The Young Admiral’s Decision
After seeing the transmission image, everyone became speechless.
「Commencing Silhouette Base affiliation procedures. Procedures complete. Ours was a friendly fleet that was operating in secret until now. I apologize for the delay in reporting our presence.」
Aimer offered words of apology to Barry.
The image being displayed on the screen changed.
Warships capable of underwater navigation surfaced one after another around a gigantic boxlike warship that dwarfed them in overall size.
There were destroyers, air defense cruisers, missile ships, and so on. There probably were submarines submerged underwater with the fleet as well.
It was unmistakably a full-fledged carrier strike group.
「Kou-kun?」
「I really didn’t know anything about all of this, Jenny. Just what’s going on here?!」
Kou responded in a panic to Jenny’s tension-filled inquiry. It was truly a bolt out of the blue.
And it was unknown why Aimer was the one leading the entire fleet as well.
It’s been a few hours since they left Astraea.
Ever since then, they haven’t gotten in contact with Aimer even once.
「Aki? Voy?」
「I really don’t know anything about this.」
「If I knew, I would have been by her side!」
Judging from her stunned reaction, it seemed that Aki truly didn’t know about the fleet and Aimer. It was the same for Voy. Nyanta worriedly gazed at the footage showing Aimer. She was busy leading the Therianthrope corps, so she couldn’t have known as well.
It looked like none of them were caught unawares.
「All hands, prepare for aerial combat. Commander Barry, we’ll inform you of the timing of our attack. Please match our timing and work to divide enemy air power so we can secure air superiority over Fortress Area P336.」
「Aimer-chan? What’s going on?!」
「It’s just as you see.」
Aimer had changed into a crisp-looking white officer’s uniform.
「That ship! What the heck is that gigantic ship?!」
「It’s the flagship, Mobile Arsenal Platform『Astraea』. It is currently operating as an aircraft carrier. The requisite procedures have been completed and it has been registered with Okeanos as a ship officially belonging to Metal Iris.」
Barry got so dizzy from all the sudden information that he felt his head was about to burst apart.
Compared to the enemy, he felt that he couldn’t understand his allies more.
It must be a ship that was active during the interplanetary war era. If so, it should be an ultra-high-performance ship that was on par with the Cimon-class or even better.
「What the heck is a mobile arsenal platform?!」
It was a class of ship that Barry hasn’t heard about.
『It is my original iteration, Commander Barry. It can function as a mobile base, arms factory, and aircraft carrier. Ever since the Cimon-class has been brought into the Silhouette Base, this ship and all other ships have been completely linked to it.』
Dike explained the situation to Barry who’s fallen into confusion.
「Dike’s original? So, you mean you were actually a copy of Astraea, Dike? That was the case right from the start?!」
『Indeed. There are no problems, Commander.』
「Like heck there aren’t!」
Barry got even more flustered. Everything he’d heard was new to him, but it should be the same for Jenny and the others. Robert was also stunned silly.
「Astraea. She’s finally shown herself.」
Blue muttered under her breath. She was both surprised and worried about what Aimer did. But she wasn’t so surprised about the reveal of Astraea. She’d already had her suspicions that Astraea was somehow behind the Silhouette Base.
Only she was relatively calm among the original members of Metal Iris.
Astraea had been secretly guiding and supporting them from behind.
Her name had only been mentioned once before. However, in truth, she was always right beside them.
That fact was evident from the names Dike and Libra 1. It seemed that she didn’t particularly intend to keep her existence hidden from them in the first place.
「Kou-kun, you already knew about the existence of Astraea, right?」
「Yeah.」
It seemed that Astraea had secretly advanced her own plans.
However, she hadn’t let Kou know about them. And she’d even involved Aimer.
「She’s the one behind the sealed area of the Silhouette Base, right?」
「That’s right.」
There was no longer any need to keep Astraea’s existence a secret.
In truth, every move they’ve made, from Asia’s successful rescue to the present could be said to be thanks to Astraea.
