The Girl Declares, Proud and Bold

 

「You’ve got some nerve saying that, Kou! You’re in no position to talk about anyone else!」

The voice of Master burst out in exasperation. She usually kept to herself in the depths of Aimer’s mind, but she couldn’t hold her tongue this time.

「You were the one who egged me on back then!」

Unit 5 sliced through the mantis-type Murder with fluid precision, immediately shifting its stance and toppling an ant-type flanking from the side.

「That’s true. Yeah… Master did nudge you forward. But it really was reckless, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s just fate for pilots of the first production lot.」

Aimer had access to Master’s memories, so she remembered the battle like she were also there.

That reckless, fateful first battle. And the way the girl fought now—mirrored that memory.

「Was Kou more reckless than the pilot of that Lanius?」

「No way, not even close, nya.」

Aki and Nyanta chimed in from within their MCSs. Kou rarely talked about his early days after arriving in Planet Asia, so any scraps of detail were valuable.

「To be more reckless than him, that Kou when he first arrived…」

Seated at the command chair, Aimer murmured quietly.

The truth brought Aki and Nyanta to stunned silence.

「Still, I’m glad I pushed us to move quicker.」

「Yeah. It was the right call, just like you said.」

Sensing something ominous, Aimer had accelerated their small transport craft. They arrived in the middle of the battle between the Defense Dome’s Defense Force and the Murders, and Kou, unable to stomach the reckless way Unit 6 was fighting, had leapt into the fray.

 

「Who… are you?」

Fran asked cautiously. Why was a first-generation Lanius here? That was the pressing mystery.

This Lanius was equipped with extra armor—likely from an A1 model Lanius, she judged.

「We’re messengers from TAKABA Corp. We’re part of Trireme’s special operations brigade—Nisos. We have come here to deliver spare parts for the L451 Defense Dome.」

Unit 5 was equipped with A1-type armor plating to disguise it from prying eyes.

「TAKABA Corp…!」

The name of the company that had built her beloved Unit 6.

She knew Nate had pulled every string he could to procure repair parts for her Lanius.

And now, they’d come all the way out to this godforsaken frontier.

「Thank you for the help. But… we can’t afford to pay…」

Nate muttered with a pained grimace.

「You can pay in installments.」

Fuyuki’s Caledonia Crow manipulated a detonation code, eradicating the surrounding ant-types.

The moniker Silent Bomber was no exaggeration. In that brief instant, he’d laced explosive cords throughout the field and wiped out the Keres.

「’Nuff said.」

Blue added inside the Canary, while sniping another mantis-type.

「You have lost your weapon, huh? Use this.」

Unit 5 retrieved a spare blade—a long wakizashi-style short sword—from the binder on its back and handed it to the battered Lanius.

「Your name…?」

He wasn’t her brother. Not even close. But there was a familiar air about him. She needed to know.

「Me? Name’s Kou. This here is Unit 5.」

「Unit 5…!」

No mistake. Fran was certain.

It was the same production lot as her own beloved machine.

A pilot riding the same model her brother once did.

「My name is Fran. And my partner’s name is—Unit 6!」

The girl declared it loud and proud.

Kou couldn’t help the small smile that crept to his lips.

「Fran. Unit 6. First, let’s clear out these Murders. We’ll talk afterward.」

「Yes, sir!」

Unit 6 rose once more, short sword at the ready.

Her machine bore the scars of many battles—proof that she’d been fighting with this first-generation Lanius all along.

「Hyoue-san. Looks like you were right after all. I look forward to your report.」

At that moment, Kou’s hunch became conviction.

◆　　◆　　◆　　◆　　◆

「…Nii-san…」

Fran murmured. The voice was not her brother’s. And yet—

「Did you send help? Or was it Asia…?」

It couldn’t be a coincidence. Her words were a quiet plea. Perhaps even a prayer in her own way.

「Either way—I can’t die here. That pilot is the real deal. If he’s using a TAKABA HQ Lanius, it must have been converted into a state-of-the-art Silhouette. I’ll need to support him—without getting in the way.」

Fran shifted her mindset.

The priority now was thinning the ant-worker types. As she was now, she’d just drag them down.

Her shoulders relaxed. What did it mean to do her best?

It wasn’t about charging ahead like before.

It was supporting them.

 

「Hold up there, little lady!」

A massive bear appeared on-screen.

「We’ve got to patch you up first. Just give me a sec.」

「Huh? A Familia? Where are you?」

「Right here, see?」

Suddenly, the ground rumbled. A massive armored tunneling shield-vehicle emerged. Naturally, Voy was the one at the controls.

The armor on its back opened, revealing a Silhouette detaching from within.

「Hang tight. Just a little field patching.」

Flack appeared, piloting a Caledonia Crow—like Fuyuki’s, but configured for resupply rather than field engineering.

He fired a repair beam onto Unit 6, rapidly sealing its damage.

「Here you go. Spare weapon.」

The Caledonia Crow extended a folding AK2—same model as the one Unit 5 was using.

「That’s too much…」

「This is the tipping point for your Defense Dome’s survival. Just give it back later. You’re the kind that charges straight into the front line, right?」

This boy clearly had a sharper eye for the battlefield than she did. Watching her fight, Flack had thought: She’s like a wild beast.

Fran bit her lip, frustrated at her own short-sightedness.

「Got it. Thanks, kid!」

「Name’s Flack. Catch you later.」

Unit 6 leveled its rifle and entered firing stance.

Before the eyes of the Defense Force, the Keres began to fall rapidly.

 

「Who is that pilot?!」

Without using a single booster, Unit 5 sliced through ant-worker types purely with its movement.

It was as though he were demonstrating how it should be done.

His stance was much lower than hers. Especially the footwork—it was hard to believe it was the same model machine.

「Cover fire! We need to buy time until the A-Carbuncle is fully extracted from the tower!」

Nate rallied the Defense Force. They didn’t have the firepower to halt Enyo’s advance outright.

Enyo had already latched onto the wall, pounding the shelter with its massive tail. It had already opened breach holes big enough to allow the Keres-types to infiltrate the dome.

Defeating the gigantic Murder Enyo was impossible—but they could at least buy time to extract the A-Carbuncle.

They could protect the critical heart of the urban zone.

「What’re you saying? We’re taking down Enyo too.」

「You what?!」

Nate’s eyes bulged as Kou said it like it was nothing.

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Silhouette reinforcements pressed on in battle.