Vol 2. Chapter 17: The Attack of the Giant Worm
Chapter 64: The Attack of the Giant Worm
"Deploying electromagnetic catapult."
With Ringo’s words, the top hatch of the multi-legged terrestrial mothership on the display opened. Smoothly, a rod-like electromagnetic catapult rose. Approximately 10 meters in length, it stood vertically as a wide-area surveillance drone locked into its launch position.
"Launching wide-area surveillance drone."
With a sharp electromagnetic pulse, the drone accelerated instantly, shooting out of the mothership. As it reached an altitude of about 50 meters, four propellers deployed, and the drone began its search operation.
"Successfully linked with the drone. Displaying tactical map."
Data from the drone was processed by the mothership’s onboard computer to generate a detailed analysis of the surroundings: electromagnetic mapping, temporal analysis, and sonic detection. The target was located 30 meters behind the delegation, directly beneath the road.
"Marking target. Estimated: subterranean worm. Movement speed is decreasing. Detected vibrations are rapidly diminishing. These vibrations are imperceptible to standard human sensory organs. It’s moving underground with almost no detectable digging noise."
"Impressive that we noticed it at all," Eve remarked.
"Yes, Commander Ma’am. We maintained subterranean vibration monitoring via the multi-legged tanks. Although we primarily anticipated detecting approaching footsteps, we didn’t account for worms, which delayed our response. My apologies," Ringo explained.
Ringo’s apology wasn’t necessary. This was an encounter with an unknown creature. The assumption had been that anything moving underground would either move slowly or generate loud noises. The worm’s characteristics defied expectations.
In reality, detecting the worm through such faint vibrations was a stroke of luck.