by Shouji Gatou
Sting captured images at extremely high resolutions; on a cloudless day with the sun shining, it could even read the print on a newspaper. It was the rain and the dark that would make them indistinguishable from the local soldiers, which was why he would write his message in fire: “A67ALIVE.” The A referred to Kaname’s code name, Angel; the six was Kurz, Uruz-6; the seven was Sousuke, Uruz-7. The message would convey that Chidori Kaname, Kurz Weber, and Sagara Sousuke were all safe and sound. Being careful not to leave footprints, Sousuke made it back to where Kaname and Kurz were waiting.
He didn’t need to tell them where they were. If Sting could see those burning letters, then all they had to do was track the movements of Sousuke, the one who set them, from space.
The oil fire went out in just a few minutes. Had the enemy noticed it? Had their allies? All he could do was hope.
29 April, 0345 Hours (Japan/North Korea Standard Time)
Sunan Airfield, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea
“An unexplained fire?” Gauron’s brow knit as he received his subordinate’s report. He was sitting by the maintenance trailer in a corner of the airfield, watching the Codarl’s repairs proceed.
“Yes. They say someone set a fire in a farm settlement fifteen kilometers west of here.”
“Hmm...” A diversion? No, some little bit of arson wouldn’t do for that. But it was surely Kashim who set the fire, either way... Gauron didn’t know what he was after, but he must be hiding nearby.
“The military is tightening the search ring,” his subordinate continued. “It’s only a matter of time before we find the runaways.”
“The man is expendable,” Gauron told him. “As for the girl... they’re free to break some bones or rape her if they want, but warn them not to kill her.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll be joining them soon.”
“In the Codarl?”
Gauron glared at his subordinate. “Do you have a problem with that? Hmm?”
“C-Certainly not, sir... But Dr. Kaneyama warned us to avoid using it in front of the locals...”
“A warning isn’t a prohibition,” Gauron said. “Besides, we’re dealing with Mithril... with Kalinin. Things could still get messy.” The navy had reported that Mithril’s submarine was far from their shores by now, having retreated to the outskirts of Chinese territorial waters. Even with emergency deployment boosters, it should be impossible for them to stage a rescue, but... “Let’s just be cautious,” he decided, “for safety’s sake.”
An engineer shut the maintenance hatch, and called out that the repairs were finished.
29 April, 0355 Hours (Japan/North Korea Standard Time)
Mountains of Taedong County, South Pyongan Province, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea
When Sousuke returned, Kaname came to meet him, relief in her eyes. For some reason, she was hiding her exposed chest with both hands. Kurz seemed to be asleep.
“How is Kurz doing?” Sousuke asked.
“Pretty well, I think?” Kaname mused. “People like him never seem to die, anyway.”
Sousuke looked at her questioningly, but sat down on a tree root without prying.
“Well? Do you think it’ll work out?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Our odds aren’t great. You still would have a better chance running off on your own.”
“Well, too late for that. I’m not changing my mind.”
“I know. I won’t be giving you any more orders.”
“Thank you,” she said simply.
They could hear the sound of rotors in the distance. They didn’t seem to be getting closer, and in fact, about ten seconds later, they started moving away.
The dark forest was gloomy and cold, like a maze with no way out. “Hey. If... If we do make it back home, what will you do then, Sagara-kun?” Kaname asked, apparently finding the silence unbearable.
“Take on my next mission,” he replied absently.
“You’ll be going somewhere else, then?” she wanted to know. “You won’t come back to school?”
“Likely not. My assignment as a student there was merely temporary; to remain would compromise my other missions. I likely won’t ever see you again.”
“I see...”
Just then, Sousuke heard footsteps; he looked around. They weren’t human—They were faster and softer. There was panting. Animals? Dogs.
And then, even further away, he could hear human footsteps. Three, four... no, more. He held his breath. The sound of cracking branches grew closer and closer. There was a mad barking now.
“What—”
“They’re coming,” Sousuke hissed. “Get down.”
