Turning Point (14)
"We're all set. All that's left is to board."
Eric, equipped with every piece of weaponry a person could possibly bear, was speaking to me and Licorice, who had just arrived at the storage bay.
Behind him, I could see the group assembled in front of the shuttle: Canna and her team, Nadia and Carry, and the Myosotis group including Celestia. Not one of them was a lightweight.
Now, with Licorice and me joining in heading down to the surface, it meant that all the key personnel were essentially going down. As a result, only a bare minimum crew were to remain aboard Albatross and Griffin.
Since these ships required a fair bit of manual operation, we couldn't leave them entirely unmanned—otherwise, they simply wouldn't function properly. The ships in the air were actually more likely to be attacked by the enemy than anything on the ground.
In this situation, we had to provide timely aerial support and potentially handle orbital communications as needed, so staying up there certainly didn't equate to safety.
If anything, it was more dangerous. The operations being conducted on the surface at Mithrim Montes had to succeed at all costs.
Nadia carefully checked over Carry to make sure it could wait comfortably in the power loader. She hugged Carry tightly and finished a quick goodbye.
「(ദ്ദി⩌𖥦⩌)」
Carry looked between me and Nadia, raising its thumb with a proud gesture, and then entered standby mode.
When I sent Nadia a glance promising I'd be right there—as she waved for me to hurry up—a man approached: Domestica.
"Mr. Lee Hyun-woo."
Domestica, who'd once fought alongside Blue-Eye at the Heaven mining base cargo sector, was one of those staying aboard Albatross.
Despite volunteering for the surface mission, his lack of stamina had led Canna to reject him. Although advanced-rank medication and biocells had healed his injuries, his congenital illness couldn't be cured.
I met Domestica's eyes. Honestly, after I killed Blue-Eye and returned, I hadn't really paid attention to him. No, I couldn't—I was too busy.
We'd occasionally exchanged greetings in passing, but that was it. Still, the change in him was clear. Domestica had grown.
He now seemed stronger as a person. He was no longer the man who'd once wished he'd rather just die.
"Domestica, I'm counting on you to take care of Albatross."
"Leave it to me. Albatross will soar as it was meant to—just as it was designed for."
"I believe you. Especially coming from the guy who scored a major blow against Blue-Eye."
As I referenced the time I'd hurled the container, Domestica gave an embarrassed laugh, then composed himself and spoke seriously.
"Good luck."
"Thank you."
I shook the hand Domestica extended to me, a firm sense of trust intertwining with that gesture. For a moment, I gazed at those busily moving about the storage bay, before letting go and boarding the shuttle.
Whether by design or coincidence, the seat next to Celestia was vacant. When I sat down, she filled the gap as if she'd been waiting for me. Though she wasn't smiling goofily, given the scale of the mission ahead, nobody could deny that Celestia's aura had changed distinctly.
It was as if a flower bud, long closed, had finally bloomed—an incredibly alluring presence radiated from her. I found myself unknowingly staring at her.
Just because I'd slept, it didn't mean I'd already forgotten what happened a few hours ago. Whenever I closed my eyes, the memory of our overlapping intimacy was still vivid in my mind.
"Hyun-woo, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing. Really."
I turned my head, fumbling for words, only to see Nadia, sulking with puffed cheeks, hugging her tail tightly to her chest. Before I could say anything, Nadia snagged my hand. With a "ngghh" sound, she made it clear she wasn't letting go no matter what.
Celestia, meanwhile, silently smiled as she fiddled with my bracelet. Trapped between the two, I happened to lock eyes with Licorice, who was sitting in front. She'd just been glancing at my bracelet, snorted, then looked away.
Even though she saw my bracelet glowing blue after inheriting Myosotis' authority, Licorice hadn't said anything.
Frankly, I expected her to grumble about why she hadn't used such a feature sooner. But as I later found out, that was a unique privilege limited to mega-corps.
Myosotis might now only be a quasi-mega-corp, but the authority from its former glory still remained.
Once an authority was transferred like this, it was permanent, and revoking it was incredibly difficult—practically impossible, from what I'd heard. So, although it was a special privilege, no one actually used it.
Since it was more than just granting rights, nobody would exercise it carelessly. Not all privileges are the same, after all. Even though knowledge of this exclusive authority had quietly spread behind closed doors, there weren't rampant abductions for it; after all, only a mega-corp could wield such power.
"She really did that for me, huh..."
It felt strange. Pleasant, but somehow awkward.
