78: Goodbye Hideout

[New Reactor installed. Power Produce: 1700 MJ/s(Maxwell Hydrogen Reactor), 300MJ/s(Backup reactor), 12 GJ/s (Ark-Hydrogen Reactor)]

Abby said towards Abyssal’s consciousness as the newly installed reactor was integrated into the Shark-Class. Ask and you shall receive, Astral held her end of the bargain by giving Abyssal a much-needed reactor to power her ever-growing power-hungry systems. According to Astral, it was an unknown brand of new-generation reactors,  an illegal overclocked reactor not available to the public. While a good reactor, it wasn’t exactly the super-secret tech that Astral had. Still, Abyssal felt happy and grateful to receive such a reactor that dwarves the output of all of her other reactors combined.

“I guess I could give you guys this throwaway reactor. If you want to further upgrade yourself, then you would need more of these. Perhaps in the future, you would get a better one but it ain’t going to come from me. Ya gonna have to get one by yourself.”

Abyssal recalled Astral’s words during that time when she gave her the Reactor. At that time, the cylinder looking component was being carried by a large construction drone and was parked right outside of the Shark-class. At first, Abyssal didn’t think much about the cylinder-shaped reactor as she got the impression that it was just a weak reactor, a leftover from Astral’s trash can. However, once she assimilated and installed the reactor she realised that it was a significant upgrade over her old one. The new reactor alone is six times her old reactor.

‘I guess the saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I wonder what kind of weapons I would have if she decided to give me them? Just the reactor alone was very powerful. Could it be that her standards of throwaway and weak are leagues ahead of my current technology?’ Abyssal thought to herself.

She was currently within the engine room, overlooking the installation of the new reactor and the new radar component. Once done with the installation, Abyssal gave herself a good nod before heading towards the bridge of the Shark-class. It was after she opened the automatic doors, did she find Kuon and Meica on the bridge. Meica was currently sulking at her seat while Kuon was busy cleaning the ship with a broom in her hand. As she saw Abyssal enter the room, she immediately stopped whatever it was that she was doing before giving a respectful bow towards Abyssal.

"All systems are checked and ready to go," Abyssal said to Kuon as she walked towards Meica with a thumbs up.

"Excellent. With this new reactor, I would be able to create even more powerful designs," Kuon replied, a satisfied smile on her face. The smile came with a soft sinister laugh that Abyssal promptly ignored. It seems that over the months, Kuon has developed quite the attitude.

"I hope this will be the beginning of my journey to become a large battleship," said Abyssal, a satisfied smile on her face as well.

"I could perhaps start by making some adjustments on the guns. Perhaps even an expansion of the ship. We could start by salvaging more resources and upgrade the ship into a cruiser-sized ship…" Kuon said with enthusiasm. She was off in her own world.

Abyssal didn't reply, only giving a wry smile towards the enthusiastic maid. Done with Kuon, Abyssal turned her head around towards Meica who was sulking in her seat. Mimicking a living being's action of taking a deep breath, Abyssal walked towards Meica before stopping a hand's length away from her seat.

"Um… Meica, are you alright?" Abyssal asked.

"Un. Yeah, I'm fine. Not looking forward to going back though," Meica replied sulkily, her head not bothering to look at Abyssal.

"Well, you should have known this would happen when you told Astral about your secret."

"I for once, think that this is a good idea. It will be one less baggage at least. And no more random battlecruiser chasing us to the ends of the galaxy," Kuon interjected, giving her opinion on the matter.

Meica didn't reply, only sulking further and giving a pout. Abyssal could only give a wry smile at the comment.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure you can work things out with your family. And you know what? I'll be right at your side when it happens, how's that sound?" Abyssal said, trying to be as cheerful as possible.

Meica nodded towards Abyssal, giving her a soft smile. "Un. Thanks, Abyssal."

Kuon, on the other hand, let out a sigh. "Must we babysit you all the way?"

"Stupid maid drone shut up, nyaa! Not helping!" Meica yelled as she threw something towards the maid.

It was a small rubber ball which was thrown with a rather immaculate accuracy towards Kuon. A throw that was dodge by an equally immaculate dodge from the maid. The rubber ball hit the floor before exploding, revealing that it was a water balloon filled with dirty water. Abyssal swore she could see a vein pop out of the maid as she quickly squeezed the Nekomi by her cheeks. Meica tried to fight back and get away from her, but the maid and her new body proved to be much stronger than the genetically enhanced person.

