Chapter 68: The Telepathic Space Apes

In the isolated J-005 deck, the sixteen space apes were dispersed, each separated by ten meters.

They stood with their arms at their sides, perfectly still, like statues.

After resting, a fully reinvigorated Marlena, Wojciech, and Gul'gul took up positions flanking Nareth, curiously observing these strange creatures before them.

"Bring the scrap materials. Place them in front of them."

At Nareth's command, sixteen tech-workers pushed carts filled with waste and scrap to the front of the space apes.

Even before the workers could back away, the statue-like space apes began to move, the ancient genetic programming embedded by the Old Ones activated.

Their fingers and toes flexed rapidly, and in a blur of motion, they disassembled the carts and trash into scattered parts.

Orange figures surged and danced through the junk. Wojciech's eyes widened, his jaw dropping involuntarily.

What he saw were ape-like beings whose hands and feet moved like a Magos manipulating mechadendrites, performing a mechanical dance.

Useless waste that would normally only be fit for recycling was transformed in mere seconds and reshaped into new items.

Iron scraps became rings, ceramic shards turned into spheres, copper blocks morphed into metal flies…

Even steel wire was stretched into coils, and tin chunks were shaped into rings.

Nareth was quietly thankful he had ordered the use of scrap; even if the results were useless, there was no loss.

Gul'gul's eyes gleamed.

"Incredible! How do they do it?"

"They seem to be acting purely on instinct," said Marlena thoughtfully.

"Indeed," Nareth nodded, just as his comms unit beeped.

He answered, and Bukayo's voice came through:

"My lord, I've reached the target. Discovered a hexagonal crystal mountain."

Nareth went silent for a moment at the mention of a hexagonal crystal mountain.

Then he replied:

"Report your progress regularly."

Seeing no further messages, he issued a new command:

"Keep only that... and that one…"

He pointed at the most spiritually resonant and uniquely shaped light sculptures the apes had created.

"Everything else, move it to my chamber."

Servitors and porters got to work immediately, carefully transporting the items created by the Jokaero.

Just then, the communicator beeped again. Bukayo's voice came through:

"Preparing to begin the climb."

Nareth's brow furrowed.

That response seemed disconnected from his previous order; clearly, the mountain was interfering with communication signals.

As he debated whether to continue the experiment or descend to the surface, Marlena spoke:

"I'll go. I'll assist Commander Bukayo."

"Alright," Nareth agreed. With Marlena accompanying them, the Slaaneshi cultists could be handled.

Once the items were all cleared away, Nareth approached a trash cart, pinching the handle with two fingers.

He rolled it in front of a space ape, whose work area now held a statue glowing with a soft white light, like fluorescence.

Its upper half resembled the umbrella shape of a jellyfish, while the lower half was like the spiraled shell of an ammonite, with two sharp horns protruding.

Nareth pointed at the materials, and at the same time, projected his mind toward the ape.

Within the creature's swirling aura of faint instinctual fear, he found a psychic gate, and its mind was open.

"Use this," Nareth moved his finger to indicate the light sculpture, "to create that."

The space ape immediately approached the cart, using all four limbs. Moments later, it recreated the sculpture exactly.

'They have emotion… and a mind… and can comprehend telepathic instruction. That alone proves they are living beings. They just don't use language, maybe only the Old Ones knew how to awaken their full intelligence.'

Nareth continued testing, using mental transmissions to instruct the apes to create 52 more light sculptures before stopping.

"Move all of them to my chamber."

After a pause, he turned to Wojciech:

"Keep providing them with scrap. Let them continue building."

"But when they're not creating, do not leave anything near them."

"Assign rotating guards. If they try dismantling ship panels, stop them immediately."

Wojciech carefully took down every order and left to carry them out.

As Nareth walked away, he couldn't help but feel excited, wondering what unexpected surprises the apes might bring.

At the same time, on the crystal mountain, 666 meters above ground, Bukayo stood before a narrow vertical passage that now sloped upward into the mountain's interior.

The tunnel was several meters wide. Bukayo continued leading his team forward.

He noticed the walls and ground were studded with crystals, some sparse, some dense.

Since his ascension to "Midnight Poet," his spiritual senses had sharpened.

These crystals felt different from those outside.

Activating his Spirit Vision, he could faintly see sparkling multicolored lights radiating from within them.

Dozens of meters ahead, he suddenly stopped and crouched, studying a crystal column by his feet. This one glowed brighter under spiritual sight.

After a moment's thought, Bukayo reached out with his enhanced strength and easily broke off the crystal.

He toyed with it in his hand, found no new clues, and passed it back to a subordinate:

"Hold onto it."

Continuing forward for hundreds more meters, he noticed the frequency of the strange crystals increasing, and their spiritual resonance growing stronger.

He pressed on until suddenly. Six branching paths appeared ahead, seemingly indistinguishable.

Bukayo entered each one briefly, sensing for differences.

Moments later, he led his team into the third path from the left, the one where the spiritual resonance was strongest.

After another few hundred meters, at the next fork, Bukayo suddenly raised his lasgun and fired down the third path from the right.

Bang!

A body hit the ground, an ambusher, whose fall revealed several others in fine robes, wielding curved sabers and ornamental blades.

They howled in an incomprehensible tongue and immediately charged towards Bukayo and the Third Regiment

As a "Midnight Poet," he was an expert in marksmanship. Bukayo's reflexes were superhuman. Every trigger pull was precise, and enemy after enemy fell.

Then, he felt it, an overwhelming swarm approaching from the depths of the tunnel.

His pupils shrank.

A tide of bizarre creatures surged forward:

Some had scorpion-like bodies, with six bony projections from their spines, each ending in a stinger.

Others were serpent-like, heads flaring like razor-edged petals, with forked tongues like whips.

They slithered with a hiss, swarming over the remaining cultists, who were instantly overwhelmed.

Bukayo raised his weapon and fired at the petal-headed snake.

It shrieked, springing sideways to dodge the shot, then lashed out with its twin tongues like whips.

"Retreat!" Bukayo roared, his face darkening.

If the monsters could dodge his attacks, then his troops had little chance of hitting them.

With his right hand, he fired his lasgun again, and with his left, he pulled a fragmentation grenade from his tactical pouch.

Falling backward, he threw the grenade, narrowly dodging the whip attacks.

With his enhanced physical ability, the Midnight Poet rolled back just in time to avoid a scorpion-stinger strike.

BOOM!

The snake-beast exploded, torn apart, but more monsters surged forward.

Bukayo led a fighting retreat, throwing grenades to stall the enemy.

But as their grenades dwindled, casualties began to mount.

One scorpion-creature let out a piercing screech, its six bone-spikes snapped forward like ropes, aiming straight at Bukayo.