The Culvest Specialist Team

At Jincheon's request, the intelligence officer glanced briefly toward Eirin.

She nodded as if it were only natural, and the officer rewound the footage to the moment Culvest fired its beams.

Watching lasers erupt from the countless apertures along its arms and curve toward the pilot once more, the other pilots felt a chill of dread at the thought of facing that thing themselves.

Jincheon, however, reviewed every frame with cold precision — and a smile slowly spread across his face.

"Once."

At that cryptic remark, Calsira smiled too.

"You're right. Just once."

"Don't keep it between yourselves — explain it to the rest of us."

Now that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jincheon's party held the formal rank of senior knights, another knight addressed them with polite formality and demanded to know what they meant.

"It isn't a fully guided laser. It curves once to track you — and only once. It never bends a second time."

"Only once?"

The knights turned back to the main monitor at Calsira's answer.

The intelligence officer rewound the footage again and played it in slow motion. One by one, they tracked every laser and confirmed that she was right.

"She's right. It only curves a single time."

"And the timing of the bend is identical every shot."

Once they understood it was not a perfect tracking laser, the pilots finally felt a measure of relief. Knowing both the timing of the curve and that it bent only once meant the enemy was not invincible after all.

With that single observation, the tension eased — and details that had been invisible before began to surface.

"Come to think of it, the enemy drops its shield whenever it attacks."

"The shield phase and the attack phase are cleanly separated."

"Their bombardment is dangerous, but what if we overwhelm them with numbers and never give them a window to fire?"

Using the information they had, the group began studying Culvest's weaknesses in earnest, and momentum built fast.

"Inside the base they've got anti-air guns and anti-air cannons as well."

"If the ships try to cross the mountain alone, the losses will be catastrophic. We have to coordinate with the mecha units and strike from ground and air at the same time."

The captains confirmed it as well: only if allied mecha crossed the mountain and fought on the ground could the enemy's anti-air guns and cannons be neutralized.

"So both mecha and ships have to penetrate the interior in balanced force."

"If the enemy has any sense, they'll support Culvest from inside and hit us while it holds the line."

Sending mecha alone would not be enough. The ships had to push inward as well and support the mecha. The mecha, in turn, would have to destroy the enemy anti-air weapons under cover of allied naval fire.

Meanwhile, Jincheon and Calsira were approaching the problem from an entirely different angle.

"Calsira."

"Yes?"

"That shield — can the Anti-Ship Sword tear it open?"

"We won't know until we try… but it's worth the attempt."

Culvest would be a massive obstacle to seizing the enemy command headquarters. More precisely, it formed the core of the headquarters' entire defense system. Which meant that destroying Culvest alone would collapse the enemy's defenses in an instant.

"But there's a high chance it's carrying armaments beyond what's been documented."

"It'll have at least one close-range defensive measure. I've already accounted for that much."

Culvest boasted a bulk several times that of any ordinary mecha. No matter how extreme a long-range specialist it was, it would still have at least a minimal contingency for melee combat.

With that, the meeting began in earnest, and they started constructing a strategy from everything they had discussed so far.

"What's the situation in space?"

"Enemy defenses are too fierce. They say support from orbit will be difficult."

"Of course. If this place falls, they're finished — so they'll hold on by any means necessary."

Orbital support would have swung the situation dramatically in their favor, but it was never going to be that easy. Eirin exhaled a quiet sigh and refocused on the meeting.

The grand strategy that emerged for the command headquarters assault was as follows.

There were finer details beneath those three points, but that was the broad outline.

"I will now take volunteers for the Culvest specialist team. The enemy will of course move to support Culvest, so this is the most violent and most critical post on the field."

Culvest could not be allowed to operate freely — and with that came crushing responsibility. If the specialist team failed to keep it in check, allied casualties would skyrocket in moments.

"Those who succeed in this mission will be rewarded. If volunteers fall short, I will assign units by force. Anyone willing — raise your hand."

Knowing the laser curved only once was one thing. Facing those lasers while fighting the enemy was another. The burden of dodging beams aimed specifically at them kept every hand down.

Every hand but two.

"I volunteer."

The stronger the opponent, the greater the thrill when you bring them down.

And if this counts as a major achievement later, I might even get a decent planet out of it.

Jincheon, who lived for life-or-death struggles against the strong, and Calsira, who had no intention of remaining a mere mercenary forever. At the entirely predictable volunteering of those two, Eirin's expression said she had expected nothing less.

"I volunteer as well."

Then an unexpected figure raised her hand.

"Beatrix?"

Eirin's eyes went round. Her younger sister — Captain of the Imperial Guard, whose duty was to protect the Rastold — was volunteering for this mission.

The conversations among the other knights had played no small part in her decision. Every one of them spoke of Jincheon's party with nothing but awe and reverence.

Don't make me laugh. Even without them, I could win this war on my own strength.

The strongest pilots in the Giranlek Empire belonged to the Imperial Guard. Yet the knights no longer showed the Guard the respect it was due. This was her chance, as Captain of the Imperial Guard, to restore that dignity.

Beatrix.

Let me go, sister.

……

A brief exchange of glances passed between the sisters.

She's always been prideful, ever since she was little. Jincheon's presence has cut straight into that pride.

Even before the body-enhancement procedures, Beatrix had been a gifted pilot. Accustomed to praise from every direction, she had disliked Jincheon from the start — and now that his reputation was soaring, her pride had cracked. So she had chosen to volunteer for the grueling fight against Culvest, determined to reassert the dignity of the Imperial Guard Captain.

