Fantasy Galaxy: Why Are There Goblins and Orcs in Space?

Chapter 6 : Exploring the Spaceport

「We made it. That wash a closhe one.」

Sario's voice came through the communication device. I crouched in the cramped air duct with my head in my hands, replaying the faces of the three who had died.

This world is a piece of shit. How the hell did it come to this? Berta, Rieto, Dimasu...... I'm sorry.

「Zen, we're sholdiersh. Even when comradesh die, there'sh no time to grieve.」

I understood what Sario was saying, but there was also the fact that we'd been abandoned. When I pointed that out, Sario let out a sigh.

「Don't tell me you're planning to go back to the scouting vessel Gyogaru?」

「I don't want to go back either, but at thish rate the water in our Mobile Armor will run out and we'll die.」

The Mobile Armor's air was recycled and reusable, so it would last until the power supply ran dry. Water, however, was in short supply. At this rate, we'd be dead in four or five days.

Sario and I talked it over and agreed to exhaust every possible means of surviving in this space port before giving up. If we found nothing, we'd go back to the scouting vessel Gyogaru.

We pressed deeper into the air duct. Eventually, we reached what must have been a facility that once controlled airflow. But it had been completely destroyed, reduced to nothing more than a gaping hole.

Sario and I emerged from there into a corridor. We followed it forward, checking rooms along the way. The space port was the size of a small town, complete with shops, factories, and residential quarters. We headed for the section containing factories and repair docks.

Shipbuilding docks and repair workshops were concentrated near the space port's outer walls. We figured if anything useful remained, it would be there. We checked the larger repair docks and factories first, but nothing was left. The Tenjin Race appeared to have systematically destroyed every ship manufacturing facility.

「They've wrecked things so badly you have to wonder if it was even necessary.」

I muttered amid the mountains of rubble, and Sario nodded.

「It almosht looksh like they were shearching for shomething.」

Sario said something unexpected.

「Searching? Even though they destroyed everything this thoroughly?」

「It'sh not jusht machinery - they've alsho deshtroyed boxesh and containersh meant for shtorage.」

「To me, it just looks like they destroyed everything indiscriminately. But still, what caused the Anubis Race to become enemies of the Tenjin Race?」

「I don't know.」

After several hours of searching, we discovered a mansion in one corner of the factory district that looked absurdly out of place in its grandeur. It too had been destroyed, but the surviving structures made clear how lavish it had once been.

「Thish might have been the eshstate of shome great tycoon or noble.」

「In an industrial district like this?」

「Shtrange, ishn't it? Let'sh inveshtigate.」

We searched inside the ruined mansion, but it had been destroyed just as thoroughly as everything else.

「Huh - isn't this an underground passage?」

I discovered a section of floor that had caved in, exposing what appeared to be an underground passage beneath it. Sario came closer and peered down into the collapsed floor.

「Oh, you're right. Let'sh check it out.」

We cleared away the rubble and entered the underground passage, which led toward the outer section of the space port. Following it, we came to a sturdy-looking door. Sario examined it and said it looked like it could be opened. It had originally been secured with an electronic lock, but with the power cut, it had reverted to manual operation.

We opened the door to find a hangar for a small spacecraft. Inside sat a luxurious small spacecraft in near-mint condition. Sario and I approached it and began our inspection. The ship was roughly fifty meters long with a maximum width of twenty meters and a height of eight meters. Its profile resembled a shōgi lance piece - though not angular, but streamlined.

「Thish ish a shtarship that wash ushed by royalty of the Anubish Rashe. However, thish type wash ushed sholely for interplanetary travel.」

「Meaning it can't travel to other star systems?」

「That'sh right. And the shmall shtarship ishn't dead, either. It'sh shtill functioning, sho the entry hatch won't open.」

Sario said this with a look of disappointment, so I moved closer to what appeared to be the entry hatch to verify for myself. At that moment, the hatch opened.

「Whoa!」

I leaped back in surprise as a robot emerged from the hatch. Sario took one look at it and his expression shifted to understanding.

「Ah, I shee - there wash a maintenanshe robot inshide.」

This small spacecraft still had a functioning maintenance robot aboard, and because it had continued performing upkeep, the ship had remained in perfect condition. The maintenance robot tried to step down from the ship and toppled over backward. It had been maintaining the ship but had apparently neglected to maintain itself.

The maintenance robot lay on the ship's floor and didn't get back up. It must have struck something vital and shut down completely. I'd only ever seen something like this in a two-hour mystery drama. Except here, what lay collapsed on the floor wasn't a person but a robot.

Sario and I slipped inside while the hatch was still open, and we were stunned to find artificial gravity in effect. A starship that generated artificial gravity all the way out to its hatch was a rarity. That gravity was what had caused the maintenance robot to fall - but thanks to it, we'd been able to get inside.

Our inspection of the interior revealed that the power plant and engines were both in working order, and there was water. The only thing missing was food.

「If we can jusht shecure food, we can take thish ship out.」

The small spacecraft was equipped with two ultra-compact fusion reactors, two plasma engines, propellant tanks, and two five-light-diameter laser cannons. Even the deuterium fuel was at full capacity - the maintenance robot had apparently been sourcing it from somewhere and replacing it at regular intervals. However, truly getting the ship operational would require a thorough inspection, and with just the two of us, it would take months.

「About that inspection - I know where there are robots designed for maintenance work.」

Sario tilted his head quizzically.

「What do you mean?」

「Remember the warehouse where we found the Galithium? There were maintenance robots in there too.」

Sario immediately suggested we go look for them. We made our way cautiously through the space port's corridors toward the warehouse. We arrived without incident, entered, and headed to where the debris was piled up in the back.

「There's a door behind this debris.」

「Then let'sh clear it away.」

On a planet's surface it would have been backbreaking work, but in zero gravity it was done in no time. We opened the door and went inside. Just as I'd seen before, maintenance robots sat there, packed in crates.

「Theshe are military maintenanshe robotsh. There are about fifty of them. Let'sh try activating one.」

Sario and I pulled a maintenance robot from its crate and flipped the switch. If it had been built with Earth's technology, there was no way it would have powered on after decades of sitting idle.

But the robot here ran a self-diagnostic and then sprang to life. For power, we used an emergency power supply device from the warehouse. An emergency power supply device was essentially a single-use chemical battery.

『Who is my master?』

I signaled Sario with my eyes to take the role of master. Sario stepped forward and spoke.

「I am the firsht mashter, Shario Barakeru. And thish ish the shecond mashter.」

「I'm the second master, Zen Jingūji.」

Apparently, robots like these identified people by voice and face. We activated all fifty maintenance robots and each became primary master of half.

The Anubis military maintenance robots were modeled after the Anubis Race, and aside from being made of metal, bore a strong resemblance to the real thing, Sario explained.