novelFailure >> Attack on the Turkana District Space Elevator - Sp. Station (1)
| ← Ch.163 | Ch.165 → |
Part 1
Can your soul keep up with a world at 5x the speed? With 5x the concentration of the traditional recipe, Monster Girl Energy - Maximum Bottle!! has been unleashed upon the world.
A distant look filled Private Heivia Winchell's eyes as he watched the brown-skinned swimsuit women in the back of a pickup truck. Those bikini women had been hired to hand out 500mL glass bottles of energy drink as a campaign for a new product.
This happened in the South American Amazon District.
It was midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere.
"Why aren't we allowed to drink any?"
"You do know what we're waiting for here, don't you? For a space shuttle. Fill your stomach with carbonation and it'll rupture inside you once we launch into space."
"Why are you being such a jerk to those bikini babes? Did one of them pretend to confess to you while livestreaming it???"
"I'm a Bad Bull guy myself."
Quenser yawned while leaning against a tall chain link fence.
He would occasionally rub at his body through his uniform, but not because his new underwear felt weird.
A giant structure towered up towards heaven on the other side of the fence behind them. But instead of an elevator, this was a space shuttle meant to launch into space and return to earth repeatedly. It was more than 40m tall and the jungle-gym-like launch equipment around it was a little taller. Several of them were lined up quite neatly, making it look like a metal corn field.
"This is such a waste of fuel, " complained Quenser."I can see now why the Capitalist Corporations are so obsessed with that elevator. It's all about cost performance."
While the four powers had been competing to see if the space elevator or the mass driver would become the new standard, the research institute here had apparently begun a revival of these old-fashioned but tried-and-true toys. Basically it was the same as a train-obsessed government worker finding excuses to use public money to buy a steam train. Since they were even calling it a "space shuttle", a term that had supposedly been retired, you could see this was more about a love of the aesthetic than about profit.
Quenser viewed the gate that opened and closed like a city railroad crossing.
"This is a busy place."
"Half the globe can't launch any rockets thanks to Mother Lady. And that's true for every world power. The space station is still controlled by the Federation of Elevator Industries, but that effectively makes it a decision made by 7th Core as a whole. And interference from the sky is way worse than from the ground. They can use laser beams, jamming, meteors, debris, or whatever else. That's a problem for everyone - public sector, private sector, academic, and military. That's why everyone's decided to launch their stuff on the other side of the world, leading to a rush on this place."
"All because of the one elevator."
"I sense a weirdo at work here. Nothing good ever comes from letting intellectuals join the battlefield."
Annoyingly enough, Mother Lady was still not widely considered a villain despite all the news reports on the trouble it was causing. That space elevator could cheaply deliver packages to every part of the world, so it had already become a great ally of safe country family budgets the world over during its 9 month test period.
The electronic simulation division said it would start sucking up more than ten times the money once it began working for real.
There was a negative side to it. For example, what to do about the empty packages and cargo tanks after a delivery was made. If they were allowed to provide a collection service, they might be able to effectively create extraterritorial bases all around the world.
The 37th had to tear the elevator down and end this before that happened.
But that would be no easy task.
"That elevator wasn't built up from the ground. It's dangling down from space."
"?"
"That means the space station at the top is more important than the ground base at the bottom. And I've heard that station is 20km across. We took over the ground base by blocking off the underground water they were using for cooling, but it's not over yet. In the worst case, the station could cut the wires to free itself and then move to another candidate location. Conquering that desert ground base was far from being checkmate."
That was why the swimsuit women had stopped their pick-up truck next to the fence denoting an off-limits zone so they could hand out sample products. The crowd here had looked lucrative to the PR team that normally operated in big cities.
Quenser sighed in the hot sun.
"Amateur advertising agencies have noticed what's happening, so do you really think the Capitalist Corporations is going to ignore it?"
"That's why we're supposed to get up into space before those greedy bastards bound by military regulations manage to rework the rules so they can act. Dammit, what idiot is causing the holdup!? Are they checking everyone's bags? Or did the health exam show someone had a cavity or an STI!?"
"That's why you use mouthwash after doing oral. Always practice safe sex, kids."
The two idiots' conversation was cut off by a short beep from their radios.
It was finally their turn.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Heivia while following the fence to the gate."I mean, we left the Princess behind."
"Taking over the elevator's ground base doesn't make the local guerillas magically disappear. If we didn't leave some kind of solid defense behind, they could surround the base and take it back. And those ad-loving Capitalist Corporations are really good at negative campaigns."
"I know that, but we left that sheltered girl to hold down the fort."
"We can check in with her at any time with the cameras. And it's not like she's all alone. The old maintenance lady is with her. Besides, the Baby Magnum isn't the only defense. We took over Mother Lady's ground base, so the others there can fire warning shots with that thing's laser beam."
"Why isn't the space force doing this job for us? Then we could call it quits and enjoy some New Year's leave."
"The space force as you imagine it doesn't really exist. Their name sounds cool and all, but they basically sit at computers on ground bases and send out jamming signals to mess with the enemy satellites and spacecraft."
"What's your point?"
"None of them are dumb enough to visit the dangerous radiation-filled vacuum of outer space. We're stuck with a sh*tty job no one else wanted. As usual."
Every last one of the Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes here were lined up below the blazing sun in their uniforms. Only half of the 37th was here, but they still formed a lengthy line while waiting to have their ID checked so they could pass through the gate. It took a while.
"Is this what it's gonna be like when we die?" asked Quenser while watching the line move about as fast as a snail."'The enemy Object will arrive shortly, so please enter the shelter in a calm and orderly fashion' and then whoooosh, kaboooom!"
"You're dreaming if you think the desk jockeys are gonna be anywhere near that kind to us. They never even look at the reality beyond their computer screens and they'll just demand we bravely fight the Object to the last man and die....Really, the Legitimacy Kingdom is behind the times. We should really build our own space base."
This may have been another problem caused by Objects ending the nuclear age. Modern battlefields were still discussed on the talk shows targeted toward housewives, but the focus was more on cyberspace than outer space. The national defense funding that all the world powers used to fight each other came out of their tax money, so they needed to make sure everyone felt terrified enough that funding countermeasures and applied research sounded appealing.
"I've heard all the leaked photos of famous actresses that have been making a stir online lately are actually a form of propaganda meant to manipulate public opinion."
"So are you saying the only way for the space side of things to make a comeback is to start dropping those thin, single-use pieces of rubber from satellite orbit?"
Finally, it was their turn to pass below the gate bar that rose and fell like a railroad crossing.
A small group of people had gathered and begun shouting a short distance away.
"Oh, what's going on there?" asked Heivia."Did a fight break out?"
"It's 38 degrees and crowded, so people are irritable and liable to run into someone from an opposing group, " said Quenser."So who is it? An environmental protection group and an energy company?"
"It might be the ever-fierce conflict between Team Salt and Team Soy Sauce. People can get heated when it comes to ramen flavors."
"Your failure to even mention Team Tonkotsu marks you as guilty. But, wow, I think it's two women shouting. Yeah, I'd really rather not see a woman swinging her hair around with a monstrous look on her face."
"Hang on. I think I recognize one of those voices."
"Oh, god, that's Frolaytia! What is she doing!?"
Separating her from the old maintenance lady may have been a mistake.
Two women were pressing their foreheads together while glaring at each other.
One was Major Frolaytia Capistrano, Queen of the Potatoes, but the other was a silver-haired brown-skinned officer with a non-Legitimacy Kingdom uniform.
In fact...
"Ugh!? That's an Information Alliance uniform!"
"Oh, no. I forgot this was an international space launch facility that anyone can use."
Quenser smacked a hand against his forehead.
The military was really bad about turf wars. Quite literally in fact. They fought to protect their national borders year round. Soldiers in the other uniform design were trying to stop their own commander with shouts of "Lendy! Major Farolito! Please calm down!", but they were too hesitant about it and it had no effect. That was one area in which the Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance were the same.
