You Don't Deserve to Live
A voice seeped through the comms, low and cold, thick with murderous intent. The tone alone left no room for doubt — the speaker meant every word of that killing urge.
Calling the White Snow Dragon Emperor "Whitey" would have been reason enough to take a man's head. Declaring her his own on top of that? For Dolche, who had bent the knee to her charisma and sworn his loyalty, it was beyond endurance.
KRAAAASH! PIKIKIKIKIKIKING!
Dolche's mecha, the Cabiod, dialed down the output on its laser sword and thrust both hands forward as it charged. Short-burst lasers sprayed from the backs of its hands like a submachine gun.
Jincheon batted the lethal beams aside with his laser sword and opened the distance.
Earlier it moved faster than my Gareld. Why isn't he using that speed now?
He still remembered the Cabiod closing the gap in a blink and striking. One fraction of a second slower in his judgment and he would have been cut clean through. Dolche was still faster than most mechas — but that gut-wrenching burst of speed was gone.
Cooldown? Limited uses?
Whatever the reason, one thing was clear: he was saving it for a critical moment.
Then I just don't give him that moment.
KUUUU!
Jincheon kicked off Dolche's flagship and launched, thrusters flaring. He weaved left and right in a dizzying pattern, snapping off shots from his laser rifle as he fought a running battle.
PACHICHICHIT!
Dolche swept his blood-red laser sword through the air, batting every incoming beam aside.
He's wary of my speed. Even if I close in with the Queyride, he'll keep his distance and answer.
The Queyride System — an overclock suite built into the Cabiod. Ancient Calsorn Empire technology that temporarily spiked a machine's performance. A relic this era's science couldn't reverse-engineer if it tried. The fact that only a fraction of Calsorn-frame mechas carried it spoke volumes about the engineering involved.
He clearly doesn't know I have this tech.
Calsorn technology was classified to the bone. Even in the galaxy network's ocean of data, anything related to the empire was vanishingly rare — and quality information simply didn't exist.
The Queyride System could run for a maximum of three minutes. Split it into short bursts or burn it all at once — either worked. Without a dedicated Queyride pilot suit, though, the strain on the body was brutal.
I'll use it a few times, cut it short, and make it look like there's a hard time limit and a cooldown.
Anyone who actually knew the system would never bluff like that. Dolche bought the act and pressed his attack.
PIKIKIKIKIKING!
They traded fire at range in a grinding stalemate — until Dolche snapped an order toward his flagship.
"Anti-air batteries! Fire!"
TUKAKAKAKAKAT——!
Jincheon had already wrecked a considerable number of the guns, but a dreadnought-class ship carried an absurd density of anti-air weaponry. A wall of flak poured toward him.
"Tch!"
He fired rifle and shotgun in tandem, suppressing Dolche while picking off the batteries one by one. The strange part was that he never pulled farther out — even though fighting clear of the anti-air net would have been far safer. Leave the shield envelope and he'd have to punch back in with grenades again. He didn't have an infinite supply, and the dreadnought's shields were strong enough that two grenades had been the price of entry last time.
KRAAASH!
Green light suddenly wrapped the Cabiod. It came screaming in so fast it left afterimages.
"Kh—!"
There it is!
In the middle of dodging flak, the Cabiod punched inward on Queyride. Jincheon recognized the speed that had ambushed him before and dumped thruster power downward.
BAWOONG!
A red beam scythed through the space he'd occupied a heartbeat earlier. The green light vanished and the Cabiod dropped back to normal speed.
Two seconds. So there is a cooldown.
Dolche could have followed up — but the green light died and he came on at ordinary speed. Exactly as planned. Jincheon kept dismantling anti-air guns and holding distance.
Harassing me inside a flak storm… I hate to admit it, but as a pure pilot, he's better than I am.
Dolche had every reason to rage over the insult to his lord, yet he never let anger make him careless. Watching Jincheon dance through the flagship's anti-air net without taking a hit, he had no choice but to acknowledge the skill.
"Damn it! At this rate my power packs are going to run dry!"
Picking the guns off one by one would drain him dry. Jincheon dropped below the hull. The underside of the ship had thinner anti-air coverage — he'd shelter there and finish Dolche.
Now!
Dolche decided the false assumption he'd planted was ripe. He triggered the Queyride System again. Green light sheathed the frame; it rocketed forward and swung its laser sword straight at Jincheon's front.
"Hah! Getting impatient, are we?"
Jincheon had already opened the gap. He slipped downward with room to spare and brought the shotgun up. One squeeze of the trigger and the Cabiod would take the hit.
Shiiik!
"!?"
In the instant its underside hung exposed and full of openings, the Cabiod vanished in a smear of afterimages.
"!!"
Killing intent flared at his right flank. Jincheon spun up the chainsaw on his right arm and swung in an ugly, improvised guard.
KAJJJJJJIT!
