An Old-fashioned Future

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Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone


Barry’s Bear squad returned to the front lines to fight after getting resupplied.

「Hey, about that great sword kid… He’s amazing. D’ya think he’d want to join us?」

Robert, the buff black guy Kou saved, praised him without reserve.

「Sure hope so. He was able to coordinate well with Jenny even though it was his first time meeting her. That proves he’s good.」

They were all quite astonished when they witnessed Kou and Jenny’s coordinated attack that destroyed the Enyo’s head.

They were even more impressed by the fact that Unit 5 didn’t even have any 3D maneuvering parts equipped.

「Oh, would ya look at that? Reinforcements are finally here. A bit late to the party though.」

Robert muttered sarcastically as he eyed the newcomers.

They were members of Underground Forces just like themselves. Specifically, they were from the Forces named Flying Pasta and Red Balkans.

The Flying Pasta members were piloting models that had thicker armor than Bears called Grizzlies. They were equipped with large rocket launchers.

They were now in the middle of the mop-up phase of the battle, so they came as reinforcements.

But Barry didn’t intend to blame them for their late arrival. They were both relatively small Underground Forces after all, and the members of Metal Iris were only able to devote themselves to combat fully because the two other Forces handled looking after and defending the civilians during the evacuation.

The combat strength of the Murders plummeted after losing the Enyo.

They didn’t have a place they could retreat to and weren’t able to resupply either. The main suppression force would only mobilize after the advanced force finishes conquering a city after all.

Now that the advanced force has practically collapsed, there was already next to no chance of a suppression force getting deployed.

「Reinforcements have arrived. Hurry and clean up all the remaining enemies!」

Barry yelled his order.

His wingmen responded with gusto.


「Barry and the others sure are doing their best.」

Kou, who came to the area Barry and his men were fighting in, admired their seamless teamwork.

「I don’t think I can pull off such coordinated maneuvers myself.」

Barry and his men methodically surrounded enemies and finished them off one after another with concentrated fire.

The men in question would probably get taken aback if they heard Kou though. After all, they witnessed him coordinating seamlessly with their captain, Jenny, during the battle.

But Kou thought it was all thanks to Jenny’s skills and not his own that they were able to cooperate perfectly.

「Yes, I suppose tactics like that don’t suit you.」

Surprisingly, Master agreed with his opinion.

「Yeah. I’m not good at cooperating with others.」

Armored support vehicles quickly followed Barry and his men in order to assist them with cover fire. They didn’t appear that large compared to the others.

These support vehicles were also cooperating seamlessly as they harassed the Murders.

「What’s up with those vehicles?」

「Hmm?」

「Their front wheels are normal but they have caterpillar treads equipped on their rears instead.」

「Oh, those. Treads huh. Those are called half-tracks. It’s a type of armored vehicle that was used during World War II.」

「World War II?」

It was a time way before Kou was even born.

「Uhuh. The combat vehicles during your era have been completely consolidated into either tracked or wheeled vehicles. That’s because the half-track design was relatively costly despite not having any significant merits.」

「So why the heck are they using such old-fashioned stuff now?」

「……It’s because they’re a hobby of one of the transferees.」

「Eh?」

Kou got taken aback by the unexpected answer.

「There was a half-track armored vehicle fanatic among the past transferees, you see. If I remember correctly, that guy was a German engineer. And when he managed to mass-produce a small number of them, they actually ended up acquiring a pretty good reputation. So half-track vehicles of various sizes became extremely popular as a result.」

「He mass-produced armored vehicles because it’s his hobby? You can actually do that?」

「Of course. That’s only if you have the【Development Engineer (Bricoleur)】qualification though.」

「So they have good reputations huh.」

「You can drive them like a typical car. They’re especially popular with the Japanese and the people living in this era who aren’t that used to driving weapons of war. They’re not too bad, actually. They’re more expensive than your usual armored vehicle models though.」

「Doesn’t that make usual armored cars more cost-effective?」

「It’s a hobby after all. And it’s not like the half-track’s shortcomings that appeared during the 20th-century matter that much during this era anyway. There are large swathes of wilderness, forests, and snowfields outside of the residential colonies, which makes half-tracks pretty useful. And in-wheel motors don’t require a multi-speed transmission anyway.」

「So the era of in-wheel motors finally arrived huh.」

There was talk that when the era of electric cars finally arrives in earnest, people with jobs related to cars with standard gear transmission like Kou would be phased out back in the company he was working for. Kou was hit by the fact that he really was in the future once more.

However, this wasn’t the time to be thinking of such things. Right now, the future was his present.

As Kou chatted with Master while he fought, he was assaulted by two rifle-wielding Telkhines. They pincered him.

「Ugh, dammi–!」

At that moment, gunfire rang out from all around him. Three half-track armored vehicles dashed out from behind and supported Kou.

Two of them were equipped with multi-barreled autocannons, and the one in the rear was sporting an anti-tank wire-guided missile launcher.

With the assistance of cover fire from the vehicles, Kou managed to quickly destroy the Telkhines directly in front of him. He then had Unit 5 turn around and cut down the other one coming at him from behind.

「Thanks, guys! You saved my hide!」

He hailed the three vehicles and offered his thanks.

「Likewise. Thank you, great sword person.」

An image transmission was projected on Unit 5’s cockpit screen. It was the large sheepdog-type Familiar.

「Just a little more and it’ll be over. Let’s do our best.」

A different transmission came in. It was a female voice this time. The image that popped up showed a white cat-type Familiar.

「Yer the young’un that’s been puttin’ in a lotta work since earlier, right, laddie? Don’t overdo it, y’hear?」

The last transmission came from a fox-type Familiar.

Although it wasn’t the time or place for such a thing, Kou couldn’t help but get mollified by the appearance of the cute Familiars.

It really felt like a testament to how animals were a man’s best friend.

「Yeah. Let’s survive this together, everyone.」

The three Familiars responded to Kou’s words by raising their forepaws in affirmation.


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