The demonic commander, who was busty but made sure no one wanted to get anywhere near that bust, spoke in a deep, resentful way she never used with her own soldiers.
"Oh, what have we here? I thought I detected the unhealthy scent of melted solder in here, but the Amazon District is protected by Legitimacy Kingdom Objects, so surely I must be imagining things."
"Someone too dumb to stop smoking in this day and age may be unaware, but as much influence as the Legitimacy Kingdom may have in this district, it has no official affiliation. But I suppose those colossal fatasses may have failed to notice how much trouble their presence is causing the locals."
Quenser was dumbfounded.
"(Hey, Heivia, does this count as a personal fight or a war???)"
"(Shut up and don't you dare say anything to them. I want nothing to do with this. )"
The conversation moved on without those two boys.
Frolaytia pressed her forehead even harder against the other woman's.
"You do understand the situation here, I hope? Do you have any idea how many Objects we have stationed here?"
"I suppose I can't blame an ignorant country girl for not knowing, but attacking us would be in violation of the Peace and Equality in Space Treaty. But if you insist on being a pest and violating PEST, feel free. I'm sure you will enjoy being assigned to an Arctic base for losing your side so many Objects."
"Oh, you want to fight!?"
"Bring it on, little girl!!"
The Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance soldiers rushed in. They had no complaints about a busty catfight, but these particular busts would lead to the world's dumbest war if a fist managed to hit one of those beautiful faces.
And Quenser was impressed by one thing he noticed.
"You're actually bothering to hold her back, Heivia? That's surprisingly responsible of you."
"With all this chaos, I can cop a feel and she'll never know it was me."
The brave warrior who rushed straight into danger ended up writhing on the ground after Frolaytia swung a 500mL bottle of Monster Girl Energy and it hit him right in the forehead.
Quenser's decision to stay out of it proved wise.
Those jiggling boobs were like a Venus fly trap. Fall for the temptation and you were dead.
Plus, he was officially a battlefield student, not a soldier, so it was not his job to preserve world peace.
"Whoa, whoa, stay away from me, yikes, yikes, yikes, ahhhhh!!"
Potato #1 protected his head with both hands and fled from the crowd of angry, stressed, and excitement-starved people.
After finding peace and quiet, he let out a sigh.
"G-good, they're gone."
(But what is the Information Alliance doing here? What business do they have in space???)
Just as that fundamental question occurred to him, he heard a girl's voice from somewhere.
"Okay."
"?"
He turned toward the young voice to see a large RV parked there. And the external area was surrounded by bed sheets draped over ropes like laundry put out to dry.
The sunlight shining through the sheets showed him the silhouette of a girl who appeared to be only around 10. She was partially bent over and standing unsteadily on just one leg. Her small hands were holding the lifted leg at the ankle. Her silhouette showed through so clearly he could make out all those details.
So was she putting something on, or taking it off???
"If I was going to need a spacesuit, they should have had it ready from the beginning. Oh ho ho. I do understand a spacesuit in my size can't be easy to come by, though."
"?"
"Hey, you there!"
While Quenser tilted his head, a sharp voice shouted at him through the sheets. She would not be able to see him either, but she spoke in a very demanding way. She may have mistaken him for one of her own.
"Oh ho ho. I cannot find the tape measure I had. Is it out there perhaps?"
"Hm? Oh, you mean this one?"
"That should be it, yes. Please hand it here."
An unexpectedly small hand stuck out through a gap between two sheets. She was also being super careless. She seemed to be hiding something, but her own hand had parted the two sheets somewhat. It was possible someone would see her secret through there.
The careless girl's soft-looking hand gestured for him to hurry up, so he sighed and placed the tape measure there.
"Oh ho ho. Thank you. I have my measurements taken regularly, but this is outer space we are talking about."
She pulled her hand back in.
Based on the silhouette, she wrapped the tape measure around that part of herself.
"Not to mention that this is for a special outer space New Year's concert. Yes, you're in for a treat, my many fans! Oh ho ho. I will make sure the world falls in love with me all over again!!"
(Hm, so she's an idol like Monica. )
He doubted she would give him an autograph or shake his hand if he asked right now, though. At any rate, he was finding a great variety of people had business in space. He was honestly jealous of the girl.
Meanwhile, he was headed up there to fight a war.
It was the most depressing reason to be given an all-expenses-paid trip into space.
Part 2
"Countdown - final sequence: 9, 7, 6...ignition. Blast off."
To Quenser, it felt like riding an amusement park thrill ride.
He was seated in a chair, but sitting in this chair positioned him so he was facing straight down. If he were not strapped in with special belts, he would have fallen straight to the rear of the shuttle.
He felt a great pressure in his gut.
He heard a deafening roar.
But none of it felt like he was actually blasting off from the planet earth. The lack of windows played a definite role there. It was like being trained for a form of torture that gradually squashed him with a thick but invisible wall. Maybe this was the world the Princess lived in while piloting her Object.
"Gwehhhh, " he groaned inside his helmet.
But that skinny boy had only been given a few days' worth of training in a pool and in a centrifugal artificial gravity generator, so he was lucky "gweh" was the worst he got. He gave a proper report using the communicator installed in his helmet.
"Th-the magnetic oxygen guidance is working for now. We won't die right away anyway, Frolaytia. Dammit, I'm totally groping those things till the tips turn black!!"
A rapid change in pressure was enough for someone to pass out and they could even die if air bubbles formed in their blood. It was known as barotrauma and was best known in the forms of altitude sickness and decompression sickness.
To prevent that, Quenser and the other 37th potatoes had several electrodes attached below their clothing. Barotrauma could cause everything from fingernail injuries to fainting, but it was mainly caused by two things: a reduced amount of oxygen being transported in the blood and bubbles forming from the nitrogen in the body tissue. So you could solve all of that if you could externally manipulate the iron to stabilize the oxygen transportation and strengthen the bonds of the nitrogen.
"Hah hah hah! Who doesn't love a secret prototype weapon? You should weep tears of joy at this opportunity! I believe this was originally developed in secret to help Pilot Elites handle the massive Gs of an Object which can reach the double digits at times."
"B-but, urp, why wasn't it adopted for general use among Elites?"
"It's so bad for your health they'd never expose their precious Elites to its effects."
In the seat behind Quenser, Myonri jumped upon hearing what sounded like metal claws scratching at the wall.
"Gweh. Wh-why am I hearing something from outside!? Ugh, are we going to break apart before even escaping the atmosphere!?"
"That's just the external rockets separating after using up their fuel. If the heat caused the connections to melt just wrong and they failed to separate, then we'd 100% crash, though. Gwehhh!"
Knowledge was the best way to conquer fear. It did nothing about the pain and suffering pressing down on their bodies, though.
Then Quenser stared in shock at his neighbor.
The other idiot was there.
"Frolaytia, Heivia broke the regulations! Ugh, he must have filled his stomach with a banned drink cause his helmet is now full of carbonated energy drink barf. I'd really prefer not to describe it in any more detail. Urp, just seeing it is enough to make me feel sick!"
"He only has himself to blame, " said Frolaytia over the radio."Do not remove his helmet even if he is drowning. The instant the gravity is gone, that stuff will fill the entire shuttle."
Heivia responded with a mysterious code: "Bleh this Monster Girl bleh is from the bottle gwehhh you broke on blehhh my head!" But it was too advanced a code to crack, so Frolaytia ignored it and continued with a report.
"The Princess's team is searching for a way up from Mother Lady's ground base, but that is only a diversion. While the Capitalist Corporations' Federation of Elevator Industries is staring worriedly down at the bottom of the elevator, you will circle around from the other side of the planet to attack them from above. The space station is in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36, 000km, so it really and truly is in outer space. I honestly envy you this trip into space."