Chainsaw met crimson laser sword. Ominous light flared at the contact point. The same saw that had carved through thick warship armor like paper was being cut apart by the red blade. The moment the chainsaw went, his side would follow. Jincheon jettisoned the right arm's enhancement parts and threw himself clear.
PAKANG!
He snapped the distance open and fired the shotgun — and the Cabiod vanished into afterimages again.
Above!
Any ordinary pilot would have frozen at a target disappearing at that velocity. Jincheon's dynamic vision and combat sense pinned the enemy's position instantly.
"KRAAAH!"
He swung his right arm and smashed the limb holding the red laser sword — the same arm diving in to split his machine lengthwise.
KWACHANG!
"Ngh!?"
The blow landed as if Jincheon already knew exactly where he was. The Cabiod reeled hard, balance shattered by a counter it never saw coming.
He adapted already!? Is this bastard even human?
The plan had worked. Jincheon dropping low and raising the shotgun was proof of that. But the second he realized he'd been played, he predicted the speed and struck back. A chill of real fear ran through Dolche as he moved to attack again.
Shrik! PACHICHICHICHICHI!!
Before he could, a high-voltage wire — one of the tools the Gareld's right arm enhancement parts had never been able to use properly — snaked out and coiled around the hand gripping the laser sword. Current flooded through it.
"Khhrrraaagh!"
The monitors crackled under the jolt. Dolche rode out the shock and thrust the Cabiod's free arm forward.
PIKIKIKIKIKIKING!
"Kh—!"
Beam guns built into the back of the hand sprayed like a submachine gun. Jincheon wrenched the Gareld downward in a hurry.
PUPUPUPUPUK! KWAANG!
"Damn—!"
His reactions outran the machine. The Gareld's head took the full beam volley, shredded, and detonated. Sensors gone. Main monitor dead.
"Got you!"
Dolche severed the high-voltage wire with the beam guns and swung the laser sword, certain he finally had him. In his head the picture was clear: Jincheon might thrash and dodge a few times, but with the main monitor and sensors wrecked, he couldn't counter. Limited feed from the auxiliary cameras would leave him scrambling just to stay alive.
That complacency decided the fight.
KRAAA!
"Wha—?"
Headless, the Gareld still moved as if it had eyes — thrusters flaring in a smooth arc that slipped the laser cleanly.
KUNG!
The shotgun's barrel slammed into the Cabiod's flank like a spear. In that same instant, Dolche's life flashed past him — the day he met the White Snow Dragon Emperor, Resily; the days that led to his appointment as Seventh Fleet Commander.
"My lord…"
PAKAAANG!!
Point-blank laser shotgun fire punched through the Cabiod's side, through the cockpit, and took Dolche's life with it.
"Dolche Rockgumton. I'll remember your name."
Of every enemy Jincheon had fought, Dolche was the first to hurt him this badly. If Dolche had known what Jincheon could do — if he hadn't gotten careless and had been ready with a finishing blow — the raw performance gap would have handed Jincheon the loss. Dolche's fatal mistake was not knowing that Jincheon could track an enemy's movement through combat sense alone, even without a monitor.
Jincheon dragged the Cabiod along with him — its side blown open by the laser shotgun — and announced Dolche's death across the open channel.
"V-Vice Commander…! That's—!"
"The Commander's Cabiod… Dolche-nim is… dead…?"
"Aaaah… AAAAAAH! Commander!"
Dolche had been well loved. On the flagship, operators broke into tears.
"All hands… inform the allied fleet and the enemy. The fleet commander is dead… The Resily Mercenary Group will withdraw…"
The vice commander began preparing the retreat according to Resily Mercenary Group regulations. Originally the rule had been written to crush whatever thin hope an enemy still clung to and lock in a battlefield victory — but it was common knowledge across the stars, and that left them no choice. Break the rule and the entire company's reputation would take the hit.
Jamming still choked the channels, so the Resily Mercenary Group raised white flags prepared for exactly this contingency on every ship. The loyalist forces saw them and ceased fire.
In the fight against the rebels, the most troublesome opponent — the Resily Mercenary Group — had been forced to retire in the opening phase of the war. The loyalists had taken heavy losses of their own and now sat slightly below the rebels in total numbers, but driving the Resily Mercenary Group off the field at this cost was close to a miracle.
"Jincheon!"
"You did it!"
Heliane and Calsira — the hidden architects of the victory, who had kept interference off him while he fought Dolche — came flying in, bright with triumph.
"Huh? The head—?"
"As expected of a Resily fleet commander. To think he could damage Jincheon-nim's Gareld this badly."
"Yeah. Even I broke a sweat this time."
The moment he'd realized Dolche had been bluffing about the Queyride System's limits, the word defeat had flickered through Jincheon's mind for the first time.
"Jincheon! You pulled it off!"
Beatrix joined them next, her own machine scored with damage from every direction. The four of them turned back toward their flagship for resupply and emergency repairs.
At the Gareld's hip, where its original laser sword hilt had hung, Dolche's laser sword handle rode in its place.