CH 340

“Mei, make sure not to head to the front.”

There were no Orient Corporation branches in this frontier territory after all. Orient was Mei’s manufacturer. Regular maintenance is managed by the maintenance pod they provided to me, but performing repairs would be difficult if she ever gets severely damaged. It would be a different story for a military combat robot. But Mei is an ultra-luxury custom-made machine, so there’s a need to be extra careful.

“Yes. I will fight by throwing projectiles from a distance.”

After saying so, Mei took out a hefty pointed metal stake from who-knows-where. Oh, that’s the ultra-hard and heavy throwing spike she got back then. It probably belongs to the same category as throwing arrows or stick shurikens, but it’s too heavy to be called a throwing arrow and too hefty and long to be a stick shuriken. Or rather, just where the heck was she keeping something like that anyway?

『EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIK!』

“Whoah!?”

The killer metal spider let out a high-pitched shriek as it rampaged about, and the imperial marines frantically dodged its attacks. The ones equipped with power armors somehow managed to pin the spiders down, but laser and plasma weapons still seem to be ineffective.

“What now?”

“We have no choice but to confront them ourselves– Wait, are you fine with this?”

“Course not. But it’s not my style to abandon you and run away either.”

“You know, I really like that part of you.”

“Why thank you, Colonel.”

Well, if I abandoned her and ran away in this situation, I’ll lose Col. Serena’s trust. That’s definitely not good. From a mercenary’s perspective, I mean.

After all, mercenaries are basically part of the service industry, so losing customers due to a lack of credibility is a no-go. Staying here and helping out will conversely earn me lots of brownie points. So I really can’t afford to run away in this situation.

Moreover, if I run away, I’ll get made fun of by my fellow mercenaries. I don’t want to be branded as a coward who chickens out in emergencies. Well, if the situation really is hopeless, then I’ll choose to retreat. I only have one life after all. Insisting on fighting a battle you have no hope of winning isn’t being brave. It’s being reckless.

“I’ll get its attention, so match the timing and slam it with your maces!”

I shouted to the soldiers around me and rushed to the front, surprising the killer metal spider that was rampaging around. Did the spider judge that I, who wasn’t wearing power armor, wasn’t a huge threat, or did it actually feel some danger from my swords? It quickly charged toward me as well.

“Whoah there!”

I avoided its all-out charge and leaped sideways.

The killer metal spider wasn’t exactly gigantic, but it was still the size of a forklift or golf cart. Moreover, since its entire body was made of an unknown metal, it seemed to be heavier than it looked. I wonder if my bones would get instantly crushed if I ate a direct hit from its charge.

『EEEEEEEEIG!』

Maybe it didn’t like the fact that I was able to avoid its charge. The killer metal spider stood up using only its two rear legs and attacked me with its remaining four arms. I mean legs. Limbs? Anyway, it swiped at me with four of them. I brandished my swords as I thought of my next move. And if this thing had six legs, then wasn’t it an insect rather than a spider? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.

Or rather, it’s actually harder than I expected. I don’t remember the last one being so hard. Or maybe it’s just because I wasn’t wearing power armor right now. I guess the info I told Col. Serena earlier was a little off huh.

『OOOOYG!?』

A tremendously loud noise echoed out, and the killer metal spider’s body keeled to the side. I don’t know exactly what happened, but this was a good nice opening, so I rushed toward the spider and cut off three of its legs from their joints.

Ah, I guess you can’t exactly call them joints. I mixed up those parts with the joints of blades or armor huh.

As expected, even something like the killer metal spider got wary of me now that it suffered such damage in my hands. It was probably trying to decide between trying to eliminate the immediate threat in front of it or being wary of that long-range attack that came flying from nowhere. Mm, it indeed seems like a living creature when it acts all confused and panicked like this. Kugi was the one who said these guys were actually alive, and that might actually be true from the looks of it.

『AAAYIG!?』

Boom! That loud boom rang out again, and the metal spider toppled over on its side. Hmm, it should be those, right? Mei’s throwing spikes, I mean. Did they penetrate the spider’s body from the side? Its movements have obviously gotten a lot more sluggish.

“Attack!”

“Raaah!”

“Take this!”

The power armor-equipped imperial marines rushed toward the fallen metal spider and began walloping it with their crudely-made maces. Wow, how violent. Before long, the spider’s body got utterly crushed and its limbs all got broken off. Its miserable-looking scraps leaked out eerie-looking purple liquid. Like I thought, surrounding it and hitting it with those maces was really effective.

I turned my gaze toward Mei and saw her getting ready to throw another throwing spike. Before I knew it, she’d already thrown the spike, and the killer spider Col. Serena was facing staggered due to the resulting impact. Yeah, you’d get a huge hole opened through your body if you got hit with something like that directly. Mei really was strong.

“Master, how should we deal with the remaining one?”

“I don’t think I wanna get anywhere close to that.”

The last one seemed to be slowing down due to the barrage of laser and plasma weapon fire. It seemed that even though the surface of the spider didn’t explode or melt due to the high-intensity thermo-optical weapons, the resulting heat was still penetrating its insides.

Well, due to that, the area they were fighting in was wrapped in hellish heat. Uh, was the air conditioning of the Dauntless really gonna be able to handle something like that? I hope it doesn’t break down due to all that heat.

“Haah!”

Col. Serena performed a spirited slash and cut off one-half of the killer metal spider’s body, and it completely stopped moving. Did she actually cut down that thing right from the front? Was she a gorilla or something? Well, it didn’t seem like you can cut that thing down by relying on power alone, so she might have used a specific technique.

“Captain Hiro, I think it was harder than what you described.”

“The joints of the limbs were just as I remembered, but the body was harder than I expected. I think I might have given you faulty info. Sorry. I only tangled with it for an instant before cutting it down back then after all.”

“It can’t be helped then. It looks like they’re about to finish the remaining one off as well.”

The last metal spider that was struggling under the intense heat finally collapsed and fell apart.

“It looks like they’re done…… But why are you and your men handling this stuff anyway, Colonel? Isn’t this the jurisdiction of another department?”

After hearing my questions, Colonel Serena shrugged her shoulders while sporting a complicated expression. It looks like that info’s confidential huh.

“Well, these things do seem like they would serve as nice raw materials for armor…… Ah, so that’s how it is.”

“Our main assignment is to deal with the space pirates operating around this system and make them behave.”

“I see.”

Their main job was dealing with space pirates, but maybe they were also saddled with work relating to these metal spiders. After all, their resistance to thermo-optical weapons was considerable. If the armor, err, shell of those things can be utilized in manufacturing ships, power armor, combat armor, and the like, I guess it would be pretty beneficial. There was still a need to employ measures to deal against heat though.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s any of my business though. Anyway, just do your best. Or rather, please just don’t get me involved.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Judging from her reply, she’s definitely planning on getting me wrapped up in this mess huh. Please let me off, Colonel.

That being said, she was sort of my temporary boss right now, so my bad luck was probably gonna force me to get involved with her whether I liked it or not. In other words, it was checkmate. Let’s just give up.

“Master.”

“Oh, Mei. Nice support. Is there anything wrong with your body?”

“There is none. Thank you for your concern. Are you injured anywhere, Master?”

“I’m fine. Anyway, let’s get back to the ship and rest for the day.”

“Yes.”

We rejoined with Elma, Mimi, and the rest and were able to safely return to the ship without getting involved in any more incidents. It’s just the first day and it’s already like this. I’m getting uneasy……