Chapter 6: Star-Spangled Martial Law ―― Trans-Am
[BEGIN TEXT]
*Cla-lang!*… The Trans-Am moved–
Pitch black smoke began to rise from the trumpet-style chimney stack as the coal burned. In addition, the white steam from the evaporated water mixed in with the smoke, but didn’t stand out from it.
The enormous black body advanced steadily, spilling the sand from the half covered steel rails as it moved along the track. Toward Area 51 that lay across the broad expanse of Nevada.
Kaname and Reki were riding in the passenger car that had a wooden floor, but the walls and ceiling were made of steel. It lacked hand rails to grasp, and with similar benches, there wasn’t much else to distinguish it from cars on the Yamanote Line.
In the engine at the head of the cars, Atlas and Collins were managing the fuel and water level coming from the coal tender.
Grabbing on to the hand holds that were there to prevent a fall, I crabbed my way across the exterior of the tender’s body frame and running board and across the car coupler… finally reaching the locomotive at the head of the cars.
The sunlight was still dazzling and the wind was as dry as it had been–and the time was a bit before noon.
「Oi, old man! Stop drinking alcohol, will you?」
I admonished old man Sanders who sat in the operator’s seat, one hand on a brass regulator control knob and gladly taking pulls of liquor…
「Hush up, youngun’. If I don’t drink my hand will start ashakin’, that what you want?」
This is no good.
But even though the oni piloting the Fugaku were also drunk, they were a bit cuter.
At the open tail-end of the car, G-3 stood with his arms folded as Tsukumo and Angus tended the iron boiler.
「Time check. Distance to Area 51: 115 miles. Estimated time to target: approximately 125 minutes.」
Luca reported, consulting her expensive looking, spring-wound Heuer stopwatch.
That’s about 185 km until our final destination. I just hope that is not our final destination in life as well.
But if a train that hasn’t run for decades starts moving, then Mash will think it ridiculous for G-3 to attack in a train, and he won’t immediately realise what we are doing.
It might just be a good thing that we used this silly trick that he would never suspect.
「The Trans-Am tops out at 57 MPH. You feel that heat commin’ off it? She can handle the pressure fine, jus’ like this old man!」
Old man Sanders boasted with a belch, but the top speed of about 90 KPH wasn’t all that impressive.
Nowadays, motor scooters and even Usain Bolt can beat that in a short sprint.1
G-3 noticed my gloomy expression and turned to me… he passed me a knob on the end of a chain that drooped from the ceiling.
「Cheer up, Aniki!」
He said with a smile, and when I pulled the ball-like end–
—–*Chooooooo!*—–
I felt the reverberation of this genuine steam locomotive’s horn. So loud!
Hearing the sound, G-3’s followers:
「Wow!」
「Yahoo!」
「Choo! Choo!」
They shouted loudly. They were American, after all. You don’t have the slightest idea of how to avoid sticking out do you?
「Let’s get our signals straight. A long blast will mean『We are 1 mile from Area 51』, and we’ll get off and prepare. Two short blasts will be a warning for anything else.」
The subordinates that had cooperated to follow G-3 on the train saluted and answered with a smile
「Roger!」
Honestly, they always seemed to be having a good time. These people.
「Don’t get so worked up, Aniki!」
「I don’t have any regrets.」
G-3 and I exchanged words…
That is to say, when it comes to Americans… they have such a free and lively dynamic that we Japanese lack. I can’t despise it. Perhaps I should even try to emulate it, just a little.
*****************************************************
The rusty rail lines were covered in spots with patchy grass–unbothered by that, the TransAm pushed west into the Nevada desert. We reached top speed. As the old man had said, it was about 90 KPH.
We broke into the western side of Lincoln County, Nevada…
In terms of political affiliation, the area was hostile to G-3.
That means it wouldn’t be unexpected for Mash to intercept us here, but–
Despite all our apprehension, there was no attack.
However, this is the calm before a storm. He’s probably watching carefully and using some kind of satellite to keep tabs on us. Likely since shooting down the Sagittarius.
G-3 ordered everyone to alert status, then–the sharp-sighted Reki spotted something strange floating in the eastern sky.
When I looked in the direction she pointed, I spotted a black speck amidst the blue sky as I stood in the passenger car. .
Sticking my head out the window, I used binoculars I had borrowed from Kaname to look at it…
What…? A whale-like thing, or… a manta ray…?
I couldn’t distinguish it well because of the smoke from the train. It was uncanny, though.
As my eyebrows drew together, the scent of mint wafted up.
It appears Reki stuck her own head out of the same window below mine.
As the rushing air whipped her hair against my head:
「–It is some kind of aircraft. Slight over 10 metres long. In addition to matching the train’s speed, it is maintaining a following distance of 3.2 kilometres.」
Reki confirmed, her naked eye surpassing what I could do with the aid of binoculars.
「…G-3. There’s a low altitude craft with a shape halfway between a whale and manta ray following us.」
I said into the throat mic affixed to my neck, reaching G-3 in the main locomotive–
–*Brrr!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
A sound like a fully automatic machine gun came from under the train cars.
「Wha-what? It’s not an enemy attack…」
Looking down at the tracks, I frowned in concentration.
『…We just crossed over some old waterproof firecrackers installed on the tracks. From here on, not even the Sheriff can monitor this deserted track–It’s a traditional warning that you are entering a lawless area and to not trespass. I’m sure that the whale in the sky will ride this tide our way soon.』
Looking back, as G-3 predicted:
「Craft is in motion. Listlessly moving, but gaining speed.」
Reki reported as she shouldered her Dragunov.
…I see. Is this the place where the decisive battle will occur? With Mash?
It’s going to be a battle in the wasteland–as we headed along the deserted rail line, it was becoming more likely.
********************************************
Atlas, Reki, and Kaname waited for the enemy in the last car, protected by the steel plating.
Completely exposed in the tender, Collins took up the most dangerous role in the coal car.
G-3, myself, old man Sanders, Tsukumo, and Luca formed the locomotive garrison.
「What is it that came off of that thing…?」
Glowering toward the sky, G-3 murmured then a few seconds later…I saw it.
The plump manta shape was similar to the blended wing design of the B-2 Galleon that I had taken down…
According the G-3, it was an enlarged version of the X-48, the X-48E『Global Shuttle』, and something about 3 metres wide had detached from it.
The black smoke rose up as the TransAm dashed along the abandoned line…
The detached object followed us.
It had wings.
I can see it.
「That silhouette…!」
「–It’s LOO…!」
G-3 and I realised it was the same person we had last seen at Cafe Lalo.
It was the girl-shaped mecha, LOO– it looks like wings had been added so that she could fly.
The wings were sharply angular, and the length to width ratio was high, making it look like a glider. It lacked any type of engine… It uses potential energy to accelerate upon descent, only gaining dynamic lift as it cuts through the air and glides. I saw a small jet flame, but that looks to be an attitude control thruster. I see. LOO can fly, but she can’t cruise, and she was carried to the abandoned rail line and dropped like a parasite aircraft.
As LOO drew closer, more details could be made out.
Wearing nothing but a white bathing suit, she was almost entirely naked–
「…!」
Perhaps to make myself and Kaname hesitant to destroy her, her clothing had a Butei High sailor suit collar similar to our friends.
Mash… That’s a dirty trick.
「Oi, Atlas! That mecha girl’s equipment looks like yours. If Aria’s hover skirt and your P.A.A. are first generation, that’s second generation.」
G-3 said into his communication device as his eyebrows rose.
『Yes sir. It’s more like actual clothes than P.A.A. To distinguish it, we’ll call it–Personal Assault Dress.』
「Good name. Now… Let’s dance with this girl in the dress. Protect the TransAm! If we can do that and get to Area 51, we’ll win!」
Outlining the conditions for victory, G-3’s followers answered with a loud shout.
「Roger!」
…So this is a defensive battle, huh? I never imagined it would be a train, but defending a position is one of the fundamental topics I’ve studied.
I might not be much help, but I’ll help fight her off. Mash wants to plunge America into the chaos of war–and the Scarlet Goddess wants to plunge the world into the chaos of war, so this battle will shatter 2 ambitions. With my sibling with me, I cannot lose.
Then first of all, not caring for the Butei High sailor suit collar, Reki raised her SVD Dragunov– and Tsukumo raised her FN P90 PDW at the back of the train– *Bang!* *Ratatatata!*
Her camera-like eyes widened, and the bullets struck her wings.
But Reki’s bullet merely sent up a shower of sparks that scattered in front of LOO’s protected pretty face.
It had to be some kind of Transzendieren Ange that we weren’t familiar with–Stopped by some invisible barrier. Well, I supposed that she’d do as much.
Some of Tsukumo’s bullets struck LOO’s wings, but they only disturbed them slightly. The advanced material it was composed of must have been proof against FN 5.7x28mm bullets.
「…」
Reki pushed back the bolt and removed the magazine of 7.62mm×54R bullets from the modified barrel and substituted another magazine with a click. She must be changing ammunition type.
Like a mecha, LOO pushed on, heedless of the bullets striking her– *Whoomph!*
From a unit mounted on what appeared to be an extended epaulette, unidentified blue bullets streaked out wildly in response.
However, because she was trying to land on the train at the same time, we were out of their line of fire and the grouping of shots went wild. Almost all of them impacted on both sides of the TransAm, sending up sprays of sand like landmines with a series of *Thud!* Thud!* Thud!*. Only about 2 or three hit the roof of the passenger car.
LOO had descended and picked up speed, but was now close enough for us to make out her features and raised eyebrows.
『Was that a heavy ion ballista? It’s got to be a more efficient version of my ion collider blade, Execution D, and capable of rapid fire. I really, really want one!』
Kaname said, then adding to her report that everyone in the passenger car was safe from LOO’s last attack.
「Now then, it appears that Mash has discovered us. That being the case, it saves us the trouble of announcing ourselves. It may be a tad reckless, but let us increase our speed, shall we?」
Cool and collected, Angus– drew out what looked like a baton that was wrapped in paper from within his suit. On it’s exterior surface, the letters ‘NOS’ were stenciled.
This was the fuel for the rocket equipped onto G-3’s personal car.
「With its long burn time and high heat capacity, it may just prove useful. The larger NOS-2 or 3 would surely wreck the train, but this is a tiny NOS-1.」
「Haha! Alright, use it!.」
G-3 laughed heartily, I forced a smile, Luca and old man Sanders’ paled, and Tsukumo’s eyes widened into saucers–
「Don’t worry! This will just help us get there faster. That’s all!」
Saying something would have caused any girl to choke up with emotion and shock, he held on and supported Tsukumo by the arm. But I don’t think Tsukumo suffered any harm from it.
