4: Field of Giants

28 April, 2241 Hours (Japan/North Korea Standard Time)

Sunan Airfield, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea

In the end, Sousuke offered his uniform jacket, and Kaname was mollified.

Weaving between carefully aimed shots, Sousuke bounded out the other side of the trailer, leading a grumpy Kaname by the hand. They were heading for the nearby generator truck. “Get in!” he urged her. “Hurry!”

“But... yeek!” she yelped.

He threw Kaname into the passenger seat, revved up the engine, and then slammed the gas. A moment later, more shots came from behind. The rear license plate was blown off, and the cables connecting them to the trailer snapped as they drove away.

“Keep your head down!” he ordered.

“What now?!”

The new wave of soldiers behind them kept firing, but the generator vehicle was already speeding at 80 kilometers per hour toward the north end of the base.

“Who are you? Where are we going? Where are you taking me?!” Kaname peppered him. “Tell me what’s going on!” Her shouts carried over the wind rushing by.

Sousuke responded, casting glances into the cracked rear-view mirror all the while. “The truth is, I’ve been tailing you since I first came to your school.”

“Oh, is that supposed to be news?” Kaname wanted to know. “I already knew that! Now would you please tell me why?!”

“I don’t know all the details myself,” Sousuke admitted. “All I know is that you’re special, somehow, and that an intelligence organization wants to use you as a guinea pig.”

“Intelligence organization?” she objected indignantly. “Guinea pig?!”

“Yes, I’m a soldier. I was dispatched as a bodyguard to prevent your kidnapping.”

Kaname looked at him dubiously. “A soldier? With the JSDF?”

“No,” he responded shortly. “With Mithril.”

“Mithril?”

“A secret military organization, unaligned and elite,” he explained. “We act to stop regional disputes and terrorism, independent of national interests. I’m part of their SRT—Special Response Team—specializing in recon, sabotage, and AS operation. My rank is sergeant. My callsign is Uruz-7. My ID number is B-3128.” Sousuke rattled it all off smoothly, but Kaname looked at him with concern.

“Um, Sagara-kun,” she began cautiously. “I know you love all this military stuff, but... I think you’ve really lost it now.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, bewildered.

“I’ve read about this,” she went on. “A traumatic event can sever a person’s connection to reality, causing them to regress into fantasy. I don’t know how you got out of the plane, but right now, you’re just confused.”

“Confused?” It seemed to Sousuke that Kaname was the one who was confused.

Nevertheless, she continued, soothingly: “Yes, confused. You need to calm down and tell yourself, ‘I am a normal high school student.’ Okay? Let’s both take a deep breath and—”

Suddenly, Sousuke wrenched the steering wheel to one side. A wall of machine gun fire ended up hitting just to their right, bringing asphalt raining down on their heads. The armored cars pursuing them had begun to open fire.

Kaname shrieked again. “Stop the car! Let me out!”

“Stay quiet and hold on tight.” Sousuke threw the car into zigs and zags, just barely avoiding the enemy fire. And all the while, the hangar on the north half of the base came closer and closer. “Get down,” he commanded.

“Wh... Why?”

“We’re breaking through.”

“What—” In almost the same instant that Kaname braced herself, the generator truck crashed through the shuttered hangar door. The rusted old metal gave way without a fight. Their truck flew into the hangar, grazed a large tow tractor parked in the middle, skidded, and slammed into a large compressor vehicle, which brought it to a stop.

Sousuke stood up in the driver’s seat. “Chidori, can you move?”

“I’m dead,” she groaned.

“Get up,” he told her. “The enemy is coming.”

Kaname looked around the hangar. The front wall was lined with massive humanoid figures; three in total, each about three stories tall. They were surrounded by scaffolding and strung up with a mess of pipes and cables. They were machines, long-armed and khaki-colored.

“Are these... arm slaves?” she wondered. They were featured in the news and in Hollywood movies from time to time, so even Kaname knew what they were called.

“You hide in the back,” Sousuke ordered.

“Y-You’re not going to... take one of them, are you?” Kaname asked suspiciously.

