Dawnbringer: The Story of the Machine God Vol 1 Chapter 5

Azoran-3 was a planet that possessed a continent near its equator.

 

A popular opinion among people is that planets with a continent on the equator disrupt the sea and air flow of the planet—limiting its ability to produce plentiful agriculture, when compared to Earth.

 

Contrary to this belief, however, the plants on Azoran-3 had the property of being able to absorb the sea water with high mineral levels and filter it into fresh water, while utilising the minerals and the water for its growth.

 

As a result, there were so many flora growing near the equator that one could express it as a giant green solar panel.

 

One could say that the energy efficiency was quite high. But on the other hand, this planet was similar to Earth during its carboniferous period, so there was a high risk of fire.

 

“There is a high risk of a wildfire due to the high oxygen levels, and there are giant-sized insects, so always be on your guard. This place is infested with dinosaur-sized monsters. Azoran-3 is a planet in its natural state, so keep that in mind!”

 

During the training, Ensign Meihowa’s voice could be heard over the terminals. Admiral Luise and I boarded the training capsule.

 

“Go!”

 

The training capsule flew towards Azoran-3.

 

After a sudden gravitational acceleration, zero-gravity could be experienced inside the capsule. I looked around to Admiral Luise in concern, but she was indifferent to the gravitational change—most likely a result of her gravity adaption course she completed.

 

“W-We ended up travelling together, didn’t we Lezirth.”

 

Admiral Luise’s face was hidden behind the ‘Full Face’ feature on the helmet. However, it was easy to recognise it was her under the military uniform because of her small, cute and pet.i.te figure as well as her feminine and scared, pitiful features.

 

“Yes, of course. But I apologise for showing you my shortcomings back there. I never expected that I would be ostracised by everyone in the platoon….”

 

“There you go again. But I’m glad that happened. B-Because we can stick together now….”

 

Hmm? She’s happy? Because she can stick with me? I-I see.

 

“Ah! I-It would be a problem if you say it like that. Please don’t say that to anyone besides me. The other hotheaded males would misunderstand you. Ha ha ha.”

 

Admiral Luise still trusted me wholeheartedly. That’s right, even if I’m ostracised by the platoon, the fact that I am the war hero Lezirth Dawnbringer does not change.

 

I was fit enough to work alongside Admiral Luise, who knew of that better than anyone else! Hmm, to think she trusted me this much….

 

I have to repay that debt. I feel like my debt has doubled.

 

“…”

 

Although I couldn’t see Admiral Luise’s expression behind the helmet, she appeared to be in a bad mood all of a sudden.

 

At that moment, the capsule started to decelerate. The parachute on the training capsule must’ve activated itself as we approached the surface.

 

After a short while, the training capsule landed with a thunderous noise.

 

I studied the surroundings of the training capsule, after turning on the terminal. I could see some human-sized bugs that resembled a wra.s.se in the thick swamp forest.

 

Hmm, there’s quite a few of them. I wonder if they’re dangerous.

 

“Then I will go out first.”

 

I jumped out of the training capsule and grabbed my M-10 Bayonet. It was a multi-purpose military weapon that could double as a gun or a short sword because of the attached blade on top of the gun.

 

One could attach a Thorium nuclear battery and shoot holes in armoured vehicles with High Frequency Vibrations, but people rarely do so due to the high risk of failure. The Bayonet aside, I also had Colion Coil Rifles with me but there was no need to waste any ammunition on these bugs.

 

The wra.s.se-like bugs must’ve been dangerous, because they all turned around and leapt at me like I was their prey.

 

I quickly dished out double roundhouse kicks and warded them off. It would be impossible to keep fighting off these bugs using such a method, but that only applied to normal people! I’ll let them taste the Psyonic powers of the Dawnbringer!

 

—Bzzzzz!

 

Cherenkov radiation flew out twice with each kick. When the leaping bugs were hit with the radiation, they flew backwards and splattered against the trees or simply fell onto the floor and split in half.

