Chapter 373: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield [R-18] (90)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 373: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield [R-18] (90)
Inside the enemy warship. Having infiltrated alone, I cut down the swarming Arsenos soldiers without hesitation and charged straight for the bridge.
“The enemy… is just one man! Stop him!”
Soldiers screamed as they aimed their guns, but I was already a step ahead.
Spinning with the rifles in both hands, I sprayed bullets that swept across the area, shattering the soldiers' formation.
“Aaargh!”
Amid the explosions and the stench of blood, I slid low across the floor.
My dagger flashed. The moment I slit the first man’s throat, the second and third followed. The soldiers, frozen in terror, fell without a moment to breathe.
The screams died down, and the ship’s corridor was stained with blood.
“Form up! I said surround him!”
Reinforcements rushed in from behind, but before they could even get into formation, I was already at the bridge.
I picked up the pace. My movements were like a raging storm. I saw an enemy ahead and severed his hand.
“Ah—argh!”
One man staggered, dropping his gun. Another squeezed his eyes shut and collapsed to the floor. They were all slaughtered mercilessly, unable to even beg for their lives.
CRASH! KABOOM!
Finally, I reached the last blast door before the bridge.
The metal door began to descend automatically.
I threw myself forward. My foot shot through the gap, forcing the steel door to a halt.
SCREEEEECH!
The metal shrieked in protest as I forced the gap open and slipped inside.
The moment I entered, the faces of everyone on the bridge hardened.
Slowly, I drew my blood-soaked dagger.
“Who is the Arsenos Supreme Chairman?”
My voice rippled through the quiet space. Every gaze turned to a single man, who swallowed hard and took a step back.
“So it’s you.”
I walked toward him, my lips twisting into a sneer.
“The bastard who dared to covet my woman.”
“Hic…!”
I spun the dagger in my hand and stopped in front of him. The surrounding soldiers could only watch.
Suddenly, the chairman collapsed to the floor. He knelt, clasped his hands together, and cried out in a trembling voice.
“S-Spare me! If you let me live… I’ll give you anything you want! Money, power, anything…!”
I watched his pathetic display in silence, then slowly raised my dagger. The man who supposedly represented a nation was on his knees, begging for his life.
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance. Order your entire military, right now. Tell them to lay down their arms and surrender.”
“Y-Yes, I will! Comms, open the channel! Connect me to all forces right now!”
A soldier connected to the ship-wide communication network with trembling hands. The chairman frantically grabbed the transmitter and yelled.
[…This is a message for all Arsenos forces! Cease all combat and surrender, effective immediately! All troops are to disarm and stop resisting! This is an order from the Supreme Chairman!]
The surrounding soldiers lowered their guns one by one, and the inside of the ship fell silent. A moment later, responses from various units began to come in over the comms channel.
“I-I did as you said…! So, you’ll… you’ll spare me, right…?”
The moment he finished speaking, my leg flew straight into his face.
Thwack!
“Guh…! Cough, cough…! Y-You promised… You said… you’d let me live…!”
I planted my foot on the chairman’s head. I pressed down, grinding my heel into him as I spoke.
“Don’t worry. I keep my promises.”
At my words, the chairman’s eyes trembled faintly. Just as a wave of relief that he had survived began to wash over him, I smiled again and leaned down.
“But I never said I wouldn’t beat the shit out of you, did I?”
POW!
My first punch landed squarely on his face. A scream erupted along with a spray of blood.
“Gyaaaah—!”
What followed was a merciless beating. My fists and feet took turns smashing into the chairman’s face and body, and the bridge once again descended into chaos.
The sound of splattering blood and crushing bone filled the air.
But no one tried to stop me. In fact, a few of the soldiers watching simply nodded quietly, expressions of grim satisfaction on their faces.
A long while later, I stood up, panting, and lifted my head. In the middle of the blood-soaked floor, the chairman lay sprawled out, swollen beyond recognition.
I looked around and pointed at two soldiers.
“You two. Drag this bastard and follow me.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The two soldiers, their faces pale with fear, rushed over and grabbed the chairman. Even then, he seemed to be conscious, letting out a garbled moan from between his lips.
*
The Arsenos Supreme Chairman was transported to the Earth Federation Headquarters.
The war had ended far more anticlimactically than I expected.
And then, a long-awaited reunion.
“Nephew-in-law, it’s been a while.”
Walter Eisenhardt approached me with his characteristic smile.
“It’s been a while, Excellency.”
“Haha, enough with the ‘Excellency.’ Let’s drop the formalities between us.”
He clapped me on the shoulder and laughed.
“Your performance this time was truly impressive. Your momentum swept the entire battlefield.”
“You’re too kind. I just did what had to be done.”
“Still, that chairman you brought in was beaten quite severely. He’s in terrible shape. We had to move him to the infirmary. You could have gone a little easier on him.”
I answered indifferently, not even bothering to look at him.
“……That was the plan, but the moment I saw his face, my fists moved on their own.”
Walter let out a small laugh and shook his head.
“Well, I understand. You must have been unable to control your emotions. Come on, let’s get going.”
I got into a vehicle with him and headed to his residence. The building we arrived at was guarded on all sides by elite Federation troops. Inside, a quiet and orderly office awaited us.
As soon as he sat down, he had tea brought in and quietly handed me a folder.