“Yes, I am.” He ran to the foot of the AS and climbed the ladder to the cockpit.

“Hey...” Kaname felt the blood drain from her face. A military geek, regressing into a dangerous fantasy that he was a soldier in a secret organization... he had dragged her into a suicide run, and now he was planning to wreak havoc in a robot.

She was done for. Reinforcements would be here soon. A mere enthusiast couldn’t win against professional soldiers. He was going to get her killed at this rate. “Stop it!” Kaname begged him. “An amateur can’t move a robot like that!”

Sousuke looked down at her from the top of the ladder. “Amateur?”

In the darkness, she couldn’t properly make out his face. But for just a minute, she thought she saw his eyes glint. And... was it just her imagination? A ghoulish smile seemed to appear on his face.

“I’m not an amateur; I’m a specialist.”

Sousuke climbed to the AS’s shoulder, then pulled the lever to open the cockpit hatch.

There was a sound of a pressure release. The head of the AS slid open, exposing the cramped cockpit in the chest just below. It was large enough to fit a human body with not much room left over; you didn’t so much sit in it so much as you were ensconced.

That was how an arm slave’s cockpit—otherwise known as the “master room”—worked; it read the pilot’s movements, and replicated them in the machine. The slightest movement by the “master” was exaggerated in the “slave”; a 10 degree bend of the pilot’s elbow would cause a 30 degree bend in the machine’s. The designation of “AS” originated from the full name, which was “Armored Mobile Master/Slave System,” and most AS employed this basic piloting formula.

“Just get back, Chidori,” Sousuke shouted, as he slid into the cockpit of the Soviet-produced Rk-92 Savage. He gripped the sticks at the ends of his arms and clicked the lever under his thumb. There was another sound of rushing pressure as the cockpit hatch closed, and the endoskeleton locked in with a sound of grinding metal.

A monochrome screen in front of Sousuke’s face lit up, displaying lines of words:

[Cockpit Block: Closed | Master Suit: Adjusting]

He felt it tighten slowly across his body, but he didn’t have time to waste. He smoothly worked the buttons on the stick, scrolling through the boot-up procedure.

[Movement Mode: 4 | Bilateral Angle: 2.8 → 3.4]

He heard shots from their pursuers outside, sparking as they blasted large holes in the shutters. The size of the holes was strange—Did they have more than just armored trucks out there?

[Main Generator: Activated | Main Capacitor: Charge increasing]

Inside the shutter, a compressor car burst into flame. Beyond the crackle of the fire, Sousuke heard heavy footsteps approach. Footsteps? That wasn’t an armored truck—it was an AS. Not good.

More words flicked on and off the screen. Almost there...

[Vetronics: Initiated]

[Actuators: Connected]

[Final Startup Checks: Omitted]

“Get moving already...” He cursed the startup speed of these Russian computers. There was a roar, as the bullet-riddled shutter flew off its hinges. An AS identical to his, an Rk-92 Savage, stepped in. Its inorganic red eyes were locked on him.

[Joints: Unlocking]

“Hurry...” Sousuke muttered, as the hostile AS pointed its rifle at him. It knew he was here. It was about to fire—

[Combat Maneuvers: Open]

The enemy rifle’s fire and the movement of Sousuke’s AS came in the same instant: the bullet missed by a hair’s breadth.

Sousuke’s machine lurched forward, knocking the enemy rifle away and shoulder-slamming it in the same action. The hostile AS crashed, back-first, through the hangar wall, and the pulverized concrete beneath it sent white smoke into the air.

Sousuke picked up the rifle he’d knocked out of its hand and checked the remaining rounds inside. Then he pointed it at the enemy machine, which was trying to right itself, and whispered, “Battle, commence.”

Then, he pulled the trigger.

“There’s no way...” Kaname whispered to herself from her hiding place behind a tractor.

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 palm. 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.

“Kurz!” Sousuke cried.

Kaname furrowed her brow. “Kurz? Wait, is that...”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Kurz answered cheerfully. “How’s it hanging, Kaname-chan?”