 

I spun in circles as I continued to kick and used the momentum to switch to using my fists.

 

“Lightning Fire Piercing Fist!”

 

A beam of radiation shot out from my fist and pierced through the swarm of bugs in a line. A strong gale followed its path and emitted shockwaves.

 

While the bugs were recovering from the shock, I swung the Bayonet around. The bugs dropped dead as they were cut into pieces.

 

When I deemed the surroundings as safe, I used the terminal to contact Admiral Luise who was still inside the capsule.

 

[Landing zone is clear. All threats have been eliminated. You can come out now, Luise.]

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

Admiral Luise walked out from the capsule. She was very taken aback at the numerous bug corpses that littered the ground.

 

“Isn’t this area very dangerous for training if there are wild organisms such as these inhabiting the lands?”

 

“These are nothing…. There are the Colion Coil Rifles as well.”

 

Colion Coil Rifles was so useful as a weapon, that the same type of weapon was used for armoured vehicles and Alter-Armours.

 

A primitive life form wouldn’t stand a chance against the soldiers armed with these rifles.

 

“Now then, let us join the Platoon Leader and the Vice Platoon Leader where the Spider landed. We should move while protecting each other as a pair.”

 

That was when it happened.

 

Suddenly, a scream sounded over the terminal and sounds of gunfire could be heard.

 

[Whoaa! What kind of a monster is that!?]

 

[Kyaaa!!]

 

[No!]

 

Hearing the scream from the Alpha squad, I quickly used the computer to get a visual on Alpha. The visual being streamed from the camera on the helmets of the Alpha squad was luckily not an attack from a dangerous monster or an enemy.

 

They were shooting off their Coil Rifles wildly at centipedes that appeared to be over 10 meters in length. The native insects of Azoran-3 were being decimated before the force of the rifles. The centipedes caught fire naturally because of the high oxygen levels and burned away at a frightening rate.

 

“I thought they b.u.mped into a Letix Predator or something since they were yelling so loudly.”

 

I lost interest and turned off the visual. However, I couldn’t deny that these insects were threatening. A small mistake could cost us our lives, so I had to move carefully.

 

“Please follow me carefully, since we’re in the jungle.”

 

I hacked away at any obstacles or th.o.r.n.y plants and created a path through the trees. After a while, we arrived at the site where the Alter-Armour and Spider had landed.

 

“Lezirth! Luise! Do something about this guy.”

 

Pencolt was tightly clinging onto Power-Armour-clad Sergeant Aroha’s ankles. If she wasn’t wearing the Power-Armour, it would’ve been considered as s.e.xual hara.s.sment but at the moment, the Power-Armour leg was no different to a metal pole.

 

“Whoaa… I’m so scared. The big monsters were….”

 

“What’s so scary about them? d.a.m.n it you! Aren’t you supposed to be a man?!”

 

“Ah, that just now was s.e.xual discrimination. How can you discriminate between men and women in this day and age, man? Sergeant, I’m gonna sue you for s.e.xual discrimination. Look forward to it!”

 

“…”

 

As Sergeant Aroha pulled a speechless expression in exasperation, Ensign Meihowa jumped down from the Alter-Armour’s c.o.c.kpit.

 

“Hmm, it seems like Alpha Squad is battling with a swarm of insects at the moment. There seems to be some injured, but no deaths. What about you two, Greenie and Luise? You were way off course with your landing.”

 

“We’re fine, Ensign. But they suffered injuries just because of some insects? Geez.”

 

I wasn’t angry at the fact that Alpha Squad excluded me from their squad. I was just angry that they were lacking as soldiers of the Federation.

 

I wasn’t secretly laughing inside my heart at what Alpha Squad was going through.

 

‘Ha ha, those fools. This is great.’

 

Ah, I’ve done it now. OK, I didn’t think those thoughts till just now.