"Ugh... In the end, Celestia..."
"You were never going to climb that tree anyway. Or actually, for you, maybe 'tower' fits better than 'tree.'"
"Why! Why did the heavens create people like her and the rest, and then only after that make me?!"
"Still better than not being born at all."
"......"
"You may have walked ahead of others, but she just flew. I mean, last time I saw her, she was actually trying to fly using telekinesis. You can't catch up just by being a little faster. And anyway, there are plenty of people faster than you, yet none of them reached the top either. Don't you know what Celestia is called back on Earth?"
"Fine. Fine. Just—stop..."
Several among the Myosotis group sighed in gloom as they watched, while others soothed them—a comfort, or perhaps a final blow. Either way, those on the receiving end seemed to regain a bit of composure.
I focused my eyes forward, trying not to feel awkward. The shuttle began to take off. Although it wasn't officially Roxy's, it was practically his lover—but today the pilot was Canna, not Roxy.
Roxy hadn't made contact up till today. The only silver lining was that his life signal hadn't disappeared. But where—and doing what—was he now? I could only sigh inwardly.
As we left Albatross's storage bay, I spoke up while watching the dramatically changing scenery.
"Have you decided how to use the rail cannon? With Roxy missing, the original plan can't work, right?"
"Oh, that's been taken care of, at least partially. I heard from Kyle that they finished it so it can be deployed whenever needed. With covert shuttle firing less likely now, the setup was changed so that, if the situation calls for it, it can be mounted and fired from Albatross itself."
Celestia explained that Kyle had no intention of letting the rail cannon, now built, just go to waste. Apparently, all the hustle before the shuttle took off had been related to that work.
"I wanted to try firing it myself... But with the energy issues, I had to give up..."
Nadia smacked her lips with disappointment. Ever since she started utilizing bio-circuits, her appetite for personal gear and frame parts had kept growing—naturally, she'd eyed the rail cannon, set aside or neglected by its original owner.
Apparently, she had even tried mounting it after removing the grenade cannon. The mounting nearly succeeded, but then the real problem began.
The power loader's generator couldn't supply the energy needed to fire the rail cannon. No matter how much she reinforced the systems or integrated new technology, the innate limitations couldn't be overcome.
It was a fairly new, military-grade unit, but a power loader was still just a power loader. Such rail cannons were meant to be carried and fired by ships, not personal exosuits.
She'd tried anyway, but when she heard the generator groaning and on the verge of dying, she had to stop immediately. Even Roxy had only planned to mount it on the shuttle for single-use.
"... Unless you had Earth government tech like I saw then."
Titan's Guardians, Sky Whale, and the satellite gravity cannon demonstrated technology seemingly beyond our era. With power sources like those, you could have mounted not just one but dozens—no, hundreds—of rail cannons.
Lost in thought, I didn't notice the shuttle seamlessly cutting through a hazy energy field. It felt like diving into a reflective surface, startling me out of my reverie.
- Energy field traversal complete. Preparing to land shortly.
Once through, Mithrim Montes came immediately into view, with the enormous cube-like Archive at its peak. I—or rather, everyone aboard—swallowed hard as we gazed through the window.
Red sparks crackled and snapped across the peaks, high enough to reach the sky, and chunks of land carved by gravity fluctuations were floating, cube-like, around the Archive.
I could even see what looked like sparkling crystals, but we'd have to go down and take a closer look to be sure; they didn't seem like ordinary ice shards.
The view was far more striking than from aboard Albatross. The change in perspective and context made everything feel suddenly, tangibly real. What had once seemed distant now felt alarmingly close.
- We're going to land. Any further is impossible.
Though we couldn't reach the spot where the Archive sat, the shuttle gradually decelerated and began landing procedures. We had a long way to go, but nobody complained—everyone had been briefed on the surface conditions.
Pushing any further would have made shuttle retrieval extremely difficult. Since this shuttle was scheduled to return to Albatross for use as our main aerial asset, losing it now was not an option.
Eventually, the shuttle touched down on a ledge halfway up a cliff-ridden mountain. The impact rattled through the cabin. I cocked my head at a sense of wrongness.
"Gravity...feels a bit light?"
"You can feel that?"
"The sensation was different as the shuttle landed."
"Just—unbelievable senses you've got..."
Licorice shook her head, tongue clicking. She explained that ever since the gravity fluctuations began following the satellite gravity cannon, gravity here had been lighter compared to elsewhere.