“What in the hell?!” Kaname screamed.

Sousuke remembered: Kurz and Kaname had met before. Last Sunday, he had pretended to be a tourist to go around town with the girls.

Kurz Weber’s haughty voice called out, “Sousuke! Can you move?”

“I think so...” he answered. Biting back the pain, Sousuke pushed the twisted frame aside and pulled himself out of the cockpit.

Up in the sky, there were fireworks going off; these were MRLs, fired by the Tuatha de Danaan, that peppered the area with small bombs. Parts of the base caught fire, a prelude to a chorus of explosions.

Kurz’s wasn’t the only AS descending on them, either; five other M9s had detached their boosters to dive into the night-cloaked airfield. They were followed by the sound of rotors shaking the air; attack and transport helicopters appeared over the ridge, following the M9s’ path in the skies high above.

The de Danaan’s squad had arrived. They’d made it; the rescue was on.

“Listen up, Sousuke. Take Kaname and run for the airfield. The south side of the runway!” Kurz swapped the magazine in his high-caliber rifle and turned to face the AS fleeing up the hill.

“The airfield?” Sousuke questioned.

“We’ll have C-17s touching down soon. They’ll only wait five minutes,” Kurz told him. “Leave this to me—I’ll pick you up later.”

“What about the bomb on the plane?” Sousuke asked.

“Mao and Roger are on it,” Kurz told him.

“Understood. Watch out for the silver AS; its operator is a cut above.”

“No worries. I’ll blast his ass into next week.” Kurz’s M9 crouched to focus its power, then leaped.

“What’s going on?” Kazama Shinji whispered, his eyes on the ceiling of the shaking plane. He could hear a series of explosions outside. Sporadic conflicts had been breaking out for a while now, but whatever it was seemed to be kicking into high gear. What was going on out there?

A massive figure strode by his window. The students on that side of the cabin launched into an uproar. As he made out the shape of the creature, illuminated by the airfield lights and the surrounding fires, Shinji’s jaw dropped. “A... An M9?!” he squeaked.

It wasn’t just a Western AS, but a cutting-edge M9 Gernsback! Not even the US Armed Forces were deploying those in combat. Yet here it was, right out of the blue! On top of that, it had an unusual head design; the bulge must be from a cutting-edge ECCS and EHF radar...

“Everyone, get away from the windows!” came a voice from the machine’s external speakers. It was hard to hear inside the plane, but the words were Japanese, and the voice was a woman’s.

The M9 drew from its back a katana with a six-meter blade. The monomolecular cutter was a standard AS melee weapon; it employed an ultra-thin chainsaw blade that could slice through most armor like a boxcutter through cardboard. They were normally sized more like a combat knife, but this one was custom-made with proportions like a Japanese sword.

“What’s it gonna do?” Shinji wondered out loud. While he and the others watched, the M9 activated its mechanical katana and unceremoniously stabbed the jumbo jet in its flank. There was an ear-splitting metallic wail, followed by a vibration. The passengers screamed and clung to their seats and the walls.

It wasn’t the passenger cabin the M9 was tearing into, but the cargo hold beneath. It screeched its katana through the fuselage, jerked it around, then mercilessly tore off the bulkhead.

“There it is!” The M9 plunged its hand into the cargo hold, yanked out a yellow container, and passed it to another M9 waiting in the wings. The second machine immediately turned, got a running start toward the apron area across the airfield—and threw the container with all of its might.

Shinji watched in confusion, not understanding the purpose of their actions. But everything was made clear when the container exploded on impact, releasing a shockwave that rocked their plane even from over 500 meters away. The girls of the class continued to scream. Some of them clung to nearby boys, who managed to enjoy it despite the situation.

“Uruz-2 here! The bomb is disposed of, and we’re commencing combat—oh, whoops.” The M9’s external speakers suddenly fell silent.

