Chapter 66

The destroyer’s arsenal.

Even though it was called an arsenal, due to the immense size of the vessel, the space was far larger and more expansive than several school playgrounds combined. Soldiers were gathered in small groups throughout the vast area.

The rough appearance of full-body suits with steel plates added on was the standard equipment for imperial army infantry.

However, for some reason, these soldiers didn’t seem to hold any proper equipment in their hands.

“Man, this is good.”

“Hey, you’re eating again?”

“What else is there to do?”

“That’s true. Give me some.”

Soldiers munching snacks made from livestock, crunching away.

“Hey, is there anything fun around here?”

“This is really trending lately.”

“Woah, check out those smooth feelers. They’re pretty lewd, huh?”

“Could you copy it for me?”

While some were watching adult videos on handheld terminals, giggling amongst themselves.

“Ugh, what a hassle…”

“That guy, the first officer, always bossing people around.”

There were also soldiers who were expressing their grievances.

The commonality was that all those acting this way held high ranks.

Was that the reason?

Even the highest-ranking soldier who should have been controlling this situation was yawning openly with his mouth wide open.

“Haaam…”

“Commander, you’re drooling.”

“Tch, I can drool sometimes, right? Why do you have to point that out?”

The man complaining to his subordinate.

Even the lower-ranked soldiers were holding weaponry, but that was just for show.

Their expressions lacked any sense of tension, and their attitudes were overly casual.

They behaved more like ruffians than soldiers.

The prolonged period of waiting.

The boring time had unknowingly weakened the frontline imperial soldiers.

“So, why did you call us here?”

“Didn’t I say earlier? There’s a shuttle coming to the ship even though it’s not the scheduled flight time.”

“What? You called us here just for that trivial matter?”

The squad leader wrinkling his brows in exasperation.

A subordinate, glancing around subtly, whispered to the squad leader.

“You know that guy, the first officer, is a real chicken, don’t you?”

“Tch…”

The squad leader clicking his tongue.

Just then, the subject shuttle entered the arsenal.

‘If it’s nothing important, I’ll give him a piece of my mind.’

With that thought, the squad leader approached the slowly landing shuttle, waiting by the entrance.

“Huh?”

For some reason, the shuttle’s door didn’t open.

“What’s wrong? Why isn’t it opening?”

“What do you mean?”

As the shuttle’s movements grew suspicious, the soldiers finally started to react, slowly surrounding it.

At that moment, the previously closed shuttle door opened.

“Tch, what’s taking you so long-”

The squad leader stepped forward, grumbling in annoyance.

The instant he moved forward.

Swish—

The air was sliced open.

“Huh?”

The squad leader’s gaze trailing slowly.

Clutching his stomach in pain as if burned, but what he had grasped was not his stomach.

Something warm and moist.

“Ah…?”

The moment he realized it was his own intestines.

“Gurggh?!”

Blood surged up from the squad leader’s throat, and his vision and consciousness rapidly grew dim.

The trembling of his arms.

No matter how he tried, he couldn’t gather the strength to lift his body.

“What in the world-“

Even before finishing his words, his body collapsed lifelessly.

That was the squad leader’s end.

“Hmm.”

Whang—

Ryuje lightly swung the large sickle-shaped gear, shaking off the splashes of vividly colored blood from the blade.

Although Ryuje had instantly slashed all the soldiers gathered in the arsenal, her expression remained as calm as ever.

Glancing around the inside of the arsenal with her ruby-like eyes, she carefully inspected the area.

But aside from some scattered boxes that contained supplies and a few pieces of equipment lying around, there was nothing else in the arsenal.

Confirming there were no dangerous elements left, she turned back to the shuttle she had arrived in.

“Edu, Nisia. You may come out now.”

“Ah, y-yes.”

Edu and Nisia peeked out from the shuttle, looking around cautiously before stepping out.

The scattered alien corpses lying around.

Upon seeing them, Nisia’s body trembled slightly, whereas Edu gazed at the corpses indifferently.

“Just as we heard, their defenses are quite lackluster.”

“Yes.”

The number of soldiers slashed down by Ryuje was about thirty.

Even with their limited manpower, the arsenal is like the gateway to the ship.

That such a small number of soldiers were stationed there meant that the pilot wasn’t lying when he said their forces were low.

“What are your thoughts?”

“Given how this looks… I don’t think even two infantry battalions would be fully assembled. If at all, there would be at most 300 to 500 soldiers in each battalion, so probably around 600 to 1000 people altogether.”

“Hmm. I think the same.”

Ryuje nodded.

At that moment, Nisia’s head turned cautiously toward Edu.

“Um… Edu?”

“Yeah? What is it, Nisia?”

“Uh… Why did you suddenly hijack the shuttle and intrude on the ship?”

“Ah, now that you mention it, I haven’t explained yet. There’s no other reason—it’s just the fastest method.”

“The fastest?”

“Yes, the fastest way to gather the alien bastards without harming the people.”

A city occupied by those aliens.

They might call it a colonial city, but there are humans scattered throughout this vast city who are forced to work like slaves.

Naturally, the humans must be saved while excluding only the aliens.

But trying to track down and eliminate the soldiers scattered all over the city would be extremely difficult, both in terms of time and reality.

Moreover, if one point was attacked, massacres might occur at other points.

Then, what to do?

The answer is simple: just make the enemy come to us on their own.

Additionally, creating a hectic situation where they have no time to worry about anything else would be even better.

