5: Flaming Sword

The Codarl’s operator was disappointed by how easy it all was. He was part of the squadron sent here by the executive known as Mr. Gold, and in the pre-mission briefing, he’d been told to expect at least three other Codarls—lambda driver-equipped ASes—guarding the mansion. He’d been told that they might even face Eligores, a kind of AS that, under certain circumstances, could be far stronger. He knew that if they had Codarls on their side, their target must be a division of Amalgam, just like his squadron. But he saw no reason not to see his mission through, just because these men were his nominal allies.

Some might call it “eating their own,” but these men were mercenaries, after all: as long as their pay, safety, and freedom to plunder was ensured, they didn’t care about the details. They’d even stopped questioning the drug they’d been injected with before missions. And the Codarl’s incredible specs had resulted in a series of one-sided battles that had left them feeling bored, so the prospect of a challenge was appealing.

But now that they were here, there was almost no real resistance to be found. The enemy machines he’d expected to fight hadn’t appeared, and the Eligore-type machines showed themselves only for a second before immediately withdrawing.

So bored. No killing at all... His mind, in its state of elevated emotion and focus, began to hunger.

That was when the helicopter of unknown affiliation had appeared. It launched a few sporadic attacks on their infantry, but before the operator could even get targeting information on it, the enemy chopper was shot down by one of his massive Behemoth allies.

The operator’s hunger grew. So bored, he thought. I want my prey. I want to kill. Bring me an opponent that will flee at the sight of me, try and fight back fruitlessly. A sad bit of cannon fodder eager to swing its limbs of polymer and steel and bravely fire its 40mm guns!

An alarm rang out: his sensors had picked up an AS at the edge of the mansion, probably dropped by the shot-down helicopter. Its silhouette suggested a third-generation AS similar to an M9. No problem. It’s just an M9. My Codarl can handle it easily.

He engaged infrared mode, and found that the kneeling machine’s heat signature didn’t match that of the M9 data in his archives. And the estimated output of the machine’s generator continued to rise until...

“4800?!” he exclaimed. Estimated 4800 kilowatts— Twice that of a standard third-generation AS. This went beyond any land combat weapon, entering the realm of outputs you saw in large fighter planes and battleships!

The white machine slowly showed itself from beyond the sooty rain and smoke. Its armor glimmered with a dark, hot, smoldering red, and a haze of heat warped the surrounding air as tongues of flame licked at its burly form.

An order from command came in. “All units. An AS just landed on the heliport. Attack it. Do whatever it takes to shoot it down!”

The enemy AS was moving before the operator could even acknowledge the order. It looked at them, then bent over slightly in its kneeling position, as if storing up power. That minor movement told him immediately what was about to happen.

“—Repeat. Shoot that AS down at—”

The enemy AS leaped, like smoldering embers catching fire.

The power behind that first jump nearly knocked Sousuke out cold; his vision began to narrow and dim as the incredible g-forces behind the jump concentrated blood in his lower extremities. He gritted his teeth and regripped the control sticks with a groan.

Just barely managing to hold onto consciousness, he ran his eyes over the screen’s g-force meter and altimeter: his instant gravitational acceleration was over 30 g, close to the force of a crashing plane. A human body could endure even more than that—as long as it was brief—but that didn’t mean it was a pleasant experience. He was now eight meters up, far above the heliport he’d been standing on moments earlier.

What is this AS? he wondered. What is this power? Sousuke didn’t have time to ask Al, as the ground was approaching rapidly. He focused on maneuvering his machine’s limbs into a bracing posture before landing it at the edge of the estate grounds. The pavement below went flying on impact, as if from an earthquake or an explosion.

“What is this?!” Sousuke croaked out, once he was sure he’d survived the shock of the landing.

《Learning message: Explain object referred to by ‘this,’》 replied Al’s synthetic voice.

“This machine’s jumping power and settings—”

《Just kidding. Impressive, aren’t they?》

“You...!” Sousuke clicked his tongue. Al was just playing the standard inflexible AI.

《I apologize, 》 said Al. 《The truth is, we never held a proper test drive.》

“You never what?”

《This machine was created clandestinely, under highly restrictive conditions. I requested practical tests, but Mr. Hunter refused on the grounds that we had neither the time nor the space.》

“Hunter? Gavin Hunter?”

《Affirmative.》

It was Sousuke’s first time hearing that the head of the Hong Kong Branch of Mithril’s intelligence division was involved with the machine. Knowing that the agent Wraith had brought the machine to him lent further credence to the idea that Mithril’s intelligence division had been involved in building the ARX-8 Laevatein.

An alarm sounded. An enemy AS—a Codarl type—was rapidly approaching, armed with a standard 35mm rifle. Sousuke grunted, and carefully moved his machine. The Laevatein stepped lightly to the right, dodging the enemy’s shot as the incoming shells tore into the ground and blew a nearby warehouse to pieces.

“You can use it, right?!” he checked.

《Do you mean the lambda driver?》

“Yes!”

《I don’t know...》Al admitted. The Laevatein slumped over in despondency, replicating Sousuke’s action with almost foolish accuracy. As the enemy attacked, though, he resumed evasive maneuvers.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?!” Sousuke demanded.

《Well, I’ve never used it before, so it would be irresponsible to simply say ‘affirmative’—》

An enemy shot grazed his thigh. Sousuke felt an impact on the machine’s shoulder armor, as well: shallow, but nevertheless it sent a violent jolt through the cockpit.

《Proximity alert!》

The enemy machine was charging, its monomolecular cutter drawn. He didn’t have much time to counter it. He didn’t even have time to choose from his weapons loadout—

Sousuke clicked his tongue and shouted, “Never mind! We’ll just try it!”

《At your leisure.》

A second later, two force fields collided. The Laevatein’s outstretched hand had caught the Codarl’s monomolecular cutter, and the air around them warped and screamed with a coil of steam and rubble.

The lambda driver had activated, that much was obvious. Sousuke could feel his own force field pushing against the enemy’s. And I can do more, he realized. With this overwhelming power, I can fight back!

With a grunt from Sousuke, the Laevatein—gripping the blade of the monomolecular cutter as if it were a harmless stick—stepped towards the enemy machine. They were so close now, eye to eye—sensor to sensor. The enemy machine’s head moved in a way that suggested a hint of fear.