The door clanked open, and a dozen or so black-clad soldiers poured in. They were armed with large handguns, wore blue berets, and ran around the cabin, shouting in accented Japanese. “Please remain calm! We’re a UN rescue squadron! We’ve laid out yellow tape leading from the exit! Please follow it to the awaiting transport planes! Remain calm and do not panic! We will not leave anyone behind! I repeat, we are a UN—”

Now that Mao was past her first hurdle, she could focus on her next one: guarding the transport craft. “Friday!”

《Yes, Master Sergeant?》 the machine’s AI replied to her audio order.

“Cut the ECS! Activate EHF radar! Give me active IR and strobe lights!”

《Such actions will increase the chance of an enemy preemptive strike.》

“Perfect. I’m going to be the decoy!” She had to soak enemy fire by drawing as much attention as possible.

《Roger. ECS off. Active sensors on.》

Mithril’s transports had already landed, and they were starting their turnaround near the jumbo jet. Their other M9s were nearby, wreaking havoc, as their attack helicopters stalked the skies above.

Mao dashed her M9 away from the plane and began to dance it around on the taxiway. An enemy tank soon appeared from behind a building 500 meters away, and fired at Mao’s machine. Its blast just missed, opening a hole in the building behind her.

“Why, you...” Mao pulled an ultrafast missile from her back and pointed it at the tank. It was a large tube, resembling a human-sized disposable rocket launcher, and it was known as a Javelin. Target locked, Mao thought. Fire.

Moving 1,500 meters per second, the missile hit its target and blasted it to pieces. Mao cast aside the now-empty tube, readied another Javelin, and went in search of new prey. The area around the runway was littered with the smoking remnants of enemy ASes and tanks. “Less resistance than I expected...” she observed. It had been unintentional, but before their arrival, Sousuke’s little rampage had divided the enemy forces between the north and south sides of the airfield.

Behind her, the hostage group had formed a line and was hurrying to the two transports. She cast a glance at the clock at the edge of her screen. “120 seconds left...” Things were looking dicey. Kurz had broken off before the drop; had he managed to get Sousuke clear?

Kaname supported Sousuke as they dashed down the runway. “Hang in there,” she said.

“I’m fine,” Sousuke responded mechanically, his expression as blank as a Noh mask. The cut on his forehead wasn’t especially deep, but the wound on his side was throbbing with pain.

“Will we make it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I thought Kurz would be by to pick us up soon...”

“So he’s one of you, too?”

“Yes. He’s a member of my team... a sergeant.”

A stray shot landed about thirty meters behind them, pelting them with concrete fragments. Kaname screamed.

“Ignore it,” Sousuke advised. “Keep running.”

The transports were still three kilometers away; there was no way they’d make the takeoff time on foot. If Kurz’s M9 hadn’t caught up with them, that meant he must be struggling. The enemy would want to come after Kaname, so it was probably taking everything Kurz had just to hold him off.

If only Sousuke had a communicator, he thought, he could contact one of the transport helicopters above...

“Gotcha!” Kurz fired his massive rifle. The recoil caused his machine’s frame to creak and the nearby trees to bow.

The silver AS threw itself to the ground, disappearing behind the bushes. Both events seemed to happen simultaneously, but in fact, its pilot had changed course just before Kurz fired.

“Slippery little bastard...” Kurz clicked his tongue and changed his magazine. Several minutes had passed since the battle began, but his silver foe hadn’t fired a single shot. Kurz had blown away its rifle when he first arrived, so it was probably stuck with close-range weapons. “Heh... You’re crazy if you think I’d let you close in on me, though...” He fired two shots: blam, blam. Both seemed to just barely miss. “Hey, is my targeting off or something?” Kurz asked skeptically.

《Negative,》 his M9’s AI replied. 《Ballistic margin of error is within specified levels.》

That’s what he’d thought. Kurz always personally tuned his targeting system settings before a deployment, and this time had been no exception. “Which means...” The enemy’s agility—its maneuvering, technically—was just on another level. It was rare to see anything capable of dodging for this long without either running away or fighting back. The specs of the enemy AS might, then, be equal to or greater than his own. But greater than the weapons of Mithril, which were ten years ahead of the rest of the world?

