Boom, boom~!
While resting in the captain's quarters, Artoria suddenly felt a slight vibration. It was Saturday's Automatic Defense Artillery System. Waking up, Artoria found a soft lump in her arms. Looking down, it was Kiyohime. She didn't know how this girl had opened the door or how she had bypassed her intuition, but she had miraculously appeared in her bed. The main issue now wasn't her, but who had triggered the Hyperion's defense system. She had to go see for herself. With a dark expression, Artoria removed Kiyohime's hand from her body, dressed, and hurried to the control room.
"Saturday, report the situation."
Turning on her earpiece, Artoria asked Saturday for a status report. Although it could have been space debris being destroyed, why would the weapons fire continuously? Such actions clearly indicated enemies or other aliens had been detected. Luckily, Artoria had always been wary of such situations. When the women were modifying the Hyperion, she insisted on a highly advanced Automatic Interception System. Cloaking technology was common in space; who knew if some sneaky space pirate would board while cloaked.
"Master, two cloaked ships were detected. They did not respond to warnings, so I chose to shoot them down directly. Recovery robots have been dispatched to search the debris."
The situation was as Artoria expected; they had indeed encountered space pirates. She hoped they hadn't been blown to bits; otherwise, she wouldn't even get to see what such a bold race looked like, which would be a pity. Artoria waited a while, and instead of the spoils, a group of women came running over. It seemed Artoria wasn't the only one on edge. After letting Saturday explain to the women, Artoria waited with them for the spoils to arrive. Scáthach also came out; it seemed she was somewhat interested in creatures from other Planets.
"Are these aliens?"
Soon, the recovery robots brought back five or six oddly shaped corpses, some with missing limbs. Maya, being a scientist in the biological field, curiously put on gloves and stepped forward to check. But she soon realized her folly; in the special environment of outer space, the surfaces of these corpses had frozen and needed to be thawed. The group stared at the corpses, giving Artoria the visual of 'corpse camping' in an online game. Artoria suddenly found it a bit funny, but then she saw the intense desire for dissection in the eyes of Scáthach, Hope, and Maya. She couldn't laugh anymore. She really wasn't used to dealing with these scientists. Luckily, her body was currently invulnerable; otherwise, she'd really fear these women might go crazy and stab her one day.
"Eh!? One is actually still alive."
Time passed quickly, and with the help of instruments, thawing was soon complete. Once the ice melted, they found that a green-skinned alien that looked like a lizard—originally thought to be a 'corpse'—had a heart that started beating again. Scáthach and Artoria sensed it immediately. As its bodily functions began to recover, it opened its eyes, startling Hope and the others. Although they had theorized about races that could survive in space, seeing it for the first time was quite a shock. Seeing the guy open its eyes, Artoria used her telekinesis to turn several thin alloy steel bars nearby into flexible ropes, binding the alien instantly.
"Speak, what is your purpose?"
Artoria spoke in the Universal Galactic Language, which startled the women. They didn't know Artoria knew this. They had no idea that Artoria had already traveled the Universe and even fared quite well, obtaining two Infinity Stones. It was perfectly normal for Artoria to have learned the common tongue. A look of deep interest appeared on Scáthach's face; this Master seemed to know quite a lot. It seemed she could be squeezed for information when there was time.
"We..."
The lizard-like alien might not have recovered from being defrosted, or perhaps it just spoke that slowly. Through its stumbling narrative, Artoria learned that these guys were indeed planning to hijack the Hyperion because they were running low on fuel. They had been chased by Thanos's Black Order until they didn't know which way was up, and had stumbled into the solar system where they encountered Artoria's Hyperion. Seeing such a large battleship, and one whose technology clearly wasn't particularly advanced, they decided to target it. Little did they know they had hit a snag; after a few cannon blasts, their ship was smashed. Fortunately, its race was quite special, capable of entering a state of suspended animation in space for a short time, though it wouldn't last long.
"The Black Order, Thanos!"
Upon hearing this news, Artoria's eyes widened, her gaze revealing a very surprised expression. Others might not have noticed her reaction, but Scáthach did. She was suddenly curious that a single name could cause her Master to react this way; it seemed this person's strength was formidable. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but feel a surge of battle intent. She desperately wanted to see the opponent now; fighting against the strong was one of her favorite things. Artoria was unaware of Scáthach's thoughts, and even if she knew, she wouldn't have said anything. One of her purposes for coming into space this time was to see if she could hammer Thanos to Death.
"You will die, you will die at that person's hands."
Looking at the pile of severed limbs and body tissues nearby, it realized its teammates were completely wiped out. It then looked at these 'ugly' women without scales in front of it and knew it was definitely doomed this time. But even Bandits have dignity. After uttering such a cursed sentence to Artoria, it kicked the bucket. Artoria stepped forward to check; the guy had a lump of flesh in its mouth that it had just bitten through—likely poisonous. This guy was dead, completely cold.
"There must be a reason for Thanos to come to Earth. Does he know the news of the Ancient One's Death? Otherwise, how would he have the guts to fly toward Earth without the Infinity Stones?"
Artoria didn't care about the creature's Death or its deathbed curse. She was only thinking about when she would run into Thanos. Artoria had no intention of running away now. If she didn't stop Thanos outside of Earth this time, then Earth would definitely suffer an invasion from him. This was something Artoria was unwilling to see, especially his style of killing half and leaving half. If he conquered Earth, the population would definitely be halved. With Artoria's current strength, she had no need to fear Thanos, but she still couldn't help but worry a little about what would happen if she lost.
"Master, get ready. This might be a big battle."
After pondering for a long time, Artoria met the questioning gazes of the women. Artoria had them take the corpses to the lab for slow study, but she kept Scáthach behind. She had to explain the enemy clearly to Scáthach. If possible, Artoria hoped Scáthach could use the Gae Bolg to pierce Thanos's heart the moment she engaged him. That way, she could also quickly clean up the guys below. She told Scáthach all the information she knew and gave her a full briefing on Thanos's character, hoping Scáthach would take this battle seriously.
"Master, although the enemy is powerful, what is there to fear?"
But Artoria was wrong. While Scáthach appreciated Artoria's caution, she disdained dealing with enemies from the shadows. She had always fought in a head-on, crushing style. Even when using tactics to command an army, she wouldn't adopt particularly underhanded schemes. Furthermore, the folk customs of her homeland were fierce, and everyone was a powerhouse. Artoria's words only made her smile. Scáthach loved such powerful warriors and loved fighting them; even dying at the opponent's hands would be an honor. She was a pure warrior. Artoria watched blankly as Scáthach left after leaving those words. Only then did she realize that the problem wasn't with her own thinking, but with the person she was talking to. If it were Archer, he would definitely agree with her decision, or Kiritsugu-papa, but this one was different. After thinking it over, Artoria gave up on the idea of having Scáthach perform a sneak attack—better to just go head-on!
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