Origin (2)

The ghouls' suits no longer covered their bodies, leaving them nearly naked, and patches of bluish flowers bloomed everywhere between them.

There were far more of them than I had expected, not only around the containers in the warehouse, but wandering among the cargo zones and standing eerily still in some spots.

Despite such a swarm of ghouls, there were no signs of a battle. I didn't know if they had been drawn by the commotion caused by others who arrived at the cargo sector warehouse before us, or if they were quietly filling in the spots left by survivors who had already taken all they could and slipped out.

The one thing I could be sure of was that, in this situation, it was impossible for us to land at the station. Naturally, getting to the cargo sector was out of the question, since it would be little more than suicide.

If we tried to land just like this, double armor or not, the ghouls—mistaking us and the shuttle for a meal delivery—would tear both to pieces.

"Hyun-woo, there are a lot of ghouls? ... Then is there creep spreading around too? That's a bit— No, a lot worse..."

Nadia asked in a voice thick with unease, even though she could be as loud as she liked right now. Still, her voice was thin, as if it might fade away at any minute.

"There's no creep. And I haven't seen any of those blood-red pools like in the residential area."

Unlike the residential area, the mining base Heaven seemed to be free of that particular mutation for now. The central nexus and refinery at the heart of the base were the same. From afar, there wasn't much visible difference from before.

'No, wait.'

Near the refinery. We saw security robots savagely destroyed, piled into a mountain. A graveyard of metal. There were no other monsters' corpses or human bodies to be seen.

It didn't look like the refinery facilities had been completely overrun, so I'd thought about going down to check their condition if we had to, but then I scrapped that idea. If, by chance, pureblood supremacists or monsters were still lurking nearby, we could be attacked.

"How's the deck looking?"

"It's almost exactly the same. Still a mess of wrecked shuttles out there — nothing added, nothing gone."

"So we need to clean up the deck, and lure the ghouls somewhere else. What now..."

Eric folded his arms, thinking deeply. Truthfully, if we had the luxury, we'd want to recover all the containers in the cargo sector because whatever was inside would be useful. But I figured we'd have to let go of some of that greed.

"Li— no, red. You haven't broken the system lock yet, have you?"

- Yeah, I haven't slept trying, but the code just doesn't work. I think we'd have to connect directly from a console linked to the system core to unlock it. Hyun-woo, didn't you say you got the internal camera access last time?

"Yes. Celestia used them to guide us before."

- That's odd. I can't even get the camera access now. Sure, some of it's more damaged than back then, but it feels like someone deliberately locked down the system—a manual lock from inside, and not that long ago either.

"Was it the people who took the cargo?"

- Most likely.

Licorice clicked her tongue and grumbled that she couldn't understand why. She said that if you were going to put up such a strong lock, it would have been more efficient just to cut the power completely.

But energy was still being supplied, and if we just unlocked the lock, the facility could be used normally. Licorice added that this in particular made her suspicious.

Carry glanced around and shifted into standby mode. While everyone was caught in thought, a newcomer carefully raised his hand.

Noticing he wanted to say something, I looked up at him. After a brief hesitation, he finally spoke with some courage.

"... Didn't you say you could hear the ghouls?"

"That's right. It's not just sound—better to assume they sense everything ordinary people do."

"Then could we lure them somehow?"

He meant lure them. I had considered it, but dismissed it as impractical due to the locked-down systems.

When I explained this, the man both agreed and offered another idea.

"There's a way to broadcast even with the system lock—well, override it, to be exact. In my opinion, it's not that risky. Would you like to hear it?"

"Don't hold back. Tell us."

"There's an antenna near the tunnels classified as a critical facility. It's set up so that every time power is cut, an emergency broadcast is played."

"... The antenna near the tunnels?"

I racked my brain to remember if there was such an installation. I prided myself on being familiar with every detail of the facilities near the tunnels. I hadn't wasted three years in mining.

Soon enough, Nadia and I figured out what he meant.

"You mean the one with the announcement speaker? The one that always goes on about space psychosis?"

"That's right."

There were speakers in several places, but if the one he meant was mounted mid-level on the base building, then yes. The man nodded.

Come to think of it, when we were heading toward the tunnels to get an orbital vehicle, the broadcast had indeed played.

【Warning. Power grid has been damaged. Preparing for power grid restoration. Quarantine system temporarily—kzzzt—!】

Shortly after that announcement, ghouls had poured out of the base. I didn't know if they were drawn by the broadcast or simply broke out because quarantine was lifted.

"That antenna manages communication links for each area, so it's usually controlled out of the communications area's management room. If I supply power to that antenna and access it directly from my personal room, I can control the broadcast."

He could use a small amount of refined blue crystal—Carry's backup battery—to power it, and broadcast from his personal room with no external threats to worry about. On the surface, it sounded like a workable plan.

I stared at the man before replying, remembering what Roxy had mentioned earlier.

The man who said he needed to get medicine from his personal locker in the communication area. Was he just trying to get us to head that way for his own reasons?

I felt a discomfort rising, but shrugged it away. Even if it was for medicine, as long as it didn't mess up our plans, there was no problem. I'd planned to check the communications area anyway, and I was the one who'd said to speak plainly.

As the silence stretched on, Nadia finally spoke up.

