The Distant Plea (2)
Tatatatatata...! The gunships descended onto the ruins, bristling with lethal armaments. What emerged from their transport bays were not armed soldiers, but crates of refined ingots. To construct the defensive wall, the gunships had been repurposed, their original roles twisted as they soared through the sky. Clang! Clang! The walkers were no different. Though built with two arms and two legs for precisely this kind of labor, the sight of those hulking, spike-covered frames quietly hauling crates felt like a profound shift in the world. How many monsters had those spikes impaled during the last battle?
"This is Sector 1. No monsters detected."
-Understood. Continue surveillance.-
"Confirmed. We'll rotate in one hour and twenty minutes."
Outside the Ark, a massive circular wall was rising along the outskirts of the city that had been reduced to a blackened, smoldering charcoal heap after its successful reclamation from the monsters. The wall stood 160 meters tall and 15 meters thick. It was built so high and sturdy for two reasons: to make the Ark's location obvious to any survivors who saw it, allowing them to enter the protected zone, and to reassure the Ark's own citizens by demonstrating just how formidable their defenses were.
Given those purposes, the material being used was Acryteum, the same incredibly durable alloy that formed the Ark's outer hull. A full inventory had revealed massive stockpiles of it in the Ark's warehouses. Though the reserves had originally been set aside for repairing damaged sections of the hull rather than building walls, and were therefore insufficient to complete the entire project, the Ark's production facilities continued to manufacture more Acryteum. Completion by the end of the year still seemed feasible.
Work had also begun clearing portions of the ash-covered ruins and charred monster corpses, focusing primarily on routes that needed to remain passable. Structures deemed too damaged and at risk of imminent collapse were marked for removal as well. The Controller found the sight of a ruined city inside the wall deeply unpleasant and wanted it gone quickly, but manpower was still critically short.
The Defense Bureau's ambitious 10,000-soldier project had exceeded expectations. With 4,000 survivors already available, they only needed to recruit the remaining 6,000. After the previous battle had cleared out nearby monsters, the risk of death seemed lower than before. Citizens volunteered in droves, and within a single week, roughly 12,000 people had signed up.
Faced with the unexpected surge, the Defense Bureau worked with the Administration Bureau to select 6,000 of the applicants. After twelve weeks of basic military training and weapons instruction, they were deployed to the front lines as sentries.
Five months after humanity's retreat into the Arks, the 60,000 surviving citizens of Ark No. 17 were desperate to announce to the outside world that they had finally secured a stable foothold on the surface. Unfortunately, no other survivors or groups had yet responded to the Ark's communications.
That changed the day a distress signal arrived from a distant city.
*
-We are the survivors of Sieberstadt. We urgently require assistance from Ark No. 17.-
The woman appearing on the hologram looked utterly exhausted. From the background visible behind her, it was clear she was outside and at a high elevation, likely transmitting from a communications tower. Another detail was immediately apparent: she was not alone. The use of plural and singular forms made that obvious.
"Sieberstadt..."
The name meant nothing to him. As he tried to gauge the distance from the Ark, the artificial intelligence supplied the answer without prompting.
> A city located approximately 110km from the Ark.
The Ark's one-way communication range was 100km, provided the recipient had compatible equipment. Sieberstadt sat just 10km beyond that limit. They had been so close, yet completely out of reach. The thought was maddening.
"I see. That explains why we never picked up their signals. But how did they manage to contact us? And why wait five months before sending a distress call?"
That was the real question. Now that contact had finally been made, he had no choice but to question their motives. If they had turned into raiders, sending a rescue team would only mean donating supplies and personnel for nothing. Especially when thousands of fully armed soldiers had already been lost in battle. How had a group of civilians survived for over five months in a monster-infested city? The question gnawed at him. Had they resorted to human sacrifice?
-For five months, the city's survivors repeatedly fractured and reformed. You know how it is. One can of food can cost a life. One bandage can turn a friend into an enemy. We only restored some measure of mutual trust less than a month ago. And to seize this communications tower, we had to fight the monsters tooth and nail. Sieberstadt is surrounded by mountains, so ground-level communications are unreliable. When the world was still intact, satellite links worked fine, but not anymore. When the disaster struck, I was operating an amateur radio station. I managed to stockpile food and hole up at home to avoid the monsters, but I couldn't transmit. Just in case, I kept a radio set to receive-only mode. It seems the monsters are drawn to radio signals. Everyone who tried broadcasting a distress call had monsters break into their homes shortly afterward.-
"Huh... is that so?"
Monsters being attracted to radio transmissions was plausible. The reason they had never noticed it before was likely because they had either played pre-recorded messages from above the city or simply stormed in guns blazing the moment they entered an urban area. If the woman's account was accurate, she was risking her life right now.
"You said you fought to take the tower. Did you win?"
-Win... or drive them off... Either way, there aren't many monsters near the tower now. Strange, isn't it?-
"Hmm... I see. I think I understand the situation."
This confirmed it. The monsters possessed intelligence comparable to humans. They had likely withdrawn because they realized the survivors were attempting to contact others. Their plan was probably to let the survivors gather, then devour both the ones trying to escape and any reinforcements arriving in Sieberstadt.
"This isn't good. How many of you are there?"
-Roughly 10,000 across the entire city... but we're scattered. Right now, about 2,000 are gathered here.-
"Gather everyone you can near the tower. I'll give you one week. Now that we've confirmed the monsters have intelligence, stalling will only lead to disaster."
-B-but there are so many monsters... and we've nearly run out of weapons and ammunition!-
"...Do you have a notebook, pen, or recorder handy?"
-Pardon? Ah... I brought a notebook and pen...-
"Then listen carefully."
He relayed the locations of Sieberstadt's secret military depots and the government's stockpiles of food and medicine. All of them were underground, so retrieving the supplies would be difficult, but it was still better than charging the monsters empty-handed. He also provided the access codes for the depots and the locations of emergency radios that could be operated remotely. The codes would open the warehouses, while the radios could be powered on to lure monsters away.
-W-with this much, we should be able to rally everyone. You'll really come for us in a week, right?-
Her face was a mixture of hope and despair.
"Of course. I don't make promises I can't keep."
It was the truth. He would save them. That was his duty.
-Then I'll end the transmission now. More monsters are approaching from below...-
"Good luck."
The hologram vanished. The call ended, leaving only hollow silence in the office. He already knew what had to be done.
"Artificial intelligence."
[Yes, Your Excellency.]
"Convene an emergency meeting immediately."