Chapter 51: Unexpected Gains
'It should be sufficient to penetrate through the door. I would recommend targeting the weak spots in the door, so after one salve from the Battle Droids, they would fall apart.'
Hearing what the Red Queen said, Arcturus immediately went to work and coated the Aetherius with the Empyrean Power and started stabbing the Power Sword into the enormous doors that led to the bridge of the spaceship.
It only took a short time to penetrate through all the weak points that Red Queen told him about; instantly afterward, the ABD-Spectre MK Battle Droids shot several times at the doors, destroying them in one salvo as everything fell apart.
"Skewer them up..."
With that being sent, Red Queen, carried out the command of her master, as all ABD-Spectre MK Battle Droids and Spider Bastion Battle Droids in this place, started firing indiscriminately into the bridge room.
Arcturus was using this window of opportunity to kill as many enemies as possible. Inside the room, the Mind Flayers were shocked by the sudden development when the doors were blasted apart.
The first thing that they did was to use their Psionic Powers and conjured Psionic Walls around themselves, protecting them from the ferocious firepower of the lasguns that were carried by the Battle Droids.
However, every single time the Spider Bastion Battle Droids fired a shot, their Psionic Walls were weakened by a great deal. To the point where one of the weakest of the Illithids had his shield crumbled apart.
Instantly, one of them was killed, which destroyed the collective efforts of the Mind Flayers to erect Psionic Walls to defend themselves. With one being down, the power of their collective Psionic Powers got weaker, and soon enough, another one was down from the overwhelming firepower.
However, what happened next was something that nobody expected when an enormous Psionic Energy wave erupted from the body of the Illithid captain. For a moment, the battle ceased as silence took over the battlefield.
The Illithid Captain took this moment of opportunity to try to escape when the firepower from the Battle Droids resumed and shredded the remaining Mind Flayers apart as they all fell down on the ground into one huge, bloody mess.
Arcturus, when seeing that the Illithid Captain attempted to escape, immediately rushed after the Illithid Captain at the same moment when the ABD-Spectre MK Battle Droids started flooding the room.
It seemed that the bridge of the Nautiloid had one secret exit, that was connected to the one single room containing the escape pod. Arcturus knew that the Mind Flayer didn't use it, probably because of the fear of being ambushed by other Mind Flayers.
The Mind Flayers were a peculiar bunch of creatures; if their leader attempted to escape alone, then his subordinates would rebel for sure and attack the leader. So, for that reason, the captain was forced to wait until the moment when everyone aside from him was dead so he could try to escape alone.
It was risky strategy, very risky one, but it would worked well if not for Arcturus's last speed which was further enhanced by the Empyrean Power. He immediately attacked the captain of the Illithids with his Power Sword still coated with the Empyrean Power.
The Mind Flayer captain sent a blast of the blue Psionic Energy toward Arcturus's sword, but the Highborne Asuryani dodged to the side and immediately aimed for the Mind Flayer's neck, which was left unprotected.
To his surprise, a small wave of the Psionic Energy rushed towards the Illithid's neck and stopped the sword, but the Empyrean Power was too strong for the Mind Flayer's Psionic Energy to effectively resist.
In the end, the Psionic Energy of the Mind Ruler was corrupted, and it crumbled apart as his neck was literarily disintegrated on the spot. With this move, the last of the Illithids finally died, and the ship was free from any hostile entities.
"Immediately start downloading the database from the ship. We need to get out of this place as soon as possible... though... Could we take this spaceship with us?"
Theoretically speaking, with the latest upgrades done to the Obscurus that were already within several tens of thousands of Universal Credits, Red Queen could bind the Nautiloid to the Obscurus to it.
Then they could drag it with them back to the Imperial Space and to the Lycurgos, and he could sell it. Starships that belonged to the Mind Flayers were rather pricy; even the lowest-grade ones or the smallest spacecraft of the Mind Flayers could cost a good number of Universal Credits.
'It should be possible that there were several modifications made to the Obscurus, including the gravitational pull. This ship could probably be sold for more than one million Universal Credits if we found the right buyer.'
That was a lot; in fact, for a moment, Arcturus was almost frozen in one place when he heard the sum that the Nautiloid of the Mind Flayers could be sold for.
"Why so much? Even though the spaceships of the Illithids are pricy, it shouldn't be to this extreme or?"
This was something that was rather bugging Arcturus a lot right now. The price was too high, like really too high for just a scouting ship of the Mind Flayers.
'Indeed, but Nautiloids of this category are very rare because they have an in-built self-destruction mechanism that would destroy the starship before anyone could board it. It was just a stroke of pure luck that I managed to get control over the systems of the starship before it could be destroyed.
In the past century, only a handful of the Mind Flayer ships were captured in this kind of condition because this one is almost undamaged... its worth for the researchers would be invaluable.'
But when he heard the reasoning of the Red Queen, he could then understand the reasons why.
The Nautiloid that Arcturus captured was basically in perfect state, with damaged engines and shields to a certain degree, but that was an acceptable price for an otherwise undamaged spaceship belonging to the Illithids.
"Then take it... this kind of money would be a tremendous help to us."
Right now, what he needed the most was money.
Arcturus was in rather a precarious situation right now because even though he was a member of the highest caste of the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya, he wasn't technically part of the military or any institutions of the Empire.
This resulted that in an awkward situation where he didn't really receive many benefits from the Empire, because the Imperium was built on principles of meritocracy and similar ideologies.
If one didn't contribute to the growth of the Empire, one wouldn't get the resources needed. For example if he joined the military and rose in the ranks, then he would get all the resources needed for his cultivation and so...
Still, even despite the fact that he wasn't officially part of the Imperial organizations, he still got tremendous benefits from the Empire, most in the form of preferential treatment, access to some facilities, and other things.
For example, he got access to the best education courses that the Empire could offer, and everything was for free. During the time he spent at the Dojo of Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir, he took some online courses at Imperial Phoenix University.
"Has the download of the database been finished?"
Arcturus then asked, as he was looking over the corpse of the Illithid.