Sousuke spun the manipulator action wheel to clench his machine’s right hand into a fist... then reeled it back hard, and slammed it into the enemy’s torso. A shower of sparks followed. The Laevatein’s fist had ripped through the Codarl’s force field and pierced through its armor, allowing Sousuke to grab the generator inside and yank it out. It came out, trailed by an intestine-like series of cables. While crushing the sparking nuclear fusion battery in one hand, he landed a kick into the machine’s side. The Codarl, having lost its power source, flew away, split into two pieces.

Shards of titanium alloy, sprays of shock absorbent, and rising flames danced in the Laevatein’s sight. One down, he told himself. So much destructive power, and with only his bare hands...

《Test successful. That worked out better than I expected.》

“I was in a cold sweat the whole time!” said Sousuke.

《Activating cooling system.》

The back of the Laevatein’s head snapped open and ejected a flurry of hair-like heat sinks. It was a ponytail-type unit like the Codarl’s, but rather than streaming forth in a single long trail, it gushed, like hot water bursting from a faucet. The “hair” blew in the updraft, shedding white sparks.

Then the Laevatein, still kneeling, went in search of new prey. Its optical sensors quickly caught something new: two more Codarls were approaching.

“Arsenal options?” Sousuke checked.

《Varied. Why don’t we start with this?》

The arms control panel came up, displaying a simple diagram of the machine. The knees on the diagram were blinking, accompanied by the letters GRAW-4/MMC. Two large monomolecular cutters—they must have been an upgrade to the GRAW-2 used by M9-types.

“All right.”

《Roger.》

The armor of the Laevatein’s seemingly oversized knees opened with a shower of sparks to reveal two retractable monomolecular cutters. The Laevatein grabbed their grips, drawing them decisively, and then thrust them out to its sides like an eagle spreading its wings. The movement alone sent eddies of muddy rain swirling before his eyes. These GRAW-4 cutters then snapped to full length, their blades letting out a low hum.

《Mike-3 approaching. 10 o’clock, distance—》

The Codarl—designated M-3—was also wielding two large monomolecular cutters as it approached with a complicated series of combat maneuvers. The other, designated M-2, approached from his blind spot to the right. It would be tricky to deal with both of them at once...

《I’ll handle Mike-2,》 Al offered.

Sousuke looked questioningly at the screen.

《Continue engagement.》

There was no time to debate his AI, so Sousuke charged his machine head-on at the enemy Codarl coming from his front. Lambda driver force fields collided, igniting sparks of plasma in the air around them.

As Sousuke strained, the other Codarl, M-2, dashed in from behind. Though the Laevatein’s arms were occupied, the underarm section that would have held a weapons rack in a standard M9 opened up swiftly, revealing smaller manipulators within.

Hidden arms?! Sousuke realized in shock. An AS functioned by imitating the movements of its operator, so it was fundamentally impossible for one to have more than two arms. But these extra arms moved with perfect skill and grace, as if there were another operator controlling them. One of said hidden arms pulled a hand grenade from one of the machine’s hip hardpoints and threw it at the Codarl approaching from behind.

An explosion followed, and the enemy machine behind him lost its balance, throwing off the timing of its surprise attack. In the meantime, Sousuke used the machine’s primary arms to slash at the enemy in front of him, before dropping to the ground to sweep its leg. No, it wasn’t just a leg sweep—The Laevatein’s absurd power exploded the Codarl’s leg on contact. It flipped through the air, sparking from its head as it scraped along the ground, before plowing through a set of cars parked nearby.

Sousuke whipped around and leaped, charging straight for the other machine, which lay struggling in a prone position as a result of the hand grenade’s explosion. The enemy machine fired, but Sousuke merely glared at the barrel, and the shot before him was deflected. His machine’s right and left arms flashed in an X-slash that tore through the Codarl, and his enemy’s severed arms spun through the air before landing on the ground.

Two down, thought Sousuke. In a corner of his vision he could see the other machine struggling to stand with only one leg. It still wants to fight? he wondered. Or maybe to run...

《Use this,》 Al said, chiming in as the Laevatein’s left ‘hidden arm’ drew an anti-tank dagger from its elbow and tossed it to the front of its chest. The move was perfectly timed, completely anticipating Sousuke’s reflexes.

Sousuke snorted, but snatched the anti-tank dagger out of the air with a sideways sweep of his machine’s arm, to snap it out at the final Codarl. The other machine tried to stop the dagger with its lambda driver force field, but Sousuke forced the weapon through with sheer willpower. The anti-tank dagger collided straight with the enemy’s chest, and the sound of shredding metal was followed by a flash as the Codarl was blown to bits.

Three down, Sousuke noted as the Laevatein landed out of its spin, and then straightened. The heat sinks wafting out of the back of its head followed the motion, tracing a graceful arc as they cast sprays of light all around.

“What’s with the arms?” he asked.

《Support arms,》 Al informed him. 《They will aid in attack, ammunition reloading, and other precision tasks. I control them myself.》

“Four arms, huh?” Sousuke commented. “Feels a little unsettling...”

《I like them. Your personal preferences are irrelevant.》

Sousuke had nothing to say to that, and the remaining enemy force consisted of the three Behemoths: those absurdly powerful giant ASes. In fact, the Behemoth closest to the shore was staring straight at the Laevatein...

Fortunately, the transport helicopter carrying Lemon and the others was solidly built. Its design had been refined over thirty years of live combat, so it wasn’t likely to have been so easily destroyed.

“Didn’t I tell you?! We won’t die that easily!” Courtney yelled out from his place of hiding, behind the vanquished machine.

“Oh, honestly!” Lemon had to shout back in order to be heard over the gunshots and explosions around them. “I didn’t think the alternative would be, ‘surrounded by enemies slowly picking us off!’”

Lemon’s complaint was entirely reasonable. Several of the helicopter’s passengers had been injured in the crash, but none had died. The machine ended up toppled over in the middle of the garden, its crumpled body immediately surrounded by enemy soldiers. Lemon and the others were taking cover behind the fuselage as they returned fire, but they had no real chance of escaping, and they were quickly running out of ammo.

“Hah! Reminds me of Khe Sanh!” Courtney cackled. “Gimme your best shot! Wahahaha!” Then he fired off his machine gun, apparently on some kind of strange adrenaline high.

