DE: Chapter 1 Part 2 – Safe Retreat

The sound of gunfire and huge explosions echoed through the whole battlefield. The 155mm cannon of a tank aimed at an enemy aircraft, but was instead pierced by a large beam and exploded in countless pieces. A battle helicopter, the Chomper, attempted to launch an aerial battle, but its maneuverability was way different from the enemy’s and was easily knocked down.

Anti-aircraft beam cannons and missiles installed in the facility aimed at the enemy’s aircraft, but it defended itself by using the tall building as a shield. Furthermore, it used its high maneuverability to toy with the Union’s private soldiers and mercenaries.

“It’s too fast. I can’t keep up with it!”

“Shoot out a barrage of bullets! Don’t let them get close! Mercenaries! Get out there now! ”

“Shut up! You guys are as useless as hell. Don’t act all high and mighty!”

Amidst all of the chaos, a heavily armored machine appeared from the underground hangar. It’s one of the Union Company’s AWs, the 【TZK-9 Gigant】.It has a thick frontal armor, and an even thicker shield mounted on the front of its four legs. Equipped with 35mm Gatling guns on both arms, it also carried 12-barrel missile pods on both shoulders. Furthermore, it had a 30cm cannon, ready to turn the enemies into dust.

“What a pathetic bunch. You guys, just leave this to me. I’ll rip that beautiful armor to shreds! And if the Elf is a woman, I’ll make her mine!”

Immediately, the Gigant fired numerous missiles at the enemy aircraft, attacking the enemy’s heavy machines with 35mm bullets. However, in response to such a deadly attack, the enemy aircraft fired back with a thick beam. But the beam was easily blocked by the thick shield.

“Hehehe, that kind of attack won’t work!”

In response, the 30cm cannon equipped on Gigant fired at the enemy aircraft once again. But the enemy aircraft evaded it swiftly and hid in the shadow of a building.

“Yes! Drive her in! Drive her in! If we can just defeat her, we’ll win!”

The Gigant fired more artillery. As if to align with Gigant’s firepower, the tank and beam cannon began launching attacks continuously.

If this were a normal AW, the pilot inside would already have escaped with his sunglasses on, leaving only a sentence ‘You won’.

“Huuu, we won.”

The Captain muttered in relief, as if confident of their victory.

After checking the radar, the result was as expected. There was no reaction from the enemy aircraft which was enveloped in the smoke, spreading in the area it stood. However, through the smoke of the explosion, it appeared to the Captain that the aircraft had survived the heavy explosion. On top of that, the aircraft for some odd reason was enveloped in a blue light.

It was unharmed.

“Oh no. That’s the sign of a pattern of some sort of mysterious and amazing device which activates and can be used with the pilot’s own energy in case the pilot faces any danger.”

A weapon that resonates with the owner’s own energy? Ah, no way. Don’t bring such a super weapon to war! Please don’t.

“That’s ridiculous. You want to say it’s… still unharmed?”

“Don’t mess with me! Just die!”

At close combat distance, the 30cm cannon fire erupted once again towards its target. However, the blue light surrounding the enemy aircraft prevented the destructive bombardment. In an instant, a high-level energy was detected from the beam cannon held by the enemy aircraft.

At that moment, using the rare ability of seeing vision three seconds into the future, I made the Zargan jump as far as it could.

In the vision, a high-power beam with tremendous power stormed from the beam cannon of the enemy aircraft and engulfed their AW, destroying it along with the tanks and other weapons. Even the facility’s automated weapons couldn’t escape its destructive power. When I checked the area where the tremendous beam firepower passed by on the radar, no particular reaction emerged from his supposed allies.

“Wow… that’s a huge amount of damage. Everything seems to be annihilated completely.”

The Zargan landed safely nearby before aiming the assault rifle at the enemy. However, the enemy instantly saw the movement and the previous nightmarish scene recurred again.

“Tch! Seriously? Now it wants to fight me? HQ, the troupe is completely destroyed. It’s time to retreat. Things have taken a dangerous turn.”

Another ray of high-powered beam rushed through the place where the Zargan stood just now. Barely avoiding the enemy attack, I attempted to fight back with the 45mm assault rifle. However, the enemy aircraft avoided it again by flying high into the sky.

The strength of the both parties were greatly mismatched. Even so, I continued to fight back against the enemy AW flying in the sky while looking into the future. In the vision, I saw another tremendous beam attack shooting straight at me. So I hurriedly used the booster to evade the attack and retreat to the underground passage.

“Ugh, it’s too dangerous to fight against something so powerful like that. Well, well, people with gifts aren’t that many.”

The person inside the Zargan was none other than my own self. And my gift is 【Three Seconds Futuristic Vision】.The gift might not be a feasible gift in everyday life, but it was quite useful on the battlefield such as the current one. And it was even more so in my case since I was a veteran mercenary.