「Now for the NOS-1.」
Angus tossed the canister into the firebox with a gentle underhand throw–
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
The fire box which had until now been a red colour flashed with golden light.
The very next instant, a gout of flame like dragon’s breath erupted from the mouth of the firebox.
「–…!」
I raise my arm and turned my body to shield my face from the heat, but–
I fell hard on my backside as the TransAm suddenly accelerated.
In principle, anything with a high caloric capacity can be used to fuel the steam locomotive. Wood, coal, oil, coke, and dry grass have all been used. But we are probably the first in history to use Nitro.
Violent heat that was not from a yakiniku barbecue rolled off the fire box
…At last, the temperature finally fit my mental image of a Western film now, didn’t it?
A cold, mid-winter Nevada hadn’t seemed right to me.
「Internal b-boiler temperature is 1,500 degrees! Speed– 137 KPH by my eye!」
Luca shouted out her estimate as the landscape streamed by about 1.5 times faster.
「You can do it, can’t you, TransAm!」
G-3 shouted, thumping the side wall lightly with the back of a hand and grinning like an idiot.
Eyes wide open in a rush of adrenaline, old man Sanders said:
「You’re pretty fired up, aren’tcha! Nah, you’re a crazy old man Angus-san!」
「No, I am not quite that. Fufufu!」
Angus and the American chattered back and forth about nothing.
The boost of sudden acceleration not only sped us on toward Area 51–, but if we were lucky, also put us outside of LOO’s flight range… But our enemy was armed with the latest P.A.D. She wouldn’t be defeated by the ancient steam locomotive. The thruster that was originally used for attitude control now accelerated her as she closed the distance once again.
When I looked up–the smoke pouring from the TransAm’s smoke stack had changed to a dark red.
There were sparks mingled with the fumes. It was a hellish sight.
Evading the smoke and flames–
「Gynoid Loo–contact!」
Luca called out a status report as LOO raised both hands above her head– She touched down on the tail end of the passenger car with a screech of metal. Clamping down. Without landing gear or an arrestor cable.
The secret was combat knife-like claws on her hands. The literal claws sank into the roof of the passenger car. They were on her feet too.
With her claws fixing her to the passenger cars, LOO–*Pssh!* With a sound of compressed air, the airfoil unit on her back detached. The wing thruster then disappeared behind the train in an instant.
…Was it going to return to the mothership that was hanging apparently motionless in the easter sky?
A one-way trip must have been part of the plan–this too is typical of mecha.
『I know she’s an enemy, but that was incredible, wasn’t it, darlings? Like landing on a aircraft carrier!』
Collins said in his carefree, effeminate manner…
The TransAm’s speed began to drop slightly. Due to LOO’s added weight.
「LOOoooo…」
LOO growled. Her expression was intimidating. Human operators were controlling her.
Her white swimsuit was bulletproof and had a red Butei High girl’s uniform collar. A white rabbit-like set of ears protruding from her crown seemed to also serve as radar. Her main armament and electronics were affixed to her back, creating an overall weight distribution toward the rear. With wings spread, she looked like a bird or butterfly. Her arms and legs were covered in shining white gauntlets and greaves that gives off an aesthetic that, if seen by an anime fan, would move them to tears.
「No matter what else. This has to suit your tastes. I think it’s pretty cool.」
「It’s not exactly my thing. But when compared with that mushroom head sitting safely in his office at Area 51, drinking cola and eating potato crisps–this remote-control girl gives off a better feeling. Because we can engage on a fair and square level.」
I expected this to cause G-3 to enter Hysteria Mode, but it didn’t quite.
「I agree. However…At first I thought I’d be fighting with a Gundam, but it’s actually a Z’Gok that looks like a beautiful girl, isn’t it? Fortunately it’s not red and gold.」
「What’s a Z’Gok? And the paint colour doesn’t matter!」
「Ask Riko next time you see her. She’ll give you a 2-hour lecture course on it.」2
After we had exchanged this sibling banter, Angus said:
「It would be a pity to lose what speed we have just gained, would it not?.You did say it yourself just a short while ago, Third-sama, that is will merely help us reach our destination more quickly.」
And he tossed more NOS-1 into the firebox. This time, 2 canisters.
–*WHOOOOooooOOOOOOOooOOOOSH!*
Once more, the TransAm shook. The acceleration caused Collins in the coal tender to fall over.
With a *Pop!* *Pop!*, iron rivets flew off the body of the locomotive and white steam began to escape.
Too much combustive power of the Nitro had pushed the boiler past its limit.
「S-speed–158 KPH! And increasing! Internal boiler temperature, 1,800 degrees! 100 kilometres to Area 51!」
Luca shouted.
Now–the desert landscape blurred as it sped by, as if we were on a high speed train. Except for the dark red smoke, it looked like an active volcano above out heads.
「Jaaysus! I haven’t felt such speed since a chopper in ‘Nam!」
…Old man Sanders, caught along for the ride, was well experienced with such things in war.
The sudden burst of acceleration hadn’t managed to shake LOO off so–
『–Barbariser!』3
A pile-drive like stake slammed into the roof of the passenger car from the inside.
Atlas gripped the steel plate in his right hand behind the iron stake that rushed out from his forearm. Then his left arm punched through the holes left by the heavy ion ballista and grasped the steel girder frame.
He accurately determined LOO’s position from the shadow she cast on the desert outside, but–
The sudden, unexpected attack from below did not damage her frame.
However, it did displace here to some extent. Heavy mass impacts are also effective against LOO as well. That being the case… perhaps we can use this to disrupt melee combat. Knocking her off would be helpful. Aiming to do just that–
『Third-sama, Loo is quite exciting!』
While hanging suspended in the passenger car in the posture for a chin up– *Clang!*
Wearing his advanced armoured helmet, Atlas punched his upper body up through the roof of the passenger car.
『–Please leave her to me!』
He lumbered slowly toward LOO who had taken up a position at the back end of the roof…! Atlas stood, a black figure in the middle of the passenger car roof–
With all of her angular equipment extended, LOO looked small. There was a large discrepancy in body size.
『–Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and armour for armour!』
「Alright, I’ll leave it to you. Do it, Atlas!」
G-3 ordered as he clenched his right hand, and Atlas turned to face LOO– the battle between the anime mecha girl and the CG American superhero was about to begin. I was dizzy with the excitement.
Even in this wasteland, America is a country of science. This battle is one between Neue Ange and Transzendieren Ange. Then I switched over my brain to gauge their fighting potential–
LOO is a versatile fighter, and Atlas is a melee combat specialist. In this fight where falling from the train constitutes a loss, it would seem that Altas holds the advantage.
However–with a glance at LOO and Atlas, it is possible to understand the generational difference between them.
It’s 22nd century weapons facing 21st century weapons.
「LOOoooo, LOOooooo…」
『That enemy is dangerous. Third-sama, please stay back. No one take my job! –LOO! Break this super alloy shield if you can! 』
Atlas’ shield that had taken MI6’s incendiary bullets back on the main road deployed in a pizza slice shape–on the back of his forearm with a *Shing!*– it fanned and spread out. The stacked pizza slice plates eventually formed a circular shield.
With his right armoured hand holding a stake and his left a shield, Atlas faced LOO like an ancient Roman gladiator, and she–
–An M-134…!
Gatling guns attached to her back stuck out on both sides of her hips.
It was just like the old film『Terminator 2』with multiple autocannons mounted on an android– 2 of them!
After 0.3 seconds of spin up–the M-134s on both sides *Ba-ba-ba-bang!* A laser-like volley of fire erupted.
If a human were struck by it, they would die without any sense of pain, and in a few seconds, 60 7.62 mm bullets hit Atlas.
But–Atlas took it on his shield, unwavering.
There were countless wedge-shaped dents where the bullets impacted, but the armour was unpierced.
Immediately, LOO discarded the glowing red M-134 behind the train–
–*Ching!* *Ching!* On both her shoulders, twin Mk 47 Striker grenade launchers opened up.
*Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* 6 double-shots of 40 x 53 mm impact fuse grenades popped out. As I watched, Atlas was engulfed in a swirling vortex of fire and flame, and Atlas–
–With a *Clank!*, he actually took a step forward, clear of the fire and smoke.
Despite all that, the P.A.A. was not destroyed, but… its entire surface was glowing red with smoke rising from it.
It looked just like a demon being born from a volcanic crater.
Then from the almost entirely unscathed helmet– several metal plates of armour from the mouth area slid open.
With the red helmet and the black void in the mouth region, it looked like it was laughing.
「–Smiley Atlas…!」
As we reached a curve in the track and seeing that profile, Luca muttered in a tense voice.
「…He’s really geared up to fight! Good, Atlas. Crush her!」
G-3 said, the first half by way of explanation to me, and the second was an order spoken into his communicator.
*Shing!*, Atlas drew a 60 cm long Sonic combat knife from his leg armour–
–With a popping sound atypical for such conventional weapons, he crossed blades with LOO’s claws.
As she grasped the blade in her left hand, the chainsaw edge sent up a shower of sparks–*Creak!* *Creak!*– Atlas destroyed the entire hand with his vibrating knife.
Then from the hand to the wrist, and from the wrist to the elbow–*Slice!* It was severed like a fish.
「…!」
From her destroyed right arm, green oil spurted like blood–
『–Rargh!』
Atlas used the edge of his shield like a blade and launched a left hook.
Using his Westpoint boxing training, he hit LOO’s ruined right elbow–*Pop!* severing the forearm.
Catching the heavy right arm as it spun, scattering oil drops–
Atlas used the arm as a blunt implement to bash her left leg.
…!
…Brutal. This real fight between two mecha is nothing like the cool scenes in anime. It’s just as unsightly as a battle between two flesh and blood people.
The sparks and smoke kicked up between LOO and Atlas mingled with the fumes coming from the train.
The TransAm was very much like a shooting star crashing through the atmosphere.
Dragging her left leg, LOO managed to cut around Atlas’ side, somehow, and create some distance.
Then, grabbing the girder frame at the back of the passenger car like he was going to perform a deadlift… *Creak!* *Creak!*… and heaved with all his power.
*Pop!* Tearing the huge rod-like object free of the car frame and sweeping it down to crush LOO into scrap–*Booooooom!*
While discarding several armaments, LOO rolled toward the front of the passenger car and dodged the blow– but her legs were grazed by the heavy metal rod and suffered a lot of damage.
Good. Atlas is dominating this melee battle. It looks like he is going to win.
