Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

I remained spaced out inside the escape pod which was now in the middle of its descent planet-side. I havent been able to completely accept the mysterious attack and the death of all my comrades as reality just yet.

On the ship, I mostly just acted as Iris instructed. It all just began to sink in when I became all alone inside the pod and finally had the opportunity to calm down a bit.

The faces of everyone from my platoon and my commander flashed through my mind. Before I knew it, I was shedding tears.

Dammit!

At this moment, the pod began shaking violently.

What happened?

The AI of the escape pod currently entering the atmosphere of the planet responded.

Are there any problems?

[No problems detected. Everything is within expected parameters.]

The shaking became more intense.

Hey! Is everything really okay!?

[No problems detected. Everything is within expected parameters.]

The shaking further intensified.

Hee~y!

[No problems detected. Everything is within expected parameters.]

Somethings definitely off. Even if its installed on a disposable one-time use escape pod, this isnt the way an AI should respond. It might have taken some damage or something.

Are things really gonna be fine? Come to think of it, Ive never heard of an escape pod being used to directly land on a planet before. Let me check it out with my nanoms.

(Nanom, how many instances of escape pods descending on a planet have been recorded thus far?)

[12 times in the past thousand years. The last recorded incident was 320 years ago.]

Theres only a few instances, just as I thought. Well, guess thats natural since battles dont usually occur this close to a planet.

I wonder just how much time had passed? When Id finally lost my sense of time, the shaking suddenly subsided.

The thrusters fired up and the rotation stopped. After a few moments, an impact came along with a snapping sound.

Next, I heard a gushing sound. Was something leaking out?

Whats wrong this time!?

[The parachute has been successfully deployed, but it seems there was a crack which opened up somewhere due to the initial shock.]

The heck! Whered they buy this thing anyway!? Its my first time encountering a machine with such poor specs.

A crack opened up just because of the parachute getting deployed? Im absolutely positive this thing isnt up to regular Empire standards.

Is there any problem with the parachute itself?

[No problems detected. 25 minutes until we reach the surface.]

Whew. Guess well make it somehow.

Hey pod. Whats the name of your manufacturer by the way?

[Orlando Heavy Industries Ltd.]

Ah. So thats it. Orlando Heavy Industries was a long-standing company, but two years ago a critical defect was discovered on one of their products, followed by the discovery of more critical defects on most of their other merchandise. Presently, theyre a company burdened with lots of issues. Im sure this escape pods also one of those defective items of theirs.

There would be no problems with the landing right?

[No problems detected. There is enough oxygen remaining.]

Wait, are we actually leaking air!?

[No problems detected. There is enough oxygen remaining.]

Damn, this is hopeless. Wait, thats it!

Is the air outside breathable?

[It is breathable. It has managed to clear the regular safety standards.]

Phew. Thats a relief. I tried to check out the scenery outside through the external monitor but couldnt see much because the monitor was too small.

[We will land on the water in 1 minute.]

Finally Hm? Wait, were landing where!?

What do you mean were landing on water!?

[The apparent landing point is above a lake.]

Change course immediately!

Or rather, tell that to me sooner dammit!

The thrusters activated once more.

[Its currently impossible. The main thrusters are only calibrated for use in a Zero-G environment.]

Im really starting to get pissed off at this damn AI.

Will this pod be able to float on water?

[There is a crack located somewhere in the structure. Theres a high risk of being flooded.]

I just knew youd say that.

[We will be landing now.]

We impacted the surface quite heavily. I hurriedly snapped my seatbelt off and began to prepare for getting out of the pod.

I would be bringing with me a backpack, pulse rifle, laser gun, electromagnetic bladeknife, the pouch containing the processor module, uniform, cleanroom work overalls and two blankets. Its a considerable amount of luggage.

I wasnt able to bring the pet bottles containing water with me. I had no choice but to bet on the lake water being potable. If it wasnt, bringing the pet bottles would only prolong my eventual death by just a little bit anyway.

I shoved the laser gun, processor module, uniform and cleanroom overalls into the backpack and hoisted it onto my back. I also slipped the rifles sling over my head and onto my shoulder.

The blankets also had slings attached to them, so I brought them over my head as well and carried them under each arm.

I checked the outside with the external monitor. The heck! This things really starting to sink!

Okay, open the hatch.

When the hatch opened, water started flooding in! I somehow managed to grab onto the edge of the hatch and pulled myself out of the pod.

