016. Parts Replacement (2)
016. Parts Replacement (2)
"Euhye—? Euhyeee—?"
Laika tilted her head, making foolish sounds.
With each tilt, the cowlick on top of her head flopped from side to side.
"You didn't get that? Let's replace your parts."
"No, no, I understood up to there...... but whose parts exactly are we talking about replacing, I wonder?"
That was, of course.
"Yours."
"Ah-hah— Is that so, is that so—"
Laika finally looked like she understood.
However, in the very next moment, the eyes that were usually half-lidded shot wide open.
"Euhyeeeeeee—?!"
That startled me.
"Don't yell in the command center."
"You should stop scaring your precious biodroid in the command center, Commander......!"
"How is that scaring you?"
"But the Commander just said he'd swap Laika's parts......!"
How did that constitute scaring her?
I stared at her, dumbfounded, while Laika kept grumbling as if she were the one who had every right to be shocked.
"It does scare me....... From Laika's perspective, there's a huge psychological barrier....... I've never had my parts replaced before....... I was in pristine factory condition, and now it feels like my new owner is about to heavily modify me......."
"I'm not planning to modify you that heavily."
"Anyway, that's how it feels......!"
Laika then asked, grumbling.
"Why do we even have to replace parts in the first place? If Laika's performance is unreliable, isn't strengthening through training enough......?"
"Unfortunately, it's not enough."
Thanks to the simulation training and live missions performed so far, Laika had now recovered almost all the stats she had previously lost.
To put it another way, she had currently reached the growth limit achievable through training.
It wasn't that further training from here would be completely worthless, but it was an undeniable fact that the cost-effectiveness had become extremely poor.
Even so, if further development was sought, there was a need to first raise the limit itself.
In order to raise the limit, ultimately, there was no choice but to reconstruct the parts that made up Laika's body with better ones.
"Well, I'm not going to change anything tremendously. And you're only feeling this vague aversion because it's your first time; once you've experienced it, you'll find it fun."
"I bet there's a truckload of biodroids who fell for that sweet-talk, gave up their precious first experience without knowing what they were getting into, and then got dumped...... Heuk......."
She really needed to stop phrasing it in ways people could misunderstand. I'd proposed a simple parts replacement, not asked her to give up her precious first experience.
Regardless, I wasn't going to just take her first experience and dump her, either.
And for the record, I hadn't replaced the parts of a truckload of biodroids either.
More like it wouldn't even fill the front seat of a truck.
The only biodroid I'd ever put through a parts replacement before was Sion.
Laika was only the second.
When I told her that, Laika asked a slightly offbeat question.
"......Sion had her parts replaced? By you, Commander?"
"She did, yeah?"
That girl wasn't even military-grade to begin with.
There was no way to make use of her without replacing parts.
"Cheeet...... Then it can't be helped......."
"What, does that mean you'll get it done?"
"Uh-huh. It'd be a little unfair if Sion got one and Laika didn't."
What was the correlation?
......No, did any of that matter?
She had made up her mind, so there was no need to grill her on the reason and give her room to change her words.
Just as I was about to let it slide, thinking that it was good enough, Laika subtly asked me.
"But where are you getting the new parts? Are you placing an order with the manufacturer?"
"That's what civilians do."
Civilians had no choice but to purchase from manufacturers at prices that included an immense exclusive premium, just as I'd told Laika.
On the other hand, Commanders like me had another option.
Namely, making the parts ourselves.
"Euh? You can make them?"
"I can make them."
Every base was equipped with facilities for manufacturing biodroid parts. The facility was called a manufactory.
There was little point trying to explain what a manufactory looked like or how it worked. Laika probably wouldn't understand from words alone.
Showing her directly would be faster.
"Alicia, could you guide me to the manufactory?"
"......Pardon?"
Alicia asked a beat later.
Then she turned the question back on me.
"Is there one? At Krädel? A manufactory?"
......Why was she asking me? She was supposed to be the operations officer.
Besides, no matter how badly the base was managed, how could it not have a manufactory? It was practically standard equipment.
"In principle, yes. But how much at Krädel actually operates according to principle?"
"Just look for it, please. It might be there, you never know."
As I half gave up, Alicia began wrestling with the computer.
A moment later, she gave me an unexpected answer.
"It's there."
"It is?"
"Yes. It's in the Research Wing on the east side of the third floor of the main building. The last recorded activation was ten years ago."
Alicia added as she spoke.
All the related records had been wiped, so there was no telling what equipment it contained or what condition any of it was in.
Still, after ten years of neglect, I could already imagine what shape the equipment would be in.
