Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

To emulate the behavioral patterns of the Arachnids, the Holoprograms needed to be run by the Red Queen personally on the matter. Anything less was totally unacceptable because even though the Obscurus was a very advanced ship, the basic computers would achieve only a realistic rating of around 70%, and Arcturus was obviously going for 100%.

He was rather a perfectionist, so going for anything less than perfect wasn't an option for him, and with the Red Queen's processing power, it was as easy as breathing to create ultra-realistically behaving Arachnids.

Arachnids were smart; there was a common misconception that they were either stupid or that they were all controlled by the Hivemind or the proxies, meaning the Swarm Queens, Superbrain Bugs, and Brain Bugs.

One could say that the truth was somewhere in the middle. Most of the Bugs were not sentient in the terms of the decision making and so on, but once they received order form their "superiors" they would act on them until they completed the tasks or were killed.

In addition, they behaved like any other creature or animal, solely acting on their instincts. This led to another common mistake when dealing with Arachnids: the idea that killing the Brain Bugs or the Superbrain Bugs made the rest of the Bugs harmless because nobody would command them.

This was rather a common misconception, especially in the less developed Civilizations and Star Nations, because when one killed the leader, then the rest of the Swarm would go into total frenzy and attack anyone like the berserker of old.

Those kinds of bugs were the most dangerous because they became far more aggressive on average and more powerful.

This was related to the evolutionary back safe in the Queens, Brain Bugs, and Superbrain Bugs because when the last of their kind in a certain group of Arachnids were killed, they would release Psychic Wave that would send every single bug in the vicinity into a killing frenzy.

Seeing the Warrior Bugs approaching, he changed the ammo bank of the lasgun he was holding and aimed at the eyes of the Warrior Bugs, and with a few shots, he hit their eyes, rendering them blind.

And a blind bug was very dangerous.

Immediately as they were blinded, they started trashing around and even attacking their fellow bugs because this was rather a common thing that could happen on the battlefield, albeit only temporarily, because soon enough, the Warrior Bugs would get together and continue on their assault.

And this exactly happened in the simulation, as the Warrior Bugs quickly recovered from the disarray and continued rushing towards their position, as Arcturus continued shooting from his Olusegun, killing them one by one.

Jenaiel then finished what has remained from the Warrior Bugs. As the swift blade, she cut into them and disposed them one by one at staggering speed, until every single one of the Warriors was killed which led to the end of the simulation.

"Red Queen, cancel the simulation."

Seeing that the last of the Arachnids was killed, Arcturus commanded the Red Queen to end the Holoprogram. Their training ended with the destruction of the last Arachnid Warrior because this concrete Holoprogram that they were using was one that used only the Arachnid Warriors from the Bug Species.

They had far more than enough time to undergo various stages scenarios as only a few days had passed since they departed from the heartlands of the Phoenix Prime, and arrival at the Ziras IV would take them a lot of time.

The database of the Bugs in the Obscurus's computers was very extensive and large, so they were going from Bug to Bug simulation at first. Because there was not really anything to do on the starship, if one didn't count finding the entertainment on the ExtraNet or the Imperial Spehre, then the only thing that they could do was to train.

This was especially true for him and Jeniael, because neither of them had anything to do aside from training, while Zehal was spending all of her available time in the Engine Room and around the spaceship.

Apparently, the Heiress, Apparent of the House, Alvix, was having the time of her life, as she could work on some really highly advanced tech together with the Super Advanced Hyper Artificial Intelligence like the Red Queen.

For most of the past days, they were either working on the engines of the Obscurus and some calibration or using the upgrades on the Battle Droids as the number of the Battle Droids under Arcturus's control was already around three hundred because Red Queen was manufacturing them in the starship.

With a lot of free space, there was more than enough room to create an entire manufacturing platform for the Battle Droids, and they could easily manufacture the ABD-Spectre MK II. Battle Droids, the upgraded version that the Red Queen devised and which he sold the licensing to the Starlight Drive Yard Industries when he was at the Phoenix Prime.

Zehal took it upon herself to increase the firepower of the droids because their lasguns had a lot of room for improvement. Arcturus knew that Zehal was very focused on weapon research as it was one of her hobbies, and having a Battle Droids armed with better weapons was a big advantage.

She also said that she would take a look over the weapon systems and energy-based weapons that were installed all around the Obscurus. Many of them, after some calibration, would have increased output by a lot.

And the numbers were not lying.

According to the analysis done by the Red Queen, the weapons systems had a lot of room for possible improvements; just after some calibrations, it would be enough to increase its power considerably and also catch off some bugs.

Apparently, even Red Queen was enjoying working with Zehal, and they were something akin to a friend. As the Super-Advacned Hyper Artificial Intelligence, after some more development, she would be essentially indistinguishable from any living lifeform as she would become a living lifeform even if she was artificially created.

On the other hand, Red Queen barely hided certain distate for Jeniael, often calling her "musclehead" because she saw her as someone who could just wave aorun her sword and destroy things.

Minimal intellectual potential, which was rather bad in the Red Queen's eye who was valuing the intellect the most.

<Command acknowledged. Ending the Training Holoprogram - Warrior Bug Simulation.>

The voice of the Red Queen echoes around the room, as Arcturus sighed because he was rather tired from the training. They were going on for several hours, and he found it rather challenging fighting with the lasgun as it wasn't something that it was he was used to.

And probably, this would be rather the last time he was using some gun unless it was one of those rare and exotic guns that could blow up the entire spaceship of the Imperial Military in one hit.

Sticking to his Power Sword, Psionics, and Psykeer Ability was indeed much safer and more powerful. For him, using more "modern" guns and other things was massively nerfing his combat prowess to extremely low degrees.

