Chapter 13
"H-hello? I'm Adlam."
"Hello……. My name is Rubedo."
…….
This is awkward.
I hadn't expected to be left alone with her aboard the Razangriff.
"I heard about you……. You brought Mijeong back to life, right?"
"Yes……."
…….
Still awkward.
The Razangriff had landed at the spaceport.
After we captured the Nkhilakarn who'd attacked us.
The captain had gone into the hibernation chamber, saying it was finally time to get some rest.
Brigadier General Ramirez and Sergeant Kang Chanwoo had gone to capture Fettuccine's planetary marshal.
Big Sis Yangyang and the four other members had all gone to capture the Furnace's planetary marshal.
……Wait, why did all four of them go?
Wouldn't two be enough to capture one civilian?
"Do you remember anything about how you brought her back to life?"
"No."
Anyway, for that reason, everyone had left the Razangriff, leaving only me and the researcher, Adlam.
As I remembered it, she was one of the people who hadn't been there when I was first brought aboard the Razangriff, just like Big Sis Yangyang.
……Unless I'd lost that memory, too.
"Would it be all right if I took a look inside your head……?"
"……?"
What? Is she insane?
"S-sorry. I phrased that in a way that could be misunderstood."
"At least you realize that."
I couldn't help letting my voice come out a little harsh.
"I meant, could I use a projector to cut open your brain?"
"?"
She really is insane.
Why are all these engineering types such freaks?
……Not that I should be talking.
"I'll do it without hurting you. It really won't hurt at all, okay? It won't even leave a scar?"
"No. If you want to cut someone open, try the head of the captured elf."
Originally, I was planning to get acquainted with the couple of teammates left aboard the ship.
But instead, I'm stuck with some antisocial lunatic.
Ah. I miss Big Sis Yangyang.
…….
…….
…….
In front of the Furnace's Fantasy Tower.
"It's been a while since we've worked together alone."
-Nervous?
"……Yes."
Kang Chanwoo felt a little nervous about conducting a joint operation alone with Ramirez for the first time in a while.
Unlike Ramirez, who was wearing power armor, he looked back on his memories.
'When was the last time we went into battle alone? Oh, right. The operation to suppress the anti-human alien species.'
…….
'……Was it a massacre rather than suppression?'
Well, either way, it didn't matter to him.
What mattered was that the filthy bastard, Fettuccine's planetary marshal, had holed up in his palace, using the garrison troops as a shield despite the Security Bureau's order to surrender.
'How the hell did he get the garrison troops to fall in line……?'
That was the question.
Though it wasn't that important.
-Get ready.
Ramirez, clad in power armor, activated the Fantasy Tower.
-Bahati. Signal confirmed. Opening Fantasy Tower.
-Chanwoo.
"Yes, Brigadier General."
-Destination: Fettuccine. Farina Palace.
-Once we jump, get behind me immediately.
A mass of light enveloped them, then disintegrated them from their toes up.
"Understood."
He closed his eyes and waited for the transfer to finish.
The familiar sensation of his body breaking apart and reforming swept through him.
"Behind us!"
"Fire!"
Kang Chanwoo threw himself aside the moment sensation returned to his body.
A fragmentation grenade came flying and landed where he'd been standing.
KABOOM!
Thanks to his swift evasive maneuver, he avoided a direct hit, but there was no way to avoid the blast's scorching heat.
Half his body had suffered severe burns, enough to twist his face in pain, but he showed no sign of it and calmly surveyed his surroundings.
'What lousy luck. We materialized behind the garrison troops.'
If they'd materialized in the middle of the troops, he could have prevented them from using their firearms and immediately turned it into a melee.
On top of that, they were quite far away, with absolutely no cover.
It looked as though the area had been cleared out in advance.
Ramirez…….
'For this to go wrong at a time like this. Is it because of the power armor?'
He hadn't materialized with him.
Perhaps wearing power armor slowed down the disintegration and reassembly process.
Or maybe it was just a glitch in the Fantasy Tower.
If not, could it have been the Fantasy Tower caretaker's doing……?
'No. The caretaker has no reason to pull something like this when the Security Bureau's orders are in effect.'
Either way, what mattered now was that he had to hold out until Ramirez finished transferring.
With half his body crippled, against a squad of fully armed Federation garrison troops, for an indeterminate amount of time.
"Haha. This should be fun."
Clearly, like any member of Task Force 42, he wasn't entirely sane, either.
"If I'm going to hold out…… I'll have to make it a melee."
Kang Chanwoo protected his head with both arms and kicked off the ground.
The soldiers on guard opened fire all at once.
Federation garrison troops were issued inferior weapons because their role was to protect the colony planet—or, more precisely, to hold out until the relief force arrived—and because there was always a chance the planetary government might win them over.
It was nothing short of miraculous for him.
His enhanced muscles protected his bones and internal organs from the incoming bullets.
The outdated rifles couldn't inflict a decisive blow on his body.
"Concentrated fire isn't working!"
"Raise the threat level! The enemy's undergone body modifications on par with a Federation soldier!"
Another fragmentation grenade came flying.
But if it came at him head-on rather than from a blind angle, he could easily get out of its range.
KABOOM!
The grenade devastated the spot where he would have landed, but…
"The enemy has retreated!"
"Suppress him as soon as the smoke clears!"
He retreated, hiding himself in the smoke.
