Chapter 10 Forest Rebellion
An elderly man wearing a white jacket was cleaning up in the kitchen. He was the head chef at the panoramic buffet on the top floor of a 50-story hotel building. It was already past midnight, and there were no customers. Because of the suspicious situation in the town, there were not many customers at the hotel itself, and the observation buffet, which is usually crowded even at night, had almost no customers that night. It's always open all night, so he just did it out of obligation. He quickly closed the buffet early and let the employees go home first, leaving him alone. He heard footsteps, he looked up and saw a man in front of him. A thin, tall man of unknown age with a beard was staring intently at the head chef.
"Unfortunately, it's already closed tonight."
Dyson reached into his pocket and pulled out a billfold. Then he handed the wad of money to the head chef. "Let me eat something with this."
The head chef picked up the wad of bills and counted. "So much? It's 10,000 dollars."
"If there's more, the rest is chips." Dyson walked in and took a seat by the window without listening to his reply.
"What would you like? Japanese food? Or French food? We also have Chinese and Italian food."
"What would you like to eat for your last dinner?" Dyson asked, looking out at the scenery outside.
"Last dinner? Come to think of it, there was a TV program like that a long time ago. I almost forgot. According to everyone's answers, it was a surprisingly simple dish. I only remember the pro wrestler's answer. It was Daifuku. That's a little too plain. If it were me, I'd have miso soup and dried horse mackerel. I'll eat it with takuan(yellow pickled radish)."
"I want to eat something a little more luxurious one."
"Okay, then let's prepare some top quality steak. Are you planning to die? "
"Do you get it?"
"It says 'I'm going to die' written on your face. I'd like to say that it's best not to commit suicide by jumping off the ground, as the aftermath is likely to be tragic. Also, it is better to stop using sleeping pills because they usually fail and leave you with aftereffects that make you miserable for the rest of your life. Also, cutting your wrist is not recommended because unless you get into the bathtub and soak the wound in water, the wound will close and fail. It takes a long time to bleed to death. If you're planning to die by harakiri, I think you should stop doing that. If you just cut the abdomen open, you will thrash around for hours until you die from blood loss. Ideally, after cutting the abdomen, you should stab the heart, but very few people are brave enough to do so. If you had a gun, of course you could shoot yourself in the head and die easily. If you put the muzzle in your mouth and hit the brain stem directly, you can easily pass away into the afterlife. Make sure you don't shoot yourself in the side of the head. If your hand shakes, you will miss the shot."
"Then, what kind of death would you prefer?"
"Hanging. It doesn't look good, but you can definitely die. All you need is a string and somewhere to hang it. You would think this would be painful because the person would die from suffocation, but this is actually not the case; the person dies because the brain stem is stretched and ruptured. So you can go to the next world easily. But please, please don't do it at this hotel."
"Okay. And give me a beer."
Inside the doghouse, Paul and Snake were sleeping curled up in a stiff blanket. Paul woke up from his slumber when he heard a noise.
"Snake"
"...What?" came the sleepy reply.
"Isn't the wind noisy?"
"...I guess so."
"snake"
"What?"
"Would you please take your hand off my ass?"
"...OK"
Snake's hand came out from inside Paul's briefs.
"Why was your hand there?"
"Sorry, it seemed so soft."
"Snake"
"What?"
"Can't you hear people's voices?"
"Well, someone is screaming."
"Now,Someone just yelled."
"That's Sergeant Oyama's voice."
"It's more like a dying scream than a yell, right?"
They were now fully awake. However, they still had the blanket over their head.
"Pole"
"What?"
"I just heard Kano scream."
"Well, I heard a voice coming from over there, and it was blown away to the other side."
"Something is creaking and popping."
"It sounded like a house was falling on me."
"......."
"Pole"
"What?"
"Maybe something really bad is happening right now?"
"I feel like that."
"Take a look?"
