Did I Say this was Gonna be Easy? Sorry, I Lied.

We kept the smoke signals burning for several hours. The sun was

already starting to set.

"It's already about 6 P.M. huh. I guess this is it for today's smoke

signals."

"We ain't gonna keep em burnin' throughout the night?"

Since the shelter was already built, everyone was now gathered around

the bonfire I made separate from the ones used to send up smoke

signals. Tina, who heard my words, cocked her head to the side and

inquired.

"Smoke is almost invisible at night after all. On the flip side, lights on

the ground stand out more when seen from above, so it's better to use a

normal bonfire at night."

"I see."

I picked up the shovel, or rather, the spade I made by combining a

sturdy-looking wooden pole, some tough vines, and a nicely shaped

stone, broke up the ground around the holes where we kindled bonfires

to raise smoke signals, and dumped the soil inside the holes to

extinguish the flames. If you talk about putting out fires, a common

image would be dousing it in water, but depending on the situation,

burying it with soil was also viable.

However, it was stupid to use charcoal for some barbecue on the beach

and then burying the charcoal in the sand afterward. It's not gonna be

funny if someone accidentally stepped on them after all. It's better to

extinguish them with seawater and bring the dregs away to dispose of

them properly.

If we had a large amount of water available, I'd use that to extinguish

the fires, but our only water source right now is a high-tech water

bottle that automatically collects moisture in the atmosphere to

generate potable water. Its water production function wasn't that high.

According to its catalog specs, it seems it can produce 2 liters of

drinking water per day. But just in case the rescue takes a while, 2 liters

just won't be enough for all of us.

"If my estimate is right, they should be coming for us soon."

"Right. If nothing else happens anyway."

"Hey, stop that, stupid. What are we gonna do if something does

happen, huh?"

"Um, I think us ending up crashing is the worst of it this time… Or, I

hope it is."

"If we were even a little bit more unlucky, we would have kicked the

bucket the moment we hit the ground after all."

"How high is the probability of an aircraft crashin' anyway?"

I dunno. I think it was a really low percentage I think, but I'm not sure.

In the first place, there's a high possibility that the probability of an

aircraft crashing on Earth was way different from the percentage

numbers in this dimension. I think the instances of ships crashing due

to pirates were pretty high though.

"Well, that said, they would probably not choose to leave us alone in

this situation for long after all. A passenger vehicle with people inside

crashed, and only the guide and the pilot managed to avoid disaster. All

the tourists crashed into the forest and it's unknown whether they're

dead or alive. If they neglected this situation, and it leads to deaths

among the tourists, the reputation of the elves would take a big hit."

"But seriously though, you were in a pretty bad spot, Boss."

"It would have been bad if we didn't have the medical nanomachine

unit on hand. You could have seriously died, Big Brother."

"It looks like your careful preparations really paid off, Hiro-sama... I

better learn from this experience myself."

"I don't think we'd encounter situations like this all that often, but it

really pays to be prepared."

It looks like everyone's learned something from this experience huh?

Your big brother is happy that your awareness regarding disaster

preparation and prevention has begun to sprout, everyone. But if it's

possible, I wanna live a peaceful life where I won't have to worry about

things like this! What? That's gonna be boring as heck? This was perfect

timing? Do you guys wanna experience an aircraft crash yourselves

huh? Anyway, a more peaceful and uneventful life is the way to go after

all. Yep.

As I mulled over those thoughts, Whisker suddenly looked up at the sky.

"What's that?"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"I think I saw some streaks of light up in the sky just now..."

Caught by Whisker's words, I pointed my gaze up toward the sky as

well. The twilight sky gradually turned darker and darker, and I

managed to spot some streaks of light flit here and there as day

transitioned to nighttime.

What are those? Shooting stars? No, that's not it. Huh?

As I continued to look up, some light streaks flashed once again, and

after I blinked, another round of light streaks flashed from the opposite

direction. They kinda looked like lots of shooting stars, but those are

probably–

"Is there a battle going on up in this planet's orbit...?"

"Looks like it. Pirates, maybe?"

"Judging from Refill system's position, it's probably not an invasion

from a foreign force. But is there really a pirate group strong enough to

be able to mount planetary raids repeatedly in this sector...?"

