<h4>Chapter 249 - Crash! And then……</h4>


    Trantor: SFBaka


    “”……””


    When I regained consciousness, I found the mechanic sisters peering at my face together. Um, what’s with this situation……? Ah.


    “Are you guys okay?”


    “As you can see Boss, we’re doin’ just fine. Instead of us, you might wanna worry about yourself first.”


    “That’s good……”


    When Tina heard my words, she gently patted her chest and sighed in relief. Whisker, on the other hand, had tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. Anyway, I tried to get up, but something didn’t feel right. I wondered what it was, but then, dark red fragments started falling down to the ground apanied by some dizziness.


    “Whoah, is this blood? Was I really in trouble this time around?”


    “It’s bein’ hidden by your hair Boss, but it looks like you got injured in the head and it’s been bleedin’ a lot. We managed to remedy it with this thing though.”


    After saying so, Tina showed me a gun-type painless syringe. This was the one included in the survival kit I brought with me huh.


    “Um, so, what’s the situation now? What about Mimi and Elma?”


    “Mimi-san and Elma-san have been going around to check the area. We stayed here to look after you, Big Brother.”


    “I see. Sorry for worrying you, guys.”


    I patted my head to get rid of the remaining hardened blood. Ugh. It felt gross. I got the urge to take a shower, but now’s not the time to get hung up on that.


    “What aboutmunications?”


    “It’s bad. We really are out of range.”


    “Yeah, I thought so. Alright then. Shall we activate the emergency signal beacon?”


    “Um, about that……”


    Whisker muttered hesitantly and eventually pointed toward where my backpack was, which was now badly battered. The contents of the survival kit were fine since they were stuffed inside a pretty durable case, but the same couldn’t be said for the food packs. A good number of them got popped open and their contents were scattered on the ground.


    “Oh…… Well f*ck-”


    “Whoah. Watch your words, Boss.”


    “Sorry.”


    As for the all-important emergency signal beacon, well, it’s beenpletely wrecked. Damage wasn’t just a few mere cracks. Its innerponents were spilling out already. No matter how you slice it, the thing was hopelessly broken.


    “Is it possible for us to activate it for only a short while?”


    “The activation switch was wrecked beyond repair, so it’s impossible.”


    “I see…”


    Well, at least the survival kit was fine. We can just gather the food rations that were still alright to eat. Since they were aware that we got into an ident, a rescue team should being to get us soon.


    Since most of the contents of our luggage were fine except for the emergency beacon, I guess it wasn’t the worst-case scenario.


    “What about you guys? Did you get hurt? Are Mimi and Elma fine?”


    “Yes, we’re both fine Big Brother. Mimi-san and Elma-san are alright too.”


    “Our luggage is fine as well. Uh, most of them, anyway.”


    “So I was the only one who got injured and had my luggage wrecked huh. How unlucky.”


    I then picked up the survival kit box that was left beside me and took out the molecrposition device to check if it was in working order.


    “So the contents of the survival kit are all fine huh. Man. Mr. Beacon sure wascking in guts.”


    “It’s not a problem of guts y’know. Well, it’s true that it turned out pretty useless though.”


    “It’s pointless to bring something like it for emergencies if it would just end up breaking down during an emergency huh.”


    “Let’s buy a tougher one next time.”


    It was tiring to sit on bare ground, so I patted my legs and stood up. When I did so, I ended up staggering a bit. It looks like I really lost a fair bit of blood while I was passed out huh.


    “Wait! You can’t just suddenly stand up like that, Boss……!”


    “It’s okay. I felt a bit dizzy but I’m fine now. Where are my swords by the way?”


    “Ah, they’re still inside the train car. It’s over there.”


    Whisker pointed toward the passenger car which now turned into a tragic wreck. There were two cars that fell, and the one Whisker pointed to was the car we rode in. For some reason, our car was a lot more damaged than the other one.


    “We seemed to have hit a tree when we crashed. After that, the branches of the tree we hit fell down and hit the train car.”