A veritable mountain of various prototypes and mass-produced weapons had emerged from the sealed area.
If the interplanetary weapons development AI Astraea’s main terminal was located there, then everything would make sense.
「Astraea is really registered with the Silhouette Base and Metal Iris…… Doesn’t this make Metal Iris one of the strongest Underground Forces on the planet?」
Jenny muttered.
「If we still lose this war with this kind of power on our hands, then it really will be the end of humanity.」
「That’s saying a bit too much, right?」
「You just don’t understand what this means! He existence is just that amazing. And now we’re in this situation. Right now, even Aimer-chan had gone out to fight…… It’s because we adults are just too unreliable. If we’d managed to win the aerial battle, she probably wouldn’t have to sortie.」
Jenny grumbled self-deprecatingly. Kou had definitely not wanted Aimer to get anywhere near the battlefield. He was just that overprotective of her.
Astraea should have been their final trump card. But because the enemy’s airpower was just too overwhelming, she was forced to head out and even took the young Aimer with her.
If she had been completely unmanned, then she wouldn’t have been able to participate in combat. That is just how Sophia created the other Super AIs.
If they had managed to secure air superiority over Fortress Area P336, the girls wouldn’t have had to come out to battle.
「Barry-san, I’ll offer my apologies first. I’m planning to broadcast the carrier strike group’s battle to the entire planet.」
「What?!」
「If I do so…… If everyone in the world sees a young girl like me fighting in this war, maybe that will lead to us getting more allies.」
「You’ve even thought that far, Aimer-chan…… I see. So, I’ll end up getting the brunt of the criticism for sending a young child into battle huh? That’s fine. I’m used to being hated. I’ll shoulder as much notoriety as I can.」
Barry, who would be regarded as a commander who’d made a young girl fight on the front lines, would probably be severely criticized by the rest of the world. Aimer was worried about that happening.
Barry had wanted to say that instead of worrying about him, the young girl should worry about her own life, but he ended up swallowing his words in the end. That’s because there were others more suited to say that to her than him.
「Thank you, Barry-san.」
「Aimer-chan, I honestly have a lot of things I wanna say to you, but there are people who have more to say than I do. I’ll switch the transmission over to them.」
「Yes.」
Barry turned the line over to Kou.
「Aimer……」
「Kou, I’ll listen to your sermon later. For now, please cheer for me. I’ll do my best. If we win, I want you to praise me lots.」
「It’s not an ‘if’. You will definitely win. No, it’s fine even if you don’t. Just please come back safe.」
「I’ll do my best. I forced Astraea to do this. So, please don’t blame Astraea.」
Aimer’s expression changed drastically. It had changed into a calm and dignified expression that Kou was very familiar with.
「Kou, I am also with her. I will do my best to keep her safe.」
「Master, I’ll leave her to you.」
「But, of course.」
After that, Aimer’s eyes closed, and after a few moments, they opened once more. She had turned back into the usual Aimer.
「Kou, from here on out, I will show our battle to the entire world. This is also a kind of information warfare. Since we have decided to fight, I will do everything I can to turn things in our favor.」
「Aimer……」
「Don’t make that kind of pained expression, Kou. When I get back home, please accompany me to shop for clothes again. Then, I want to eat delicious food with everyone.」
「Yeah, we’ll definitely do that.」
『Kou, I am very sorry for this time’s sudden sortie. But I should have warned you beforehand. I will always make the most optimal choice depending on the situation.』
「I remember well. Aimer’s presence was needed. Isn’t that right?」
『Indeed. However, I will definitely bring Aimer back safe and sound. In order to let both of you fulfill the promise you just exchanged with each other, I am willing to sacrifice myself.』
「You’ll be coming with us when it’s time to fulfill that promise, Astraea. It’s your punishment for taking Aimer out in secret. So, you have to make it back safely as well.」
「That’s right. Let’s go together, Astraea.」
『M-Me as well? But I am a weapons development AI and– I understand. I will accompany you all with a holographic projection.』
Astraea, who was usually calm, seemed to have been flustered by the ‘punishment’ Kou proposed and the prospect of going out together with everyone.
