Chapter 317: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (35)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 317: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (35)
Clang—!
A dull vibration echoed. Along with the sound of a trembling metal hatch, a familiar voice filtered in.
“Oh-hyun! Get out of there already! It's time to eat!”
It was Lisa.
Oh-hyun slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.
Beneath the red, flashing lights inside the cockpit, an expressionless face was reflected in the glass. Fatigue, numbness, and a silence difficult to put into words.
“…Ah, I’ll be right out.”
The hatch opened, and Oh-hyun quietly descended from the unit. As he landed on the ground, Lisa, her arms crossed, snapped at him.
“You slept in the cockpit again, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t sleep. I was just… checking the unit…”
“It’s the same thing, you idiot.”
Lisa pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a short sigh.
“I thought you were getting better these days… but you’re at it again.”
Oh-hyun said nothing. He just turned his head and slowly looked around the hangar.
A familiar space. But strangely, it always felt unfamiliar.
It wasn't because of fatigue. The real reason he hadn't left the cockpit was because it was the only place he could sleep.
Inside the unit, it was as quiet as if the world had stopped.
Only in that space, where the noise of the front lines, the gazes of others, and the weight of all reality were temporarily blocked out, could he find a moment of peace.
The world outside the cockpit was still unfamiliar and overwhelming to him.
Oh-hyun quietly swallowed. He consciously suppressed his emotions.
But then—
“Haa… If you’re struggling, just say so.”
Her tone was still blunt, and her expression was as stiff as someone who was annoyed, but those words echoed gently in Oh-hyun’s ears.
It felt as if the tangled threads of emotion in his heart had loosened just a little.
…At least. The fact that someone was talking to him like this.
“…Let’s just go eat. Mason will call for you after the meal.”
Oh-hyun nodded silently. Then he quietly followed Lisa to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria area.
He still looked around with a dazed expression.
“Hey, are you spacing out again?”
Lisa nudged him in the side with her elbow.
“Someone over there is greeting you. Are you even listening?”
Oh-hyun turned his head.
Two soldiers in Arsenos military uniforms were greeting him with somewhat nervous expressions.
“Lieutenant! Thank you so much for saving us in the last battle!”
“You were really… amazing back then. Those Earth Federation bastards ran away the moment they saw your unit!”
“Ah, yes.”
Oh-hyun replied briefly, dryly. His gaze was still hazy, and his eyes remained fixed on the edge of his food tray.
Beside him, Lisa spoke quietly.
“……I know what happened with your younger sibling… I know it’s sad, and it’s hard.”
She looked Oh-hyun straight in the eye.
“I lost my family to the Earth Federation forces too.”
It was the first time.
The first time Lisa had said something about herself. Her voice still sounded indifferent, but there was a tremor within it.
“I thought I was going to go crazy. I’d wake up at the slightest sound every night… and everyone who talked to me just got on my nerves.”
Oh-hyun just stared at her without a word.
“But you know…”
Lisa took a small breath.
“—You can’t live like a wreck forever. The dead don’t come back, but we, the living… we have to keep doing something.”
There was no excessive emotion, no cheap comfort in her words.
Just the words of someone who had experienced the same pain.
And Oh-hyun slowly lowered his gaze.
For the first time since that day, he felt as if someone's words had reached a corner of his heart.
It wasn't warm, but something definitely stirred.
However.
It was at that moment.
WEEEE-OOOOH!
A low, powerful vibration shook the metal floor. An emergency alarm blared throughout the entire ship.
An urgent voice flowed from the ceiling speakers.
[Multiple mobile weapons confirmed launching from enemy ship!]
[Combat Alert Code: Red-2. All personnel, proceed immediately to your designated hangar bay!]
[I repeat. Multiple enemy mobile weapons approaching the ship!]
The soldiers in the cafeteria all rose from their seats at once.
Metal chairs scraped across the floor, and as Lisa and Oh-hyun turned to look, all words were lost.
“……Let’s go.”
Lisa spat out the word and immediately started running. Oh-hyun followed her silently.
The distance to the hangar wasn't far.
The alarm was still blaring, and the hangar lights had switched to red emergency strobes.
The two of them donned their gear with practiced efficiency and boarded their units.
The moment the cockpit closed, the automated system activated and the interface booted up.
Just then, a transmission from the bridge was broadcast simultaneously to all units.
[This is the Equinox. Operations controller Aaron Blake speaking.]
[Enemy confirmed as the cruiser Armeo, belonging to the 7th Mobile Fleet under the 3rd Battle Fleet.]
[Show these bastards who dare to attack us what 'fear' really is.]
[All units, prepare for launch.]
The ship's internal lights all switched to red combat lighting. Warning lights illuminated in sequence, and the cockpit module contracted with tension. The tactical interface inside the cockpit automatically deployed, and the launch route and real-time target coordinates began projecting onto the top of the HUD.
At that moment, the comms channel opened.
[This is Captain Lisa Carmen Alvarado.]
[Oh-hyun, Mason. Lead your squadrons and maintain formation. I'm taking the lead.]
[Okay.]
“Understood.”
Oh-hyun replied curtly.
The inside of the cockpit vibrated softly.
The EXILE-00's suspension contracted sharply, and a high-pitched sound of thermal expansion rose from between the metal panels and frame.
A high-frequency sound rang in his ears. Behind him, the vibration of the engine core pulsed like a heart.
[EXILE-00: Tactical OS boot sequence initiated]
▶ Unit Identification: EXILE-00
▶ Pilot Biometrics: Oh-hyun
▶ Control Interface: Switching to Manual Mode...
