Chapter 15

Volume 1, Episode 6

"──Rapi, Anis! Provide cover fire!! Neon, come with me!!"

With movements that didn't suggest he was carrying a heavy backpack, he lowered his posture. Despite the laser beams passing at an unnoticeable speed above his head, he moved from one debris to another.

Following him closely, the petite figure jumped next to Moore, not minding the light beams that would concentrate if focused on their location. It would blow them away if the fire was concentrated, but he couldn't move away now.

"Get a bit further next time!──Is everyone ready!? Alright, fire!!"

Lapi and Anis laid down suppressing fire in the front, drawing the attention of the Raptures. Seeing this, Moore signaled Neon to follow him. He exposed himself above the cover where he'd taken refuge, aiming the barrel of his assault rifle towards the enemy, while Neon did the same with her Elysion-made shotgun, "All Brake", triggering the shotgun's trigger.

Their gunfire was nearly simultaneous.

-----

Cease fire.

As Moore gave the command, the gunshots abruptly stopped. Where their barrels had been aimed, the wreckage of around ten Raptures now lay, destroyed and emitting black smoke.

Following Moore's signal to regroup, Rapi and Anis emerged from cover, running towards him. Moore removed his magazine to check his remaining ammunition. While he still had several rounds left, as a precaution, he replaced the magazine with a new one and tossed the empty magazine into his dump pouch.

"Any casualties?"

"None, Commander."

"Hey, Neon. I've been thinking about it since a while ago, but... isn't that gun of yours a bit too powerful?"

As he heard Rapi's report and visually confirmed that no one was injured, Moore stood next to him with Anis asking the question. Anis was looking at Neon's shotgun, which had been spewing large pellets earlier.

"Well, higher firepower is always better."

"Y-yeah, well... I guess so."

Responding to Neon's question with a smile, Moore inadvertently expressed his agreement. Indeed, firepower was crucial. Most problems could be solved with it.

"This world revolves around firepower! Only firepower can protect us!"

(Tl notes: No, Neon. It won't.)

"Is, is that so..."

Anis, who had asked Neon the question, was left wide-eyed to Neon, with the demeanor of an evangelist or religious leader, passionately spoke about the supremacy of firepower. Anis wondered if she had accidentally ignited something, but it was too late now.

"Alright, everyone! Repeat after me!──FIREPOWER IS THE BEST!!"

"Firepower is the best..."

Agreeing with the sentiment, Moore whispered it under his breath. Hearing him, Rapi and Anis immediately turned their gazes toward him. They apparently hadn't expected him to actually echo the phrase.

"Wait, am I the only one doing this?"

They were supposed to repeat it together. Glancing alternately at them, Moore wondered, but Rapi and Anis turned their faces away. Neon, on the other hand, beamed through her glasses as if she had found a comrade.

Leaving that aside, after the recent battle, they were finally able to cross the railway bridge.

After confirming that there was no electricity running through it, everyone cautiously crossed the bridge, their destination—the power plant—now just ahead.

However, the scan results reported that more than 50 Raptures were swarming in front of the power plant. It wouldn't be wise to engage such a large group head-on. Despite the feasibility of entering, facing off against this many Raptures at once wasn't ideal.

"Suicidal, to say the least."

---Anis commented over the radio. Moore, meanwhile, had taken out binoculars from his pouch and was using them to reconnoiter the power plant, focusing on the area within a kilometer.

He could see smoke rising from the chimney.

"Is that power plant operational?"

[Yes. We don't know why, but it started running a little while ago.]

"Machinery or system malfunction, perhaps? But... is that power plant a thermal one? If it is, it burns coal... Where would they get the coal from?"

Burning turns water into steam, which then powers massive turbines connected to generators to produce electricity. If that power plant operated on thermal power, it would require fuel like coal. he doesn't know how much coal was stored in that power plant, but for sure it's not unlimited.

"...Could there be humans there?"

[According to the central government's official stance, there are no humans left on the surface. But there are always exceptions to everything. We've attempted similar operations multiple times to investigate the phenomenon of the power plant's operation, but...]

"The results were unsuccessful, I assume."

To think that he was being assigned a mission that had already failed several times... Was this something to laugh about, or should he be worried? It's hard to judge. When faced with such moments, cigarettes were his best companions. Moore put away his binoculars and took out a small transparent vinyl bag from his pouch—a bag used for food storage. It contained a soft pack of cigarettes and an oil lighter. He unzipped it, pulled out a cigarette, placed it between his lips, and ignited it with the lighter, letting out a puff of purple smoke.

"By the way, they even tried sending multiple squads on a large-scale operation, but it seems that didn't work either. They were taken down by the swarm of Raptures."

"...So, clinging to that power plant is not just about the possibility of survivors? Maybe they want the tens of thousands of kW of output it generates?"

[That's correct. With that much generating capacity, you could run all of Arc's facilities for two months.]

