We’re Gonna Charge Right In! We’re Unarmed Though!
「Astraea, we’re about to begin our descent, but can I request a change in trajectory? These are the coordinates.」
「Abel-san?」
Abel suddenly made a proposal to Astraea.
Kou was confused. He couldn’t keep up with Abel’s thoughts. He was constantly coming up with all sorts of plans and seeing through all sorts of matters.
『I approve the trajectory change. Course correction complete. However, you will be placed in quite a dangerous predicament as a result.』
「It doesn’t matter.」
「Abel-san, what are you–」
「I’ll take you directly to Nyanta-san’s position.」
「!」
Kou gasped in surprise at the other party’s daring declaration.
「Let’s go, Kou-san. It won’t even take ten minutes.」
「Thank you!」
Abel smiled in satisfaction. He merely took action in accordance to Kou’s wishes.
Kou felt deeply grateful to him.
Harmonia swiftly swooped down. It deployed its aeroshell and commenced its descent in one go.
The enemy forces didn’t have any time to launch effective anti-aircraft attacks. Since it was descending from a very high altitude, reaching Mach 6 should be possible.
After receiving transmissions from both the Harmonia and Astraea, Fuyuki immediately gave out orders.
「Big Boss is heading this way on his own. Edge Swift squadron, are you guys able to launch?」
「On his own? That’s crazy! Of course, we can!」
The Edge Swift pilot Familiars responded energetically. They didn’t expect that their respected Big Boss would actually come to reinforce them on his own. For those fighting in the front lines, this caused quite a boost in morale.
An Edge Swift squadron quickly launched out from Fortress Area P336 in order to escort the Harmonia.
The Harmonia rapidly lowered its altitude.
「We’re about to reach 5,000 meters above the surface. I’ll drop you once we’ve reached the optimum altitude.」
「Okay!」
As the two had their exchange, the altitude of Harmonia dropped to 3,000 meters.
It was descending at a speed that would make one think it was crashing instead.
The enemy Coulson formation fired anti-aircraft missiles. They caught up to the Harmonia, but they were all blocked by its electromagnetic barrier.
Harmonia kept advancing without the slightest hint of slowing down.
「Aren’t you gonna slow down!?」
「Atmospheric pressure– As long as we continue to drop in altitude, our speed will drop accordingly even without me doing anything!」
「Enemies detected!」
Even Unit 5 was able to detect the approaching Coulsons.
The values leading to reaching supersonic speed weren’t constant. The rate in which something reaches supersonic speed depended on things like atmospheric pressure and temperature. The closer you were to the surface, the more acceleration you needed in order to go supersonic.
「We’re gonna charge right in! We’re unarmed though!」
「That’s too reckless!」
In contrast to his outward appearance, Abel was actually quite daring. Kou, on the other hand, was quite rattled by the other party’s boldness. This was probably the first time Kou had ridden in a completely unarmed aircraft since he found himself on Planet Asia.
The Harmonia kept charging forward while causing sonic booms even when it entered the range of the enemy’s anti-aircraft guns.
If it was hit by a railgun round at the speed it was going, the resulting destructive power would get amplified, but Abel didn’t care about such a thing at all.
He smiled fearlessly and headed straight for the battlefield.
The roar of the sonic booms got more and more pronounced as the plane continued to charge forward.
「We’re now only 1000 meters from the surface. Proceeding to decelerate. Deactivating upper engine. Commencing drop preparations. Opening the multi-bay and launching Lanius C.」
The plane finally started decelerating. The upper stage of the twin jet engines stopped, and the plane deployed its air brakes. It performed aerodynamic braking to slow down.
「Enemy aircraft incoming!」
「It’s fine. I’ll attract their attention.」
Harmonia’s lower multi-bay parted to the left and right.
Unit 5 gradually protruded out of it.
「Commencing drop. Good luck!」
「Thank you, Abel-san!」
Unit 5 was finally dropped from Harmonia. Harmonia closed its multi-bay, raised its nose once more, and headed back up to the sky. The Coulson formation frantically tracked it and tried to ascertain its flight course.
The battle on the surface was still ongoing.
Nyanta had already made it back to the front line as well. She was fighting off the enemy machines with an AK2.
The Epos towed back the Menghu tanks that had suffered critical hits and rendered immobile, and several Eponas and mercenary Silhouettes quickly replaced them in order to fill the gaps in the defensive formation.
This grueling battle of attrition had been going on for several hours already.
