『Horrible Hand』
Metal Iris Silhouettes were advancing through the woodlands in order to defend against the enemy siege.
This particular unit was made up of mercenaries and not regular troops. Hence, they were piloting various kinds of Silhouettes.
「Enemy detected! Closing in at high speed!」
The pilot of an Elephant Heavy Silhouette warned.
「It’s the size of a Silhouette, but this speed is– It’s that so-called Aberration Arms huh?」
「Hey, Bear pilot! Watch out! It’s coming your way.」
「The thing doesn’t have a melee weapon, right? I’ll be fine.」
The Bear brandished its combat axe and prepared to meet the enemy.
It was also customized with extra armor plating. That Aberration Arms should mainly specialize in long-range attacks.
「Eh?」
The mercenary pilot became dumbfounded.
His machine was suddenly grabbed by a giant hand.
「W-What the h– Guwaah!」
The huge hand easily crushed the helpless Silhouette.
「I-Is a Silhouette like that possible?!」
What appeared before them was a mechanical head that clearly resembled a reptile’s. However, it had no mouth opening. It also had a huge body and a long tail.
It was an Aberration Arm with a dinosaur motif.
But the most eye-catching were its huge hands.
「Why does a dinosaur have huge hands?!」
The mercenary pilot was unaware. The enemy resembled a bipedal dinosaur. The Tyrannosaurus rex’s forelimbs looked small relative to the rest of its body, but they were unusually powerful for their size. They were said to be able to tear through flesh with their claws.
And another species of dinosaur had specifically evolved to have giant forelimbs and claws. And its forelimbs were the greatest weapons of this particular Aberration Arms.
It possessed gigantic claws specially designed to crush and tear Silhouettes to pieces.
Their claws were even bigger than the large combat claw weapon that the Therianthropes favored.
「U-Uwaaah!」
The pilot of the Elephant screamed in terror as he tried to escape. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to outrun the Aberration Arms due to his Elephant’s weight, even when using its rollers to dash.
It was destroyed in an instant with its back turned to the enemy.
The appearance of more than ten more theropod-type Aberration Arms brought fear and despair to the rest of the mercenaries.
They also had missile launchers that fired anti-tank missiles equipped on their backs. The Aberration Arms quickly fired wire-guided missiles at the Silhouettes before them.
「D-Dammit! They’re actually bipedal tanks equipped with functional arms?! Are you kidding me?!」
Another mercenary pilot tried to fight back while crying out in agitation. However, he was knocked over by an Aberration Arms’ huge tail before he could do anything substantial. The moment his machine fell, it was torn apart mercilessly by the enemy machine’s huge claws.
Three men were watching the scene on a large monitor.
It was Castor and the others.
「Well, Castor-sama? How do you find the performance of the dinosaur-type Aberration Arms “Mirificus”?」
「Umu. To think that simply giving them arms and hands would allow us to circumvent the stupid restrictions placed on the MCS and get away with merely using medication to control the pilots.」
「I can’t quite understand the criterion used for differentiating between forelimbs and legs though.」
Vasa wasn’t that good with Aberration Arms. His implementation of the technology they obtained from Libya was only limited to the new armor materials.
Alberto, on the other hand, was well-versed in making such irregular weapons.
「It seems we had to make the MCS recognize them as actual arms and hands instead of forelimbs, but…… I ultimately had to go about it through trial and error. I designed them as bipedal tanks that incorporated the biomimetics data of the Deinocheirus into the MCS, but they seem to be proving rather useful in mountainous and forested terrains.」
Deinocheirus mirificus. It was an omnivorous dinosaur whose name meant “Horrible Hand” (Deinocheirus) and “Amazing” (mirificus). It was not as large as the Tyrannosaurus, but it was an unusual dinosaur that combined the features of various other dinosaurs.
Nothing but its arms and claws had been uncovered for more than fifty years, so it was a dinosaur whose features remained a mystery for quite some time.
「We currently have produced only two dinosaur-types. One is the artillery bombardment-focused bipedal tank『Daspleto』and the other is the『Mirificus』that is still in the experimental stage. What we have here are still just prototypes.」
They watched the scenes of Silhouettes being violently torn apart as if merely looking at the results of an experiment.
Another fleeing Bear was finished off. It was now down to the last surviving mercenary Silhouette. Apart from it, every other Silhouette of the mercenary unit that entered the woodland was destroyed.
The surviving mercenary was piloting a Soldier-type, and he was getting increasingly desperate. He was piloting the machine with the thinnest and weakest armor in their unit. He was definitely going to die at this rate.
The unexpectedly fast theropod-type Aberration Arms caught up to his machine in the blink of an eye.
「I’m screwed……」
The moment the mercenary fell into total despair, a tank suddenly appeared with a rumbling roar.
Although it was a turretless tank, it was equipped with two multi-barreled autocannons on its rear.
「Don’t give up!」
The dog-type Familiar piloting the tank sent the Silhouette pilot a transmission and cried out encouragingly.
「Hurry and get on this guy. That thing wouldn’t be able to crush a tank!」
「G-Got it!」
The newly appeared tank seemed to also have the function of a Dragoon tank.
The Mirificus suffered damage from the rounds fired from another tank’s 60 mm autocannons and main gun.
「Y’see, turretless tanks like this are great for ambushes.」
What emerged from the shadows of the trees was a turretless tank that was different in appearance from the Black Tiger.
Its pilot was a cat-type Familiar.
The Silhouette pilot was surprised to see the unfamiliar tanks.
「Y-You guys are–?」
「We’re mercenaries affiliated with the Landstrom Company. It’s a Finnish transferee company. More reinforcements are coming over soon!」
At that moment, a missile was fired at the Mirificus from the air.
What appeared in the sky was a close-coupled delta wing canard single-engine fighter jet.
「Their armor is surprisingly thin. These dinosaur knock-offs are weaker than they look!」
After reducing the enemy machine’s numbers, the fighter transformed into a Silhouette and finished off another Mirificus. The few remaining Mirificus began to flee.
「What’s that? A multi-role fighter?」
「It’s our company’s prided transforming Silhouette, the Einherjar. We’re heading to reinforce the Cimon. What about you? I can escort you back to the safety zone if you want.」
「No! I’m coming with you guys!」
The Soldier-type’s pilot should still be a novice mercenary. The fear from earlier still remained, but his fighting spirit still hasn’t been lost yet either.
The Therianthrope pilot of the Einherjar grinned.
「That’s the spirit. Let’s go then. Your combat data will surely prove useful.」
They started heading for the Cimon’s location.
They were bringing with them information about a new type of enemy machine and reliable reinforcements.
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