They took off the blanket and quietly poked their head out of the small entrance of the doghouse. A strong wind was blowing. It was from the forest. The scenery around them had completely changed. There was no shadow or shape of the building that was right there. Suddenly a soldier appeared. He was running staggering. They didn't know why, but he was scratching all over his body. Something was crowding around the soldier. The soldier's body was surrounded by countless flapping objects that moved so fast that the two could barely see them. The soldier screamed. Then he collapsed, his limbs trembling. The cloud-like objects that had gathered around the soldier became smaller and smaller. And then it flew away in an instant. There was nothing left behind. At that moment, they realized what the strong wind was. Countless insects were flying at high speed. A roaring sound filled the sky.
"Oh! no!"
They panicked and retreated into the doghouse. Suddenly, a large praying mantis-like insect appeared at the entrance and stared at the two with compound eyes. They kicked the praying mantis out and covered the entrance with a blanket.
"What should we do?" Paul asked, breathing heavily.
"It's dangerous to go outside. Let's stay still."
"Isn't this doghouse dangerous?"
"Fortunately, it was made of shabby wood, so I'm sure it escaped their attention."
They held the blanket tightly together, held their breath, and waited for the area to quiet down. After a while the sound of the wind subsided.
"It looks like they've gone."
"Let's wait a little more."
They heard an eerie sound, like a low rumbling. It slowly approached and passed over the doghouse. And then came the next one.
"What's that?"
They secretly peeked out from between the blankets and looked up at the sky. A pitch black object covered the sky. It was so big that they couldn't tell what shape it was. All they could tell was that it had a rounded shape. It could be tens or even hundreds of meters long. It passed overhead, slowly twisting its body.
"Is that an insect, an animal, or just a cloud?" Paul asked in a low voice.
"Probably not any of them. At least it certainly doesn't resemble any creature that has ever appeared on Gaia."
They heard a sound like the rumbling of the ground again. This time it was a real tremor. Black trees began to rise from various places on the ground. The forest quickly surrounded the doghouse.
'Lee got angry and slammed a frying pan at Yoshida's head. Sparks flew in front of Yoshida's eyes and a loud bang sounded.'
Yoshida jumped out of his dream. A siren was blaring loudly from somewhere. Lee, who was sleeping next to Yoshida, jumped up.
"What's that siren?"
"It's a warning siren. It is designed to sound when there is an emergency. But this is the first time I've heard that."
Yoshida ran out into the hallway in his pajamas. Crane and Joe were there.
"What happened?"
"Watch TV"
Newton was sitting in front of the TV in the living room. The announcer was speaking quickly.
'An emergency has occurred. Please evacuate to a nearby shelter immediately. This broadcast was pre-recorded. The nature of the emergency is unknown. Repeat. There is an emergency...'
"pre-recorded broadcast..."
"It seems all communication networks are down."
"What?" Yoshida was at a loss for words.
"I just tried it at work room, but I couldn't communicate with anyone. All communications have been cut off: TV, radio, internet, mobile phones, etc." Crane's face was pale.
"That means the underground cables and relay stations are all messed up." Lee said.
They remained silent and stared at each other.
"Let's run to a shelter. There's one nearby," Crane said.
"Instead, let's run to the whale. It's safer that way. After we get on board, we'll dive to the bottom of the sea." Joe said so.
"Let's do that. However, I will stay here and wait for communication to be restored." Yoshida said.
"I'll stay too" Crane
"I'll stay with you too." Lee
Boys appeared yawning. Glenn was busy shoveling food into a large box in the kitchen. The sirens were still blaring. The three ran into the underground workplace.
Lee jumped on the computer. He quickly ran his fingers across the keyboard.
"It's true that all communication lines are down."
"What should we do?" Yoshida asked. He leave all the difficult things to Lee.
