Future Knight

Chapter 7

3. The Crashed Red Mars

Three months after he had opened his eyes.

Having learned a fair amount of their language and culture, Kang Chan went to see Arteon.

Arteon was slightly flustered by Kang Chan’s sudden visit.

“Welcome, Kang Chan. What brings you here? Is there anything inconvenient for you?”

“I have an urgent request, which is why I’ve taken the liberty to come see you, Lady Arteon.”

Arteon was astonished to hear his fluent use of the common language of Erkendall.

‘I’ve heard that he’s been working tirelessly to learn our language these past few months, but to speak it so fluently with perfect pronunciation in just three months is remarkable.’

She wanted to applaud his outstanding learning ability, but she had a rough idea of what he would ask, so she pretended not to know and asked back.

Her expression was uncharacteristically coy for her age.

“What kind of request? If it’s something I can help with, I will. Please, go ahead.”

After a brief pause, Kang Chan slowly began to speak.

“I would like to visit the crashed spaceship.”

Arteon smiled slowly, pleased that his request matched her expectations. Since she had anticipated this, she readily agreed.

“Alright. Then let’s go take a look together early tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.”

“No need to mention it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kang Chan bowed his head once more and left Arteon’s room, heading home.

‘I will finally discover why the ship crashed.’

The truth that had tormented him for three months would be revealed tomorrow.

His mind was incredibly complicated as he headed home.

—

Early the next morning, Kang Chan set out with ten elf warriors led by Arteon toward the crashed spaceship.

Jaina seemed eager to join them, but it was out of the question, so she didn’t say a word and just fretted alone.

Although the distance the computer indicated was only 15.513 kilometers, it was past lunchtime by the time they arrived at the monstrous object after traversing the dense forest.

“We’ve arrived. This is where the monstrous object you came in crashed.”

‘Monstrous object? I can’t see anything.’

No matter how hard he looked around, there was no trace of the spaceship. Only endless signs of destruction hinted that something had crash-landed here.

“Wait a moment.”

Arteon pulled a small crystal from her chest pocket and stepped forward.

Then, numerous beams of light and magic circles activated on the ground around them, and a door made of a magic circle appeared about two meters ahead.

As Arteon casually stepped through the magic door, an elf warrior who had been following her guided the bewildered Kang Chan into the magic circle and whispered softly.

“This place is hidden by a magic barrier created by Lady Arteon, a Nine-Circle user. Please, step inside.”

“……”

Kang Chan wasn’t thrilled to hear that a barrier had been placed on his spaceship without his permission.

Following the elf warriors inside, Kang Chan was confronted with a massive metal structure that dominated his view.

On the upper part of the enormous metal structure, the words in red blood-like letters were clearly visible.

「RED MARS」

‘Finally… I’ve returned to the spaceship.’

The crashed Red Mars was severely damaged in various places, its body distorted and warped, likely melted from the intense heat as it passed through the atmosphere, leaving it in a horrendous state.

The spaceship, now half-buried in the cliff in its horrific state, lay in a peaceful slumber. As Kang Chan gazed at it, he felt a sense of urgency and tried to rush toward the spaceship.

An elf warrior blocked his path.

“You cannot proceed. Please wait a moment.”

“Why is that?”

The escorting elf took a bracelet from his pocket and fastened it around Kang Chan’s wrist.

“Beyond this point, there is another high-level magic barrier. Only those wearing this bracelet can enter.”

As he watched the elf warrior secure the magic bracelet on his wrist, Kang Chan grumbled inwardly.

‘They sure have installed a lot on someone else’s spaceship.’

“Can I enter now?”

“No, not yet.”

The elf warrior blocked him again.

Kang Chan felt an immense dislike for the elf warrior who kept stopping him when his heart was already inside the spaceship.

“What else is there?”

“It’s lunchtime.”

“……”

At his words, Kang Chan looked around in frustration and saw Arteon and the ten elf warriors who had come with her already busy preparing lunch.

“We will enter the spaceship after lunch.”

The elf warrior, speaking firmly again, hurried to help the others prepare the meal.

They laid out a mat in the shade, sat around it, and began unpacking their food.

He had wondered why they carried so much, and now he realized it was all for lunch. They looked like they were on a picnic.

To Kang Chan, the elves seemed overly leisurely.

This was the elves’ unique sense of ease, developed over their long lives.

However, the crucial fact here was that Kang Chan hadn’t brought any lunch.

He was starting to feel hungry too.

After lunch, they entered the Red Mars. A long corridor with emergency lights greeted them.

“Emergency power… The main power is down?”

Kang Chan’s eyes filled with despair.

If the main power was down, it meant it couldn’t be revived on its own.

