“now then, let’s have a look at this one, heheh”
Chihaya laughs unsettlingly as she detaches the Berlet’s machine-gun arm.
In the New Frontier, Actanoid parts sell for good money. They have to be sterilized before they can be sent over, so there’s always a shortage.
The loaner Allrounder she’s using right now only runs thanks to cannibalization.
Which means this Berlet she just destroyed is, in its entirety, salvageable goods.
“If I’d been able to get a surrender, some of these parts wouldn’t have been wrecked by the explosion……”
A little wasteful, maybe, but it beats a mutual kill.
Unison Human-Machine Technology says a recovery team will come for the Cyclone and Husaria later. The Allrounder she’s operating is reasonably strong, but hauling the Berlet and four other units is out of the question.
“wr-wrap it with wire and——oh? got a message”
While reading the message that came into Actors’ Quest, she uses the wire winch to haul the disassembled Berlet on the Allrounder’s back up out of the crevasse.
The message was from Unison Human-Machine Technology.
They want to buy the attacker’s Berlet outright — black box included.
The communication records stored in the black box might reveal its affiliation. Probably spoofed, but there’s information to be read from the parts too.
Chihaya thinks it over briefly and agrees.
Selling parts normally means hauling everything to the nearest garage, getting usable components evaluated and priced.
But dealing directly with Unison Human-Machine Technology here means no transport necessary. And they’ll buy even the unusable parts — because the point is finding out where everything came from, not reusing it.
The offer price is apparently one and a half million yen. Considering the grenade blast, that’s actually a little above fair. The leg components — the signature of any Sprinter-series unit — are warped from the impact of the fall, useless for reuse.
Moving away from the crevasse, Chihaya decides she should move the destroyed Cyclone and Husaria somewhere safe on the off chance more attackers show up.
There’s a transport vehicle right there with equipment for surveying the rare metal deposit — she might as well use that, and directs the Allrounder forward.
The transport vehicle is by the edge of the forest. It’s been driven up along the Wakagawa to this point, about the size of a small car.
That transport vehicle is lying on its side.
“……heh, h-heheh”
Chihaya lets out a dry laugh at the Fernleg Scorpion dragging the contents of the transport vehicle out.
What the Fernleg Scorpion has pulled out is excavation explosives.
That’s bad by any measure. Fire a gun into that and it’s a massive explosion. Wouldn’t be strange if it triggered an avalanche.
Chihaya quietly retreats the Allrounder back into the crevasse.
“why is it here……”
She mutters, switches off the Allrounder’s lights, and picks up her coffee.
“calm down, it hasn’t noticed us, it’s fine”
She accepted a guiding job — not a cargo protection job. What happens to those excavation explosives is none of her business.
She carefully peeks the Allrounder’s head up over the crevasse rim to watch the Fernleg Scorpion.
It seems to have decided there’s nothing edible — the Fernleg Scorpion wanders away from the transport vehicle with an excavation explosive snagged on its tail.
Where those explosives end up, only the Fernleg Scorpion knows. Hopefully they won’t end up buried like an unexploded landmine.
As a matter of basic courtesy, she sends the video to Unison Human-Machine Technology.
If Chihaya had prioritized protecting the cargo instead of recovering the Berlet, the explosives probably wouldn’t have been taken — but they apparently understand that’s just how it goes, and the only reply is a thank you for the information.
Relieved not to be blamed, Chihaya hoists the Allrounder back up out of the crevasse and packs it into the transport vehicle.
She shuts the door securely, strings wire around the perimeter to watch for Fernleg Scorpion attacks, and settles in to wait for dawn.
“c-can’t let my guard down for a single second……”
She completed the job and won a surprise fight on top of it, and yet the tension hasn’t loosened one bit.
Still — it’s the Allrounder doing the fighting, not Chihaya herself. Not having to risk her life is worth something.
If she doesn’t at least eat something good she won’t be able to take it, she decides, and makes up her mind to order delivery for a late-night snack.
Between the job payment and the windfall income she’s well in the black. A little indulgence is warranted for today.
“……but eating this late and gaining weight……and I don’t really want to see the delivery person……hmm”
The dithering, indecisive figure she cut in that moment was a far cry from the decisive, sharp-thinking Actor that Kanoki — the Berlet’s operator — had imagined.