Beeeeeeep.
“Area Squad, prepare to sortie.”
The sound of thrusters roared from the temporary hangar set up beside us. After the wailing siren cut off, everything fell quiet again.
What an efficient academy.
This was a large-scale joint training exercise involving every year, using more than sixty percent of the school grounds. You’d think they’d at least give one speech about the Empire’s greatness or the academy’s efforts.
But there was none of that—just a quick rundown of precautions for combat, and then straight into training.
Even those precautions amounted to little more than: if your opponent’s core is exposed, stop attacking.
Beeeeeeeeeeep.
“Zeus Squad, prepare to sortie.”
Once again, the sound of thrusters rang out from a distant temporary hangar.
“Everyone remembers the operation, right?”
“Yes.”
At Alain’s words, everyone answered half-heartedly. I gave an equally vague reply, then turned my head to the side.
A white, blue, and red paint job distinctive of the French tricolor. It was Levan’s Titan.
More eye-catching than its appearance was the clean shield equipped on one arm.
Levan seemed to notice my gaze and answered before I could say anything.
“Well, as you can see, I bought a new one. Shields are consumables to begin with. Don’t worry about it so much! Shields don’t cost much anyway.”
The shield that had been dragged away by the wire during the spar with Karina had been completely ruined.
It wasn’t really my fault. In the first place, foldable shields were equipment that sacrificed durability for convenience.
Equipment with a variable function couldn’t possibly be sturdier than equipment without one.
“Th-then I really w-won’t worry about it.”
“Yeah. I like that confidence!”
“I-Ian’s confident too, though?”
“That’s not confidence, that’s shamelessness!”
Levan burst out laughing.
Only after I pulled my gaze away from the shield did Levan’s Titan properly come into view.
The only heavy-armored Titans I’d encountered so far were Princess Saya’s Kaiser and Aaron’s Icarus.
Both were large-class Titans over twenty meters tall. By contrast, Levan’s Alex seemed only about one meter taller than Ailee. They were so similar in size that it was hard to even say there was a difference.
A model that secured both mobility and defense, while also carrying equipment for long-range engagements.
It might be a heavily armored Titan that specialized in evasive maneuvers and ranged combat. That was the kind of thing only veterans who could maneuver like mad inside a Titan core without getting motion sick used.
Beeeeeeeeeeep!
“Ugh.”
Just as I was about to cover my ears against the blare, a clear voice rang through the speakers.
“Karina Squad, sortie.”
The warning lights flashed crimson, and the siren blared noisily. The interlocked locks came apart with a metallic clank. Hydraulic cylinders threw open the massive door.
“Good. You’re mentally prepared, right, Deep?”
“Supplying Ailee’s power up to 98%. This will be a prolonged battle, so always keep resupply in mind!”
No sooner had Ran finished speaking than several voices rang out at once.
“Karina, White Bunny.”
“Levan, Alex!”
“Arbiter of Alain.”
“Heavy Machine, Lord.”
The hand gripping the stick trembled briefly, then stilled. It felt like placing my finger on a trigger. I was scared, and my heart was pounding, but I was calm.
“Deep, Ailee.”
With my voice as the last, the launcher spewed the Titans out.
“Sortieing.”
“Here we go!”
“Operation begins.”
“Firing!”
“Dive.”
I pushed the stick forward.
The backpack thrusters erupted with vivid blue light. Heat carried all the way to the core. This wasn’t a starting block, but a real catapult.
The moment I felt gravitational acceleration, my entire body sank into the seat. I clenched my molars tight.
It was bearable.
The current Ailee wasn’t a high-mobility type. Besides, my body had recovered a lot compared to before, and the inertial control device Ian had attached seemed to be helping quite a bit too.
I was extremely curious about where it had come from, but that could wait.
Beep beep! A white light flashed, and short-range comms opened. As we’d discussed earlier, Levan and I, the heavy-armored types, ran in front, with the other three following behind.
“Alain, scan the surrounding terrain and locate high ground! Deep and Levan, maintain all-around vigilance!”
Karina was to carry the squad flag.
Since her mobility was overwhelmingly superior, as long as she wasn’t shot down, there was no chance of it being taken. Even if the squad was wiped out, she could survive alone through wire-assisted movement. For now, the longer we survived, the more points we would gain.
The Arbiter following behind us began hovering.
Its backpack, large enough to be called bloated, lifted upward, and the cover snapped open with a clack. At the same time, six reconnaissance drones were ejected outside.
“Reconnaissance drones, online.”
By now, Alain would be wearing goggles over his eyes, looking only through the fields of view of the six drones. Since he wouldn’t be able to see his surroundings while searching, we had to find high ground quickly before we were exposed to other squads.
