Evolve (26)
"What in the world hit us?"
I asked Roxy, who was examining the shuttle after climbing down from the cockpit. Even to my eyes, the shuttle's armor was quite heavily dented.
The front section, in particular, was badly damaged. The fact that Roxy had been piloting but we'd still taken this much impact meant that whatever struck us was formidable as well.
'It wasn't just getting caught on the terrain.'
I was certain. Recalling what Roxy had said and the strange wailing sound, it was clear there was something unknown lurking in the fog.
Roxy, who had been looking grief-stricken at the shuttle's condition, crossed his arms and fell deep into thought at my question.
"Hm... a wall?"
"A wall? What kind of wall?"
"I suppose you couldn't see it at all from where your friend was, because of the angle. How should I put it... It was like an opaque wall made of fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere."
He continued, saying that was probably right.
"You mentioned a whale's cry, right? Right after that sound, it was like walls suddenly formed ahead of us to block the shuttle's way. At first, I thought I saw it wrong. It just looked like a patch of very dense fog, nothing more. If I hadn't instinctively jerked the controls hard, we might've blown up without knowing what hit us. Just—boom."
"......"
"The wall itself wasn't indestructible. When our fox friend's shell exploded, the shockwave even scattered the ones further behind it."
Roxy suggested that if we'd tried a direct descent from above, we might have been stopped by those fog walls. He told me to relax, but I couldn't at all.
There was so much I could have said, but as usual, I just held it in. If talking could solve anything, I would have tried a hundred or a thousand times. Since that wasn't the case, saving my breath meant saving energy too.
"So, do you think you can restore the shuttle core?"
"No. As long as we're in the fog, the core will keep shutting down. I'm recharging the emergency power unit for now, but this model's old, so it'll take time. At this point, it's better to just abandon it."
"Abandon it? The shuttle? Is that really okay?"
"Yeah. We have the armored vehicle, don't we? We can just move with that."
Roxy spoke as if this was nothing. I couldn't bring myself to say, "Isn't the shuttle your lover? Going to abandon your beloved?"
I couldn't predict what answer I'd get in return.
"Well, all right. Whatever you're comfortable with."
"It's the spaceport, so there should be a few shuttles left in decent shape. If not, I guess there's nothing we can do."
"If things get tough, we can use what Carrot gave us."
"Oh, that's a special windfall! I actually like this one. Military issue—sturdier than I expected. Even if we have to leave it for now, I'll come back for it."
Roxy said she would leave the emergency power unit to recharge. From his expression, it looked like he wanted to stay here. But the situation was too dangerous for stubbornness, and with communication restricted to direct physical connections due to the ECM chaff fog, he seemed to be holding back.
With a final "okay",
I retracted the communications cable. Normally, I could have switched my voice output to external speakers even in a sealed suit, but because Roxy hadn't calibrated the speakers yet, we'd been using wired communication.
I headed toward Nadia, who was organizing supplies at the armored vehicle unloaded from the shuttle's cargo bay. Though we called it an armored vehicle, it was really a rough-terrain reconnaissance buggy, even smaller than a mini-shuttle.
With the supplies packed, people would have to ride hanging on the outside. So, Nadia's power loader carried the supply container in backpack form. Passing Eric and Kanna, standing guard with their pulse rifles, I approached.
"Nadia, you're still able to control the power loader fine, right? If it shows any signs of shutting down like the shuttle core, let me know right away."
"The generator's fine! No problems moving at all!"
Nadia gave a big thumbs up. Carry did the same—or so I guessed, since it was hard to see clearly with the chaff fog.
I crouched and scooped a handful of powder that, like snow, lay in piles on the ground. Unlike snow, the ECM chaff slipped through my fingers like sand. With every step, it swirled up and spread outward.
"Hyun-woo, we should get moving now."
"Yes."
I boarded the armored vehicle, passing the open door held by Celestia. In the short time since, the interior had gone white as well.
Though technically the inside could be sealed, this meant we couldn't take off our helmets. It was supposed to be toxic. I had to avoid any risk of poisoning.
Celestia took the seat beside me, placing her long-barreled linear rifle diagonally between her legs due to the size of the weapon.
"Thanks for what you did earlier."
"For what?"
"For covering my head."
She must have meant when I secured her inside the supply container. I said it was only natural. Celestia let out a soft laugh.
Our small talk, which eased the tension, didn't last. Kanna sent a signal from the driver's seat.
"Everyone's aboard! We're departing! Nadia, I'll match your speed, so just hold onto the wire trailing behind us and follow along!"
"Got it!"
The armored vehicle started moving. Whirr. The engine rumbled as it moved off, but the scenery outside didn't change. All we could see was a white world.
The fog was so thick that, in theory, everything should look dark. With so little light penetrating, we should have been at the very bottom of a sea of fog, like some deep abyss.