 

“Now then, everyone on the Spider, please. We’ll a.s.sault the striking point and go set up the beacon.”

 

After saying that, Ensign Meihowa listened carefully to the communication channel on the computer. Then suddenly, a bzzt sounded through the entire channel.

 

“… Eh?”

 

“What was that?”

 

The communication channel used by the s.p.a.ce Federation had hypers.p.a.ce technology integrated into the system. Although it was difficult to jump military equipment and personnel through hypers.p.a.ce, jumping data was fairly easy, so EMP or solar waves had no effect on the communications.

 

I only knew of one that was able to disrupt the channel and cause a noise like this.

 

“Tetragrammaton’s Ultimate Kishin Technique: ‘Punishing Wail’!”

 

It is a powerful attack that is able to decimate enemies over tens of light years with an explosion. It was even able to interfere with hypers.p.a.ce travel for a few hours as a side effect.

 

But if that activated just now…

 

At that moment, something sounded over the white noise. It sounded like cries from the prisoners of h.e.l.l itself.

 

[Archimedes is damaged! Ship damage is calculated to be at 37.52%!]

 

[H-How can this be?! According to the military computer a.n.a.lysis, that was an attack from the Tetragrammaton, sir!]

 

[Enemy ship emerging, sighted on Azoran-4!]

 

[Enemy sighted! It’s… a Diablo! Kishin Diablo and numerous Alter-Armours!]

 

[Arghhh!]

 

With a yell… an aurora suddenly appeared on Azoran-3’s atmospheric layer.

 

 

◊             ◊              ◊

 

 

Meteor showers began to fall onto Azoran-3. The Federation’s warship that brought them to the Azoran system was broken, and the debris burst into flames as they fell through the atmosphere like a meteor shower.

 

The aurora that occurred a while ago continued to shine bluish light as energy collided onto the ionosphere. Although it was a beautiful sight, that was the sight of the meaningless deaths of over 50,000 Federation soldiers.

 

“Archimedes has been destroyed. Every ship near Azoran-4 has been destroyed.”

 

After dealing damage to the Archimedes, which was leading the Azoran-4 attack forces, with Tetragrammaton’s long distance attack ‘Punishing Wail’, a force of Alter-Armours led by the Diablo finished the job.

 

Although the war records displayed the Elcros or Asas’ military strength as below humans’, they started a strong comeback with that powerful attack.

 

Admiral Luise a.n.a.lysed the situation even with the lack of information.

 

“Asas and Elcros formed an alliance. The Rebel Replicant Force might be part of it as well. No, they must be in an alliance.”

 

And an Asa, Elcro or Rebel Replicant possessed the Tetragrammaton—with a Kishin-cla.s.s pilot at that.

 

One couldn’t use the Kishin to its full ability just by possessing it. Alter-Armour was the physical body while the pilot was the brain. A brainless warrior is useless even with a strong body, and Alter-Armour worked in the same way—a fitting pilot must operate the Alter-Armour in order to bring out its full potential.

 

And not every Kishin-cla.s.s pilot could pilot something like Tetragrammaton fully. Only someone who possessed a clairvoyance ability, like Admiral Luise Maynard, was able to accurately hit an enemy 50 light years away.

 

A saviour to comrades and the grim reaper to the enemy.

 

Tetragrammaton was now in the enemy’s possession!

 

However, the others have not yet noticed that the Tetragrammaton was now in the enemy’s possession.

 

That was to be expected, because they heard about Tetragrammaton being lost 120 years ago; they never would’ve been able to witness its power in their life.

 

Even so, it was enough to ring some alarms, seeing the s.p.a.ceships wiped out.

 

[W-What will happen to us?]

 

[W-We can survive, right? We’re only recruits! W-We’re no different to civilians!]

 

[d.a.m.n it, you’re s.h.i.tting me. This is a joke, isn’t it? Someone tell me this is just a candid camera! Why is this happening as soon as we landed on Azoran?!]