"I just cleaned the bridge, you know…" Kuon said with a chill in her voice. On her face was a cold smile as she pulled Meica's cheeks even harder.

"Argh! Nyaa, Swoweee!" Meica screamed for forgiveness to no avail.

As the small event was happening, Abyssal received a transmission.

'It's Astral,' Abyssal thought to herself before answering the call through her subconscious mind. The monitor on the bridge changed display towards a red-haired girl with a ponytail wearing a red jumpsuit in a dark red cockpit with glowing red lines.

"Abyssal, I'm done with my checks. What's your situation?" Astral said towards the camera.

"I'm ready to launch at any moment."

"Good. Then I don't see any reason to waste any more time. I'll be deactivating the barrier now. You go first, I'll follow behind. Remember that it is an asteroid belt out there. Manoeuvre properly," Astral said before cutting the call.

Just as she said, the dreaded barrier around Abyssal disappeared. The hideout hangar gates opened up, revealing the ever-familiar sight of space. Holographic arrows appeared from a wall projector to guide Abyssal on the optimal route to exit the hideout— not that she needed it.

Abyssal would be lying if she said she didn't have that small evil thought of taking this opportunity to send a detachment of nanites to assimilate some stuff in the hideout. However, that small thought was quickly pushed out of the way when Abyssal saw that Astral had her giant laser gun aimed right at Abyssal.

She felt the need to let out a gulp as if she had saliva in her mouth and the need to do so. She then turned on her ship engines and thrusters. The ship rumbled a bit and she soon started moving towards the outside of the hideout. Soon, she passed the green translucent barrier that separated the inside atmosphere from the outside. Once outside, she activated her shields before moving out of the way of a moving piece rock that seemed to be orbiting the entrance of the hideout. The one immediate thing that Abyssal could notice as compared to the first time she arrived in the area, was the fact that she could detect objects more accurately and at a much farther distance. Her 'vision' of her entire surroundings was noticeably better than ever. It was like a short-sighted person wearing glasses for the first time.

Minutes later, Astral's ship phoenix was seen zooming outwards from the hideout. She passed by Abyssal before orbiting next to the ship.

"How do you like it? The taste of freedom after several days?" Astral said to Abyssal.

Abyssal stretched her body before replying. "Feels great. Feels like I can finally stretch my wings."

"Good. You've installed that radar I gave you, right?"

"Um yeah."

"Good. Let's link up our feedback," Astral said as she sent a request to link up their radars. Abyssal accepted without hesitation.

Transmission of data was then sent from Astral's ship towards the S.A.S. Abyssal and vice versa. A plethora of information regarding a large area of her surroundings. Just like before, Abyssal filtered through the stream of information and picked out only the relevant ones. Just like that, her 'vision' which was already bolstered by the advance radar was bolstered even further. Even the smallest of rocks and their trajectory was being tracked by their linked radar systems.

“Are we linked up? Good. I’m sending you the coordinates of our next location,” Astral said as a visual marker appeared on Abyssal’s map signifying their current destination. It was at a border near Dawning Star territory— still a neutral territory. Alongside it was smaller coordinates that displayed a path towards the said border.

As this was all happening, Abyssal suddenly detected a large explosion from right behind her. Immediately looking towards the explosion, Abyssal could see that the hideout she was in a moment ago was being blown apart to pieces by detonations that seemed to originate from the inside. The explosion from the blast was so strong that the shockwave, containing rocks and debris, even reached Abyssal, slightly damaging her shield.

"Wh-wha-what was that?!" Abyssal asked in a panic.

“What does it look like? I’m disposing of the hideout,” Astral replied nonchalantly as if it was an everyday occurrence for her. She was in the cockpit of her ship messing around with a few buttons, not even looking towards the camera. Looking outwards towards the hideout, which was now nothing more than pieces of rocks floating around in the belt, Abyssal let out a comment.

“Eh? You got such a nice hideout and you’re just going to get rid of it just like that?”

“The hideout is compromised. No point to keeping it. I got plenty of others.”

“What a waste! I could have just assimilated the whole thing! You could have told me!”

“Which I didn’t want you to do. Hence the not telling part.”

“…”

“Don’t give me that look. You’ll have more chances to assimilate whatever you want later on. Go grab your own stuff instead of stealing from others, sheez.”

Abyssal didn’t reply, only looking towards the red-haired girl with a disgusted look.