About the Abandoned

And so came the next day after we enjoyed organic chicken meat

yakitori.

When we received word that the loading of the luggage inside Krishna

was finished, we finally checked out of the hotel and headed for the

workshop where the Krishna underwent an overhaul.

"We're finally coming home."

"Krishna is our ship, but it's also kind of our home huh."

"It's pretty comfy inside after all."

"I personally think it's no good if a ship's interior is unsuitable for

comfortable habitation after all."

In Elma's case, her image of a normal mercenary ship is pretty spartan

and no-nonsense. I and Mimi don't share that opinion, and so we

changed the proposal for the interior of the mothership to be clean,

functional, and highly livable. It was a good use of our hard-earned

money in my opinion.

By the way, the hatchet guns, which were the new power armor-use

weapons designed by Tina and supervised by May, should have already

been loaded along with the other luggage as well. It might be good to

try the guns out once we finish overhauling the power armor. I guess I'll

look for jobs that require the use of power armor later.

That's only if there actually were jobs requiring the use of power armor

and swinging weapons around. I don't think this colony has those types

of jobs available… Wait, maybe it does? Hmm. This colony is quite big

after all. And it looked fairly old too. There's a lot of ship traffic, so

'those guys' might be lurking somewhere as well. Yeah, I'm sure they

are… Mm, if there's a job involving 'them', I'll be more than happy to

take it.

"Why are you making a difficult face all of a sudden, Hiro-sama?"

"Well, since I got the power armor overhauled and received new

weapons, I was thinking of taking jobs that will allow me to use them to

test them out in the field."

"Oh, so that's it. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if those kinds of jobs were

available in this colony after all."

Elma looked convinced as she nodded.

"What are you two talking about?"

Mimi tilted her head in bewilderment since she couldn't get what I and

Elma were referring to. It looks like she has totally no idea.

"Termaine Prime was a relatively new colony, so I guess 'they' haven't

cropped up over there yet. But this Brad Prime colony looks like it's

been here a good while, so perhaps the countermeasures for dealing

with 'them' are no longer as effective, or maybe they've just given up

altogether."

"…?"

Mimi still couldn't get what Elma was referring to and kept tilting her

head in confusion.

"I'm talking about the Abandoned. Or would calling them illegal

residents ring more bells for you?"

"Ah…"

Mimi finally understood what Elma was referring to and her expression

clouded over. The Abandoned is a term used to call people who have

been literally abandoned by the government to fend on their own. In

other words, it's much like how Mimi was before I ended up rescuing

her.

In Termaine Prime, in exchange for the government basically not caring

one whit about them, they were allowed to live inside the colony as long

as they stayed in one specific block and never stepped beyond it. The

colony only provided breathable air. Any other things necessary for a

living would have to be secured by their own hands. Frankly, the colony

higher-ups wouldn't really care if they starved to death.

And there definitely were lots of them who up and died just like that. In

exchange for not cracking down hard on them, the colony higher-ups

wouldn't care for them at all either. They were people who were not

treated as legitimate residents, and to a large extent, weren't even

treated like people in the first place. That's what the Abandoned are.

They may have been a former regular resident who fell from grace due

to some reason or other, a person who was left behind by the ship he or

she was staying on, a stowaway who secretly disembarked and settled

in… Their origins greatly vary. A fairly old colony like Brad Prime

should have lots of these Abandoned staying inside it.

"But what does that have to do with mercenary work?"

"Sometimes, we're hired to deal with the Abandoned. Dead or alive."

"Eh!?"

Mimi displayed an appalled expression. Well, I guess she would. That's

cause we're basically talking about taking out power armor and using

its weapons to kill the Abandoned en masse.

"It's not like we're hired to get rid of people like those staying on

Termaine Prime's third block. The ones we're hired to capture or kill

are those on the shadier side of the spectrum. In other words, it's those

associated with gangs, mafia, and other organized crime groups."

"…What kind of people are they?"

"Oh, lots of kinds. Some people arm themselves, occupy a section of the

colony, and mess around with the piping in order to obtain oxygen and

various chemical substances. Some deal with pirates and provide them

with useful intel in exchange for cash and benefits. Some even go as far

as kidnapping regular residents and literally preying on them."

"Ugh…"

Mimi turned blue in the face. I was also surprised. I did know about

those armed mafia groups, but to think there were actually those who

actively engaged in cannibalism as well… What a shock.

"…Err, how about I rent a training facility for the test instead? I kinda

don't want to get involved in that sort of stuff after all."

"That would be good. There are those among us mercenaries who

specialize in those kinds of jobs after all. Better just leave it to them. It

doesn't suit you, Hiro."

