The Ponce Space Port was built by the Anubis tribe. This Gorgona star system originally belonged to the Anubis tribe. The Anubis tribe was the same dog-human race as Sario the Kushis, but if the Kushi were Shiba Inus, the Anubis were Dobermans. The Anubis tribe was a Level C civilization that once ruled over 300 stars. However, they went extinct after opposing the Celestials.
When I heard that, I wondered if they had a death wish. The Celestials was an overwhelmingly powerful existence. For a Level C civilization to oppose the Celestials, despite ruling over 300 stars, was unthinkably foolish. I heard the end of the Anubis from Sario – they were wiped out by the Rikagel Celestials in about a day. It was a chilling tale that made my spine run cold, conveying the Celestials’ overwhelming might.
We returned to our room, donned mobile armors, and waited for the scout ship Gyogal to approach Ponce Space Port. When Gyogal neared Ponce, we received launch orders. With that order, our squad and two other scout squads launched.
We jumped from Gyogal’s airlock into space and used our back thrusters to propel towards Ponce Space Port. For me, it was my first time in space. Though nothing was going wrong, just being in space made my breathing quicken and an unpleasant sweat break out on my back. Alone in that dark void, I might have panicked. But with Sario and others flying ahead, their presence kept me from descending into panic as we flew to Ponce.
Ponce Space Port was a massive thing about 3 kilometers long, but destroyed. There were holes in the outer wall, and we entered through a 5-meter hole on the sun-facing side. Since Sario and I were ordered to act together, we advanced through the corridors side-by-side.
“Zen, we’ll need to use our thrusters to return. Don’t waste them unnecessarily.”
“Got it.”
We moved forward through the airless, weightless corridors. Berta and Rieto took the lead, with Squad Leader Valbo and Dimas in the middle, and Sario and I bringing up the rear. Without gravity, we kicked off floors, walls and ceilings to propel ourselves.
“There’s a door up ahead. We’ll investigate inside.”
Knowing about the door meant they had likely scouted with drones first. Rieto went ahead to check if the door was locked.
“Squad Leader Valbo, the door is locked.”
“Then blow it open quickly.”
We had brought explosives for such situations. Berta and Rieto set the charges on the door and withdrew.
“Do it.”
At Valbo’s command, the detonation switch was pressed, and the door was blown open. Since there was no air, there was no explosion sound—but I could feel the vibration through my hand as it touched the wall. Shards of the door’s remains scattered everywhere, making it too dangerous to approach for a while. Once things settled, we entered through the blasted doorway. The room appeared to be a large warehouse. Various cargo and debris floated in zero gravity. Most of the objects seemed to be mechanical parts, likely repair components once used at Ponce Spaceport. However, nearly all of them appeared to be broken.
“Go all the way in and investigate carefully. Look for anything useful.”
Valbo gave a vague order. The blast had scattered debris, obstructing deeper passage. But following orders, we pressed on to find a vault about the size of a tatami mat fixed to the floor. However, the lock area was broken. A vault, but broken, so useless. No, the contents mattered? I’d leave it for now. Looking around, I couldn’t see Sario, Berta or the others through the floating debris. I searched for anything else and found another room at the rear of the storage area. The door was open, and inside were spacesuits floating about, brand new it seemed. I approached and peered into a helmet.
“Ugh!”
I recoiled reflexively. Inside the spacesuit was what looked like a mummified corpse. Collecting myself, I looked for anything else and noticed a sheeted bundle in the far corner of the room. Thanks to the sheet, the contents seemed undamaged and not scattered. The sheet was fixed to the floor with metal clasps. I unfastened one clasp, peeling back part of the sheet to reveal state-of-the-art military maintenance robots inside boxed and labeled. Though the “latest” models were likely decades old by now. There seemed to be about 50 boxes stacked.
“Come back.”
Valbo’s voice came over the comm. I hurried to the entrance to regroup.
“Everyone’s here. Report.”
Dimas reported first.
“The floating parts and such seem mostly damaged. And I found a large crate fixed to the floor.”
This piqued Valbo’s interest.
“What was inside?”
“A small shuttle, sir.”
A 15-meter, 6-person shuttle.
“Was it operational?”
“Unclear. Even if new, there’s no telling how old it was.”
Berta, Rieto and Sario apparently found nothing. Then it was my turn, and I first reported the vault.
“I found a vault fixed to the floor in the rear, and…”
Valbo cut me off, his face twisting uglily as he demanded:
“Wait, a vault? Did you check inside?”
“It was locked, so I couldn’t.”
“Tch, useless. We’re going to check that vault.”
“Um…”
As I tried to continue my report, Valbo glared at me.
“You just shut up and follow orders. Take us to that vault.”
I led them to the vault. Seeing it, Valbo grinned nastily.
“Use explosives to open the vault.”
