The Situation

The tentacle that had hidden in the wall and attacked Kari was in a semi-fixed state, its base fused to the wall. Since it had been pulverized, the tactical squad had no idea how it moved.

Although B-3 was a repair robot, it served aboard a warship and possessed some basic positioning equipment. For example, the thermal fusion gun it used to weld metal had considerable offensive capability.

Although the Zerg tentacle moved so fast during its attack that it took footage slowed down hundreds of times to see clearly, no matter how they looked at it, it did not seem like the type capable of moving quickly.

If the Zerg tentacle had moved over to attack B-3, it could not possibly have destroyed it before B-3 could react. It would inevitably have left traces of combat, and the robot's built-in video capture function would have provided more intelligence.

Yet, whether judging from the scene itself or the footage they had received, the only conclusion was that the Zerg tentacle had lain in ambush along B-3's route well in advance.

Judging by the traces left by the destroyed Zerg tentacle, it had corroded away part of the wall and replaced it with its own body, then used powerful camouflage to deceive all of their detection equipment. But the corroded area would not restore itself, and once the Zerg tentacle was destroyed, obvious traces would remain at the site.

Based on the footage from before B-3's final loss of contact, Gwendolyn had pinpointed where it was attacked and marked the area in red on the squad's visual displays.

Yet the squad members found nothing unusual there. There were no signs of battle, nor was there any wreckage from B-3. This was highly abnormal.

If the Zerg tentacle had been lying in