“There’s no way,” Kurz muttered. The enemy AS seemed to enjoy dodging his shots. It ran right, and then left, seeming to anticipate his every move. “Shit. Damned thing’s mocking me...” He was running out of time. He had to finish the enemy off and pick up Sousuke and Kaname.

“Maybe we’ll try a little performance, then...” Kurz worked out a plan. He made a show of putting more distance between them, popping off a few shots as he went, as if he was shaken by the enemy’s capabilities. Once he’d gotten his distance, he knelt down and readied his gun again. He didn’t fire, though; he just lowered the gun and manually pumped the bolt a few times. He took aim again—and again, didn’t shoot.

The enemy seemed to realize that something was wrong. Kurz dropped the rifle and pulled a monomolecular cutter from his belt. It was a close-combat weapon, shaped like a combat knife. The enemy machine drew its own monomolecular cutter and began its charge.

“Gotcha!” Kurz had planned to make it seem like his rifle had broken down. He braced his M9 in position. Then, as the enemy closed in, he suddenly threw the knife. Caught by surprise, the enemy knocked it aside, but the act threw off its balance. By the time it had righted itself, Kurz already had his rifle back in hand. His movements were swift, fast, and smooth. At this range, he couldn’t miss. There was no dodging this one.

“Die!” Kurz fired. The 57mm shot burst out of the barrel, streaked for the enemy AS’s torso, and—

“Run, run, run!” the soldiers in charge of guiding the hostages shouted, as the group poured into the idling transports.

Mao’s M9 was nearby, kneeling to protect them. There were no enemies in sight; the area appeared to be secure. With their armored cars and ASes gone, the airfield’s soldiers had fled the scene in terror.

“One of my students was taken!” A hostage broke out of the line to shout at a guide soldier. It was a woman in a suit who seemed about Mao’s age. “Please, let me find her! She’s the vice president of our student council—”

Mao interrupted on the speaker. “Kaname will come back on a different flight, ma’am.”

“A... A different flight?” the teacher asked in confusion. “And how did you know her name?”

“Never mind,” Mao yelled at her. “Just get on the plane!”

The teacher looked flustered, but did as she was told. Mao had meant to reassure her, but time-wise, things were looking dicey; Sousuke and Kaname hadn’t shown, and Kurz was still locked in combat. Just thirty seconds ago, he’d contacted her to say he was “having a little trouble,” but...

“Uruz-6, you still out there?” Mao called on the radio. There was no response. Once the hostage group and the guides were all on board, the transports’ back doors began to close.

“Uruz-6, bring Sousuke and the girl here, quickly!” Mao demanded. Once again, there was no response.

She tried again. “Uruz-6, respond. Uruz-6.” No response.

“Quit screwing around, Kurz!” she exploded. “Are you trying to piss me off?” Still, Kurz did not respond.

On the runway, Sousuke looked back; Kurz wasn’t behind them. Meanwhile, the transports were starting their takeoff runs. There was no way they could get on board, now; they’d have to get one of the AS transport helicopters to pick them up on their way out. But would they even realize they were there?

There’s no way... he realized. Visibility was poor from all the smoke and fire around them. There was no way they would be seen from the air.

Just then, from the east, a dozen or so shells came flying. They landed here and there around the airfield, unleashing massive explosions. One fell about 50 meters from where Sousuke and Kaname were standing.

“What... what’s going on?” she cried.

“It’s... enemy reinforcements,” Sousuke said, wiping the sweat off his forehead. They crouched down low and hid behind a building. Now that enemy reinforcements had arrived, not even the transport helicopters could afford to wait for them. They had to find some way to meet up... But Sousuke couldn’t think of anything. While he racked his brain, the jet transports roared past them.

“Ahh... There they go,” Kaname observed.

“They didn’t have a choice,” he told her.

A dark reality was sinking down on them; Sousuke and Kaname had lost their chance to rendezvous with their allies.