But that didn't mean I could truly wrap things up without looking.
I immediately decided to head to the Research Wing where the manufactory was located.
"Euhyeee— Have a good trip—"
......Of course, I brought Laika along, who looked utterly unwilling to work.
***
Main building, 3rd floor, east side. The Research Wing.
It was an area I had never set foot in until now.
More accurately, it was an area I couldn't set foot in even if I wanted to.
The entire Research Wing had been sealed off 10 years ago due to an accident involving a hazardous material leak.
From what I'd found, all of the hazardous material had since been decontaminated.
However, it seemed that since then, no Commander had ever stayed at Krädel long enough to need to open up the Research Wing, leaving it shut and abandoned.
The long, long history of abandonment was finally over.
Because I had just unlocked the 10-year-old security device with my own hands.
"Heave-ho......."
I pushed open the heavy iron door with all my might.
A long corridor stretched out before me.
At the end of the corridor, a large room packed with gleaming machinery came into view.
Laika, who had followed behind me, saw the machinery and exclaimed in wonder.
"Euhyeeee— This is the manufactory—?"
"That's right."
This machinery was precisely the 'manufactory,' the biodroid parts fabricator.
......Ah, but of course, it couldn't whip up absolutely every component.
It couldn't produce the 'Core,' which grants biodroids their vitality.
The technology to construct Cores was kept closely guarded by the major manufacturers.
Moreover, making any other part above a certain standard required a 'Production Specialist Type' biodroid.
"Production Specialist Type?"
Laika, standing beside me, quietly asked as if she had just heard an impossibly technical term.
But there was no particular need to think of it as difficult.
A Production Specialist Type was, quite literally, a biodroid whose body had been designed specifically for manufacturing work.
For example, a biodroid able to use skills that stabilized or transformed matter would be classified as a Production Specialist Type.
Some materials could only be processed with such skills, after all.
"Then does our base have a Production Specialist Type too?"
"Do you think we would?"
Laika was a combat type.
Alicia was also a combat type.
Rinne was...... I had no idea why, but an arts and creative type.
Whatever they were, all three were models unrelated to biodroid production.
Well, it would have been strange for Krädel to have a Production Specialist Type in the first place.
Production Specialist Types were incredibly expensive.
"Euh-huh? They're expensive?"
"Expensive."
Tremendously so.
The parts needed to manufacture a Production Specialist Type biodroid were all exorbitantly expensive.
And even after stuffing all those expensive parts into a Production Specialist Type body, plenty of finished biodroids still failed to develop their production skills properly.
In short, the unit cost was high, and the failure rate was high.
That meant a true Production Specialist Type biodroid with high-level production skills was extremely rare—and priced accordingly.
"Then what do we do?"
"What else? We'll have to look for parts we can make without a Production Specialist Type biodroid."
"So, it's about compromising with reality....... How disappointing......."
Hardly worth being disappointed over.
More than that, I was relieved by the very fact that a functioning manufactory existed at Krädel.
I was relieved, yes, but.
At the same time, something about it felt strange.
Why was it in such good condition? I wondered.
Alicia had clearly said that Krädel's manufactory had been left neglected for the past 10 years, never once activated.
But the equipment before me was as pristine as the Academy's manufactory, which was maintained strictly by the book.
It looked almost as if someone had been staying here and consistently maintaining it——
"Euh-nya?"
While I was wondering on my own, Laika made a strange sound.
"Laika? What's wrong?"
"No, well......."
Laika pointed to a cabinet placed against the wall.
"Doesn't this cabinet seem kinda out of the blue~?"
"The cabinet?"
Now that she mentioned it, the cabinet did look out of place.
For starters, it didn't match the tone of the rest of the equipment, and its placement was awkward.
It looked as though someone had brought in something that hadn't originally been there.
More importantly, why was a cabinet needed in a manufactory in the first place?
Ah, maybe a previous Commander had put it there to store parts or equipment?
If that was the case, I hoped it contained some high-grade equipment or something. I'd put it to good use as their successor.
I opened the cabinet, harboring a small sense of anticipation.
However, to cut to the chase, there was no high-grade equipment or anything of the sort inside the cabinet.
Instead, there was an unfamiliar girl inside.
Disappointed, I closed the cabinet again.
"......Huh?"
No, wait.
What was that just now?
Wondering if I had seen it wrong, I turned back to Laika.
She looked just as bewildered as I was.
Her expression said, What on earth did I just see?
In the end, Laika and I, acting as one, opened the cabinet again.
Inside the open cabinet, that thing was still there.