    “Both cars were still attached together at first, but the couplings came off the moment we crashed on the ground. But because of that, the car Mimi-san and Elma-san were riding in ended up falling right on top of our car……”


    “We’re both okay because we aren’t that tall anyway, but it looks like you hit your head on the car’s ceiling, Boss. You ended up faintin’ and bleedin’ lots so we were really panickin’ earlier.”


    “I’m sorry.”


    I don’t really think apologizing would make any difference, but it looks like I really made them worry a lot, so I did.


    As I busied myself trying to pull my two swords from inside the wrecked train car, I heard the sound of parting grass from outside.


    “Hiro-sama!”


    “Hey there guys. I’m d you’re both alright.”


    “You have no room to be worrying about us, mister. Honestly.”


    Mimi, who noticed I was up, quickly ran toward me, and Elma followed behind her with an exasperated expression on her face.


    “As you can see, I’m fine thanks to the medical nanomachine unit. By the way, I just remembered something.”


    “What?”


    “My concerns ended uping true. You guys better be ready once we get back.”


    “Is this the time to be sayin’ that, Boss……?”


    Tina’s lips curled into a bitter grin. Well, it’s not like I had any room to becent in this situation, but we have to stay positive at times like this after all. Even if the rescue beacon was now broken, our driver, Hiishi, and our guide, Lilium, should know the approximate location of the crash. If they calcte using our flight schedule, they should be able to find out our approximate position, and rescue woulde soon afterward. And moreover, Mei won’t sit still once she learns that we got into an ident. We should be rescued after a day or two at most.


    “Well, it’s no use being all distressed since we’ve alreadynded ourselves in this situation. The ground around here seems solid enough. Should we open the spot up a bit more?”


    “Open it up?”


    “The rescue team would probably search for us in the air. So we should cut down some of the surrounding trees so it would be easier for them to spot us. That’s why I pulled these swords out.”


    While exining, I strapped the scabbards of both swords onto my waist and drew out the longsword.


    “Watch out for falling trees, okay. Also, can someone look up how to use this thing? A user manual should be stashed somewhere inside the survival kit box.”


    “Alright.”


    I handed the molecrposition device to Elma, who nodded to volunteer and immediately busied myself with cutting down the trees around the crash site. Their wooden trunks were no match for the de of my sword that’s made out of a material that’s also used to producebat starship armor. I made sure to watch out for falling trees and branches as I quickly cleared the site.


    “Oh, right. Can someone chop off the branches of the fallen trees for me?”


    “Chop off the branches?”


    “Yep. Just like this.”


    I stood beside one tree I cut down and chopped the branches off of the trunk with my longsword.


    “What’s this for anyway?”


    “We could turn the fallen trees into logs, but that’s not what I’m going for this time. What I need are the tree branches. Cut the branches into a reasonable length. About one meter should do. Collect and gather them in one spot for me please.”


    After giving out instructions, I pulled out my short sword and handed it to Tina.


    “Alrighty then. Let’s get to work.”


    “Be careful with that. You’d get your foot chopped off if you don’t pay attention.”


    “I know.”


    Tina carefully received the sword and walked toward a tree I chopped down earlier. Well, Tina was ustomed to handling dangerous equipment because of her job as a ship engineer, so I suppose she’ll be fine.


    Elma’s work seems to be proceeding smoothly as well. She was already operating the molecrposition device to break down and reconstruct fallen trees and the like.


    “Whisker, Mimi, go and join Elma to learn how to operate the molecrposition device with her. I’m gonna keep alert for them, but it’s possible that some dangerous animals might approach this area, so I want you guys to apany Elma and warn each other just in case there’s danger.”


    “”Understood.””


    The two nodded and quickly ran over to Elma. After seeing them off, I decided to continue with my work. Man. I didn’t expect logging to be this fun.


    After clearing out the area to a passable extent, I headed toward the three who were studying the molecrposition device and witnessed them crowding around a strange object. What the heck? I can’t even find words to describe it.