Three seconds is all it takes.

“HQ, respond. HQ! Damn, they haven’t responded for a while. Could it be that they ran away? If so, I have no choice but to escape too.”

After concluding my next step, I retreated while firing diversion shots with the 45mm assault rifle. Then I used the booster all at once to move through the passage. As far as I was aware, there should be at least one transportation aircraft at the back of the facility through this passage. However, the explosions and vibrations continued as my Zargan rushed through the passage.

Either the automatic defense mechanism was activated, or the Union’s private soldiers were doing their best. However, I had huge doubts whether the facility’s private soldiers were loyal or not.

I moved through the passage for a long while and finally managed to arrive at the back of the facility. Several transportation aircrafts and Chompers were seen waiting there. Swiftly, I moved the Zargan onto one of the transportation aircrafts, secured him, and finally got off. My feet rushed inside the pilot area of the transportation aircraft as my hands quickly activated the system.

“Knowing how to hack devices comes in handy at times like this. Let’s get this move quickly and say goodbye to this shitty place!”

I quickly hacked the system of the transportation aircraft and commanded it to start. However, the engine remained unmoving.

“Hey, don’t create this bullshit situation at a time like this. Just hurry up and get started.”

While my heart was at my throat, the engine finally came alive. It slowly ascended above before swiftly leaving the place in one go.

While the aircraft was moving, I quickly checked the future three seconds ahead. The enemy aircraft barged from above in the vision. I moved the transportation aircraft to the left to try to distance it from the enemy aircraft. However, the enemy aircraft mercilessly pointed its beam cannon at the transportation aircraft as if preparing to fire.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! Give me a break!”

In the future three seconds ahead, the images of the transportation aircraft bursting into pieces emerged in my mind. The evacuation system was quickly activated to escape the impending doom. In an instant, the evacuation system was activated and the pilot seat was shot out of the cockpit. Soon after, the beam of the enemy aircraft hit the transportation aircraft directly. The transportation aircraft crashed on the ground with a loud boo., spewing out flames and black smoke.

“Oh, I broke my Zargan. Do I have to pay for it?”

I slowly descended to the ground hanging from a parachute as I muttered to myself. Just when my feet landed on the ground, the enemy aircraft also landed nearby.

《That mercenary over there. I’ll ask only once. Where have you kept our people? Answer me.》

A woman’s harsh voice flowed out from the speaker of the enemy aircraft. It seemed that the pilot was indeed a woman. She seemed to be searching for her people who were most supposedly captured by the Union. Apparently, the Union has strifled with people they shouldn’t have been. That son of a bitch. Thanks to them, now we’re completely screwed.

“I don’t know about your people. I’m a mercenary belonging to Smile Dog. I’m just hired by the Union to guard the facility. You can ask the headquarters later. I have nothing to do with your people.”

《…Looks like you’re not lying. Good. I’ll spare your life this time. Go and die somewhere else.》

“Yes, ma’am!”

The enemy aircraft hovered above the ground and soon headed to another location. They had thought about letting me go. Which made me feel extremely lucky today. I also moved from the place I landed and got into Union’s Madoc waiting nearby and got the aircraft moving.

“As expected of a mid-tier company, the system isn’t damaged that much and runs fine in such a short time. The generator on the Zargan can’t even match it.”

It seems like the Union’s Madoc has better internal mechanisms and OS than the Smile Dog’s Zargan. I was about to move the Madoc to the transportation aircraft but the flow of another vibration stopped my movement. This time it was a pretty big one.

“What was that? Is there something wrong at the mining site?”

A wave of loud explosion occurred again along with the vibration. I was very curious, but I knew poking my head into places I shouldn’t poke would surely put me into a dangerous situation.

“Well, goodbye then~. I’ll look forward to the Union’s efforts from now on.”

It was the Union’s mistake that caused this huge riot in the first place. So it was only natural that they should clean up their own mess while I clean my own. With that thought, I started the transportation aircraft and connected it to Smile Dog HQ.

“This is Sergeant Shu Kisaragi from Smile Dog. ID number N-67834. I repeat, this is Sergeant Shu Kisaragi from Smile Dog.”

[This is Smile Dog’s operator, Nanai. Hope you have a safe trip, Sergeant Kisaragi.]

“Hey, Opo. I managed to escape alive. Please send me the return coordinates now. By the way, I’m currently on board in a transportation aircraft with a Madoc.”

[What happened to the Zargan? For your information, my name isn’t Opo, my name is Nanai.]

“The Zargan was destroyed by an enemy aircraft. Other people with me are currently missing. If they’re still alive, the Union will probably contact them. Well, most of them were probably killed in battle. And what’s wrong in calling an operator, Opo? That’s perfectly fine.”

[Understood. I’ll send you the return coordinates. Again, my name isn’t Opo. It’s Nanai.]

