Ch.215A Sky Full Of Stars! (3)

#215

The first thing Dexter did was to call back the four women who had left and get people out of the room where Rascal’s corpse was.

“Seriously… this is the number one smell I never want to experience in my life.”

“Ah, but where are we supposed to put all these people?”

“That’s the problem. It’s not even our spaceship…”

“For now, we’ll have to put them in an empty warehouse or room.”

The people following Dexter were still uncertain about the situation.

They had been kidnapped, then told they were on a spaceship above Earth, and were now being led by four women and one man.

Though bewildered, they were following along for now.

‘He doesn’t seem like a soldier, so what talent does that guy have to be leading those women around?’

‘Wow, I’m so jealous.’

‘With women around, maybe we’ll be safer…’

After checking various rooms one by one, Dexter’s group arrived at a large warehouse filled with food and supplies.

Dexter first let the people inside, then spoke to the four women.

“Stay here with these people for now.”

“What? Don’t tell me you’re going to leave us here too?”

“We don’t know how many guys like Rascal are out there, so I can’t have you walking around in such dangerous places. Besides, we need to protect these civilians too.”

“But if you’re in danger, we won’t be able to help you…”

“Better than me grieving the loss of four people.”

“……”

Judy couldn’t say anything in response to Dexter’s words.

“Himena, Jessie, don’t even think about following me.”

“…Ah, damn. Busted.”

“No way, where do you think you’re going alone? Do you really have a death wish?”

“Honestly, I don’t care about the underlings.”

The problem was the Commander-in-Chief Olivia.

They didn’t know how many subordinates she had under her, whether male secretaries were common, or anything else.

“Let’s hope there’s no one as capable as that secretary to the Commander.”

“Babe, you really have no plan.”

“I know.”

Find the captain’s quarters, then somehow defeat the Commander-in-Chief.

This was the only plan Dexter had.

“…You don’t think we’re going to sit still when you leave, do you?”

“Yeah. I’d rather you help with something else.”

“Something else?”

“There are four people smarter than me here, so you four should figure it out yourselves.”

Dexter grinned.

“I won’t tell you not to leave at all. I know you won’t obey anyway. Just don’t do anything stupid like charging in blindly to rescue me.”

“…What kind of image do you have of us?”

“The kind that doesn’t listen.”

All four women glared at Dexter after his harsh assessment.

Dexter stared back at them for a moment, then hugged each one.

“There are so many people around…”

“I rescued them, so they’ll know to look away.”

When the shy Judy made a comment, Dexter glared around and spoke.

And just as Dexter said, the people nearby averted their eyes as soon as he gave them a stern look.

“…Stop intimidating people.”

“Since I saved them, don’t I have the right to do as I please to this extent?”

Dexter shrugged once, then hugged Emily last and said:

“Emily.”

“Yes.”

“You can steal anything here.”

“Why?”

“Howard Hughes was my great-grandfather, and I’m the only surviving descendant. So it’s mine.”

“That’s right.”

“So I’m giving you permission to steal. Go ahead.”

“…Really?”

“You can even steal the spaceship, just don’t get hurt.”

“Understood.”

After patting Emily’s back, Dexter shouldered his rifle and headed outside, pulling a small radio from his combat uniform pocket and tossing it to Jessie.

“I’ll contact you when it’s over.”

“…If you get hurt, you’re dead.”

“I’m too scared to even get hurt.”

Dexter chuckled as he went outside.

As soon as Dexter left and the warehouse door closed, the four women immediately entered into a discussion.

“What should we do?”

Judy, who was most worried about Dexter, spoke first.

“We need to deal with the most urgent matter first.”

“The most urgent matter?”

“We need to find out where the orbital bombardment is launched from.”

The purpose of Jupiter’s existence, and the reason the Commander-in-Chief stole Jupiter and launched it into space, was to rain orbital bombardment down on Earth.

Although the Commander-in-Chief had never explicitly said “I will launch orbital bombardment on Earth,” judging by what she had done on Earth so far, it was only a matter of time before she committed such an act.

When Himena pointed this out, Jessie groaned and began to think carefully.

“Not all spaceships are the same, but attack weapons like bombardment systems are most likely to be at the lowest part of the hull.”

“Where did you learn that?”

“Uh, from the alien engineering I studied…?”

“I should have learned that too. I can’t even help…”

“Judy, you can help in other ways.”

“Anyway, Jessie’s saying we need to go to the lowest part of the hull, right?”

“That’s the most likely place.”

While explaining some coping strategies to the people gathered in the warehouse, the four women encountered a problem.

They didn’t know how to get to the lowest part of Jupiter.

More precisely, they needed to find a way to the lowest level while avoiding enemies as much as possible, but they didn’t know the way and were in a state of confusion.

While the three women were looking troubled, Emily pulled out a piece of paper from inside her clothes.

“I got this.”

The paper Emily produced had a roughly drawn sketch of Jupiter’s facilities, done in ballpoint pen.

“…What is this?”

“It was in the pocket of that man we caught.”

“Why did you keep it to yourself without saying anything?”

“Because Jessie didn’t ask.”

“…I’m grateful, but next time you get something like this, could you tell us in advance?”

“Okay.”