▶ Computation Core: Operating rate stabilizing at 96.8%
▶ Armaments: - Saber Blade x2 - Beam Rifle - Super-Heated Launcher HELR-1 - Composite Deployment Shield
▶ Comms Line: Squadron channel connected
▶ Visual HUD deployment... Complete
A hemispherical, transparent HUD smoothly unfolded across the front of the cockpit. The forward view was still empty, and a launch countdown was flashing at the top.
[D-10] … [D-9]
The inside of the EXILE-00 was strangely quiet. The commotion and vibrations from outside the ship—they didn't reach in here.
Oh-hyun took a slow breath.
In the brief pause of that breath, an afterimage of 'that day' flashed through a corner of his mind.
A collapsed building.
A red sky.
The blood-stained face of his young sibling.
[D-5]
[Unit Interface final stabilization complete]
[Comms Channel Open. Squadron Leader: Captain Lisa Carmen Alvarado]
[All units, launch ready.]
[D-0]
BOOM—!!
The EXILE-00 shot off the track with a roar, launching into space. The grav-system disengaged, and a brief tremor of zero gravity spread through the cockpit.
The battlefield unfolded before his eyes.
The blackness of space.
Dozens of coordinate points made of thin red lines.
Between them, the icons of allied units were blinking.
To his left, Mason.
To his right, Lisa.
And in the center, the EXILE-00—Oh-hyun.
[All squadrons, maintain formation.]
[Target proximity: 1400 → 1200 → 900…]
Oh-hyun silently gripped the control stick. As an enemy unit bearing the white Earth Federation mark on its chest came into view, the corner of his mouth twisted almost imperceptibly.
Hatred.
Memory.
And, rage.
At that moment—
[Wait, what's that?]
Lisa's sharp voice cut through the comms channel.
[What is it?]
This time it was Mason.
[There's... a strange one mixed in with the enemy units.]
Oh-hyun stared at the enemy icons displayed on the HUD.
And soon, a single unit, clearly different from the Federation's standard models, entered his field of vision.
Jet-black armor, a sleek frame, and a golden emblem engraved on its shoulder.
[It's an unidentified unit... The emblem on its shoulder is from the Licencia Group… it's one of theirs.]
[Lisa. What's the plan?]
Lisa's cold voice soon flowed through the comms.
[Well, there's one unusual unit, but we have the advantage in numbers, firepower, and performance.]
[Okay.]
[All squadrons, maintain a spreading formation in a right curve. I'll check out the unidentified unit myself.]
Lisa's unit immediately accelerated. She broke from the lead in a curved trajectory, and her squadron's units followed behind her.
Mason's squadron followed, slowly forming a cover formation behind them.
Inside the cockpit, Oh-hyun didn't take his eyes off it for a second.
The faint silhouette of the unidentified unit, detected in the center of the HUD.
Oh-hyun's intuition was whispering to him without a hint of error.
'It's looking at me.'
It wasn't a mere coincidence.
At that moment, the comms opened again.
[Oh-hyun! You're up first.]
Snapped back to his senses by Lisa's shout, Oh-hyun immediately replied.
“Understood.”
He slowly raised his hand and pressed the weapons panel.
[EXILE-00, activating Super-Heated Launcher.]
[HELR-1 commencing heat charge.]
[Coil rotation rate: 35% → 57% → 72%]
[Compressed thermal round charge rate: 68% → 83%]
A low vibration filled the cockpit.
Steam-like heat rose from the unit's left shoulder. The super-heated coil spun, its thermal energy rising rapidly.
The frame trembled, the internal temperature rose, and a warning light flashed on the HUD.
At the top of the HUD, the targeting reticle locked onto the center.
[HELR-1: Charge rate 100%]
[Target locked: Unidentified unit]
The EXILE-00's left arm was slowly raised.
The massive silhouette of the Super-Heated Launcher.
At its tip, the red, churning incandescent coil was spitting faint sparks.
At that moment, the unidentified unit's sensor flashed red, straight ahead.
Aimed precisely at Oh-hyun's cockpit.
As if it knew it was being targeted.
[The enemies are moving! Oh-hyun!]
Lisa's shout echoed over the comms.
Oh-hyun silently pressed the trigger on the control stick.
Fire.
KRA-KOOOM!!!
A red thermal round fired from the EXILE-00's launcher with a deafening roar.
The mass of super-heated energy, exceeding the speed of sound, rushed toward the unidentified unit on a near-lightspeed trajectory.
The black unit twisted sideways with surprising simplicity, evading the trajectory.
The massive thermal round grazed the unit's shadow and erupted in a huge flash and shockwave in the space behind it.
But that was only the beginning.
The black unit lowered its stance and charged in a straight line toward Lisa's unit.
Faster than the EXILE-00's sensors could react.
[Lisa! It's coming for you!]
Mason shouted.
But by then, the distance between the unit and Lisa was already closing—600, 400, 200 meters.
On the HUD, the unidentified unit accelerated rapidly, charging in a near-perpendicular trajectory.
After completing a high-speed turn, the black unit drew a massive sword from its back.
Released from its compression lock, the blade that sprang forth was overwhelmingly large, nearly half the length of the unit itself.
The blade was dark, and a low, golden current flowed across its surface like sparks. A structure made for killing, a shape optimized entirely for 'slashing'.
[Distance 240m → 140m → 80m…]
The distance closed in an instant. Lisa's unit still hadn't managed to change its direction.
Oh-hyun's eyes narrowed, trembling slightly.
“—Lisa-noona!!”