"That thing is...!" Eva groaned, anger and shock twisting her features. "A Gorgon!"
"Exactly," I said with a nod, a bit surprised she recognized it.
A Gorgon—a name that came from Greek mythology, particularly from the infamous being called Medusa. But this "Gorgon" wasn't a mythological creature. It was an uncommon asteroid, named for its eerie resemblance to the petrifying powers of its namesake.
This Gorgon radiated unique energy waves capable of "petrifying" anything in its radius. Ships, equipment, and even living beings—they would all be turned into solid rock upon contact with this energy. Major Terrence's fleet had been caught in one of these petrifying waves, having their entire fleet turned to stone.
As for how a Gorgon had reached the middle of the fleet, that was a mystery resolved in a different chapter. Whoever orchestrated the sabotage didn't matter right now. What mattered was how to save them while avoiding the same fate.
"Turn the ship around!" Eva shouted, her voice laced with fear. "I'm not getting anywhere near that thing! I can't afford to die here!"
It was understandable she reacted this way. The Gorgon was nothing so much as a big, pale-green, glowing asteroid, but the threat it posed was anything but ordinary. Its petrifying waves didn't discriminate—they would freeze everything within range, turning even the most advanced ships into immobile statues.
The Gorgon operated in cycles. During its "awake" period, it emitted the deadly waves nonstop. This was then followed by a "sleep" period, during which the petrification ceased. Right now, the asteroid was glowing with an ominous greenish hue—a clear sign it was in its "awake" phase.
But there was no need to panic.
"We're not going to approach it anyway," I assured her.
Eva shot me a sharp glare but didn't protest further. She seemed to understand that I wasn't about to unnecessarily gamble with our lives. Though I had a good grasp of the duration of Gorgon's active and dormant cycles and even a few ways to counteract the petrification wave, I wasn't reckless enough to test my luck.
"Percy, arm the missile launcher. Switch ammunition to self-propelled non-guided missiles," I commanded.
[Command received. Arming the Missile Silo. Replacing current ordnance with self-propelled Hull Breaching Rounds. Complete.]
"Missiles?" Eva asked, her tone incredulous. "Are you planning to shoot it down? That thing petrifies anything that gets too close! Those missiles will just be wasted, unable to even detonate!"
I glanced at her with a light wink. "That's why we're not going to let the missiles get too close either."
She looked at me as if I'd gone mad, but she didn't dare comment anymore. I waved her aside and began calculating the trajectory and timing.
The plan was simple: fire missiles directly at the Gorgon and detonate them early, creating a deadly shrapnel blanket that would strike the asteroid. The combination of the shockwave and the debris would disrupt its structure and, with the force of the explosions, push it away from the fleet.
Of course, to hit such a small target in the middle of a chaotic sea of vessels was no easy task. That's why the detonations were necessary—to spread the impact and avoid the risk of damaging the immobilized ships. I had done this exact maneuver dozens of times in the game, so I at least had faith in the execution.
The Range Falcon closed on the Gorgon, coming to a standstill directly at the maximum safe distance—100 kilometers away. This was far outside the effective range of the missiles at 50 kilometers, but the Gorgon was a stationary target. I should not have to account for motion, which would make accuracy a lot less of an issue.
"Locking coordinates," I said as the ship came to a halt.
My fingers danced across the controls, entering precise instructions. "Missiles set to detonate 5 kilometers from the Gorgon. Percy, prepare for synchronized fire—let's hit it with 20 missiles at once!"
[Missile Silo Armed. Synchronization Complete.]
Eva gripped the edge of her seat, tension radiating from her. "If this doesn't work, we're getting out of here immediately, right?"
"Relax," I reassured her, keeping my voice steady. "It'll work. Trust me."
The Gorgon loomed on the screen, its green light pulsing ominously. I took a deep breath, tightened my grip on the controls, and counted down.
"Firing missiles in three... two... one... launch!"
The ship shook a little when the twenty missiles shot from their silos, streaking through the dark blackness of space, toward the Gorgon. We kept our eyes glued to the display as the missiles closed in on the target.