“Khe Sanh, eh? That was a tough one,” Sears whispered, scowling as he fired off his carbine.

“Hey, I tagged along because you said you’d get me there safely... How’d we end up stuck in a hopeless shootout in the Mexican countryside?” whispered an East Asian woman wielding a submachine gun. She’d called herself Wraith, but he didn’t know what her real name was, or to what organization she belonged.

Wraith had made contact right after Sousuke witnessed the arrival of the US Armed Forces. A large trailer had arrived on the outskirts of the deserted village where their transport helicopter was on standby. Lemon and the others had pointed their guns at her cautiously, but she’d come out unarmed and shouted, backlit by her headlights, “Is Sagara Sousuke here?! I have something for him!”

It didn’t seem like the setup to a trap, and she seemed to know Sousuke very well. Lemon and the others, suspicious, peered into the trailer, and saw that it was an AS—a third-generation AS they’d never seen before.

“Believe me or don’t, it’s your call. But if you’re going to Sousuke, take this machine with you,” Wraith had told them. When asked how she knew about their standby point, she’d said, “I didn’t. Al told me you would be here.”

There was still a lot they didn’t understand, but they also had no reason to refuse. So Lemon and the others had loaded the new AS onto the helicopter and flown to the mansion with Wraith, but...

“I didn’t know there’d be so many of them. We’re dead. We’re definitely dying here,” Lemon cried to the sky, cowering behind a crumpled duralumin sheet.

“Dunno about that, kiddo!” Courtney said. “Look, that Sagara kid just took out three of those things!”

“Wow, he did!” Lemon marveled.

There was an explosion from a small grove, just a few hundred meters from their landing point where the red AS—the Laevatein—had just taken out an enemy AS with an anti-tank dagger.

“I don’t know what those lamb things are all about, but I’ve never seen power like that in one machine,” Sears said. “He’s moving with a good rhythm, though... Is that really his first time in that thing? He rides it like a faithful old steed.”

“Of course he does. That machine is like his wife,” Wraith told him, all while ducking the bullets flying at close range.

“But can he take those Behemoths?” Lemon cast a glance at the supermassive Behemoth, which was still firing occasional shots from the shoreline. Shaking violently, it charged onto shore, heading for the Laevatein as it fired weapons from its shoulders, arms, and head all at once. Large and small machine cannons, rockets, and anti-tank missiles roared, blanketing the white AS’s silhouette.

“Oh, no...” said Lemon. At that distance, with that amount of fire laid down, the Laevatein wouldn’t be able to dodge in time. It tried, but lost its balance from the force of the shelling and explosions, pitching forward and falling to a knee.

The Behemoth charged with unthinkable speed to the Laevatein’s side, and then stomped down. There was a crash, and sand went flying everywhere. The Laevatein, like a child standing before a tsunami, was helplessly crushed under the Behemoth’s massive foot.

“Ahh...!” Lemon cried out in despair, and even Courtney gulped, scowling.

But not Wraith. Her almond eyes, once narrowed in concern, now widened again, and when she spoke, her voice was tinged with amusement. “No,” she said. “Look...”

Particles of light poured out from under the foot of the Behemoth. The heat sink system roared, and the air around it began to shimmer with heat haze.

“Is that...”

“A Roth & Hambleton PRX-3000,” Wraith confirmed. “A prototype super high-output generator. When its power—greater than any land weapon—is combined with the lambda driver...”

The Behemoth began to tilt. Its stomping foot swayed and the Laevatein hidden beneath it slowly came back into view.

“Hey...” said Lemon. The Laevatein wasn’t crushed, he realized belatedly. It had caught the foot of the Behemoth with both arms and, with its body wreathed in particles of red light, was now struggling to lift the massive machine.

The roar of the machine, the blaring of alarms... The Laevatein’s generator output reading was at maximum. The cooling system was also operating at its highest possible level, and the electricity running through its electromagnetic muscles made it seem like lightning was coursing through its body. Its planted legs dug deeper and deeper into the earth below, and its entire frame was screaming.

《Current estimated load: 1500 tons,》 Al said, as calmly as could be. 《For reference, this is the weight of approximately thirty standard tanks. In other words, it far exceeds our recommended weight limit. We should withdraw at once, Sarge.》

“Shut. Up!” Sousuke growled from between gritted teeth. He felt like it was his own arms holding up all that weight. Was it because of the lambda driver? “If I could, I’d have done it already!” While continuing to struggle against the incredible weight, Sousuke took in a short breath, and mustered all the power he had into his abdomen.

He screamed with effort, and the force field surrounding the Laevatein flashed red hot. Instantly, with explosive force, he pushed back as hard as he could against the Behemoth’s crushing foot. A shockwave burst out and the massive leg crumpled into scrap from the ankle down. The Behemoth lost its balance and toppled onto its back.

“Finish it!” Sousuke ordered.

《Roger.》

The Laevatein redrew the monomolecular cutters stored in its knees and leaped. It traced a short arc in the direction of the Behemoth’s head and jammed both monomolecular cutters into its neck. The blades tore through the force field, digging deep into the metal within. Once, then a second time, and a third. Sparks flew and oil flowed in waterfalls. The head-mounted cockpit was sliced free, and the Behemoth went limp.

Four down, thought Sousuke.

Al made a report: the remaining two Behemoths were approaching from beyond the cape. One of them was just several hundred meters away, and the other was several kilometers beyond it.

The closer of the two opened fire at him, forcing the Laevatein to take shelter behind the enemy machine it had just destroyed. 30mm shaped charge rounds showered the area, kicking up flames and explosions.

“I’d rather not have a repeat of last time!” Sousuke yelled. “Don’t we have any other weapons?”

《Certainly,》 said Al. 《Try this.》

The weapon control panel opened, and the symbol for a back-mounted artillery blinked. “Demolition gun... One hundred sixty-five millimeters?!” Sousuke exclaimed.

His distress was understandable, because using a 165mm shell as an AS weapon was unthinkable. Typical AS rifles were 40mm; the boxer shotcannon Sousuke preferred was 57mm; the smoothbore cannons Kurz used for sniping maxed out at 76mm. Your typical tank gun, far more powerful than any of those, was only 120mm. This was a weapon fireable only by 50-ton tanks, and he was supposed to use it in a 10-ton AS?