 

[I’m not even supposed to be in the Navy! Why did they forcefully conscript me into this!]

 

Complaints came through from Alpha, Bravo and Charlie squads. Ensign Meihowa shouted her orders to them in response.

 

[Stop your whining! The training is cancelled! Everyone gather at the beacon point! Gather your equipment and the injured and move to the beacon point! Arrive there in 2 hours, Federation Standard Time!]

 

“No, Ensign Meihowa. We can’t do that!”

 

I stopped Meihowa by going up to her.

 

The medium-sized a.s.sault Cruiser was circulating around Azoran-3 at the moment. However, if we were to go to the beacon point, in other words, if we send a contact signal to the a.s.sault Cruiser, the enemies would be aware of our existence on Azoran-3. If the enemy force is indeed an Elcro-Asa alliance, then they will not only attempt to chase any intruders away from Azoran-4, but also reclaim Azoran-3.

 

“What are you doing, Greenie! Are you going against my orders? We are in a battle! You might think we were playing around till now, but serious consequences will fall upon you if you rebel!”

 

Ensign Meihowa looked at me with an intimidating glare. I suppose she really will consider me as a rebel if I go against her orders.

 

“Ensign Meihowa, with all due respect, I have a strategy suggestion.”

 

“A suggestion? Say it.”

 

“It is suicidal to return to the a.s.sault Cruiser at a time like this.”

 

“Hmm, you’re not showing any respect. Well, whatever. Your point?”

 

“We have to survive on the ground while waiting for the main forces. The enemy has the Diablo and Tetragrammaton; a force with at least two Kishins. They will try to reclaim Azoran-3.”

 

“I agree with him, Ensign. I believe we mustn’t return to the a.s.sault Cruiser, but to drop it onto Azoran-3 and try to hold our place by recovering the crew members and goods from it. With the Azoran system under the enemy’s control at the moment, we will be reduced to s.p.a.ce dust if we attempt to escape by a single a.s.sault Cruiser.”

 

Admiral Luise also voiced her support.

 

Ensign Meihowa sighed. She must be very confused at the situation, since she was promoted to an official Ensign only recently.

 

However, instead of forcefully arguing for her views, she accepted Luise’s and my opinions.

 

“Even if that is true, we don’t know when support will arrive.”

 

“That may be so, but doing this is for the better. If we try to escape on the a.s.sault Cruiser, we’ll be reduced to dust.”

 

“I suppose… it would be for the better if we hold our places and surrender later on. Since the Sergeant and I are half-Asa and half-Elcro.”

 

“Now then Recruit Pencolt. No, I suppose it would be Apprentice Pencolt now that we are in a real war situation.”

 

“I-I want to be a civilian, man. I don’t wanna be captured by the enemy for being a soldier, so I’ll just become a miner on Azoran-3.”

 

Pencolt was trembling greatly. It wasn’t fitting for a soldier, but I could understand.

 

“Ah, now that I think about it, there’re only civilians on Azoran-3, aren’t there.”

 

Ensign Meihowa wore a bitter smile. When the Federation captured Azoran-3, they sent miners immediately and have been mining minerals.

 

“Don’t you think we should warn the miners at the mines about the situation? There should be security guards there to protect the miners.”

 

Sergeant Aroha asked, but Admiral Luise refused immediately.

 

“They will have a higher level of command than us… if we contact them recklessly, we might have to obey their orders. Our platoon is nothing but a suicidal squad, is it not? They will use that fact to their advantage and if we refuse, we will be held responsible at the international courts.”

 

“But if we go too out of hand, we will still be held responsible at the international courts. We’ll follow your decision, Ensign.”

 

I looked at Ensign Meihowa.

 

She inspected the hologram visual on the computer with a complicated expression. She appeared to be accepting the fact that I didn’t suggest my opinions to save my life, but to act with consequence.

 

“No change of plan for now! We will move to the beacon point as planned!”

 

“Ensign Meihowa!”