Unit 5 readied its weapon as it glided toward the ground. It deployed its anti-fortress rifle.
It aimed at the enemies from above and fired in order to restrain them.
The rifle rounds scored hits and caused powerful explosion.
The Arachne-type seemed to have noticed Unit 5’s presence. The enemy force tried to intercept Unit 5 with ramjet shells and railguns, but they proved ineffective against its plasma barrier and electromagnetic armor.
「Nyanta!」
「Kou! You got here so fast nyaa!」
Epona looked up at the sky. Nyanta couldn’t help but smile broadly.
「Big Boss?! Weren’t you at the orbital elevator!?」
「You came all this was just to rescue Nyanta? That’s so nice. I’m so envious, Nyanta!」
The other Therianthropes gawked in amazement. After all, the distance Kou traversed to arrive at their position normally wasn’t one that could be covered in even a couple hours.
In the sky, Harmonia caused sonic booms as it flew around, as if making fun of the enemy fighters that were chasing after it.
The Harmonia, that had accelerated to Mach 5 once more, couldn’t be caught by the Coulsons that were only capable of reaching Mach 2 at most.
The sonic booms it was generating were also troublesome.
Abel was flying around in the sky above the battlefield in order for the enemy fighter squadron not to target Kou. Its huge frame successfully drew the attention of the enemy fighters.
It circled around widely and proceeded to leave the airspace. It covered hundreds of kilometers just by circling around. The enemy fighter didn’t have a prayer of catching up to it.
At an altitude of less than 300 meters, Unit 5 continued to aim and shoot at the enemy machines below.
Even with their Silhouette components disposed of, the Spider-shaped Aberration Arms were still functioning.
「Which should I target……?」
『Just keep aiming for the Silhouettes. The Aberration Arms by themselves cannot make complex judgments.』
「Got it, Astraea!」
Unit 5 finally landed on the ground while continuing to fire.
The Edge Swift squadron also arrived and started to provide air support. The Harmonia proceed to head for Fortress Area P336.
「Kou!」
「Sorry for making you wait, everyone!」
The Therianthropes were excited by the presence of the unexpected reinforcements. Their morale rose once more.
「Thank you, Yutong-san.」
Kou thanked Yutong for supporting the defense line with her tank corps.
The tiger-type Therianthrope with a big sister-like build laughed heartily in response.
「Just call me Yutong, Big boss! You actually came all the way to a battlefield where there’s nothing but Familiars and Therianthropes.」
「Hm? Isn’t that only natural?」
「Haha! Is that so? Then, we’re counting on you for support, Big Boss! Me and my mates will continue serving as your shields!」
「Alright.」
Yutong dropped the transmission with Kou and proceeded to hail all Wangcheng Industrial troops under her command.
「Haha, heard that, you lot? The guy says it’s only natural to help us out.」
「As expected of Big Boss.」
「I now get why Yunlan loves this guy. –We can’t embarrass ourselves here! Let’s go, everyone!」
「Got it, anego!」
Individually, the weapons made by Wangcheng Industrial weren’t particularly outstanding.
However, they were made with emphasis on versatility and coordination. Their ability to seamlessly work together on the battlefield is one of the greatest strengths of weapons manufactured by Wangcheng Industrial.
The Menghus advanced to cover Kou, followed by the Eponas and Epos. The Epos had switched to the melee weapon anti-tank battle-axe.
Even the rounds being fired by them seemed to gain a lot more momentum.
「Kou, the enemy machines are gonna try to immobilize you with electromagnetic nets.」
「Gotcha!」
Nyanta’s Epona provided cover fire as Kou rushed forward.
The Arachne-type withstood the shells, but Unit 5 bisected it in two as soon as it got it range.
This one strike changed the tide of battle.
While watching out for electromagnetic nets, the Epos and their allied machines proceeded to knock off the legs of the Black Widows with their axes while the tanks closed in methodically and acted as defensive walls.
Unit 5 slipped in between the tanks and dealt with the Black Knights one after another.
The armor of the Black Knights that made use of new materials was ultimately meaningless in the face of Unit 5’s Kogetsu.
The remaining Black Knights whose Black Widows were destroyed by the Epos flew off one after another. The Aberration Arms still held the numbers advantage. If 100 Arachne-types separated into their Silhouette and Murder components, they would effectively double their numbers.
Due to the fierce barrage of the support forces at the rear in addition to the tank and Quattro Silhouette corps, the battle line gradually got pushed back.
Comment (0)