"Maybe if we were here on vacation, I'd agree with you! Gweh, but we're headed to the most dangerous battlefield in the universe!"
"Ah ha ha. You've finally move past the most dangerous in the world, Quenser. That's a new record."
It was no use. She was so used to sending them to their deaths that it barely registered as a problem anymore. Myonri must have been used to this too because she stuck a hose similar to a dentist's saliva ejector into the top of Heivia's head from her seat behind them. A gross sucking sound followed. The device may have been to help the crew since the helmets prevented them from using a handkerchief to wipe away sweat.
"Mother Lady is being guarded by soldiers recruited from the PMCs they love so much. And they are all top of their class, so be careful. There is one other person you need to be aware of: Louisiana Honeysuckle."
"..."
Louisiana.
And Honeysuckle.
"The researchers who develop technology with military applications are generally erased from all public records, but a few of her papers for academic conferences slipped through. They were about the influence a colossal structure would have on the planet's environment. Until the elevator was completed, she was apparently known for her work in preserving rare animals."
"Preserving rare animals?"
That did not seem to fit.
Especially when he thought back to the dry and cracked desert.
"There are records of her being sued by an environmental protection group, but it was completely shut down by an army of lawyers armed with ample funding. But a researcher of her caliber would have not trouble making money, so the environmental group's claims seem unlikely to me. They claim she traveled all the way to Africa, stole the genetic information of rare animals there, and then sold that to European zoos."
Then Frolaytia got back on topic.
"Anyway, Louisiana is the genius researcher who worked out all the problems with the theoretical concept of a wire space elevator and created an actually usable plan. The elevator is everything to her, making her a rare Capitalist Corporations resident who doesn't care all that much about profit. The intelligence division's report says she is likely holed up in the space station. She does not behave like a soldier does, so it would be best to kill her before she can cause any trouble."
The scratching sound grew louder. They were surrounded by it. But this was no longer about the rocket booster connections. The air's friction itself was probably tearing at the shuttle's exterior. From the outside, it would look like they had been thrown into a prison of orange heat.
The battalion had split in two, half on the surface and half in space, but Frolaytia did not seem to be having too much trouble. Everything was done over the network these days, so commanding remotely was not a problem at all.
It was while that thought occurred to him that Quenser felt his bangs float up. And that was not all. The pressure bearing down on him completely vanished, and not just because he had gotten used to it.
The concept of up and down was gone.
From his perspective, he might as well have been seated in an ordinary bus. He was now facing forward. The weird part was how his butt had left the seat just like his back had left the chair back. Without the belts, he might have floated up to the ceiling and started slowly spinning.
"Hello, world of zero-g sex. Now we can invent a brand new kama sutra with none of that pesky gravity restricting the glorious possibilities!"
"Let's see. Which tube is Quenser's oxygen?"
Myonri's dangerous hand reached in from behind and Quenser very nearly died of asphyxiation.
The scraping sound on the outer walls ended.
Only silence surrounded them.
This time, not even Myonri made a noise. They were all holding their breath at the painful silence.
"Welcome to space, " said Frolaytia to drive the point home.
It did not feel real. They had not encountered any aliens and they had not rapidly evolved as lifeforms. They were surrounded by thick walls and contained in awkward spacesuits. It only felt like being restrained by those two layers of cramped protection. They were in space that continued forever with no horizon, yet they did not feel remotely free.
There was zero atmospheric pressure.
This was a vacuum devoid of oxygen.
Radiation stabbed directly into them without anything to weaken it.
People would die here if they were simply exposed to it without any protection. It was a lonely place where they could scream in terror and not a peep would reach their awful friend right next to them. It was a profound place where the human beings who had spread across the planet and chewed through its resources were separated out into individuals and forced to face their own insignificance. People were not meant to exist in space. It was a hell colder than the sea and hotter than fire.
"Your next step is to circle across the Atlantic to reach central Africa, " said Frolaytia."The battle begins once you arrive. Overeagerly unstrapping yourselves now will only get you injured before the fighting even starts, so be careful."
"You make it sound all fancy, but we're basically following the long mountain trail around so we can peep on the open-air bath from above, right? Are you sure they won't notice us???"
"Do you have any idea how many rockets and shuttles are being launched from the Pacific and South America right now? We didn't paint 'The Legitimacy Kingdom's Super Cool New Weapon' on the side, so you'll be fine. The official paperwork says you're a construction crew."
"Construction?"
"For a lunar villa."
That was even more outside Quenser's experiences than an indoor golf course or casino built in the middle of the Las Vegas desert. Rare bugs and plants in the jungle were biological resources, new online possibilities were data resources, and the deep sea - considered to be the final frontier on the planet - was all about oil and shale gas. And now people were attaching price tags to the moon's land and selling it off. Humanity really knew how to turn anything into a quick buck.
"I almost feel sorry for those lunar villas, " said Frolaytia."The space station's jamming has brought down their high-speed wireless internet, so they have no way of knowing what's going on. And without control signals, they can't launch any rockets or shuttles. I don't know if the Federation of Elevator Industries meant to do it, but the moon is like a remote island out in space."
"Serves 'em right, " spat out Quenser.
But more importantly...
"Should we really be doing this? Won't soldiers get in trouble from a number of organizations if we pretend to be civilians for a sneak attack?"
"We have no other choice since physical stealth only goes so far. Oh, and I would recommend not checking outside. That way you won't have to see all the deadly eggs that have been laid out there."
"There are that many of them?"
"The space elevator allowed them to send an obscene number of those killer satellites outside the atmosphere, so the area above Africa is filled with tens of thousands of those military satellites that can move around on their own with explosives filling their belly. If the enemy notices you, they'll approach silently and then - boom - you have a hole in your hull. And you know what even a finger-sized hole means out in space, don't you?"
"..."
"Explosions in space have a wide lethal range. With no gravity or air, there's nothing to slow the razor-like shrapnel. To be blunt, not even a pizza delivery worker who knows the side roads by heart could slip through that floating minefield. Which is why - in my infinite kindness - I chose to rewrite the official paperwork."
"Anyway, we've made it into orbit. The first challenge when launching into space is the separation of the booster and tank. 50% of the risk of death comes from that, so now that we've gotten past that without incident..."
He was cut off by a quiet clunking sound.
He looked up (from the perspective of his seat and the movable range of his head) and Myonri laughed at him.
"Ah ha ha. So much for sounding smart there, Quenser. Sounds like we still had one more piece to separate off."
"..."
He fell quiet.
He checked his helmet's seal and the remaining oxygen meter on his wrist while his thoughts turned to the extravehicular activity unit on his back. He grabbed and then let go of the grip connected to the cable that would emit nitrogen gas from 32 different nozzles. He finally reached for his seatbelt, but he had trouble operating it with the spacesuit's thick fingers.
Or were his fingers trembling?
"Myonri, you should check your equipment. Like right now."
"Why?"
"The shuttle only had the booster and tank to separate off, so it should only have happened twice. There is no air friction out here in space, so that just now was something else - an accident! Something's coming!!"
All of a sudden, the lead-shielded roof of the shuttle was torn away.
The shuttle's cabin was exposed to the vacuum of space.
The starry sky as seen from earth was like viewing it through the wall of a plastic greenhouse. The real thing was much too distinct. More than that, they could see a shining blue disk overhead. That was the earth. It was a lot smaller than he had expected.
Without the electrodes attached all over his body, the pressure difference might have made his red blood cells rupture, killing him before he could have even seen this.
But he could not just stare at that strange sight.
Something was attached to the shuttle.
A perfect 2m cube shined silver in the sunlight. Much like an attack helicopter, weapons were attached below the solar panels spread out on either side. Work arms with multiple joints were extending this way. The shuttle's roof had been made to open and close, but the four arms had used a chemical or something to slice through the seam, grab it by force, and pull to either side to tear it open. Just like opening a bag of chips.