“Isn’t this a military engineer firearm?” he asked. Demolition guns were traditionally used to clear away structures and other man-made objects, but this one seemed to be for combat purposes.

《This firearm is for combat,》 said Al. 《Be careful; it packs quite a recoil, but the lambda driver makes it usable.》

The arm attached to his back hardpoint moved, and the short-barreled, high-caliber demolition gun snapped into firing position under his right shoulder. Seeing it on his screen, Sousuke was stunned by the sheer scale of it. A massive brute like this... “Will it work?” he whispered, as he manipulated his machine’s arm to test the feel of the demolition gun.

《I don’t know,》 Al admitted. 《We haven’t test fired it.》

“So I get to try and find out, huh?”

《Precisely.》

“Fine,” Sousuke grumbled. Climbing on top of the Behemoth’s remains, he readied the demolition gun and leaped towards the enemy, which was now making landfall.

The enemy Behemoth returned fire immediately, and there was a series of blinding sparks. Those shots he couldn’t fully dodge, he repelled with the lambda driver.

It won’t be that easy! He landed, then jumped again immediately, and spun through the air as Anti-AS missiles approached. He fired his head-mounted Gatling guns at full automatic. Intercepted! He manipulated his machine’s arms and legs, assisted by the lambda driver’s power, to alter his arc of descent and dodge through the enemy’s incoming barrage. He was about two hundred meters away now.

If I fire this at close range... Sousuke thought, making calculations. He made a third jump, this one on a low arc that sent a powerful jolt and dizzying g-force running through him. The enemy machine’s feet drew near, and he passed between them. He thought about aiming for the slits at the back that were now visible, like he had at the battle in Ariake, but...

“Not yet!” he muttered as the Laevatein rolled forward, kicking up sand on the beach as it made another jump, this time vertically. In an instant, he was sailing over the Behemoth, spinning in midair. He was near the giant AS’s head now.

The enemy’s lambda driver roared to life, firing force fields at the Laevatein. Normally, it would have torn him to pieces. But instead, Sousuke gritted his teeth in concentration, and the Laevatein’s force field blocked the Behemoth’s, diverting it to either side like a strong wind.

Holding the demolition gun in one hand, he stuck its muzzle against the back of the enemy’s head, focused, and pulled the trigger. A flash and a shockwave exploded in front of him as the high-explosive projectile tore through his enemy’s armor, plowing deep into the Behemoth’s head and detonating from deep within.

The recoil from the 165mm cannon sent the Laevatein rising several meters up. Sousuke lost his balance, and rolled down the Behemoth’s back.

《Success,》 Al’s reported quickly, using the Laevatein’s limbs to right its posture and land on the beach.

“Well?!” Sousuke demanded.

《I told you, it was a success.》

Sousuke looked up and saw the Behemoth, which was billowing smoke from its upper half, as it began to fall face-first in slow motion. Unable to use the lambda driver’s force fields to regulate its own gravity, it was collapsing under its own weight. The Behemoth kicked up clouds of sand as it fell, releasing a death rattle that pierced the heavens above.

Five down, thought Sousuke. “What a recoil...” he whispered, while reloading the demolition gun.

《Greater than expected, 》 Al agreed. 《I didn’t expect you to fire it like that.》

“We’ve been together... how many years now?” Sousuke asked. “And you don’t know how reckless I am?”

《Approximately one year and two months. Not long at all.》

“Fair enough.” Sousuke sniffed, and looked over the last remaining Behemoth.

The Laevatein was currently resting in front of the mansion, on its knees in the sand. The final Behemoth was about three kilometers out to sea, and seemed to have already lost the will to fight; it was retreating at high speed while firing intimidation shots in his direction.

《Mike-6 is retreating,》 Al observed. 《It appears to be leaving the theater. Shall we fire at it?》

“I’d like to,” Sousuke admitted, “but I think it’s too far away.” The demolition gun was a short-barrel firearm like the Boxer: it was fine enough in a close-range fight, but lacked the accuracy to take out an enemy from this distance.

《No, it is possible,》 Al disagreed.

“What do you mean?”

《Activate spare arm D.》

From in front of Sousuke, the weapons control panel blinked. The last piece of equipment mounted on his back, a detachable gun barrel, lowered itself down in front of the machine and attached itself to the demolition gun. There was a sound of gears spinning and locking into place. With this barrel attached, the demolition gun, which was very short despite its high caliber, became longer than a tank cannon.

《Conversion to gun-howitzer mode complete. Maximum range is thirty kilometers using high-angle trajectory.》

A long-barreled howitzer... on an arm slave? Sousuke felt vaguely flabbergasted by the nonsensical concept for a moment, and then stopped to reconsider. This machine is made of nonsense, he decided. The absurdity of the lambda driver negated common-sense ideas about recoil and penetrating power anyway, so wasn’t a ridiculously jumbo-sized cannon like this perfect for the Laevatein?

“All right. Let’s try it,” Sousuke whispered, with a hint of self-reproach.

《I thought you might say that.》

“Shut up,” he snarled. He knelt the Laevatein down, switched his master mode to precision aiming, and set sensor magnification to maximum. He could see the Behemoth, which had turned and was retreating from the theater at full speed, swaying in his night vision.

Various data appeared on his screen. Temperature, humidity, wind speed, barrel heat, and more. Sousuke had decent skill as a sniper, but he couldn’t perform miracles like Kurz. Al didn’t have much sniping data either, so he’d just have to go on instinct.

The target symbol overlapped with the reticle on the screen, and a soft beeping sounded out.

《On target,》 said Al. 《Fire now.》

“Not yet,” Sousuke whispered, and moved his machine’s arm, which was now set to maximum sensitivity. Almost there, he thought. Yes, almost... He fired.

As before, there was a powerful recoil, and a fireball taller than the machine itself blasted away the sand in front of him. Sousuke lost the footing that had felt so solid just moments ago, and the Laevatein was blasted onto its backside. It was like a five-hundred-pound bomb had gone off in his face.

Nevertheless, the Laevatein’s lambda driver activated. The shell was expelled from the muzzle and, backed by Sousuke’s will, raced perfectly along its intended course, slamming the retreating Behemoth in the back of its head.