The air definitely has no problems.

From what I can see, the shore seems to be about 70 meters ahead. Looks like I came pretty far out.

I wasnt exactly good at swimming but its not like I cant reach it. The rolled up blankets I held on both sides seem to be made of non-absorbent material and helped me to stay afloat. The rifle was obviously quite heavy.

I swam and reached the shore in about three to four minutes. Phew. Im saved! Im glad its daytime. If I landed during the night, Im sure I wouldve had a harder time.

I scanned the surroundings. The local flora seems to be fairly similar with the ones Ive seen on the other planets Ive been to. They were mainly green in color and had shapes resembling those of the plants Im familiar with. You can even say they somehow remind me of those from my home planet.

But what should I do now? When I thought about this, I noticed something important.

In the first place, the reason why I was forced to evacuate to this planet was because of the ship lacking oxygen and Iris needing some time in order to repair it.

Without the communication equipment on the escape pod, I wont be able to contact Iris. The communication function of the nanoms cant reach her after all. The effective range is only about a few kilometers.

Escape pod, respond! Please respond!

Its no use. I tried hailing it several times more but there was no response. Was that pod water resistant in the first place. I should have confirmed that.

I was busy being frustrated by the AIs stupidity earlier so it never occurred to me.

It was able to withstand a vacuum environment so it it should be able to function underwater too, but I cant really bring myself to expect something of the sort from that piece of junk.

At worst, Ill have to find a way to salvage it out of the water. But that would be totally impossible on my own. Should I get in contact with the local lifeforms and ask them for help? Thats the only thing I can think of for now. Wait, hold up.

It was then that I finally realized something. Why the heck am I letting my guard down in a place like this!? This place is the same as a battlefield. Wild creatures often have habitats in large bodies of water. I quickly brought my pulse rifle up in a fluster.

This place really resembles what Im usually accustomed to, so I lost any sense of caution before I knew it.

For now, Ill just get out of here and find a spot with a good vantage point.

I saw something resembling a hill nearby so Ill head over there.

The hill was a large, rocky formation with a diameter of more than 10 meters and a height of about 5 meters. There were a lot of footholds so I could climb up quite easily.

Well now, thats quite the nice, wide view. Potential assailants would be able to spot me easily as well, but I got myself a rifle. That means I have the general advantage.

I scanned the area and noticed something falling from the sky to the east.

I recognized what it was almost immediately. Ive watched scenes like this on the holobit lots of times already.

Dang. Theyre burning up A lot of smoldering objects were falling not only from the east but the northern and western skyline as well.

Ah Those are definitely wreckage debris from the ship.

Ugh Was it no use after all?

Iris stated that the odds of successfully reconstructing the ship was 54%.

Though the odds were barely more than half the ideal numbers, I really believed it would work out somehow.

Even if the odds were 50/50 at best, I just couldnt imagine that Iris would fail.

Was there any other possible explanations for this happening other than failure? No, ejecting foreign materials on a planet was a serious violation of military regulations.

Furthermore, Iris wouldnt drop these things on purpose because she knows Im still stuck here.

Ugh

No other words could leave my mouth.

The ship debris continued to rain down, seemingly without end.

I spent an unknown amount of time just blankly gazing up at the sky. I was brought back to my senses by hunger. Lets just eat something for now.

Damn, I let my guard down again! Well, this time it was due to being shocked silly. It truly feels like being struck by a finishing blow and getting absolutely wrecked as a result. Now, I guess Ill just have to resolve myself to live on this planet till my eventual death.

No, was this really the case? Theres no way that Iris would just crash and burn after failing without doing anything else. There should have been enough time for her to launch an emergency beacon containing an SOS communique or something.

A Galaxy-Class battleship had suddenly gone missing. A search team would probably be dispatched at the very least. But the probability of them finding this planet and even this particular star system was quite low.

High Command was familiar with the navigation schedules. The search would probably center around the coordinates where we were actually supposed to warp out from. Itll be hard to count on them finding this place since we were forced to warp out here mid-route due to the attack.

Against my expectations, the rations were actually quite juicy and delicious. Im parched as well, so I guess Ill try drinking the lake water. Im still bummed by the fact that I was unable to bring those pet bottles filled with drinking water.

Judging from the suns position, I guess its about 4 oclock in the afternoon right now. A gentle breeze blew by, and it felt quite nice.

When I moved my gaze toward the lake, I discovered something.