    “Uh, is that some sort of avant-garde art piece or something?”


    “……I tried to make a lookout tform but it didn’t turn out so well, okay.”


    “A lookout tform……?”


    This spiral-shaped wooden object constructed from triangr and square boards was actually a lookout tform? Uh, I can feel your effort, but how about you make the structure a bit simpler next time?


    “Is it really that difficult to operate?”


    “It has a bit of a knack to it. You’re gonna have it hard until you get used to this thing.”


    While saying so, Elma pointed the molecrposition device toward the so-called lookout tform. The device emitted a bright blue light that enveloped the wooden object. Man. This device was actually a bit scary when seen working from up close. I mean, what if it got pointed toward a person?


    “Don’t point that toward people, okay. It’s scary.”


    “I won’t. In the first ce, this thing’s equipped with a safety feature that doesn’t allow it to activate when pointed toward a living creature of a certain size.”


    “That’s great, but still, be careful with that, okay? Oh, I just thought of something I wanna do with that thing.”


    I exined what I wanted to do to Elma and had her operate the device.


    “What’s the use of making holes on the ground?”


    What I told her to do was to break down the grasses growing in one corner of the area I just cleared of trees. And then, I had her break down the ground in order to create three slightly deep holes. I’ve already cleared out the surrounding trees, so it should be fine as long as we’re careful.


    “I’m gonna burn some raw wood.”


    “Raw wood?”


    “Freshly cut trees are called raw wood. They give off a heck of a lot of smoke when they’re burned.”


    While saying so, I picked up some of the branches that were chopped by Tina earlier as well as some fallen branches that seemed to have beenying on the ground for quite some time, divided them evenly, and then spread them beside the holes.


    “Um, those aren’t freshly cut, right?”


    “These are already dried up. Unlike raw wood, these things burn up easily. I’ll burn these first to get the fire going and then throw in the raw wood next.”


    I pulled out myser gun, dropped the output to the lowest setting, and used it to ignite the firewood. Having aser gun sure is convenient for igniting stuff, though it would vaporize things quickly if you fired at them under maximum output. Once the fire was sufficientlyrge enough, I picked up the branches chopped by Tina and yeeted them inside the holes! Exciting!


    “Wow, it really is smokin’ a lot.”


    “This is gonna end up a disaster if you did this inside a colony.”


    “You’d get yourself put behind bars immediately……”


    Smoke started rising up from the three bonfires I made just as nned. Or rather, the sparks are flying around like crazy huh. I guess making the holes deep was the right call. If we burned these up on level ground, we’d probably have a forest fire on our hands right now.


    “This, my fairdies, is humanity’s oldest wirelessmunication method - the smoke signal. By the way, where I’m from, three smoke signals going up at once means SOS, or a request for immediate rescue. I don’t know if it means the same on this though.”


    “Uh, so isn’t creatin’ three kinda useless?”


    “Even so, three stands out more than one, right?”


    While saying so, I started hacking the fallen trees that were now devoid of branches apart with my sword as well. We’re gonna use these once the branches get depleted. It might be bad to burn trees in Grado n territory or to cut them down without permission, but it’s their responsibility that the vehicle they provided us crashed anyway. If theyin, I’m gonna insist on that in order to evade responsibility. Yep.


    Well, uh… It’s possible that I was the cause of the crash in the first ce, but even so, making us ride a vehicle that would crash just by me riding it was definitely no good. It’s not my fault!


    “I’ll continue to raise the signal like this, so you guys go ahead and proceed with making a shelter for us to spend the night.”


    “Alright. I’ll do my best.”


    “Sure. But remember, if you don’t produce any results, we’ll be sleeping outdoors. I’m really counting on you, okay?”


    In my opinion, judging from the avant-garde lookout post she made earlier, I think it would be better to have someone else be in charge of making the shelter instead of Elma. Well, I guess I’ll just have to hope for the best. I believe in everyone’s effort. Yep.