"... There's one problem with that plan. Luring them with sound might draw in more unwanted things too."

Sound travels. If you raised the volume enough to get the ghouls' attention, you might inadvertently stir things up in other zones as well. Each area was huge, but you never knew what might happen.

Eric agreed with Nadia, while Licorice voiced a question.

- You can only control the broadcast? Why? Even from a personal room, you'd usually have high clearance. The array antenna being down only affects satellite communications. The internal lines should still work. Couldn't you just access the quarantine system too?

"There are functions on the console, but to do that, you'd need at least an officially delegated supervisor's rank."

- That's the weird part. If it's your personal room, then—? As far as I know, only area supervisors or higher can get a personal room.

"... I was about to be promoted. If the transfer period hadn't ended, I would've got the supervisor position, but—well, this all happened first."

- What a pity.

"...."

The lack of sympathy in Licorice's voice made the man fall silent. Then at her next words, he was visibly startled.

- Don't worry about permissions. Why do you think I'm here supporting you?

"... Aren't you a technician? Then how would you..."

Licorice just snorted. Clearly, the man had no clue about her identity.

I glanced at Licorice to see if she'd been hiding something from me, but she just brushed it off, saying she didn't have every personnel file memorized.

- Woof-woof, you don't have to worry about that either. I've got a good idea.

Licorice mumbled to herself, "A personal room, huh... I'd forgotten about that," and started to chuckle. It reminded me of Roxy's laugh for some reason. Apparently, Nadia felt the same, as her complexion went pale and she unintentionally glanced toward Roxy in the cockpit.

As usual, Eric's stance was to follow along with whatever got decided. Licorice paid no attention to the subtle shift in the shuttle's atmosphere and called out brightly.

- The plan's skeleton is in place. Let's get moving. Let's get these monsters properly quarantined.

***

As soon as I put on the respirator mask, a hiss of air sealed it to my face. Taking a deep breath, I felt the icy air fill my lungs.

The Mark II suit had a built-in respirator, but it wasn't fully integrated, making it a hassle to put on. There was so much to fix. If we could get a custom suit from the cargo sector, I'd want to fix these little things.

I should get something Kyle would like as a present, too. Then even if he got put to work, he wouldn't complain as much.

- I'll be on standby nearby like last time. If there's trouble, don't even bother to call—just send me your coordinates, and I'll fly right over. Good luck, friend.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌ )】

We flashed thumbs-up to Roxy through the slowly closing shuttle door. To be honest, the way he'd appeared in the residential area had left a huge impact. Even if I thought he was nuts, I found him oddly reliable.

Despite the chaos, the fact that he'd come to help at such risk made me feel that way. Outwardly we cursed, but we saw Roxy in a positive light. I got the sense he'd come for us no matter what situation we were in.

- Let's move as planned. Hyun-woo, are you ready?

I nodded silently at the security robot Alpha.

We divided up the team. Eric, the man, Alpha series, and I would go through the server-cooling ventilation duct to the communications area and clear the approaches. Nadia and Carry would head to the antenna on the outer wall of the base near the mining area and supply power using the refined blue crystal.

I didn't love sending just Nadia and Carry, but the antenna was in a high spot and needed a bit of technical know-how, making those two best suited for the job.

- Nadia, if it gets dangerous, just run—don't look back. If you have to, go to Roxy and leave Heaven entirely.

- Got it, don't worry, Hyun-woo. Carry's upgraded and armed now too, and I've got this.

Nadia grinned at my repeated instructions, pretending to flex a non-existent muscle and tapping the gear on her hip.

A belt pouch with several small cylinders inside. These were flash grenades from the supply box we hauled over from town. Not very powerful, but they'd buy her a little bit of time if needed.

After only a moment of worried glances, we turned our anxiety into trust. If it was her, I believed she'd pull through—just like always.

- When we get back, brush my tail.

- As much as you want. I love doing it.

- Really? I love it too.

Nadia giggled and climbed on Carry, waving a small hand before flying off toward the mining area. The rest of us—Eric, the man, Alpha series, and I—moved out.

We were headed to the server cooling vent Celestia had told us about. There were no signs of anyone else trying to use it, no traces of forced entry either. The only difference from last time was the long icicles hanging from the door.

I changed the door setting from closed to open. As a senior worker, I could open this level of door without support now.

It was emotional. Just a few days ago, I had to ask someone for help even to open a door like this.

- We're going in.

- All right. The pressure sensor in the tunnel is broken, but Alpha will stand in for it. If anything is detected, he'll let us know immediately.

The sky, growing more distant behind us, was still ashen. Even that sky felt brighter as we walked into the dark ventilation shaft. Then, as it grew farther away, it became smaller and smaller.

Once the group made it inside the ventilation shaft led by security robot Alpha, the hatch with dangling wires closed off the square tunnel at the far end.

... Thunk.

A not-so-loud, but heavy closing sound. With that, darkness instantly swallowed the tunnel, and for a split second I felt like my airway was being throttled. My heart thudded in my chest.

But only for a moment, as Alpha's mono-eye shone light forward. Not enough to leak out, just enough to keep the darkness at bay—and enough to make me feel relieved.

Not a lighthouse, but a lamp. We looked at that faint light and started to move forward.

Slowly, and carefully.

So the ghouls would not notice us.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Mission Start!【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】

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