The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

Millions or even tens of millions – when the nest was large enough and the production line went into circulation, the UAV fleet would multiply faster than the loss rate of a large-scale battle.

Countless UAVs had entered a transition state. The wave light emitted by the transition engine made the whole space fluctuate violently like the ocean in a storm. The stars swayed and twisted into clusters. Countless cracks split open in the universe. This huge legion operated at the same time under the control of command, pouncing at that clear coordinate point…

“It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone use the F2-A in this epic way.” The MDT sounded full of despair. To show how it felt, it even transformed into the ‘Pattianne’ form which it did not do it for a long time. A girl with long, straight blond hair was lying on the console next to Hao Ren and said, “You just pressed two keys altogether. Can you stop looking like you are doing something great?”

Hao Ren rolled his eyes and said, “Don’t underestimate this two-step operation, the timing is very important! And I’m just like a cop, how do I know how to command combat – UAVs can fight on their own!”

Then he continued to play with the combat module in front of him, F2 then A, F2 then A… He was busy because there was a steady stream of UAVs coming off the production line, and some even travel to the frontline from far beyond Star Cluster X to support operations.

“Or set back to fully automatic, pressing F2 manually is very tired. I’ll just press A…” Hao Ren gave up having to press both keys over and over again.

Pattianne transformed back into a data terminal and slapped Hao Ren on the face. “You had one job!”

Finally, Vivian could not stand it. “Can you two be serious?”

“I need to find a way to relieve the pressure before I go to battle. After all, this is the first time I’ve been involved in a battle of this magnitude.”

Then Nolan popped out. “Boss, I’ve received reports from the hub. The guardians have made full contact with the corrupted, and the UAVs will be on the battlefield in forty-five minutes—are we ready to go?”

Hao Ren glanced at the report. In the base group position, the remaining UAVs forces had already started the battle. The corrupted legion was still rushing into the blockades, and they had no intention of retreating even when the hub was at war. As planned, the weakness of the Salaman’s legion over the course of the long war had led the corrupted legion to make rash judgments. They thought that the guardians were nothing to worry about. They still had great advantages in fighting on both fronts, and the weakening of the base group’s defensive strength gave them great encouragement. This time they were determined to pull out the nail.

“Let’s go.”

With the twisting light of the space transition, the Petrachelys and Naqdal disappeared into space, along with the second echelon of millions of armed UAVs.

Hub galaxy, the guardians’ position in space.

The fierce battle had been going on for dozens of minutes. After the battlefield shields of the warring parties were exhausted to the threshold, large amounts of debris began to form and accumulate in space. Standing on the bridge of the Aiur, Salaman watched the progress of the battle through countless holograms and his telepathic ability.

The “hub” that surrounded the crystal barrier was left far behind. Agodal’s towering figure stood on the edge of the battlefield. The gigantic starship hovered like a beast hidden in the dark, constantly supporting the guardian corps with a variety of ultra-long-range weapons. Black, mighty starship shuttled on the battlefield, throwing heavy annihilation bombs and hot, high-energy beams at the twisted monsters. How long has it been since this happened?

Since Naqdal was destroyed, Agodal was badly damaged and his momentum declined in that battle, and the guardian corps’ defense had been shrinking again and again. The disadvantage in the number of troops and the enemy’s ability to pollute left Salaman and his legions in deep trouble. During the 3,000-year war, the guardians had made only a handful of active attacks – and limited to the early centuries. After that, the guardian legion that failed to regain their lost land and break through the blockade, remained holed up in the narrow areas of several astronomical units around the hub, holding out and surviving.

Until today, the guardian corps finally took the initiative to advance the front again.

Salaman also wondered if this was a blind venture. The guardian giants had never heard of such a force in the universe, and it was unlikely that any of the most gifted races had suddenly grown so powerful in the 10,000 years since the mother had left. So the observer and the UAVs were most likely coming from somewhere out of this world.

The concept of ‘out of this world’ was not new to the guardians. Although they had not yet been able to prove the existence of the world barrier, nor had they found a way to cross the world, various data models and some experiments by the Goddess of Creation had confirmed the existence of ‘world limits’ and ‘rules out of the world’, so Salaman could make a bold guess about the observer.

So can such a power, most likely from outside the known world, be trusted?

In any case, in order to cooperate with this mysterious observer, the guardian corps had pushed the frontline forward, and the scale and manner of the advance was the decision made by Salaman and a group of thinkers after carefully weighing the risks. Faced with an opportunity like this, the guardians could not do nothing, but they could not put all hope on it: if those UAVs really came to help, then this advancing front would become a springboard for the guardians to counter-attack, and if the UAVs did not come, they would have ample opportunity to return to the hub defense circle.

Salaman shook his head, throwing useless thoughts out of his head: there was no point in looking back or regretting the decision after it had been made. It was not a proper move, coming from a qualified commander.

He looked at the tactical map on the holographic projection. The frontline had been deadlocked, and it would not last long. The guardians were powerless to maintain such a front. They were able to launch the raid because the corrupted had separated an army to attack the UAV nest, but even so, the corrupted were still far more powerful than the guardians.

The guardians’ Agodal sat on the edge of the battlefield. The corrupted Amantir was also there, suspended at the end of the battlefield. The dark star, shrouded in an ominous red glow, was watching every move of Agodal like a malevolent eye. Although its doomsday weapon was damaged and unusable, as a planetary fortress, it still had enough firepower to take on Agodal.

The two planetary fortresses confronted each other, and the strength comparison between the two armies was clear at a glance. In this situation, the guardian corps would soon run out of steam.

“When are those UAVs coming?” asked the young adjutant.

“Don’t panic, there’s still a little time before the appointed time.” Salaman’s voice remained steady.

“I hope those things would come soon,” said the adjutant, “or this would be a useless attack.”

For many races that had just become cosmic citizens and were still in ‘low-speed civilization’, a space battle was a long and huge battlefield. The slow pace of the weaponry made each exchange of fire likely to last more than a few days. Yet for the demigod race that entered the superluminal age and possessed near-regular power, a few dozen minutes of combat was enough to determine the outcome of a war. This was especially true for the giant guardians and corrupted who knew each other very well.

The guardians were already showing signs of decline across the board.

But before the adjutant could report the worse news, Salaman suddenly looked up in a certain direction in the universe.

There was a flash of silver light.

Reports from various areas of the battlefront converged instantly on the flagship bridge ——

“Extremely large-scale spatial distortion is observed! It’s super-large, unprecedented in size!”

“UAVs are entering the battlefield from the KS35-26 area, the number of them… It’s impossible to estimate!”

“UAVs are also found in other areas!”

“There are also UAVs here. They go straight behind those freaks!”

“There’s no way to visually observe the corrupted. It’s all UAVs!”

Salaman stared up at the space scene straight from the external viewfinder.

He saw ripples all over the universe. The silvery waves did not come from any particular direction but surged in all directions at the same time.

Somehow he remembered the words the ‘observer’ had told him in his last contact:

“Tactics? You don’t have to worry about that.”

“First drop 10 million armed UAVs in, and then another 10 million if that doesn’t work…”

“There are enough UAVs to crush them. You just consolidate your lines. You don’t have to work with UAVs⁠—you can’t work with that.”

“I’m a professional commander. You have to trust me. How can a professional commander be wrong…”

The face of the “observer” faded in Salaman’s mind, but the inconceivable words were becoming clearer. All the doubts and worries were now gone. Salaman finally understood the meaning of those weird words. He had only one thought now: I see.

“UAVs! UAVs are everywhere! They already occupy more than 90% of the sky!”

The voice of the adjutant sounded far away…