 

And I just explained to her how suicidal that would be! Can’t she trust me at least that much!? I tried to continue talking.

 

“However, we won’t board the a.s.sault Cruiser there, but we’ll retrieve the goods and move on. We won’t turn into s.p.a.ce dust like that, right?”

 

That certainly was easier than finding somewhere to gather around with the other squads. The risk of being discovered by the enemy forces was greater, but… they shouldn’t pay a great deal of attention to a medium-sized a.s.sault Cruiser. They can catch up to us in no time anyway.

 

“Ah! O-OK. That’s not bad.”

 

… Is what I thought.

 

 

◊             ◊              ◊

 

 

Well, nothing terrible happened.

 

The suicidal platoon gathered at the meeting point and gathered food, ammunition, vehicles and Power-Armours from the a.s.sault Cruiser.

 

There was enough food, ammunition and equipment to last us for at least two months and our numbers grew when the crew members joined us. That was good.

 

And afterwards, the a.s.sault Cruiser was blown to smithereens as I had predicted. That was also good. Having the a.s.sault Cruiser destroyed might help us to hide our movements from now on.

 

However, the only issue was that Lieutenant Imamura was on board the a.s.sault Cruiser.

 

a.s.sault Cruisers could be operated unmanned, with the exception of occasional mechanics checking up on the system, and they were able to set courses by themselves. Hence, they were designed to be used similarly to a private plane.

 

But when and why did this lieutenant sneak on board without us noticing?

 

“Eh, I was on board in case of an emergency as your instructor. There is no way I would send recruits and an Ensign-in-training to a dangerous place like this, right? So all of you are now under my command.”

 

Lieutenant Imamura scanned across everyone gathered at the beacon point but he stopped when he looked at me.

 

“…”

 

What did he want? I have a gun in my hands, so you wanna have a go? You might want to think twice before acting out just because I’m your ‘subordinate’ for the moment.

 

And I was originally a Vice Admiral. A Lieutenant like him should be falling to his knees and bowing down to me, if he even dared to look me in the eyes. Or maybe I should state my officer school graduation year? I was in the military during the AD period!

 

As I glared back at him with those thoughts on my mind, the Lieutenant quickly looked away. Tsk. I expected a similar reaction, but to see him really avoiding my gaze, the Federation Force is really lacking in the quality department.

 

“Eh-hem. I am now your platoon leader. Ensign Meihowa! Give your Alter-Armour to me and you use the Power-Armour. And I will leave you to monitor for any enemies.”

 

In a s.p.a.ce war, Alter-Armour acted almost as a foot soldier, so it was one of the positions with the highest casualty rates. However, Alter-Armour was one of the jobs that had the lowest casualty occurrences on land.

 

Hence, Lieutenant Imamura decided to use the safest equipment for himself and demoted Ensign Meihowa to the Power-Armour.

 

This b.a.s.t.a.r.d, how dare he take the safety for himself, and leave Ensign Meihowa vulnerable? What a cheap person. Why couldn’t he be blasted into s.p.a.ce dust, along with the a.s.sault Cruiser just before!

 

However, Ensign Meihowa handed over her Alter-Armour to him without a complaint.

 

“Well, now then!”

 

Imamura took off his bullet-proof vest and climbed into the c.o.c.kpit in the Alter-Armour suit attire.

 

In Ensign Meihowa’s case, her tight Alter-Armour pilot suit was a joy to look at, but the sight of Imamura in the Alter-Armour suit was revolting. His backside was swaying side to side as he climbed up; why can’t he fall off and just die? My cursing had no effect because he managed to climb into the c.o.c.kpit safely.

 

—Whirl!

 

The Alter-Armour did boot up, but the compatibility was so low that the minion cla.s.s Alter-Armour was in a ‘drowsy’ state. The wavelengths simply did not match up and it was almost as if it was sleepy.

 

Seeing the Alter-Armour struggling to walk and stumbling like a drunkard made me mad.