"A killer satellite!?" shouted Heivia with eyes wide.
Those satellites were used to destroy other satellites. Human nature had finally made its way into space. The Capitalist Corporations had their space elevator, so to bring quantity to the outer space conflicts, they had created a space minefield made from tens of thousands of killer satellites.
"Dammit, we need to protect the shuttle!!"
"No, Heivia!!"
A few of the soldiers responded to the boy's voice (that reached them via their helmet transmitters, not by sending vibrations through the air) by pressing their assault rifle stocks against the shoulder of their spacesuits and aiming at the killer satellite.
"Dammit, this round helmet makes it hard to look down the scope!! And these giant gloves make it hard to hold the gun. And that's after cutting away the trigger guard!!"
But...
"Gah!?"
"Gyah, my eyes!!"
The soldiers groaned before they could fire. They seemed to be writhing in pain and trying to hold their eyes, but the thick helmet got in the way. This was yet another accident. The killer satellite must have struck first while continuing to widen the wound in the shuttle, but it had produced no light or sound.
Or maybe...
(Did it shine its sensor-destroying laser in their eyes?)
"Go to hell!!"
Heivia's assault rifle finally opened fire.
He had no way of fighting the recoil in space, so he simply had his body pushed back into his seat. The most training they had gotten was wearing VR goggles while submerged in a giant tank of water, but he pulled it off pretty well.
He was firing away in the next seat over, but Quenser could not hear a thing. That suggested he would die if he removed his helmet now.
And the student did not hesitate to remove his seatbelt.
"Watch out, everyone!!"
Did his warning reach them?
What happened next happened whether it did or not.
There was no sound, but he saw a flash of light brighter than a lightning bolt.
The killer satellite had taken enough damage, so it detonated from within, scattering 2000 metal balls smaller than pachinko balls.
Killer satellites were not expected to accurately shoot down fast-moving ballistic missiles with laser beams or railguns like in the SDI program of a former age.
They would generally approach slowly and then self-destruct.
Simple and primitive destructive power was all they needed.
As machines and computers advance over time, they had enough space leftover to do other things before self-destructing. So they now had plenty of optional functions such as shining powerful lasers on the enemy satellite to destroy its sensors from afar or using metal arms to grab and break solar panels.
But in the end, they would still explode.
So they were not given the latest tech; their exteriors were even made from flimsy aluminum foil. They did not need nimble mobility. They were mass-produced for cheap as disposable tools. The wars fought in space were so tediously realistic, with barely any bizarre technology to be found.
"Gahhh!!"
After undoing his belt, Quenser sprayed nitrogen gas from the nozzles on the extravehicular activity unit on his back to slip into the slight space below the seat. He curled up and protected the soft spacesuit with its back - with the metal tank there.
In space, an attack did not need to punch or slice through the enemy. Without any pressure or gravity, a single scratch was enough for the satellite to slip out of stable orbit or for an oxygen-filled shuttle or station to break apart from the difference in internal and exterior pressure.
The trick was to cause as many shallow scratches over as wide an area as you could.
An attack similar to a shotgun with unlimited range was ideal. As long as you did not care if the debris you produced got in your way afterwards.
And in fact...
"Bhhghhwahhh!!"
"Help me out here, Myonri! Hold Cottage's arms in place while I seal his suit up with airtight tape. He'll die if we don't hurry!!"
Quenser had no idea how effective that tape was. It might have been issued to them more to make them feel better than because of any scientific evidence it worked. But he had to believe using it was better than leaving the soldier with a torn spacesuit. While the soldier nearly lost consciousness from a rapid pressure change similar to elevation sickness, Quenser forcibly bound his thigh with a tool similar to duct tape and filled the invisible gaps by melting the adhesive with an electric iron similar to a soldering iron.
"Don't die, Cottage. You're being treated by a girl. You've dreamed of this situation! So don't you die!! Listen, your wound is being treated by a soft-skinned girl in a short-sleeved gym shirt and sports bloomers at the sports festival. You've never been happier!!"
"Oh, you seem to be doing well given the circumstances, Cottage."
"Good, more like that, Myonri. Fill him with your medical girl power. If I tried to cheer him up as Quensette, the shock of learning the truth might just kill him!!"
The shuttle had reached its limit.
It was never going to fly normally again after the roof was peeled away like a convertible.
And the Capitalist Corporations' Federation of Elevator Industries was equipped with killer satellites. That one had been part of a networked minefield. If they continued on like this, the killer satellites waiting up ahead would gather together like a soccer defense. The shuttle was not the most maneuverable craft, so they could not nimbly dodge out of the way. Many more explosions like that one and the shuttle would not last.
Quenser shouted to the others.
His physical voice could not actually reach them in the vacuum of space, but his earth habits were hard to shake.
"You can't hold onto your weapons with these gloves, so wrap their straps around your wrist and then jump out from the shuttle!!"
"But this is outer space!"
Heivia's eyes widened, but they had no time. Quenser kicked off his seat while holding still-shaking Cottage. Even though he would have been thrown out from the broken roof anyway.
Heivia waved his hands wildly even though it was program controlled.
"How can you use that extravehicular unit so well? It's got 32 different nozzles."
"It's basically the same as the civilian models I saw back in my safe country school. Those were marine leisure toys that let you float in the sky by spraying pressurized seawater. There hasn't been much military value in spacewalks, so the civilian side is more advanced. Basically, the controls have been simplified to the point that an amateur can pick up and use it. Paper manuals aren't a thing anymore. If it's more complicated than a stick and two buttons, you lose customers fast."
"Your point?"
"If you volunteered to help with the R&D, you could play around with them all you wanted in the school's huge 5m-deep experiment pool. Eh heh heh. Which included providing hands-on tandem support for unsuspecting swimsuit girls."
Whether they had obeyed Quenser or simply been thrown out of the shuttle, most of the potatoes escaped out into deadly outer space while still plastic-wrapped in their spacesuits.
But not all of them made it.
Either they had not trusted Quenser or they had been too panicked to undo their seatbelts, but a few of the soldiers remained inside the torn-up shuttle.
Quenser could have sworn his eyes met theirs through their thick helmets.
A moment later, the many killer satellites gathered together and produced a series of silent explosions. The shuttle was transformed into an orange shooting star as it broke apart while enveloped in explosive flames.
The sharp fragments scattered by the explosion had nothing to slow them in space. Simply watching was risky, but Quenser was in no position to respond to that threat.
There was nothing he could do.
He could only clench his teeth and squeeze his eyes shut.
But then he opened them again.
"..."
"That violent mom just took away our precious shut-in room, " said Heivia."So what do we do now? What about oxygen!? How many hours will the tanks on our backs last!? I know it's less than a full day!"
"Focus on regulating your breathing instead of worrying about how much you have left. And avoid talking too much."
"What kind of bizarre corpses are we gonna leave out here in space!? Dried up mummies? Or maybe something like frozen food!?"
"If you don't want to die, then use your head! Complaining isn't going to produce oxygen from your garlicy breath!!"
The student was panicking too.
They were in the silent vacuum of space with nothing to even stand on and mother earth's blue shine felt like it was rejecting them. When he looked up at the planet hanging above them like a ceiling, he could make out some red dots of light. Those all symbolized human civilization. They were the massive flames of war caused by Objects.
(The earth is blue, my ass. Or does this mean things were still relatively peaceful back when everyone was threatening everyone else with nuclear missiles?)
Quenser cursed to himself before speaking again.
"Which way to that elevator - Mother Lady? Something that damn big should be obvious even from space."
"You're still trying to continue the mission!? I think we've got bigger issues right now. We can't keep fighting, so we need to withdraw!!"