"Do this"
Lee was staring at the monitor and doing something. A screen appeared on the wall. A map of Gaia has emerged. Gaia had two continents, Gondwana in the northern hemisphere and Laurasia in the southern hemisphere. The two continents were connected at the equator, and the Tethys Sea cut deep into it from the east like a wedge. Tokio City was located under Gondwana, facing the Tethys Sea. The place where they were now was about 20km east of there. The screen was painted black, and red lines connected the countless white dots on the continent like a net.
"What's this?" Yoshida asked.
"This is a map that reproduces the communication history that was saved on the computer.The white line is the town, and the red line is the communication map. This was 30 minutes ago. There is nothing abnormal at all."
Lee tapped the keyboard. The screen changed slightly, and red lines disappeared all over Gaia.
"This was 25 minutes ago."
Furthermore, the screen has changed. The red line had been reduced to about half. Almost half of the towns was already isolated.
"20 minutes ago"
The red line has almost disappeared. Most of the towns was isolated from communications networks.
"Does that mean the communication network was cut off in an instant?" Crane said so.
"Let's watch the videos consecutively."
The screen returned to normal and started moving. Black holes opened all over Gaia's communication network. Then, it gradually spread to the surrounding area and quickly destroyed the communication network. Yoshida looked around Yukawa Town. There, too, was a large hole in pitch black.
"It looks like something appeared all at once and spread quickly." Crane said.
"It certainly looks like that."
"Does this mean that silicon forests suddenly appeared all over the place and expanded quickly?" Crane said so.
"But it's still night. And it's probably covered in thick clouds. Where does that kind of energy come from?" Yoshida
Lee was staring around Tokio City. It looked like there was a big black hole looming nearby.
"Well, I'd like to see the scene somehow."
"Please leave it to us." They heard Joe's voice from behind them. Bottom was next to him. And, as usual, he had a wicked smile on his face.
"Do you have to control the whale?" Lee asked.
"I'll leave it to Glenn. Isaac is also there. If something happens here, we'll have to carry you out."
"Thank you. So, how can you see the scene? It's 20km away from here." Crane
"Let Bottom go. Hang a phone camera around his neck."
"Hehehe" Bottom smiled and took on the appearance of a two-year-old child. He then slung a cell phone camera around his neck and soared into the air. Then, glowing blue, he flew toward the door, turned around, and waved. And soared high into the sky.
Joe went outside and looked up at the night sky.
"What are you doing?" Yoshida asked.
"I was looking at the sky because there was something strange about it."
Thick clouds were hanging in the air. And from time to time there were dazzling flashes between the clouds. Occasionally they heard a roar that shook the ground.
"It's a thunderstorm. There's probably a storm coming somewhere."
"Storms don't come at this time of year." Joe said as he looked up at the sky. Then he turned to Yoshida. "By the way, what time is it now?"
Yoshida looked at the clock, it was a little after 5 o'clock.
Dyson finished his steak and was slowly drinking beer. Warning sirens had been heard from all over town for some time now. The town he looked down on from the window was dark, with lights on everywhere, and it was as quiet as ever. There were no people on the street. It appeared that people had already moved to designated underground shelters. The night sky was covered with jet black clouds, and a sharp light had been flickering within them. Every time there was a flash, the buildings of the town were illuminated blue for a moment, and a dark shadow appeared clearly on the road. The head chef was sitting by the window with his arms folded behind his back, looking up at the flickering night sky.
"Is the rain coming? By the way, they've been yelling on TV for a while now to go to the shelter. It's also located in the basement of this hotel. Do you want to go with me?" The head chef asked Dyson.
"No, I'm here. You better go. I just need a beer."
"What on earth is going to happen?"
"It's no big deal, everyone's just making a fuss. The abnormal creatures will just attack you. Well, it's like a swarm of locusts swarming us."
"Wow, that looks interesting. Is this place dangerous?"
"No, it's totally safe," Dyson shook his head.
"Then I'm here too."
"Why?"