Hey, thats!

There were about five pet bottles floating around on the water surface and swaying along with the breeze. I think there were actually more than ten, but did they sink together with the pod? Oh, well. This was quite the unexpected find.

Ill go retrieve them and try out the lake water while Im at it. I scooped out some water from the lake with my hands, drank some of it and immediately spat it out. Well, it does taste like normal water at least.

(How is it?)

I had my nanoms check it out.

[It meets the safety standards for drinking water.]

Okay. With this, drinking water wont be a problem for the time being.

At this time, I noticed that there were a lot of footprints resembling those made by humans on the ground along the waters edge.

This made my alert level rise and I quickly brought my rifle up. I remained vigilant, but noticed no other abnormalities.

The footprints werent new and seemed to have been made about one or two days ago. When I scrutinized them further, I saw that even though they somewhat resembled human footprints, there were some definite differences. The number of toes seemed to be just four and were quite small, like those of a childs.

Anyway, lets get out of this place first.

However, I carried too much baggage, and with the inclusion of five pet bottles which I had to hold with both hands, I ended up being unable to properly wield my rifle. Having no choice, I decided to hold three bottles with my left arm and wielded the rifle with my right.

Lets hide the remaining two bottles somewhere inconspicuous.

I managed to make my way back to the rocky hill from before.

I placed my baggage down and caught my breath. Come to think of it, the summit of this rock was quite a good spot. If I pressed myself down, it would be quite difficult to catch sight of me if ones looking from below. It was the perfect place to observe the lake.

Its probably best if I watched over the lake from here.

I finally managed to calm myself down somewhat. I somehow panicked earlier, but when you think about it, the possibility of creatures such as those resembling monkeys existing on this planet was much higher than there being human-like lifeforms here. To date, members of the human race naturally sporting only four toes havent been discovered yet after all.

Its already evening. Im really drained from all thats happened today. Since I cant possibly go without any sleep, Ill just put the nanoms on alert while I hit the hay.

Even though I said putting the nanoms on alert, it just means having my hearing enhanced several times through the use of the nanoms as a precautionary measure.

Even if my hearing gets enhanced, my surroundings wont get suddenly flooded with noise but would get dead silent instead. Thats because all the sounds Ill hear would be intercepted by the nanoms.

If the nanoms judge the situation to be unusual, they would instantly wake me up, making this a very convenient function.

I laid down one blanket and covered myself with the other. Only my ears were left sticking out.

(Alert Mode on. Wake me up at dawn)

After issuing the mental order, the sounds from my surroundings were completely silenced.

[Acknowledged]

I quickly drifted off, perhaps due to being too worn out.

***

[It is now dawn. Please wake up.]

The cry of a bird rang within my ears. It was right in the middle of sunrise. How can the nanoms tell if its dawn already if my eyes were closed shut the whole time? Theyre a capable bunch, as always.

I dont really feel like sleeping anymore. Just how many hours does this planets daytime last. Ill get up at dawn again tomorrow to confirm.

I plan to observe the lake for most of the day today. I cant do anything careless anymore. I ate my rations and gulped down some water.

I pressed myself down on my belly on top of the blanket and began monitoring the lake. Since the nanoms can also enhance my vision, zooming in about ten times would be a piece of cake.

I passed the time like this until noon, which I estimated from the position of the sun in the sky. Oh yeah, gues its about time to retrieve those pet bottles. The moment I thought of this, those appeared.

The distance was about 300 meters away. At first glance the figures resembled humans. But they were quite short. I zoomed in a bit more. Theyre about 120 cm tall huh? Altogether, there were five of them.

But I really cant think of them as humans. Their complexion was green in color. But it wasnt pure green. It was a strange, somewhat darkened hue resulting from mixing green and white.

I caught some voices crying out gukyagukya with my enhanced hearing.

They held blunt wooden sticks on their hands. Are those supposed to be clubs? Some of them held long, spear-like wooden sticks with pointed ends. They also seemed to be wearing really filthy loincloths.

Well, since theyre wielding weapons like clubs and spears and wearing loincloths, they seem to be some sort of intelligent lifeform.

When I zoomed in on them more, I found their mugs to be quite ugly. There was nothing good to point out about their appearance: extremely flattened faces, eyes which slanted upwards and pointed ears.

Perhaps the only intelligent lifeforms on this planet aside from me were these guys. Yeah, thats actually quite possible. Lets try to get rid of any initial prejudices.

