“Deep.”
It was Kaya’s voice.
“Yes?”
“If you pull the lever below instead of the stick….”
No need to hear any more.
I pulled the lever at once.
“It adjusts power and fuel to focus on mobility…, did you already pull it?”
“Yes!”
Having hidden functions like this is so Ian.
Though unlike Ian, she did explain it.
Accelerating, I plunged into the jungle.
The moment I passed one tree, two Titans appeared right in front of me.
One blue, one red.
“Wh-what?”
Clank!
“I’ll begin engagement.”
“Enemy encountered. Commencing combat immediately with a surprise attack.”
First, one.
Thoom!!!
A sound I hadn’t heard in a long time.
The stake pierced through the Titan from shoulder to head in a single shot.
“Uh, ah.”
The blue Titan faltered.
“Can you provide bombardment support?”
“Wh-what?”
“I’m asking if the Space Marines have bombardment-type Titans.”
“We d-do, but?”
What a relief.
I’d been worried because we had far too little firepower on this side.
“Please request fire support while falling back.”
“Wh-what? Who the hell are you?”
Thoom!
A red Titan appeared, smashing through the trees.
“Die!!!”
A chain sword.
I evaded while reverse-thrusting.
I drew the submachine gun.
Drrrrrrrrk!
Wrist, elbow, shoulder, head.
I shot and destroyed the joints and sensors in sequence, then before reverse-thrusting, I smashed the front thruster in with my fist.
“Huh?”
Thud!
I picked up the chain sword the red Titan had dropped and immediately stabbed it in the back.
The generator crackled, then stopped at once.
I turned back and looked again at the Space Marine Titan.
“…Space Marines! Unidentified reinforcements have appeared! Pull the battlefield back and retreat, and supplement firepower with bombardment-type Titans!”
Mm, a chainsaw. A fine means of conversation.
I grabbed the deactivated Titan.
Using it as a shield, I accelerated.
Having heavily armored legs is better than I thought.
The hover device has high output, so even in a jungle full of obstacles, it can move pretty decently.
“The enemies are retreating!”
“Enemy approaching from the east!”
“Those dirty bastards! An ambush?!”
“No, it’s not the Space Marines! That Titan looks different from theirs!”
They found out already.
Maybe because they’re from a mercenary corps, their grasp of the situation is much faster than I expected.
“Those cowards, using camouflage paint!”
Is camouflage paint cowardly?
It’s incredibly efficient.
By that logic, was Joshua’s Titan cowardly when it did everything it could to win?
“Bullshit.”
What’s cowardly about doing your best to win?
Victory comes before honor.
That doesn’t mean you can do anything for the sake of victory.
It means only by doing your utmost to win can you be honorable.
All sorts of communications mixed wildly through the open comm network.
This is why communication in the south is difficult.
With a beeping sound, the comm channel shifted.
“I have remotely taken control of the comm channel.”
Ran had gained a lot of experience, and her sense had gotten good.
“I’ll keep going!”
“Channel interference may occur again.”
“Don’t bother controlling it!”
Tatadadadang!
Matching the sound of gunfire, I hid myself among the trees.
The Space Marines seemed to have already retreated.
Being quick to run away is an advantage.
Pabababak.
Every time I accelerated, rounds embedded themselves in the trees.
Digging into the enemy’s midst isn’t easy.
The jungle as an environment is itself extremely advantageous for defensive battles.
The moment I tried to move again to dodge the bullets, a chain sword split into the tree in front of me.
“Found you, you bastard!”
Weeeeeeng!
The chain sword cut down the tree.
In a jungle environment, it might be a far more efficient weapon than expected.
“What? Where’d he go?”
Should I take just one?
“…You’re hiding at the base of the tree!”
A crack play only a small high-mobility type could pull off.
I swung the dagger faster than the approaching chain sword.
With a crunch, the Titan’s wrist was severed.
I grabbed the chain sword floating in midair and swung it once more.
The Titan’s leg was roughly cut away.
“Not bad.”
It cuts better than I expected.
Weeeeeeng!!!
I tore out only the fallen Titan’s generator and plunged back between the trees.
“It’s one high-mobility type! Do not approach first!”
A good idea.
There’s a lot of cover here.
For a high-mobility Titan, that’s a tremendous advantage, and at the same time a disadvantage.
It’s perfect for dodging enemy attacks freely, but having your mobility restricted is dreadful.
On top of that, I don’t have any excellent firepower weapons capable of attacking through trees.
The current armament is the same.
Kaya only gave me the kind of light, comfortable armaments a high-mobility type would use.
Thanks to that, my mobility went up, so there’s no problem using cover.
Instead, I also had no weapon that could land an effective hit on the enemy.
I have no weapon.
Only the environment.
Drrrrrrrrk!
I poured a magazine from the submachine gun between the trees.
“He can hit the head while moving at that speed?!”
This is the good part about fighting mass-produced Titans.
A head line forms.
Even if you just shoot along that point, a minimum hit rate is guaranteed.
Weeeeeeng!
I kept accelerating while gnawing through trees with the chain sword.
I left traces of my presence.
“The enemy is circling around us.”
“Don’t lose him, keep shooting!”