 

[Now then, everyone move toward the 1st Mine. We will join the higher ranks there and follow their command! Ensign Meihowa, study our path for any enemies by launching the unmanned surveillance vehicle.]

 

When the Lieutenant gave out his orders through the terminals, Admiral Luise argued.

 

[Please hold on a moment. There might be enemies still in the atmosphere after the attack on the a.s.sault Cruiser. Launching the unmanned surveillance vehicle now might reveal our existence to the enemy. Wouldn’t it be safer to navigate through the jungle since we have the maps installed on the computer?]

 

It was certainly true. Launching the USV over the jungles when the a.s.sault Cruiser was destroyed not too long ago, was almost the equivalent to advertising ‘we are here’ to the enemy forces.

 

Furthermore, how much could you figure out from an unmanned surveillance vehicle in a jungle like this anyway? The odds of being discovered by the enemy outweighed the benefits.

 

The Lieutenant scoffed at the reasonable suggestion.

 

[Who are you to tell me what to do?! We are the ones who first started to use surveillance vehicles in the first place; I know what I’m doing! Hurry up and deploy it!]

 

[I refuse. It is far too dangerous to deploy the surveillance vehicle for at least another 2 hours.]

 

Ensign Meihowa shook her head and Lieutenant Imamura grinded his teeth.

 

[This b.i.t.c.h… where did your c.o.xing att.i.tude go to!? Why are you acting like this now!?]

 

Whoa, he’s got in way over his head. And to think he would actually say it on a monitored and recorded channel!

 

[I have never done that.]

 

[Well, whatever. I will be seeing you in court for disobeying my orders. Just follow me for now. Chief Technician Yeon-Sik Oh, you deal with the surveillance vehicle!]

 

Chief Technician Yeon-Sik Oh was the Chief Technician of the a.s.sault Cruiser mechanics.

 

[But Lieutenant, what the Ensign and Recruit said is true. It is far too dangerous to deploy it right now. Please make a reasonable decision.]

 

[Are you ignoring my authority as well? I’m a Lieutenant!]

 

“And I’m a Vice Admiral.”

 

[What? Who said that?]

 

“…”

 

When I stayed silent, Chief Technician Yeon-Sik Oh sighed and started to manipulate the unmanned surveillance vehicle.

 

The surveillance vehicle flew up through the jungle layers and started to feed the visuals to the computer. All we could see were trees, obviously, but there were the occasional birds and insects moving in the layers. It was like watching a peaceful nature doc.u.mentary.

 

Sure, the sight might give some sense of relief to us, but we were risking everyone’s lives just to see these visuals.

 

It really was tough to be under an incompetent officer.

 

 

◊             ◊              ◊

 

 

Admiral Luise, Pencolt and I clung onto the Spider and raced through the jungle. The other soldiers boarded onto military vehicles and shouldn’t have any problems following us.

 

Sergeant Aroha had the terminals turned off and was swearing her head off as she drove the Spider. Giga-sized reptiles and insects that inhabited this jungle occasionally attacked us, but Pencolt and Admiral Luise drove them away with their rifles.

 

We should be able to reach the 1st Mine in approximately 20 minutes.

 

[Hmph! And to think all of you complained to me. See, nothing’s gone wrong.]

 

Why is that fool planting his own death flag again? I clicked my tongue in annoyance at Lieutenant Imamura’s chatters.

 

That was when it happened.

 

Suddenly, something flashed up in the sky and our surveillance vehicle caught on fire. With that, 2 unmanned surveillance vehicles similar to ours revealed themselves in the air.

 

“What?”

 

“d.a.m.n! They’re Rebel Replicant Force equipment!”

 

“What are you all doing! Shoot! Shoot it down!”

 

But before that, the enemy’s surveillance vehicles started to move.

