by Shouji Gatou
The AS Sousuke hijacked had just knocked the other one down, stolen its weapon, and then torn off its arms and legs, neutralizing it with all the speed and precision of an Olympic gymnast. With one enemy vanquished, the khaki-colored giant left the hangar to bathe the armored cars outside in rifle fire. Sparks and shards flew; one after another, each car began to smoke, followed by a small, delayed explosion.
Kaname gasped as she felt a tremble run through the bonnet of the tractor beside her. Another AS had appeared behind Sousuke, approaching from a blind spot behind the building.
Then, the next thing she knew, the AS was falling back, decapitated and delimbed. Sousuke’s AS had fired over its shoulder without even a glance back. It didn’t even check on its new fallen foe before going in search of new prey; it carried a rifle in each hand with confidence, moving smoothly, lyrically... There was no sense of someone fighting for his life. The movements of Sousuke’s electronic marionette looked almost out of place in their sheer sense of ease.
Is that really Sagara Sousuke? she wondered. Why is he so good at this? He’d said that he was a soldier in a secret organization... I didn’t believe him in the car, but now... I have to accept it. He was telling the truth. Sagara Sousuke was not a military geek with delusions of grandeur. He was a soldier, and an incredible one.
The hijacking—That was a serious incident. The secret she possessed—That was a major mystery, too. And then the clincher was this transformation. Kaname felt like she’d been cast into the world of a dream. But... the wind in her hair, the smell of gunpowder, the red of the flames, the sound of tank treads approaching... together, they cried to her, “this is reality!”
His AS looked down at her. Welcome to my world, its massive machine-eyes seemed to say. This is who I really am. Perhaps at school, you thought you were my better... But here, it’s the other way around. This is not the world you come from. Your so-called common sense does not apply here. One wrong move and you’re a stain on the pavement. There’s no reset button; there are no do-overs. Now, join me on this journey through hell...
“No...” she whimpered. I want to go home. How did I end up here?
“—ot safe. Stay back,” Sousuke was shouting over the external speakers. “Can you hear me, Chidori?!”
“What?” Hearing her name snapped her back to reality.
“It’s still not safe,” he repeated. “Stay back!”
Was the voice she’d heard before a hallucination? Sousuke’s tone was so serious; there was no hint of enjoyment in it. Kaname looked up and saw two tanks approach down the landing strip; their turrets rotated slowly. They were planning to fire.
“R-Right...” she agreed shakily.
Yes, that was one thing she could say for sure; it wasn’t safe here at all.
28 April, 2246 Hours (Japan/North Korea Standard Time)
Tuatha de Danaan, Surface, West Korea Bay, Yellow Sea
It was a cloudy night, and not a star could be seen. Heaven and earth seemed to merge together as one. Then, oozing out of that blackness, there came a large submarine.
The Tuatha de Danaan surfaced, beating back the waves. Its prow faced east-southeast, toward the faint shore beyond. Without warning, its back split, moving slowly, with great weight. The engine rumbled; its massive gears churned. The double hull opened to expose a flight deck.
There was almost no light to be seen; only meager illumination from LEDs the size of a pinkie scattered here and there. The idea was to keep anyone who might happen to be on the shore from spotting the boat. The deck personnel wore night vision goggles as they moved things along swiftly; helicopters large and small and VTOL fighters began to take off.
Once the air squads were all deployed, an alarm began to sound. An elevator carrying an arm slave rose from the hangar below. It was an M9 Gernsback with “101” on the shoulder: Melissa Mao’s machine.
“Looks like our turn’s up,” Mao whispered from the cockpit.
“Feels like we should have some mood music. Flight of the Valkyries is the standard, right?” That comment came from Kurz’s machine, coming up in the next elevator down.
“Hmm,” she mused. “Wagner’s kind of overdone, isn’t it?”
“How about Kenny Loggins? Danger Zone.”
“How about something not for hot-rodding jerks?”
“Shut up,” he grouched. “I guess you’d prefer Sada Masashi?”
“Who?”
