Chapter 156

"Eyes open, everyone! Don't get complacent," Taro barked, adjusting the monocular goggle monitor over his left eye. "We’ve got no idea what’s lurking in the wreckage. I’m willing to bet there’s plenty of functional junk out there just waiting to ruin our day."

He peered cautiously through the lens. Ahead of the ship, two scout vessels led the way through a graveyard of metal. Countless chunks of debris from the previous skirmish drifted alongside structures of all shapes and sizes.

"Even for an Asteroid Belt, the density is ridiculous," Marl muttered, seemingly to herself. She was wearing an identical pair of goggles. "They must have dragged all this here from across the system."

She wasn't wrong. The area was packed with asteroids so tightly it looked like a cosmic traffic jam. Looking through the camera feeds, Taro could see buildings bolted directly onto the rocks, each one humming with some kind of inscrutable purpose.

"Mr. Teiro, I have detected a facility showing signs of active operations," Koume’s synthetic voice announced. "The Arrow has already designated the target. Shall we commence the fireworks?"

An arrow labeled [KOUME] popped up on Taro’s display, pointing left. He jerked his head to follow it, and the monitor’s view panned instantly.

"That thing? Dammit..." Taro cursed. "It’s the same problem as last time. I have no idea what these buildings actually do. How am I supposed to know if it’s a threat or just a very ugly space-warehouse?"

He grumbled another insult under his breath and pushed the data out to the rest of the fleet with a "stay sharp" warning. The WIND facilities were bizarre. Some looked like perfectly rectangular, boring storage units; others looked like someone had just glued a mountain of scrap metal together. Their outward appearance gave zero clues as to their function.

"Communication from Bella," Marl interrupted. "She’s found what looks like a massive defensive installation and is currently trading shots with it."

"Ugh, of course she did. Guess we'd better stay on our toes."

"A turret-like structure has been exposed on the facility designated by the Arrow," Koume reported. "Orders?"

"Doesn't matter what it is—if it’s pointing a gun at us, we break it. Safety first, destruction second."

Taro followed Koume’s targeting arrow again and saw a long, metallic protrusion poking out from the facility. It definitely looked like a cannon.

"It’s small enough to take out in one hit... but you know what? Let's overdo it. Just to be sure. Lock the target. Salvo from Main Guns One through Three!"

[SINGLE-SHIP COMMAND: COMBAT ACTION]

[FEEDBACK: TARGET ACQUISITION]

[FEEDBACK: FIRING CALCULATION]

The massive battleship groaned as it began to pivot in response to Taro’s whim. Down in the Second Bridge, the crew scrambled to finalize the lock-on and prep the main batteries, feeding the data back to Taro’s HUD.

"Man, having people to do the heavy lifting for me is the best," Taro muttered, sending a quick 'thanks' to the Second Bridge. "Main guns, fire!"

He launched the metal slugs toward the enemy structure. These weren't the cheap rounds he’d used on the Plum. These warheads were heavier, stronger, and infinitely more expensive. Driven by a massive surge of voltage from the ship’s capacitors, the shells screamed through the vacuum.

"Teiro, the facility is returning fire," Marl said. "Total of thirty-four incoming rounds. Twelve are on an intercept course with us."

"Copy that. It’ll be fine. Caliber looks pathetic."

Taro gave a breezy, relaxed answer and went back to babysitting his own shells. With a crew he could actually trust, he finally had the luxury of obsessing over the parts of the job he actually liked. Besides, since these new shells cost a fortune, he really didn't want to miss.

"Enemy fire impacting... Eleven hits. Zero damage," Koume reported. "Shield depletion has already been topped off by the generators."

"Whoa... so we can just sit here and let them tickle us forever?"

"Essentially, Mr. Teiro. Impact of friendly shells in three... two... one... All rounds on target."

Taro’s view zoomed in on the facility. The Railgun slugs punched through the structure with terrifying velocity, shredding everything in their path. At the exact center of the building, the warheads triggered, releasing the PLASMA EXPANSION BODY. The internal explosion vaporized the slugs from the inside out, turning them into tens of thousands of tiny, screaming fragments of white-hot shrapnel.

"And that's a wrap."

The facility didn't just explode; it blossomed into a flower of fire and light before being torn apart by its own internal pressure.

"I have to admit, battleships are incredible," Marl said, letting out a relieved breath as she turned to face him. "Pricey, but incredible. I shudder to think how we’d handle one of these if it were the enemy."

"Hmm, good question. If I were in the Plum, I’d just try to shove a Torpedo down its throat, but that’s a suicide run," Taro replied, leaning back. "In a battleship-on-battleship fight, it’s just a slugging match. If you can get a whole fleet close, though, drones are the way to go. A ship this big is a sitting duck if you swarm it. It’s slow to accelerate and there’s a massive gap between the shield layer and the actual armor. For a small craft pilot, it’s basically an easy target."

Taro spoke with the casual confidence of someone who had literally downloaded the tactical manual into his brain via Override.

"Easy? That’s a bit rich, Boss," a window popped up in his vision, showing Gon’s annoyed face. "How many anti-aircraft turrets do you think one of these monsters is packing?"

Taro shrugged and gave a sheepish grin. "My bad. Wrong choice of words."

"Well, you’re right about the cost-performance of drones, anyway," Gon grunted. "More importantly, Boss, I think we’ve sucked up enough data for now."