 

There were two Colion Coil Rifles on each of the vehicles, similar to the infantry’s. Though they were different from the usual Coil Rifles, because they shot high-ma.s.s plasma jets and smart bombs instead of firing 0.1g of plasma at Mach 10 speeds.

 

The USVs flew over the jungle, scanning over us; sensing with ultrasonic waves, heat and metal detection.

 

In a matter of seconds, all of our equipment and forces were revealed to the enemy. High-ma.s.s plasma jets flew towards us in a ray from the surveillance vehicles.

 

Everything in its path caught on fire as it rushed through the jungle and the ray shone over the Alter-Armour that Lieutenant Imamura was piloting, the allied vehicles and the Spider.

 

“Tsk!”

 

I switched my hands and formed a s.p.a.ce-wrap around me to redirect the falling plasma back at the enemies. However, it was impossible to redirect all of the plasma jets that were firing down like a flamethrower.

 

Every plasma particle in my reach was redirected back at the enemy, but the rest of the plasma jets. .h.i.t their target and displayed showy explosions and immense heat.

 

The shocked soldiers started to shoot up at the air. However, it was quite difficult to shoot down USVs when they’re moving so rapidly.

 

[Arghh!]

 

[No!]

 

[Urghh!]

 

One of the vehicles was shot by a plasma jet and smart bomb at the same time. The vehicle belonged to the Alpha squad, and they were blown away in an instant.

 

Smart bombs were small, but their firepower was nothing to scoff at, and there was no need to mention the power of plasma jets.

 

The sight of the inside of the vehicle was shocking. The Power-Armour clad squad leader’s arms and legs were lopped off because of the plasma jet, and his body had been blown away in all directions because of the smart bomb that fell afterwards.

 

Other squad members didn’t suffer from the shrapnel because they were wearing bullet-proof vest, but the issue was the combustion that occurred from the plasma jet impact. Metal pieces that were hit by the plasma started to burst into flames because of the high density of oxygen on Azoran-3.

 

Light and heat that was almost on par with burning magnesium started to occur, and the whole car started to burn.

 

“Everyone jump out of the car! It’s dangerous!”

 

After dealing a significant amount of damage to the suicidal bomb squad, the enemy surveillance vehicles turned around in mid-air and started to fly towards us again.

 

Are they going to shoot out plasma jets and smart bombs again?

 

However, two rays of light pierced through the surveillance vehicle with great accuracy. It was Admiral Luise who shot down those two vehicles with her rifle while seated on top of the rocky Spider.

 

She’s the one who’s able to shoot down enemy fleets from 50 light years away. Although her physical strength was far too lacking to be a sniper, she was more than capable of being an accurate shooter.

 

The two vehicles that tasted her accurate shots caught on fire and fell to the jungle floor; exploding on impact.

 

[Everyone, report your casualties!]

 

Ensign Meihowa quickly ordered her orders via the terminals. When she did,  the weak voice of someone from the Alpha squad gave their report.

 

[A-Alpha squad. 3 dead, 1 vehicle lost, ma’am!]

 

The halved vehicle was still burning and members pulled out from the vehicle were all in a state of panic.

 

They just suffered a great deal of damage from a surprise attack after all.

 

[Spider here. The frontal armour is lost, but it’s still functional.]

 

That was Sergeant Aroha’s report.

 

The Spider was also hit by the plasma jets on its armoured parts, just on top of its frontal lets, but Pencolt switched his Coil Rifle’s function to a fire extinguisher and quickly extinguished the flames in time to lessen the damage.

 

“Fu fu fu. I’ve memorized the differences in each model of Colion Coil Rifles, man. I knew this had a fire extinguisher function already.”

 

“Yeah, good for you.”

 

If it wasn’t for Pencolt’s quick actions, the Spider would’ve gone up in flames as well.

 

[Ah… Young Min Kim! No!]

 

[Correction, death toll is now 5. There are 4 wounded.]

 

The death toll rose with the deaths of some wounded.

 

Ensign Meihowa gritted her teeth loud enough for the terminal to hear.