“Found it.”
“Already?”
In that sense, Alain was absurdly capable.
Observation drones not only provided vision, but even prevented us from being observed by other Titans’ sensors. With this level of performance, it was probably quite excellent even among support-type Titans.
“There are no places nearby where other Titans could be hiding, and it has a wide-open field of view.”
“Move!”
Whatever the operation, it was best if you could quickly find the place you wanted and quickly execute what you intended.
“No other Titans have been detected nearby yet. Nothing observed visually either.”
Even better if there were no other squads trying to seize the same position.
“What are the chances they’re blocking image sensor detection?”
“The Arbiter doesn’t have a function to detect that.”
That was a shame.
Soon, high ground appeared before our eyes. It was close to a cliff, but it didn’t look like it would collapse even if a Titan stood on it.
Karina’s White Bunny began accelerating with its thrusters.
“Target point visually confirmed.”
It fired a wire toward the cliff, then used the wire and thrusters to climb to the top in one go. At the same time, the wire it fired downward wrapped around Lord’s Heavy Machine.
“Pull me up.”
As White Bunny on top of the cliff dropped straight down, Heavy Machine shot upward along the wire.
“Deep, Levan!”
When we pulled in the airborne White Bunny, Heavy Machine secured the top of the cliff in a stable position. A baronial family’s super-high-firepower Titan, and an unobstructed field of view.
We would first annihilate the enemy with Heavy Machine’s firepower, then use our Arbiter’s sensor disruption to hide below the cliff and wipe them out the moment they appeared.
“It’s going so smoothly that it’s kind of absurd.”
As if answering Karina’s words, Ailee muttered.
“Maybe it’s because you usually do so many bad things? There should be days when things go this well too.”
It was a relief Ailee’s voice didn’t go over the comms network.
Apparently, Ailee held grudges even harder than I did. Apart from that, she was right. She was right, but still.
When things went this easily, even I started to feel uneasy.
The antennae shaped like White Bunny’s ears kept turning this way and that. Karina kept muttering under her breath.
“There’s no way we could take high ground this normally. Were we just lucky?”
It must have grated on his ears quite a bit, because Alain, who was above, finally blurted out.
“Is there really any need to be that anxious? If things are going smoothly, isn’t that a good thing?”
White Bunny shook its head from side to side.
“You guys wouldn’t know. But among the second-years, there are quite a few pilots specialized in trap installation and defensive tactics. The fact that a high ground like this hasn’t been occupied means something is wrong.”
For example, Ayla von Dis Pater.
Archduke Dis Pater dominated the northern battlefield. He mercilessly suppressed enemies with no regard for conserving enormous quantities of land mines, aerial mines, missiles, and more.
There was a high possibility that the Titan Ayla used resembled that tendency exactly.
If we happened to run into her, it would mean this entire area was surrounded by traps. Moreover, the first-year student in Ayla’s squad this time was—
“Target spotted.”
Wooooong.
The drones retracted with a series of clacks. The squad’s Titans turned their heads at the same time.
From far away, clouds of dust rose over the wilderness. Perhaps because of the camouflage suited to the desert, it didn’t stand out very much.
It was a camouflage color one would choose only if one was familiar with desert and wasteland terrain.
And it wasn’t only the terrain that was familiar. The shape of that Titan, too, was naturally familiar.
“Icarus.”
Aaron’s Icarus.
The first-year ranked third, who was part of Ayla von Dis Pater’s squad.
Levan’s Alex raised its designated marksman rifle. The muzzle fixed on Icarus.
At the same time, Icarus’s cannon barrel was also aimed this way. Karina’s White Bunny raised a hand upward. It was a standby signal. The moment that hand came down, we had to pull the trigger.
At that same moment, Icarus’s mono-eye flashed. White Bunny’s goggle eyes also flashed as it sent the same signal.
“What does that mean?”
I had never properly received anything like military training.
If I attended the academy, I’d probably learn eventually, but I still wasn’t familiar with things like optical signals or Morse code at all. If someone didn’t tell me, I had no way of knowing.
Of course, I didn’t need to know it myself.
“ALLY. It means they’re allies. Just like we discussed beforehand. This is great!”
Because I had Ailee.
Icarus gradually slowed as it approached. Only now did I realize there was another Titan clinging to Icarus, gripping its shoulder and standing on its thigh.
White and black. Its long, trailing side skirts were shaped similarly to a maid’s skirt.
Even without anyone explaining whose it was, I felt like I already knew whose Titan it belonged to.
“Ayla.”
“Has it been a while since we met, Karina?”
The two Titans, much smaller than the others, firmly clasped each other’s hands.
It was an alliance.