The two C-17 transports gained speed down the pocked runway surface. There was a lot of shaking. Small rocks battered the fuselage. The engine roared; the wings shook. An explosion came about thirty meters ahead of the right wing, and the passengers screamed.

“Stay seated! Remain calm!” one of the soldiers shouted. Most of the students simply sat there, paralyzed, but Shinji alone had tears pouring from his eyes.

“Are you afraid, Kazama-kun?” Kyoko, who had ended up next to him, asked.

“No... I’m overjoyed,” he wept. “I got to see an M9 in live combat, and now I’m riding in a C-17. I can die a happy man...”

With almost shocking speed, the transport reached Vr—the speed at which the nose could pitch up—and then rose into the skies. The second transport followed right after, and liftoff was soon achieved.

The enemy infantry fired MPADS missiles at the second craft, but the transport had engaged its ECS. The surface-to-air missiles failed to get a lock, and ended up exploding on the airfield’s northern half.

The transports flew away toward the western sky. The VTOL fighter escorts kept a tight formation, protecting them.

Mao watched them go. “The trickiest part is over, I guess,” she muttered.

“Party’s over,” said the pilot of a large AS transport helicopter as it descended toward her. “There’s an enemy battalion on the way.”

“Wait,” she protested. “We haven’t heard from Uruz-6, or Sousuke or the girl...”

“This is Teiwaz-12,” came a communication from an attack helicopter on watch overhead. “I just found the remains of an M9. I think it’s Uruz-6’s... It’s in a river, north of the airfield.”

Mao went pale. “What did you say?”

“It’s in pieces,” Teiwaz-12 clarified. “The torso’s been cut in half.”

What was he saying? The torso... in other words, the cockpit? It couldn’t be... “Is the operator safe?!” Mao demanded to know.

“Unable to confirm. There’s too much smoke...”

“Find the operator! Find Uruz-6!” she shrilled. “Is there any sign of Sousuke?”

Over the radio, she heard the pilot gulp. “Mao. I want to find Kurz and Sousuke too, but we don’t have time.”

“We just need a minute,” she argued back. “I’ll help—”

A new voice interrupted them. “I forbid you from searching. Withdraw immediately.” It was an order from Major Kalinin, who was leading the operation from a small recon helicopter.

“Major!” Mao cried in protest.

“Their reinforcements have crossed the bridge and interceptors are heading this way. In one minute, we could all be dead.” His tone made it clear that there was no room for argument. Then he said, “Teiwaz-12. Fire everything you have into the M9’s remains. Don’t let one screw fall into enemy hands.”

After a moment of hesitation came, “Teiwaz-12, will comply.”

“No...” Mao said weakly. The attack helicopter fired a rocket at the northern river. She saw the distant explosion as Kurz Weber’s AS was blown to flaming bits.

“Uruz-2, hurry up and dock with your transport chopper.” The major’s unwavering calm made Mao so angry that for a minute, she almost lost her mind. The word ‘murderer’ rose in her throat like bile. With a struggle, she managed to swallow it down, but it took all her strength to do so.

Eventually, she managed, “Uruz-2, will comply.” The major was right. The enemy was on their doorstep.

Gauron slid out of his non-functioning machine and landed with a grunt on the damp ground below. He looked up at the silver AS collapsed on the hillside. The chest armor was crushed, leaving the interior exposed. Stabilizer fluid dripped from the actuators like blood, and smoke rose here and there from the joints. The AS—the Codarl—had overheated. His sudden activation of the incomplete lambda driver had shorted out its power system, such that he’d only just made it to the forest to hide before the enemy attack helicopter arrived.

The lambda driver was a system that produced a power unprecedented in the history of human invention. It amplified the operator’s offensive and defensive instincts, channeled their will into forces that defied the laws of nature. Specialists called it the Pseudostring Repulsor Field Generator System; if it got out into the world at large, it would transform modern warfare. But that day was still a long way off—They lacked too much data and know-how. A wellspring of knowledge was needed. That was why they had to kidnap that Whispered, but...

“Useless thing,” Gauron cursed at the broken-down machine, his eyes turned in the direction of the airfield. The Mithril helicopters and VTOL fighters were vanishing into the western sky. “Kalinin... That smug bastard.”

