The staff officers and radio operators inside the command post all burst into cheers at once.
“Puhahahaha! Did you hear that, Lieutenant Colonel Jäger? The sound of those bastards’ skulls getting smashed!”
Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich slapped my shoulder again and again as he cheered.
“Thanks to that bizarre tin can, our bomber loss rate has been cut in half! Command is in an uproar over it!”
“I’m glad it was worth the price.”
I gave a suitable response.
“Status analysis.”
[Name: Heinrich von Hermann]
[Status: Extreme excitement, boundless trust in Max Jäger]
[Emotion: The 88mm was one thing, and now this tin can too! As expected, even among those army grunts, this man is a true genius! That oil drum is the invention of the century!]
Genius, my ass. I’d only plagiarized a tiny bit of Earth’s history.
For the next few days, the atmosphere at the western coastal base was filled with reports of victory.
“Lieutenant Colonel Jäger! We’ll be heading out again with those oil drums firmly attached under our wings!”
“Even though you’re army, how do you understand the hardships of us flyboys so well?”
Every pilot who passed by snapped me a perfectly rigid salute whenever they saw me. The morale of the Imperial Air Force, having firmly seized air superiority, was soaring to the heavens.
However, a cornered rat would bite the cat.
Only a few days later.
At four in the morning, when a thick sea fog had settled over the western coastal base and made it impossible to see an inch ahead.
Waaaaaaaang──!
Along with an air-raid siren that seemed about to tear through the eardrums, explosions that shook the earth shattered the silence of dawn.
Boom—! Kwang, kwagagagang!
I sprang out of bed by reflex. Numerous red dots were crossing the coastline and ravaging the airspace above the base.
“This is insane.”
I immediately threw on my combat uniform and rushed outside.
Shoooooong—! Boom—! Kwaaaaang!
“Enemy attack! It’s an air raid by those Red bastards!”
“Get to the antiaircraft positions! Deploy the AA guns!”
The base turned into a living hell in an instant. Soldiers rushed out in their underwear and ran about in confusion.
Tadadadang—! Tudododok!
Enemy aircraft suddenly dropped altitude and sprayed machine-gun fire. The concrete floor burst upward and tents were torn to shreds.
“Gyaaaaak!”
“Medic! Shrapnel in the chest over here! Bring a tourniquet!”
A horrific pandemonium. At the center of it, in Hangar No. 1, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich was shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Get the fighters up! Get them in the air now! Are you planning to all die on the ground like this?”
But it was impossible.
Shrapnel from the first bombing run had just struck the waiting room, and three veteran pilots were rolling on the floor covered in blood.
“Lieutenant Colonel! Captain Haas and the copilots were hit by shrapnel! They can’t sortie!”
Heinrich’s face turned deathly pale. The aircraft waiting at the corner of the runway had become useless.
“Find other men and put them in the cockpits right now! The enemy planes are circling around for a second bombing run!”
“The standby team is all in another hangar…! To take off down the runway from here, the control tower has to—”
“Is now the time to worry about that crap?!”
Heinrich roared. The chain of command had been smashed, and the confusion had reached its peak in a desperate crisis.
At this rate, if the enemy formation dropped more bombs, half of the base’s main fighters would become heaps of scrap metal before they could even take off.
I pulled the flight cap off a fallen pilot and put it on.
“Move.”
Then, without the slightest hesitation, I stepped onto the fighter’s wing, climbed up, and threw myself into the cockpit. I pressed my body firmly against the backrest and gripped the control stick tightly.
The sensation of cold, hard metal traveled through my palms.
[Skill “Weapon Proficiency (Lv.1)” is activating.]
[The structure and optimal operating method of the contacted weapon (Imperial Main Fighter-109) are being imprinted into your mind.]
Flight experience and instincts accumulated over hundreds, thousands of hours. The play in the throttle, the resistance of the rudder pedals, even the information meant by every needle on the instrument panel.
Every skill needed to handle a fighter was forcibly shoved deep into my brain.
I did not hesitate.
I turned on the magneto switch, pumped fuel in with the primer, then yanked the starter lever with all my might.
Krrrrrk— Bang! Kwaaaaang!
The propeller began spinning fiercely. The aircraft shook violently.
“J-Jäger! What are you doing right now?! Y-you crazy bastard! You’re army!”
Heinrich shouted something from outside, but I merely closed the canopy without a care.
Clunk—!
“You insane son of a bitch! Get out right now!”
I shoved the throttle forward roughly. An insane act, no different from flooring it at full power. The RPM rose sharply, and white exhaust smoke spewed in every direction.
Kwooooooo—!
The moment I released the brakes, the aircraft kicked off from the runway and shot forward.
Due to the powerful engine torque, the nose twisted to the left. A common reason novice pilots crashed before they could even take off.
[Skill “Weapon Proficiency (Lv.1)” is active.]
I applied pressure to my right foot as naturally as sliding. When I pressed down hard on the rudder pedal, which was stiff as stone, a dizzying vibration wrapped around my entire body.
Dudududuk—!