「LOOoooo…!」
Seeing her own injuries, LOO appeared to be angry–
「It’s no surprise, LOO! Soldiers that aren’t wounded on the battlefield are extremely rare.」
While smiling, Atlas advanced again with a *Clank!*.
Any human facing this terrifying Smiley Atlas would want to raise their hands and run away… and LOO took up a prone posture.
From the viewpoint of the locomotive, LOO’s white bathing suited round buttocks were facing us… although she was a puppet-like doll, I felt a bit of the blood flow of Hysteria mode.
Almost as if in rebuke *Choo!* *Choo!* Luca blew two short blast on the whistle.
「Oh…」
Tsukumo was looking forward with wide eyes, and I turned to look as well.
「…!」
The train was rapidly approaching a huge fissure-like valley in the desert.
A V-shaped opening in a wall of rock led to a rift valley.
Was it a miniature Grand Canyon?
Passing through the valley, the tracks then crossed over a rickety wooden bridge.
The vibrations from this runaway train might just destroy the old bridge,
Seemingly having the same thought that I did, old man Sanders reached out to decouple the gears to bleed speed–
「Slow down, and I’ll kill you. Oi, Angus, faster.」
Scowling at the shuttle that was following close behind the train smoke, G-3 tossed an order behind him.
「As you wish. However, I only have 2 more canisters of Nitro remaining… and they are the larger NOS-2 and NOS-3. Shall I use those?」
Angus…he held out the bulky canisters as he asked this question cheerfully.
Tsukumo glanced over fearfully at the boiler that was already at its limit–
「They’ll do. On my mark, use the NOS-2. 5… 3, 2, 1, now!」
「NOS-2.」
Angus recklessly tossed in the dynamite-like fuel into the boiler–
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
「–Whaaaaa!」
「Aaaaaaah!」
Luca and Tsukumo’s screams continued as the cover to the boiler was blown off.
With the sound of a violent explosion, the smoke stack shattered, and steel fragments pelted the sides of the car. The already crimson smoke was now a scarlet and orange flame streaming behind the engine.
*Whoooooosh!*
The sound of the train was already quite different than it’s normally operating noise–
The TransAm sped up with a sudden lurch. Still accelerating, we neared the valley bridge. With a splintering sound, the train destroyed the bridge, the wheels grinding up the rail ties–and we flew through the valley.
…!
As the runaway train crossed the wooden bridge–it scattered fragments of track, leaving the framework behind. I saw the coal tender and passenger car that were being drawn behind us sagging slightly.
I-I see. With the TransAm running at high speed, the rickety bridge will be destroyed anyway. That means if we had slowed down, we would have fallen from the dizzying height into the ravine below. In order to avoid that–G-3 made us speed up.
This is the power of a Genion. Pushing mental limits.
「Internal boiler temperature, over 2,000 degrees! The gauge is broken, so I can’t be sure. Speed is 192 KPH–we are still accelerating–196 KPH—200 KPH! Distance to Area fishty, 51– 78 km. Ah, I bit my tongue!」
Luca reported tearfully from the inside of the clattering and shaking locomotive.
The TtransAm was overheating with steam, fire, and smoke pouring out from all over the engine. The trumpet-shaped smokestack had vanished without a trace, and it no longer served it purpose as a protection from harmful fumes, sparks, and flames. But without it, our mobility is unaffected.
*Screeeech!*… Looking back toward the high-pitched screech that was coming from the passenger car…
Even amidst the nightmarish crossing, LOO had not ceased fighting.
Using the claws on her remaining left hand and both legs, she took up a tripod position–
From the randoseru on her back, she pointed a Transzendieren Ange mortar weapon toward Atlas.
If I had to describe it, I’d say she entered artillery mode.
On the other side, Atls was kneeling with the steel girder in order to not fall from the train as it jostled and bounced. This is LOO’s best chance.
「A positron cannon… they have already deployed it in the field. It would be dangerous to be struck by it, Atlas…!」
Always calm, Angus furrowed his brows at the scene atop the passenger car.
The situation was self-explanatory. Atlas can’t move and will be hit–that was a decisive manoevre. Planned by LOO.
…Atlas…!
Atlas couldnt escape the train while we were on the bridge, and–
–In the next instant LOO’s cannon fired.
「Now I’ll steal a base. Despite the fact that I wasn’t up to bat!」
I heard Kaname’s carefree voice over the comms, *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*
3 sheets of P-Fiber ripped up through the roof of the passenger car roof like paper.
It covered up the cannon muzzle at the same instant LOO fired. It wrapped itself around the end, covering the opening in an asterisk shape.
「LO…!」
Unable to deal with it without tumbling from the train, LOO looked up past the muzzle–
–*Booooom!*
Blocked by the P-Fiber, the advanced mortar erupted within the barrel.
「–Very nice steal, Kaname-kun!」
Atlas, who at that moment was clinging on to the back of the passenger car–
With a *Clang!*, a section of armour on his back opened. Then they spread like a rhinoceros beetle’s wings.
Then with a *Ka-thunk!* *Ka-thunk!*, sections on his shoulders and legs split open.
Inside the armour, there was what looked like a lot of injection nozzles embedded in the body–
「–Uoooooooooooooo–!」
A rumbling roar overlapped with Atlas’ war cry as tongues of flame licked out from the nozzles.
This was the same whole body rocket engine that Kaname and G-3 used in Shinagawa–using unfathomable explosive power to leap forward at point-blank range, this auxiliary attack assist was a sure-kill device.
Using literal explosive power, Atlas–
–*Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!*
He launched the most primitive assault on the damaged Transzendieren Ange… driving in with a ramming attack.
Then amidst the swirling eddies of wood splinters from the destroyed wooden bridge–
「–Atlas!」
LOO fell from the car.
She sent coal from the tender flying and barely missed Collins.
「–….!」
G-3 and I rushed over to the window of the locomotive to see where Atlas and LOO had gone.
An incessant rain of remnants from the ruined bridged pelted the surface of the river below–and I spotted LOO first. With what looked to be an emergency equipment module, an airbag deployed from her partially ruined back… her body forming the seed and the airbag the flesh, it looked just like a large loquat fruit as she fell.
And… then I saw Atlas’ arms and legs falling and scattering. No, that was just his armour. His actual body–
「Third-sama. Enemy P.A.D. neutralised… a resounding success. Heavy damage sustained. It will be hard to continue the fight. Haha! Bwahaha!」
Hearty laughter was heard nearby. From the direction of the coal tender.
「Oh my! How expensive it will be to rebuild the P.A.A.!」
Collins cradled Atlas’ form in his arms, his white school uniform-like clothes spattered with blood. It seems that he abandoned the armour at the last possible moment, and Collins grabbed him and pulled him in by his own strength. Thank goodness…!
「Collins-kun, my sincerest thanks for pulling me out of that dangerous spot!」
「I’ve fallen in love, Atlas.」
Atlas gave Collins a thumbs-up, and as their fists met, the train crossed the valley bridge– the passenger car has been derailed and was being dragged behind, so Reki transferred over from the passenger car. Kaname also migrated over to the tender, while cutting the brilliant redconnector with a whip-like scientific blade.
The TransAm now only consisted of the locomotive and the tender–
Freed of both LOO and the passenger car’s weight, we began accelerating once more.
Our speed already matched that of a shinkansen, no, it actually felt like we had surpassed that.
The locomotive almost completely exposed the crew at the sides and rear sides.
Inside the engine that had become a flaming arrow crossing the desert–
「–Current speed: 210 KPH. Distance to Area 51: 58 km, Third. We managed to drive LOO away, but the boiler temperature hasn’t dropped! It’s going to break!」
Luca raised her mis-matched coloured eyes and shouted to G-3.
Even to my untrained eye, the TransAm looked to already be on the brink of collapse. 30% of the rivets had blown off due to internal pressure, and fire and smoke spurted from the holes like gas burners. Due to the excessive NOS fuel, the interior glowed like the Sun and was impossible to look at. A strange, splitting sound went up from the body frame and rails, and a long tail of brilliant red smoke streamed from the missing smokestack, leaving a dark black band across the Nevada desert.
In the first place, the frame was forced past twice its top speed of 100 KPH. It wouldn’t be strange if it suddenly broke.
However, staring at the space behind the locomotive, G-3 gave and order–
「Angus, don’t lose focus. Use the NOS-3, hurry!」
He gave the order for more speed.
Hearing G-3’s order, Angus said:
「As you wish.」
While smiling… he took out a canister of Nitro that was thick enough to shock all of us.
「Idiot! If y’all do that, we’ll blow ourselves to bits!」
Old man Sanders shouted angrily.
「That’s better than being blown to bits!」
With that alone as a response, G-3 extracted a 1 cm square of red paper from somewhere concealed near his ear.
Placing it withing his mouth, the paper-like film–disappeared. That was the neurotransmitter accelerator that G-3 ingested orally back in the skies above Tokyo.
That drug triggers your own Hysteria Mode–but it was a dangerous, life-threatening substance.
「Oi, G-3… why did you do that!?」
Ignoring my panic, G-3 drew his USP Match model from his leg armour…the first time he had done so here.
Then he reached out with one hand into the firestorm outside the window and pulled himself up.
「–NOS-3.」
Leaving Angus with those orders–
He lobbed the largest canister of Nitro fuel into the boiler that was about to explode.
–*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
The entire frame of the locomotive lurched forward–
The shock jumping it up several metres.
With a *Screech!*, the TransAm returned to the tracks, and the inside of the engine was washed in hot air like that from a wok. Unable to scream, we were all tossed about like ingredients in Chinese fried rice–
「…!」
–Inside the bullet train that raced along while shaking violently–
I pulled back Tsukumo who was about to fall onto the boiler, grabbed Luca who had bounced off the ceiling, and embraced Kaname who had slid in from the tender.
… The young woman Tsukumo, little ESP girl Luca, and the girl related to me by bood…
Each of them were beautiful girls. The 6 limbs and 6 young breasts were now above and below, and in front of a behind me, surrounding me.
–Unused to having three such bodies pressed up against me– *Ka-thump!*–
「I wonder if you would call this a three-wheeler…?」
With their eyes gritted tightly close, I kissed each of them on the forehead or a cheek.
「Wha-wha? S-someone…. looking like Th-Third-sama…. k-k-k-k-kissed me!」
「You imbecile!」
「How dangerous, Onii-chan. If I wasn’t your sister, I would have just fallen for you.」
The hair on Tsukumo’s tail stood up straight in shock. Pinned beneath me, Luca flushed deep crimson. Kaname gave her usually bright sisterly smile.
Haha! They are all cute.
