Battlefield Rations

Our footsteps produced grating sounds as we traveled along the ground that

was turned glassy due to the laser bombardment. The din of explosions

intermittently echoed around us. Visibility was crap thanks to all the

metallic sand flying around, but even so, we still managed to make out the

grotesque forms of those gigantic aggressive lifeforms we fought back on

Comatt III in the distance.

"With this, we've confirmed that those aggressive lifeforms are indeed

artificially created."

Lt. Col. Serena muttered as she stood beside me while looking ahead. She

was wearing a full-face helmet that covered her entire head, so we were

speaking through our in-built comms.

"No matter how you cut it, those things are the same as the creatures we

fought on Comatt III."

"Yes. Since they look quite similar, we can roughly conclude it to be the

case."

She said 'roughly' since we still needed to make an official DNA

comparison to formally establish the conclusion that they were the same

creatures. Even so, what are the chances of these creatures that appeared on

both Comatt III and Comatt IV having exactly the same appearance but

different DNA make-up? Chances of that happening should be

astronomically low.

[Lieutenant, we've managed to catch a response that's likely to be the

suppression ship.]

"Good. Share the info to our forces in the air."

[Yes, ma'am!]

Before long, the information popped up on my universal mask's HUD as

well. As expected, it wasn't that far from our current position. Since it was

impossible to detect it from the air, we were forced to search for it on the

ground.

"Are we going to walk all the way over?"

"It won't take that long anyway. It would take us an equivalent amount of

time if we opted to secure a dropship, board it with everyone along with all

our equipment, and do a roll-call."

"Yeah, I guess."

It's not really an unreasonable distance away. Let's just walk then.

[We've sighted the suppression ship right ahead. It's pierced the ground

and looks to be out of commission.]

"Send in the drones first to perform some scouting. It won't be funny if they

left us with surprise presents such as reactive bombs after all. Combat

engineers, install a shield generator here and set up a simple defensive

emplacement."

[Aye, aye, ma'am!]

Under the command of Lt. Col. Serena, the imperial marines started briskly

executing their orders. Since I didn't have anything to do myself, I just

waited around while feeling bored. Uh, but I still had my guard up of

course.

"Reactive bombs huh. Do they even have any leeway to set those up?"

"Even if they didn't place any reactive bombs, it's also possible that they

might have fiddled with the ship's energy generator. You don't wanna get

blown to bits the moment you step inside, right?"

"Yeah, definitely."

If they overloaded the ship's energy generator, it would cause an explosion

comparable to reactive bombs going off after all. In SOL, something like

that wasn't possible, but it's a very real danger in this dimension.

After a while, the scouts operating the drones reported that there were no

dangers present, and afterward, the rest of the investigation team rushed

inside the suppression ship. We confirmed that the target wasn't present

inside the ship, so I and Lt. Col. Serena rested within the defensive

encampment for the mean time.

"Let's take this chance to eat some food."

"Yeah."

The metallic sand flying around couldn't get inside the defensive

encampment since it was covered with a ground-use energy shield

generator. Thanks to that, we're able to remove our helmets to eat some

food and drink water. While I was removing my universal mask, Lt. Col.

Serena instructed her men to take turns in eating their meals. As I gave her

figure a sidelong glance, I took out the food rations prepared for me by

Mimi and Elma–

"…"

"Uwah, what exactly is that?"

What came out of my backpack was a vacuum-packed strangely-shaped

creature. Uh, yeah, about this… I've actually tried this thing before. Despite

appearances, this thing tastes surprisingly good. The outer shell was

actually soft and felt similar to kamaboko and the insides tasted like creamy

paste. I heard this was actually used as military rations in some countries.

"…This is actually good you know."

"You've already tried eating one!?"

"…Yeah."

But why did this thing get stuffed in my backpack in the first place?