 

[Alpha Squad, join forces with Charlie Squad. And Lieutenant!]

 

Ensign Meihowa called out to Lieutenant Imamura. However, Lieutenant Imamura was too busy swearing his head off to Chief Technician Oh.

 

[You fool! What the h.e.l.l did you learn in the military!? How can you lose our surveillance vehicles to the enemy’s when you’re controlling it?!  Don’t they share the same function and technology?]

 

[Ah… you see, it was a sudden attack, as they came down from the atmosphere, so I was unable to do anything. And there were two of them at that.]

 

It was obvious that the surveillance vehicle was going to stand out; flying over the green jungle carpet.

 

The only purpose that our surveillance vehicle had was to publicly announce that it was ready to be shot down, or to signal our position to an ally.

 

Hence, the one at fault was not Chief Technician Yeon-Sik Oh, but Lieutenant Imamura.

 

However, the Lieutenant refused to take the blame for his actions.

 

[What do you mean, you weren’t able to do anything! Do you really think that’s going to cut it?! Ah, fine! I hold the power since I’m the one in charge right now, right? I sentence you to death!]

 

[Lieutenant!]

 

When Ensign Meihowa called him, Lieutenant Imamura turned around the Alter-Armour and aimed the large Coil Rifle at Ensign Meihowa and the Spider.

 

[What now, Ensign! Are you trying to show off to me? That my orders were wrong?]

 

[Calm down, Lieutenant. Our position has been revealed to the enemy.]

 

Ensign Meihowa remained calm even in a situation like this.

 

I slowly gathered my strength, just in case this would turn out to be a worst case scenario. If the Lieutenant pulls the trigger, I would have to protect her.

 

I must’ve not been the only one who thought so, because I could hear Sergeant Aroha aiming the Spider’s cannon at the Alter-Armour.

 

A standoff!

 

Everyone froze still at the sight.

 

….

 

I wonder how long we stayed like that for.

 

It was hot.

 

The military uniform was equipped with heat dispersion technology, but the Azoran-3 jungle was hot and humid. The temperature soared while being stuck in the standoff.

 

“Hmp!”

 

Lieutenant scoffed and eased the large Coil Rifle.

 

[So what if we’re discovered? We will head to the mining camps and join forces with them. Commander Donna of the 1st Mine is an officer I’ve served before. The mining camp has strong defences and they will think twice before using nuclear or strong firepower if they plan on reclaiming this planet in good shape. There are Elcro slaves there as well!]

 

At that moment, an order came from said Commander Donna. The order came through the military channel and a dual-transmission one, so it was an ordinary order.

 

[The approaching platoon, your mission is to move to the Ateu Plains, located towards the north of the 1stMine, to stop the enemy’s landings.]

 

A middle-aged military woman with a mole on the tip of her nose gave out her orders in a dull voice.

 

A visual of the Ateu Plains loaded up on the computer. It was a flat land that was placed between the jungle, and was being used as a temporary landing pad. Hence, it was an area highly sought after by the enemy.

 

She wanted us to stop the enemy from taking control of that place, with a single platoon? Saying that it was a mission was no different from euphemising a death sentence.

 

Even Lieutenant Imamura, with his lacking imagination reeled back in shock at the order.

 

[P-Please hold on a moment! Commander Donna! It’s me, Lieutenant Imamura! I believe there has been a mistake with the order! I’m also in this platoon, ma’am! It’s supposed to be led by an Elcro half-breed, but I’m also part of this platoon! Commander Donna! Commander! Hey! You pig b.i.t.c.h!]

 

No matter how much Lieutenant Imamura desperately cried out, Commander Donna cut off the communication and stayed silent after leaving behind her order.

 

If we refuse, we will be sentenced to death. It was a dilemma where we could neither obey nor disobey the order.

 

That was the unavoidable mission given to the suicidal bomb platoon by the higher-ups of the 1st Mine base.