After memorizing the route to the lowest level, the four women carefully slipped out of the room.

* * *

As Dexter got closer to the captain’s quarters, he encountered more enemies.

Though Dexter preferred to finish things quickly, the worried nagging of the four women had led him to deal with enemies in a slightly different way than usual.

“Hey, someone help me out here!”

When he called out urgently from a corner, two nearby mercenaries became suspicious.

Seeing that the enemies weren’t approaching, Dexter followed up by mixing in groaning sounds as he spoke.

“Some idiot spilled oil here and I slipped! Someone help me up! I think I cracked my tailbone!”

“…What kind of idiot brought this loser?”

One of the mercenaries nudged the other, then headed toward where Dexter was.

‘He really cares about his comrade. Too bad for him.’

Dexter inwardly clicked his tongue as he twirled a rope with a fist-sized padlock attached, then as soon as the approaching mercenary came into view, he swung the padlock at his head.

-THWACK!

“Son of a bitch!”

The mercenary hit by the padlock immediately collapsed, and the remaining mercenary aimed his gun at Dexter, ready to fire.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Dexter let the rope hang down, then with a spinning motion, threw it around the mercenary’s neck.

And then he tightened it.

“Gack, kuh…”

Dexter strangled the mercenary so hard that a ‘crack’ sound was heard, and soon all strength left the remaining mercenary’s body.

After moving the two mercenaries to a corner, Dexter quickly searched their possessions.

‘Anything useful?’

The dead mercenary’s possessions included several magazines and a crudely drawn map.

The magazines were something any armed mercenary would naturally have, but the unusual map caught his eye.

‘Looks like a spaceship.’

Inside the outline that matched the exterior of Jupiter as seen from the drone, there were roughly drawn dividing lines and important-looking labels.

‘This red pen line seems to be their patrol route… Does “Cultivation Room” refer to the room where the people in the capsules were? Are these guys crazy?’

Dexter looked over the map and tapped on the largest space labeled “Captain’s Quarters.”

‘This is it.’

The distance from Dexter’s current location to the captain’s quarters wasn’t very far.

The problem was that Dexter had seen some notes written next to the map.

[3 squads to stand by near the captain’s quarters]

[Frequent patrols in pairs]

[1 man, 4 women. The man must be killed]

‘3 squads, huh.’

Assuming one squad had 9 people, that would be close to thirty personnel.

‘Thirty against one.’

Having collected magazines and equipment from mercenaries along the way, firepower itself wasn’t an issue.

However, even Dexter had rarely used firearms inside a spaceship, so there was a possibility he might damage the spaceship “excessively.”

He wanted to land it on Earth as intact as possible, but that might not be feasible.

Dexter checked the magazines.

‘With this much, I can fire freely.’

After stuffing magazines into every pocket he had, Dexter headed toward the captain’s quarters.

He occasionally encountered Abominations along the way, but since Dexter was wearing the mercenaries’ makeshift combat uniforms, they let him pass when he simply nodded without saying anything.

In Rascal’s case, he had attacked because he remembered Dexter’s face, but the other Abominations didn’t seem smart enough to remember Dexter’s face.

After dodging around like this, Dexter was able to reach the vicinity of the captain’s quarters.

‘Why is it so quiet?’

It was eerily silent.

As if they had been waiting for Dexter to arrive, there was no one around.

‘Shit.’

As soon as Dexter grabbed his rifle, all the speakers in the ship turned on at once.

[Hello, Dexter.]

A seductive yet sharp voice echoed throughout the ship.

[I heard your quite provocative response. Well done.]

Dexter frowned as if listening to some bizarre story as Commander-in-Chief Olivia’s voice giggled as if amused.

“Olivia, are you listening?”

[I am, but I’d rather not.]

“What?”

[I shouldn’t give our Dexter any time.]

“Our? Wait a minute…”

[Catch him now.]

As soon as those words fell, mercenaries from both ends of the corridor near the captain’s quarters began pouring bullets at Dexter.

Usually, he was the one to cut off conversations, but this time Olivia did it first, leaving Dexter feeling a bit wronged as he quickly retreated.

-Ratatatatat…!

‘Wow, shit.’

Only a short curse expressed Dexter’s sense of injustice.

There was nothing more stupid than firing a gun without taking cover in an open field, so Dexter sprayed bullets at the mercenaries in the corridor while retreating to cover.

Even with Dexter’s wild spray of bullets, one person died from the blind fire.

‘That’s why guns are scary.’

Unlike cold weapons like knives, firearms can kill instantly if they hit a vital spot, even when used carelessly.

After Dexter, hiding in a corner, took down several mercenaries by hitting their foreheads and thighs, the speaker sounded again.

[How can thirty of you firing together not hit him?!]

Commander-in-Chief Olivia’s voice boomed loudly.

It was natural for her to be furious when thirty strong mercenaries together couldn’t take down just one man.

Olivia finally sighed so heavily it could be heard through the speaker, then pulled out her last resort.

[Hah… Abomination! Come to the captain’s quarters immediately!]

As soon as Olivia’s shrill voice was transmitted through the speaker, a thumping sound began, and vibrations could be felt throughout the ship.

‘Huh.’

It was the sound of Abominations running.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place—mercenaries in front, Abominations coming from behind.