Nothing would change if I continue hiding in this place. Lets suck it up and try to say hello.

I wont be in any danger from the weapons they were wielding. I hid all my other stuff inside a gap in the rocks and prepped my weapons. I brandished my pulse rifle and put the laser gun and electromagnetic bladeknife inside the pockets of my suit.

Those guys seem to be heading towards the lake.

I approached the place while remaining alert. There were times when I lost sight of them, but because they constantly cried out gukyagukya loudly, I easily tracked them once more.

They werent paying attention to their surroundings at all. Are these guys really intelligent lifeforms?

But well, if some random alien were to see human children going wild while messing around, perhaps he would liken the sight to these guys.

When they reached the lakeside, they made even more of a racket.

It might cause them to panic if I suddenly approached them and called out, so I decided to get their attention from some distance away.

Hey!

I shouted out in a voice loud enough not to lose to theirs.

The surroundings were instantly wrapped in silence. All five of them turned their attention my way.

I raised both hands to indicate I dont have any intention to attack. But my rifle remained at the ready over my shoulder.

Hello. Good day to you all.

I called out to them again. Of course, they couldnt possibly understand me. I just wanted my meaning to come across using the tone of my voice.

Each of them made eye contact with the rest and started laughing hysterically. Some of them even started drooling. I approached them little by little.

Wait, those are

Two pet bottles were pierced through by a wooden spear held by one of them. It looks like they found where I hid them and skewered the bottles for fun. After seeing that, I finally lost my patience and snapped.

These guys are definitely not intelligent lifeforms! Rather, theyre actually raring to attack for the sake of making me their meal.

I raised the rifle off my shoulder and took aim. When they saw my actions, they started running crazily towards me. The distance was less than ten meters, but that was enough.

Ive already gotten a lock on all of them through the virtual target scope displayed by my nanoms. It doesnt matter how wildly they move about.

I simply turned the rifle towards them and pulled the trigger.

The M151 pulse rifle was directly linked to my nanoms, enabling the remote-type lens attached to its body to automatically tracks enemies and bring them down with concentrated pulse laser bursts.

Firing off consecutive bursts five times didnt even take 0.5 seconds. Then the rifle finally went silent. The Imperial Army Issue pulse rifle was actually really awesome.

My diminutive assailants toppled over helplessly.

Shit! You fucktards sure got full of yourselves huh!?

Ive managed to get enlightened about the greatness of pet bottles just yesterday. Humans cant live without water. Perhaps this lake was the only water source in the immediate vicinity. Without these pet bottles, it was possible that I wouldnt be able to go too far away from this lake at all.

And these guys ruined these precious pet bottles just for fun!

I ranted and raged for a while, and when I managed to calm down, the nanoms made an abrupt request.

[Please proceed with dissecting them if possible.]

I have a nature of not being able to turn the people counting on me down even though I dont exactly like the things they want me to do. Well, whatever. Lets get dissecting.

I dont particularly hate seeing blood, but I really didnt want to touch these guys if I could help it. As I didnt want to touch them, I simply hacked them in two.

I cut them from the base of the head all the way to the crotch with the electromagnetic bladeknife. Gah! It smells! An extremely disgusting smell wafted out. After cutting them down, I used the spears they had on them to turn them over so the nanoms could analyze them.

[There is something below the ribs.]

When I prodded the spot indicated with the wooden spear, a bloody ball about 2 centimeters in size rolled out. I wonder what this is? It sported a cloudy white coloration.

The nanoms wanted data about their genetic code, so I picked up the ball with my fingers and hurriedly headed towards the lake to wash my hands and knife.

The pet bottles they stabbed now sported holes right in the middle, so I cut them with my knife and made two makeshift cups from the bottom portions.

These are great! For the current me, who has no access to daily necessities, these things are equivalent to treasures.

Basing on this planets orbital path, it should be roughly the start of midday right now. I really need to procure some food soon.

But will I be able to safely consume and gain nutrients from the things in this planet in the first place?

I managed to glean a lot from the encounter with those guys earlier. They totally didnt have their guards up at all while living around this place and even made such a loud racket. This may indicate that there was nothing which they perceived as an immediate threat within the area.

But perhaps there really were threats present, but they just failed to detect them. Its also possible that it simply slipped their not-so-bright minds right?

All of them could be probable. Ill have to stay vigilant.