The elevators came to a stop. Across the flight deck, Mao’s night vision sensors could see the catapults, billowing mist like open freezers. On her screen’s right side, she could see Kurz’s AS; he was in an M9, too, but the shape of the head was different. As the squad leader, Mao’s came mounted with an electronic warfare pack and transmitter. Both were wearing rocket-powered retractable wing modules—these were the emergency deployment boosters, designed to dispatch an AS directly into a battle zone. Mao began walking her machine toward the catapult’s shuttle blocks; these were like a sprinter’s starting blocks, but scaled to an AS’s size.
“You think that self-sabotaging sourpuss is still kicking out there?” Kurz asked.
“Don’t jinx it,” Mao said shortly.
“Hey, Big Sis. You’re not worried, are you?”
“Of course I am. Unlike you, Sousuke has his charms.”
“I’ve got my charms, too,” Kurz protested. “I’ll show you later on. In private.”
“You’re a real scumbag,” Mao told him, “through and through.”
There was a quiet electronic beeping, signaling a message from the launch officer. “Uruz-2. Thirty seconds to launch.”
“Uruz-2 here, roger. You hear that, Uruz-6?”
“Sure did. I’ll be ten seconds behind you, Big Sis.”
Mao’s machine braced itself on the shuttle blocks as its pilot swiftly ran through her checks. The fuel pump trembled. The larger main wings and smaller stabilizer wings rotated back and forth. Mao checked the lock on the pedal and the stability of her armaments... Everything was where it should be. “All green. Let’s go.”
Blast fences emerged from the deck behind her, and the deck personnel shot her a hand signal; she could leave at any time. Her AI confirmed that on-screen and announced to her, vocally: 《Counting down.》
The machine sank slightly. 《Three...》
The steam catapult built up power. 《Two...》
The nozzles contracted. 《One...》
Trails of flame shot out. 《Go!》
The catapult and the boosters roared with a combined 120 tons of thrust. In a mere two seconds, Mao had accelerated to 500 kilometers per hour; her machine’s feet left the ground. The M9 Gernsback ripped through the night air, gaining more and more altitude.
Enduring the harsh vibrations all around her, Mao licked her upper lip. “Battle, commence.”
28 April, 2249 Hours (Japan/North Korea Standard Time)
Sunan Airfield, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea
The soldiers climbed over each other, fighting to be the first one out of the decimated tank.
“All right...” Sousuke muttered. Having dispatched both tanks, he ran his Savage back to the hangar where Kaname was waiting. More reinforcements would be here soon; he had to get her to safety. “Chidori,” he called to her through the external speakers.
Kaname crawled out from behind a crumbled wall; she was white as a sheet. She must have finally grasped the situation they were in, because she looked up at the machine like a cornered rabbit. “Did you beat them?” she asked, her voice so soft that the Savage’s audio sensors just barely picked it up.
Sousuke extended his machine’s left hand. “Grab on. We’re getting out of here.” Northwest of the airfield, he could see a low hill past the river and the road. Thick with conifers, it looked like a perfect place to take shelter for a while.
Kaname touched one finger, which was as thick as one of her legs. “You want me to get... on this?”
“Yes,” he told her. “Sit down in the pa
lm. Go on.”
“B-But...”
“Hurry.”
Responding to his urgency, Kaname crouched down timidly in the AS’s hand. Sousuke carefully lifted her up, then sent his machine into a run.
Kaname shrieked and grabbed tight to its thumb.
Sousuke could imagine how frightened she must be, raised to the height of a telephone pole and jostled up and down while hurtling forward at 60 kilometers per hour. But for now, she’d just have to endure it. “Don’t look down,” he instructed, “and close your eyes.”
Kaname, trembling in the Savage’s hand, said, “Wait! What about everyone else? We can’t just leave them back there!”
“We’re in more danger than they are right now,” Sousuke disagreed. “My allies will help them.”
“Allies?”
“A rescue team,” he assured her. But in reality, he couldn’t be sure. He’d done what he did to save Kaname, but his commencing hostilities before the team’s arrival could easily have thrown a wrench into the works. He’d managed to get the AS out of the hangar the captured officer had told him about, but... pursuers would be coming soon, and the circumstances weren’t at all in their favor.