Oh, that's understandable. It was indeed an essential mission. However, if one speculated, the central government's true desire might be to seize the surroundings in order to secure an almost unlimited power supply. In a world where humanity struggled to survive with limited resources and energy, such a power source would be equivalent to a treasure trove.

"Yeah, yeah. A really~~~~ important mission. So important that they're entrusting it to just three Nikkes and the Commander."

"Haha. 'The few, The proud.' That's what they call it, huh...Tch---"

For a moment, Moore felt a slight headache, but it quickly subsided. Perhaps the nicotine and tar had gotten to him too much. With deep furrows between his brows, Moore slowly exhaled the smoke, trying to alleviate the pain.

Even Rapi, who was always attentive to the Commander's well-being, didn't notice the distraction. In fact, she was directing sharp glances at Anis, who had been spouting sarcastic words one after another. Due to this, her focus on Moore had waned.

"Anis, are you rejecting the mission?"

"It's not that, but..."

It wasn't desirable to burden squad members with unnecessary worries. Fortunately, it wasn't a severe issue, just a momentary one. Without saying anything, Moore continued to exhale the purple smoke silently.

Speaking of which, how would they infiltrate the power plant's premises or its interior? While Moore pondered this, Neon took over and directed the same question to Rapi and Anis.

"We should eliminate all the Raptures controlling the power plant and infiltrate."

Was Rapi's suggestion.

Well, it wasn't a bad idea. If the squad's firepower were a bit stronger—say, with a machine gun—they could be stationed on both wings and shower the area with crossfire. However, there were no machine guns at present, and the squad members were also lacking. So, that idea was out of the question.

Of course, the one to react was Neon, the advocate of firepower supremacy. She proudly raised her shotgun while Moore caught her demeanor from the corner of his eye and released a thin trail of purple smoke from his lips. Since he was close to nailing the idea, he decided to light up his second cigarette, using the still-lit end of the previous one as the energy for inspiration.

"Let's go! The time has come to show the true worth of my firepower!"

Indeed, she was dependable. Moore felt that genuinely, not with sarcasm. He slightly shrugged his shoulders and, this time, took out his terminal to display the local map on the screen.

"Commander, should we continue the reconnaissance?"

"Yeah, we'll keep investigating, but..."

"Yeah, I got it already! We just need to go, right? Let's go!"

Anis, who seemed a bit sulky, continued speaking while she checked the revolving cylinder of her grenade launcher.

"Alright, everyone, make sure your weapons are loaded and ready before we charge. With just the three of us, we'll end up dead pretty quickly, yeah?"

"──Anis."

"We'll be a kind of decoy at least, so stay hidden behind us. And make sure to recover our brains properly.──Can you handle that, Commander? It's much easier than sending us to our doom, right?"

Moore, who was engrossed in the map on the screen rather than listening to Anis' machine gun complaints, was slightly delayed in his reaction. He couldn't help but wonder why everyone seemed to have the opinion of a frontal assault. At that moment, he noticed an interesting point on the screen and looked around.

"...Is it safe to assume this is insubordination?"

"Feel free."

"Insubordination results in immediate scrapping."

"Rapi...!?"

──Is it okay at there?

Just about 10 meters away, Moore spotted a building with an emergency ladder on its exterior wall.

"...Neon, call me when it's over. When it seems dangerous, call me."

After addressing her, since there was nothing else to do, Moore started walking slowly towards the building.

"Calm down."

"I can't calm down when we're being sent on a suicide mission!"

"We haven't heard the Commander's plan yet."

"Ugh... Wait, where is he?"

"...Commander?"

"Oh, the Commander is over there. He says to call him when we're done."

Realizing Moore's absence, the two finally looked around. Following Neon's gesture, they noticed Moore ascending the emergency ladder on the outer wall of the building, heading toward the rooftop.

"──Ah, as I thought."

Taking the cigarette from his mouth, Moore retrieved his binoculars, aimed downward from a height of about 15 meters above ground, and peered through the lens with a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. It was as if he had anticipated this situation.

"Commander! It's dangerous, so please come down quickly!"

As Rapi's voice echoed, sensing that the discussion had ended, Moore decided to return to the ground promptly.

He gripped both ends of the ladder with his gloved hands, pinched it between his feet, and descended swiftly. Once he reached the ground, he found Rapi, Anis, and everyone else gathered, indicating that the discussion had indeed concluded.

"...Has the discussion ended? Oh, Anis. I didn't quite catch your previous remark, but there's one point I need to correct. If I were to order a charge, I would be leading from the front. Don't forget that. If I hesitate, feel free to shoot me in the back.──Shifty, there should be drainage channels or something similar in a power plant. Check if the drainage channel on the riverside is connected to the power plant."

[...Huh? Uhm, understood. Please wait a moment... Oh, there it is!]

"...Alright. Let's infiltrate from there... I mean, dive in from there. We don't know what exactly they were draining, though."

Hoping it doesn't smell too bad, he muttered to himself as he tossed the cigarette he had been smoking into a portable ashtray.