Once the colony's outer shell was finished, it was time for the private contractors to take the stage.
If we had left the interior to the military, they would have decked the place out in red-and-white bunting like a warship’s mess hall. That was the only design plan they had in their repertoire. The concept of "aesthetics" simply didn't exist in our ranks. My wife had specifically asked Ohno to handle the job because she wanted to avoid that outcome at all costs.
On the other hand, if we’d let the pirates do it, the space would have ended up filled with gaudy leopard-print interiors and the lingering stench of cheap perfume. Thus, the baton was passed to Ohno, who owned an interior decorating firm. Provided with a proper budget, he proposed a perfectly sensible design.
As for the electronics, Fairy was in charge. I felt a lingering twinge of unease, but as long as she wasn't interacting with me, Fairy was actually a functioning adult!
"Let's add more cleaning drones," Fairy said.
She was ordering an excessive number of cleaning drones from the printer. She also demanded a waste disposal capacity that bordered on the psychotic. During a meeting with my wife, she was questioned on the necessity of it all.
"Why allocate so much processing power to simple cleaning?"
"Because the current state of the colony is a literal pile of trash," Fairy replied. "It was a major problem in our era, too. When colonies were still a rarity, citizens who didn't know how to sort their trash were left to their own devices. Before long, the places were overrun with garbage and pests..."
That sounded like a nightmare. I turned to ask Kevin, who was standing nearby. The opinion of someone actually raised in a colony was vital.
"Littering was a cardinal sin," Kevin confirmed. "We were taught the importance of waste management from the moment we could walk because of the risk of disease. If you let your place turn into a 'trash house,' you were looking at a sentence of forced labor at the waste disposal plant."
"Are you serious...?"
"If rats were spotted, they’d incinerate the entire block. Even hamsters were strictly prohibited as pets."
"And that," Fairy concluded, "is why our garbage disposal must be absolute."
If a living witness of the space exploration era and a colony native both agreed, it had to be true. Approval granted.
While I could have handled the interior work myself, the jobs were instead distributed among the residents of the battleship-slum. Since it was just interior decoration, workplace fatalities were rare. Once our direction was set, we began preparations for departure. Our work here was done.
The pirate side contributed fifty ships manned by former military personnel. The Ohno Fleet brought another hundred. And then, there was our super-large battleship. The reason we only needed a single ship was that it functioned as a carrier, housing all our fighters and transport craft. We had predicted that fleet-to-fleet battles would be few and far between.
For some reason, the Zorks seemed to be avoiding combat in open space. Our analysts suggested that the crushing defeat they suffered at my hands during our first contact was still weighing on them. They had learned the hard way that outer space was a disadvantageous battlefield for their kind.
We advanced as a massive fleet, though our plan was to liberate the nearby systems first. Our primary objectives were to rescue the families of our comrades and secure the safety of our rear. I felt a little bad for Thomas, but he would have to wait. His grand expeditionary fleet of one hundred thousand was currently stalled—he was likely having a miserable time trying to conquer a planet.
Eventually, the Zorks would realize, Wait, we can fight in space too, can't we? When that happened, we would be forced to retreat. In other words, we only had a limited window of time. We had to secure Thomas's escape route before then. I fully intended to use that useless noble as a meat shield.
Anyway, our next destination was Planet Tachibana. That was Melissa's home planet. I immediately sought her out.
"Hm? We're going to my place next? I wonder how my old man and big brother are doing."
As we approached the border of the territory, we established a comms link. I had Melissa handle the hail.
"Yo! It's Melissaaaa~"
She was as casual as ever. A moment later, a man who looked like the chieftain of a mountain bandit gang appeared on the screen. It was the local lord, Viscount Gordon Tachibana.
"Hmph. Why the hell have you come back?"
"To help? Also, I wanted to introduce my husband."
"I see. I suppose that means the bloodline won't die out with you, then."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean, Dad?"
"Melissa... do not come here. I’ve already reported this to Public Security, but... that bastard Yashichi has turned into a Zork."
A heavy silence fell over the room as everyone gasped. A humanoid Zork infiltrator.
"Instructor Yashichi did?! The lords of other planets have been replaced by Zorks too! Dad, what’s the situation there right now?!"
"I see... once Yashichi became a monster, our defenses completely collapsed. Several others have turned as well. Every single one of them was an Esper."
Come to think of it, Melissa's planet had a policy of actively recruiting Espers. If that was the case, the number of potential humanoid Zorks would be staggering. This was bad.
"We've holed up in the castle to make a stand. We're holding for now... but I don't know when the walls will give way."
"You've got to be joking! Hang on! I'm coming to save you right now!"
"Don't come! ...Wait, they're coming!"
The transmission cut to static. Something had happened.
"Captain," Melissa turned to me, her voice uncharacteristically serious. "Will you help my family?"
"Of course. Let's move!"
We prepared for deployment. The development for my new machine was finally complete. This time, the unit was designed with flexible joints specifically built to withstand the stresses of my movements. The terminal had been updated too; it even had a dedicated memory partition for Fairy to reside in.
And yet, its grimy, dirt-caked aesthetic hadn't changed by a single millimeter. Somebody, hire a designer, please!
Aesthetics aside, we arrived at Planet Tachibana. Most of its residents were either martial artists or workers in the tourism industry. The reason it was only a Viscount Territory was likely due to the small habitable landmass and a lack of underground resources. Their main source of income was tourism.
They even had a Period Village—a facility dedicated to showing off "genuine" Samurai. Even though the Samurai as a social class had been dead for centuries, asking why they were still there was considered boorish. They made their living through traditional Japanese-style inns staffed by Samurai and Ninjas.
Though the tourist zones and the Public Security spy training schools are kept separate, Melissa had mentioned once. Apparently, the combat techniques themselves were public knowledge; the only secret was the discipline required to master them. It was the same for any martial art.
Fortunately, the planetary air defense system didn't target us. We were the Imperial Army, after all! They were still using the default friend-or-foe settings without any manual tampering. I really wished a certain Duke and Marquis territory would follow their example.
We didn't even need to use our verniers; we simply took a transport craft down to the surface. Our drone reconnaissance didn't pick up any immediate hostiles. We touched down at the theme park that served as the planet's public face.
Looking at it through the lens of my previous life's memories, it looked exactly like the kind of "Japan" you’d find in a stereotypical sci-fi movie. There were beefy ninjas and high-leg kunoichi wearing outfits more scandalous than actual nudity. There were samurai in dual-wielding heavy armor and even Renjishi-themed power suits. It looked like a place where you'd find a Taimanin or two.
I... kind of love this stuff.
Now, let's start the search.