“First, my fleet will surround the extremist base and demand surrender. Unless they have something up their sleeve, we shouldn’t expect much resistance. There aren’t many who would dare to stand against a federation fleet armed to the teeth, after all. And while that’s going on, you all should be able to move freely.”
The extremists didn’t yet know we’d made contact with Iris. The fact that they were holding the past heroines hostage was a big secret, so the first thing they’d do when Iris demanded surrender would be to try and hide or relocate the heroines. That meant that while Iris was negotiating with the extremists, we had to sneak in and figure out where they were keeping the girls.
“Shall we begin the operation?”
In order to sneak in to the extremists’ base, we borrowed a small spaceship from Iris. Harissa cast her invisibility spell on it, and we quietly departed from the midst of the federation fleet.
“Will we really be okay with just my magic?”
“Probably.”
In order to avoid radar detection, we’d specifically picked out a ship with high-spec stealth functions. If, between that and Harissa’s magic, the extremists still discovered us, then... Well, I was willing to cross that bridge when we got there.
Fortunately, however, all my concerns turned out to be unfounded. We safely arrived at the extremists’ base—which was really feeling like the final boss’s castle at this point—without issue. The base itself was on an asteroid that was roughly one quarter the size of Earth’s moon. The entire asteroid had been terraformed and had a proper atmosphere, so it looked like we wouldn’t need space suits once we got there. We stealthily landed some distance from the base and got ready before setting out.
“Lea, will you lend me your power again if we end up in a battle with the extremists?”
“As long as it isn’t a battle between heroines.”
“Hmm...” I turned to the doctor and Satsuki. “Are there any heroines in the extremist faction?”
“Not that I’m aware of, no.”
“I don’t know of any either.”
“Good. Thanks,” I said with a nod.
Our main objective here was a rescue operation, but there was no telling what might happen along the way. We could be in for a fight, but as long as any heroines weren’t involved, we could count on Lea to help us out there. As far as I knew, she was the strongest heroine there was, even here in the future. Well... She probably couldn’t use her full strength without Tsumiki’s dark matter, but she was plenty strong as she was. We might be in for trouble if the extremists had more of those giant robots they used to attack my hometown, but would they really whip out something like that when they were completely surrounded by a navy fleet from the Greater Galactic Federation? Maybe I was being a little optimistic in assuming they wouldn’t.
We were about to sneak into the extremists’ base, and there was no way those giant robots would be able to move around inside a building. I honestly didn’t think they’d be willing to destroy their own base just to trample us... But that being the case, that meant actually getting from our ship to the base would be the most dangerous leg of the operation.
“All right, everyone. We have to be extremely cautious from here on.”
“You’re the last person I want to hear that from,” L snarked as she set out.
Since she knew the most about the extremists, we’d decided it would be smartest to have her head the team. As a Kiklim, she also had every kind of sensor imaginable. She was the ideal candidate for discovering and dismantling traps, so we had her lead the way as the rest of us followed behind her. The asteroid was grassless, and the texture of the ground below my feet felt a lot like walking on dirt. The gravity here was also pretty similar to Earth, so getting around on foot wasn’t a problem.
“Stop,” L suddenly said, halting at the front of the line. “There’s an electromagnetic wall here. If you pass through it, you’ll get fried.”
“Really? I don’t see anything...”
“Your human eyes wouldn’t,” L said with a sigh. “I can force a hole open in it, but that’ll set off alarms. It would be better to just find the proper door, so give me a minute to find it.”
With that, L used her particle relocator and vanished from sight.
“Man...” I said, looking around.
The extremists’ hideout was finally right in front of us. Whether my... Whether the heroines of the past were inside or not was the question now. Even if they weren’t, however, there was still something I was hoping to find here: a hint. Some kind of clue as to the mastermind’s identity. That was the bare minimum we needed to walk away with from this mission. Without it, we’d never get anywhere.
There’s no way we’ll leave here totally empty-handed, but... I’m still a little uneasy.
I couldn’t help recalling the conversation between L and the giant robot pilot back during the attack on my hometown. L hadn’t known the extremists were coming, and the extremists that did come were surprised at how L reacted to them. It was like they weren’t on the same page. There was some sort of disconnect. An odd inconsistency. Had they received different orders somehow? If so, how did that end up happening?
It was possible there’d just been some confusion somewhere along the chain of command, but that didn’t seem likely given the simultaneous attacks on the future and the past. The extremists were perfectly coordinated in that regard. That made it seem like L was really the odd one out, which was curious.
If she was the only one with deviating orders, then rather than there being confusion in the chain of command, it sounds like there was just someone acting of their own accord...
Granted, that may have been L herself. But either way, there was no immediate answer to my quandary. While I was thinking it over, however, L reappeared.
“I opened a gate that you all should be able to pass through over there. Follow me.”
L then led us to what was apparently a door of sorts in the invisible wall. We passed through it, and no sooner than we set foot inside could we hear a commotion. The extremist base was in absolute chaos. Apparently being surrounded by a federation fleet had caused quite a panic. The electromagnetic wall had blocked out all the shouting that we could now hear clearly—and it was a welcome sound. With this much of an uproar going on, it should be a piece of cake to sneak in.
“Lea, let’s use telepathy to communicate from this point forward. Can you connect everyone?”
“Sure.”
Lea nodded and began concentrating, linking our minds together with her magic power.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yeah. How about everyone else?”
Everyone else nodded in turn. It looked like we were good to go.
“All right. L, please take the lead again.”
“I can do that, but where do you want to go first?”
Hmm... I had to think for a minute about that.
“Is there any kind of confinement center in this building? Somewhere they might hold people?”
“Like a jail? There’s nothing like that.”
“I’ll have to keep thinking, then. If the heroines are being kept here, they’d definitely need somewhere to lock them up...”
“Your heroines... There were over 20 of them, if I recall correctly. That’s an awful lot of people to keep locked up in one place.”
“Right? It’d have to be a pretty big room.”
“Hmm... The office or the lab would work. The storage room is also rather large, but that wouldn’t make a great makeshift prison...” L said, cocking her head to the side. “Sorry, I can’t really narrow it down.”
According to L, even the building’s office and lab were big enough to hold 20 people if they moved the furniture out. And the list of options was even longer if they didn’t bother thinking about space and comfort. If the extremists were just treating the heroines like prisoners, then they may have shoved them all together in one tiny room. I was hoping they’d at least been hospitable enough to give the girls a decent size room.
“I guess there’s no way of knowing...” I said with a mental sigh before looking back to L. “Quick question, L. You said you’d never met the mastermind directly before, so how did you get your orders?”
“Only a select few of the higher-ups have direct contact with the mastermind. They get orders and then pass them down accordingly.”
“Hmm... So it’d be fastest for us to just locate these higher-ups,” I mused as I rubbed my chin.
“Hang on a second, Rekka,” the doctor suddenly interjected. “Satsuki, can you locate Rekka’s heroines with the Magic of Omniscience?”
“What? Didn’t we try that already?” Satsuki asked dubiously.
“Then what about the mastermind’s exact location?” the doctor asked without missing a beat.
“I’m afraid that’s a no-go as well... What are you getting at here?”
“What if you searched this building for places that you can’t search? Anywhere you can’t look into must either be the mastermind or the heroines.”
“I-I’ll get right on it!”