I'll Snipe You
Jack Daniel clicked his tongue.
The second bullet grazed the side of the transport plane. The fuselage shook violently.
The impact caused the barrel of Nimrod, which was in a firing stance, to sway, and Origin screamed as she clung to Jack.
"Did they fire again without moving? A sniper who misses once is supposed to change positions, you know."
Jack muttered without taking his eyes off the scope. His voice carried a hint of interest.
It seemed they had tried to kill him before he could prepare his own shot. Unfortunately, they missed and only gave away their position.
At this distance, where communication via the Afterglow Field isn't permitted, what decides victory or defeat isn't piloting skill, but the shooter's experience. That guy seemed to be lacking a bit in that department.
{Position confirmed by the last shot!}
The controller's transmission rang through the hangar.
Just as Jack was synthesizing the information and moving the muzzle...
"Alright! Let's go teach that dirty bastard a lesson!"
"Yeah!"
The reserve Apostles, who had descended to the hangar at some point, mobilized while already in their Advents.
"Hey! If you drop defenselessly into where the enemy sniper is lying in wait..."
"Stop!"
Even Origin shouted, but the young Apostles didn't listen.
They took their Saints, boarded their Advents, and jumped out the exit. And of all places, they dove right into the middle of the line of fire Jack was aiming at.
Perhaps intentionally.
Jack clicked his tongue.
{We'll reduce their forces before engaging Golgotha!}
{So that's their strategy!}
Those enemies in the guise of falling comrades said as much. They must have thought, 'Can't we, who have surpassed human limits, dodge mere bullets?' They were drunk on their own power, having crushed conventional weapons. The inexperienced recruits didn't understand that what they were facing now was an Apostle just like themselves.
Jack broke into a cold sweat.
"Mokjul-ssi! Can you sortie right now?"
{Sortie is possible, but...}
"Do something about those guys..."
Before he could finish, the sound of gunfire rang out.
This time, it wasn't live ammunition. A line of dark red light tore through the sky. The falling Advent's Sanctuary Field shattered like glass, and the machine was sliced in half.
The upper and lower halves fell into the sea separately.
Origin covered her mouth. The Apostle and Saint who had been alive just a moment ago died right before her eyes.
"...Reverse Afterglow Weapon."
Jack's expression changed. A weapon that tears through an Advent's Sanctuary Field like paper. It couldn't have shattered like that otherwise.
"Damn it, my comrade!!!"
The surviving Apostle screamed and lowered their altitude.
But a dark red beam erupted again, and the Advent was split vertically.
"Why?"
Jack glanced at Mokjul, who would be inside Pathos. This guy could have easily saved them.
{I thought it would be more profitable to let them die.}
Mokjul said nonchalantly. He could have stopped them, but he didn't, that guy.
"Damn it! We're already outnumbered by the enemy!"
Jack gritted his teeth. Just then, a bullet hit the transport plane's tail wing. The fuselage tilted sharply. Alarms painted the hangar red.
{Hit again! If we get hit once more, we're going down for sure! Fire now!}
"Ha... It's still a bit early, but well, can't be helped."
Jack pressed his eye to the scope.
"I'll hit it by instinct!"
Nimrod's anti-ship sniper rifle spewed fire. A mountain ridge was engulfed in flames, and red Afterglow Particles rose up.
{Target destroyed!}
The controller cheered. The moment relief was about to spread throughout the hangar...
"No. Something's wrong."
Jack's eyes narrowed.
"The amount of Afterglow Particles is too low. This is... they detonated the propellant tank to fake their death."
When an Advent is shot down, the Afterglow Particles carried in the machine scatter entirely. That was less than half that amount.
"But where did they go...?"
The scope scanned the mountains and fields. They were nowhere to be found.
"3 o'clock clockwise! Mid-slope of the mountain!"
Origin shouted.
Jack didn't ask; he turned the barrel to the 3 o'clock position. As if absolutely trusting the words of the girl who had boarded an Advent for the first time today. There was no hesitation.
And a moment later, a dark red light formed on the mountain slope.
Smoke erupted from Nimrod's barrel as well, and fire flared.
And the two barrages collided in mid-air.
The Reverse Afterglow beam was pierced by Jack's bullet and scattered in the middle of the sky. He had accurately predicted the angle of the enemy's bullet and sniped the attack itself.
{Amazing.}
The transport pilot exclaimed in admiration.
"...Our Saint is pretty amazing, huh?"
Meanwhile, Jack wiped away cold sweat and smiled.
Even for him, sniping an attack approaching sub-light speed was a huge risk.
"...I don't think you're the only one who's amazing."
Origin replied, listening to her own heartbeat. She didn't even know how she saw his attack. Only the result that she did see it remained.
"Anyway, such an extraordinary method of faking death by detonating propellant. I've seen it in combat data."
Jack said, readjusting his scope.
{Is it the trick Raven used when dealing with the Kyungdanryeon Advents?}
{Real skill is learned by getting hit, after all.}
Mokjul replied.
{In other words.}
{...Jeoga and Heukjo. One of them is there.}
"Correct. Looks like it's a revenge match for them."