Almost just as he said it, two dogs jumped out from behind a rock. They were large and they were black, but the dark made it hard to say anything more. They rocketed toward them like a shot.
Sousuke did not hesitate to start firing. There was a whimper from the army dogs; one was moving so fast that it slammed into Kaname’s body before letting out its death rattle. Kaname shrieked.
The pursuing team had heard the shots, and began firing at them from deeper in the pine forest. Rifle fire bounced around, breaking rocks and snapping withered branches.
“You were followed? You idiot!” Kurz, awake again, scolded him.
Sousuke traded fire while he responded. “Time was of the essence. I didn’t have a choice.” Injured and with limited equipment, he’d had no way of covering the smell of his blood.
He caught sight of an enemy soldier peeking out from behind a big tree. He shot at his leg: a hit. When the man toppled, Sousuke intentionally fired a few more shots into the area around him. The soldier screamed and called to his comrades for aid. Another soldier—a friend of his, perhaps—risked his life to run out into the open and pull the soldier back behind the tree.
“That takes two out,” Sousuke noted calmly.
“Just kill them, dammit...” Kurz growled.
The enemy gunfire was getting more severe; reinforcements were probably coming from all directions. “At this rate,” Sousuke observed, “enemy ASes will be here soon, too.”
“Time to face the music, huh?” Kurz let out a dry laugh. Sousuke’s gun only had about ten bullets remaining, as well.
“I guess it’s over...” Kaname whispered.
“It does seem that way. I’m sorry,” Sousuke said while returning fire.
Kaname tried to force a cheerful tone. “But, no regrets here.”
“I see.”
“I’m glad I met you, Sagara-kun.”
“Right,” he responded gloomily, just as his bullets ran out. His only weapon now was the butt of his gun.
Kurz moaned, “Is it over?”
“No...” Sousuke said, looking up. “Salvation from heaven.”
A hundred meters above them was a parachuted capsule. Explosive bolts sparked, breaking the capsule open and dropping a white AS down from the dark sky. Its arms were raised over its head, as if to let it maintain balance as it descended.
“Here it comes...”
The AS landed on the slope about five meters away. There was a grinding mechanical noise as mud and pebbles went flying. The impact absorbent released steam from its joints, leaving the machine wreathed in a faint haze. They stared, stunned, at the snow-white AS.
“What is that thing?” Kurz wondered. It was a model the men had never seen before. Its frame resembled an M9, but the plating was different.
ASes’ forms were aerodynamic by nature, but it was even more striking in the case of this machine: sharp and powerful, the silhouette brought to mind a vicious bird of prey. Its countenance was knife-like, full of honed tension, and there was cold savagery there—once spotted, its prey would never escape. It felt less like a land weapon and more like the world’s most dangerous work of art. Fixed on its hip pylon—the armament storage—was a short-barreled shotcannon, and its armpit pylon held spare magazines and a monomolecular cutter.
“Wh
o’s in there?” Sousuke asked, “Mao?” And where were their other allies? Was it just the one machine?
As if to address his questions, the white AS knelt. The cockpit hatch behind its head opened, but nobody came out. They waited a few seconds, but nothing changed—The white AS remained kneeling in place, unfazed even as enemy gunfire struck its armor.
“Hey, you don’t think...”
Without waiting for Kurz’s words, Sousuke flew toward the white AS. He climbed up to the cockpit. Enemy fire grazed him, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He looked inside and... “Unmanned?” There was nobody inside the machine. The cockpit had the same structure as the M9 and ASes like it, with only enough room inside to snugly fit the pilot. He slid inside; the multipurpose screen in front of him blinked, ready to activate at any time.
《Initiating voice print check. State name, rank, and identification code,》 the machine’s AI requested in a deep male voice.
“Sergeant Sagara Sousuke. B-3128.”
《Confirmation complete. SGT Sagara Sousuke recognized. Please issue orders.》
“Close the hatch. Begin adjustments to mode four. Bilateral angle: 3.5.”