But it was brighter than I expected. Not quite gloomy, but illuminated enough for us to perceive colors.
At first, I didn't know why. But looking closely, I saw the chaff particles themselves were emitting light. The particles seemed organically linked, transferring energy among themselves. Perhaps this energy also kept the fog from being blown away by the wind.
'A fog wall, huh...'
It was strange. Not exactly a normal occurrence. Or maybe a wall of fog did count as "normal" compared to some of the indestructible objects you'd find out in the vast and endless universe beyond Titan.
Even when I opened my eyes wide enough to make them ache in hopes of seeing this fog wall Roxy had mentioned, nothing came into focus. Just the endless, lowering haze.
'Quiet...'
Contrary to my expectations of coming under attack immediately after exiting the shuttle, the white world was utterly silent. That was strange, too. Something had attacked us, I was sure. So why leave us alone now?
I glanced at the power loader—larger than the armored vehicle we rode. The composition rather resembled walking a dog.
"According to simulation results, we're about 900 meters from the Valem Spaceport's coordinates. If we've stayed on course, we should see the facility in a few minutes."
"We've been on our own ever since entering, but from here on out, it's entirely up to our judgment."
I wanted to ask Licorice for input, but with ECM chaff cutting off all external comms, that was impossible. No matter what choices we made, responsibility and consequences were fully ours.
"We have two routes. Either we stop the malfunctioning chaff emitters to prioritize communication with the Albatross, or we find the reactor and prioritize the protocol mission. Ideally we'd do both, but splitting up the group is too risky, so it's best to choose one clearly."
"If we shut off the chaff emitters, will the fog clear?"
When I raised the question, no one spoke. No one could. Having realized that it was the fog itself—not just a runaway chaff emitter—that had attacked the shuttle, everyone knew now this wasn't just ordinary ECM fog.
It was dangerous. But turning back was not an option. Now that we'd entered the fog zone, we had to finish our mission.
At last, Eric broke the silence.
"Honestly, I think there's little chance of that. This much fog was produced mainly because of the emitters, but even if we destroy them now, the accumulated fog won't dissipate so easily."
"Yeah. If it won't blow away in the wind, there's no way it'll vanish just by shutting off a device or two. The fog covers an enormous area as well... So it probably makes sense to prioritize finding the reactor. Anyone have an idea where it might be in the spaceport?"
Not even Licorice could guess. If this were a different military base, she could have hacked the database. But Valem Spaceport was cut off by fog immune to external interference.
"I know," said Kanna from the driver's seat, hastily correcting herself as all eyes turned to her.
"More accurately, I know places where it could be, or where we could find out. I was never formally part of spaceport staff, but I was sometimes dispatched here in a support capacity, so I know a few things."
She said the location of the reactor was highly classified and not accessible even to her, but the control room with its records—she knew the way to that for certain.
"Celestia's here, so getting authorization should be easy. The furnace is actually working, so we won't have to worry about power, either."
"Then—"
Just as I was about to agree and suggest going there, a strange wailing sound echoed. The same one Celestia had described as a whale's cry. Everyone fell silent. Eric peered sharply out the window.
"... I don't think it's preparing to attack."
He said so in a hush, but tension crackled in the air. Attacks had always followed those cries before.
And, once again, it didn't just pass by this time.
... THUD!
Something fell from the sky onto our vehicle—thunk, as if it slid down the side. There were no dents, only noise.
Still, we all flinched. Our nerves were wearing thin. It was like that time in Heaven's central Nexus.
Nadia's composed voice came over the comms.
—... It's a drone. One of Licorice's drones. Judging by its number, it entered the spaceport's grounds. That number's only assigned at the end of a programmed route.
"We should disembark. The terrain ahead isn't passable by vehicle."
Eric, eyes fixed out the window, spoke. I squinted to see what he meant and began to discern several silhouettes in the thick fog. The outline of a massive launchpad emerged first.
The launchpad, a landmark of Valem Spaceport, was said to be enormous, but even at this close distance we only saw its shadow.
The silhouettes included not just spaceport facilities, but also wreckage of various ships destroyed by pureblood supremacist terrorist attacks.
We'd been driving through open ground so far, but now the path narrowed too much for vehicles and the ground was torn up, making things worse.
With a hoverbike, we could ignore this, but those practically had no protection. Each had pros and cons.
We all nodded and dismounted, each grabbing a load of backup oxygen packs.
'One oxygen pack lasts thirty minutes.'
Not long, but they were small enough to carry several. I had six on my belt, though space for eight—seedlings took up the rest.
"There don't seem to be any mutants."
"Seems."
"Appears."
Those were phrases Eric normally avoided. Guesswork was liable to cause misunderstandings when appraising the situation.