When they were at about 50 kilometers, the surfaces of the missiles dulled and became gray, a sign that petrification had begun. The wave of petrification, however, gets weaker the further the energy wave travels, and so the missiles should last long enough.
The missiles detonated at precisely 5 kilometers from the asteroid, creating a brilliant cascade of light and force through the vacuum. The shockwave spread out, carrying forward shards of shrapnel like a deadly blanket. Fragments slammed into petrified ships in the fleet but only managed to barely scratch the surface of the hardened hulls, while the shockwave could only lightly shake them.
The Gorgon wasn't the same, however. The shrapnel, combined with the shockwave, caused several chunks of the asteroid to break off from its surface. The rest of the shockwave pushed the asteroid away from the fleet: a slow but continuous retreat visible on the monitors.
"It worked!" Eva exclaimed in a mix of relief and amazement.
I kept my eyes on the radar, cautious as always. "Don't celebrate yet. Percy, analyze the Gorgon's current state."
Gorgons had two potential reactions to significant impacts. The first was to enter a dormant state, disrupting their active cycle. The second, far more dangerous, was an emergency release of a petrification wave—a last-ditch defense mechanism.
[Command received. Analyzing... Gorgon's energy signature is stabilizing. The petrification cycle was interrupted. Object classified as dormant.]
I exhaled deeply, tension leaving my shoulders. The asteroid had gone dormant, meaning it was no longer a threat for now. We just needed to wait until it drifted far enough away from the fleet to be completely safe.
Eva slumped back in her chair, her earlier fear giving way to exasperation. "To think you'd try to push a Gorgon away. You're insane, you know that?"
"Maybe," I replied with a grin, "but now we've got a clear, safe path to the fleet. All that's left is undoing their petrification, and then we can head home."
She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "... Hearing you say that makes me feel like trouble's about to pop up any second."
"Heh…?"
Her casual comment struck a nerve. I quickly glanced at the radar, half-expecting her words to manifest into reality. But there was nothing—just the petrified fleet ahead and the Gorgon drifting harmlessly into the far-off distance. We were still safe… for now.
"Before anything weird does happen, let's finish this and get out of here," I said, steering the Range Falcon toward the fleet.
The petrification wasn't too hard to reverse, providing you had the right gear. And of course, I came prepared for just that. Since I knew what we faced, I'd added a Revitalizer Module to the Range Falcon before landing on this assignment. Thankfully, it was dirt cheap. It was an absolute necessity for our current mission, after all.
The rest of the 100 kilometers were a blur, and we reached the edge of the fleet's formation just in time to see the Gorgon cross the 2,000-kilometer mark, safely far from its initial location. Now, petrified ships lined out before us, their forms in silent and eerie immobility.
"So," Eva said, cocking her head, "which one are we waking up first? The closest ship?"
"Of course not," I replied promptly.
Having played this part of the game many times, I knew better than to wake up just anyone randomly. Reviving the wrong person—especially that captain—could lead to immediate conflict.
"We'll start with that Leviathan over there," I explained, pointing at the massive spiral-shaped ship at the heart of the fleet. "That's the Del Pravvio, Major Terrence's personal ship."
The Del Pravvio was a leviathan, designed to resemble the coiled shell of a nautilus. Its bridge sat at the aperture, so it had an excellent view of its surroundings. Its structure was built for battle: narrow and difficult to hit from most angles, with hundreds of turrets lining its broadsides to annihilate anything foolish enough to try and approach.
As we drew closer, the sheer size of the ship became even more apparent. I couldn't help but gape in awe. Its spiral spanned three kilometers at its longest point, dwarfing the Range Falcon by a lot. It was a reminder of the absurd scale of spaceships fighting in this universe—and of the leviathan-class ship I once commanded before waking up here.
"Alright," I said, snapping back to the present. "Arm the Revitalizer. It's time to wake them up from their long sleep!"
Finally, we're reaching the core of the quest!