「We will be alright. The train will be as well–it will still run. As expected of tough American products.」
「K-Kinji Tohyama! If we get back, I’ll stop your heart with ESP. I used to stop goat hearts at the Academy of Sciences.」
Wiping furiously at the spot on her cheek where I had kissed her, she ended up smudging her face with soot–
Standing up, I said:
「I wonder if you are better at piercing them, than stopping them. Hearts, that is. However, I would relish the chance for my heart to be stopped by the lovely Luca– But don’t worry, even if you stop it, I’ll start it again. Ah, it’s still working.」
I handed back the mechanical stopwatch that I caught before it flew out the window.
Luca snatched it back from me, then made a mental calculation after several seconds of observing the landscaping flowing past.
「–Current speed: 220 KPH! Distance to Area 51: 55 km! 15 minutes!」
She shouted both loudly and desperately so that G-3 could hear on the roof.
Already, the engine room was engulfed in a small sea of fire…but 220 KPH…
That was already beyond the highest speed recorded in a locomotive.
「Congratulations, Sanders-san! You’re going to make the Guinness World Records!」
Sitting in the operator’s seat and drinking alcohol,
「Jesus! The deceleration gear is busted!」
He said as he tossed the thin, empty tin out the window.
「Tsukumo, give a whistle when we’re within a mile.」
Kissing the shocked Tsukumo on the forehead, I put the whistle’s cord in her hand…
「I trust Onii-chan. And even now he’s changed. It makes me love him more.」
Toward Kaname who had orchestrated the 3 person crush– I sent her a wink.
This no-good sister of mine.
She caused 2 other girls to bump into me besides herself.
But thanks to that…
「Until now, I’ve only protected him–but now I wonder if this train will carry us to the final battle.」
I said, reaching my hand out of the window on the opposite side from G-3…then I swung up my Spikes, made by Hiraga, into the roof of the train so that I wasn’t pushed off by the wind pressure created by our current speed of 220 KPH.
「–Slow, Aniki.」
Arms crossed as he stared into the sky, G-3… he had changed. The impression of a legendary creature radiated from him like heat. He was entirely in HSS.
The Tohayama brothers– this was the second time two had stood together in the last month, the first time being with Kana.
Behind the trail of fire we were leaving behind– maintaining its original 3.2 km of distance, was the X-43E. From the shuttle… I saw some appendages detach from it and scatter in the blue sky.
Thankfully, it wasn’t little LOO, but…
…That’s…
They might be small, but it’s difficult to deal with.
An MQ-1– Predator drones. 12 of them spread out in the air.
With a nose section that looked like an eyeless dolphin, the drone gave off a strange feeling.
These drones were masterpieces, used in the last century in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq as scouts to pinpoint bombing raids… In short, used to conduct repeated assassinations. The innocent civilians unlucky enough to be caught up and killed in these raids infamously fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment.
They have the same top speed as the TransAm, but… the specifications released to the world by the US military appear to be bold-faced lies. They are clearly closing the distance.
「–These seem to be LOO’s honour guard escort.」
「Yeah. Those Predators are his favourite.」
G-3 said while scowling at the flock of Predators as they drew slowly closer.
These are Mash’s tactics–
With the vast resources of America, these are the tactics of overwhelming force.
In Sci-Fi anime, some kind of ultimate weapon like LOO is deployed, but… in reality, it’s the opposite. In combat, advanced weapons lack experience in the field and are subject to all kinds of unexpected problems. Instead, they are used to collect data at the outset, then thrown away.
They can be used to shave off some of the enemy’s strength, but the finishing blow–that is delivered by an overwhelmingly large mass of tried and true equipment
That is the strategy in play here. As it is most times.
「…It was a Predator that took down the Sagittarius.」
「Ah. I thought that a pilot might faint if they tried to pull of those manoeuvres–they were unmanned after all. It was a FIM-92 from behind, but I thought it might have been a ramming attack from above.」
As G-3 and I conversed, the swarm of Predators–
Half of them dispersed on either side of the smoke grenade-like trail being left behind by the train.
Then– with a *Brr!*, machinery deployed beneath the fuselage of each of the drones. They were equipped with machine guns.
They kicked up a cloud of dust with their bullets with a roar on either side of the TransAm–and the distant sound of gunfire was audible. Then several 7.62 mm machine gun bullets began impacting the sides of the train.
「They’re shooting.」
「Yeah. They’re still out of range. Oi, you guys! Get ready for anti-air warfare!」
G-3 shouted, loud enough that his communication device unnecessary–
Then, simultaneously, the Predator drones fired AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles. 2 a piece, making a total of 24.
The missiles traced countless trails of white smoke through the air as they approached us. They spread out to fill my field of vision like spider silk… as an observer, it was despair inducing.
But ever the resolute and undaunted American,
「…Predators…huh? You bastards! If you’re a man, come an’ face us in person!」
Howling curses, old man Sanders who had been operating the train–*Bang!* Leaning out the window, he fired his wooden stock M1 Garand.
As G-3 and I watched… by pure chance, the bullet hit one of the missiles. One of the orderly smoke trails lined up like acrobats became kinked… then as it wobbled…
*Boom!*…! One of the missiles disintegrated midair.
「You did it!」
「Oi! Pay attention to the train!」
G-3 shouted into the train while wearing a wry smile.
Then Reki fired one, two Butei bullets–the incendiary bullets bringing down as many missiles. As each of the missiles she targeted were destroyed, caught up in midair explosions, each took out another missile.
As the AGM-114 slanted down to pursue us, I used my Desert Eagle on the right side and G-3 used his USP on the left to intercept them with incendiary bullets. The weren’t able to be destroyed with a single bullet, but it took 2 or 3.
The top speed of the missiles was just faster than the TransAm, so they kept approaching however–despite it not being easy, it wasn’t impossible.
Several types of gunshots rang out: Atlas with his M240, Collins with his needle gun, and Tsukumo with her FN P90 added to the volley. Despite being told to stop, Sanders fired his M1 Garand as well. This time, however, he missed.
Through the gaps in our frantic missile defence–the Predators steadily advanced. One of them *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*…scattered machine gun fire across the front half of the train. I’m feeling like I’m really trying to hit something without being able to get many hits in.
…What…?
As I frantically tried to intercept the missiles, I saw that their target had changed– With a rush of realisation, I saw it was the rail switch point 1 km ahead of us.
The Predator machine gun fire hit the switch– switching the train’s course from the one heading toward Area 51 to one heading back in a U-turn toward the valley.
Crap…!
If we take the U-turn, we’ll be headed back on the single track we came in on. The deceleration gear is damaged, and this time we’ll plunge headlong into the ravine. And as I paled–
–*Bang!*–
I heard the roar of a Dragunov’s sniper fire and a *Ching!* as the switch was thrown again.
A second later, we cross the switchpoint safely.
「…」
With her head half out the window, Reki performed the divine feat of『grazing the handle of the switch mechanism with a sniper bullet while the winds whipped by at 200 KPH』that I never thought possible… then returned to missile defence.
…I tried to turn her back twice at the Sugamo switchyard, but now I’m glad she came along.
「Aniki–shrapnel!」
G-3 lifted his head and raised his voice, in the sky– and I saw the rockets they fired disperse with a *Boom!* Each shell was packed with 48 small, grape-like shot like large buckshot. Each of the Predators fired, one after each other.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
From both sides of the train–
576 total pieces of shot rushed down. Filling the sky like locust.
「Don’t worry, G-3.」
I had already drawn my Beretta, stealing Aria’s signature double-wield style–I thumbed the fire selector on each gun with both my hands and at the same time started a rapid-fire volley.
*Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!*
The bullets flew into the air.
–*Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ching!*
–*Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-thud!*
On both sides of the train, hundreds of shot rounds kicked up dust clouds.
…The number of shots that hit: zero.
Of the 492 shots that were going to hit, they were deflected by chain shooting. My bullet’s trajectory was deflected as it struck a piece of shot, then another, and another–in a seemingly infinite chain.
「…You did it, Aniki!」
「When compared to the exponentially larger barrage that Sherlock handled, this is nothing. Actually, you’ve seen this before.」
G-3 looked at me with a laugh and sparkling eyes as I reloaded my magazine and returned his glance with a gloomy expression.
The gun technique of Billiard and Cannon shot were based upon the same principle, and I devised it– when I used 8 bullets to deflect the 13 bullets he fired at me. My good-for-nothing brother.
The next missiles fired then changed targets to try to destroy the tracks.
「–16 km to Area 51!」
Luca’s report came as BGM for the incessant fire coming from Reki and Tsukumo–
As their reserves of ammunition dwindled, it seemed that they wanted to conserve bullets, and the enemy concentrated their fire on the train itself. However, I dealt with the bullets, and G-3 took care of the missile.
The troublesome sniper, Reki, took aim at the machine guns– Kaname’s P-Fibre provided an active defensive system for the interior of the engine. And the Predator that Reki sniped precisely… *Bang!*…! crashed into the desert. Just one.
「11 left, Aniki!」
「–No, it’s 10.」
Intending to circle around behind us, one of them strayed dangerously close――as we spoke, I used Checker to fire a bullet up the muzzle of the machine gun.4 Suffering massive internal gun damage and the electronic system as well–the Predator began flying erratically, then was hit by Tsukumo’s P90 and crashed and exploded.
「–I-I’m almost out of bullets!」
Tsukumo shouted, and even Reki… she began to fire more conservatively. I’d used up my bullets, and G-3’s USP’s slide was stuck back.
Our enemy… had also depleted their large ordnance of missiles and rocket artillery shells.
However, almost all of their machine guns were going strong. There is power in numbers.
From where I stood, I saw one that appeared to be out of ammunition–
That one clearly broke formation.
It sped up… and headed toward us.
「–It’s going to ram us! A suicide attack!」
G-3 said unhappily, while those inside began to murmur at the enemy’s new manoeuvre. At the scene of the aircraft itself rushing in bodily… the Americans seemed to have some kind of allergic reaction. The US forces had lost many lives to kamikaze attacks–and it seems that Japan had instilled a generational historical trauma upon them, and so they were all necessarily fearful.
「–If they’re using that kind of attack, that’s proof they’ve been driven into a corner. Calm down and let’s deal with it.」
I advised–
*Ba-bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Half panicked, his subordinates were using valuable ammunition to try and intercept it.
G-3 must stop them.
「–Calm down!」
When I didn’t see him move to do so, I shouted. But I was just a moment too slow.
The Predator flew in and crashed in a fireball against the back of the train–amidst a hail of gunfire. But now, all of the ones below were out of ammunition. Then one at a time, they each reported in over the communicator.
