One week later.
Inside the Ishimura's bridge, Marcus sat in the captain's chair, observing the virtual screen before him. It displayed the Ishimura's repair progress. The dense red areas, indicative of severe damage, had been largely mended, now replaced by safe blue zones. Only some yellow, moderately damaged sections remained.
Thanks to the assistance of the Shield Intelligent System, the Ishimura's computing power had significantly increased, drastically accelerating the repair work. Without it, relying solely on the fifty-odd people on board, it would have been impossible to mend the Ishimura to this extent in such a short time. Among these diligent individuals, Isaac and Jacob were the primary contributors. Over the past week, these two barely slept, constantly bustling around the ship. Regarding their dedication, Marcus could only think, "Indeed, it feels good to have capable subordinates."
According to reports from Isaac and his team, the Ishimura's life support, defense, circulation, and other basic facilities had been mostly restored. Only the engine system still had a minor fault. Currently, the Ishimura could only perform sub-light speed flight and was unable to conduct super-light speed "Shockpoint" travel.
Even so, Marcus was immensely satisfied. Putting everything else aside, at least the Ishimura's automated defensive gun system had been fully repaired. Although the Ishimura was primarily a mining vessel, it now possessed a respectable amount of firepower, capable of dealing with incoming asteroids and ill-intentioned space pirates.
Looking at the newly revitalized Ishimura, Marcus knew it was time to traverse again. But before that, he had one more crucial task.
After leaving the bridge, accompanied by two Elite Marauders, Marcus arrived at a hidden compartment. Pushing the door open, the massive form of the Tyranid Hive Tyrant lay quietly in the corner. Compared to its peak condition when first summoned, the current Tyranid Hive Tyrant's once incredibly muscular body had become drastically emaciated, resembling withered bones. Over the past week, Marcus had checked on the Xenomorph embryo's development every few hours. He could feel that within the Tyranid Hive Tyrant's body, the Xenomorph embryo had fully matured and was on the verge of bursting forth from its chest.
As expected, Marcus didn't have to wait long before the Tyranid Hive Tyrant's body began to tremble violently. The Tyranid Hive Tyrant, which had been in a dormant state, slowly opened its eyes. Its biological instinct urged it to resist the Xenomorph's chest-bursting, but this instinct was immediately and forcibly suppressed by Marcus's command. The Tyranid Hive Tyrant's life signs began to rapidly decline until they were almost nonexistent. Its chest area bulged high, and finally, the flesh tore open, spraying countless Tyranid pus and blood. The entire compartment was stained crimson.
And amidst the profuse blood, a small, entirely black, oddly shaped creature was bathed. It tilted its head back, emitting a piercing psychic shriek. Even though it had just been born, this shriek spread throughout the entire Ishimura at an extremely fast speed. Marcus could feel that he had established a mental link with this creature, forming a master-servant relationship similar to that with his Tyranid Warbeasts. Under Marcus's absolute command, the newborn Xenomorph leaped down and crawled to his front at an incredibly fast speed.
"Why does this thing look so much like a Norn Emissary?" Marcus couldn't help but blurt out, staring at the Xenomorph before him. The Xenomorph that had hatched from within the Tyranid Hive Tyrant, Marcus temporarily referred to as the "Tyrant Xenomorph." Its appearance was strikingly similar to the Tyranids' ultimate weapon, the Norn Emissary, only it was entirely black. Not just its carapace and muscles, but even its brain-like organ that released psychic energy was a bizarre, dark black.
Through the mental link, Marcus could feel that the Tyrant Xenomorph before him was intensely hungry. Marcus raised his hand, took out his Sunflare Sword, and chopped off the head of the already dying Tyranid Hive Tyrant, killing it completely. This sent it back into its cooldown period. Twenty-four hours later, it would be a good fellow again—or rather, a good bug.
"Alright, eat," Marcus commanded. The hungry Tyrant Xenomorph pounced on the Tyranid Hive Tyrant's corpse and began to feast. With the continuous intake of biomass, the Tyrant Xenomorph's originally small body rapidly expanded. It consumed the entire corpse, growing to a size rivalling that of the Tyranid Hive Tyrant itself. But even so, Marcus could still feel the creature's lingering hunger.
Marcus turned his head and looked at the two Elite Marauders beside him. "Go get more food." Soon, the two Marauders returned, pushing several tons of high-energy food on a cart. After devouring all of this food, the Tyrant Xenomorph's hunger finally diminished and then disappeared. Its body had expanded to over ten meters tall, surpassing the Tyranid Hive Tyrant and touching the towering compartment ceiling. Only then did the terrifying aspect of the Tyrant Xenomorph fully reveal itself.
With every breath the Tyrant Xenomorph took, a faint Psychic power emanated, and the ambient air temperature dropped by several degrees. Looking at the colossal creature before him, Marcus had no doubt that the Tyrant Xenomorph could easily pin the Tyranid Hive Tyrant to the ground and crush it. Its physical strength far surpassed the Tyranid Hive Tyrant, and its Psychic power far outstripped the zoanthrope. At the same time, it also possessed the Xenomorph's innate ability for stealth assassination.
"A ten-meter-tall assassin? Charging into a crowd and going berserk, killing all witnesses, still counts as assassination, right?" Marcus mused, a wry complaint. As he spoke, Marcus walked to the Tyrant Xenomorph's front. The colossal creature bent down and lowered its head. With a wave of his hand, the Tyrant Xenomorph's massive body transformed into white light and was absorbed by Marcus into his system warehouse.
"It's a pity there are no opponents of the same level here, so I can't test the Tyrant Xenomorph's combat power," Marcus murmured to himself. He then shook his head, used his Mind Power to pull over two mops, and handed them to the two Elite Marauders beside him. He instructed them to clean the compartment, which was covered in Tyranid Hive Tyrant blood and various fluids.
Upon returning to the bridge, Marcus opened the system panel again.
[Current available traversals: 1Will randomly traverse to one of the following worlds:Resident Evil game universe, Titanfall game universe, Transformers movie universe, Cyberpunk 2077 game universe, StarCraft game universe.Do you wish to initiate dimensional travel?]
"Confirm initiation," Marcus murmured, pressing the traversal button. Immediately, an endless white light burst forth from the system panel, instantly engulfing Marcus and the entire Ishimura. A few seconds later, the light extinguished. The Ishimura, which had been suspended above the Aegis VII planet, had vanished. Only some broken small debris remained around its former position.
Weeks later, when the CEC company and the Earth Government's rescue ships finally arrived in the star system, everyone was dumbfounded.
"Where's the massive ship?!" they surely wondered.