"Oh, really? Sweet. Pull the Aviation Unit back, then."

Taro recalled the Ship-borne Craft that had been busy snapping photos of the enemy complex. He skimmed through the incoming data streams. He had no idea what half the numbers meant yet, but once the analysts got their hands on it, it would be a goldmine. He’d never seen WIND structures on this scale in any of the public records.

"We'll grab a bit more intel, then leave the rest to the Survey Team," Taro decided. "This should be enough to draw up a deployment plan."

With that, he signaled the Second Fleet to prep for a Long-distance Warp. The area was thick with Drive Particles, and the Advance Unit had already confirmed the exit point was clear.

"Alright, let's do this. Fortune or folly, here we come. Destination: Planet Nuke! Let's-a-go!"

One sun, eight planets. A perfectly average star system, receiving its first visitors from the outside world in several hundred years.

"The planet count matches the old charts... Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Did Pluto get kicked out of the club again?" Taro frowned as he looked at the results of the Wide-area Scan. I really should have paid more attention in science class. Was it Saturn that had the rings? Or was that Jupiter?

"Is that the order of distance from the sun?" Marl asked. "We definitely see a ringed planet, but those aren't exactly rare in the galaxy."

"I can't remember," Taro admitted, rubbing his temples. "I'm positive Earth had a giant satellite called the Moon, though."

"Hmm... out of curiosity, Mr. Teiro," Koume interjected. "What do you define as 'giant'?"

"Eh? I... uh... now that you mention it, I don't know."

"Honestly," Marl sighed. "Are you even going to be able to tell if it's Earth or not?"

"I'm... starting to lose confidence here..."

Taro stared at the scan images, arguing back and forth with the crew. Eventually, they realized they were getting nowhere by staring at dots on a screen and decided to close the distance to Planet Nuke.

[OVERDRIVE END]

[ARRIVAL: RPM95355 NUKE]

The blue haze of warp space dissolved, replaced by the crushing black of the void.

Slowly, the light from the local star filled the sensors, turning the blackness into a tapestry of stars. Taro blinked, fighting back the wave of nausea that always came with Jump Sickness.

"Nuke is... that's it..."

Taro looked down, his goggles allowing him to see 'through' the floor of the ship. Below them sat a planet so massive it threatened to swallow the entire monitor.

"...................."

Taro stared in total silence.

The world on the screen was choked by a shroud of thick, sickly clouds, swirling in massive, violent vortices across the surface. An infrared scan of the ground showed a featureless, smooth landscape. He could see basins where oceans might have once slished and sloshed, but there was no way to tell if they matched the geography of his memories.

...Is this an Override thing? Taro wondered. He felt a wave of crushing disappointment and shook his head violently to clear it. Can’t help what I’ve forgotten. No use crying over spilled milk. Just gotta focus on the 'now'.

"Hey, Alan," Taro said, his voice sounding small. "Can we actually land on that thing?"

"Well, with a Landing Craft and a pressure suit, sure," Alan’s voice crackled over the comms. "Radiation is high, but survivable. There’s almost no oxygen, but the atmospheric mix isn't actually that far off from a habitable world. Though... the moisture levels are weirdly high."

"Wait, for real? We can go down there?"

"Technically? Yes. But I wouldn't recommend it, Chief. The debris field in orbit is a nightmare, and the weather down there is a literal hellscape. It’s just constant hurricanes and sub-zero temperatures. Even if you wanted to terraform it, you’re looking at centuries of work."

"Right... I guess there's nothing left to see anyway."

A dead, brown world of screaming winds. There was no profit to be found in a place like that.

"Don't get discouraged, Boss," Gon chimed in. "Once the Doctor starts digging into the data, we’ll know more. We can decide what to do then."

"Yeah... yeah, you're right. Let's do that."

Taro slumped his shoulders, feeling the weight of the disappointment as he pulled up the fleet command functions. Their job was to clear the corridor, not play archaeologist.

"Prepare for Linkage Overdrive. Marl, handle the Space Reservation—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his hand freezing in the air.

"......Wait. What's that?"

The Tactical Screen was a mess of debris. One particular chunk, likely caught in Nuke's orbit, was drifting slowly past the fleet.

"Yes, Mr. Teiro? It appears to be a fragment of a derelict facility. Is there something significant about it?"

Taro squinted through his goggles. A cold shiver ran down his spine—a weird, inexplicable sense of wrongness. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice was screaming.

"If it's bothering you, I'll magnify it on the main screen," Koume said.

Taro ripped his goggles off and looked up at the massive bridge display. The image of the debris flickered and then snapped into sharp focus. It was exactly what Koume had said: a shattered piece of a station.

"Oh, look at that," Marl said, leaning forward. "I've only seen these in textbooks. It’s an orbital elevator fragment. Integrated counter-weight style... that’s incredibly ancient tech. I’d love to snag a sample... Teiro?"

She turned to look at him, her brow furrowed at his lack of response. Taro heard her, but he couldn't answer. He couldn't even breathe.

"......Ah...... ah......"

A broken sound escaped his throat. His eyes were locked onto a single section of the rotating debris. He couldn't look away. He couldn't blink.

"......Ah...... AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A tidal wave of raw, incomprehensible emotion slammed into him. Taro began to wail, a sound of pure, unadulterated grief. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to think. He just screamed.

There, printed in huge, bold letters on the side of the ancient metal, was the word: NASA.