Gauron hadn’t expected rescuers to arrive so soon—less than twelve hours after the hijacking—let alone to dispose of the bomb on the plane. He had wondered how a special response team could come in so quickly, without warning, and without deploying a single recon team. The involvement of Kalinin explained everything; if he’d known that man was part of Mithril, he would have taken appropriate measures. Now he’d let the Whispered girl and Kashim get away... It was a horrible failure on his part.

“You’ll pay for this,” Gauron promised. “Dammit...” Just then, he got a call from one of his subordinates. Gauron answered in Japanese, “It’s me.”

“It’s me,” his subordinate responded. “One of the soldiers fighting the fires saw something strange.”

“What was it?” Gauron asked.

“He says he spotted an intruder around the airfield’s western fence. They were with a girl, and they were running toward the wilderness.”

“Was it a young man?”

“I don’t know,” the other man answered. “They went west, either way.”

Gauron chuckled to himself. He was in luck: Kashim and the girl had failed to meet up with their allies. To the west was the shore; did he expect to be recovered there? But that was about 30 kilometers away. No matter how fast they went, they wouldn’t get there on foot until morning. That was more than enough time to get the AS—the Codarl—up and running again. “I see...” he gloated. “Things aren’t over yet.”

In the dark mountains away from the airfield, Sousuke and Kaname were walking. They could no longer hear the flames, or the explosions, or the cries of the soldiers. The only sounds were the wind, and the crunch of their feet on the pine needles.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Kaname asked, supporting Sousuke’s unsteady body.

“We aren’t safe yet,” he grunted in response, “but getting away from the airfield was our only choice.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Kaname clarified, “I meant you. You don’t seem to be doing so hot...”

Sousuke’s expression was as blank as ever, but his forehead was drenched in sweat. He was covered in mud, and his uniform’s shirt was caked with blood.

“I think we should take a break. If we keep going like this, you’ll...” Kaname trailed off fearfully.

In response, Sousuke stopped and turned his eyes to the darkness behind him. After a few moments of silence, he said, “You’re right. Hang on... just a minute.”

“Huh?” Kaname was surprised that he had acquiesced so quickly.

Sousuke sat down on a tree root and removed his bloodstained shirt, revealing just a tank top underneath. She almost screamed at what she saw: there was a sharp piece of metal sticking out of his left side. It was about the size of a CD broken in half, and it glistened with fresh blood. It must have happened when the silver AS shot him earlier. Kaname could only imagine the agony he must be in.

“Is... Is that...” she began shakily.

“I got... lucky. It didn’t hit any major arteries or organs,” he explained, then moved on quickly. “There’s a case of small bottles in my jacket pocket... Give it to me.”

With a stifled groan, Sousuke yanked out the metal shard. Kaname searched the pockets of the jacket he had lent her, found the small case, and handed it to him. From it, he produced a vial of alcohol, which he used to clean the wound inside and out. It looked so painful that Kaname couldn’t look directly at it. His movements were purposeful, but his eyes stared emptily into the middle distance.

“There’s another case in the other pocket,” he told her. “I need the tape inside of that.”

She produced the tape. “This?”

Sousuke wordlessly took it and patched his wound before tearing his shirt into strips, which he then wrapped around his torso in a makeshift bandage.

Kaname continued to search through the case. “D-Does it hurt?” she asked, trepidatiously. “It looks like there’s morphine in here, if, um...”

“No.” The word was monotone, lifeless.

Kaname felt a sudden sense of wrongness. It was like she was talking to an insect, a robot—and it made her afraid. “But you’re—”

“I can’t fight the enemy if I’m asleep,” he told her flatly.

“But...”

“Let’s go,” Sousuke said, cutting her off. “The enemy will pursue.” With great effort, he stood up, and set off again into the dark forest.