Stopping them from being distracted on unnecessary matters, you know.

“Oh, I see.”

“Yeah.”

Furthermore, all the multi-purpose walking tanks—Tripods—have been excluded from the equation, leaving only infantry for the aliens.

And we already have a plan in place to deal with that infantry.

“Then, Commander, shall we head to the command bridge?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

…

The command bridge of the destroyer.

Surreptitiously observing the seemingly bored captain—Toric, the first officer approached the communication soldier carefully.

“Communications, any contact from the arsenal?”

“Yes, there hasn’t been any contact yet.”

“Hmm.”

What’s going on?

The shuttle had surely entered and it had been quite a while now; shouldn’t there at least be some information by now?

With that thought, the first officer placed a dish full of snacks on the navigation device and moved towards the internal monitor panel on the right side of the command bridge.

All unnecessary crew members had been reorganized into infantry and sent down to the ground, thus the empty seat.

But the first officer was still an imperial soldier and knew how to operate the standard equipment and devices used on the ships.

“Alright…”

Moving his webbed fingers skillfully, he manipulated the console.

The monitors, previously dark, lit up, showing multiple screens of the ship’s interior.

The bridge entrance hallway, engine room, main corridor, and the cameras inside the arsenal appeared sequentially.

Upon enlarging the arsenal’s screen, the first officer’s eyes narrowed.

“Huh? What’s this…?”

The slightly blurry image.

Beyond it, splashes of what appeared to be colorful paint were scattered in a corner of the arsenal.

“Tch.”

Feeling anger while shaking his feelers, unable to understand the situation he was witnessing.

‘What are they up to?’

Intolerable unpleasantness.

However, before dispensing punishment, it was more important to find out which imbecile had done this.

Continuously enlarging the camera view, the first officer’s eyes widened dramatically.

What he had thought were paints were not paints at all.

The splashes of colorful matter lying scattered had fragments of allied soldiers’ bodies amongst them.

“Intruders…!”

Jolting upright from his seat, the first officer shouted towards Toric.

“Captain! We are in big trouble! Intruders have breached the-”

“Yes, that intruder is right here.”

“…Wha?”

Crack!

“Gyaaah!”

The first officer was struck on the face by a large sickle, stumbled back, and fell on the floor.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

Losing consciousness from the severe impact, the first officer.

Just before his memory faded, the last thing he saw was a weapon pointed at Toric’s neck.

…

The alien resembling a bug who had been raising his voice was struck hard on the back of his head with a device and fainted.

“Hmm.”

After confirming the bug-like alien was unconscious, Ryuje swiftly leaped over the structures of the bridge without delay.

With the alien on the opposite side subdued as well, the bridge fell into our hands.

“Gasp…”

Panting heavily while staring at the knife pointed at his own neck, the alien’s protruding eyes filled with fear.

“Who are you? Why are you-”

“Be silent. We will be asking the questions.”

While pressing the gear closer to the alien’s neck, Nisia cut off his words with a chilly tone.

While this exchange was going on, I subtly moved my head to observe the surroundings of the command bridge.

Not too steep elevations with various ship-controlling mechanisms stacked in a somewhat tiered structure.

Though there was something a bit unusual, it wasn’t enough to make me go ‘Wow’ and be amazed.

Just the kind of ordinary form you’d expect from a sci-fi movie or manga.

The only slightly unique thing, if anything, was the imperial insignia’s signature color painted excessively everywhere.

“Move.”

“Ah, understood.”

Lyuje, weapon in hand, led the soldier sitting in the chair towards us.

By dragging the unconscious alien who was slumped in the corner by the nape of his neck, all the aliens within the command bridge were gathered to one place.

“Hmm…”

Even after gathering the alien foes in one spot, Ryuje fell into deep thought as if something still didn’t feel right.

Observing her slightly furrowed expression, I cautiously spoke up.

“Is something wrong, Commander?”

“I just find their resistance to be even more disappointing than anticipated.”

“That’s true.”

As Ryuje had said, the command bridge was taken much more easily than expected.

There were only these three aliens inside the command bridge.

Even if we assume the bridge might occasionally be left unoccupied, the fact that no aliens were encountered on the way to the bridge was still weird.

‘Why are there no soldiers?’

Targeting the vulnerable enemy is correct, but the lack of soldiers is too extreme.

At that moment, a few keywords surfaced in my mind.

The severely damaged Third Fleet.

The vast city. Two battalions. One platoon of armored power.

An order requiring arbitrary adjustments.

‘Hmm’

All of this pointed to one conclusion.

Scarcity of power.

Then the reason for not seeing crew was—

“Aha.”

“Edu? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, I think I know why there are so few aliens.”

“Hmm? Tell me.”

At my words, Ryuje listened attentively.

“Yes, just by looking, these guys are obviously extremely short on power, right?”

“That’s true.”

“So, maybe they turned the crew into infantry and sent them down to the ground? There are no enemies here, so minimal maintenance is enough, and that also helps cover the lack of manpower.”

My words slightly surprised Ryuje.

“Indeed, a reasonable statement. We unintentionally exploited their vulnerability.”

“That’s right.”

After this conversation, I turned my gaze to the bug-like alien comfortably seated before us.

Certainly, that insect-like alien had referred to this fellow as the captain.

“Alright then, Captain, would you like to exchange a few words with us?”

“D-, dialogue?”

“Yes, an extremely beneficial dialogue.”

…