"We should get something to eat and rest for a moment. I want to run through another simulation, but this time against a smaller group of a few thousand Warrior Bugs under the control of the Brain Bug, perhaps one with the guard of a few Praetorian Bugs."

Arcturus said to Jeniael, who approached him as the Holodeck had been deactivated and the previous environment of the ruined war city was now gone, replaced by the apparently dull-looking futuristic Holodeck station.

"That would be a good challenge... I have always fought a Praetorian Bug. Hopefully, we would encounter some on the Ziras IV."

Arcturus looked at her with a raised brow; part of him was looking at her as if she was crazy because she was actually eager to meet the Praetorian Bugs.

"You certainly have some really serious issues. I would have thought that young ladies from the noble's houses would be excited about things like luxurious products and clothing, not about meeting one of the most dangerous creatures in the known Cosmos."

He really did mean it because the Praetorian Bugs were really, really dangerous things that he would avoid, all things considered. Praetorian Bugs were essentially the Royal Guards for the Arachnid Queen or the Arachnid Empress when the colony or hive reached a certain population.

When it came to the larger colonies, then even the Bug Brains and Superbrain Bugs had added protection in the form of the Praetorian Bugs. The Praetorian Bugs were the best genetically engineered bugs among the Arachnid Swarm.

The Praetorian Bugs represented the pinnacle of the genetic engineering and manipulation that was achieved by the Arachnid Swarm. Their physical capabilities were essentially unmatched by any other species, and at the same grade, they could fight and kill tens of opponents.

In the hive or colony, aside from acting as the Royal Guards, they also acted as the commanders for the armies of the Swarm. Due to this, they rarely appeared outside of the hive grounds or the nests of the Arachnids, so it was relatively rare to encounter even one of the Praetorian Bugs.

"Are you aware that the presence of the Praetorian Bugs would mean that the colony of the Arachnids is far bigger than the information about them is saying?"

He asked her if she was aware of this because this was exactly what the presence of the Praetorian Bugs at the Ziras IV would signify. Jeniael looked at him as it started getting to her, and while Jenaiel was an absolute battle maniac, at the same time, she also had enough amount of self-preservation.

She knew that if they went to the bigger Arachnid Nest, then death would be the only outcome, and she didn't wish to die.

"Ts... this true indeed..."

Seeing Jeniael accept the reality, reluctantly at that, Arcturus sighed in relief. The last thing he needed was for her to run off somewhere to search for the Praetorians on the Ziras IV.

Even if she didn't find any, it would still be highly dangerous because aside from the approximate numbers of the bugs, they were blind about almost everything else. It was even possible that the bugs would be anticipating them or that some of the locals were infected already.

"Come on, we should make something to eat."

Fortunately enough, he had stacked up enough food for several weeks. He ordered the catering company to prepare tons of dishes that he then froze in the cryo-status within his ship. Obviously, this also cost him a good number of Universal Credits.

Just for the food alone, he paid around several hundred Universal Credits, which was a tremendous amount if one considered the fact that he was buying just a food. But, he was buying dishes from one of the most prominent catering companies in the Empire, led by the top-notch chef.

If any of the things that he ordered were made from rare ingredients if yes, then the price would be far higher compared to what he had paid, as everything was made from ordinary resources.

Not the ones harvested from the Space Beasts or other creatures.

***

Several hours later, Arcturus's chambers

Because of the lack of any area where people could eat on his spaceship, ass the Obscurus was a private ship; there was no cafeteria or anything, they ate in his private quarters.

Obscurus was never intended to be starship with large crew or any in the start, because everything was being handled by the Red Queen and the droids under her control.

Technically speaking, there was no need for the living crew, though he predicted that this would change in the future, and because Obscurus was a capital ship, it wouldn't be a problem to create something like cafeterias or common rooms for the crew that would once inhabit the Obscurus.

There was more than enough space for that.

As they were eating, even Jeniael was surprised by the sheer luxury and comfort of his private chambers because they appeared out of the books of some nobleman of the Empire, and they would probably build something opulent in their starship.

Everything was made from the geniue and exquisite materials that couldn't be obtained easily.

Even though Jeniael wasn't someone who was keen on things like this and was spending all of her time training, she was still someone born into the most prestigious and powerful Bloodline Aristocratic Lineage of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya.

"It's rather good... not really subpar as I would expect."

Jenaiel said as she cut into the huge piece of steak that was from some breed of cow from a far away planet within the Imperial Space. Because all of them were Professionals on the starship, every single dish was rather enormous by any standards because they needed large amounts of calories to sustain their bodies to function normally.

"Thank you. It's my private starship, and I like certain standards, so... everything in my private chambers is the best of the best and nothing less."

Arcturus said as he found it rather entertaining to see Jeniael eating something from the catering. Even at the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy, she was eating only the best of the best and she was ordered food from some of the most exclusive restaurants at the Celestara.

Due to her upbringing, she was accepting only the best of the best, especially when it came to the food. He knew that she wouldn't hesitate to spend a fortune on the most exclusively made dishes that would cost more than the average citizen of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya would make in a year.

"Where is Zehal? I didn't see that nerd for the entire day, and I don't think that she would miss lunch."

Much to his surprise, she asked something about Zehal, which was something that he wouldn't really expect, considering how much they didn't like each other.

"In the engine room, apparently, she is doing some adjustments to the engines. There is a lot to be improved on the engines, as they are one of the weakest aspects of the Obscurus."

He was glad Zehal was working so hard to upgrade his ship. Part of it was due to her need to be as far from Jeniael as possible, and another reason was that this was just her hobby.