"Withdraw to where? Do you think if you ask for help, Frolaytia's gonna blow the trumpet and lead the cavalry in to rescue us? You'd better hope she can pull a secret space cavalry out of her ass."
"..."
"If we want to survive this, we have to figure something out ourselves. The only place nearby with plenty of oxygen is the space elevator's space station. If we don't pay them a visit before the tanks on our backs run out, we're all dead. If you get that, then get moving. We don't have much time. If the Capitalist Corporations was judging the success of their attack using radar, they should assume we all died with the shuttle. We can pass right through the network of killer satellites right now!"
The killer satellites were of course designed for use against large machines like enemy satellites and spaceships. People in space was generally unthinkable, so they did not search for them. Just like the giant doppler radar on an airport control tower would fail to detect skydivers or a pair of panties blown off the clothesline, the killer satellites would likely overlook Quenser and the others since they were outside the design specs.
"No radio. Switch to close-range lasers."
"Goddammit. Like always, that busty commander goes silent the second things go south."
"The killer satellites would pick up any transmissions, so this is her way of being nice. It's just that her tsundere levels are so high it can be really hard to tell."
"Hmm, hmmm!!"
"If you don't like that explanation, then how about this? Imagine she shut off the transmission to stick her hand down her underwear and enjoy herself. Pray hard enough and the video footage might just start transmitting by some freak accident."
They were equipped with extravehicular activity units that sprayed compressed nitrogen gas from nozzles for attitude control, but that was only meant to keep their balance and counterbalance the recoil of gunfire, so it was really like having brakes they could only use a limited number of times. They could not be used as accelerators like a space ship or robot's rocket boosters.
Orientation was everything in zero-g.
If their nitrogen gas tanks ran out before their oxygen, they would be stuck spinning helpless and alone in the silence of space waiting for their oxygen to run out. Running out of oxygen first would actually be the better way to go.
Quenser operated the LCD screen on his arm. It was designed for use with the fat fingers of the spacesuit, but the screen was less sensitive to his touch than an ordinary phone.
"Man, that thing is sending EM signals everywhere. It must think it's the king of outer space. Anyway, I found it. The elevator is 50km thataway!"
Compared to space as a whole, 50km was nothing, but the potatoes could not move a single centimeter forward no matter how hard they moved their legs. They could not walk without ground and they could not swim either.
"What do we do now?" asked Heivia.
"There are tons of killer satellites out here and we can't be the only things they've attacked. There has to be some large scraps in a satellite orbit out here. We can calculate out where they're going and hitch a ride with one of those trucks as it passes through."
Fortunately, they had countless opportunities.
Space was vast, but satellite orbit around earth was a fairly packed area. 1800 pieces of rocket and satellite wreckage were floating around up there (and that was only the number that had been officially reported and confirmed). Add in all the bolts, nuts, paint chips, and other tiny pieces, and the number had to be close to 3 million. Most of those were abandoned remnants of the Nuclear Age when humanity had been in a race to develop ridiculous rockets while claiming it was some great dream for the future of humanity (while it was actually just an excuse to develop more missile tech). Space development had been more sensibly planned out once the Object Age arrived and people awoke from that particular madness. Although "got bored and lost interest" may have been the more accurate way to phrase it.
Quenser wanted a piece of scrap that was sufficiently large, not moving too fast, and not spinning.
A scorched cylindrical cargo tank (perhaps originally meant to send additional supplies to a space station) was about to pass them by.
(The laser range finger says...good, it isn't moving so fast it would tear my arm off the instant I touch it!!)
"Try to keep up."
"Wait, they didn't teach us this in the pool training!"
Touching it directly could slice his glove open with the jagged edges, so Quenser instead attached a carabiner to the handle sticking out from the door. That way it dragged him along with it.
He was swept through that cramped area of space filled with killer satellites.
After seeing Quenser pull it off, Heivia, Myonri, and the others began locating their own debris and hesitantly following after him.
"Eek, eek, eeeek!?"
"Mute yourself, Heivia. That's just painful to listen to!!"
"There's so much trash out in space, " said Myonri."Do the people in the elevator just use the atmosphere to burn up their trash and defective parts?"
It seemed unlikely elevator parts would end up floating around in space if they were sent straight up the wires, so this had to be intentional. Some of the debris was as large as a bus.
Even if they could transport large quantities of supplies into space, the self-destructing killer satellites were still a limited resource. You would lose one every time they were used, so non-hostile scraps would be registered as such and removed from the attack list to avoid wasting the satellites. By pressing against the scorched side of that scrap, Quenser could slip right past the Federation of Elevator Industries' defense network.
The moon was always smaller than the earth that seemed to be pressing down on them from overhead.
But even out in space, a mere boy could not reach it.
The moon remained a lonely queen.
"..."
With how terrified he was of the vacuum held at bay only by the thin spacesuit, Quenser could not believe those wealthy people would actually build villas out here. He wondered if he would come to understand it after becoming a successful Object designer and diving into a bathtub full of cash.
But for now...
(We can finally make this an actual battle, even if just barely. )
With no horizon or air in space, there was nothing to block your view. Or so he thought, but the sun and its reflection off the earth itself created a blinding blue shine. That was why he could only see it after moving so close. A long, long line extended unnaturally up from the surface. The spread of the manmade had finally broken free of the planet and arrived in space.
That was the Mother Lady space elevator.
"Hey, " said Heivia through their helmets.
They were using close-range IR at the moment, so he had to be pretty close. He must have been riding on a different scrap.
"Do you honestly think we can arrive there without issue?"
"Wow, Heivia. Frolaytia really has you brainwashed, huh? How can you look at everything that's happened so far and think 'without issue' is even remotely still on the table?"
"That's not what I meant."
Heivia's usual worrying nature was rearing its ugly head.
He tended to grow cowardly the instant some unknown technology, like a new Object, showed up. Just like someone who saw new smartphones and tablets and decided they preferred an insular regulated society over a bright future. Quenser was annoyed by that elderly way of thinking, but...
"Yes, we might be able to slip past the killer satellite defense network if we hitch a ride with the registered scraps, " said Heivia."But there are scraps too big to call debris headed toward the elevator's space station."
"If they weren't, we would be starting an endless journey into space. What's your point?"
"Ummm, won't those scraps look like a threat to the space station? Won't they have defense weapons ready to shoot down the scrap metal???"
The elderly way of thinking contained wisdom this time.
Quenser frantically unhooked his carabiner and kicked off the side of his scrap just before a thick, bluish-white electron beam stabbed through the silent vacuum of space. It pierced the center of the cylindrical cargo tank, causing it to rupture from within.
Incidentally, the supplies that never reached their destination happened to be sex toys.
Since any videos watched or VR data accessed on a space station's computer equipment would be contained in the logs sent back to the control center back on the ground, Quenser was surrounded by a blizzard of analog paper magazines, silicone tubes, and life-sized dolls.
"Get away from the scraps!!" he shouted "The defense system meant for meteors and large scraps can't detect anything human-sized!!"
"Oh, no. That cloud of sex toys is floating out into space, " lamented Myonri."The aliens are going to know all about the most embarrassing side of our civilization."
"Huh? What are you worried about, Myonri? This is tradition. Have you ever heard of the space probe they launched back when the country called America still existed? The world's brightest scientists got together and decided the best way to contact aliens was to carve a picture of a naked man and woman into a metal plate. But since being bright doesn't mean being a good artist, they got some complaints about spreading a poor representation of earth's civilization."
If you were not sure how to use the books and dolls, they would only look like detailed examples of human anatomy. With that much reference material, the little green men flying around in saucers and harassing farms could stop abducting humans and pulling out their insides. The books might even be preserved in an alien museum as anatomy textbooks. But right now Quenser had to focus on the space elevator more than the aliens who seemed to have a thing for milk and busty country girls.
He was in the middle of a war between humans.
