The Red Gareld's Solo Rampage
"What? Sir Hanbes has fallen!?"
Count Deon reeled at the news that Ace Killer Hanbes had been killed in action.
"The red Gareld is charging straight at our allied ships!"
"That madman! Ready the escort unit! The moment he closes in, combine our ships' anti-air fire with a pincer attack and shoot him down!"
The red Gareld had already destroyed more than thirty allied mechas on its own. If it had first thinned their numbers and then closed on the mecha force, the situation would have been far more dangerous. Instead, the red Gareld was flying alone straight toward the fleet.
In cases like this there were only two possibilities: an ambitious glory-hound hungry for high merit, or a complete lunatic who simply wanted to stand out. Either way, no matter how strong the enemy was, it was still only a single mecha.
Following Count Deon's orders, the twenty-to-thirty mechas held in reserve as fleet escorts waited for the red Gareld inside the effective range of their ships' anti-aircraft guns.
"Fire!"
The mecha unit raised their lance guns first and opened fire in a dense web of shots.
Bang! Bang! KRA-BOOM!
At the same instant the red Gareld, weaving in a zigzag evasion pattern, fired its rail cannon and scored hits on several of the escort mechas.
"You think I'm crazy enough to play with the likes of you!?"
Jincheon, still trading fire, swung wide in a broad arc, slipped past their shots, and drove deeper toward the fleet itself.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The moment he entered anti-aircraft range, the warships opened up with everything they had, pouring flak at the red Gareld.
"What can one mecha possibly do!?"
The escort commander who had deliberately left Jincheon an opening to circle around now gave chase.
"The bastard walked straight into the net himself! Shoot him!"
At the command, the mecha unit pursued Jincheon and kept up a continuous barrage. Bullets poured in from every direction, all aimed at a single machine. An ordinary pilot would have been shot down in under ten seconds. Jincheon, however, poured every scrap of his internal energy into his senses, feeling every movement within a three-hundred-kilometer radius centered on himself.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
He read the speed and trajectory of every incoming round and kept boring inward.
"What the hell is that!?"
"Why won't it die!?"
"It hasn't taken a single hit!?"
The escort unit trailing him could only stare in disbelief as the red Gareld twisted and danced through the storm, never once struck, and actually pulled farther ahead of them.
While he tore through the formation of ships, Jincheon rolled his eyes left and right, hunting for a target he could actually kill.
Even if I swing the Anti-Ship Sword, the ships' shields will stop it. I need ones without shields, or with weak ones.
Unfortunately that was a hard limit beyond pure skill. Given enough time he could tear a shield apart, but the anti-aircraft fire would finish him first. He would get only one clean chance. After that he would have to find the next opening.
Hmm?
His eyes and senses locked onto a battleship sliding toward the rear. The gap it left was immediately filled by another ship that raised its shields to catch the allied main-gun fire.
No shields!
Exactly like a real-time strategy game where a player pulls a unit with no HP remaining to the back line to keep combat power high, the enemy was preserving its strength the same way.
There's my chance!
Jincheon floored the thrusters, spiraled through the flak, and arrowed toward the stern of the retreating battleship.
Thud-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka—
Anti-aircraft guns from every direction and the pursuing escort unit all tried to intercept him, yet none of them could touch a machine whose pilot had expanded his sensory field to the limit.
"First the legs!"
Bang!
A 130 mm rail-cannon shell streaked from Gareld's shoulder and punched straight into the massive engine of the target battleship.
KRA-BOOM!
The engine erupted. The moment Jincheon confirmed the drive flames had died, he shot forward at the wounded ship.
Crack! Crunch-crunch!
Just as I thought—the shields are gone!
He swept the Anti-Ship Sword across every visible anti-aircraft turret, verified the absence of shielding, then focused his sensory field to its absolute peak.
There!
Deep inside the battleship a dense cluster of life force was concentrated. That had to be the CIC—the combat information center.
"Big bastard! Your guts must be fucking huge too!"