《Roger. Running mode four. BMSA: 3.5. Procedure complete,》 it echoed. The cockpit hatch closed and the semi-Master/Slave control system activated. The machine was now like an extension of Sousuke’s body.
This thing works just like an M9, Sousuke realized. I can do this. He stood the machine up. “Chain guns, crowd control.”
《Roger.》
The two head-mounted machine guns roared, hissing out 100 powerful shots per second. They shredded the pine forest before his eyes.
Trees toppled; soldiers fled. The tide of battle had turned on a dime. From below, Kaname and Kurz stared up at the machine Sousuke was piloting.
Then Sousuke noticed red letters in the corner of the screen:
[Data recorder files | Review A-I—High priority.]
Sousuke ordered the AI to play the data, and Major Kalinin’s voice echoed around the cockpit. “Sergeant Sagara. If this message is playing, then I’m going to assume the AS has reached you. When our recon satellite, Sting, noticed you, the de Danaan was sixty kilometers from the coast. That was too far away to mount a standard rescue, so we fired this AS off in a modified ballistic missile, which is why it’s unmanned.”
“I see...” Sousuke mused. A ballistic missile could bridge the gap in minutes, but you couldn’t put a person inside one. The initial G-forces would be too much for the human body to handle.
“The de Danaan is currently on radio silence, speeding to the coast of the West Korea Bay. The plan is to brush by, pick you up, then escape with all speed,” Major Kalinin’s voice continued. “For one minute starting at 0430 hours, the de Danaan will surface at the shoreline—Find a way to reach the pick-up point by then.”
Said point was displayed on the digital map. It was on the coast, south of a village called “Hasanbuk,” which Sousuke didn’t know how to pronounce. It was about 20 kilometers from their current location.
The time was 0413 hours—only 17 minutes until their allies arrived on the shore.
“In addition, this AS is known as ARX-7 Arbalest. The AI’s callsign is ‘Al.’ It’s an extremely valuable test type, so make sure you bring it back,” Kalinin’s voice concluded. “That is all. Good luck.”
ARX-7 Arbalest. So that was the machine’s name... Sousuke tested the feel of it. Strength pulsed into his electromagnetic muscles from a palladium reactor. His every slight movement conveyed to him this AS’s superlative power.
《Approximately five enemy ASes approaching,》 Al reported. One window in the screen displayed their estimated locations and distances: straight ahead, a bit to the right, and to the left. They were approaching swiftly in formation to surround the Arbalest.
The auditory sensors picked up the roar of the enemy machines, gas turbine engines like a deep growl of warning. The optical sensors pierced the darkness to catch the shape of the coming enemy: khaki-colored armor plating, with two red eyes—Rk-92 Savages. They seemed to ski down the midnight slopes, rifles ready. They wouldn’t let him go without a fight, it seemed. It was five against one. And yet...
His fate was in his hands now, and his choice was to go home, with her. Finding the pain of his wounds strangely pleasant now, Sousuke whispered, “Al, you said your name was?”
《Yes, Sergeant.》
“Let’s finish these guys off in one minute.”
《Roger.》
The next instant, the Arbalest jumped.
“Wah!” The mud it kicked up splattered over Kaname and Kurz. They looked up and saw Sousuke’s AS land on the other side of the mountain, charging the approaching enemy.
He went that far in an instant? Even Kaname could tell that the machine’s jumping power was incredible. It was cutting-edge technology in the truest sense—The AS he’d piloted at the airfield couldn’t compare.
“Amazing.” She could make out about two enemy machines; they were khaki-colored ASes, which leaped off the dark slope toward Sousuke’s machine. They readied their rifles and fired.
“Ah...” she whispered. The next moment, one of the enemies went flying. She didn’t even have time to work out what had happened before the white AS was tearing at the next machine, sailing forward like a swallow in flight. It released a flash as it passed by—probably Sousuke firing a shot—and the enemy machine was sent spinning upward before it slammed into the ground and exploded. That was the last she could see with the naked eye.