Holding Kaname to its chest, the Savage vaulted the airfield’s fence, broke through a thicket and made its way to the wide highway. As it crossed, the alarm in the cockpit began to ring:
[Missile Warning | 4 o’clock]
A guided missile was on its way, behind him and to the right.
“Guh...” Sousuke spun his machine around, jerking Kaname away from its chest as he turned its two head-mounted machine guns to full blast. Kaname screamed.
The force of 80 shots per second took the guided missile out in midair, then Sousuke whipped his Savage around and took off through the trees. He knew he was being rough with her, but he didn’t have a choice; the Savage’s machine guns had been less than 50 centimeters from Kaname’s head—if he’d fired with her there, the muzzle flash would have burned her. It might have burst her ear drums, too.
Kaname moaned. Likely disoriented and overwhelmed, her body had gone rigid, clinging to the AS’s arm.
“Hang in there just a little while longer,” he told her. “I need to shake them off...”
Kaname didn’t seem to have it in her to respond. She remained huddled in the machine’s hand, her face ghostly pale. Despite this, Sousuke had to admit that he was surprised it wasn’t worse; a normal girl might turn frantic, screaming and crying and lashing about. She might even try to escape the AS’s hand—But Kaname was staying put without a single complaint.
Impressive, he thought to himself before picking up speed. Dashing across the ground, he broke through the trees. But... He couldn’t stop thinking about that missile. Whoever fired it should know that those old-fashioned ATGMs wouldn’t work on an AS. And they’d only fired one, and there’d been no followup...
Were they testing me? Sousuke wondered. He couldn’t see any pursuers. His optical and infrared sensors revealed nothing. He had an awful feeling of foreboding, though... He was sure there was something there. That general sense of danger in the air, perceivable only by well-honed soldiers’ instincts—It was the one thing those high-tech sensors couldn’t detect. He had just made it over the embankment and was about to cross the river when—
Sousuke gasped. A shot came from a completely unexpected angle: downriver; two o’clock.
Sousuke spun his machine around. An orange shell brushed his armor, and smashed a nearby tree to splinters. It was followed by a grenade in a leisurely arc, a high-powered explosive that would blast away everything within 10 meters. If it went off... Maybe his machine could take it, but the exposed Kaname wouldn’t stand a chance!
“Da—”
The grenade landed in front of the Savage. Sousuke turned his machine away and held Kaname to its chest, hoping to shelter her from the explosion. He felt a crash. His machine’s right leg went flying off at the knee, causing it to lose its balance and plunge into the river.
Kaname screamed as she slipped from the AS’s grip and hit the water with a splash.
Suddenly, Sousuke noticed it. The ordnance hadn’t detonated; the fuze assembly had been removed in advance. His leg had been blown off by a targeted shot—the grenade had just been a decoy!
Kaname burst out of the water, spluttering.
“Chido—” Sousuke tried to crawl his Savage closer, but three more shots held him in place. He threw his machine to the ground, but it had taken shells in its right arm and side.
[Right Lower Arm: Damaged | Disabled]
[Main Capacitor: Destroyed | Auxiliary Capacitor: Output reduced]
“Damn...” Sousuke fumed.
Out of the darkness, there came a silver AS. It looked nothing like the ones he’d been fighting before. It was about 300 meters away, but that distance was shrinking as it charged down the embankment, kicking up gravel.
Sousuke swapped his rifle to his Savage’s other hand and returned fire, but it was ineffective. Losing his right arm and right leg made it hard to hold steady.
The enemy fired at him again. Each shot was carefully aimed, as if it was trying to preserve ammunition. Since Sousuke’s only options were crawling or ducking, he couldn’t prevent his machine from taking more and more punishment.
[Main Sensors: Destroyed | Fire in latissimus dorsi actuators]
“Damn!” he cried again. On top of everything, he’d run out of ammo. With only one arm, he couldn’t reload.
The silver enemy machine bore down on him. Balancing on one knee, Sousuke swung his rifle like a club, but the enemy machine brushed it away and pressed its carbine against the Savage’s chest—against the cockpit—and fired.
