As Mithril's Western Pacific Battle Group, TDD-1's executive officer—Richard Mardukas.
As Mithril's Western Pacific Battle Group Marine Special Response Team (SRT) commander—Andrei Sergeivich Kalinin.
The two of them had weathered more storms than most people could imagine. They'd witnessed the cold war between the two superpowers at its hottest flashpoints—moments where the world felt one step away from annihilation.
And yet, today, a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl told them a secret that cracked their iron composure wide open. Their faces—usually unmoved—shifted visibly with shock.
Honestly, at first, they hadn't believed it. It sounded too ridiculous to be real.
But the girl had already demonstrated abilities that looked blatantly supernatural.
She could take an object out of thin air, stash it somewhere "else," then retrieve it again—like she was opening a pocket in space.
"Captain," Richard said, pushing up his glasses with a wry half-smile, "you've just told us one hell of a secret. At this point, you're going to get us to stop drinking."
He said it like a joke.
At the same time, he was staring at a video on the computer—another impossible "operation" from the captain, downloaded through some special channel.
"I completely agree with Richard," Andrew added with a solemn nod.
It sounded like banter, but they really were talking about quitting alcohol.
Not that either of them drank on duty to begin with. They'd always kept public and private strictly separate—no touching alcohol while working, only having a little when they were certain they were in a safe environment.
Even if they got a bit carried away, neither of them was the type to babble secrets while drunk.
But this time, what Tessa had told them was too earthshaking—far more outrageous than her identity as a Whispered.
From now on, to protect this secret properly, even the tiniest chance of leakage—no matter how remote—had to be eliminated. Even a one-in-a-million risk was still unacceptable.
About twenty minutes passed after Tessa shared the secret and explained the existence of other parallel worlds.
"Captain," Richard said, his expression turning grave. The sudden seriousness made the girl tense up. "Have you considered this possibility?"
"W-What possibility?" Tessa's voice tightened. She shifted in her seat, restless.
Was he about to say something that involved someone's safety?
She didn't believe he would betray her—sell her out, hand her over to a lab table, anything like that.
It felt more like he was worried the Super Dimension Channel itself was dangerous.
Worried that one day, someone she invited over might… retaliate?
Or that the "trades" could backfire—something transmitted over could be harmful?
"It's all parallel worlds, right?" Richard asked.
"Yes."
"In theory, that means the technology is transferable, right?"
"Yes."
So that was it—he was worried that dangerous tech might be brought over and leak to Amalgam, those lunatics, and poison this world.
And "tech" didn't have to mean weapons. A virus could be a weapon too—biological warfare was still warfare.
So if the principles really carried over… then a bioweapon from over there might be manufacturable here.
"That also means the environment is the same," Richard pressed. "Two parallel worlds—different development paths, but the underlying reality matches. Right?"
"Yes." Tessa nodded again.
Just say it already, she thought. Don't drag it out. She could guess where he was going.
But she didn't cut him off. Maybe he wanted to lay out the logic properly.
"Then isn't it possible…" Richard paused, letting the dread hang for a beat. "…that the Tyranids—those extraterrestrial lifeforms—could also have emerged somewhere in our universe?"
"Huh?"
Tessa hadn't expected that at all. It wasn't where her mind had gone.
"What?" Richard pushed his glasses up again. "You didn't think of that possibility?"
His tone was severe—nothing like his usual casual, teasing manner.
"I… I don't think…" Tessa started.
The word possible stuck in her throat.
What Richard was suggesting wasn't impossible.
It was just the worst possible kind of possible.
From what she'd seen in the videos, if Tyranids broke out in her world, it wouldn't be a crisis.
It would be humanity's end.
And from the scraps of dialogue and hints she'd overheard, that world wasn't even experiencing a true Tyranid invasion yet.
This was only the vanguard—hidden organisms that had slipped in, cultivated, and then erupted into chaos.
Chaos.
That level of destruction, and they called it chaos—meaning it still wasn't the real invasion.
That "chaos" was just to create an opening for a Tyranid hive fleet.
When the real force arrived, it wouldn't be a planetary ground war anymore.
It would be interstellar war across entire star systems.
"Don't panic," Andrew said, cutting in. "It's only a possibility. And if that world's Tyranid war happens far in the future, that suggests our current era should be safe."
"But can you guarantee they wouldn't arrive early?" Richard countered, and the air turned colder. "Parallel worlds differ in human development—so what if our universe also has Tyranids, and due to some divergence, they've already drifted into the Milky Way? Wandering near our solar system?"
Tessa's face tightened again, jaw clenched.
"All right, Richard," Andrew said, frowning. "You're getting a little too paranoid."
"It might be paranoid," Richard admitted, "but we can't afford to ignore it. Besides—there's always been a theory that the Whispered's black technology came from a parallel world. Now that you, Captain, have something as absurd as the Super Dimension Channel, that theory feels even more plausible. Captain, look."
"Huh?"
"That 'Martian' world video—you didn't look closely at one part of it, did you?"
"What part?"
It wasn't just Mr. Golden Toilet's footage she'd downloaded.
She had downloaded the Martian one too.
Richard adjusted the playback and jumped to a specific segment—an overview of that world's gigantic humanoid machines, referred to as Armored Troopers.
They looked similar in concept to the large humanoid AS developed in her world—different technology, same purpose: war.
So this time, Tessa listened carefully.
And as she did, her expression shifted into outright astonishment.
She understood what Richard was pointing at.
"The Aldnoah Drive technology in that world…" she said slowly, disbelief creeping into her voice, "…and the Lambda Driver system we're developing—it's similar."
Both systems were driven by the user's will—activated by mental intent.
And depending on the user's mindset—say, someone who felt unsafe and desperately wanted protection—the system could manifest an ability that matched that desire, deploying a special energy field to defend them.
Which meant… it was possible that her world's Lambda Driver technology had, somehow, filtered over from that Martian world's Aldnoah Drive technology.
Or that both came from the same root source.
"Captain," Andrew warned, "you're slipping into your 'Sweet Tessa' voice again."
"Huh? Oh—right." Tessa snapped back, then quickly went online and opened the livestream.
Perfect timing.
He'd just returned to the original planet.
With the hive's nest eliminated, the planet's defenders should've had their burden lightened—
…Huh?!!!
Tessa's brief, relieved calm was strangled in an instant.
Was he about to destroy the planet?
Blow the entire world apart?
(End of Chapter)
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