…There were still 9 left…
As if waiting for an opportunity, the flock of Predators–circled back. Without firing, they surrounded us and started to move in. They were coming. If they strafe us with machine gun fire, there’s no way to counterattack.
「…」
G-3 remained silent. The feeling that even the leader was troubled was transmitted to his subordinates, and they all were looking up as if they were about to die.
Americans are different from the Japanese who will fight on to the bitter end–when things go badly, their morale falls quickly. Being happy and upbeat are their most salient national features.
So in this spot…
「Alright, G-3. Let’s play baseball. We’re in America, so let’s show Mash how to hit a ball. You pitch.」
With as much of a smile as I could muster *Whoosh!*, I hopped from the locomotive to the tender.
Then I went over to where the remnants of the passenger car frame destroyed by Atlas were stuck in the pile of coal… Then I chose a warped piece shaped like a half of a pincer and hefted it.
It was about 1.5 metres long, but calling it a bat would be too generous.
「Even if we don’t have bullets, we have balls.」
I said as I picked out several ball-sized pieces of coal from the tender…
Understanding what I was doing, G-3 chuffed.
Then as the Predators drew even closer behind us, he laughed and jumped back into the tender laughing.
「Hahaha! You’re somewhat of an idiot, with a chance of being a genius, Aniki!」
G-3 roared with laughter at my joke, delivering it like a weather report. Americans might have found this funny. No, this must be G-3’s own way of raising his follower’s morale. But for all that, Atlas and Collins forced a smile, and Luca and Tsukumo were not laughing at all.
Without exchanging another word, I held up the girder like a bat–and G-3 tossed a ball of coal into a good position in an underhand pitch.
In order to avoid splitting the coal, I kissed the girder up to it lightly–
–Ouka–!
More like lacrosse than batting in baseball, I swung and hit the coal away.
The coal struck the inverted V tail like a rock, and the nose of one of the Predators lurched upward… then tumbling to crash into the desert.
「Next! 9 more to go.」
「Yeah!」
I swung and hit the balls of coal G-3 threw from the tender and hit another Predator.
Twice. 3 times. I repeated the feat, and they hit.
The Predator… couldn’t see the lumps of coal…!
I see. They would expect an attack by machine gun and missile, but they would never expect a ball of coal–without data, they wouldn’t be able to track them.
The Predators are even less evasive than they had been in the previous firefight. It seems as if they are wavering between attacking or evading. They don’t even know what they want to do.
Each time I take down another Predator and the rest scatter, a cheer goes up from our side.
「–Hahaha! They’re like turkeys!」
G-3 was in high spirits. Good. Our team morale is rising.
「We should have done it from the start! It’s fun like being in a batting center.」
I smiled at thee last Predator– *Whoom!* He tossed another piece of coal–
I just barely missed the Predator. Banking to both sides, it came closer.
「Huh…? Another ball, G-3.」
It also avoided the second ball of coal.
This… It was an uninformed opinion, but it’s possible that they hurriedly rewrote it’s software to allow it to play ball with us.
「Looks like that mushroom-head got here in the nick of time. Let’s get out of here.」
As we finally crossed paths, the Predator– punched the tender full of holes as G-3 and I, side-by-side, retreated to the locomotive.
「…Tch! Now what?」
As we took shelter in the locomotive with the rest of the group…the Predator cut a wide loop to sweep low to attack the locomotive, cutting time short.
「–I have an idea!」
Suddenly, Luca raised her hand and pointed at me.
「Abandon Kinji to draw off the Predator, then the rest of us can continue on to Area 51!」
「Oi! This isn’t the time for jokes–」
In response to my protests:
「I am not joking! You will be fine being chased by the Predator!」
She shouted, still angry from the earlier kiss.
Ignoring our spat, Angus…
「Can we not use this? I thought that it would be needed to breach the walls of Area 51, and I saved the explosive for that purpose– Let us replace some of out spine with guts.」
Surprised that he hadn’t gotten rid of it in the midst of the raging inferno– I saw him take out a bundle of NOS canisters that looked just like a stack of dynamite.
Then, immediately:
「–Bingo!」
The Genion G-3 was inspired.
「If we put it in the tender it is diving for, it will become a super-sized claymore. As soon as the Predator starts to descend, we’ll cut the tender loose and we’ll take it down in the explosion of coal. Move out!」
Putting the plan into action as soon as he conceived of it, everyone returned to the tender. Kaname used her P-Fibre to excavate…and the rest used brute force to dig into the coal and bury the explosives underneath it.
「It’s coming…! 32 seconds to impact! Blow it!」
Tsukumo bit the fuse cord into the appropriately prescribed length, and Collins used old man Sanders’ zippo to light it.
The tender transformed into an oversized directional charge, we all hurried back to the locomotive–
「–Cut it loose!」
G-3 gave the order, and the chains and pegs in the joint linking the locomotive and tender were removed.
「…!」
Then we all stared in dumb silence.
–It didn’t separate.
The linkage was warped, and the seams didn’t open easily. The joint only opened halfway, and they deformed under great stress. Then… *Skree!* the front part of the tender rose up, riding on two wheels.
20 seconds were left until it was going to explode.
Kaname immediately took action and severed the linkage with her scientific sword–
–*Shing!* The front wheels of the tender slammed back onto the rails, hit a railroad tie, and derailed causing it to butt into the back of the locomotive. With the shock, Tsukumo–
「–Ah!」
She pitched forward and tumbled. Into the tender just as it separated.
With only the front wheels derailed, the tender shook violently, knocking Tsukumo about, and the locomotive, free of towing it accelerated away.
Tsukumo–struck her head on the tender and swooned. Losing all her power.
The Predator continued closing in from above. The nose started sloping down toward her.
「–Tsukumo!」
In that instant, G-3–
Unwilling to abandon Tsukumo in this dire situation, from his artificial left arm– his hand, powered by compressed air, flew out from his wrist.
He lacks the weight to engage in an awful tug-of-war with the tender.
What’s more, it will explode into a huge fireball in 10 seconds.
*Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang!*
Machine gun fire from the Predator struck all around the railway, tender, and locomotive. Somehow, G-3’s wire attached to his hand survived through the hail of bullets–pulling him across to the tender!
「G-3~!」
「Third!」
「Third-sama!」
As his followers shouted, G-3 took up Tsukumo in his right arm. 7.62 mm bullets struck his back and left arm.
His left arm *Clank!* was stuck in one of the fissure created by the bullet that struck the tender. Unfortunately, G-3 ws now fixed in one place–
He can’t get back to the locomotive with Tsukumo.
「G-3~~~~~!!!」
I screamed, but couldn’t cross the distance between us.
The locomotive and tender inexorbaly continue to separate.
–G-3–!
As the Predator swooped low overhead, the dynamite in the tender–
「…A…Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!–」
–At the same instant as G-3’s shout, it exploded–!
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
The coal scattered in all directions like a volcanic eruption.
The final Predator was broken into pieces, and the fragments scattered about the desert.
—With the scene as the background I saw G-3 and Tsukumo in his right arm.
While taking the blast on his back, then being pelted with a pieces of coal… he flew toward the locomotive– No, he was blasted toward the locomotive.
The locomotive was momentarily lifted by the blast, but it was heavier than the rest of the cars.
It came down with a *Clang!* without derailing–and G-3 and Tsukumo barely reached our outstretched arms as we caught and pulled them in.
「–G-3!」
As I took G-3’s bloody and soot covered body into my arms… his left arm was missing.
He had detached his left arm like a lizard tail to escape the tender.
「…Uh…!」
His styled hair unkempt and wild, he made an incoherent sound…
「…O-Oi…! How much further…?」
Even as he breathed in smoke, he was a proper leader.
「R-right, the distance to Area 51 is… 5 miles…!」
Her mismatched coloured eyes wide, Luca reported while everyone was busy looking after G-3 and Tsukumo–
「Ugh… Ah… Th-Third-s-sama…」
Tsukumo also began to regain consciousness. Good. She’s mostly unhurt.
But while that was happening:
「Well… It might seem a bit insensitive in this moment, but…」
Looking outside the window, Kaname–looked along our path of travel. But made no move to help us.
「What? We destroyed the Predator. Come help us.」
「…」
Even as I scowled at her, she didn’t avert her gaze outside.
That provoked a strange idea in my mind–
「…!」
Looking outside, I saw something for the first time in my life.
The moment I saw it, I was completely blown away. Quite literally, as I became speechless.
…What, that’s…!
Just like the SkyTree where I fought Watson and Hilda…
No, it was a taller white pillar.
That pillar was moving.
With a rushing sound of air, it was ripping objects up off of the Earth’s surface into a spiralling corkscrew.
「–It’s a tornado!」
Kaname shouted, and everyone looked up.
That’s… a tornado? That’s ridiculous! It’s a giant tornado. Even at this distance I can tell that it was 100 metres in diameter and 800 metres in height. It’s absurd in size! It might be an optical illusion… at least that’s what I wanted to believe… but all around us, it suddenly became dark. The wind changed direction, and the flames and smoke emanating from the locomotive were disturbed.
Unconsciously gritting my teeth, I squinted my eyes…
Underneath the cumulonimbus supercell cloud, I thought I could make out tractors and cattle caught up in the tornado and sand that it whipped up. There was no way that was an illusion. In response–
「Damn! We’re headin’ straight for that twister! Gotta be an F4, at least. Ya don’t usually see big ‘uns like that in Nevada…!」
The local old man Sanders furrowed his brows at the size of the tornado.
We were now racing toward it at 220 KPH. Directly towards it on the railroad track.There wasn’t a junction between here and there. And we had no brakes.
But then I knew we were on the exact right path.
At the side of the tornado, and on the horizon, I saw it. A man-made structure that hadn’t been there before–an Air Force base.
That was Area 51. I was able to see for myself that we had arrived!
「Don’t worry…! The train weighs 45 tonnes. We’ll break through…!」
Encouraging his fearful followers, G-3 stood unsteadily.
「Aniki, don’t look forward. They’re here…!」
He turned his back on the tornado that roared like a dragon, then glared at the back of the train.
Turning to face backward, through the gaps of my forelocks as they whipped up in the wind–
As I looked there was something large– the mothership for the Predator drones and LOO, the X-48E approached as the third attack wave.
It planned to ram us in a kamikaze attack.
It wasn’t aiming for the tracks, it was on a collision course with the locomotive.
If we were derailed, we might survive and, being in range, reach Area 51 on foot.
「The X-48E is a flying aircraft carrier, but it is also a flying artillery shell. Silicon Carbide–a mixture of diamond and silicon that formed a fine ceramic. With a hardness of 9.3 on the Moh’s scale, it’s essentially a huge sapphire. I… couldn’t even take down the smaller fused wing X-48D with Meteor. Crush us in a ramming attack–that’s the plan.」
「…」
Caught between a tornado and a flying shell.