As you went toward the center, the difference became more pronounced, but here, the variation wasn't so distinct from normal Titan gravity—dull senses might not even notice.
"That's just how I am."
"... I'm speechless."
Licorice stared at me, too exasperated to hide her expression. Not that she tried to hide it anyway.
Feeling their prickly gaze, I cleared my throat and hurriedly exited the shuttle. Crunch. The sound of packed, pellet-like ice breaking underfoot was light.
"Hyun-woo, look! I'm totally fine!"
Initially cautious, Nadia inhaled tentatively but swiftly realized there was nothing wrong. She started jumping around, unable to hide her amazement. With none of the cumbersome gear normally required for outside activity, she clearly felt far lighter.
I felt it too. Usually the helmet or respirator gear always left me feeling stifled, but with a single device attached to my suit, all that discomfort vanished. Now I understood why people praised technology so.
The latest device was a miniature shield generator made by Carrot. Unfortunately, there weren't enough batteries to go around.
There were five devices in total, though the fifth had notably lower output compared to the others—so really, there were about 4.5 devices.
Nadia, Licorice, Eric, Canna, and finally myself each got one. I received the one with incomplete output, intentionally.
After all, if necessary, I could use my telekinesis to create a force field. Having one was better than nothing, but I wasn't greedy for a perfectly functioning device when others needed them more.
Celestia was excluded, as she already had a similar device.
Once everyone disembarked and unloaded the supplies, the shuttle switched to autopilot and started its return protocol. Snow whirled as the thrusters kicked up the ground in a torrent.
The shuttle would now return to Albatross and wait in the storage bay for its next mission, ready to provide new support.
We sorted through the supply containers for easier hauling and surveyed our surroundings. Even mid-slope, this was still seriously high-altitude terrain.
Crack—snap!
Red sparks ran over the floating, cube-shaped land masses. Before we set off, we scouted the immediate area.
"It's not just ice here."
Celestia pointed out something encased in ice—a structure of some kind. Its purpose was lost to damage, but its material and artificial appearance were unmistakable.
"So the Archive isn't just the cube we see. Maybe this whole area belongs to the Archive complex."
"Then could we access the system from here?"
"No, I checked—there's no connection. Maybe before, but not now. After being sealed so long, the structures are too far gone."
"But 'so long' is only a few decades at most."
Licorice shook her head at my doubt.
"It's the environment. Look around. I've never heard of a site with deposits like this before—a place with energy storms like these isn't just a few decades old. In conditions like this, even hundreds or thousands of years elsewhere wouldn't do as much damage."
Licorice scouted the farthest points she could for a wider view, with the rest of us fanning out behind her, scanning the landscape.
Nadia picked up a transparent crystal radiating energy. It floated on its own—she just had to set it down gently, and it rose a little. Her tail curled up as much as her brow did as she scrutinized it.
"Hmm... This is Blue Crystal. But it's different—a lot different from usual. There's none of the malignant component present; it's like it's been naturally refined."
"Have you ever seen one like that before?"
"No. If something like this existed, nobody would have bothered inventing elaborate refining methods or building dedicated refineries. Scientists and corporations would've torn the region apart to get it."
Celestia added that the presence of such a resource likely meant we were the first to discover it. No other company had been hiding this, after all.
"The energy in it is so much denser, too. It makes sense that this whole area is buzzing with spark phenomena like this."
When she actually grabbed it with her hand instead of just floating it, Celestia's suit's defense shield partially activated against the crystal's energy. It judged the output dangerous to the wearer.
'A new resource unique to Titan...'
In essence, it was Blue Crystal, but on the surface, it was clear like quartz. The malignancy was definitely missing. If it hadn't been, we'd probably have fainted from psychosis—might not even have made it here in the first place.
Blue Crystal brings on space psychosis, but these naturally refined crystals didn't. And above their deposit sat the Archive.
'This isn't the only place like this.'
That's what occurred to me. Or maybe it was Sprout's will, inherited by me, whispering that thought.
"Let's go. We can check out the rest on the way."
"Okay!"
「......!」
As Nadia moved, Multipurpose Units 1 and 2 began to flail. They protested they weren't done analyzing the crystals yet—begged for more time, pleaded for a longer look.
They dug their spindly legs and claws into the ground in protest but didn't stand a chance. In the end, they had to let go of their samples and were dragged off, leaving scratches in the ground.
Celestia couldn't help but stifle a laugh as she covered her mouth. Then she lifted her head, looking upward—toward where the Myosotis fleet would be stationed in the sky.