"I also want to enjoy watching the swarms of locusts."
The head chef said as he took a seat by the window and looked out over the city.
Fujimori was standing in front of a panoramic view of Tokio City. It was a temporary military command center located within the central nuclear shelter 100 meters underground. Various screens were displayed on a wall about 10 meters high. Behind them were rows of consoles, and workers were crowding around the numerous tabletop monitors.
"Striker, what's the current situation?" Fujimori asked the man next to him in uniform. He was young and handsome, and his hair was already white.
"Almost all citizens have already evacuated to underground shelters. The attack on Tokio City has not yet begun. We are sending unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to the surrounding area and continuously checking the situation. Contact between Gaia and other cities is still lost. Most of the underground cables were broken, and most of the communication relay stations were destroyed. An intense static electricity phenomenon has been occurring across Gaia for the past hour. As a result, we are unable to communicate over a wide area and are unable to contact communication satellites. We have already dispatched troops to each of the approximately 50 cities. Just before contact was lost, I instructed each of them to work exclusively on defense."
"What is the cause of the static electricity?"
"It's unknown at the moment. Currently, all of Gaia is covered with clouds due to Eos' weather control, and that may be one of the reasons. I think this is a phenomenon of friction between the clouds and the atmosphere. In any case, I think it's just a natural phenomenon."
Fujimori crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared at the map of Tokio City. It had a population of 15 million people, or 10% of Gaia's total population. It covered a vast area with the coast behind it and was divided into 30 districts. An area painted in red that seemed to envelop Tokio City was getting closer and closer every moment. It was reconstructed from information sent in by countless drones, most of them small insectoids.
"What does this city's defense system look like?"
"Unfortunately, the network, including satellites, is not available. The defense system consists of three main parts. Information networks, sensor networks, and attack networks. Since the satellite system that is the core of the information network cannot be used, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft will be used instead. Other networks are fine. Regarding this defense concept, it goes without saying that it cannot be used in a normal war. Because the opponent is not the military. It's not a terrorist organization either. We assumed that the opponent would not have a fighting style that mainly uses heavy equipment like a regular army, but would be a group of light equipment that would arrive in large numbers and at high speed. Therefore, we will also adopt a defense system accordingly. The attacks use large numbers of light caliber weapons and unmanned vehicles, with personnel deployed in heavily fortified armored vehicles or inside heavily fortified buildings. To be more specific, a barrier will be erected to enclose the city. At the same time, a 15mm Gatling gun will be installed to annihilate any enemies caught in the barrier. Of course, the barrier won't last long. It will be broken soon. The next defense network will use light Gatling guns, which can fire 100 rounds per second, and unmanned attack aircraft. This attack aircraft was also equipped with a light Gatling gun. The next defense network will be full-scale urban warfare. Unmanned tanks, manned tanks, and unmanned attack aircraft will be dispatched. The area above the tank is poorly protected, so soldiers protected by a simple barrier on the roof of the building will provide support. In any case, the most important issue is to prevent the information network from being disrupted. All combatants, combat vehicles, and unmanned combat vehicles operate under the direction of the information network. All of that information is collected here, and everyone here instantly analyzes it and issues orders to each combatant. That's all."
"From what you've said, it seems like you're assuming that the only enemies you're dealing with are insects that are large in number but have weak defenses, but if a big one shows up, how would you deal with it?"
"Of course, there are also heavily equipped tanks stationed in various places. Missile launchers and grenade launchers for infantry are also installed throughout the town, even on the roofs of buildings."
The location of the troops was shown on the screen inside the city. Countless tiny dots appeared, covering the area around the city. Dots appeared on every corner of the street, indicating the location of vehicles and weapons. It spread almost throughout the city.
"Hmph." Fujimori stared at the screen and put his hand under his chin and scratched it.
"It's a surprisingly spacious place."
Bush was looking around as he followed Nelson. A wide, lighted hallway stretched on into the distance.