The white AS cut through the valley, streaked through the air. It collided with an enemy, then seemed to bounce away. Wherever the white figure went, fireballs scorched the night sky. It was like watching a spark in the darkness, dancing and leaping every which way.
“It’s like a ninja manga...” Kaname said in awe. She couldn’t tell how many enemies there were; probably four or more. Each was promptly shot, smashed, or torn apart by Sousuke. There was a flash as the white AS bore down on the last machine, and it fired twice from its shotcannon.
“That’s five,” Sousuke whispered, breathing heavily. The enemy machine hit the ground, spewing smoke, and didn’t move again. It had taken exactly 58 seconds to silence the pursuing AS squad. With the caution of a cat, he remained alert for more attackers, but even ten seconds later, no more enemy machines revealed themselves.
Okay, now’s our chance... Sousuke started moving back to where Kaname and Kurz were. His plan was to pick them up and run.
Just then—suddenly, from behind the mountain to his left, that silver AS showed itself. It was extremely close and firing bursts from its carbine, its frenzied hostility on full display.
Sousuke strained with effort as he rolled his machine forward, barely dodging the shots before returning them with his shotcannon. The enemy seemed to anticipate this maneuver, and ducked before springing up again. It fired three more three-round bursts from above, but the Arbalest kept rolling forward, managing to dodge each one.
The silver AS landed with a shrieking laugh. For some reason, it had its external speakers turned on. “Nice dodging, Kashim!” Leaving no room for response, Gauron immediately resumed firing. Sousuke responded in kind. Every single shot missed, tearing trees out of the ground.
Normally, a battle between ASes was decided in a handful of shots: you made your choice between remaining still and sniping, laying out cover fire on the go, or focusing on evasion. You had to make those choices quickly and flexibly, based on the needs of the moment. Whoever made the wrong decision first would pay for it immediately with a fatal blow.
But battle between these two was different: neither one gave any ground. They ran, jumped, ducked, rolled, fired and fired, unceasingly. Every single shell missed, yet no matter how fiercely they moved, the machines wouldn’t grow tired. Until one machine fell—or until its operator had a breakdown—the battle would go on. It was almost like a dogfight on the ground.
“That silver one... that’s the
one from before,” Kaname found herself whispering, as she watched from the mountaintop. The white and silver figures rose out of the darkness and disappeared again. One moment they’d gone over the ridge; the next, they rushed out from the rocks on the opposite side, bursting with fire. They danced through the air, toppled trees, and scorched the dark valley in red.
“Stay low. A fragment from a stray shot could kill you,” Kurz advised.
Kaname ignored his warning, and stood up to watch the distant fireworks. “Who’s got the advantage?” she asked.
“In a normal battle, they’d be evenly matched,” he replied. “But...”
“But?”
“That silver AS isn’t normal. It’s got some weird secret weapon...”
“The one that took you out?” she asked, her eyes locked on the battle like a woman hypnotized.
“Yeah. It just deflected my shells in midair, you know? Hell of a magic trick...”
“Magic trick? No... That’s not what it is.” Her head felt heavy. That strange sense of floating had enveloped her again.
A voice was there, whispering to her. It echoed around vaguely in her mind: That’s not what it is... it’s not what Kurz is saying... What that AS has... that’s not what it is...
“It’s not... a magic trick,” Kaname managed to say. “It’s a technology.” The enemy had it. But he... he also... “He’ll lose,” she declared at last.
“Huh?” Kurz blinked.
“He’ll lose at this rate,” Kaname said again.
A grenade thrown by Gauron burst in close proximity. The Arbalest dropped its weight to endure the blast and the shrapnel. Then, as it stood up, it grabbed a fallen tree and threw it. The tree fell between the two machines, allowing each to hide from the other’s sight. Then without taking proper aim, they simultaneously opened fire.
The pine was quickly shot to splinters. The Arbalest took a hit to the upper right portion of its head, which set off his machine gun ammo and took out half of his main sensors. At the same time, Gauron’s AS had taken a hit to its rifle; the tank of binary fluid explosives had cracked, rendering it unusable.