"Yeah. You're right."

And so, we got a glimpse of the dark underbelly of colony life.

"Hiya everyone."

"We've been waiting for you all."

"H-Hey."

When we arrived at the workshop, we found Tina and Whisker already

waiting for us there. I couldn't spot the chief engineer anywhere. Oh,

right. He was undergoing re-training, I believe. He must be in the

middle of that right now.

"What's up, you two?"

"Since we're finally handing it over, we were wondering if we could try

riding on the Krishna as well. So we came here and waited for you all."

After saying that, Tina made puppy dog eyes filled with expectation at

me. I don't really mind taking them for a spin though.

"We're just going to be flying it to the public docks y'know?"

"It's fine. We just want to personally experience how Krishna flies with

our own bodies. Is it okay, boss?"

"Yeah, I don't mind."

Tina displayed an overjoyed smile. Whisker sighed in relief. I don't

think it's something to get all worked up about though.

"Anyway, let's go ahead and prep the ship first. Do we need to do any

other procedures in order to take it out?"

After completing the necessary procedures with the deputy workshop

manager, everyone, including the two sisters, finally boarded Krishna.

"May, go check if they've done anything weird."

"Yes, leave it to me, Master."

As soon as we entered the ship and closed the hatch, I had May check

the interior in order to see if there was anything amiss. May proceeded

to thoroughly check each section, starting with the cargo hold. After

witnessing that, Tina made an awkward grin.

"You're really careful boss…"

"I don't want to get hit with any surprises after all."

"We'll do our best to gain your trust."

"…I hope so."

That said, it would be difficult to place our complete trust in them as

long as they were still Space Dwerg employees. Personally, I find them

amusing, but from their point of view, they may prioritize the interests

of Space Dwerg over their own.

"Well, once we fly out to space, it's sayonara to stuffy corporate life."

"It's liberating not to have our superiors breathing down our necks all

the time, isn't it, big sis?"

"We can drink all the booze we want too!"

"I'm looking forward to it."

"…"

Hey Space Dwerg, is this really okay? Are you really okay sending out

these two?

Well, I do understand that it would be really difficult. What I mean is

that it would be difficult to board a mercenary ship, especially ours, and

act like corporate spies.

In the first place, even if they somehow managed to slip past May's

surveillance, they would have a really hard time sending out their

collected data back to Space Dwerg. It would be easier if we operated

just one or two systems away from Brad, but mercs like us normally

hop around dozens of star systems in search of work and profit. It

would be really difficult to send any info back in that situation.

Space Dwerg is a company that owns several industrial colonies within

the empire, so they might not need to send info directly to the Brad

branch, but it would still be fairly difficult.

If they did a poor job of it and were discovered, they'd be thrown out of

the ship and marooned on an uninhabited planet or abandoned space

colony, or maybe even directly thrown out into open space… At least

I've heard of those instances happen. There's no doubt that conducting

espionage was a very risky affair for the sisters. And we don't exactly

know what sort of instructions they received from Space Dwerg either.

But perhaps Space Dwerg will consider receiving updates on how we

make names for ourselves while using the latest mothership model

from their company as a more profitable affair compared to engaging in

shady stuff. With that factored in, I don't think they'd do things behind

my back that will ruin our working relationship. But I still wouldn't

know for sure.

"In any case, we didn't really receive any weird instructions from the

company. They only told us to do our job as best we could in order to

earn your trust, boss."

"It's as big sis said. Rather, I'd totally not participate even if they were to

order us to spy or something. May-san is scary after all."

"It's impossible."

"It really is."

The sisters nodded to each other in mutual understanding. Hm. Yeah, I

get you both. It would be an absolute scary affair to go behind my back

and do something shady on May's watch after all. If I were in their

shoes, I'd also not do anything of the sort. I wouldn't dare even if the

company insisted. I don't want to die after all.

"Okay, guys. Let's end all that tedious talk for now. We'll be comrades in

arms from now on, so let's try and get along."

"That's right. First, let's have our head chef brew us some relaxing tea."

"Oh, so you guys have the latest model of the Tetsujin series installed

huh. I'm definitely interested."

"Um…"

Whisker gazed at me with upturned eyes. Yeah, yeah, my bad.

"…The dessert menu is also delicious. I recommend pudding."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Whisker made a relieved smile. I'm curious how much of that was

actually on purpose, but I guess I'll leave it at that for now. I left the

sisters to Mimi and proceeded with checking the ship. The cargo should

have increased by a fair amount, so I'll have to organize them.