{Ha. Those guys who make a living out of murder, acting like saints.}
At that moment, something surged up in a swarm from the mountain slope.
Scattering missiles. Dozens of them disrupted their trajectories and rushed toward the transport plane.
Jack's scope latched onto the launch point. Through the lens, a black machine was caught. Its entire firepower system had been swapped out, and jamming antennas sprouted from its back.
"An electronic warfare unit modified for high firepower... Is it Heukjo, who got beaten by Raven?"
{I'll keep them in check.}
Mokjul finally mobilized his machine. As if reacting to that, Pathos's eyes split from two to four.
"No. No need for that."
Jack cut him off.
"Save your ammo. There's going to be a fierce battle soon. You'll need a lot then."
With those words, the armor all over Nimrod's body opened. The 12 machine guns embedded in various parts opened fire simultaneously. The stream of shells surged up into the sky. Missiles exploded one by one. The 12 gun barrels moved independently, each chasing a different target.
It was manual. One man was operating all twelve guns.
Origin held her breath as she watched the scene from the sub-seat.
Jack's two hands danced on the instrument panel. His left hand tapping the fire control console and his right hand adjusting the aim moved independently. It was closer to conducting an orchestra than operating a machine.
Dozens of missiles were annihilated before they could reach the transport plane. A flower field of explosions bloomed in the sky.
And in the midst of that barrage, Jack's right hand was finely adjusting the sniper rifle's scope.
Erasing all the missiles while simultaneously preparing to snipe the opponent. The monstrous ability to accomplish all these processes at once. This was a glimpse of Jack, who was said to be on par with the 5th rank.
He caught Heukjo on the mountain slope rising to change position in his lens. Jack, having captured the movement of power concentrating in the leg thrusters just before the jump...
"There you are."
Paaang!
Fire bloomed from the barrel.
A few seconds later. Heukjo, who had tried to jump into the sky to escape from the mountain slope, lost balance and fell down the hillside. The leg attitude control thrusters had been completely ripped off.
All these attacks were at a distance beyond the effective range of Jack's sniper rifle.
From outside that range, he had hit an Advent moving at supersonic speed.
"I guess you don't shoot by looking at the enemy either, but by predicting."
Mokjul said.
"Yeah. Otherwise, a gun would be meaningless."
"Good skill."
Mokjul's light laughter was transmitted over the radio.
Just then, a new heat source was detected on the horizon.
A red Advent was rushing toward Heukjo. Scattering flares and smoke everywhere, and pouring a barrage toward the transport plane.
It's trying to save its fallen comrade. That barrage is to disturb our vision to create an opening.
Jack's 12 machine guns rang out again.
The incoming barrage was instantly erased from the air. Live ammunition hit live ammunition, losing its trajectory, and rockets that pierced through the flares were split in two right in front of them.
He was shooting down bullets with bullets. What should one call this art of shooting down the opponent's fire? Origin couldn't even fathom what level of skill this was.
The red machine's movement slowed down. Beyond the smoke screen Jack had created while destroying the barrage, she could feel it hesitating.
"Even if you hide in the smoke, your movements are all within my prediction range."
Jack raised his sniper rifle again. This time, he framed both Heukjo and the one who came to save him in his scope.
Red-painted armor.
"That must be Jeoga."
Rushing into the jaws of death to help a comrade. It wasn't an emotion he couldn't understand. Because Jack himself had someone like that.
The only man he envied, admired, and respected.
Lafitte.
That name brushed past his heart. Along with the days they stood back-to-back, the inferiority complex he swallowed while looking at that back, and the things he only realized after losing everything.
"...Jack?"
Origin looked up at him.
Since there is no Covenant, an Afterglow Field shouldn't be formed.
Yet, some vague emotion reached her.
Swirling inside the man,
A mixture of murderous intent and remorse.
Was it her imagination? The girl clutched her chest. It was too painful to be her imagination.
As if pitying him. And as if a little afraid. The girl looked at the sniper's profile.
"...Since you guys are ultimately the same kind of murderers, don't blame me."
Whether he was talking to Lafitte. Or to Jeoga and Heukjo.
Neither Jack himself, nor Origin who glimpsed that thought, could tell.
His finger caught on the trigger.
It was then.
At the edge of the scope's vision. Beyond the horizon, shadows rose up.
Five Advents.
And, a hull like a mountain range. A width that completely blocked the horizon. Countless gun barrels rising from the upper deck. Beneath the hull, dark red wings of light were spreading.
Golgotha Bongrae.
{Enemy, enemy squadron detected! Golgotha Bongrae is approaching at close range!!!}
The pilot's scream and the alarm went off simultaneously.
"When did they get that close?"
They had long passed the distance where they should have been caught on radar. While Heukjo was stalling for time, the main force had crept up.
"Looks like they used a stealth field. Everyone, get out of the transport plane."
Mokjul replied.
"What... didn't you say you were in danger too just a moment ago?"
The surviving reserve Apostle asked in a trembling voice.
"The situation has changed."
Mokjul left only those words and walked toward Pathos.
"Pilot! Crash-land the machine right now! Otherwise—"
Over Jack's shout, Bongrae's main gun gathered light.
"Pathos, launching."
And the world was erased in white with a deafening roar.