Sousuke’s magnified vision showed him the giant AS’s head blown off and wreathed in raging flames. The sound of the distant explosion followed soon after. As the muffled echo sounded out, the final Behemoth slowly collapsed and fell forward into the ocean.

He’d taken out the sixth machine. After letting out a long sigh, Sousuke said, “...Al.”

《Yes, Sergeant?》

“How many minutes was that?”

《Five minutes, fifty-two seconds.》 An awkward silence followed that statement. After a moment, Al said hesitantly, 《I know that you were very confident, but it would be impossible to beat that many in three minutes.》

“Shut up,” Sousuke told him. “We couldn’t do it in the four minutes twelve seconds you mentioned, either.”

《Impressive memory for a mere human,》 Al taunted. 《Are you, in fact, the type to hold a grudge?》

“Where the hell did you learn phrases like that?!” Sousuke demanded.

《I’m sorry to say, but having been abandoned by my operator for months, I had plenty of time for viewing television and browsing the internet.》

Sousuke said nothing.

《If you wish, I can speak in even more uncouth language,》 Al suggested enthusiastically. 《I could even speak with a Southern dialect from North America, if you like.》

“Please don’t,” Sousuke said plaintively with a sigh, knowing full well that Al always had a comeback. He was as irritating as ever, as well. A minute later, he said, “But, well... I’m glad you’re all right.” He meant it, too.

Something about Al was fundamentally different from the typical AI that came with an M9. It felt strange to admit, but he’d begun to regard his tactical support AI as being a true comrade-in-arms. Sousuke had begun to feel that way since just before the operation in Hong Kong, but he felt it even more strongly now.

Al responded, almost as if reading his mind.《Yes, Sergeant, I feel the same way. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.》

“Hmph.” A mere machine, Sousuke thought, talking about ‘heart’... Why was it, then, that he found himself rather liking the idea?

Standing his machine up and keeping on the lookout for enemies around him, Sousuke switched his sensors to active mode. What happened to Kurz and the others? he wondered. And he had to save Lemon’s people, too... If infantry was all that was left, it would be easy for the Laevatein to put them down. Though it would be impossible to follow Kaname’s helicopter now...

In the cabin of the helicopter, still in flight, Kaname waited patiently for her chance. The men in battledress, Leonard’s personal soldiers, had completely relaxed by now. Some were attending to the critically injured man, while some were watching out the window. Kaname just sat there, stained with blood splatter and looking exhausted, while nobody paid her any mind.

The one sitting next to her leaned forward to talk to someone in the back of the cabin. They spoke in Spanish, so she couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he seemed to be asking about Leonard’s condition.

It has to be now, she thought, as her mind raced through various dilemmas. Would her desperate ploy work? Could she achieve her desired outcome? What about Kalinin? What about... poor Leonard, lying there suffering because of her?

Stop being stupid! she told herself, and shook her head violently. When had she started thinking like that? She should know by now that those moments of pity could cost her her life! She closed her eyes tightly, let out a deep breath, and pursed her lips before opening her eyes to see that the soldier had stood up from his seat, but the automatic pistol was still in its holster.

All right, just do it— Kaname reached for the gun, drew it out, and then scooted away from the man. He reached for her a moment later, but she just managed to avoid him, and turned the gun toward him again.

“Don’t move! I’ll shoot!” She hadn’t shouted like this in a long time. The men froze in place, and she shouted at them again. “Call the pilot right now! We’re taking this helicopter back to where it came from!”

“Got it. Hang on...” one of the soldiers said, muttering something into his headset.

It wasn’t the pilot who arrived shortly after, but Andrey Kalinin. He saw Kaname, who was pointing the gun she’d stolen from his subordinate at his chest, but didn’t seem particularly surprised by this scenario.

“How spirited of you. I’d assumed you were still in shock from shooting him,” Kalinin said. “Ms. Chidori, remove your finger from that trigger and slowly return the gun. Then we can end all of this.”

“Don’t order me around,” she scoffed. “I will shoot him!”

“You know that you won’t,” Kalinin said softly. “Those who lack the will to fire shouldn’t carry guns. It’s a waste of time, and it can cause unpredictable accidents... I think you learned that just a few minutes ago.”

“You think I don’t have the will to fire?” Kaname took in a deep breath so as not to cry; so as not to lose. So that this old veteran, her superior in every way, couldn’t mock her. She gathered up her nerve and stared straight back at the man. “Are you gonna tell me you could really shoot Sousuke, then?”

She didn’t know a lot about Sousuke and Kalinin’s relationship. She hadn’t even seen them talk very often. But Kaname knew. She knew the trust that came into Sousuke’s voice whenever he calmly said those words: “the major.” He said it in the same way he said, “Mao said,” “Kurz said,” “the colonel said,” “the president said”—no, with an even greater sense of assurance.

Could Kalinin really be unfazed by the thought of taking on Sousuke as an enemy? she wondered. Could he really claim he could shoot him? And after admitting that, could he really lecture me from some high horse?

“I could,” Kalinin responded immediately, and the indifference of his response somehow gave it more weight. “In fact, I ordered it not long ago. That’s how motivated I am in pursuit of my goals. Of course, someone of weak conviction like yourself likely wouldn’t understand...”

“Liar,” Kaname spat back.

“Think that if you want,” he told her. “But if you keep this foolishness up, you’ll see exactly what I mean, and it won’t be pleasant.”

Kaname said nothing.

“The price you’ll pay will be the life of the foolish man in front of your gun,” Kalinin decided. “Fire, then, if you wish.”

Every word from Kalinin was like a knife in Kaname’s heart. A girl with no real training, who had lucked into stealing a gun, pointing it at a member of a helicopter’s crew, hysterically shouting demands... She looked around, wondering how the other mercenaries in the cabin were reacting to it.

There was no fear in their expressions, but no mockery, either. No sign of anger or irritation—they were just watching her impassively. She would never have been able to imagine it before, but she felt like now, she could vaguely tell what they were thinking.

It was something along these lines: Is there really a bullet in the chamber? If there is, what kind of bullet is it? If she does fire, will the bullet come out the other end? If it does, will it ricochet and damage the helicopter’s core mechanisms?

They weren’t worried about their comrade who’d foolishly let his gun be stolen away. Keeping a hostage was pointless if the person’s life wasn’t valued in the first place.