“This information hasn’t spread yet, but… the Arsenos home base was recently surprise-attacked by a Rock Fortress that appeared out of nowhere. At the same time, similar incidents were reported in some of the Federation’s colonies.”
I quietly opened the document. It was filled with meticulously organized analysis data and combat reports. Beside me, Walter continued speaking slowly.
“This is the analysis of an enemy mobile weapon our forces captured. We’ve dissected everything from its exterior to its internal systems. But…”
He added in a serious tone, “There was no one inside. No pilot, no cockpit. The interior was completely empty. The entire unit was a fully unmanned combat drone.”
I furrowed my brow slightly and turned to the next page.
“And take a look at the last page.”
Following his words, I flipped to the final page of the document.
“The Rock Fortress was also unmanned.”
“That’s right. It was the same for the fortress that attacked the Federation’s colonies. A report came in that there wasn’t a single person inside.”
I slowly closed the document and said, “…Is it even possible to operate unmanned units on such a wide scale?”
“Of course not.”
Walter took a moment to catch his breath.
“If it were just enough to cover a single battlefield, that would be understandable. But for them to move so organically across dozens of sectors simultaneously… it can’t be explained with our current technology.”
I stared straight ahead and spoke slowly.
“Then… that means there’s something controlling this entire network.”
“Our researchers came to the same conclusion. A single command system, or a central processing module, has to be handling all of this at once… There’s no other way to explain it.”
My eyes remained fixed on the data as I muttered.
“…Aaron Blake.”
When I said the name, Walter nodded.
“Yes. The man you mentioned. Based on all the evidence so far, we can’t rule out the possibility that this entire unmanned weapon system is under his control.”
He took a deep breath and crossed his arms.
“Of course, this is all just speculation for now. But if this hypothesis is true—”
“—Then if we take down that one fortress, all the unmanned units will stop.”
Walter nodded and said gravely, “Exactly. The problem is… we don’t even know where this Aaron Blake is hiding.”
I stared straight ahead and muttered.
“…Then we have to find him. No matter what.”
*
Walter Eisenhardt of the Federation, the leaders of each neutral nation, and the delegation from Arsenos, which had suffered greatly from the Rock Fortress’s surprise attack, were all gathered in one place.
Among them, the ones with the most severe expressions were the representatives from Arsenos and some of the neutral nations. They had lost their colonies or failed to defend them in the recent attack, making them little more than exiles.
Arsenos had managed to defend itself until the end, but the damage they sustained was beyond words.
They concentrated all their forces in the Earth Sphere, so their defenses must have been completely empty… To think they held out through that is impressive.
I quietly scanned the room.
Just then, Adele, the chair of the meeting, stood up. Her gaze slowly swept across the conference room.
“Thank you all for gathering here despite your busy schedules. The purpose of this meeting… I’m sure you are all well aware of it without me having to say.”
A heavy silence fell. Soon, the Arsenos representative raised his hand and spoke.
“We know. But I have one question. The soldiers of ours that the Federation is currently holding… can you not release them? If those things appear again, this time it will truly be the end for us.”
A heavy silence lingered for a moment before Adele spoke cautiously.
“That is a matter to be coordinated separately with the Federation. It is beyond the scope of discussion here, so I ask for your understanding.”
The representative bit his lip and lowered his head. Adele turned the topic back.
“Now, let’s move on to the main agenda.”
The atmosphere in the conference room grew tense again. All eyes were now on her.
“First, I will share the information confirmed through our cooperation with the Federation.”
As she finished speaking, the lights dimmed, and a hologram lit up on the central table. Dozens of documents and photographs of individuals began to appear, filling the screen.
“First. As a result of interrogating the Arsenos Supreme Chairman… it has been revealed that he has been in secret contact with high-ranking officials within the Earth Federation for several years.”
She gestured, and the screen changed.
“Confidential Federation data was used directly in Arsenos’s weapon development… We have learned that they intended to maintain their power through war.”
A murmur rippled through the room, but Adele didn’t stop.
“Second. The individual who is the source of the current crisis.”
She waved her hand, and a single photograph enlarged in the center of the screen.
“Aaron Blake. Originally a Lieutenant Colonel in the Arsenos military. He carried out special missions under the chairman’s orders for many years and also had contact with Leon Risensia. We have secured evidence that he exchanged technology and weapon design information with the now-deceased Leon for a long time.”
Her eyes grew sharp.
“In conclusion, the unmanned weapon system, the Rock Fortress, and the military artificial intelligence protocol that are currently threatening us all originated from the hands of this man, Aaron Blake.”
At her words, one of the neutral nation representatives whispered, “…The unmanned fortresses and weapons that are active now… all of them are his?”
The leader of the neutral nation asked, holding his breath. Adele gave a short nod.
“That’s correct. And crucially, we have determined that there is a single, central fortress that controls all of these unmanned forces in real-time.”
In an instant, the air in the room seemed to freeze. The people in the conference hall looked at each other without a word.
“If we can just destroy that fortress—”
“—There is a high probability that the entire unmanned weapon system spread across this sector will shut down completely.”
A brief silence. Finally, Walter spoke up.
“…Then our next objective is clear.”
He placed the documents on the table and said, “We track down Aaron Blake, and we destroy that fortress.”