Crash into the tornado, or be crushed by the flying shuttle. We have about 2-3 minutes.
All of us… can’t help but despair. It was a very desperate situation.
Even me… although things were usually bleak–this was twice as bad. This was awkward. The god of Fate the was trying to kill me must have been a particularly nasty ally of the Scarlet Goddess.
Then,
「G-3. The moment I saw the train, I came up with a particular move. But it only has a 50% chance of working.」
I said in this desperate situation.
「What a coincidence, Aniki. I might just have had the same thought. I give it 50-50 odds.」
That’s Hysteria Mode for you. Even when everyone else gives up, we brothers do not. Being struck by inspiration.
「It’s either going to be the train or the tender.」
「Right.」
We both took out our fists–but not to fight, to play rock-paper-scissors. Rock, Paper, Scissor. G-3 won.
「Damn…」
「Alright, you take the locomotive, Aniki. If I can’t take it out, then my older brother will. If I tell this to those brats in New York, it’ll make a great story!」
G-3 grabbed the edge of the window one-handed to go back up onto the roof, to the worry of his subordinates.
I thought I’d lose rock-paper-scissors. My bad luck in that has been established since my second year…
Then I climbed up into the violent windstorm raging on the train’s roof.
Then I saw the tornado standing directly ahead in our path, looking like a large white wall. It’s just like America to have just as dynamic natural phenomenon as well.
And– the shuttle loomed silently behind the train.
That is also huge. It looked like a whale in the sky. I began shaking.
But no.
It was not fear–my sense of anger had eclipsed that. Part of me wanted to take out that anger on something–
But this was someone who was fighting remotely, and with their body somewhere else could laugh loudly…
It was like the Scarlet Goddess with Aria, and it was really, really annoying!
In that instant– the TransAm shook violently as it plunged into the huge tornado.
Amidst the gale that seemed to pull my body apart–
I clenched my right fist and held out my left hand as if to grab the shuttle that I could see with my head up and body held low. I fixed my feet in place with my Spike, but I was still lifted by the updraft.
Behind me, G-3 was doing the same.
One minute until the shuttle collision.
「What’s its name, Aniki?」
「What!?」
「This sibling technique. I need a name for it when I tell the story back in Central Park.」
「Multi-stage Ouka!」
「The hell!? –What about Supernova? That’s Japanese for supernova.」
「That sounds like something those brats from the supermarket would come up with…!」
「–Really? You have to play the role, Aniki!」
「Fine, fine, I get it. We’ll combine the two to make『Cherry Bomb』. That good enough?」
「Hmmm… Alright, it’s settled! Cherry Bomb, it is!」
Happy to combine his sibling’s idea with his own, G-3 cried out in a happy voice.The hellish interior of the huge tornado was no better than a true hellscape.
Then the train pushed through an outer storm wall into what looked like an eye of a cyclone–
–Then the shuttle followed us, plunging into the tornado.
The differential areas of high and low pressure caused by convection gave rise to an inner wall of high speed airflow, and the shuttle began to fly erratically. However, its course was unaltered.
30 seconds until it crashes into us–!
「Trust me, Aniki!」
With a *Bam*– G-3 standing on both legs.
「What kind of older brother would I be if I can’t trust my younger brother?」
I also rose to my feet.
Alright. I’ve fixed my target.
On top of the TransAm and all around us, sparks danced violently. It was as if– the sparks were cherry blossoms.
「–If you can scatter this blizzard of cherry blossoms– then come and scatter it!」
Shouting that as I scowled at the shuttle–
–*CHOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!*–
The steam whistle signalling that we were within 1 mile of Area 51 rang out loudly.
If we can intercept this, we’ll win…!
From the wall of cloud and dust–*Whoooosh!*– the shuttle emerged.
About the size of a passenger aircraft, the flying artillery shell–
Came closer. It was right in front of me.
–Mash.
Up until the very end, you use weapons to fight, without making an appearance yourself.
According to your simulations’ predictions, we should have been stymied.
But those calculations collapse here.
No matter how much you reckon, it’s still all abstract desktop theory. No, it’s meaningless programmatic theory.
Even now, you are in Area 51, eating potato crisps and drinking cola while piloting the shuttle remotely. It’s like a game to you.
But we are in this hellish desert, in the middle of a tornado, fighting for ourselves.
That’s good.
The final decision of victory between two men is not the number of bullets, how smart they are, or based on the size of their body.
–It’s their resolve.
How earnest they are, and how willing they are to put their life on the line!
I’ll show you this…!
Steeling myself, I pulled G-3’s right hand close.
Cherry Bomb, a combination of our supersonic attacks.
First, G-3 used『Meteor』to reach Mach 1, then I was pushed forward–using『Ouka』to reach Mach 2. I just matched the limit of the amour I wore under my uniform.
Such a technique required the simultaneous coordination of all the muscles in both of our bodies.
Meteor and Ouka in perfect harmony–it required perfect synergy.
But we did it.
–We were siblings, after all!
「Take this–Meteor–!」
「–Ouka–!」
–The very next instant–
The world was different than that of Ouka at Mach 1…
It was as if light distorted and blurred–completely changed at Mach 2.
This… is the world at Mach 2…!
The world became slow motion in my Hysteria Mode enhanced vision, and my fist shot across the dazzling space, soaring like a shooting star and forming a vapour cone compose of a blizzard of cherry blossoms around it.
–The shuttle filled my vision as my fist made contacted with it–
In less than the space of 0.1 seconds, an unnatural shock rocked the world.
Actually, I didn’t even feel something touch my fist. At the moment of impact I used『Clear Fall Water』, transferring all the power into the shuttle.
Including our equipment, our total body weight was–140 kilos, and I concentrated all of that into a single point on the shuttle. At Mach 2, I delivered a direct counter strike at a 90 degree angle.
It had about the same impact as that the best intelligence suggests a second model Type 91 armour-piercing round fired from a 20.3 cm turret on a former Imperial Navy heavy cruiser possessed. Cherry Bomb was an all-in technique that transformed us into human artillery shells.
Assuming that the naval guns had not fired at point-blank range– the flying shell would have been picked up and carried away like the dust thrown up by the tornado, causing an innumerable amount of microscopic damage…
But since I delivered it directly, the full impact was conveyed. Spreading from millimetres, to centimetres, to metres of damage. All in fractions of a second.
As I watched in slow motion, from the front to back–like eggs crashing against a wall, no, it was more like one being dropped.
With a rush–as my sense of time returned to normal–
As G-3 and I stood atop the tender, still in the position for Cherry bomb, the shuttle’s ceramic armour that was as hard at sapphire shattered into tiny pieces.
The fragments were caught up into the air and carried away to the outer wall of the tornado as they glittered like gemstones. Apart from the dazzling flow of sparkles, the exposed interior of the craft was ripped open by the wind–
–Behind the TransAm, it was tossed about by the tornado and crumpled.
Exiting the backside of the tornado, we left the wreckage of the shuttle behind as it crashed–
With a *Bam!* we crashed through the chain link fence surrounding Area 51, tearing through it like paper, and forcing our way inside the large Air Force base. All the while maintaining our speed of 220 KPH.
On the base, it seems that there are further construction plans, and in front of us it looked like there was an area laid out for an airfield–until now, the land looked just like the rest of the desert. Inside and outside of Area 51 there was a huge difference.
But there were no more railway tracks.
It looks like they took them up so that airplane landing gear didn’t snag on the old rail line…!
「…!」
Shooting off the tracks like a missile, the cow catcher on the front plowed through the desert.
*SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*–!
As the sand scattered in waves:
「…Hello Area 51! Hellllllloooooo…!」
G-3 laughed while scowling at the facility in front of us with raised eyebrows–
I was thrown from the train that began to roll, but was unable to alter course.
One of the Stars and Stripes on the front of the train was missing, and it soared high into the air, tumbling end over end.
Thrown forward from the rolling train, G-3 and I made a ski-like stop, kicking up sand as we landed.
While kicking up sand, inertia carried the locomotive forward– G-3 and I worried if we would be crushed as we rolled…
5 seconds, 10 seconds, and the avalanche of sand continued…
…And finally it came to rest.
Belching black and white smoke, it toppled onto one side and came to a stop barely a metre from us.
「…Heh… Fighting with you, Aniki, I’ll come to no good, will I!?」
With his legs buried it the sand up to his back, G-3 complained like a mole. But he was wearing a huge grin as he said it.
「That’s my line.」
I griped, half buried in sand myself and pushing myself forward in a crawl.. But I was scowling.
「After that, I know one thing for sure. The laws of Physics are a woman.」
「…Why do you say that?」
「Aniki, sometimes I hear you say the funniest things.」
Not letting me in on the American humour of the joke…
I looked around us. Then looking forward, I saw a flood of jeeps far away and headed toward us.
I didn’t know which controlled access area we were in, but I wanted to believe that we had reached an area friendly to G-3 as planned. I don’t have any more strength to fight.
「I wonder if everyone is alright?」
「Don’t underestimate my followers.」
Hooking a thumb behind him toward the train…
「Last stop~! Area 51~! Area 51~~!」
Kaname led the way shouting this message like a train conductor.
「We have arrived a bit sooner than anticipated. My apologies for the error.」
Angus politely bowed his head as he jumped down onto the desert sand.
「Well, for Third, that was pretty safe driving, by all accounts.」
「I wholeheartedly agree. Wahoo!」
「Oh my! It is time for prayers!」
「Third-sama~! That was so~ frightening~!」
Luca, Atlas, Collins, and Tsukumo were all covered in soot and cuts…. But they were moving under their own strength, talking freely like Americans, taking it upon themselves to pray on their own, and the girls rushing over to us.
Reki also exited from the back, as calm as if she were alighting from a metro bus…
「My TransAm…! Oh my Gooooood…! Waaaaaaaaugh!」
Crawling out, old man Sanders threw himself onto the sand and started to bawl. His voice was strong.
Actually, to look at him, he seem the least injured of our party. As expected, someone who came back from Vietnam is tough.
Then:
「We owe you a deep debt of gratitude. Of course we shall compensate you for your loss.」
Angus said from beside him
「–Good. I want the next ‘un to be a brand spankin’ new diesel!」
Standing up as if he had never cried, he forced a smile onto his bearded face. What was that?
But firstly–
「It’s settled, Aniki!」
「Huh?」
「We can do it.」
「Oh! Yeah, we can.」
I let him choose the post-fight words. Twice now. Because I’m a kind older brother.