The Mother Lady built by the Federation of Elevator Industries was right in front of him.
The wires extending all the way from the earth seemed to pierce through a giant disk-like structure that looked something like a flower with petals or like an analog clock face. A donut-shaped block for living space and cargo storage were connected to the central sphere and 8 "flower petals" extended sharply out from there. From the central sphere to the tip of the petals, it had a radius of more than 10km.
The wires seemed to "pierce through" it because they did not stop there. They continued a long, long way up into space. Space had no horizon or atmosphere, but the faint blue light of the planet got in the way, preventing Quenser from seeing the end. It was probably connected to some kind of weight, like a wire reel that was no longer in use.
The space station was located at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers, but the wires apparently continued past 100 thousand. That was the only way for it to remain balanced, but that meant the distance from the station to the top of the elevator was about twice the distance from the ground to the station.
The moon was even further out at 380 thousand kilometers. The luxury villas disconnected from all the wars on earth seemed to be coldly staring down at the incompetent potatoes who could not stop the killing even after launching into the silence of space.
"Heh. That thing's the world's biggest piece of space trash, " spat Heivia.
Even now, the bluish-white rapid-fire beam weapon continued to tear through the vacuum of space to burn away the large scraps the station had created itself. The kilometers-long flower petals were covered with solar panels and had apparently been converted into weapons, so a careless look at the sharp tips could expose your eyes to the blinding light.
But just as Quenser had predicted, the weapons were only attacking the scorched hunks of metal. Once the potatoes let go and floated away, they no longer had to fear the defense weapons.
They soon arrived at the giant station that only looked like a smooth wall from the outside.
They touched it.
"God, this is terrifying!" said Heivia."Where am I even supposed to grab this thing!? I'm gonna float away from it again!!"
"Don't come to me for comfort just cause you're worried. It's creepy!!" said Quenser."Using your extravehicular unit to press against the wall would be a waste of gas, so attach yourself with a wire!!"
Something as simple as landing proved to be a trial and error affair. Heivia seriously did end up flipping away into space, so Quenser had to seriously think for a moment whether he would grab at the filthy guy's waist or let him fly off never to be seen again. He ultimately decided to throw over the other end of the wire he had attached to the wall, snagging it around Heivia's leg.
Once he had finally arrived safely on the station's wall, the idiot forgot all about saying thanks as he changed the subject.
"Pant, pant! A-anyway, where do we get in? Let's not make our space adventures into a trilogy. We only have so much oxygen."
"We have airtight tape. And since Cottage is still breathing, it must work. Let's blow a hole in the airlock with a bomb and then seal it up from the inside. We need oxygen too, so no one survives if we just thoughtlessly pop the place open like a balloon."
They had arrived at the space station, so the killer satellites defending its surroundings would have a hard time aiming for them. The Capitalist Corporations' Federation of Elevator Industries would not want to blow a hole in the wall and dump themselves out into the vacuum of space.
Using the extravehicular activity unit's gas for movement was not recommended, but they had no choice at the moment. Trusting that he could steal some equipment from the station, Quenser used the nitrogen gas to approach one of the large flower petals. Instead of the sharp tip, he was interested in the donut-shaped living space and cargo block located inward of the petals. He felt like a bug going for the flower's nectar.
He pressed up against a rectangular section reminiscent of an elevator door reinforced with a rubber seal.
"Is this the airlock? I was expecting something more like a bank vault door, but this is pretty flimsy. Hey, Heivia, let me use your rifle's sensors. I'll check the material and thickness of the door with the ultrasound sensor and then set up the plastic explosive."
He held out his hand while staring at the airlock and then looked over to see someone there.
They shined silver and stood over 3m tall.
It was a Capitalist Corporations powered suit used for extravehicular activity.
"........................................................................................................."
His mind went blank.
A beat later, a scream too high-pitched to even call girly erupted from Quensette's mouth, signaling the beginning of a battle between Legitimacy Kingdom shoulder-fired missiles and a Capitalist Corporation shotgun.
"Kyaaaaahhhhh!!"
"Stop worrying about your nitrogen supply, Quenser! Get away from that wall!!"
Part 3
The Capitalist Corporations' strategy was to cause shallow scratches over a wide area instead of concentrating penetrative power on a single point. Even if the attack did not break through the enemy spacesuit, it would still cause them to spin uncontrollably and a single pinprick in those thick plastic suits would cause the person inside to die. The conditions were entirely different from when everyone was covered in bulletproof fibers and thick armor plates. Air was the dividing line between life and death, not blood.
Shotguns could cover a wide area with a single shot, so they were the perfect choice.
With no air or gravity in space, their power was not reduced by distance.
They saw a bright muzzle flash right in front of them.
"C-Cottage!?"
"Pull out the bullet before using the airtight tape! Those are smoke rounds, so seal it with tape now and he'll smoke alive in his suit!!"
"Wow, it actually worked. I think he might be immortal."
Being treated by cute Myonri was enough. A guy who could convert lust into strength in battle was unbeatable. Quenser complained about the guy's survival, but then he heard Heivia click his tongue over the transmission.
"Dammit, I can't get a stable trajectory with my rifle or missiles. Earth projectiles designed to be used in the air are useless!"
"Wait, you couldn't even aim the missile you fired to save me!?"
It was just like a student from a safe country to complain after having his life saved. A child who did not know how to cook and always had his mama cook for him could never appreciate how wonderful it was to always have a homecooked meal made for you.
Were the Capitalist Corporations using shotguns because the ballistic trajectories were so unstable?
With all this tech developed for use in space, it was easy to forget they had been hiding in cracks in the ground to avoid the enemy not long ago.
"The Island Nation is the holy land of robots and they've also got Hollywood that insists on doing everything in full 3DCG." Heivia sounded disgusted."That must have influenced them. We're in trouble cause I can't even imagine what kind of bizarre weapon they'll pull out next!!"
"That just means this place is a treasure trove of tech they can't go public with. I'm gonna get a look at it and steal all their ideas. This deadly trip into space won't be worth it otherwise."
A powered suit was a lot better than a spacesuit, but it was still only as sturdy as an armored truck. They could be shot through with a missile or an anti-materiel rifle.
At any rate, the soldiers on the run triggered a silent explosion in space, launching the powered suit away from the station and into the emptiness beyond.
"They know we're here now, so blow open that airlock already, " said Heivia."Who knows how many are going to be rushing over here soon!!"
"You might want to move outside of the blast range. Unless you want to go crashing through a lunar villa's roof, that is."
They blew up the airlock and moved inside.
They did not have time for them all to pass through the one airlock. Luckily, there were plenty of airlocks. Once Quenser had a few more people in his, they sealed the outside door with airtight tape, pried open the inside door with some tools (because using another bomb would have killed everyone inside the airlock), and finally paid the space station a visit.
The bright white LED lights made the inside look unnaturally sterile. It was so perfect it instead looked unhealthy. It was reminiscent of a research lab deep underground where a zombie virus or something was being developed.
They were in a simple corridor, but it was as wide as a road with two lanes both ways. It followed a gentle curve, so they could not see all the way down it.
The place was unnecessarily large, evidence that they had no trouble transporting things into space. A station like this would have been unthinkable back when everything used rockets where people racked their brains to reduce the weight by even a single gram.
The space elevator was neither a train station nor a hotel, so they did not bother using centrifugal force to produce artificial gravity. Everything remained zero-g like normal.
(Zero-g like normal, huh? Humans adapt so fast. )
Quenser smiled cynically in his helmet. He hoped he would be able to stand on his own two feet once he was back on earth.
He glanced at the computer on his arm. Operating the simple screen controls was difficult with a hand larger than a baseball glove.
"There's pressure. One atmosphere in fact, so there's probably air."
"Then open your helmet's visor and prove it. I'm not about to open mine and have my head swell out and pop like a balloon."
