The day before the job, Chihaya stocked up on drinks and snacks for the long haul, gathered surveying references and app guides within easy reach, and connected to the Allrounder.
The monitors flicker to life, showing the dim interior of the garage. From the docking bays of that slightly dusty space, a few other units start moving at the same moment as Chihaya’s Allrounder.
As expected, they’re all heading the same direction.
She leaves the Korogeiwa Garage in the hilly terrain and heads north through trackless ground.
No one seems to have coordinated, but the other units naturally divide up roles and start keeping watch on the surroundings. Each raising an assault rifle toward their sector, matching stride as they advance.
Chihaya’s Allrounder breezes right past the side of their impromptu moving formation.
Group movement isn’t her strong suit. Acutely aware of her inexperience, she’d put distance between herself and the others to avoid being in anyone’s way.
Clearing the sparse hilly terrain, the greenery gradually thickens. New Frontier trees are largely untouched by human hands, so old, tall trees are the norm — but this area has comparatively shorter trees of the kind you’d see on a Japanese mountain.
Actanoid height isn’t much different from a human’s, so even with shorter trees the view above is still a canopy of branches and leaves. The undergrowth is thick too; units with leaf-spring legs like the Leaf Sprinter would probably find the footing a bit awkward.
Chihaya stomps the pressure mat and pushes straight through to the destination. The client has laid out routes in advance to prevent participants from mistaking each other for bandit Actors, so it’s a relatively safe path.
She passes several Actanoid teams moving in formation but ignores them and runs straight by.
A few Actanoids mistake the solo-operating Chihaya for a bandit Actor and raise their weapons, but Chihaya deliberately runs with the arms-dangling amateur posture to signal non-hostility.
Not raising a gun at all is enough to read as non-threatening, and every unit that pointed at her lowers their weapon.
About fifteen hours out of the Korogeiwa Garage, with breaks along the way, Chihaya’s Allrounder arrives at the site — solo and at near-top speed throughout.
The starting point for this job is the Akane Forest — a great woodland in the New Frontier, discovered by Amashiro Agricultural Development Group and registered with the New Frontier Resource Agency.
“it really is red……”
Chihaya stares at the crimson canopy on the main camera, genuinely impressed.
The forest takes its name from the dense growth of trees with deep scarlet leaves.
The New Frontier tree known as the Red Bell is an evergreen — except instead of staying green, it stays red, year-round. Its existence had been known for some time. Research had been trickling along on it, with hopes for use as ornamental foliage or natural dye.
This Red Bell also turns out to grow quickly, and its high density means it warps less — which makes it potentially very valuable as a high-quality building material.
The civilian clan that took notice is New World Tree Housing — happily building whatever they want across the New Frontier.
The plan is to harvest Red Bell timber from the Akane Forest grove, cut a road through to the Korogeiwa Garage to transport it, and establish a reliable lumber supply.
To that end, New World Tree Housing had teamed up with Amashiro Agricultural Development Group to post this job.
Various Actanoids are already docked at the assembly point on site.
Chihaya docks the Allrounder under a plastic sheet strung between Red Bell trees to keep off the rain.
The Akane Forest sits in a vast hollow, and the humidity is high — fog forms easily. Animals have been known to attack under cover of it, which is why everyone is clustered together here.
“oh, ten more hours……”
Having pushed through solo at near-maximum speed, Chihaya has arrived well ahead of the job start time.
Looks like there’s time to sleep. She lies back on the sofa bed.
She sets a phone alarm, sleeps, wakes up an hour before job start, washes her face, gets ready, and stands on the pressure mat.
New World Tree Housing’s representative, Okuma Kenichi, addresses everyone over voice chat.
Just logistics — work assignments for each person’s area.
“o-okay. survey team……”
Relieved not to be assigned to wildlife response, Chihaya heads toward her assigned district with a quiet smile.
The survey hasn’t started yet, so assignments are still loose.
The goal of this job is selecting a transport route, so the search is for terrain that can actually move logs.
Specifically: a gentle slope leading up from the hollow where the Akane Forest sits to higher ground. Then, from there toward the Korogeiwa Garage, a path through forest that requires as little clearing as possible. Areas with active wildlife territorial disputes are to be avoided.
Terrain conditions for responding to ambushes on the transport route are also important.
Sections with sheer cliffs on both sides or even one side are out — you can’t respond to surprise attacks from there. Getting raked from above by a heavy machine gun with nowhere to go is a non-starter. A fixed transport route also means attackers can prepare in advance.
The task is to find the shortest possible route that satisfies all these conditions.
“this is going to take a few days……”
Daily pay is included so running a bit long is fine, but managing rest breaks will be important.
Chihaya’s assigned area is inside the forest, a short ways past the edge of the Akane Forest.
This area is a mix of Red Bell and other species, but the trees near the Red Bell look noticeably thin and weedy. Some kind of growth-inhibiting compound from the Red Bell might be responsible.
“oh, a squirrel……”
Slightly larger than an Earth squirrel, somehow — sitting in a tree and looking down at the Allrounder while carefully cradling a small round red fruit in both hands that it had apparently picked up somewhere.
“oh my god it’s so cute”
The words melt in her mouth. Chihaya starts her survey work while stealing glances at the squirrel.
A genuinely peaceful start to the job.
“this is how it should be, heheh”