“Please do so. Well then, good bye, Opo. Ah, she cut off the communication… Haaa, I can’t take this anymore.”

This time, the Union screwed up big. If it was the Smile Dog, a mercenary company, who had a huge loss this time, they would have no choice but to pay a small amount of compensation and cry to sleep with it.

However, there were mercenaries from other companies involved in today’s battle. If the other mercenary companies got the wind of this information, they would definitely take an aggressive stance against the Union.

“It seems people’s desire to fight will never diminish no matter how much time passes.”

Well, nowadays it’s not just humans, there are elves, beastmen, aliens like those in movies, and even androids.

Predicting that the next battle would probably be a large-scale one, I switched the transportation aircraft to autopilot mode and closed my eyes to take a much deserved rest.

 

Footnotes:

1. TZK-9 Gigant

Height: 14.5m

Weight: 82t

Armor material: Special multi-ceramic composite alloy + multi-stage armor

Power: Output-enhanced plasma generator

Armament: Multi-purpose multi-stage shield, 35mm Gatling gun, twin machine gun, 12-barreled missile pod, 30cm cannon, etc.

It is also the primary main machine of the United Earth Federation of Unified Forces.

As a primary main machine, this machine has high defensive power, artillery combat ability, survivability, and boasts performance that can be called ironclad. The legs can be changed to four legs or tracks depending on the coordinations.

Another feature of the Gigant is the 30cm cannon mounted on its back. Its firepower is immense, expressing the power to crush most AWs with one hit.

The armament is basically fixed, but the arms can be changed to normal for fluent manipulation. In addition, the armaments can be used in combination with AWs.

It has high defensive power and survivability, but its mobility is poor, which makes it a fixed artillery turret in battle. It is also disadvantageous in close combat, so the presence of an escort machine is necessary. However, considering the fact that it can work perfectly as a fixed artillery turret that can be easily moved, it’s quite valuable.

2. AW Weapon List (Partial)

Arm-mounted shooting weapons

Beam gun

Beam rifle

Beam machine gun

Anti-ship beam cannon

140mm anti-ship rifle

35mm Gatling gun

45mm handgun

45mm rifle

45mm submachine gun

45mm assault rifle

55mm rifle

60mm shotgun

60mm shotgun assault

75mm sniper rifle

250mm bazooka

Combined weapon beam gun x 35mm Gatling gun (name undecided)

Quad-barreled shotgun

Dual-barreled 45mm heavy machine gun

45mm heavy machine gun

45mm heavy machine gun (with shield)

170mm cannon

Beam gun with small shield

30mm Gatling gun with small shield

Two-barreled 30mm Gatling gun

Beam Gatling gun

Large railgun

Prototype plasma machine gun

Large charged particle sniper gun

Large beam rifle

Flame thrower

Arm-integrated weapons

30mm Gatling gun

Two-barreled 30mm Gatling gun

35mm Gatling gun

Two-barreled 45mm machine gun

Two-barreled beam gun

Quadruple grenade cannon

Octuple rocket pod

120mm rapid-fire gun

Quadruple missile pod

Six-barreled missile pod

Melee weapons

Anti-ship buster sword

Pile bunker

Plasma bunker

Shielded pile bunker

Melee saber

Melee Axe

Close-range lance

Close-range sledgehammer

Close-range rocket hammer

Close-range halberd

Plasma saber

Beam saber

Chainsaw blade

Industrial drill

Industrial chainsaw

Electromagnetic saber

Shoulder-mounted ranged weapon

35mm Gatling gun

Two-barreled 35mm Gatling gun

250mm cannon

Plasma cannon

Small plasma cannon

Beam cannon

Small beam cannon

Two-barreled small beam cannon

Triple-barreled small beam cannon

Two-barreled machine gun

Quadruple machine gun

Quadruple missile pod to twelve-barreled missile pod

Quadruple vertical missile to eight-barreled vertical missile

Quadruple rocket pod to eight-barreled rocket pod

Multipurpose radar

Large caliber Gatling gun

Large caliber grenade gun

Medium caliber grenade gun

Two-barreled medium caliber grenade gun

Shotgun

75mm rapid-fire gun

120mm rapid-fire gun

Special weapon Arachne

Additional booster

Shoulder side weapon

Shoulder side 30mm Gatling gun

Shoulder side six-barreled missile pod

Shoulder side double-barreled large rocket

Shoulder side interceptor missile pod

Shoulder side additional booster

Shoulder side shielded drone

Shoulder side stealth device

Defensive weapon

Small shield

Multipurpose shield

Large shield

Plasma shield

Beam shield

Shoulder side small multipurpose shield

Others:

Anti-personnel 12.5mm machine gun

Anti-material 20mm machine gun

Grenades

Plasma grenades

Incendiary grenades

Anti-personnel S-mines

Anti-infrared smoke discharger

Additional shoulder magazine

Atmosphere Breakthrough Booster