What in the world? Kaname felt a sudden sense of disorientation. Who is this person? How can he just act this way? He treated his body like it was a machine. He didn’t feel any pain. Every other word out of his mouth was “enemy, enemy, enemy...” Wasn’t he just like that humanoid weapon—that AS? What was it that drove him to such lengths? She couldn’t understand it at all.

That indescribable fear of Sousuke that Kaname had first felt during the battle in the hangar began surging up inside of her again. She was in the presence of a completely alien being—some unknowable thing that only looked human. He frightened her more than any of the terrorists pursuing them.

“What’s wrong, Chidori?” When he noticed that Kaname wasn’t moving, Sousuke turned back to face her again. “Hurry up. The enemy is coming.”

Still, she hesitated.

“Are you not feeling well?” he asked.

“S-Stay back.” As Sousuke came toward her, Kaname took a step back. “Stay away from me.”

Sousuke froze.

Silence.

Is he angry? Kaname wondered. Annoyed? Will he scream at me? Hit me? Or more likely... will he just drag me off into this cold darkness, saying nothing? The urge to turn and run shot through her. But just then, she realized it; Sousuke’s expression, across that vast gulf of darkness—it was like someone who’d just been slapped by the person they least expected it from.

For a moment, it looked like Sousuke was about to say something, but he reconsidered, turning his eyes to the ground. Then, at last, he spoke: “You’re... afraid of me?”

Kaname couldn’t answer.

“I suppose that’s a natural reaction,” he said slowly. “From your point of view, I must be...” A shadow of inconsolable loneliness flicked across his bloodstained profile.

What? Kaname was shocked. Why does he have that expression? That all-too-common human expression... Rejected by someone he longed for, understanding why, and sighing in loneliness. The expression of a person in pain, not from injuries to the body, but to something else. An expression of sorrow, tempered by the strength to endure it.

Sousuke slumped over to hold his injured side. “Regardless, I’d like you to bear with me, for now,” he said wearily. “My priority is to get you back safely to Japan. I can’t guarantee we’ll make it, but... I was hoping you’d trust me.” His eyes were averted, and his voice was somehow frail. His face was no longer that of an inanimate fighting machine. “If we make it through this... I’ll leave you alone forever. I promise. So...”

“I can’t believe it...” Kaname whispered. This young man, wounded and battered from battle, but still trying desperately to save her... She felt seized by a powerful guilt over her initial rejection of him. He’s been trying so hard to save me, she realized. Enduring all the pain he’s in, staying on alert for “the enemy”... Trying to think logically, like a machine, about everything... All to save me. Because that’s the only way he can...

The way he tailed me since his first day at school, Kaname thought. All the trouble he kept causing, even when people yelled at him... Because he knew the danger that enemy posed. “So that’s what it was...” she whispered. A choking mix of sorrow and affection hit her with the force of a tidal wave. A warmth blurred into being at her core, spreading into a full-body flush. Her heart began racing, pumping blood into her face. She had never felt anything like it before.

It was a swirl of new, turbulent, illogical emotions. But without knowing how to express them... in the end, she just responded, “Okay.”

“Thanks. Let’s go, then.” But despite his words, Sousuke’s expression remained grave.

His steps were more certain now than before. When the shrapnel was still in his side, every step he’d taken must have been a jolt of pain, but that, at least, seemed to have eased. After about ten more minutes of walking, Sousuke stopped, without explanation.

“What...”

“Quiet,” he ordered. With his right hand, Sousuke readied his machine gun. He pointed the barrel toward the brush ahead, then carefully inched forward. Kaname also sensed a presence in the darkness—there was the sound of hushed breathing, the rustling of clothes. Our pursuers? she wondered.

Sousuke turned on his Maglite. Through the shrubs deeper in the grove, a man was walking toward them. He looked like he was struggling to breathe. His entire body was soaked, and he wore a black jumpsuit. No, it wasn’t a jumpsuit... it was an AS operator’s uniform. His long blond hair was disheveled, and his pale face was caked in blood and dirt.

“Kurz,” said Sousuke.

“Hey... Took you guys long enough.” The corners of Kurz Weber’s mouth quirked upward. And then, he collapsed.