In response, the garrison troops all threw down their guns and prepared for close combat.
"……!"
……They were about to.
That brief instant when they threw down their guns and drew their hypervibration knives.
It was the opening—and gamble—that Kang Chanwoo had been waiting for.
As one of the Federation's finest soldiers, he knew their tactics well.
If gunfire didn't work and the distance closed, they would inevitably switch to close combat.
His gamble paid off beautifully, and…
"I won't kill you."
The ankle he had used to kick off the ground burst, unable to withstand the force.
Sacrificing his ankle to approach the squad at explosive speed, he picked the soldier who looked most vulnerable and grabbed the hand reaching for a hypervibration knife.
He twisted the wrist, snatched the knife, and swung it.
The blade cut the soldier's right arm, and Kang Chanwoo lost his balance and fell.
"Aagh!"
While the soldiers panicked at the unexpected ambush, Kang Chanwoo greedily bit into the arm lying on the ground.
'Even if they're just troops sent to put on a show at a colony planet, they're ridiculously green. ……Aha, so that's how the marshal managed to get them to fall in line.'
The moment meat with the same composition as his body entered his mouth, his body began an immediate feedback process.
The burns healed, and his ruptured ankle regenerated.
The human flesh melted in his mouth became part of his body through the nanomachines inside him.
By the time the soldiers regained their composure and understood what was happening, it was already too late.
"Now, come at me all at once."
The soldiers' faces went pale.
He was eating the arm of an opponent he'd cut off in the middle of battle.
It was a theoretically viable tactic, and something they were taught at the military academy.
But they never thought their opponent would actually do something like that.
"If you won't come, I'll come to you."
A bloodbath soon unfolded.
A torrent of attacks combining knife fighting and unarmed combat came crashing down.
While one man was being attacked, three others struck at their enemy, but the enemy wouldn't let go of that one man.
Whenever they cut him with a hypervibration knife, he bit off as much as had been cut.
Muscles crushed by punches and kicks regenerated immediately.
He used a single knife to block every attack aimed at vital spots like his neck.
The Federation garrison troops keenly felt the difference in their levels.
Before long, they realized that if the battle continued at a stalemate like this, the lives of their precious comrades might be in danger.
"……?"
When the barrage of attacks suddenly stopped, Kang Chanwoo was puzzled.
But he didn't let his guard down, and aimed the blade at the vital spot of the soldier pinned beneath him, whose upper body had become meat sauce.
"……Let's settle this through conversation."
"Huh?"
"There's no need to solve everything with violence, is there?"
A man who looked like the squad leader stepped forward, motioning his men back.
"And who was it that fired a grenade without warning in the first place……? At this point, I can't tell who's the villain."
"……I can't just let that comment pass. While the planetary government is in disarray after receiving orders from the Security Bureau, a coup faction has been running rampant, and you dare call the proud soldiers of the Human Federation villains?"
"What? A coup faction?"
"That's right. Jorge São Paulo, the former planetary marshal of Fettuccine, said he had to be taken to the Security Bureau and stand trial under the law, and asked us to protect him from the coup faction."
In other words…….
"The moment the Security Bureau ordered Fettuccine's marshal to surrender, the news spread across the planet, and the citizens who'd long been dissatisfied with him staged a coup?"
"Huh? No, that's not it. Jorge São Paulo said a small group of thugs, who'd undergone illegal modifications, were going to assassinate him."
…….
They're soft.
Naive and green.
And these were supposedly the proud soldiers of the Human Federation.
Kang Chanwoo simply couldn't believe it.
"You mean to tell me you believed him? Haah…… No wonder you were posted to some backwater colony instead of Mars or the Sindalot Multistar System. A mere squad, and armed with outdated guns."
"……!"
"Listen up, you rotten-brained junior bastards."
He set down the meat sauce and stood, grabbing the squad leader by the collar.
The squad leader tried to seize his hand and subdue him, but lost in a contest of pure strength and ended up being hauled up by the collar.
"Guh……!"
"That São Paulo bastard fooled every last one of you, you idiots. You fell for a ridiculous lie like that. If your parents saw you, they'd be weeping tears of pride, calling you the pride of the Federation."
Wham!
Kang Chanwoo drove his raised hand straight into the ground, along with the squad leader.
"Well, shall we pick up where we left off, proud soldiers of the Federation? Don't just stand there frozen in fear……."
-That's enough, Chanwoo.
A thick mechanical hand landed on his shoulder as he cracked his neck and prepared to resume the melee.
"……Brigadier General."
It was Ramirez.
"You're quite late."
-Haha, when I opened my eyes, I was inside Farina Palace.
"So, were you late because you were capturing the marshal?"
In his hand was an unconscious man.
Although his face was bright red with thick, viscous blood, it was definitely Jorge São Paulo.
-He was hidden away so thoroughly that it took me a while to find him.
"……Well, as long as you got him."
-Come on, lighten up. You're looking like you're about to eat someone. Now, gentlemen, how about we call it here for the sake of this old man's face?
Ramirez removed the helmet of his power armor.
There wasn't a single soldier who didn't recognize the face of the elderly veteran.
"I ought to get famous, too. To think I couldn't handle something this simple and ended up biting and tearing at everyone."
Every member of the Federation garrison bowed their heads to the ground.
Except for the unconscious squad leader and the soldier who'd been turned into meat sauce.