(2P)
Friday, November 21.
In the apartment dining room.
"High-power Phase-Detection Radar activating. All of Zodiacal will enter power-restriction mode in three minutes. Repeating-"
Terra was broadcasting the announcement.
Zodiacal would follow its planned orbit, scanning for spatial distortions inside the moon to pinpoint the Enheria Stronghold.
This would be another process lasting several weeks. After all, the moon's surface area was hardly small compared to Zodiacal. Fortunately, the high-power radar's scanning range was also much larger than Zodiacal itself...
"Enheria probably knows everything we're doing right now, don't they?"
I asked, and Alpha, sitting across from me, nodded.
"Of course. Even if they've hidden inside the moon, they must have left eyes outside to watch. Nobody's stupid enough to bury their head in the sand."
"Oh? Have you ever seen an ostrich?"
"Not yet, but isn't that what you humans always say?"
She had really done her homework.
"Aren't we worried they'll try something if we scan right under their noses?"
"This is SpiCa's open gambit. What can Enheria do about it? They can't take their entire stronghold with them... probably?"
She swirled the cola in her glass and drank it as though she were tasting wine...
Immediately afterward, Zodiacal suffered a massive power outage.
"Woof!?"
In the living room, the television screen went dark as well. Doggy, who had been watching a soap opera while hugging Barbara, let out a shriek from the sofa.
The chandelier in the dining room also went out, leaving only the dim spotlights in the four corners.
Under power-restriction mode, every household was guaranteed only basic electricity. Even the streetlights went out, and the dome simulating the day-night cycle stopped working. All of Zodiacal sank into darkness.
All of this was to divert the limited available power to the high-power Phase-Detection Radar mounted