Just Like Uetsu’s Reverse Drop
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
The Stones forces were still continuing to resist.
Sesto was also given an Antique Silhouette of his own. Its unit name was Angel. It was flight-capable but was nothing more than a mass-production machine during the Interplanetary War era.
Even so, it should still prove several leagues above current-era Silhouettes. However, the problem was that its current pilot often merely gets thrown around by its considerable performance.
Sesto resolved himself to fight together with the mercenary corps under him, but the coordination between the enemy armored vehicles and Quattro Silhouettes proved very intense.
The armored combat vehicles that are able to perform tighter turns than tanks and the Quattro Silhouettes capable of precision maneuvers and greater speed compared to bipedal Silhouettes were akin to hunting dogs methodically cornering their prey.
A Stones-affiliated Bear held up its rocket launcher and jumped out from a gap between two buildings.
「You’re mine!」
The rabbit-eared Therianthrope Eira yelled out as her Quattro Silhouette reached the enemy Silhouette before it could even fire and pierced the enemy with its lance.
Its burst acceleration was just too high that the enemy Bear’s pilot failed to properly take a safer distance and was done in.
However, another Silhouette took advantage of that momentary gap — Sesto’s Antique Silhouette. It was the Angel.
「You damned unknown Silhouette! Die!」
Angel brandished its high-frequency vibro blade and slashed out. However, it was parried by a close combat type Quattro Silhouette. It was wielding a Silhouette-use oodachi, which was a type of tachi exclusively used on horseback in olden times.
「The one who’s gonna die is you.」
The fox-eared Therianthrope Palm muttered grimly.
「Kh!」
Angel quickly attempted to retreat. It ran up a building’s side, went up to the roof, and swooped down immediately afterward.
「They shouldn’t be able to keep up with my…… Guwaaah!」
A Quattro Silhouette speedily fell down from the building’s roof while brandishing its oodachi in a downward slash.
「It chased me all the way to the building’s roof……? Guh!」
The Quattro Silhouette didn’t need any boosters. It went up the side of the building like a nimble dancer and kept up with the Angel.
The Angel’s actions were easy to read. Sesto also made a misstep when he stopped to check his six. He was a combat amateur through and through.
The Angel was pierced by the oodachi from behind, and Sesto died immediately.
Palm wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.
「Phew. I’m glad I did my research on Kou-sama’s hometown. Hiyodorigoe’s downward charge at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani. It looks like the Quattro is more than capable of emulating it. I need to report this to Kou-sama.」
Kou’s hometown, Japan, was experiencing a wave of popularity with the Silhouette Base’s Therianthropes. They especially took note of the history of fantasy subculture involving cat and fox ears.
Palm choosing an oodachi as his Silhoutte’s weapon was probably due to that as well.
Even so, Kou would probably retort that a completely vertical building face was way different from a cliff face. But the factor that enabled the maneuver was the Quattro Silhouette’s high mobility.
「How sly! I’m gonna report to Kou-sama too!」
「Sure.」
After hearing Eira’s protest, Palm’s tough-looking expression somewhat loosened.
The two were more excited about the prospect of reporting their battle accomplishments to Kou than the fact that they successfully defeated an Antique Silhouette.
Silhouette troops infiltrated the control center, suppressed it, and successfully recapture Fortress Area P336.
Cases of recapturing Fortress Areas from the hands of the enemy were few and far between. And this was the first time that a single Underground Force managed to do it.
The Aristides retrieved its aircraft and Quattro Silhouettes and headed back to the Silhouette Base. There would be a big commotion if it was found.
Kou’s Asia Rescue Task Force should be deep underwater around this time and was also returning to the Silhouette Base.
It seemed they successfully brought down the control center, took its A-Carbuncle, and subsequently disposed of it. The Stones forces would probably be demoralized for a while.
Of course, Fuyuki made sure to set up some traps before they left the Fortress Area. If the enemy thought it was now completely empty and tried to survey the interior, they would probably get burned if they weren’t careful.
One night passed, but there were no signs of Stones forces trying to take back Fortress Area P336.
While they were busy expanding the front lines, Fortress Area F811 was also captured. Right now, they couldn’t afford to send any reinforcements to take back P336.
The next day, Kou and Jenny came to Fortress Area P336.
「Good work, Rick. Thank you.」
「It was honestly all thanks to Barry. He performed an amazing charge.」
「While yelling ‘Just make me a Silhouette pilot again!’ all the while, I heard.」
「Looking at the combat records, he really wasn’t half-bad…… Actually, he might be more suited to being a ship captain than Robert. I was already aware of that though.」
「Robert is calm and collected. A textbook ship captain. Oh, right, that’s it. Barry’s the incisive type of captain. He’s really suited for assault operations. He also has a good eye for tactics. You two really make a good team.」
Jenny and Rick began to analyze the two ship captain’s performances.
They then looked toward the Fortress Area’s city block.
「It looks like you managed to recapture it safely.」
「What’ll we do with this place though?」
「Ah. We’ll just hand it over to the Mercenary Association. It’s not like we want one of our own to serve as this place’s area administrator.」
「I already told the Mercenary Association that we’d transfer all the rights to the recaptured Fortress Area to them yesterday. They were really flustered the moment I told them.」
「It’s a medium-sized Fortress Area, but it does have decent manufacturing facilities. Right now, the production lines are all configured to mass-produce Ant-type Murders, but if they dispatch a Development Engineer to take control of this place, they’d be able to make use of it with no problems.」
「I also requested for them to administer medical treatment to the humans living here. Everyone keeps telling me it’s better not to meet them myself though.」
The humans living in the residential area of the city block were deprived of their free will in order to serve as maintenance workers for the Murders.
The Stones referred to them as Helots. Kou frowned when he heard that the term was actually used to refer to slaves in ancient times. Moreover, they were slaves of the Spartans.
They woke up on a set time, performed maintenance on the Murders, ate, excreted their waste, and slept. Everything was planned out to the dot. It could be said that they were merely ‘alive’ instead of truly ‘living’.
Moreover, when he was informed of the existence of breeding and human disposal facilities, Kou displayed a blatantly disgusted look on his face.
「The handling of this place should be decided by the Mercenary Association and the area administrator they will appoint. I don’t think there won’t be any takers. Let’s wait for them to contact us.」
The two nodded to Kou’s proposal.
The Mercenary Association had contact points based in Fortress Areas and Defense Domes around the world, and having them deal with situations like this was the norm.
Right now, Kou and the others just basked in the joy of successfully accomplishing the simultaneous recapture of Asia’s data fragment and Fortress Area P336.
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