Suddenly, Elma making a tehepero[1] face popped up in my head. Mimi

couldn't have done it, so Elma was definitely the culprit. However, the one

who bought this, uh, 'alien foodstuff', was definitely Mimi. Mimi prepared

the things inside the backpack along with Elma, so I guess there's a chance

she stuffed this thing in as well huh. I'm gonna have to question them

thoroughly when I get back to the ship. Just you wait, guys!

"Um…"

"This is simply a cute prank by my cute crew members, hahaha…"

Anyway, let's just pretend the F*cehugger didn't exist. I stuffed the thing

back inside and looked for other stuff to eat. After a short while, I finally

found something resembling food stuffed at the bottom of the backpack.

It was wrapped in silver-colored metallic foil, and the front side had a label

that said 'Penitence Kingdom Military Ration Type 3'. The ingredients and

nutritional values contained in one serving were printed on the back. It

kinda resembled those packed castella sold in supermarkets back on Earth.

It was relatively heavy for its size and looked quite filling.

"What's that?"

"Ah–… It looks like it's a military ration brand sold in some place called

the Penitence kingdom."

"Ah, it's a bit far, but that country has good relations with the empire."

"Hmm… Well, this looks pretty decent. Let's check it out."

I tore the silver foil packaging open and what greeted me was something

resembling a pretty hefty pound cake. It looks like the foil packaging was

wrapped pretty tightly around this pound cake-looking pastry.

"It smells pretty nice, doesn't it?"

That it did. The aroma wafting from it had some fruity undertones. It looks

like Lt. Col. Serena was also a lady who couldn't resist sweets. Uh, well,

there are a lot of guys who like sweet stuff too, I guess. I don't exactly hate

them either.

"You want a bite?"

"Alright. I'll give you some of my rations in exchange too."

I tore off a large piece of the pound cake and handed it to Lt. Col. Serena

and took a bite out of my own portion. Lt. Col. Serena handed me

something that looked like a dry sausage.

"What's this here?"

"It's a military-style sausage. It tastes pretty decent."

"Hm. I guess I'll have a try then."

I held the rations of the Penitence kingdom on one hand and that of the

Geppels empire on the other. I wolfed down the one from the Penitence

kingdom first.

Its texture was akin to that of soft, moist bread and was on the heavy side.

Its sweetness probably wasn't thanks to sugar alone. It looks like the

kneaded dried fruits into the dough. I also tasted a hint of alcohol so maybe

they used some sweet liquor as well.

"Mm… I feel like I've eaten something pretty similar in the past."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I wonder what it was?"

Oh, right! I remember now. It's stollen. If I remember correctly, it was a

type of German pastry, right? Well, Lt. Col. Serena probably isn't familiar

with it anyway so I'll just keep quiet about it. Okay. Next is this dry sausage

ration from the Geppels empire.

"Mm, it certainly does taste decent."

"Doesn't it? There are plenty of soldiers who snack on it while having a

drink as well."

Hey, that's right. This thing does taste like those cheapo dry sausages sold

in convenience stores back on Earth as well. It wasn't bad, but the taste was

still lacking something. It didn't feel like I was biting on something made

from meat as well. But it was decently salty and fatty. These things were

probably formulated to be passable sources of salt and calories.

"I prefer the ration from Penitence kingdom."

"Me too."

It was quite hefty so you'd easily fill yourself up even without eating the

whole thing. Although you'd probably get tired of it pretty easily if you

kept having it for your three meals for a couple of days, in terms of taste,

the ration from the Penitence kingdom was still more satisfying overall.

Well, apart from the dry sausage, the Geppels empire also included a

biscuit-like calorie bar and a gel-like cold soup in their ration set, so I guess

they were about on par with each other when it comes to filling you up.

"Are you going to eat that thing too?"

"…If there's an opportunity, then yeah. But I think it would actually taste

better than the rations from Penitence kingdom and Geppels empire

though."

"Eeh…?"

Lt. Col. Serena gave me a dubious side-eye, but as one who's already tasted

that stuff, I'm telling you it's legit. If this investigation continues for longer,

I'll definitely find a way to have Lt. Col. Serena try it too