A few more volunteers raised their hands after that, filling out the roster. They were given everything they needed and sent into the coming battle in the best condition possible.

They had taken only one of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the three planets in the Galantid System so far, and the army under Eirin's command pressed the advance hard. Lingering here any longer than necessary would put other star systems at risk.

As Calsira headed toward the vast mountain that housed the enemy command headquarters, she used a brief window of calm to open a channel with Heliane.

"Unnie, isn't this too dangerous? Even now, you could pull back to the rear…"

"I'm fine. To win this war quickly, we need every person we can get."

"That's true, but…"

Heliane's Gareld had taken heavy damage fighting an enemy ace pilot, which should have kept her in the rear. Instead, she had boarded a captured ground-use mecha taken when the enemy surrendered — a long-range specialist with continuous-track lower limbs, designed to lay down fire nets from the deck of a land battleship. The machine Jincheon had taken to calling a "Guntank." And she had brought it to the front line.

"Don't worry. It's a long-range unit. The only way I end up in the kind of crisis you're imagining is if the entire allied force is already collapsing."

"Haa… fine. But contact me the second things get dangerous. You know the frequency, right?"

"Are you sure? You're about to fight a fortress-defense mecha called Culvest."

"I'd rather abandon the whole thing than lose you just to take that thing down."

"People will get the wrong idea if they overhear. Be careful."

"Don't worry. I'm inside the cockpit."

Once enemies bound by a blood feud of kill-or-be-killed, Heliane and Calsira had become closer than true sisters. Their voices were thick with that bond as they talked.

Whirr — whirr — whirr —

"It's starting. Please be careful, Unnie."

"I told you not to worry. They're ordering me to sortie right now. See you later."

"Yes. See you later."

They ended the conversation lightly, already treating victory in this war as a foregone conclusion.

"Let's see… where we're supposed to fight…"

Calsira pulled up the enemy headquarters on her Bio Device, fed from the warship's main camera.

"They really did turn an entire mountain into a fortress."

In a conventional twenty-first-century battle, assaulting a position like this would have taken months. The existence of mecha and space warships compressed that timeline dramatically. Of course, the defender's advantages remained — charge in trusting firepower alone, and you would be annihilated.

"It's beginning."

A moment later, Jincheon opened a channel. On the Bio Device feed, allied and enemy forces erupted into a firefight.

"Haaah~ The battle's already started and I have to sit still. My whole body's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠itching for it."

Normally they would have sortied the instant combat began, but the Culvest specialist team had orders to launch only after the allied forces punched through the defensive line and pushed inside. Burning the pilots' stamina and focus before they even faced Culvest would be a disaster.

So the Culvest specialist team waited in the hangar of the Rastold Silverion.

Rumble — rumble —

The shock of battle sent tremors rolling through the Rastold. Forced to sit still while feeling every vibration, Calsira twisted and shifted restlessly, unable to hide her boredom.

"Aaaargh~!"

"Heh heh heh. Stuck in the middle of a war and can't fight, so your body starts crawling, huh?"

"How did you know?"

"Because I feel the same way."

For Jincheon, who had to fight on mecha performance alone, every battle was a chain of crises where defeat was genuinely possible. Nothing had ever beaten him before — and the tension of knowing he might actually lose had completely addicted him to mecha combat.

"Anyway, we can't waste time here. We finish this today. No exceptions."

"I know."

Having bet on the Empress Dowager, Jincheon needed her to be the victor of this war.

While they waited for the allies to break the defensive line, something occurred to Calsira and she spoke up.

"Jincheon-nim."

"Hm?"

"Have you still not decided what reward you're going to ask for?"

Jincheon had yet to settle on what he wanted once the war was over.

"Yeah. Honestly, taking a planet and becoming a noble would be the smart play — but then I'd be stuck doing all that tedious noble politics. No free life."

"Have you talked to Eirin-nim about it?"

"With Eirin? …No."

Seeing him still wavering on this one issue, Calsira decided it wouldn't hurt for him to settle it properly with Eirin, and she pressed him to do so.

"Then have a serious conversation with her about it. You're from another world — deciding this alone was always going to be hard."

"True. And right now, Eirin is the highest authority we have…"

For Jincheon, who for once could not make a clean decision the way he usually did, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was welcome advice.

"Ah. Looks like it's starting. Faster than I expected."

"Let's wrap this up quick and get some rest."

"Hahaha! Yeah — let's wrap it up quick!"

Hearing his own speech patterns rub off on Calsira, Jincheon burst out laughing and began prepping for launch.

"Jincheon, Gareld! Launching!"

First onto the catapult, Jincheon locked his ankles into the mechanism and was hurled forward. As the catapult released and he shot out into open space, what greeted him was the sight of allied forces that had successfully penetrated into the mountain interior — and Culvest, indiscriminately bombarding those same allies.

"First impressions matter — so let's say hello hard! I may not look it, but I come from the land of courtesy in the East!"

Jincheon opened fire with the lance gun, gatling shield, and rail cannon all at once, aiming for Culvest's head.

Ziiing! KRAKOOM!

But the shields deployed from the twin barriers on either side completely enveloped Culvest's body and nullified every shot.

Watching Culvest pause its bombardment and look up toward him, Jincheon began the pleasant work of deciding exactly where to start tearing that enormous bulk apart.