GALLUS²

[ID] GALLUS²

[Model] Self-identified Chicken

[Gender Assignment] Self-identified Female

[Time in Service] 15 years

[Manufacturer] Another Chicken

[Place of Production] A shrubland somewhere in eastern Terra

[Date of Release] May 4 (estimated by Kal'tsit based on bone samples)

[Height] 120cm

[Weight] Classified

[Inspection Report]

Outer casing largely intact. Structure unstable. Durability below standard.

Due to strong resistance from the operator, inspection of the chassis could not be completed. Data currently unavailable.

Due to the operator's aggressive behavior, inspection of the Arts core could not be completed, but it can be determined to be operating normally.

During file compilation, this operator was highly uncooperative, resulting in multiple missing or questionable entries in the file, as well as in the inspection report. A detailed report has been submitted, and reinspection is pending.

'Submitted'? Cluck? I haven't even gone to Kal'tsit to complain yet. Who are you to do that?

—GALLUS²

[Top Speed] 55km/h

[Climb] Excellent

[Brake] Excellent

[Mobility] Excellent

[Endurance] Normal

[Structural Integrity] Flawed

An anomalous entity that refers to itself as 'GALLUS².' Its main body is a small house made of metal and glass, supported by clawlike metal feet, with a small number of biological feathers attached to the back of the house and the rear of its feet.

Discovered at the core of the Sarcophagus in Zelgrad, it has been confirmed as a special life-form produced by the Sarcophagus. It carries intact memories from over ten thousand years ago, most of them related to Kal'tsit.

After evacuating from Zelgrad, it followed Kal'tsit back to Rhodes Island, where it now assists as a historical consultant, biological consultant, and field operator.

GALLUS² is not at all reluctant to discuss the time it spent traveling with Kal'tsit. If anything, it is a little too eager to tell those stories. It claims it once spared no effort in procuring every sample Kal'tsit needed for her research, from soil and rocks to plants and insects. It even employed certain 'special measures' (author's note: serving as bait) to bring large predators dozens of times its own size to Kal'tsit, completely unharmed.

But whenever anyone asks what Kal'tsit's 'research' specifically involved, GALLUS² immediately loses interest, starts scratching at the floor impatiently, and launches into a tirade.

'What? What is it? I'm telling my story here; what are you people listening to? Kal'tsit's 'research'? I don't know anything about it, and I don't care. I helped her with all that to figure out which bugs are easiest for chickens to digest, which branches make the sturdiest nests, and which animals' fur makes the warmest nests. It took me only fifteen years to work out what the perfect life for a chicken should look like. Doesn't that make me a great researcher? Shouldn't you people be paying attention to my findings?'

After saying this, it always seems overcome by a sense of loss, sweeping its tail feathers back and forth over the floor it had just scratched. Perhaps it has remembered that there is no longer another chicken like it, or perhaps it has realized that even it no longer has any need to eat or build nests.

This state lasted for about half a month, until we discovered, much to our confusion, that it had begun visiting the Engineering Department frequently. Not only did it chase after Closure and demand she modify it, but it would also take it upon itself to 'gnaw' on every part stored in the workshop.

When held to account, GALLUS² adamantly refused to admit any wrongdoing. It proudly jumped on top of an air conditioner and made the following statement:

'I've figured it out! My current research project is to test every kind of matter on this land and see what effects they have on a glass-and-sheet-metal chicken with a house on its head! Give me another fifteen years, and I will have completely worked out what the perfect life for a glass-and-sheet-metal chicken should look like! Doesn't that make me a great researcher? Shouldn't you people... (remainder omitted)'

...Perhaps that's for the best.

Using blank Originium 'Oka' as the substrate, the life information retained within the Originium as the template, and the Sarcophagus's life-generating function, it may be possible to recreate a lifeform that once existed. The principle behind GALLUS²'s birth is clear enough. And yet, when it and Closure looked into a mirror together, both of them looked baffled—

Why a little hut?

After multiple comparisons, we confirmed that, in form, this little hut most closely resembles a kind of structure now all but extinct across the vast lands of Ursus: a burdenbeast-borne hut once used by a people who called themselves 'Volniki.' It was a special structure only half the size of a phone booth, built directly atop a burdenbeast's back.

Strangely, these structures were very small, not even large enough to hold a single adult, and very few in number. Among the ruins of an entire tribe of Volniki, one would often only find one or two. If they could not possibly have been dwellings, then what role did they play in the Volniki's lives?

We found the answer in the Volniki's curses. 'Baba above,' they would say when surprised, when angry, or when kicked by a burdenbeast. This 'Baba' seems to have been the object of Volniki belief—after all, it was not as if they could have worshiped the Emperor.

In Volniki legends, the most distinctive trait of 'Baba' was that she was always accompanied by a little hut with legs. 'Baba' demanded much from the Volniki—their burdenbeasts, their knives and bows, even trophies they had won with blood. She made people place these objects inside the hut, then led the hut away. Some cursed her as a wicked witch who seized what she wanted by force, but more believed that 'Baba' was refusing death on their behalf, using those objects as a price to hold back death's steps. This way, the Volniki could walk the road for a few more years, see spring flowers bloom a few more times, or perhaps go to battle a few more times.

And so, each time before the Volniki went to battle, they would offer something to 'Baba' inside the burdenbeast-borne hut, hoping that death would come a little later.

However, 'Baba' was not omnipotent in the end. When a person had nothing left to offer—when his knife had broken three times, his brothers and sisters were buried on different battlefields, and he had even lost all strength to hate—'Baba' would silently move the little hut away and show him the road to death.

'I can no longer hold it back for you.' These were the final words of 'Baba'.

So what does any of this have to do with GALLUS²?

Well, the legend of 'Baba' must have come from somewhere, mustn't it? In the earliest days, when the Volniki still bled for the great cause of Ursus's founding, they sang of a witch who walked alongside them and healed their wounds. The witch often told stories to the children of the tribe, and the one she told most was about 'the little hut with legs.'

'The little hut with legs defeated monsters.' 'The little hut with legs searched for a home.' Generation after generation, children grew up listening to these stories, and generation after generation, the Volniki remembered this little hut with legs.

Who that witch was, and who the prototype for the little hut in her stories was, should not be difficult to guess. Considering the sensitivity of the information, let us record it as such: She was a Feline dressed in green, and the hut she spoke of had the claws of a chicken.