After arriving at Pentoul II, the mercenary ships that came with us in hyperspace rested until the next morning. The ones inside the transport ship’s belly went out for a night raid to reduce the numbers of the biological weapons we’re here to destroy, hexarappids.
It’s now morning, and we’re watching the edited footage of the night raid we received, after having breakfast, but…
“What’s that black rug?”
“Does this not stretch to the horizon? There are too many…”
“Oge~~. How do they make so many~~?”
“They can’t have the resources to supply all that stuff…”
“Hexarappids’ have remarkable productivity. It is rumored that a queen can be bought for six hundred thousand puni.”
Why are things that can destroy a planet being traded?
“By the way, the civilization that created these things was destroyed because of management errors. There are records that say the Galactic Credit Union Alliance and the Federation of Star Systems teamed up to purify the planet, but… In the end, it’s like this.”
“I can’t imagine what’s going through the head of the person selling this sorta stuff.”
“So we should assume someone’s behind this, right~?”
“That is none of our concern. We can sit back and watch Genma shoot, shoot, and shoot.”
“Well, I guess.”
After this chat, we stand by in the cockpit. Outside, armors and resupply vehicles are already on the move.
“This operation will mostly be about the armors. They’re going to run through the enemy, and mark things far away for aerial bombardment. And we just have to shoot what they say.”
“Ahh, simple work, uh… I hope those armors survive though.”
Saratha doesn’t sound too happy. She said she slept well, and even laid a futon in the living room, so it can’t be lack of sleep…
“What’s wrong, Sara~?”
“I just remembered something from a long time ago. I think I told you I used to be a mercenary before I was a mechanic, but… Did I tell you, Suzuri?”
“I did hear about it. You said you did not want me to be left out when we were drinking, so you would not let go of me and told me…”
“Saratha can be an annoying drunk…”
“A drunk that gets others wrapped up in her stuff?”
It’s not often, but sometimes she wraps her tail around someone when she’s drunk. It doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman, but it’s usually me. And she doesn’t hold back her strength too well when she’s drunk.
“<Tortilla Double, prepare for takeoff.>”
“Understood. Green Kamogawa, preparing.”
Hm, bad timing. We were just about to hear Saratha’s story. I run the support AI to do pre-flight checks, see no errors with the machinery or turret rotation, and no abnormalities in the monitor.
“This is Tortilla Double, ready to takeoff.”
“<Understood, ascend to five hundred meters, I will send you your destination data.>”
I let the autopilot takeoff, and input the target altitude of five hundred meters. It looks like our destination is fifty kilometers away, so it’s no big deal. We have thirty minutes until we get there. Our speed of four hundred kilometers per hour is slower than a passenger jet, so handling shouldn’t be a problem either.
Even if we break the sound barrier, the shield’s magic protection will keep the ship safe, but there’s no rush.
“Data received. Taking off.”
“<Good luck, Tortilla Double.>”
The auto-pilot takes off, and the plasma engine runs us through the morning. The ground is red but the sky is blue and there are clouds. I thought this yesterday too, but it’s beautiful.
“Being inside an atmosphere truly is beautiful…”
“It sure is.”
“Ah! Look look~. The armors that took off before are right under us~.”
I look through the camera below, and see a herd of armors raising dust as they run. There are dozens, no, hundreds. Most are bipedal, but there’s one behind them that’s bigger, about twice the size of Saratha’s. It has four legs, and it’s running around like a sheepdog, chasing bipedal armors.
It’s not an enemy or anything, it’s an employee of the Mercenary Guild. Well, maybe it’s the true enemy, as far as the mercenaries are concerned. I see mercenaries running away here and there, and the guild employee running to get them back in line.
“Ah, the ones down there probably came here to clean up something, and didn’t know what. And then they saw the hexarappids and tried to run back. It happens a lot. They pay a lot and don’t tell ’em the details, just to get ’em to operate the armors.”
“Ah… Were you perhaps caught in a similar situation, Saratha?”
“Sure was. I worked from when I was five to twelve. It was a real pain.”
