that Zehal took into consideration when she was creating a plan to lure out the Arachnids. They knew that any head-on confrontation was a foolish thing to do, especially with their numbers, so Zehal decided on another approach.

With the Psychic Disruptor Device and a few other machineries that were on hand, she managed to create a device that would instead attract the attention of the Arachnids to a specific location by releasing certain Psionic Energy at a specific frequency that could be detected only by the Arachnids.

They prepared a rather elaborate trap where they would lure out some part of the Arachnids from the nest as much as possible, and then blast them apart with the explosives. At the same time, this should also attract some local beasts that would attack the Nest, which should lower the number of bugs even further.