“You’re right,” said Kaname. “Here’s what I’ll do, then.” She turned the muzzle away from the man and pointed it at the cabin ceiling instead, and the soldiers immediately tensed up. Directly above the cabin were the auxiliary engine, the hydraulics system, and the drive system for the main rotor. Even in a military helicopter, the inside of the cabin was almost defenseless to bullets, and a few shots, even from a mere handgun, could do massive damage or even start a fire. “How about now?” she suggested. “I can shoot this.”

“I see. Exploiting our weak spot,” Kalinin hummed, his face earnestly thoughtful; it was the expression of an experienced teacher, receiving a unique answer from a student. “But we’re currently at 300 feet, moving at 120 miles per hour. It would be difficult to use auto rotation to land safely, and we’d all certainly die in the crash. Even in the best-case scenario, it’s highly unlikely that everyone but you would end up injured to a degree that would allow you to escape.”

He was right. Kaname was well aware of it now—at this altitude, at this speed, they didn’t have the potential or kinetic energy to safely crash land a rotorcraft. She wasn’t even wearing a seatbelt; she’d probably be thrown clear on impact and die.

“If you find that acceptable,” Kalinin told her, “feel free to shoot.”

Kaname didn’t know how to respond.

There was no violence in his words, no attempt at guilting her. Still, she felt awash in an indescribable feeling of failure. Andrey Kalinin wasn’t some silver-tongued con man who could talk a person down with words alone. He simply spoke the truth—the unshakable truth. The truth that stealing a single gun wouldn’t give Kaname any power over the current situation.

All the cleverness she’d shown during dangerous moments in the past—her bluffs, her little schemes, her defiance—the desperate struggles of a seventeen-year-old girl, one who was in over her head, just wouldn’t work against a veteran soldier like him.

Why does someone like him have to be here, taking the enemy’s side? she wondered. Why won’t he just say, “I’m sorry about all this. I’ll take you to Sagara now”? Can’t he at least wink at me in a way to let me know he’s really after something else? Why does he gaze at me instead with such hard, sad eyes?

“You really mean it, don’t you?” Kaname asked. For some reason, his sadly indifferent eyes turned bloodshot. “Then tell me. Will I never see him again?”

“Correct,” Kalinin responded. “Never again,” Coming from him, it was like a prophet foretelling doom: no matter how she struggled, no matter how she screamed and begged and wished, she’d never see him again. At least, not without someone getting hurt...

It was just like the bet Leonard had made. Every time she tried for Sousuke, tried for her freedom, someone would die. Everything that had happened here in this helicopter reinforced that dilemma.

“You’ve done quite enough,” Kalinin told her. “Give me the gun.”

“No...” This time, Kaname pointed the gun at her own temple. She could feel its thick, heavy steel. The urge to pull the trigger ran through her. Yes, just pull it, she told herself. It would be for the best. You’re tired of everything, aren’t you? One little squeeze and it will all go away... My anxiety, my pain, my guilt over shooting Leonard, my hopelessness and humiliation...

Deep inside her mind, something was screaming, “Don’t do it, not yet,” but with superhuman will, she stifled that voice. Hope had no place here; hope must be rejected. This couldn’t just be a performance. She had to sink into true despair, to genuinely desire death. She had to want it. To become an empty, unthinking vessel, ready to perform the simple act of pulling the trigger...

“Wait.” Kalinin stopped her. For the first time, there was panic in his voice. A deep fear appeared in his eyes. He must have noticed the scent of death wafting up around her—as someone who had been around death all his life, perhaps he could sense such things. “Don’t do it. I’ll do what I can.”

She believed him. “Take the helicopter back,” she pleaded. Her eyes were unfocused, and her voice was like that of a dead woman.

“That would be... difficult, in our current circumstances,” Kalinin admitted. “Leonard needs treatment. If we turn back now, he could die. For now, calm down, and remove the gun from your head. Point it at me instead.” He was more loquacious now; trying to persuade, to negotiate.

She’d taken the initiative. “Then let me say goodbye,” she decided.

“What?”

“On the radio,” she explained. “I want to say goodbye to him... let me do that, and then I’ll stop.”

The rain had lifted, and a post-battle silence had fallen over the mansion. It was as if the Laevatein’s unspeakable power had driven the storm clouds away.

After polishing off the enemy ASes, Sousuke moved to clear up the last of their ground forces, scattering the infantry who had surrounded Lemon and the others. After seeing it take down those Behemoths, no one else wanted to tangle with the Laevatein.

Lemon and the old soldiers seemed safe, at least. They waved up to the triumphant Laevatein with considerable ease. The woman from the intelligence division, Wraith, was with them, but she was sitting off by herself, wreathed in a sense of exhaustion from the prolonged gun battle.

The M9s of Kurz, Mao, and Clouseau came running as well, soon enough. They helped to clear out the last of the enemies and round up prisoners. They recognized at a glance that the Laevatein was a derivation of the Arbalest, and though in awe of the terrifying power of the machine and its pilot, they had decided to save more detailed discussion for after their withdrawal.

Still, Kurz muttered over the radio, “Wish you’d had that thing on Merida Island...”

“What do you mean?” Sousuke wanted to know.

“Kurz. Stop it,” Mao cut in.

“We’ve had quite a time, Sergeant. But we can discuss all that later,” Clouseau cut in. “Anyway, that machine... the Laevatein, was it? I’d rather not let the POWs see it, if possible. Use ECS to go invisible.”

Clouseau’s right, Sousuke thought. They’d seen more than enough of its battle capabilities already, but that didn’t mean he had to give them an eyeful of his machine up close; seeing its finer details would allow for deeper intuition of its functions...

“Roger,” he said. “Al, activate ECS. Invisibility mode.”

《Unable to comply,》 Al said.

“What?”

《Unable to comply. This machine is not equipped with ECS.》

“What?” Sousuke asked. “What are you talking about?”

《What does it sound like? Extraordinary output, extraordinary capacitors, and a massive cooling system to compensate for an exceptional drive system. All that, plus the lambda driver. We had no room for superfluous functions.》

Sousuke was stunned.

《For your information, I should add that not only does this machine lack ECS, but ECCS as well. Its radar functions are minimal, and it has no laser or infrared jamming capabilities, which leaves it vulnerable to missile attacks.》

“Wait a minute. Doesn’t that make it just like a Savage?”