In other words, there was some girl inside.
She was slightly taller than Laika.
Her hair was a jet-black color, as if soaked in ink.
Between the long bangs covering her eyes, the eyes that were visible were a deep violet.
Her attire was a dirty, gloomy funeral dress.
On top of that, enormous breasts.
......Sorry for suddenly leading with "enormous breasts."
I was truly sorry, but it was impossible to ignore and move on without saying it.
Because the girl in the cabinet had...... unbelievably huge breasts.
Each one looked roughly one and a half times the size of Laika's head.
And that was each breast individually, not both together: one and a half Laika-heads apiece.
Breasts that large clearly defied the laws of nature.
They were clearly artificial, created by someone determined to make 'enormous breasts.'
Thus, we could tell that this girl was a biodroid, despite having black hair.
......Maybe it was because I had been staring fixedly at her breasts until I reached that conclusion.
Or was it simply because she couldn't endure Laika and me staring at her like she was a ghost?
The gloomy, enormous-breasted girl in the cabinet screamed.
"Hiiik......! W-Who on earth are you people......!"
That was what we wanted to say.
"Who are you, then?"
"I-I'm Sumire, the owner of this manufactory......!"
The gloomy girl shouted confidently.
Her confidence aside, what she was saying was absurd.
"What do you mean? Owner?"
"I-I'm saying that this manufactory is mine......."
"It's not, though."
"N-No, it is......!"
I was pretty sure it wasn't.
"There seems to be some misunderstanding, but this facility is an annex of the Forward Base Krädel."
"I-I know that much."
"Then, are you also aware that the person you're talking to right now is the Commander of that Krädel?"
"......Y-Yes?"
Sumire's eyes began to spin round and round.
Just as she seemed about to plunge into panic.
The big-breasted woman drew in a huge Seueup— breath, then shouted as if squeezing out every ounce of strength she had.
"Th-That's impossible......! D-Don't lie to me......!"
For a scream supposedly made with all her strength, it had remarkably little dignity.
For one, her voice cracked at the end.
She seemed to be trying to look scary, but she only looked like an angry rabbit.
The problem was the latter part of that shabby cry.
"In the first place, there's no way a Commander who'd come all the way to find a manufactory at Krädel would be assigned here......! In reality, during the year I've lived here, no Commander came looking...... !"
"Pardon?"
Hadn't she just said something strange?
'During the year I've lived here.'
"What do you mean? Don't tell me you mean you've lived in an abandoned manufactory for a year."
I asked, flabbergasted.
At that, the other party shook her head vigorously.
"Ah, no. I did live here, but......."
"Here?"
"Yes, yes. Here....... I moved in here last spring...... so it's been just over a year now."
So who had given her permission to move in?
No, I didn't even know what she meant by 'moved in' in the first place.
This place wasn't a living facility made for someone to move in and reside; it was a type of equipment room.
Besides that, who on earth was this girl Sumire?
Weren't only Laika on the rooftop, Alicia in the command center, and Rinne in the basement supposed to be at Krädel?
I was completely at a loss for words, unable to figure out what was what, but only for a moment.
Laika, who had been watching the situation from the side with obvious amusement, offered me a suggestion.
"Could it be she's a deserter?"
......Huh?
"What do you mean? A deserter?"
"Well...... Commander, as you know, there's Trash Island near Krädel, right? The parts of dead biodroids or Legions get mixed up and wash up there?"
"Right?"
"But sometimes some of them wash up alive too, you know?"
Heh?
"Ones who aren't dead?"
"Yeah. Ones who just fainted on the battlefield and then wash up together. Most of those contact their Commander and return to their original units, but occasionally, y'know, they refuse to return, sneak into Krädel, and live rough? Just like this, in a scruffy state."
I finally understood.
"So you think this girl is one of those homeless deserters? Except she got lucky, found this abandoned manufactory, and made it her home?"
"Yup, yup. That's just Laika's guess, though~"
Laika answered with a grin and turned her head toward the inside of the cabinet where Sumire was.
"So, Sumire, was Laika's guess right~?"
"Hiiiiiiiiik......!"
It was a scream that could practically be translated as 'Yes, it's all true.'
Apparently Laika's guess had been exactly right.
If so, things had become very simple.
All her talk about being the owner amounted to this: she'd squatted in an abandoned facility for over a year and grown so attached that she had started thinking of it as hers.
In short, as the actual owner, all I had to do was coolly kick her out, right?
......No, not just kick her out.
There was a much better method.
"Laika, where do you report deserters? And how much is the bounty?"