Jincheon gripped the Anti-Ship Sword in both hands and settled into a thrusting stance.
"Oh yeah! Midnight express, coming through!"
He poured every ounce of thrust into the engines and charged, driving the massive blade as deep as it would go toward the CIC.
KRA-ZZZZZT!
The sword sank in until only the hilt remained outside the hull—yet it stopped just short of the CIC itself.
Shhk-ka-ka-kak!
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
He ripped the blade sideways, carving the longest possible gash through the battleship's body, then vaulted diagonally upward and barely slipped past the anti-aircraft fire that immediately sought him.
"That's one!"
KRA-BOOM!
He fired a rail-cannon shell straight into the wound he had opened. The interior detonated; the CIC vanished, and the life signatures inside it snuffed out. The battleship was now nothing more than a drifting hulk of scrap.
Piki-kiki-king!
The escort unit still hounding him was an annoyance, but Jincheon already sensed he had become the hidden card that could flip the entire battle, so he simply ignored the gnats.
"My kill marks start at cruiser-class! I don't take anything less!"
While other ace pilots collected enemy mechas, Jincheon had decided his minimum would be cruisers, and he began hunting for the next target.
Crack-crack! BOOM!
Just then a cruiser whose bow had been heated white-hot by allied main-gun fire caught his eye. The ship was trying to fall back while charging its own main battery for a return shot.
"Greetings!"
Jincheon soared above the main gun, reversed thrusters, and dropped like a stone.
CRUNCH!
"One-fifteen degrees!"
At the exact instant the cruiser's main gun was about to fire, Gareld's foot crushed the barrel flat. Energy failed to circulate properly; the weapon exploded from the inside.
KRA-AAA-BOOM!
Jincheon, already clear of the blast radius, casually sliced the secondary guns apart with the Anti-Ship Sword and once more poured full power into his engines.
"Damn it all! What the hell are you doing!? It's only one mecha! Why can't you shoot it down!?"
The red Gareld they had assumed was already dead had single-handedly sunk a retreating battleship and wrecked a cruiser's main and secondary batteries, running amok in a way that defied all reason.
"It's too fast, sir! Even when we lay down anti-aircraft fire nets it slips through them like nothing!"
"Launch the anti-ship guided missiles! Kill that thing!"
"Sir!? If we miscalculate and set off a chain reaction among our own ships, the damage will be catastrophic!"
"Grrh…!"
It was still only a single mecha weaving endlessly between their own vessels. If they fired anti-ship missiles and its insane speed turned those missiles against friendly hulls…
"Cancel that order! Tell every anti-aircraft gunner that whoever brings it down will receive a knighthood and a reward!"
"Yes, sir!"
Count Deon had nearly given a suicidal command in a fit of rage, but his chief of staff and deputy captain's advice pulled him back. He settled for motivating the gunners instead.
"Keep firing the main batteries! We finish them here!"
He tried to refocus on the gunnery duel between the two fleets and on crushing the Dowager Empress's forces—
"Virgo Two has been sunk!"
"What!?"
Yet another allied battleship destroyed. Count Deon could no longer keep his eyes on the larger battle. The red Gareld had carved up a second battleship that had been trying to withdraw after its shields failed, using exactly the same method as before.
"Just one mecha…!"
Without any support, deep inside the enemy formation, it had destroyed two battleships and crippled a cruiser's main and secondary batteries. That a single machine could produce such results shattered Count Deon's sense of reality. No war he had ever fought had looked like this.
"Am I… dreaming a nightmare right now…?"
"Explosion detected on an enemy battleship! It's going dead in the water!"
"Ooooh…!"
"He destroyed two battleships by himself…!"
The rebel forces were stunned by Jincheon's performance—but so were their own allies. They had known he was an outstanding pilot, yet none of them had imagined he could dominate a battlefield to this degree.
My husband…!
Eirin felt heat rise unbidden to her cheeks as she watched Jincheon drag the entire battle toward victory for her sake.