Soon, the centrifugal force pulling me to the left vanished. The force of the tail trying to move right and the engine torque trying to move left entered a precarious balance.
Dudududuk— Shoooooong—!
The clamorous sound of tire friction disappeared, replaced by the distinctive roar of high-speed movement. My tilted field of vision returned, and the vanishing point at the center of the runway came into sight again.
The scene was hell itself. Bombs rained down in every direction, and more than half the crimson base was already burning.
I raced through the middle of it.
The storm of bomb fragments and the vibrations of the rattling concrete floor faded far into the distance.
I pulled the final landing gear lever. As the gear clattered and folded into the fuselage, what appeared before my eyes was the sea, shrouded in hazy fog so thick I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
There was no time to complain. The takeoff procedure was not yet over, and I had to move both hands frantically. A moment later, after putting on the oxygen mask, I finished the entire process.
As if it had been waiting, my initiation began.
Tadadadang—!
The enemy had spotted me. With a roar, bullets grazed past the canopy.
I wrenched the control stick roughly and banked the aircraft. Then, relying on the [Minimap], I tried to get behind the enemy, but failed.
The enemy pilot seemed to be a veteran well versed in horizontal turns, and no matter how much I twisted the aircraft left and right, he never gave me his tail.
The red dot on the [Minimap] clung stubbornly to my rear. At this rate, being shot down was only a matter of time.
“This aircraft isn’t meant to win in a turning fight.”
[Weapon Proficiency] forcibly pushed the correct answer into my head. The Empire’s 109 fighter was an aircraft specialized in energy fighting based on its high-powered engine—in other words, climbing and diving.
“Here I go.”
Therefore, there was only one choice given to me. I swallowed a deep breath and put strength into my right hand. At the same time as I pulled the control stick tight to my chest, I operated the boost switch.
The entire aircraft trembled, the instrument needles leaped toward the danger zone, and the exhaust ports spewed thick white smoke and flames.
Kwooooooo—!
The nose shot upward vertically. Along with the altitude climbing like mad came tremendous gravitational acceleration.
It felt as if an invisible giant were crushing my shoulders. My whole body was driven into the seat, and my blood rushed toward my lower body.
My vision was dyed black and white.
[Skill “Indomitable Spirit” is active.]
[Resistance to all fear and confusion states is greatly increased.]
The instant the curtain of blackout tightening around my mind was forcibly torn away, what spread before my eyes was space.
Kwaaaaaa—!
The aircraft pierced through the clouds.
The horizon dividing the world in half. The June dawn burning red in the dim light of early morning.
Far in the east, day was breaking.
The sight of the crimson-burning base and the noise of pouring gunfire no longer reached me. Behind me was only a dense sea of clouds, and before my eyes, the blackness of space.
Altitude, 4,500 meters.
Even gravity seemed to have vanished like a lie. Even the roar of the engine had turned into the faint flutter of little wings due to the thin air.
At the weightless moment when the aircraft, having reached its ceiling, stood still in the air.
I reduced the throttle by half.
And then.
Bang—!
My right foot kicked the rudder pedal. I pulled the control stick to my chest and twisted it slightly to the left.
Kigigigigik—!
The entire aircraft frame, made of thin aluminum alloy, screamed.
The propeller wash slammed into the tail. The nose of my fighter, which had been standing upright in the air, bent sideways, drawing a semicircle through empty space like the bob of a pendulum.
The world was completely reversed.
The space before my eyes sank behind me in an instant, and instead, the dense sea of clouds poured into my view.
And directly ahead of me.
At the center of the gunsight’s crosshairs, I saw the back of an enemy plane that had stalled and begun plunging downward.
“Now.”
[Activating skill “Bullet Time (Lv.2).”]
Within the slowed flow of the world, I carefully aligned my aim.
Tudododok— Kwang, kwagwang—!
The guns in the nose and main wings belched fire at the same time. High-explosive rounds struck the enemy plane’s back head-on.
[Skill “Bullet Time” is entering cooldown.]
[Remaining daily uses: 1/2]
The result was flame.
Crimson fire filled my vision. I barely passed by the fragments of the enemy aircraft, literally torn apart, and dove.
But my initiation was not over.
Five more red dots appeared on the [Minimap]. Toward me, whose altitude and speed had been shaved away by the dogfight just now, enemy planes began swarming in a pack.
“Insane.”
Tadadadadang—! Kagang!
Fragments sparked off the rear of the fuselage. The oil pressure warning light on the instrument panel blinked like mad.
Shweeeeeek—!
Coolant leaked from the right wing, spewing white smoke.
Crossfire flew in from every direction. Left, right, rear. I was completely a rat trapped in a jar.
[Skill “Indomitable Spirit (Lv.1)” is active.]
There was no time to regret climbing into the plane for nothing.
“Skill!”
I called out to my light and salt.
The only savior that had always rescued me from the pit of despair and the edge of death.
[Owned Skill Points: 2]
1. [Strengthen Existing Skill]
2. [Acquire New Skill]
“Strengthen existing skill, Weapon Proficiency!”
Ding—
And it never betrayed me.