《No. It’s superior to a Savage, roughly equal to an M6.》

“What in the world...” Sousuke sighed as it finally dawned on him that the electronics screen display was nearly all blacked out. The optical sensors and such were the latest models, as in an M9, but the machine was lacking almost everything else. How was he supposed to survive modern combat with such poor electronic warfare systems?

《Still, it’s fortunate that you met up with Lieutenant Clouseau and the others. Sharing data link functions with them will allow us to compensate for many of our weaknesses. Chin up, Sergeant.》

“I can think of another superfluous function we could clear out,” Sousuke muttered.

《What might that be?》

“You! I’d like to yank you out, throw you in the garbage, and replace you with an ECS.”

《Nonsense. Without me, this machine would be a defective, dead weight M9. But if that’s truly what you want, I won’t stop you.》

“You’ve got an argument for everything, huh? You really are—”

《New radio signal incoming,》 Al reported, interrupting Sousuke’s attempted insult.

Sousuke looked up questioningly.

《129.22 megahertz. AM wave VHF band. It’s an unencrypted frequency. It’s been calling you for some time.》

“For me?”

《Affirmative. Shall I switch to channel 8 and put it through?》

“Yeah, put it through.”

《Roger. Complete.》

Sousuke listened in on the digital transmission, anxiety welling in his chest. It was a woman’s voice. A voice he knew well, calling his name... “—Sousuke. Can you hear me?” It was Kaname. He felt his heart race and sweat rise up on his back. Just hearing her voice again was like a vise clamping his heart.

But while he recognized her voice, it sounded timid, and weak, and fleeting... This wasn’t the Kaname he knew. No... it was the version of her he’d seen last, the one in the courtyard at school. She was shouting into the void, not expecting a response.

“Sousuke, if you can’t hear me... then anyone who can, please pass this on to him. I repeat: Sagara Sousuke... Can you hear me? I’m currently—”

“Chidori...” His fingers moved before he could think. He switched his radio to her frequency and cried her name. “Chidori!”

Dizzying silence and static followed. At last, she responded in Japanese. “Sousuke? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I hear you. It’s me. I came to get you. Where are you? No, first... are you hurt? Are you safe?”

“Yeah... I’m okay.”

“Good,” he said. “Tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you now. I finished off the enemies here, so it’s fine. I have Al... and a new machine. We won’t ever lose again. Everyone else is here, too. Mao, Kurz, the others... So you don’t have to worry anymore. I will—”

“Sousuke, calm down.” Kaname’s voice was detached and emotionless.

But he kept talking into his headset, regardless. “I am calm. There’s so much I want to tell you. So much has happened. I don’t even understand all of it... I lost my way so many times, but I made it this far. I couldn’t not come. So, Chidori... Right now, the only thing I want to hear is where you are. If you don’t know your exact location, describe the surrounding terrain. If there are enemies nearby—”

“Sousuke, stop,” Kaname said, interrupting him.

“Why? I can’t come get you if I don’t know where you are.”

“That’s not what I mean...” Her pained, cracking voice rang in his ears. “Please... stop chasing me.”

“What? I don’t understand...”

“Don’t chase me,” she specified. “I’m inside a helicopter with Kalinin-san now, and Leonard. I think I might have killed him. I feel so bad for him... I thought about running so many times anyway, but I realize it’s pointless now. I can’t beat these people. The more I fight them, the more people will get hurt. So... I’m sorry. Really, don’t chase me. I’m really happy you came this far for me. But I don’t think—”

“Chidori?” Sousuke asked, cutting her off. “What are you saying?” A long silence followed. The static was deafening. Nothing she was saying made any sense. He couldn’t understand why she would tell him not to chase her. No... That was a lie. He did understand.

Nami’s face flitted up in his mind. Of course, Kaname didn’t know about her, but Nami was a representative of more than herself: that every time Sousuke pursued Kaname, the death toll rose, whether they were enemies or bystanders. It was a simple fact, so of course Kaname would know it. That was why they’d parted ways in the school courtyard in the first place.

“Don’t chase me.” He’d already known she would say that. The more he struggled, the more she suffered. Sousuke had just been trying to ignore that fact.

“So... Sousuke... forget about me already...”

The world around him was turning black. He felt like he’d been cast into the vacuum of space, floating aimlessly, surrounded by blackness. “Wait, Chidori. I—”

“Just get it through your head already,” she insisted. “I can’t...”

Helplessly, Sousuke gripped the sweat-soaked sticks as he heard Kaname muttering something on the other side of the radio, like a woman in the grips of a fever.

“No, never mind,” she said at last. “Never mind any of that.” Her voice grew stronger. “Sousuke. Can you still hear me?”

“Yes.”

“As former student council vice president, I’m giving you an order. You hear me?” He heard a sniffle. She was crying on the other end of the line. “Come and save me. Do whatever it takes. No matter how many people die: hundreds, thousands, millions. I don’t care. Just come and get me! Use whatever it takes—all those useless, stupid, lacking-in-common-sense soldier skills of yours. Beat up all the bad guys, find me, and hold me! You can do it, can’t you? Can’t you?!”

“Yes. I can,” Sousuke responded firmly, feeling passion surge up inside him. Of course. Why should he hesitate, just because a few million might die? To hell with what might lie ahead... If it meant getting her back in his arms, what did he have to fear?

“I’ll be there,” he promised. “Wait for me.”

“Okay...” Kaname said, her voice cracking. “Sousuke... I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He was surprised by how easily the words came to him.

“Glad to hear it... I guess that means we’d better kiss the next time we see each other. Long and hard, no matter where we are. Okay? Do you promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

The static grew worse. They were leaving the helicopter’s communications range. And with that, he’d lose any hope of pursuing her.

For now.

“I’ll wait ten years, a hundred years...” she promised, sniffling.

“Don’t worry. I’ll find you.”

“Right. Oh, and search the refrigerator in the mansion’s kitchen. There’s a hard drive—” Kaname said something more, but he couldn’t hear it. It was drowned by a wave of static, and then the line fell silent.

After the radio cut off, Kaname removed the headset, and moved her finger off the trigger. “I’m done now.” She returned the gun to the mercenary.

Kalinin, the only one there who understood Japanese, furrowed his brow severely when her transmission was finished. “You gave me a real scare, there,” Kalinin said.