I understood. I couldn't give any definite answers either. I tapped the ground. It was firm, none of the usual Creeper stickiness. I focused my hearing, collecting every sound.
The power loader's motors, the armored vehicle still idling, the clatter of pulse rifles hitting armor, the jumble of equipment.
No mutant howls. No oppressive aura, either. Could there really not be a single mutant here? The thought crossed my mind.
"I'll take the lead."
Nadia's power loader went first, cradling a large pulse rifle in one hand and a shield in the other. The hanger now carried a spare rifle instead of the usual shield.
A massive cannon barrel was mounted on her shoulder, lending a reassuring weight. We'd seen its shellfire up close.
We picked our positions and moved out. Luckily, Kanna was able to estimate our current location by observing the surrounding facilities. The building she mentioned wasn't far.
As the launchpad's outline loomed, more vague shapes resolved into recognizable forms—mostly wrecked ships, as expected.
"They were destroyed by internal explosions. The smaller shuttles were likely caught by nearby blasts."
I kept Eric's information in mind and scanned the area—for bodies. Not to scavenge the deceased's wristbands for their rank or assets, but because the dead themselves were valuable data, clues to what had happened here and after.
Examining their status made it possible to infer events, and sometimes, a functional wristband could reveal pre-and post-mortem circumstances with its data logs.
While everyone kept a watchful eye and surveyed the area, Roxy spoke to me.
"Looking for a data logger, friend?"
"Yeah."
"Then, how about we rummage through some black boxes before heading in? I'm the best at finding shuttle black boxes, you know."
Ships were sure to have black boxes, but boarding a derelict craft increased the risk of getting caught in a sudden collapse—especially since most were already unstable.
Roxy added that even latest-model or sightseeing shuttles would have high-grade black boxes.
"There are grades of black boxes?"
"Of course! This whole world runs on money. There are special black boxes just for VVIPs, you know."
"Oh, I've heard of those too. Black boxes made of materials so tough that even a missile strike can't destroy them, meant to protect records no matter what happens."
Celestia nodded. As leader of Myosotis, her word gave it extra weight. Black boxes that could survive a direct missile hit... they must have been incredibly pressure-resistant.
But then I cocked my head.
"Haven't you actually used one? You seem like someone who would."
"No, not really. That's... well..."
"Well?"
"They're a trap for gullible people. The idea they can survive missiles is simply not true. Sure, they use better materials for VIP sales, so durability's amazing, but what the ads say is impossible. And even if one survived a hit, what about the next one? If you're rich enough to buy a black box like that, whoever wants you dead clearly wouldn't leave evidence."
She muttered that there were truly frightening people in the world, then recounted real tests where the boxes were destroyed on direct missile impact. She spoke as if it were someone else's story, but somehow I got the sense it was from experience.
"So they were lying..."
Roxy muttered in deep disappointment. He didn't seem like the type to fall for silly claims, but maybe his love for shuttles blinded him.
"Anyway, finding a black box means we can check the records, right? At least these haven't been hit by missiles—"
"I found evidence of missile strikes. And missile wreckage. According to their serial numbers, they were launched from the spaceport's own silos."
"Still, that can't be all direct hits—"
"Dozens, perhaps hundreds of missiles fell here. That means even the nearby military bases likely targeted the spaceport, and traitors inside must have accessed launch codes. Or the spaceport's control tower, in a 'broken arrow' event, risked friendly fire."
"......"
"So, it's worth checking, at least."
Kanna spoke, pouring out a pile of things she'd been carrying. I scowled briefly at her and sighed inwardly.
If Kanna's speculation was right, this spaceport saw even more brutal fighting than the residential area. Either way, it was worth checking.
"Roxy, will this take long? If it's quick, let's do it."
"Hah, I'll show you how fast my hands are! On Mars, I was the pickpocketing champion, you know."
"You used to pick pockets?"
"... Just follow me. I've already spotted one."
Roxy hesitated for an instant before resuming his usual confident demeanor. Nadia giggled as she followed after.
"I'll go with you."
"Perfect. Watch me closely—I'll dig it out before you can blink."
Roxy began to shove aside the fog, examining every piece of shuttle wreckage. "Examining," but it didn't really look like searching. He just kicked things or, with Nadia's help, flipped junk to peek underneath.
Then, with a snap of the fingers, he fished out a palm-sized part from the rubble. It must have been the black box. If he'd found it this fast, I'd have thought it was luck—but he kept going, checking the area and adding piece after piece to his pile.
This time, Roxy emptied a small box in a clattering heap.
"Hey, you try it. See if you get any data."
It couldn't be as easy as that—but somehow he made it look so. I gave it a shot, but of course, I had no luck like Roxy with black boxes.
The item I pulled out wasn't a black box at all, just another unrelated part. Roxy laughed nearby, saying I was too honest for this kind of work.