Heavier Than the Universe
"Hahahahaha! Much heavier than space itself!"
Jincheon, streaking through the air as usual, felt the crushing pressure transmit through his body and smiled as he pushed back against it.
Jincheon! Fighting like you do in space inside a gravity well will wear the parts out fast!
"Doesn't matter! I've got no intention of settling down on this planet!"
Heliane's warning proved accurate. High-mobility flight inside the gravity well sent unfamiliar vibrations shuddering through the entire frame—nothing like the smooth handling of vacuum combat.
But so what?
The transport already carried enough spare parts to assemble two more Garelds. And now that they were officially part of the regular army, they could demand resupply without shame.
What mattered was seizing this planet and tipping the balance of the entire star system in their favor.
That said… quite the massive army. Means they're taking Eirin's presence very seriously.
Confirming the enemy scale from the radar and the base operator's briefing, Jincheon lightly licked his lips.
An overwhelming disparity in force.
The perfect stage for him to shine.
But will the other pilots be all right? They fainted after picking a fight with you for no reason, Jincheon.
"They're fine. You think I did it without thinking? I knocked each of them out with a single clean hit that wouldn't leave any lasting strain. No problem."
For reference, every knight who had tried to pick a fight with Jincheon's group had taken one punch and gone down cold.
With a little time left before contact, Jincheon turned the terrain description the guide soldier had given him over in his mind.
High mountain range on the right, but otherwise just rolling hills, forest, and a river—open plains. The winds over that right-hand range are too rough for mecha units to approach easily, and even if they force it they'll run straight into the base defenses. So they'll have to come from the other three sides.
Wow, unnie! Our Jincheon has grown! He got provoked by other men and still handled it gently!
…Are you sure this isn't a Crypter fake?
Ahahahaha!
"…"
The two women who had carved through brutal battlefields at his side were still cracking jokes even when facing an enemy force far larger than their own.
Do I really look like I act without thinking?
He had thought age had mellowed him considerably, but apparently that wasn't how they saw it.
Killing intent!
"Scatter!"
The instant Jincheon sensed the murderous aura and broke formation, the laughing women snapped into evasion as well.
Fwoooosh!
At the same moment, more than a dozen missile trails bloomed like fireflies out of the darkness.
Pikiiing! Pikikiking!
Jincheon thrust his lance gun forward and opened fire with lasers, but gravity bent the beams downward, refusing to send them where he wanted.
In a gravity well the trajectory curves slightly lower. In that case…
Yet his combat instincts were unmatched by anyone in the cosmos. A few ranging shots corrected the micro-deviation in moments.
Boom! Thud!
Missiles detonated under Jincheon's lasers. Those that slipped past were casually swatted down by Heliane and Calsira—veterans of both ground and space combat.
They're underestimating us. Thinking missiles of this caliber can stop us.
Right? At this point I'm getting angry!
Her Majesty the Dowager Empress orders Jincheon: disrupt the enemy at eleven o'clock until friendly ships can maneuver!
The base operator relayed Eirin's command.
"Roger."
Jincheon answered simply, closed his eyes, and spread his sensory field beyond the mecha. Night-vision mode existed, but this was far more comfortable and precise for him.
Naturally the two women had switched to night vision long ago.
"Hoh."
Facing the enemy at roughly a hundred kilometers, Jincheon let out an intrigued sound.
The ground warships rode on hovercraft chassis with rear-mounted engines—essentially giant tanks built for planetary combat. Heavy tracked mechas with gatling arms and shoulder cannons rode their decks, adding firepower.
Jincheon!
"I know!"
Moments later a portion of the enemy mecha force spotted them and began to climb.
"Huuup!"
Kwaaaaaaaa—!
Jincheon drew a deep breath and floored the thrusters.
He rocketed forward at triple speed—exactly as he did in space.
"Kh!"
Thud!
But triple speed in vacuum and triple speed under gravity were entirely different beasts. Even Jincheon had not fully anticipated the difference; his upper body slammed into the seat back with a groan.
"Ha!"
He solved the crushing pressure by flooding his body with far more Inner Qi than usual, protecting his organs and keeping blood flowing freely.
Wh-what the hell?!
How is that speed even possible?!
[Crazy bastard! This isn't space!]
They knew of the red Gareld's exploits in vacuum, yet the ground-trained pilots had not been overly concerned. Moving at that velocity inside a gravity well was supposed to mean your guts plastered themselves to your spine and you turned into a bloody mess.
Pikiking! Tukakakakang!
Laser guns and railgun rounds concentrated on Jincheon's frame.
Whoosh!
He snapped into an L-shaped high-G turn, climbing vertically, then thrust the lance gun forward and squeezed the trigger.
Pikikikiking! Tukwakwang!
Lance-gun lasers and twin shoulder rail cannons spoke as one.
Pakik! Puffung!