「Then I’ll be cutting off the transmission, Kou. You definitely can’t come over here. A Thunderstorm would immediately get shot down.」
「I understand. But I’m always with you, Aimer.」
Aimer smiled and cut the transmission off.
Aimer, who’d just cut the transmission with Kou, fixed her expression into a serious one and prepared for her worldwide broadcast.
「Kou was close to crying.」
「Indeed, he was.」
To others, it would have seemed that she was talking to herself. It was a conversation between Aimer and Master.
「But you know, Kou and the other transferees just ended up getting involved in our battle in the first place. We, the humans of the Nemesis system and the existences created here, should be the ones fighting instead of them.」
「Indeed. That’s why I agreed to the plan you proposed.」
「I’m a selfish person. I want to protect Kou, Nyanta, Aki, Voy, and everyone from Metal Iris. This plan is probably going to get a lot of people involved. But, even so, I want to protect them.」
This was her resolve. And so, she decided to fight. She had begged the Familiars and Astraea to fight with her. And Master had responded to her feelings.
Aimer had begun operating the terminal in front of her.
「Now then. Shall we begin? You and I. The two of us will lead this fleet to victory together.」
「Yes.」
Aimer’s battle had now begun. However, she definitely wasn’t fighting alone.
「So, it’s this move huh, Astraea. This is the strategy you prepared for the worst-case scenario. It’s to create a complete allied force.」
It’s as Jenny said. If they had been able to secure air superiority during the first aerial clash or at least managed to deploy the ground troops, Astraea would probably not have chosen to reveal herself and the secret fleet she had prepared.
Astraea had no choice but to sortie because the situation was worse than they expected. But in order for her to do so, a human was needed.
Aimer was the perfect option. She was an excellent operator herself, and she also had access to Master’s full tactical knowledge. Moreover, she was a child, so nobody found it strange when she retreated from the front lines.
She was just too talented. She was more than enough to serve as insurance. If she weren’t so capable, Astraea would have chosen to involve Aki or Nyanta instead.
Astraea had managed to keep her plans completely confidential. Aside from Familiars, the only ones inside Astraea were the Therianthropes of the same generation as Aki and Nyanta. Even Voy, who had the best chance to share such information with the rest, had no clue.
It could be said that their loyalty to Kou was unusually high. However, in order to protect Aimer until the end, the Familiars and Therianthropes had kept their silence and didn’t tell Kou of the plan. All in order to protect everyone he held dear.
「You look pained, Kou. Can you fight?」
「Rather, being unable to fight even if I want to is more painful. I want to head to the front right now and cut everything down without thinking. What EX-Class Development Engineer? I’m just too powerless. No, I’ve said too much.」
Kou admonished himself. Those he wanted to protect the most were now fighting on the front lines.
But he was still standing by within the Cimon-class that was currently underwater. Kou’s Unit 5 was currently loaded into a Thunderstorm as part of a guerilla unit.
「I’m sure it’s hard for you. You feel helpless. You can’t even rush to their side even if you want to. But that’s why we’re fighting. Many people had ended up dying while feeling the same kind of helplessness you’re feeling right now. I’ve even watched them die with my own eyes. And we fight to prevent others from feeling that helplessness.」
「Blue……」
「I also want to rush out right away. It’s painful. It feels like my heart is about to burst from the pain. I’m sure Nyanta, Aki, and Voy are feeling the same as we are. But we have to make sure to do what we have to do in order to not waste that girl’s determination.」
Blue had said some harsh things, but her feeling of wanting to rush out was genuine.
「I understand. I’ll do what I need to do.」
Kou had hardened his resolve.
He couldn’t allow himself to trample upon Aimer’s determination.
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