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Dimas set the charges on the vault, and we withdrew to the storage entrance. The blast detonated, ejecting various debris. When the blast cleared, we re-entered to find the vault door blown open, metal ingots floating about. However, the entrance to the room with the maintenance robots was buried under blast debris and no longer visible.
Valbo grabbed one of the floating ingots and let out a shout. An eerie cry, but seemingly of joy – the ingots were gallitium, an extremely valuable metal found only in certain nebulae. Ten tons could buy a medium interstellar transport.
“Ah…”
Dimas gasped – the small shuttle he’d found was now smashed by debris from the blast.
“Tch, that shuttle was already wrecked. Just recover the gallitium.”
We recovered about two tons of Galitium floating in space and returned to the recon ship Gyogal. Apparently, Valbo proudly reported the find to the captain. Any recovered materials like this became the property of the Gyogal, and the profits were distributed among the captain, Valbo, and the higher-ups. As for Me, Sario and others, who actually discovered it? We got nothing. As always, all we received was another tube of preserved rations. At that moment, I seriously considered killing Valbo and escaping. But I knew that the implant embedded in the back of my neck could inflict unbearable pain with the press of a single button—enough to kill me.
We continued investigating Ponce, but I lost my chance to report the maintenance bots as time passed. Then a swarm of space Jellyfish approached Ponce. I thought Valbo would call off the search, but instead our scout teams were ordered to drive off the Jellyfish.
“Why us? Goblin have space force too, right?”
I asked Sario about it. The Goblin Space Corps was basically like a space marine force. They also used power armor similar to ours, but theirs was far more advanced, and their weapons were much stronger than our space machine guns. That’s why I wondered—instead of making the recon unit hunt space jellyfish, wouldn’t it be better to let the Goblin Space Corps handle it?
“It’s useless, you know. The Goblin army’s strategy is to first send in subordinate troops as cannon fodder, and only after they’re destroyed do the Goblin soldiers move forward. This method is historical and unchanging.”
We armed ourselves and headed toward Ponce Space Port. Other reconnaissance units should already be there. We moved through the corridor to the spacecraft’s docking bay. The docking bay is a place for loading and unloading cargo, and this particular bay was large enough to accommodate five spacecraft. The entrance was an airlock that we passed through to enter the bay.
“Huh, there are no space jellyfish here.”
Looking across the wide docking bay, I noticed no space jellyfish. Part of the outer wall was destroyed, with a large hole, so they might be entering through there. While I was thinking about this, a space jellyfish entered through the hole. It was a monster about eight meters wide. I aimed my space machine gun at the jellyfish’s core and pulled the trigger. The recoil hit my shoulder, pushing me backward. Damn. I had forgotten to activate the magnetic soles. I activated the electromagnets, sticking to the iron-rich floor. Looking at the space jellyfish, I saw its core had been destroyed by the explosive round, killing it. The moment I felt relief, more space jellyfish began entering through the hole.
“It’s an attack. Destroy them all!” Valbo shouted in a gruff voice.
We continued firing at the approaching space jellyfish. When I took down the fourth one, I noticed our ammunition was running low. The same was true for everyone else.
“Sir, we’re running out of ammunition,” Dimas reported to Valbo.
After Valbo looked around and confirmed the numerous remaining space jellyfish, he ordered,
“Fight to the last, I’m going back to report.”
“What… are you telling us to die?”
Dimas protested. Valbo showed the controller of the training terminal.
“I could kill you with this,” he said, then ran away.
With Valbo gone, only we subordinate troops remained. Moreover, Valbo seemed to have sealed the airlock exit.
“That bastard sealed the airlock. Is there another way out?” Dimas growled.
Space jellyfish continued to attack, and I took down the sixth one.
“Look there!”
Sario’s loud voice came through the communication device. An air duct-like passage was in the direction he pointed. We started running toward the air duct. The space jellyfish pursued us. Damn, it felt incredibly far despite being only about a hundred meters.First, Dimas’s space machine gun ran out of ammunition, and a space jellyfish’s tentacle grabbed him. I tried to shoot its core but missed. Hitting a target while running was difficult. Blood came from Dimas’s mouth as the tentacle crushed him. Next, Berta and Rieto were caught by space jellyfish.
“Help!” Berta’s voice came through the communication device.
I stopped and fired at the space jellyfish. As the explosive round hit the core, Berta and Rieto’s bodies went limp. The moment it hit, it had crushed them.
“Damn it!”
I repeatedly fired at the space jellyfish that had killed Berta and Rieto.
“Zen, they’re dead. Let’s run,”
Sario’s voice made me start running. Space jellyfish were closing in behind us. Sario shot his space machine gun at the air duct, and the explosion blew away the dust cover blocking the entrance.
Sario jumped into the air duct first. I followed, moving deeper inside. Space jellyfish stretched out their tentacles, but after about ten meters, they could no longer reach us.
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