After that, G-3’s followers lined up in front of us, forming a line–
With huge smiles plastered on their face, they saluted.
Even without an arm, G-3 was able to return the salute.
「Good work, all of you. We’ve made it into Area 51.」
At some god’s command–the Stars and Stripes sent flying a little while ago fell–
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, G-3 reached out, caught it, and draped it across his shoulders like a mantle.
Then with a swish of his right arm–
He struck a victorious pose in front of the group of jeeps that had stopped in a line in front of us.
Then from all the soldiers–U.S.A.!!!–U.S.A.!!!–U.S.A.!!!–a loud chanting chorus came. It was like giving three cheers in Japan
…Good. This controlled access location is friendly to G-3. We were rescued at the last possible moment.
But in my case it would be J.P.N. This can’t be my luck; it has to be G-3’s at work.
**************************************
–The day drew to the end in the American desert.
Pulling a blanket around myself, I stared out blankly. Then I sat down next to Reki who was hugging her knees.
We made camp outdoors and were being entertained with a barbecue with so much food that it was impossible to eat nearly all of it…
There were two stereotypically macho American soldiers in fatigues.
Each of them held one of a haggard looking Mash Roosevelt’s arms between them.
The mushroom headed boy… he had definitely taken up a position in Area 51.
For some unknown reason, they dragged him between them. Well, I don’t think that is a partially bad end, myself.
A large, middle-aged uniformed man smoked a cigar– the very image of an Air Force brigadier general saluted G-3.
Returning the salute, G-3…
「…Yo, Mash. Unfortunately we’re not meeting in a body bag.」
Flopped down on all fours with his face lowered, he sat up crossing his legs.
「Mash has been taken into custody. In the same moment you reach Area 51, Mister G-3, the NSA dismissed him– They received a Federal False Claim and Liability report and in accordance with section 110, paragraph 1, an electronic arrest warrant was issued… and so he was detained.」
The brigadier explained.
「The charge is bogus. There hasn’t been any false reporting of financial assets. It will be overturned in court.」
Mash muttered…
But his words lacked conviction.
「Mash-kun. Don’t worry. In Alcatraz there will be a lot of kind, older people who will help give you the chance to rehabilitate. Everyone there owes you so much that they’ll practically dote on you.」
The brigadier told Mash as he puffed out purple tobacco smoke.
Back in Cafe Lalo, I had recklessly given Mash『3 Reasons Drop-outs are Better than Elites』– They have a position, and they can lose it.
Had that exactly just happened to Mash?
Missing a single step… he’s fallen all the way down.
The black woman who voided Angus’ ticket had said it: Mash was an unlikable person. He merely had his perfect record of success, and no saving grace of popularity to fall back upon. It stands to reason that he made himself enemies.
Having risen near the top level of the elite, he had made himself a petty terror and dictator to his rivals.
And because of that, as soon as he got his first black mark against him due to his loss to G-3…
They gathered together to attack and bring Mash down like a wounded animal. It was political.
「…Oh, Mash. I might be a peace-loving Japanese. However, it seems like your experience in combat is somewhat lacking. If you ever get out, try starting in the infantry.」
Kneeling next to G-3, I threw his own words back in his face in a cutting remark…
But it didn’t make me feel any better.
Because, he’s as powerless as a caterpillar torn from a tree hollow, after all.
The battle of Nevada…
Was a pointless fight. That’s really all it was.
No, where one side’s life was not in any danger… it couldn’t even be classed as a battle.
But in the future, wars will definitely be fought by people like Mash. The US military is pushing forward, and it will not halt its advance…
Seated in front of PC monitors, controlling weapons of war like it is some kind of game… is that how it is going to be?
That’s pointless. Well, killing each other with guns and swords is pretty ridiculously empty as well.
「…Why?… Why… did I… lose…!? All of the data indicated a total victory…!」
Seeming not to quite understand, Mash finally cried out–
「Because you’re an idiot. You might give my siblings a run for their money for the Noble Idiot Prize.」
G-3 gave a tight smile while indicating me and himself with his thumb.
Then Angus arrived.
「Now then, Third-sama. What are your orders concerning this naughty child? I shall take upon myself any method of execution you prescribe.」
With a devilish grin… his already tight face stretched even further into a smile.
As Mash paled in front of him, G-3 burst into soft laughter–
「Hold on. I only kill those who are worth killing… That’s my rule.」
Hearing that, I blurted out:
「You’re too easy-going, no matter how you look.」
With a vein pulsating on my head, G-3 looked at Mash who was directly in front of him. Then:
「What’s more… in a very real way, we lost. This round at least. This guy doesn’t even have a scratch on him. And we weren’t the ones to strip him of his political power.」
He said, with a face as empty of expression as mine.
A moment of silence passed–
「G-3… If… you want to laugh at me, go ahead and laugh. If you want to kill me, then kill me.」
Mash managed to squeeze out with a groan.
「I… was not designed to be strong like you, I was born into this world. Everyone around me… even girls, were stronger than me. I knew that the girl agents… were laughing at my weakness behind my back. But I still pushed on. I seized political power. I was recognised… by just one agency, the NSA…!」
With tears dripping onto the desert…
Mash spoke while on all fours.
Mash was obsessed with his career… and his whole mental landscape had just been inverted.
Pathetically, Mash had gambled his own life on the NSA–but with just one mistake, they had washed their hands of him and cut him loose.
It must have been a harsh, unforgiving organisation. American society.
Just like this desert.
「…The only one to recognise me in the entire world was the NSA…!」
Mash cried, choking as he faced down into the sand…
「No, that is not correct. You have been recognised by 1 other man.」
G-3 laid a hand on the trembling Mash’s shoulder.
「…? Who? There’s no one like that!」
「There is! He’s in front of you.」
「…!」
「It’s me. Even if you almost killed me. Even this time– you really pushed us into a corner. So raise your head. Now, don’t cry. Laugh. You and I are the same, pitiful people created by America. Two people they’ve thrown away, coming to face each other and looking like idiots in the desert. What about that? Can you laugh at that?」
Hearing that, Mash, who had been crying pathetically looked up–
Beneath his skewed glasses, he laughed. Even as his nose dripped.
「…Fufu! Don’t laugh. If any one’s stupid looking, it’s you.」
「Hehehe! No, you’re the stupid looking one. I’ll give you that.」
The two loner Genions, Mash and G-3… feeling some kind of empathy, laughing and getting along. Finally reaching this point.
Then after exchanging a mutually awkward laugh…
…Mash stood up
Then smoothing down his collar, straightening his necktie, fixing his glasses, dusting the sand off his knees, running a hand through his mushroom haircut to straighten it, Mash took out a handkerchief…
Then finally wiping away his tears like a man, he raised his head sharply.
「–Even emaciated and withered, I’m American. Every American citizen has the right to do what they believe is just.」
With that preamble, Mash looked across all of us–
「Therefore, to prevent further sabotage by you–I will lead you, G-3, to the ruruirokane. Come. The area is under the NSA’s jurisdiction, but I’m no longer an employee. However, I just so happen to know an exclusive emergency exit, but it is only passable by a Genion.」
–He finally declared proudly.
He had been struck down, defeated, forgiven, and acknowledged by G-3 without words… and he offered this as an apology and thanks.
[END]
*****************************
1. Not sure where this is coming from. Usain Bolt’s top speed was just under half this at 45 KPH.
2. Z’Gok are mass produced mecha suits in the Gundam series universe. Obviously not as powerful as the custom suits. The Gold and Red colour scheme was used by commanders and had increased ability and firepower.
3. Kanji say ‘penetrating stake’
4. Seems to be a technique name that was lost from earlier volumes when he shot up the barrel of the UZIs or other guns.
Chapter 6: Star-Spangled Martial Law ―― Trans-Am
[BEGIN TEXT]
*Cla-lang!*… The Trans-Am moved–
Pitch black smoke began to rise from the trumpet-style chimney stack as the coal burned. In addition, the white steam from the evaporated water mixed in with the smoke, but didn’t stand out from it.
The enormous black body advanced steadily, spilling the sand from the half covered steel rails as it moved along the track. Toward Area 51 that lay across the broad expanse of Nevada.
Kaname and Reki were riding in the passenger car that had a wooden floor, but the walls and ceiling were made of steel. It lacked hand rails to grasp, and with similar benches, there wasn’t much else to distinguish it from cars on the Yamanote Line.
In the engine at the head of the cars, Atlas and Collins were managing the fuel and water level coming from the coal tender.
Grabbing on to the hand holds that were there to prevent a fall, I crabbed my way across the exterior of the tender’s body frame and running board and across the car coupler… finally reaching the locomotive at the head of the cars.
The sunlight was still dazzling and the wind was as dry as it had been–and the time was a bit before noon.
「Oi, old man! Stop drinking alcohol, will you?」
I admonished old man Sanders who sat in the operator’s seat, one hand on a brass regulator control knob and gladly taking pulls of liquor…
「Hush up, youngun’. If I don’t drink my hand will start ashakin’, that what you want?」
This is no good.
But even though the oni piloting the Fugaku were also drunk, they were a bit cuter.
At the open tail-end of the car, G-3 stood with his arms folded as Tsukumo and Angus tended the iron boiler.
「Time check. Distance to Area 51: 115 miles. Estimated time to target: approximately 125 minutes.」
Luca reported, consulting her expensive looking, spring-wound Heuer stopwatch.
That’s about 185 km until our final destination. I just hope that is not our final destination in life as well.
But if a train that hasn’t run for decades starts moving, then Mash will think it ridiculous for G-3 to attack in a train, and he won’t immediately realise what we are doing.
It might just be a good thing that we used this silly trick that he would never suspect.
「The Trans-Am tops out at 57 MPH. You feel that heat commin’ off it? She can handle the pressure fine, jus’ like this old man!」
Old man Sanders boasted with a belch, but the top speed of about 90 KPH wasn’t all that impressive.
Nowadays, motor scooters and even Usain Bolt can beat that in a short sprint.1
G-3 noticed my gloomy expression and turned to me… he passed me a knob on the end of a chain that drooped from the ceiling.
「Cheer up, Aniki!」
He said with a smile, and when I pulled the ball-like end–
—–*Chooooooo!*—–
I felt the reverberation of this genuine steam locomotive’s horn. So loud!
Hearing the sound, G-3’s followers:
「Wow!」
「Yahoo!」
「Choo! Choo!」
They shouted loudly. They were American, after all. You don’t have the slightest idea of how to avoid sticking out do you?