"This shelter is divided into three locations. Government officials, unions, and military command. The three are interconnected. It can accommodate approximately 5,000 staff in total. They can do most of the work they used to do on the ground here. All entrances are sealed with sturdy doors. It has a movie theater, entertainment room, and library. Although we don't have a pool, we also have indoor sports facilities to help relieve our lack of exercise."
"How much water and food do we have?"
"It will last us enough for a year."
"I'd like to see what's going on at Fujimori now."
"Let's go see it later. I just got a call and there's something I need to go see as soon as possible."
"What happened?"
Nelson, who was walking quickly, looked back at Bush. "Communication with one of the satellites that was stopped due to static electricity has been restored. It's a geostationary meteorological satellite. It seems that some strange image data has been sent to us."
Nelson and Bush came to the Union Weather Center. A hologram image of Gaia appeared in the middle of the room. Several men were crowding around it. The two gasped. Half of the surface of the blue Gaia was covered with a pitch black substance. A flat, black membrane covered Gaia's spherical surface in an almost bowl-like shape. A man wearing jeans and a stubble beard turned towards the two.
"What do you think, director?" the man asked.
"I have no idea," Nelson said, shaking his head.
"Its surface area is approximately half that of Gaia, and its altitude is estimated to be 50 km. Spectral analysis shows that the surface is metal, probably iron."
"Why didn't you know about this before? It's so big," Bush asked.
"Since yesterday, thick clouds have covered all of Gaia. And there was nothing like this before static electricity started."
"When did the static electricity start?"
"About four hours ago. Around two in the morning. They have sent us all the satellite images from that time, so please take a look."
Gaia's hologram flickered. Gaia's usual blue appearance changed. A pure white cloud covered the entire land area of Gaia.
"This is the image at 2 o'clock. The next image is at 3 o'clock."
Gaia's surface has changed again. It seemed to Nelson that not much had changed.
"Please take a good look here." The man pointed to a spot on Gaia's surface. There was a faint, small dot. It was like a pitch black stain.
"This is what it looks like when you enlarge it."
Part of the hologram suddenly expanded. What appeared to be a small dot had expanded into a large number of densely packed black dots.
"There are several thousand in total. The diameter of each one is thought to be several hundred meters. The next one is at 4 o'clock."
The hologram flickered and changed shape. A large black dot appeared on Gaia's surface. It looked like an ugly black bruise on Gaia.
"Let's zoom in."
The black bruise stretched out. Just like before, this also broke up into a collection of small dots.
"There are several hundred thousand in total. The size of each one has not changed. The next one is 4:30."
The hologram returned to the first time they saw it. A large black bowl covered half of Gaia.
"At this point, this is still a collection of grains. There are tens of millions of grains. Then, 30 minutes later, at 5 o'clock, the grains came together and fused to form the current situation."
"It looks just like the jellyfish that escaped," said Nelson, stunned.
"Why didn't Fujimori notice this sooner?" Bush asked Nelson.
"He must have been distracted by that forest. During that time, they ascended into the stratosphere, soaked up as much sunlight as they wanted, and quickly multiplied....What else did you find out? "
The man continued. "Can I call this object a jellyfish? The jellyfish change their position according to Gaia's rotation. In other words, it is always in Gaia's daytime position. It covers almost the entire daytime side. They probably monopolize the sunlight. It's pretty smart."
"This is not the time to praise them."
"And, the time when the jellyfish started multiplying rapidly and the time when the static electricity started is almost the same time. Why?"
"Do you think I know?" said Nelson.
"What I want to know most right now is what's under that bowl." The man said as he stared at the hologram in front of him.
"We want to see it too." Nelson and Busch crossed their arms over their chests and stared at the screen.
Bush approached the hologram, trying to peer into the underside of the black bowl.
"It's impossible, Mr. President."
"I'm good at peeking up women's skirts, hahaha."