Anti-Astral Deck
What if it had been Ark 74?
What if she had acted like that in a place where even speaking directly to the Commander was difficult, and where making eye contact without permission was forbidden?
Those two little ECHOs would have had their memories erased under the guise of re-education, or, in the worst-case scenario, they would have been disposed of by being dismantled into usable parts.
"Mealtime? Is it already that time? Cordelia."
"Yes, Commander."
"Take care of Lapis and bring her to the cafeteria. Hmm... I don't know about other things, but she should probably cover her lower half."
"...Ah, yes. Understood, Commander."
But Lapis's shock didn't just end there.
Throughout the time she spent preparing to go to the cafeteria, her system incessantly poured out incomprehensible information.
It was a landscape where ECHOs lived and breathed—a sight that could never have been seen in Ark 74, which was filled with rigidity and silence.
"...Cordelia. You... you are Cordelia, right?"
As if unable to believe it, Lapis checked the face of the leader walking beside her.
"Yes, Lapis. Well, I understand how you feel."
Cordelia smiled as she looked at the building ahead.
"I was like that at first, too."
An ECHO-exclusive cafeteria.
Could these be facilities that existed only in this Ark in the entire world?
And inside the cafeteria, ECHOs spoke freely to the Commander, bickered with one another, and shared food.
In any other Ark, a human—and a Commander at that—would be a being too daunting to even approach...
The ECHOs of this Ark all seemed to be striving to secure a spot next to the Commander, as if being by his side was the most coveted place in the world.
"Oh? A face I haven't seen before?"
"...I am Lapis Theron of the Sacred Squad."
"I'm Madeline of Bread Garden. I look forward to working with you."
"I look forward to working with you as well, Madeline."
"Here. This is today's meal. Take as much as you want to eat."
"As much... as I want?"
Lapis took in the food laid out before her.
The quality of the food was unbelievably high.
Warmly baked bread, fresh fruits, and vegetables.
Precious foods that even the humans of Ark 74 could barely glimpse on special occasions were being given to all the ECHOs here.
And the ECHOs spent their mealtime chatting about their daily routines. Everyone had expressions of genuine happiness.
This place... what even is it?
Lapis looked at the entire scene with a look of utter disbelief.
Is this really not an illusion?
In the Ark she came from, ECHOs were treated as mere soldiers and consumables, with everything about their lives controlled and suppressed.
No, she had heard that the situation in other Arks was not much different from Ark 74.
But this place was simply beyond her wildest imagination.
Everyone had happy faces, as if this were a paradise for the ECHOs. Their very own Garden of Eden.
"......I can eat this, right?"
"Yes, try it. Please."
At the leader's words, Lapis slowly lifted her fork.
Moi and Rai, was their name, right?
The two little ones were gripping bread with both hands and munching away, but for some reason, Lapis felt she shouldn't do that.
As an ECHO of the Sacred Front squad, she had to maintain her dignity.
"......"
Lapis carefully pierced a piece of bread with her fork and brought it to her mouth.
And at the warmth of the bread she was tasting for the first time, Lapis felt the illusion that all her thought circuits had come to a halt.
It was warm.
Incomparably so, compared to the ice-cold something-something she had been rationed in Ark 74.
The soft texture that melted on the tip of her tongue and the savory flavor began to awaken her nigh-non-existent senses, bringing them online once more.
"It's delicious."
Her blue eyes began to tremble slightly.
Without realizing it, Lapis was extending her fork toward a second piece of bread.
"How is it, Lapis?"
"I can't believe it, Cordelia. The world we lived in..."
"The Commander here is special. So very special."
"That... is true. It would have been wonderful if Sable and Jin could have felt this as well."
"...The Commander has decided to bring those two back to life as well."
It was while the two were conversing and intoxicated by this warm happiness.
The cafeteria doors flew open urgently, and a fully armed ECHO Squad appeared.
Their combat armor was stained with soot and fragments of some unknown machine.
"Cer...berus? They were here too?"
Lapis looked at the newly arrived ECHO Squad with surprised eyes.
The Cerberus Squad.
They were familiar faces from Ark 74 with whom she had gone on operations several times.
The fact that they had not disarmed made it clear at a glance that it was an emergency.
"...What happened?"
"I wonder."
The noise in the cafeteria ceased, and the leader, Helena, urgently turned her head to find the Commander.
"Commander."
Helena strode toward me and saluted with efficient movements.
"What is it?"
"We encountered an Astral scout party at point F-3 in Hongwei-7."
"—!"
Astral?
No, first it was the Carapace Lord, and now even the Astral?
It's not like there are any great resources around here; is this place cursed?
"Give me a detailed report."
"A total of four Astral scouts were discovered in Hongwei-7. The composition was a mix of Specters, specialized in stealth, and Knights, proficient in close-quarters combat. They were captured by Bastion's wide-area detection network. We immediately switched to engagement protocols and intercepted them."
"Uh... casualties?"
"There were no friendly casualties while destroying the enemy scouts. And all the debris has been recovered."
It seemed the battle occurred while the Cerberus Squad happened to be operating in Hongwei-7.
I felt that deploying Bastion to Hongwei-7 had indeed been a good decision.
And Helena's report wasn't over.
"However, there was something strange."
