Mobility

 

「Waaah!」

「Rocky! Fall back!」

Nate cried out in panic, shouting his comrade’s name. One of the Shrike team members had been struck by what appeared to be the enemy’s ace unit—a Kazakh. The Shrike piloted by Rocky had its right arm severed cleanly by a saber strike.

Each enemy Silhouette held its saber in one hand, their posture and movement clearly on a different level.

「Tch! So their specs really are in a whole different class!」

Nate clicked his tongue involuntarily. Even from a distance, the Kazakh commander unit displayed unmatched agility and responsiveness.

This was the one and only unit of its kind in the Greisen force—a Krylro Kazakh.

――Its silhouette looked nothing like the Lanius. With its stark, sinister color scheme, it had a more spartan aesthetic. Yet like the Lanius A, it boasted enhanced armor muscles built for storing metallic hydrogen—a machine worthy of an ace.

It was clearly a formidable foe.

Nate’s own Shrike was also being pushed back. Worse still, multiple Kazakhs loomed behind it, keeping formation. He could see their outlines through the haze.

The enemy Silhouettes were assault types—machines rumored to have made a name for themselves during the Asia War, especially in the invasion of the P336 Fortress Area. And now, a budget mass-production unit like the Shrike was expected to go toe-to-toe with them.

Each enemy wielded a saber in one hand and a large-caliber Gast-type autocannon in the other. Their tactics relied entirely on overwhelming mobility and maneuverability.

Nate’s team was equipped with Analyze Armor, which made a frontal confrontation even less feasible.

「Their pressure’s ramping up… Could it be they’re trying to avoid a prolonged battle? That doesn’t add up. The Argo Army is stationed behind them—they should want to drag this out.――Is Outis and his group holding them off?」

That was the only explanation he could come up with. That lone vessel—the Eustitia—was somehow keeping the entire Argo Army at bay.

「If it were me… would I retreat?」

「Nate, what are you saying? That’s not how it works. If command breaks down, that whole army will flood in this way. Kou’s group is small—they can’t stop that.」

Fran immediately shot down Nate’s optimistic speculation.

Indeed, no matter how overwhelming Eustitia’s firepower might be, the enemy forces were massive. It was safer to assume that any surviving units would attempt to circle around and attack the L451 Defense Dome.

「Fran!」

「Just hold on a little longer. Once I deal with that unit, things should ease up.」

「…Got it. I’m counting on you, Fran.」

He didn’t ask what she intended to do. Fran wasn’t acting recklessly anymore. She must have a plan—one she believed in.

「Yeah.」

She nodded and cut the transmission. Just being able to have this kind of conversation again—it felt like a miracle to Nate.

But neither Fran nor Unit 6 was anywhere in sight.

「What’s your play, Fran…?」

Nate braced himself, rotating the front line while weathering the Kazakhs’ relentless assault, waiting for that crucial moment.

「Familia units, do you read me? When I give the signal, unload everything you’ve got on this position. A direct hit isn’t necessary—just saturate it.」

「Understood!」

Nate set a target point on the Defense Dome map and relayed it to the Familias.

They instantly grasped his intent and responded.

「Begin the countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—now!」

The howitzers mounted on the semi-tracked armored vehicles all roared in unison.

From within the cityscape of the Defense Dome, Unit 6 launched.

Explosions bloomed all around the Krylro Kazakh’s position.

「Is this desperation? Or a stalling tactic? Doesn’t matter. Press forward!」

The commander piloting the Krylro Kazakh barked orders to his allies.

Explosive blasts were meaningless against high-dimensional projection armor. Without direct hits, they wouldn’t deal significant damage.

The Kazakh unit pushed through the flames.

Nate’s Shrike team returned fire with AK2 rounds in an attempt to pin them down—but nothing close to a fatal hit.

「Large airborne object detected. Approaching fast. Helicopter? …No, it’s a Silhouette!」

From afar, Unit 6 could finally be seen approaching.

The Kazakh squad, distracted by the bombardment, had been slow to react. Only now did they realize that the artillery was just a smokescreen.

「Heh! A desperate suicide charge? That’s not even a Lanius A1—it’s an older model!」

The commander pilot laughed the moment he recognized the silhouette by its shape.

「No way they’ve got facilities capable of supplying metallic hydrogen. Let’s take it out.」

「Yeah—wait. Isn’t it a bit too fast…?」

The Krylro Kazakh readied its saber to intercept.

But by the time it had drawn its weapon, Unit 6 was already upon it—soaring through the air, Fran poised with her prototype greatsword raised high.

「Too slow!」

Fran roared as she brought the sword crashing down.

The Krylro Kazakh met the strike with its saber—but it didn’t matter.

「Gwah!」

The prototype greatsword shattered the saber, sending shards flying, and cleaved deep into the Krylro Kazakh—from its left shoulder down to the midsection of its torso.

The commander was killed instantly, his MCS soaked in blood.

「Your agility might be better—but when it comes to mobility, Unit 6 has you beat!」

In Silhouette combat, agility refers to turning radius and responsiveness, while mobility means transit speed and cruising performance.

True, in a head-on duel, the Kazakh held the advantage in agility. Against such foes, the artificial muscles of Unit 6 were clearly inferior.

But Fran had chosen to wield Unit 6’s superior mobility—to strike like a sniper, overwhelming the enemy in one precise, deadly blow.

「One more!」

Unit 6 hurled the Krylro Kazakh’s broken body away, then—without breaking its stride—slid forward and cleaved another Kazakh cleanly in half.

「Geh!」

The remaining Kazakh pilots panicked and scrambled to retreat. The bombardment was still ongoing.

「We won’t pursue.――Let’s return, Unit 6.」

Fran didn’t chase. She drew a wide arc through the city and disappeared among the buildings.

The flight had pushed the machine hard. She had to manage the remaining fuel carefully.

Unit 6 vanished into the gaps between buildings. Seeing her results, Nate nearly jumped for joy.

「She did it!――You saved us, Fran. This changes everything!」

Nate felt it in his gut.

The Argo Army was still looming behind Greisen. They couldn’t afford to let their guard down.

But at the very least—they could now repel Greisen.

A faint glimmer of victory had finally come into view.

 

AN:

The traits of the Lanius—its armor muscles, agility, turning response, and overall flexibility—are front and center in this chapter.

Against enemies without armored muscles, it holds a significant advantage. But when both sides use them, machine specs and pilot skill become decisive.

While Kou developed a fighting style that emphasized closing the distance to exploit agility, Fran is heading in the opposite direction: mastering mobility. With raw acceleration alone, she turns herself into a projectile—a one-shot strike-and-run style is taking form.

Depending on the pilot’s mindset, the same machine can be wielded in vastly different ways.

Mobility isn’t just about speed—it also includes range and deployment capabilities, but we’ll skip that for now.

Next up: politics behind the scenes.

Weapons from the Asia War—especially mass-produced powerhouses like the Kazakh—are becoming increasingly entangled in geopolitical agendas.

The fact that a Krylro Kazakh was given to Greisen is proof of how much investment the Argonautai are putting into this theater.