Heivia's ideas of space appeared to be based on a hodgepodge of misinformation. Death in a vacuum would not be that gruesome. You would still be dead, though.
"Come to think of it, what happens when you die in space?" he asked."There aren't any bacteria to make you decompose out here, so would you float on outside of the solar system inside your enclosed spacesuit without ever rotting until some aliens finally picked you up???"
"You have a ton of bacteria in your gut, " replied Quenser."Not to mention mites on your skin and cavity bacteria on your teeth. Some people will have parasites like athlete's foot too. Once we die and our immune system shuts down, we'll be devoured from within. Inside a sealed spacesuit, you'll be reduced to a sticky goop made up of rotted flesh, filth, and even the squid-smelling goo in your balls. That would make for an awful surprise for the little green men who open up your suit. They'll be wondering why the earth sent them such a cruel present."
He made sure not to hold his breath since that could damage his lungs.
But he still wanted to preserve his suit's oxygen tank, so he went ahead and raised his visor. If the tank did run out, he could still suffocate to death inside his spacesuit even when he was surrounded by oxygen in the safe station.
He felt dizzy the instant the outside air reached him.
"Ugh!"
"Hey, your eardrums didn't burst, did they!?"
"I'm fine. I think it's just my inner ear."
He shut off the oxygen supply from the tank while he thought.
Could he find a Capitalist Corporations oxygen tank anywhere?
The two idiots searched around. This structure was generally shaped like a donut, but there were a ton of sturdy metal doors for airlocks on the outside of the metal ring. Those were connection joists for attaching additional experiment rooms.
The delinquent noble (who now removed his helmet after seeing Quenser was fine with his visor open) frowned as they checked inside those.
"Pwah. The hell? These are so boring."
"No, they're not. These are a treasure trove."
The two of them had vastly different opinion on what they saw.
The experiments came in all types. The cylindrical experiment rooms were each the size of a large bus and had various company logos plastered on them. Were all those companies supporters of the Federation of Elevator Industries? The one with plants growing on steel racks protected by glass cases was probably a plant factory that grew vegetables which could be harvested dozens of times per year. In addition to food, there were frozen earthworms and slugs. Those may have been a cold sleep experiment.
(Hm? Is this the latest space trend? I could have sworn the focus was more on new alloys and microscopic chemical development. )
"Look, they've got drinking water."
"Heivia, that machine recycles the astronauts' piss with a filter."
"Bfff!? Thank god I didn't swallow!!"
Heivia's over-the-top spit take made him spin around in the zero-g.
There was also a section with genetic information preserved in cold storage. Basically, it was the fertilized eggs of animals.
"This one is a zebra and this one a giraffe. There's even a lion and a hyena."
"What the hell's the point? Can you order endangered species with the click of a button in the Capitalist Corporations???"
"..."
Quenser thought for a bit and then faced the machinery again.
He saw water, dirt, nutrients, and even fertilizer. A closer look showed none of it appeared to have been created in a sterile lab. The dirt had apparently just been dug up from the ground because the bags full of it still contained chunks of mold and small bugs.
"Heh, " laughed Heivia."Do those rich bastards even want their experiments to be free of additives and agrochemicals?"
"No, wait. Is this what I think it is?"
"?"
Heivia tilted his head, but Quenser was not even looking his awful friend's way.
"Was this for Re Terra?"
"I don't know and I don't care because we're bringing this elevator down today. Here, isn't this what we wanted? Capitalist Corporations oxygen tanks!"
Sure enough.
In fact, there were tanks everywhere.
"Wow, the elevator sure is generous to its people. They have so much precious oxygen they can just leave it lying around like curly hairs in the corner of your room."
"Couldn't you at least compare it to a fire extinguisher or AED, you bastard?"
But once they actually pulled a tank out of its metal box, they found the socket did not match. These could not be attached to Legitimacy Kingdom equipment.
"These mystery hairs are completely useless! Why can't they be more accommodating, dammit!?"
"Probably to prevent their enemy from using them. Y'know, like we're trying to do."
If they borrowed the lathe in one of the experiment rooms and shaved down the metal connector to match the tube's width, they could probably get it to fit, but they were in space. They were dead if any oxygen could escape, so they were afraid to trust DIY work. Unfortunately, they would have to give up on the oxygen tanks for now.
(I have no idea if we're making these decisions based on the reality of space or based on an idea of space born from dubious facts we picked up somewhere, but it's our lives on the line here. )
Quenser gave a self-deprecating smile.
Taking over the space station would be their best bet, but if that did not work, they at least needed a spaceship they could stay on for longer periods of time. Either way, securing a survivable environment was top priority. Being kicked back out without any new supplies would be the worst-case scenario. Whether it was oxygen or nitrogen, if they ran out of the supplies needed to operate in space, they could not avoid drying up and dying in the emptiness out there.
"I'm honestly pretty jealous of that powered suit from before. One scratch to our spacesuits and we're dead, so that thing must be such a relief. Maybe we can find some in storage somewhere."
"That's Capitalist Corporations gear, " pointed out Heivia."Steal one and our own people will shoot you the instant you step out the door."
For that reason, stealing just a tank or even a full spacesuit from the Capitalist Corporations would be dangerous.
"This station is more than 20km long, so it's huge. Whether it's manned or unmanned, they must have far more firepower than us. So where do we make our attack? If we don't choose a specific target, they'll use their superior numbers to surround us."
"I'm aware of that."
This space had no gravity, but it did have artificial air. That meant bullets produced for use on the surface would hit their targets here. With the exception of long-range sniper shots that took gravity into account.
(Mother Lady must have a power source up here as well. Otherwise, the Princess's group could have cut their power from the ground base. Is it just those flower petal solar panels, or do they have something else? No, that won't help. Even if I did know they have a nuclear reactor here, I wouldn't know where in this 20km fortress it is. )
Quenser could only think of one option.
Since they lacked a detailed map of the station, they could only aim for somewhere they could generally guess was important. In other words, something that structurally had to exist.
"Let's head to the center."
"You wanna go straight on in without even kissing the nape or earlobe first? Got a particular target in mind?"
"No matter how big this thing is, it still needs attitude control. It isn't a spaceship just floating out here - it's an elevator connected to a long wire. Since the wire is 100 thousand kilometers long - a quarter of the distance to the moon - you could calculate out its natural frequency. They must have some a gyro or a pendulum that counteracts the vibration of this giant string instrument. And that has to directly interact with the wire, so it must be at the center of the station. Take that down and the vibration of the wire will tear the station apart from within."
"Even though it's 20km long?"
"It could be 100 or even 200km long. The size of the building doesn't matter."
They could use that to negotiate.
If they were going to settle in anywhere, the center of the station would be best.
Instead of running, Heivia walked along with his hand on the wall.
"Hey, how about we let the station break apart while we escape to safety in an escape pod!?"
"Sure, if you can find enough of those wonderfully convenient escape pods for everyone and prove that the station can't fire those thick electron beams up our fleeing asses while it falls apart. Whatever we're gonna do with this giant thing, we need to take the center if we want any bargaining chips at all."
They heard a distant sound like thick rubber being crushed.
A six-wheeled armored vehicle appeared from around a corner of the wide corridor.
It was the size of a van.
"What the hell!? We're inside right now!!"
Heivia shouted and immediately tried to shove the frozen skinny boy aside, but he completely forgot about the whole zero-g thing.
He could not suppress the force of his own shove without using the extravehicular activity unit on his back.
The two boys ended up floating away in opposite directions.
The armored vehicle's machinegun gave a roar and red-hot bullets flew through the gap between them.
"That was too close!"
"Where's Cottage!? We can test this new weapon on him!!"
Heivia was trembling behind a metal tank filled with who-knows-what, but Quenser analyzed the situation while hiding behind a pillar rising from the floor.