The Pluton engine installed in this battleship required a massive amount of energy for reactivation, which could only be provided by another battleship’s operational Pluton engine.

This was the biggest drawback of the high-performance Pluton engine. However, the enormous energy and stability it offered were incomparably superior to the helium-3 nuclear fusion reactors used in past space voyages, which is why all but a few old spacecraft were equipped with the standard Pluton engine.

The latest battleships were said to use the more advanced antimatter generator. However, the material itself was so rare and difficult to handle that its practical use was limited to super-large battleships like the Temeraire of the United Space Defense Force.

“If the main power is down, there’s no way to revive the main computer either.”

The main computer, a specially designed supercomputer for pioneering hyperspace routes, consumed an astronomical amount of energy. Without the main engine’s power, it couldn’t even be considered for activation.

This meant that he had no way of returning to the solar system on his own.

Kang Chan, shaking his head violently to dispel his despairing thoughts, trudged down the corridor with a dejected expression.

Arteon watched him with sympathetic eyes, but she didn’t forget to keep a close watch on him.

He was back in the cold, hard corridors where he had spent almost his entire life. It should have felt like returning home, but instead, he felt suffocated.

Perhaps it was due to the indoor air, which had become stale without the air purification filters functioning. More likely, it was the faint memories of his time as a killing machine that surfaced.

Those memories that he could never forget, no matter how hard he tried.

He struggled to shake off the suffocating negative emotions that were closing in on him, and began to carefully deduce why the battleship had crash-landed by examining the traces of battle scattered here and there.

‘The bullet marks on the wall are from the Empire’s 7.62mm plasma gun, not our 5.56mm rounds. And judging by the power and range of destruction from the high-frequency blade scars crossing the bullet marks, this is definitely not from a human but a combat droid. The spacing of the blade scars doesn’t match any of the droids used by our forces stored in the computer. Since it also doesn’t match the information of the Empire’s droids in storage, it must be a new model from the Imperial Army.’

As the figure of the enemy became clearer before his eyes, Kang Chan gritted his teeth.

Although detailed information could be obtained by investigating the computer recording the ship’s log in the archives, Kang Chan’s anger began to rise since it was already clear that an Imperial droid was the culprit.

At that moment, he heard Arteon’s voice from behind, as he stared blankly at the wall.

“How can small holes be lined up in such a solid steel wall? Was this also caused by a weapon made by science?”

In response to Arteon’s worried question, he silently nodded slowly and stood up, heading to the sleep capsule room, the last place in his memory.

He was curious about how he survived alone.

On the way to the sleep room, he saw scattered traces of the desperate battle, but the bodies were nowhere to be seen, likely cleaned up by the elves.

And the moment he passed through the destroyed green door and entered the sleep capsule room, Kang Chan let out a groan.

“Hmm…”

As he expected, a new model of the enemy’s droid was completely destroyed and deactivated.

“This thing was the culprit.”

It was indeed a droid of an unfamiliar design.

Shaped like a spider, the front legs were armed with high-frequency blades, and the second pair of legs with 7.62mm plasma guns, making it a typical anti-personnel combat droid.

This wretched droid in front of him seemed to have killed nine out of ten Red Mars members and failed to kill him in the tenth capsule before it was deactivated.

If he hadn’t entered the tenth capsule, he would have been killed by this murderous machine long ago.

Kang Chan’s expression turned cold as ice for a moment.

As he walked, scanning the sleep capsules that had been brutally destroyed by the droid, he stopped in front of one.

“Dick…”

He was the only comrade in the Red Mars special unit, composed solely of ruthless killing machines, who had made him feel a sense of camaraderie.

He was the black friend who had tried to make him laugh with silly jokes even in the tension of being dropped into the atmosphere aboard the assault ship, but Kang Chan felt deeply regretful for never having laughed at his jokes.

He wanted to cry for him, but no tears came.

“Dick, I’m sorry.”

After offering a prayer of condolence, Kang Chan turned and walked back toward the archives.

Everything about how the Red Mars had crashed would be stored in the black box located there.

The elves silently followed behind him as he moved with heavy footsteps.

The archives were just above the sleep room, and upon arriving, Kang Chan reactivated the computer in the situation room.

The computer in the situation room, unlike the main computer which performed astronomical calculations for space navigation, was operational with just the emergency power.

In the previously dark situation room, numerous monitors began to light up one by one.

As various programs started running chaotically, the elves standing behind Kang Chan widened their eyes at the mysterious sight.

Arteon couldn’t believe that all of this was a product of science, not magic.

Once the booting was complete, Kang Chan rolled up his sleeve and connected the computer’s USB cable to his arm.

Then, linking the battleship’s black box to his bio-computer, Kang Chan began to carefully examine the ship’s log within the black box.

As he did so, a cry of fury burst from his lips.