“There’s a gap when you reload! Take turns firing!”
The enemies started bunching together to avoid me.
Each time I drew one large circle, the enemies gathered at one point to keep me in check.
If their goal is to attack just one person, it’s a valid choice.
Since the other side is also from a mercenary corps, their situational judgment is fast.
“They’ve gotten tunnel vision.”
But the red Titan clan isn’t the only one from a mercenary corps.
The Space Marines, who had been fighting them until just now, are from an even bigger mercenary corps.
“Fire!”
If they gather, sure, that’s good for dealing with just one person.
But it’s different against artillery.
Craaaack!
The trees burst apart.
Thoom!
The ground surged upward.
To quote a certain man with a mustache exactly:
“Artillery is the god of war.”
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
I pulled back for a moment and watched the situation.
Beep.
“Deep. There are two methods this time as well. One is to wait.”
It was Ran.
My choice was the same this time, too.
“I’ll go with the second again. Can you read the shells’ trajectories and turn them into a simulation?”
“That is difficult for me.”
I hate to compare, but Ailee could have done it.
Putting my regret aside, I activated the hover device and thrusters simultaneously.
Forward.
Forward again.
Forward until I was soaked in a sea of shells.
Mud surging up from the ground covered the sensors and clogged the hover device.
My accelerating body sank downward.
Though only one remained, I pressed the pedals with the legs that had become two again thanks to the prosthetic.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo.”
My advance was a little slow because of the slippery mud.
If these had been high-mobility feet, it might have been even more troublesome.
Shells exploded in every direction.
Charging while reading shell trajectories made me feel like my brain would burst.
The screen was already completely obscured by mud, smoke, and explosions, making it useless.
“Hup.”
I held my breath and advanced.
It’s not as if I’ve ever fought by relying on the screen.
I hadn’t been looking at the screen from the start.
Weeeeeeeeng!
The sound of a chain sword.
Reverse thrust.
Then thrust again.
At the same time as I moved in defiance of inertia, I knocked my chain sword upward.
With a grinding screech, metal collided with metal.
Kickback.
The moment the rebounding chain sword embedded itself in the ground, I let go.
After all, the opponent’s chain sword had bounced back too.
“Deep! According to sensor observations,”
“Hoo.”
I know.
All I need is eyes on my back.
I fired the side thrusters and dodged briefly to the side.
I stopped by digging my toes into the slippery mud.
The chain sword that sliced through empty air cut down a Titan from the same clan.
A shell fell and exploded.
With the impact, the mud covering the sensors was finally stripped away.
“Hoo. Hoo.”
At last, I breathed in again.
I’m craving a stimulant cigarette.
If I could just take one long drag, my head would clear.
I clenched my teeth.
I bit my lip.
Time and time again, I nearly called Ailee’s name and asked for help, then held myself back.
I drew the dagger.
“I’ll borrow this!”
“Wh-what?”
I struck the Titan’s neck with the dagger and pulled the pistol from its waist.
Bang! Bang!
I fired through the mud thrown up by the bombardment and hit the head.
I used the red Titan as a shield to avoid the shots aimed at me.
They don’t shoot their comrade.
That means they have at least that much humanity.
This can be resolved through conversation.
I slammed the comm button with my fist.
“The fight is over! Retreat!”
“Don’t talk nonsense…!”
Thoom!
It took a direct hit from a shell.
The bright red Titan was crushed just like that and rolled across the ground.
The other Titans flinched and began assessing the situation.
Looks like the one that just exploded was their superior.
“Run.”
I know guys like this, roughly.
They’re bound together by loyalty and skill.
They’re not gathered for devotion or some special purpose.
“You bastard! You just did that to our boss!”
“I’m not the one who killed him! Take care of the others around you and run!”
Only then did the red Titans look around.
The Titans I’d touched didn’t have so much as a scratch on their cores.
I hadn’t even broken the controls, since I thought a two-seater core might look different.
Clack.
Amid the falling shells, one red Titan raised its hand.
“Blood Crows, we’re retreating.”
The declaration came once, and there were no objections.
Kiiiiing!
Each thruster spat flames as they began pulling out.
The falling shells rapidly decreased, then soon fell silent.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
Blue Titans walked through the flames and aimed their gun barrels.
“Hey! Who the hell are ya! What’re ya doin’ here!”
Listen to that rich accent.
At this point, it’s practically High Gothic.
“I’m with the Southern Liberation Army.”
“Oh, that so?”
The gun barrels lowered slightly.
“Thing is, the way you move that Titan’s got Empire all over it, don’t it?”
“I defected.”
The blue Titan nodded.
Now that I looked, the Titan right in front of me had gold decorations.
He said he could sense the Empire just from how I moved.
Rather than dismiss him because of his way of speaking, this guy is the real deal.
“Then why’d ya come help us? We got nothin’ to give ya.”
“That’s all fine, but could we talk somewhere else instead of here?”
“Ah, right, right. Can’t be doin’ this here.”
I could hear the sounds of Titans gradually approaching.
It was clearly a small-scale clan alliance rushing in to see if there was anything to scavenge.
“Hey, come over here for now. Let’s go with our boys.”
Not a bad start.
Even if it feels like I got put through hell from the very beginning.