86—EIGHTY-SIX, Vol. 4
For giving me so much trust when all I can do is command you from where it’s safe.
“All infiltrating units. Deploy in your current positions and protect the main shaft at all costs… Defend your Reaper with your lives.”
The moment “Kaie’s” bisected remains loudly clattered to the ground, Shin’s ability picked up a wailing voice charging toward him.
A voice and nothing else.
“……?!”
There was nothing in front of him, according to the main screen’s footage. Nothing on his radar screen, either, even if it was set to passive. But a sense separate from his usual five picked up on the artificial killing intent and urged him to pull his control stick sideways. Undertaker evaded by tumbling aside, and the moment it did, the ominous sound of wind swept through where it had stood just a moment ago. A single shard of glass on the floor sprang up, as if something had stepped over it.
The wailing voice continued, colliding with the wall directly behind Undertaker. The moment he realized it, the source of the voice turned its flank and jumped up again to the flywheel tower. The rotating of the gears was disturbed two times as it jumped up before reaching the top.
It’s quick…!
Shin switched his radar to active, but it detected nothing. Invisible both visually and to the radar, it moved with dizzying speed, surpassing even the highly mobile Juggernaut, jumping up and then somersaulting back down to clash with him.
The enemy was still invisible. No—it was hardly noticeable unless one focused on finding it, but there was a slight wavering in the air, like a heat haze… Like the flapping of butterfly wings swaying in the dim light. Tracing the incomprehensible wailing voice, he focused on that single wavering point—and drove his high-frequency blade into it. The blade sliced through the heat haze, which was only slightly visible even at this short range.
The blade was capable of cutting through a Dinosauria’s composite armor like butter, but in the next moment, its vibrations were interrupted by
opposing vibrations
, and a vector of the opposite direction forced
both blades
and the enemy fuselage to deflect off each other. The high-pitched screech of metal rose up, cutting through the blue air.
Taking a slash from above, Undertaker was knocked back. Meanwhile, the unknown Legion was cut diagonally and soared through the air, drawing a parabola. Shin still couldn’t see it. It was there but didn’t exist on any of his screens. It wasn’t some kind of projection or some kind of camouflage unit that could be seen through with enough effort. Perceiving the trajectory of its invisible fall, Shin pulled the trigger on his 88 mm cannon.
It was loaded with a high-explosive anti-tank warhead. He’d set the fuse from bursting on impact to a timed explosion. There was no point in using an automatic sight against an invisible enemy. Abiding by his manual aiming, the warhead soared through the air, and the timed fuse burst a second later at close range. It wasn’t a direct hit. Shin hadn’t intended to hit it, either. However…
…if Shin’s assumption was correct—its camouflage would be stripped off as a result.
Eight-thousand-meter-per-second shock waves spread out spherically, with sizzling flames rushing after them. And as planned, the faintly wavering heat haze was torn open and exposed. The shock waves capable of easily bending iron plates were merely a by-product of producing the metal jet, but they tore off the scenery surrounding the enemy. Lapped at by tongues of black-orange flames, fragments of silver flaked off and burned away.
It landed, wreathed in flaming silver shards. Fragments of the scenery turned back to silver with a flap of their wings and rose into the air while burning. It was a flock of silver butterflies, small enough to rest in the palm of one’s hand. The type of Legion capable of disturbing and refracting all manner of electronic waves and light, the Eintagsfliege.
Shin had never imagined they could be used like this.
It made sense that the Phalanx squadron had been decimated in the way they’d been. The eye couldn’t see it, the radar failed to detect it, and since the Legion moved silently, audio sensors couldn’t detect it, either. The only thing that did pick up its presence was a vibration sensor, which detected its movements along the ground, but that wasn’t enough to rely on in battle. No one but Shin, who could pick up the sound of the Legion’s weeping, could break through its optical camouflage.
Shin got his first glance at the enemy as it stepped through the flames to look back at him. The thought that it resembled an animal of some sort crossed Shin’s strained consciousness. It stood at just under two meters tall and had a nimble four-legged form. A pair of optical sensors flashed a blue light from the sensors on its beast-like head. There was no sign of any projectile weapons like machine guns, launchers, or turrets, with only a pair of black metallic arms that resembled a beast’s mane extending forward from the rear of its fuselage.
In all his seven years of fighting the Legion, Shin had never seen anything resembling this unit. It was likely a new type. Judging from its shape and prior movements, it was a High-Mobility type, surpassing even the Juggernaut in agility. The weeping in his ears came off as incomprehensible robotic babble. It wasn’t a Black Sheep or a Shepherd. It was a Legion with a purely mechanical intelligence, the kind that should have long since exceeded its preset life span.
With his gaze still locked with his opponent’s, Shin reconnected to the Resonance.
“—Colonel.”
“…Shin! Are you all right? What’s the situation?!”
“I’m engaging the enemy… I’ve encountered the Legion that wiped out the Phalanx squadron.”
He could sense Lena’s breath catch in her throat. Not giving her time to say anything, he spoke rapidly:
“The truth behind its attack was optical camouflage by way of the Eintagsfliege. It deceives both the optical sensors and the radar. It hides a new type of Legion that uses weapons similar to high-frequency blades to attack. Judging from its shape and movements, it’s capable of maneuvering faster than a Juggernaut… I’ll relay any further information as I acquire it.”
There was no telling when the fighting would resume, so he wanted to relay as much information as he could. After all…
“I’ll relay as much combat information as I can… But if I don’t return…”
If he were to lose—to die here and not make it back…
Perhaps the fall had damaged his RAID Device, because the Resonance was thick with noise for some reason.
“But if I don’t return…”
Shin’s breathing was still rough and labored, as if he was constantly being exposed to pain. It was perhaps natural for him to consider the chance he wouldn’t return, but even knowing so, Lena replied:
“Roger that, Shin. But I won’t let you finish that sentence.”
Lena’s voice was unwavering.
“You will relay the data you collect on this new Legion unit to me in person. I will accept nothing else… This is an order, Undertaker. Follow it, no matter what.”
Shin’s eyes widened for a moment, before he cracked a light smile, despite the situation.
“—Roger that, Handler One.”
Inside the command car on the surface, with no enemies in the vicinity, Lena harshly looked down at the fighting taking place underground through the main screen as the two mechanical weapons locked in battle, each aiming to kill the other.
“Vanadis HQ to all units.”