Sousuke moved his machine just in time; a split-second later, and his body would have been vaporized. But the shot still tore off the Savage’s armor plating, gouging out the electronics in the chest and the generator in the abdomen. With its control system shredded, the Savage collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. It fell onto its back, kicking up a plume of water, its arms cast onto the riverbank.
Sousuke hissed. He felt the night air on his cheek. Blood dripped from his forehead into his eyes, and there was a burning pain in his side. He moved the levers and his legs, but the machine didn’t respond.
Kaname swam up to the devastated Savage and grabbed onto its tattered arm. “S-Sagara-kun...?”
“No! Stay back!” Sousuke shouted through his agony.
The silver AS towered over him. It was a model he’d never seen before: it wasn’t Eastern; it was the slender design of a Western AS. The silver color wasn’t a design decision, either—it was simply unpainted. Some country’s test model? Sousuke pondered.
“You looked impressive out there, until just before the river,” came a voice from the external speakers. Its operator was Gauron; he was sure of it. “Too bad you got sloppy. We’re trying to capture that girl, you know... Did you really think I’d blow her up with a grenade?”
“Of course not,” Sousuke managed after realizing his mistake. He could hear two ASes and an armored car approaching from the direction of the airfield. There was nowhere left to run—He had lost.
“Oh, are you that student? I didn’t expect them to have an agent in the class... You even fooled me,” Gauron admitted. “Are you part of Mithril?”
“I am not obligated to answer you,” Sousuke told him shortly.
“Hmm. Die, then...”
“Wait... what are you doing?!” Kaname screamed.
Ignoring her words, Gauron’s AS pointed its carbine at Sousuke. But the shot didn’t come. After a moment of silence, Gauron’s muffled voice came over the speakers. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re Kashim?!” The AS’s shoulders trembled, and its massive left hand smacked itself in the head. Reflecting its operator’s emotions, it threw its chest out and shook its head again and again. It was laughing.
Kashim. That had been Sousuke’s name, once.
“I had no idea!” Gauron
chortled. “I can’t believe you joined Mithril! How’s Captain Kalinin doing? Is that coward still alive and kicking?”
Rather than answer, Sousuke asked a question of his own. “How did you survive?”
The silver AS tapped a fingertip against its forehead, right where its laser sight was fixed. Its pilot chuckled. “I had a titanium plate in my head from an old wound. That, and the shot’s weak angle, are what saved me. Ahh, I can’t believe I get to see you again like this! I’m so happy. This is wonderful!” He let out an ear-splitting laugh.
“You’re more cheerful these days, Gauron,” Sousuke observed.
“Why, thank you! I’ve been through a great deal since then, you see...” Another chuckle. “Ah, so much I want to tell you, but so little time. My job is to finish you off and then poke around in her brain... It’s going to be a bit of a treasure hunt.” A sort of hatred-tinged nostalgia seemed to have loosened Gauron’s tongue.
“What are you talking about?” Sousuke demanded to know.
“Her head... it’s chock full of ‘black technology’... Lambda driver application theory and such...” Gauron answered. “I’ve heard that, once complete, it could make even nuclear weapons obsolete.”
Sousuke listened in disbelief. “What?”
“Oh, is this the first you’ve heard about it? But that’s the last I have to say... When you reach the underworld, tell the ferryman that the rest of your party will be joining you soon. So long.” Gauron fixed his gun on him again.
“Sto—” Kaname tried to shout, but she was interrupted by an explosion. Gauron’s rifle burst into two.
“Hmm?!” Gauron’s machine jumped back, as a couple more sharp, aimed shots came from the sky. These shots were merciless, with the intent to kill. Gauron dodged them without hesitation.
There came a roar from overhead; Kaname looked up, and saw a gray AS descending toward them. It released its parachute and went into freefall.
“Yyyyyyyahoo!” The AS—an M9 Gernsback—continued firing off its massive rifle as it splashed down in front of Sousuke and Kaname, soaking them with the ensuing tsunami. “Uruz-6 here, touchdown complete! I found Uruz-7 and Angel!” the voice shouted, even as its AS continued to unload with gusto on the enemy. Again and again, the 57mm rounds hit their target. They blew away the armored car and knocked down the two Savages. Gauron’s AS was forced to focus on dodging as it disappeared over the ridge.