“Ah? That young?”
Saratha turns to me with a lonely smile.
“When I was twelve, I couldn’t squeeze myself into a bipedal armor anymore.”
“Ahh… And that’s when you become a mechanic.”
“Yep. But I guess they’re still pulling this stuff where they don’t tell ’em what’s goin’ on.”
“Okay, I’m a little motivated. Let’s fire up the main cannon a bit to minimize damage to the armors.”
“Genma, did they not notify you not to fire the main cannon? The ground is prone to vitrification, and they wish to minimize environmental destruction.”
“I don’t think we’re destroying anything when they’re terraforming. Let’s put lives first.”
“Ah~. I can see the black rug~!”
A black rug is stretched on the red land. It writhes despite the lack of wind, and looks scarier from above than I thought. They’re about the size of a kei car. How do they sustain those bodies?
That doesn’t interest the armors fighting.
“Iris, how low should the output of the main cannon be to kill them while avoiding vitrification? Five percent?”
“Master, there is nothing to be done about vitrification. I recommend ten percent.”
“I see.”
I drop the main cannon’s output to ten percent and hover. I check the radar around here, and see other combat ships and transport ships glaring at the hexarappids like me, with at least five hundred meters of space between them.
The command ship has already arrived, and it’s flying above us.
“It would take some doing, but I feel like all these combat ships could exterminate them. Do we need armors?”
“Armors are bait~.”
“The idea is to bait the biological weapons into gathering in one place.”
Eh… That doesn’t explain it…
“It is standard for this sort of joint battle. Surely they decided Mister Genma did not need to know.”
“No way no way. Now I’m even more motivated. I’m cranking up the output of the main cannon. What do they think we are?”
“Mercenaries in armors are but pawns.”
“It is an age of a surplus of people~.”
“They’re just happy to earn a wage so they get to eat…”
This really is a terrible era. I’m glad I found a ship… As I think that, the moves of the black rug change. They start to slowly walk forward towards the armor line.
“<All ships, listen. This is Birdwatcher, the AWACS in charge of this operation. The biological weapons are on the move due to the approach of the armors. This is far earlier than we anticipated. We didn’t see this during scouting yesterday.>”
The voice coming from the communications device sounds a little flustered and angry. It really did catch them off guard.
“<Therefore, I want to have all ships fire preemptively to lower their numbers, or there’s going to be terrible damage to the armors. Watch out for friendly fire, and commence firing at will.>”
The instructions are too crude, but we’re not an army, so I guess that’s all they can do…
“All right, we have a go. Slow down and mop them up! Suzuri and Saratha, watch the external monitors to make sure they don’t get close! Kori, take care of communications, we don’t want to miss anything. Iris… What do I do?”
“““Got it!”””
“If you allow me to have control of the defensive lasers, I will fire them directly below, and you can focus on operating the secondary guns.”
“Yes, let’s go with that! Start the battle!”
Tortilla Double stops hovering, and I feel like I’m floating all of a sudden, before the artificial gravity corrects it. It flies while correcting its position, and we drop to about five meters off the ground, close enough to glare at them directly. And I face the big laser turret to the left.
I see explosions in front of me. Most of the ships are hovering and firing directly down, but I see some swooping in to fire stuff like the laser cannons in the front of their ships. They all seem effective, but feel like a drop in an ocean.
I’m low enough to attempt a landing. The squirming black rug is like a wall, and even more repulsive. Good thing I don’t have to fight them head on.
“This is Tortilla Double, I’m going to mow down artificial weapons. Don’t approach the ground!”
I start firing the big laser cannon, and rotating the turret a hundred eight degrees to mow them down.
The lasers fly towards the horizon, and I think I’m reducing their numbers quite a bit… But did they dodge a lot of it? I think there are a lot I didn’t hit.
“<This is Birdwatcher!! Tortilla Double!!! Don’t fire the main cannon at the surface!! You’re going to vitrify this whole area!!!>”
I knew they’d get angry.
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Thanks for the treat.