Chapter 10 – March 2056 – Saitama Aerospace Self-Defense Force Base

I was a mess in the back seat of the taxi.

Confused in every possible way.

Confused at being called out in the middle of the night.

Confused because my fleet assignment wasn’t supposed to start for a while yet.

Confused because my family grumbled that I had just gotten home and was already leaving again.

And especially confused because the destination wasn’t the United Nations Space Force Japan Branch in Tokyo, but instead the Saitama Aerospace Self-Defense Force Base.

But above all, I was confused by the breaking news I’d seen during a TV program.

There had been a battle at Sirius. The Lysithea fleet had clashed in full-scale combat with a Tarsian force. The Lysithea fleet had won, but with heavy casualties.

The information, coming in from Planet Agartha, was jumbled and contradictory.

Hoping to hear more, I had left the TV running when the call came in. I kept the radio on in the taxi, listening intently.

What bothered me most was that phrase:『many casualties.』Then the follow-up reports started coming in—it sounded like only the Lysithea had survived among the ten ships; the other nine had been destroyed. My mood sank.

And this—this was right after I’d just received a message from Nagamine earlier that day.

No official list of survivors had been released yet. In the first place, the selection of personnel had never been made public. Even if the UN Space Force had internal records, there was no guarantee they’d be released to the public. Still, survivor names were beginning to trickle out via emails the crew had sent out.

Each media outlet was beginning to publish its own independently compiled lists.

I strained to hear every name—but Mikako’s hadn’t come up yet.

The silence of my phone was also deeply unsettling.

Still, knowing that Mikako’s assigned ship had been the Lysithea offered some small measure of comfort.

Once I arrived at the base, I was guided into the headquarters building.

It was clearly in a state of chaos—personnel who had also been summoned were rushing about in all directions.

I was brought to what looked like a conference room. Nearly twenty staff members were running between desks with papers in hand. It was clear this was where the latest intel was being gathered.

I stayed quietly in a corner, clutching my anxiety.

But still—who had called me here?

I listened closely to the chatter of the staff and began to understand: they were preparing for a rescue mission. The UN Space Force was organizing an emergency rescue team in response to a request from the Lysithea.

But wait—wasn’t that pointless?

Even if the report just came in, the actual battle at Sirius had happened eight years and seven months ago. Sending a rescue mission now… it was too late. Anyone who could’ve been saved was surely beyond help by now.

But then I listened more carefully—and learned that rescue could still be viable in certain cases.

If the Lysithea had become immobile, and survivors were holding out aboard the ship or living in survival conditions on the surface of Agartha… or if the ship could still navigate, but its sub-light engine was damaged, preventing it from returning to the solar system.

In any case, nothing could move forward without confirming more details.

It wasn’t until after 3 a.m. that things started to come together.

That was when, at last, the person who had summoned me seemed to remember they had done so.

“Hey, you’re Terao Noboru, right? You’ve been assigned to fleet duty.”

The middle-aged man who spoke wore black clothing.

For a second, I thought: could this be the agent Mikako once mentioned?

Sure enough, he told me they wanted me to join the rescue team.

“So?” I asked, pressing for the destination.

“It hadn’t been confirmed yet,” he said. But in any case, I needed to head to the lunar base camp immediately, and I’d be taking one of their shuttles.

When I asked why they didn’t know the exact destination yet, he gave me a troubled look.

“The signal from Sirius isn’t stable. We’re pretty sure the Lysithea initiated a sub-light return trip, but the data’s so corrupted by noise that we still don’t know exactly where they’re headed…”

“But if they’re already in the solar system, wouldn’t they be near one of the known bases?” I asked.

“If that’s the case, there’s nothing to worry about. But this mission assumes the worst-case scenario” he said, with an answer that didn’t quite clarify anything.

“When that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to just wait for the next message?” I asked.

“They’ve already departed, you know.Didn’t they teach you at the academy that once a ship enters sub-light travel, all communications become impossible? If I’m not mistaken, weren’t you assigned as a communications technician for fleet duty?”

That shut me up fast.

How could this even count as a rescue mission if we didn’t even know where to go?

Regardless, I was abruptly ordered to head to the lunar base.

I was practically shoved into a shuttle van bound for the launchpad.

And just then—my one and only personal item, my phone, began to ring.

It was a message from Nagamine.