“What do you mean?” Kaname asked.

“I truly thought you’d lost all hope,” he told her. “That you’d really shoot yourself.”

“I had,” she said, her face haggard. Kalinin’s careful eye would have seen through her if she hadn’t. It was psychological warfare, driving herself so far that she could ride the line between performance and the genuine article. “I don’t consider this a victory. I can’t escape my circumstances, either. And I really did go into it planning to say goodbye to him. But...” She turned her eyes down. “I changed my mind. That’s all.”

Kaname knew what an extreme thing it was she’d said to Sousuke. She’d told him to “do whatever it takes” about an impossible situation. She’d be throwing him into terrible danger. Many people might die for them. She knew how irresponsible and arrogant she was being.

But I still want to see him, she thought. That’s the truth. It’s one thing I can no longer control.

“Are you telling me you’ve resolved yourself?”

“Yes.”

Kalinin stared straight at her, then sighed. “He’ll never hesitate again. Even if I try to stop him, he’ll shoot me. It’s an incredible power you’ve given him... That’s why I didn’t want to let you use the radio. Giving in to your show of despair was my downfall,” he mourned. “This is my loss.”

“How sportsmanlike of you to admit it,” said Kaname.

“I may need to ask about that hard drive you left them, as well.”

“I don’t think it’d do you any good to hear it,” said Kaname, letting out a snort. “Nobody except me, Tessa, and that guy over there would understand it.”

●

“Man,” Kurz muttered as he got down off his M9 in the Tuatha de Danaan’s hangar deck. “‘Sousuke, I love you.’ ‘I love you too.’ I can’t keep up with this. I hope you die. I hope you rot in hell.”

“Your first time seeing me in six months, and that’s the first thing you have to say?” Sousuke whispered in exhaustion. He’d forgotten that his conversation with Kaname was on an open channel, and Mao and Kurz and the others had ended up teasing him the entire way back in the Pave Mare transport helicopter.

Lemon, his DGSE guys, Courtney, Sears, and Wraith, had accompanied them back to the de Danaan. Lemon seemed to have overheard the transmission, too, and while Sousuke had assumed he didn’t know Japanese, he must have gotten the drift of it, because when they finally met up again, he’d looked at Sousuke scrutinizingly, and finally just whispered, “Now I get it.”

“Sorry, Lemon.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Lemon said dismissively. “Anyway, I was hoping you’d introduce me to your superior officer. We sort of ended up tagging along, but I’m still not actually sure if we’re considered friend or foe to the Mithril remnants...”

Lemon and the others had been taken to a corner of the hangar deck and forbidden from moving. They were inside a top secret submarine, after all; the de Danaan’s crew wasn’t stupid enough to let some other country’s intelligence agency stroll around at their leisure.

“Sure,” Sousuke agreed. “She’s probably busy on the bridge right now, but I’m sure she’ll be by soon.” Superior officer... Sousuke hadn’t seen Tessa in ages, either. Not since those two hectic days with the old soldiers in Guam.

“Sagara-san.” He heard a voice behind him, turned, and saw Tessa there. She must have left the bridge to Mardukas, as she’d come by sooner than he’d expected.

“Colonel...”

“It’s been a while.” She gave him a quiet smile. Tessa had always been slim, but now she looked a little haggard. He hadn’t heard all the details yet... How hard must things have been for her since the all-out attack on Merida Island?

“It has,” he said after a pause. “I’m glad to see you safe and well, Colonel.”

“Indeed. It’s been an eventful time... but I think we’re all right now. I’m glad you’re safe as well, Sagara-san.” Tessa’s manner was completely subdued. She wasn’t being cold to him, nor was she overflowing with emotion, nor did her voice seem to long for more. She was happy to have one of her many subordinates back; that was all her behavior suggested. Was she holding back emotion in view of the others, or was this how she really felt? Sousuke couldn’t be sure either way.

“Then... will you return to my team?” she asked.

“Well... ah, I intended to, but I haven’t worked it all out for myself yet,” Sousuke admitted. “I’d like some time to think.”

“All right. We’ll talk another time, then.” Tessa didn’t look especially disappointed.

“Also, the ones who’ve been helping me,” Sousuke said, by way of introduction. “Michel Lemon of the DGSE, and the friends of Admiral Borda—”

“Tessa-tan!!” The voice rang out through the hangar as the two old men charged Tessa. They moved so quickly that Tessa’s personal guard couldn’t stop them in time.

“C-Courtney-san and Sears-san?” Tessa asked Sousuke in bewilderment, freezing up as if she’d stumbled upon a grizzly in the woods. “Wh-What are they doing here?”

Her soldiers restrained the two old men, all while they went on carrying on with statements like, “I missed you!” and “What are you doing here?” and “Were you following me?”

“Oh, well... I didn’t have anyone else to turn to...” said Sousuke, in his own defense.

“I understand that, but... Why did you bring them here?” Tessa asked.

“It would’ve been a little cruel to leave them.”

“I suppose...”

After recovering, Sousuke attempted to introduce Lemon. “More importantly, Lemon here is a DGSE agent who has useful information. He’s smart, and he saved my life, so he’s trustworthy. Lemon, this is my—” He turned back to look at Lemon. He was standing there, mouth agape, gazing at Tessa as if in a fever dream. “...Lemon?”

Lemon just stared.

“Lemon,” Sousuke tried again. “This is my superior officer—”

“Huh? What?”

“You wanted me to introduce you.”

“Um, but... But... For real?” Lemon asked, somewhat vacantly. “You’ll introduce me to her?”

“Hey...”

Kurz, Mao, and Clouseau, all of whom were watching from behind, whispered things like, “love at first sight?” and “so obvious” and “so the fan club grows...” and such.

Just then, Tessa got a call on the shipboard phone, seemingly from Mardukas in the control room. They had a brief back-and-forth, and then Tessa turned to address those present. “All right,” she said. “We haven’t had a proper hello, but we’re about to withdraw to safe waters on silent running. Please keep quiet until then. The Tuatha de Danaan welcomes you all.”

Just then, a voice came from the external speakers of the Laevatein, which had just been carried out from the hangar of the Pave Mare. 《Am I included in that welcome, Ms. Testarossa?》

“Of course, Al. I’m glad you’re safe, as well.”

《Thank you, Colonel.》