Chapter 12: Chapter 12: The great blue yonder

The blue light blinks above his head. Gottlieb stands there, his eyes warily staring up towards his adversary. His stance is wide and defensive, his posture is stiff and ready for a fight. His fingers twitch, getting ready to move.

 

— Kai does nothing.

 

The water in the shower runs out, his ten-second allotment having come to an end.

 

Gottlieb spins around, striking the button in the shower as quickly and as hard as he can. The clacking of the metal pressing down, the spring being compressed, the casing of the button striking against its casing, all ring out at once, echoing down the empty rooms and corridors of the orbital station.

 

Gottlieb stands there, waiting to see if he managed to beat Kai this time.

 

The shower stops.

 

No water comes out of it.

 

“Damn it!” hisses Gottlieb, looking back at the blue light that is adorned to the doorway above the showers. “Seriously, Kai?” he asks, pointing at the nozzle. “This place has water for forty-seven people, right?”

 

Kai does not respond.

 

“So, hear me out here -” asks Gottlieb, placing his mildly damp hands together before his lips, as he stands there, buck naked, staring at the glass eye above himself. “- If everyone else is gone, why can’t I just have their allotment of water?” he asks, pointing back at the shower. “Hell. Just give me ten seconds more at least, you hard-ass.”

 

Kai does not respond.

 

Gottlieb groans. The shower is dry. He walks out, grabbing a towel, but not to dry himself off with, as he hardly considers himself washed enough for that to be worth the effort. Instead, he throws it against Kai’s eye and walks off, as it flops back down to the ground below a moment later.

 

---

 

Gottlieb buttons up his shirt, half-way at least, and ruffles through his slightly damp hair with his hands in an effort to at least do… anything with it.

 

Stupid Kai. God. Kai is such a dick.

 

The man stands out in the corridor, turning his gaze to look at his choice of directions. He could go back down to the gunner’s station. There are things to shoot and Auxiliary Gunner Grunheide is still down there.

 

Although, she’s tied to the chair. So barring the event that she gnaws her way through the ropes, the goblin isn’t going anywhere.

 

Instead, Gottlieb turns his head towards the other directions, towards the door to hydroponics.

 

He gets an idea.

 

---

 

He lays there, floating on his back. Gottlieb smiles a smug smile, looking up towards the blue light above his head.

 

“Well, well, well,” says Gottlieb, stretching out his arm and pushing through a tub of water that he had broken into. Sure, he had just showered. But he’s found his solution to the problems of not only how to properly clean himself, after months up in space, but more importantly, how to stick it to Kai. “Look at what I found,” says Gottlieb coyly.

 

He had entered into hydroponics again. After all, if there are forty-six less people on this station than intended, then one of these hydroponic containers can certainly be spared for him.

You are reading story Planetary Orbital Weapon – [An orbital-particle-cannon based litRPG!] at novel35.com

 

Gottlieb leans back in his makeshift bathtub.

 

“Boy, this water sure is refreshing,” says Gottlieb. “I sure am glad that I’m a human and not some dumb robot.” He nods in content, his unbuttoned shirt that he hadn’t bothered to take off, clinging to his body with the open flaps floating next to himself.

 

Water.

 

He hasn’t had access to this much water ever since leaving the planet and coming up to this sardine can.

 

Gottlieb smiles.

 

He has won. Not only in body, but his victory is also contained in the realms of spirit. It is absolute.

 

“Tough luck, Kai,” says Gottlieb, closing his eyes to relax for a while. “Better luck next time you’re born. Maybe you’ll get a body then?”

 

---

 

The man swings his wet shirt around, water dripping down his body as he parades back to the gunner’s station.

 

He makes a break off towards the canteen, grabbing some rations from the machine, before heading down to the tube. Gottlieb grabs hold of the pole and slides down it, making an effort to swing himself around the rod, as he floats down the anti-gravity shaft.

 

“I’m home!” calls Gottlieb, reaching the bottom and staring into the gunner’s bay.

 

The heavy-particle-cannon hums above his head, bringing a warmth to his heart. It’s like she’s greeting him.

 

‘She’ being the gun, of course.

 

Gottlieb’s eyes wander down the length of the room towards the u-shaped console of the gunner’s position, where he can already see his screen full of messages that are guaranteed to be nothing but nagging from Kai. To the left, on the other seat, the goblin is spinning around on the chair as she attempts to break free from her binds. Although it seems that she is wildly unsuccessful in doing so, as every time she struggles, she spins the chair around on its pivot. She doesn’t quite seem to grasp the concept of a swivel chair and, given the extra greenness of her face, it’s taking its toll.

 

Gottlieb rubs his head. Other people really are a lot of trouble, aren’t they?

 

He blinks, realizing that he just classified Kai as a person.

 

What a terrible mistake to have made.

 

Gottlieb walks to his seat, planting himself down and first exhaling a deep breath, before feeling ready to look at the barrage of messages awaiting him. It feels like he’s come home to a nagging partner.

 

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