"The recoil didn't push it back? Oh, I get it. That thing's an asteroid probe. Its tires aren't filled with air. They attach to the floor instead. Does it use suction cups? No, maybe it uses spikes similar to a cocklebur. It must be able to electrically change the angle of the spikes."
"You've got a huge boner for tech! I get it already! Got any useful information for us!?"
"It looks fancy, but it's really the same old thing." Quenser seemed awfully calm for having an armored vehicle's machinegun aimed at him."They took a lightweight aluminum probe and attached some armor panels that defeat its entire purpose. Its defenses are flimsy as hell compared to a real tank and the bullets its firing are only made to 'scratch' the target instead of punching through them....This isn't anywhere near as bad as a normal battlefield. Having our spacesuits tear isn't all that bad when we're inside a space station full of artificial air."
Yes.
It was harmless.
It did not have a bunch of legs or antigravity tech. Forcing a new method would only lead to malfunctions, so the Federation of Elevator Industries had stuck with the tried and true standard of wheels. That suggested it also used ordinary electric power. Burning gasoline or diesel was out of the question since there was no air in space, so what else could they use? They had likely avoided anything too bizarre.
Even if they had the equipment, the other side would not want to fire anti-materiel bullets thicker than your thumb at a rate of hundreds per minute. They would not want to tear apart their space station from within after spending so much money and effort building it.
Everything was normal, ordinary, and unsurprising.
Even though they were in space. Or maybe because they were in space?
"I get your reasoning." Heivia was still curled up behind cover."But what are we supposed to do about it?"
"Weren't you listening, dumbass? We fight the kind of war the Capitalist Corporations doesn't want. Fire your gun and fill the wall to our right with holes 150m ahead of here!!"
To avoid wasting the nitrogen for his extravehicular activity unit, Heivia grabbed onto a large tank with one arm to hold himself in place while firing his assault rifle. He only held it in one hand, but that was fine when he only needed to hit the wall and not pinpoint target someone between the eyes.
The wall was blown through right next to the armored vehicle.
There were different kinds of walls on the station.
For example, there were the extra airlocks that did not yet have an additional experiment room attached.
Once there were too many holes to count on your fingers, the pressure difference tore the entire metal door away. A gust of wind formed, like air escaping a giant balloon, and it tore the nearby armored vehicle from the floor, sucking it out into the black of space.
That was a major kill for Heivia, but for once he did not brag about it.
Instead, he paled in horror at what he had done.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!! What do we do!? What do we do now!?"
"If the Capitalist Corporations have any sense at all, their central control will close the shutter."
There was no response.
The Federation of Elevator Industries had no sense at all.
"In that case, escape to the next block over!"
"How dumb are you!? Your plan should never be reliant on the enemy's benevolent nature!"
The storm was rapidly expanding.
"Oh, god. It's sucking like crazy! Once that greedy old hag gets her lips on you, she's never letting go!!"
"Try to knock some sense back into your messed-up brain, dumbass."
Before the air could be sucked out of their current location, the potatoes kicked off the wall, passed to the next section of the segmented corridor, and pulled the lever to manually lower a thick shutter.
They had barely escaped with their lives, but they had learned something through nearly dying.
"The Federation of Elevator Industries isn't some unbeatable enemy." Quenser took a deep breath to confirm that there was still air here."The space elevator and the station up in satellite orbit are a hell of a first impression, but nothing they've done in this fight has been all that crazy. So far, anyway. They're only using whatever weapons were available and they're intentionally reducing the amount of explosives. I was afraid what we would find in a zero-g war with no Objects, but this isn't a destructive war where everyone's aiming nukes at everyone else to ensure their own safety."
"And?"
"We should be able to negotiate. Maybe by placating them and maybe by threatening them."
But that did not change where they needed to go. They had to leave the donut-shaped living space and cargo area and enter the center of the elevator itself. The long, long wires would vibrate at a set frequency, so there would be a device that counteracted that. Control that, and they could begin to negotiate with the Federation of Elevator Industries that was losing more and more people because they were too worried about damaging the space station to take sufficiently strong action.
They aimed their guns at anyone they came across, but most of them were more Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes.
"Hey, Phillip. Make some kind of signal before stepping out. I nearly shot you!"
"And let everyone know it's me in advance? They might 'accidentally' shoot me because of some stupid grudge they hold."
The potatoes were indeed potatoes. Gambling and moneylending within the same unit led to mutual suspicion in a flash. A military unit meant to protect the world could be destroyed from within by a single deck of cards.
After rejoining with a few other Legitimacy Kingdom groups, Quenser and Heivia approached the center.
There was a shutter down between the areas, but the student's plastic explosive made short work of that and they continued on.
The inside was not at all what Quenser had expected.
He had been imagining something like the bridge of a giant aircraft carrier, but the central area was more like an airport luggage management room or a drink factory. Conveyer belts with protrusions to hold them in place ran every which way, creating lanes like a highway interchange or junction. But instead of suitcases or plastic bottles, the conveyer belts were transporting large cylindrical cargo tanks.
The area was larger than a domed stadium.
A few parallel lines pierced straight down the very center of the vast space, but these were not thin threads. They were shaped like flat belts about 80cm wide and thinner than a razorblade. Needless to say, those were the elevator's carbon nanotube wires.
But Quenser did not have time to stare at that piece of the space elevator.
A girl with a fluttering lab coat floated in the zero-g world beyond those wires that looked like a giant string instrument.
But she did not seem to be a soldier.
What kind of soldier would be dressed like that?
In what was probably the gym outfit of a safe country school, she wore a short-sleeved gym shirt and red sports bloomers. On her feet, she wore black kneesocks and functional sneakers. The baggy lab coat she wore above all that was the only thing hinting that she was a researcher.
This was a female researcher involved with the elevator.
Each of those symbols and facts danced through Quenser's mind. Plus, a tablet floated next to the girl whose long hair and lab coat were fluttering in the lack of gravity. The alphabet stickers on the tablet's back spelled out the name Louisiana.
"Eh? What?"
The answer was right in front of him, but Quenser still blinked in confusion.
"Do you just happen to have the same name? Is this a body double? Because you can't be her! I mean, Louisiana Honeysuckle was the girl in Braskine's story! And it has to have been at least 4 years since he made those memories!!"
"Try 6. I went to graduate school."
"Hm? Hmm??? But then how are you only 17? Or did you master immortality so you always look 17!?"
"I'm what they call a genius, so I skipped several years of school."
"B-"
Quenser Barbotage was not usually the type to speak ill of the dead.
He was proud of that fact, but he chose to break that rule here.
It was a reflexive response in this case.
"Braskiiiiiiiiiine!!!??? Why did you make that sound like a bitter love story!? How young a girl did you fall for you, you son of a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!!?"
"What, she's a friend of his!?" asked Heivia while still aiming his assault rifle.
Louisiana Honeysuckle.
She might be a monster in the field of space technology, but it was hard to imagine that clothing had been modified to be bulletproof or blast-resistant. Nevertheless the gym clothes girl grinned and did not even put her hands up as countless guns were aimed her way.
"What's with the weird getup?" asked Heivia.
"Oh, sorry about that. It may depend on the material, but your bra shows through some of them."
"This isn't a joke!!"
"This is a logical choice. Do you know how much your muscles deteriorate while living in zero-g. It also effects your calcium, so I'm worried about the strength of my bones."
"Do you really think you're in any position to speak on equal footing with us? Or what, do you think you can stop our bullets with some very scientific psychokinesis!?"
"PK? No, that's a bit outside my field of expertise."
She kept a jocular tone of voice.
Quenser sensed something more to this unusual confidence and then he gasped.
"No!! Wait, Heivi-"
A gunshot and muzzle flash burst out.
But the one who froze in terror was the very one who had fired the warning shot: Heivia.
| ← Ch. 163 | Ch. 165 → |