Cockpits punched clean through, frontal armor ripped open like tin cans—several enemy machines plummeted in massive fireballs.
Don't look away!
While the enemy stared upward at the impossible evasion, Heliane and Calsira raked them from the front.
Not with the eyes—read their movement through the flow of qi!
Heliane, drilled relentlessly by Jincheon to sense rather than simply overpower, opened fire with weapons gripped in all four arms. Four separate targets, yet her hit rate still exceeded seventy percent.
Scatter! Scatter now!
Second platoon, hold the front!
[We'll take the high ground!]
Unable to withstand the dual-axis assault, the enemy broke formation; several platoon leaders tried to split their counterattack between front and above.
Whoosh!
Jincheon was never going to allow that.
He flung the lance skyward, seized his laser sword, and dove in a screaming attack run.
Pachiiing!
The blade carved a straight line through the knight-style mecha of the Giranlek Empire, slicing body and cockpit alike.
This son of a—uh…
Another knight tried to strike the red machine that had plunged into their midst, only to find a gatling shield already leveled at his own cockpit on the main monitor.
Kikakakakakang!
The gatling chewed the cockpit to scrap; the mecha tumbled from the sky.
Pachichiing!
Jincheon carved through several more, shredding their formation, and in that opening Heliane's and Calsira's Garelds slammed into the fray.
Haaat!
Laser sword and 95 mm railgun in the shoulder arms, a thick shield large enough to cover the torso in the other pair—Heliane bisected the hastily raised shield of a knight left exposed by Jincheon.
Kwajik!
In the same motion the shield arm smashed down on the now-defenseless head, then she climbed and poured railgun fire into the head unit. The entire sequence flowed with the natural grace of a four-armed species. Heliane smiled in satisfaction.
Saisalas had been fine, but a machine tailored to her racial traits felt far better. It was like finally being allowed to use both arms after fighting one-handed for so long—the freedom was intoxicating.
Hatcha!
Calsira, not quite as fast as Jincheon but still blistering, speared a mecha through the abdomen with her lance and fired, sending it down in flames.
Damn it! Die! Just die already!
The survivors poured fire at Jincheon's group, yet the women's martial-arts-honed reflexes—several times sharper than before—let them ignore only the harmless shots and casually evade everything else.
At least one of you…!
Watching his comrades die without landing a single meaningful hit, one knight steeled himself, ignored the strain on his body, and floored the thrusters.
Kwaaaaaa!
Urgh—!
Through the crushing pain he bit his lip and charged like a medieval heavy lancer, aiming for Jincheon's flank, finger tightening on the lance-gun trigger.
Bagaaak!
Wha—?!
Something slammed into him from above with bone-jarring force; the mecha tipped and the laser shot went wild into the ground.
The lance Jincheon had thrown earlier had fallen and struck true.
"You really thought I'd leave my side open for no reason?"
Jincheon powered down the laser sword, tucked it under one arm, caught the rebounding lance, and drove it straight down.
Kwajijijik!
The tip punched through the head unit and deep into the torso. The enemy machine, no longer worthy of the name, fell limply from the sky.
M-monster!
We can't win! These things are monsters!
Of the original twenty machines, only five or six remained. Terror finally broke them; the survivors fled.
Against ordinary skilled opponents they might have fought to the death. The complete inability to inflict even minor damage had magnified their fear beyond endurance.
"Ignore the stragglers! We're going for the big prize!"
This was no time to chase demoralized remnants when larger targets waited.
Puffung! Sweeewk!
Shells roared from the friendly base; enormous fireballs blossomed on the far side of the battlefield. Jincheon's group had slowed the enemy above, but elsewhere the attackers had already entered artillery range.
Boom! Kukukung!
At the same moment the Rastold Silverion rose into the air. The advancing ground warships opened up with their main batteries—massive-caliber rail cannons. Weaker than lasers, yet able to fire the instant they were loaded, and at main-gun size the damage was still devastating.
The Rastold Silverion tanked the enemy main guns on its shields, loosed missiles from both flanks, and began systematically erasing one sector of the battlefield.
Uuuuuung— Kwahaaaaaa—!
Its own main gun finished charging and fired. With the left thrusters at full burn the beam swept in a long arc, annihilating ground warships and the mecha units clustered around them.
They're hitting from the south first. Meaning this side is ours to handle however we like.
Jincheon, friendlies incoming. Command authority is being handed to us.
As proof, a force of roughly twenty mechas was already flying toward them—ordered to destroy one enemy ground warship without base support.
"Calsira and I will charge the enemy ship. Heliane, take command of those units."
Understood.
We're better at this than giving orders anyway.
Jincheon and Calsira—natural one-man armies who preferred personal skill over command—rocketed toward the enemy ground warship. Heliane, once a resistance commander, began calculating how best to employ the approaching mecha force while watching the two dwindling engine trails vanish into the distance.