"Something strange?"
"Yes. The Astral's destination was unclear. They weren't heading toward specific coordinates... it was a movement as if they were scouring the entire Hongwei-7 area."
At her words, the air in the cafeteria grew heavy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"What is the probability that they are looking for our Ark?"
[The possibility is low... but it is not zero.]
Hmm, that's the worst.
"Sigh... why are those guys suddenly starting to appear? Anyway, since the scouts were defeated, they won't just stay put, right?"
[Based on the analysis of Astral's behavioral patterns, since the point where the scouts were destroyed is classified as a danger zone, there is a probability of over 92% that additional forces will be deployed.]
I sincerely hope it's the 8% chance they don't come.
There were still too many things to develop and fix in our Ark.
"Have you identified which faction they are?"
[Yes. According to Lena's analysis of the broken debris, she was able to find the unique code of the Harvester.]
"The Harvester..."
I nodded while listening to the Central AI, Wanderer.
Then, a scene from one of the side stories of Echoes of Humanity — ECHO flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning.
Wait, now that I think about it, isn't this related to Moi and Rai?
It was a brief mention in that story, but there was a sentence stating that in the past, the Harvester clashed with the Crawler Queen, and as a result, the entire area was devastated.
And currently, the Crawler Queen has made her nest in Ark 72, thousands of kilometers east of our Ark.
That was from a past perspective, but that past is our present... No, surely not.
Did that event happen in the near future?
And our Ark just happens to be in the path of the Harvester's movement?
"Tsk..."
The rational suspicion that we had just been unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire crossed my mind.
Well, there's a high possibility that's not the case, though.
"We must prepare a method, Commander."
"Hmm... I suppose so. The Astral guys won't just give up on Hongwei-7 just because there's something dangerous here."
"Yes. Moreover... Bastion's location has been exposed."
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue at Helena's words.
Though it was earlier than expected, it seemed the time had come to prepare an Anti-Astral Deck for future battles.
If only we had Tiana or Choi Sojeong in our Ark...
ECHOs who are essentially the meta for an Astral Deck.
If I could just raise one of them well, I wouldn't have to worry about the Astral machine drones; I could turn them into scrap metal instantly.
Unfortunately, they were girls who weren't in our Ark.
Still, I can just make an Astral Deck as useful as possible with the ECHOs currently in the Ark.
With that, I closed my eyes and visualized the faces and specs of our Ark's ECHOs one by one.
"...Huh?"
"What is it, Commander?"
"Ah, no. I just have something to think about for a moment."
Hiding the exclamation that had escaped me, I once again combined the ECHOs of our Ark in my head.
First, Arva.
An all-rounder leader proficient in close-quarters combat.
If raised well, she had a combat style and specs more than sufficient to be used as a dedicated Anti-Astral dealer.
In fact, I had intended to raise Arva specifically for the Astral.
I was even preparing for her Core upgrade soon.
So I thought I'd just rely on Arva and somehow deal with the Astral guys...
But come to think of it, there was one more Astral-specialized monster in our Ark—one that could never be obtained in the game.
Moi—Broken Fang.
In the original story, she was a villain who awakened through hatred for humans.
However, she was an abnormally powerful, crazy ECHO who fought the Astral Named entity, the Harvester, single-handedly and eventually took it down in a mutual destruction.
And that monster is right here in our Ark?
Of course, right now she was nothing more than a puppy who had fallen deep into lust after discovering the taste of cock.
Regardless, she was the strongest close-quarters monster, surpassing even Arva, as proven in the story.
Who was it...? Nanaya? Tohno Shiki?
Anyway, like the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception from some dating sim, the Moi who appeared in the original story tore through the Astral's Energy Shields like sheets of paper.
She didn't even care about the durability or type of shield, whether it was a normal unit or a Qusai-Named.
And of all things, the ones interested in Hongwei-7 are the bastards from the Harvester faction? It's like some kind of cliché.
Whether it was a prank of fate or a great flow of the universe, or some other thingamajig destiny shit, I was unaware of guiding us this way…
Regardless, I felt reassured by Moi's existence.
I'll set Arva and Moi as the top two dealers for the Deck... and for the tank, I can put Lapis Theron of the Sacred Front, who just joined the Ark.
Then it would roughly form a dedicated Anti-Astral squad.
And for support...
I can put Lena.
Or Karen.
Then the squad would be perfectly balanced. Since both are excellent in combat support, they would increase the squad's stability.
Actually, Luna wouldn't be bad for support, but Luna's synergy with the Cerberus Squad was too good to remove her.
There was no need to split a deck that was already working well.
And if I put Cordelia in Arva's empty spot in the Arclight...
The large-scale slaughter and suppression squad of Cordelia, Pomen, and Noah would also be complete.
In terms of combat power, it seemed much better for Noah to cover Cordelia and Pomen, who were proficient in mid-range firepower, rather than caring for Arva, who excelled in close-quarters combat.
As I ran the squads through my head...
"This is more manageable than I thought."
I felt that we wouldn't be significantly pushed back against the Astral.
Plus, with the fixed defense platform Bastion existing in Hongwei-7, what if we deployed a defensive line centered around it?
It was a simple prediction, but I felt we could somehow handle even a Leviathan-class mobile fortress.