"The pirate group that has the most presence in this sector should be…

the Red Flags, I think?"

Basically, pirates usually form small groups composed of a little less

than a dozen ships, but some groups were pretty large-scale, with

several hundred pirate ships at their disposal. They are the big-name

pirates who've managed to create a base for themselves and brought

others of their ilk from several different systems under their wings.

The one Elma mentioned, the Red Flags, was one such group that had a

wide range of influence, including the Refill system. They were always

giving the imperial military a hard time. Usually, they operate by

distributing their forces over a wide area of activity, so it was really

difficult to round them up in one fell swoop. Space was pretty large

after all.

"Um, isn't this bad?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But we can't do anything about it right now."

"Our ships are far away from us after all."

"If I knew this was going to happen, I would have insisted on flying to

our destination on Krishna no matter what the locals say..."

"No use havin' hindsight now, Boss."

"That's rude, Sis..."

Yeah, don't be rude! But would I really go so far as insisting on flying to

the destination via Krishna even if our elven hosts graciously prepared

a flying aircraft for us? Uh, it's not like I can't, but would I really? If I

said I had a very bad feeling and wanted to fly Krishna instead, I'm sure

they'd just give me weird looks. It's not like I care about the opinions of

other people that much, but would I really insist on having my way like

an entitled prick? It would have been bad either way.

"Hahaha, actually, they look kinda pretty, don't you think?"

"Is this the time to laugh like an idiot?"

"I have no choice but to laugh in this situation."

When misfortune was piled on top of misfortune, there was nothing I

could do but laugh. I wonder if a rescue party will really come for us in

this situation? As I mulled over the chances, a shooting star– No, it was

far too large to be likened to a shooting star. Anyway, a huge pillar of

flames erupted and pierced the sky.

It ran from east to west. The direction it streaked toward was the same

as the location of Theta's integrated port facility.

"""Ah."""

And then, we witnessed several crimson streaks of light flying from

west to east. Those are probably anti-air laser fire from Black Lotus's

twelve laser cannons.

After that, several more fireballs erupted from the east and headed to

the west, but they were all intercepted by Black Lotus' laser cannons.

Booooom!

"Whoah!?"

"Kyaaa!?"

"D-Don't tell me she just fired the EML inside the atmosphere!?"

The integrated port facility was pretty far from our current position,

but we were still inundated by a loud boom.

Perhaps the round didn't pass over us, so I wasn't able to confirm

personally, but the only thing that would produce such a powerful

booming sound when fired should be the EML equipped on the Lotus.

The EML equipped on the Lotus can seriously damage even a genuine

military combat starship as long as it lands a direct hit. So what'll

happen if it was fired inside a planet's atmosphere?

If it were fired carelessly, there was a good chance the surrounding

buildings near the EML would get pulverized by the resulting

shockwaves. This is just my conjecture, but the power of the

shockwaves produced by its firing should be greater within an

atmosphere compared to when it's fired in outer space. A typical pirate

ship with thin armor plating could be shot down all at once by the

shockwaves alone.

"M-Mei-han's really lettin' it rip."

"But is that really okay? What about the damage to the

surroundings...?"

"Let's believe in Mei. Yeah. I wanna believe in her."

If the surrounding facilities really were damaged badly by the EML, I

wonder how much I'd have to pay as compensation? Ugh. My stomach

hurts.

"I'm sure Mei knows what she's doing. She should be able to adjust the

EML's power accordingly."

"T-That's right, isn't it!?"

It looks like only Elma had complete trust in Mei. Mimi agreed with her,

but her face was twitching slightly. How should I put it? Mei was

excellent in whatever she does, but sometimes, she tends to go

overboard.

"We can do nothing but pray right now. Anyway, it would be bad if the

pirates spotted us from the sky, so let's put out the bonfire and retreat

inside the shelter for the time being."

"Right."

"Okay."

I extinguished the bonfire using my DIY spade and entered the shelter

with everyone. We built a fence around the camp during the day, so wild

animals from Theta's forest shouldn't be able to attack us.

Will a rescue party really manage to come for us in this situation?

Water was one thing, but our food stocks were limited. Depending on

how things develop, it might be necessary to consider securing food via

harvesting wild vegetables and hunting.