"Report from the Guard Captain! Enemy mecha forces have begun to retreat! Requesting permission to pursue!"
"Permission granted! Allied fleet, prepare to charge!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Jincheon's rampage had crushed the enemy mecha units' morale. Heliane and Calsira, each fighting at ace-pilot level while following him, now dominated the field. Numerically the enemy still held the advantage, yet it was their own side that kept exploding; their spirit broken, they began to fall back.
—Calsira!
=Cover me!=
Heliane called Calsira's name as she started the pursuit; Calsira answered by requesting cover and rocketed forward with her massive backpack thrusters. By now they could communicate with nothing more than the tone of a name.
Heliane's Saisalas sprayed beam-gun fire in a wild barrage. Calsira swung wide, overtook the retreating enemy, and shot toward the enemy fleet.
"Kh—!"
Nearly double acceleration slammed her into the seat; she clenched every muscle and rode out the crushing g-forces. Once she locked onto her firing point she synchronized with the sniper rifle's systems and assessed Jincheon's situation.
Just as I thought—the escort unit is stuck to him so tightly he can't freely attack the ships.
After losing both his gatling shield and lance gun while dealing with the response team, Jincheon was left with only the rail cannon, the Anti-Ship Sword, and the head vulcans. Rail-cannon ammunition was clearly limited; he was no longer even trying to shake the pursuers, merely scoring the ships with the Anti-Ship Sword to test for openings.
"Hssss—huuuu—"
Calsira drew a deep breath and relaxed every tensed muscle. Through the targeting system she calculated the enemy's predicted movement envelope.
High-output laser data set. Predicted path confirmed. Trajectory locked.
After rough aiming with the system she went further.
Mental focus. Feel the flow of qi…
She sensed the currents of energy, predicted the enemy mecha's next move, and adjusted her angle to that exact point.
Now!
Click!
She pulled the trigger. The massive sniper laser rifle linked to her backpack unleashed its beam.
"Got—!"
An escort pilot who had finally found a clean firing angle on Jincheon's back was about to squeeze his own trigger when—
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
"Huh?"
A sudden high-energy warning flared; a laser as thick as a mecha's forearm punched clean through his machine. The beam did not stop. It swept like a broom and destroyed two more mechas that had been following right behind him.
"Yes!"
An ordinary shot would have claimed only one machine. Because she had read the flow of qi, she had taken two extras as well.
—Calsira! Hit the ship I just marked! Strip its shields!
"On it!"
Jincheon recognized the covering fire for what it was and immediately requested support. Calsira answered by pouring high-output laser fire into a cruiser until its already-failing shields collapsed. Jincheon instantly carved a long gash through the cruiser's hull with the Anti-Ship Sword, aimed near the CIC, and fired the rail cannon.
KRA-BOOM!
One more cruiser fell silent under Jincheon's attack.
Clank! Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
At that moment anti-ship guided missiles erupted from the surrounding vessels. Their target was Jincheon. Count Deon had finally decided that unless this single mecha died, the war was lost, and he had chosen a near-suicidal gamble.
"Hahahaha! Finally you make the right call! But you're too late!"
Firing anti-ship missiles at him had been the correct decision—if only they had made it before he dove into the middle of the fleet.
Kiiiiiiing!!
Jincheon swatted missiles out of the sky with his head vulcans while flooring the thrusters and plunging even deeper into the formation.
Pikiiiing!
The moment the missiles converged on a single vector to chase him, Calsira's high-output laser swept like a sword and cut them all down. With allied support now available, attacks of that kind could no longer touch him.
Soon the allied mecha force closed into melee. Count Deon's fleet suffered a crushing defeat; only a handful of ships managed to limp away.
By any ordinary measure the Dowager Empress's side—scraped together from remnants—should have been inferior in both numbers and momentum. Yet the truth that the red Gareld had almost single-handedly won the battle spread like wildfire through both friend and foe alike.