「Let’s get our signals straight. A long blast will mean『We are 1 mile from Area 51』, and we’ll get off and prepare. Two short blasts will be a warning for anything else.」
The subordinates that had cooperated to follow G-3 on the train saluted and answered with a smile
「Roger!」
Honestly, they always seemed to be having a good time. These people.
「Don’t get so worked up, Aniki!」
「I don’t have any regrets.」
G-3 and I exchanged words…
That is to say, when it comes to Americans… they have such a free and lively dynamic that we Japanese lack. I can’t despise it. Perhaps I should even try to emulate it, just a little.
*****************************************************
The rusty rail lines were covered in spots with patchy grass–unbothered by that, the TransAm pushed west into the Nevada desert. We reached top speed. As the old man had said, it was about 90 KPH.
We broke into the western side of Lincoln County, Nevada…
In terms of political affiliation, the area was hostile to G-3.
That means it wouldn’t be unexpected for Mash to intercept us here, but–
Despite all our apprehension, there was no attack.
However, this is the calm before a storm. He’s probably watching carefully and using some kind of satellite to keep tabs on us. Likely since shooting down the Sagittarius.
G-3 ordered everyone to alert status, then–the sharp-sighted Reki spotted something strange floating in the eastern sky.
When I looked in the direction she pointed, I spotted a black speck amidst the blue sky as I stood in the passenger car. .
Sticking my head out the window, I used binoculars I had borrowed from Kaname to look at it…
What…? A whale-like thing, or… a manta ray…?
I couldn’t distinguish it well because of the smoke from the train. It was uncanny, though.
As my eyebrows drew together, the scent of mint wafted up.
It appears Reki stuck her own head out of the same window below mine.
As the rushing air whipped her hair against my head:
「–It is some kind of aircraft. Slight over 10 metres long. In addition to matching the train’s speed, it is maintaining a following distance of 3.2 kilometres.」
Reki confirmed, her naked eye surpassing what I could do with the aid of binoculars.
「…G-3. There’s a low altitude craft with a shape halfway between a whale and manta ray following us.」
I said into the throat mic affixed to my neck, reaching G-3 in the main locomotive–
–*Brrr!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
A sound like a fully automatic machine gun came from under the train cars.
「Wha-what? It’s not an enemy attack…」
Looking down at the tracks, I frowned in concentration.
『…We just crossed over some old waterproof firecrackers installed on the tracks. From here on, not even the Sheriff can monitor this deserted track–It’s a traditional warning that you are entering a lawless area and to not trespass. I’m sure that the whale in the sky will ride this tide our way soon.』
Looking back, as G-3 predicted:
「Craft is in motion. Listlessly moving, but gaining speed.」
Reki reported as she shouldered her Dragunov.
…I see. Is this the place where the decisive battle will occur? With Mash?
It’s going to be a battle in the wasteland–as we headed along the deserted rail line, it was becoming more likely.
********************************************
Atlas, Reki, and Kaname waited for the enemy in the last car, protected by the steel plating.
Completely exposed in the tender, Collins took up the most dangerous role in the coal car.
G-3, myself, old man Sanders, Tsukumo, and Luca formed the locomotive garrison.
「What is it that came off of that thing…?」
Glowering toward the sky, G-3 murmured then a few seconds later…I saw it.
The plump manta shape was similar to the blended wing design of the B-2 Galleon that I had taken down…
According the G-3, it was an enlarged version of the X-48, the X-48E『Global Shuttle』, and something about 3 metres wide had detached from it.
The black smoke rose up as the TransAm dashed along the abandoned line…
The detached object followed us.
It had wings.
I can see it.
「That silhouette…!」
「–It’s LOO…!」
G-3 and I realised it was the same person we had last seen at Cafe Lalo.
It was the girl-shaped mecha, LOO– it looks like wings had been added so that she could fly.
The wings were sharply angular, and the length to width ratio was high, making it look like a glider. It lacked any type of engine… It uses potential energy to accelerate upon descent, only gaining dynamic lift as it cuts through the air and glides. I saw a small jet flame, but that looks to be an attitude control thruster. I see. LOO can fly, but she can’t cruise, and she was carried to the abandoned rail line and dropped like a parasite aircraft.
As LOO drew closer, more details could be made out.
Wearing nothing but a white bathing suit, she was almost entirely naked–
「…!」
Perhaps to make myself and Kaname hesitant to destroy her, her clothing had a Butei High sailor suit collar similar to our friends.
Mash… That’s a dirty trick.
「Oi, Atlas! That mecha girl’s equipment looks like yours. If Aria’s hover skirt and your P.A.A. are first generation, that’s second generation.」
G-3 said into his communication device as his eyebrows rose.
『Yes sir. It’s more like actual clothes than P.A.A. To distinguish it, we’ll call it–Personal Assault Dress.』
「Good name. Now… Let’s dance with this girl in the dress. Protect the TransAm! If we can do that and get to Area 51, we’ll win!」
Outlining the conditions for victory, G-3’s followers answered with a loud shout.
「Roger!」
…So this is a defensive battle, huh? I never imagined it would be a train, but defending a position is one of the fundamental topics I’ve studied.
I might not be much help, but I’ll help fight her off. Mash wants to plunge America into the chaos of war–and the Scarlet Goddess wants to plunge the world into the chaos of war, so this battle will shatter 2 ambitions. With my sibling with me, I cannot lose.
Then first of all, not caring for the Butei High sailor suit collar, Reki raised her SVD Dragunov– and Tsukumo raised her FN P90 PDW at the back of the train– *Bang!* *Ratatatata!*
Her camera-like eyes widened, and the bullets struck her wings.
But Reki’s bullet merely sent up a shower of sparks that scattered in front of LOO’s protected pretty face.
It had to be some kind of Transzendieren Ange that we weren’t familiar with–Stopped by some invisible barrier. Well, I supposed that she’d do as much.
Some of Tsukumo’s bullets struck LOO’s wings, but they only disturbed them slightly. The advanced material it was composed of must have been proof against FN 5.7x28mm bullets.
「…」
Reki pushed back the bolt and removed the magazine of 7.62mm×54R bullets from the modified barrel and substituted another magazine with a click. She must be changing ammunition type.
Like a mecha, LOO pushed on, heedless of the bullets striking her– *Whoomph!*
From a unit mounted on what appeared to be an extended epaulette, unidentified blue bullets streaked out wildly in response.
However, because she was trying to land on the train at the same time, we were out of their line of fire and the grouping of shots went wild. Almost all of them impacted on both sides of the TransAm, sending up sprays of sand like landmines with a series of *Thud!* Thud!* Thud!*. Only about 2 or three hit the roof of the passenger car.
LOO had descended and picked up speed, but was now close enough for us to make out her features and raised eyebrows.
『Was that a heavy ion ballista? It’s got to be a more efficient version of my ion collider blade, Execution D, and capable of rapid fire. I really, really want one!』
Kaname said, then adding to her report that everyone in the passenger car was safe from LOO’s last attack.
「Now then, it appears that Mash has discovered us. That being the case, it saves us the trouble of announcing ourselves. It may be a tad reckless, but let us increase our speed, shall we?」
Cool and collected, Angus– drew out what looked like a baton that was wrapped in paper from within his suit. On it’s exterior surface, the letters ‘NOS’ were stenciled.
This was the fuel for the rocket equipped onto G-3’s personal car.
「With its long burn time and high heat capacity, it may just prove useful. The larger NOS-2 or 3 would surely wreck the train, but this is a tiny NOS-1.」
「Haha! Alright, use it!.」
G-3 laughed heartily, I forced a smile, Luca and old man Sanders’ paled, and Tsukumo’s eyes widened into saucers–
「Don’t worry! This will just help us get there faster. That’s all!」
Saying something would have caused any girl to choke up with emotion and shock, he held on and supported Tsukumo by the arm. But I don’t think Tsukumo suffered any harm from it.
「Now for the NOS-1.」
Angus tossed the canister into the firebox with a gentle underhand throw–
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
The fire box which had until now been a red colour flashed with golden light.
The very next instant, a gout of flame like dragon’s breath erupted from the mouth of the firebox.
「–…!」
I raise my arm and turned my body to shield my face from the heat, but–
I fell hard on my backside as the TransAm suddenly accelerated.
In principle, anything with a high caloric capacity can be used to fuel the steam locomotive. Wood, coal, oil, coke, and dry grass have all been used. But we are probably the first in history to use Nitro.
Violent heat that was not from a yakiniku barbecue rolled off the fire box
…At last, the temperature finally fit my mental image of a Western film now, didn’t it?
A cold, mid-winter Nevada hadn’t seemed right to me.
「Internal b-boiler temperature is 1,500 degrees! Speed– 137 KPH by my eye!」
Luca shouted out her estimate as the landscape streamed by about 1.5 times faster.
「You can do it, can’t you, TransAm!」
G-3 shouted, thumping the side wall lightly with the back of a hand and grinning like an idiot.
Eyes wide open in a rush of adrenaline, old man Sanders said:
「You’re pretty fired up, aren’tcha! Nah, you’re a crazy old man Angus-san!」
「No, I am not quite that. Fufufu!」
Angus and the American chattered back and forth about nothing.
The boost of sudden acceleration not only sped us on toward Area 51–, but if we were lucky, also put us outside of LOO’s flight range… But our enemy was armed with the latest P.A.D. She wouldn’t be defeated by the ancient steam locomotive. The thruster that was originally used for attitude control now accelerated her as she closed the distance once again.
When I looked up–the smoke pouring from the TransAm’s smoke stack had changed to a dark red.
There were sparks mingled with the fumes. It was a hellish sight.
Evading the smoke and flames–
「Gynoid Loo–contact!」
Luca called out a status report as LOO raised both hands above her head– She touched down on the tail end of the passenger car with a screech of metal. Clamping down. Without landing gear or an arrestor cable.
The secret was combat knife-like claws on her hands. The literal claws sank into the roof of the passenger car. They were on her feet too.
With her claws fixing her to the passenger cars, LOO–*Pssh!* With a sound of compressed air, the airfoil unit on her back detached. The wing thruster then disappeared behind the train in an instant.
…Was it going to return to the mothership that was hanging apparently motionless in the easter sky?
A one-way trip must have been part of the plan–this too is typical of mecha.
『I know she’s an enemy, but that was incredible, wasn’t it, darlings? Like landing on a aircraft carrier!』
Collins said in his carefree, effeminate manner…
The TransAm’s speed began to drop slightly. Due to LOO’s added weight.
「LOOoooo…」
LOO growled. Her expression was intimidating. Human operators were controlling her.
Her white swimsuit was bulletproof and had a red Butei High girl’s uniform collar. A white rabbit-like set of ears protruding from her crown seemed to also serve as radar. Her main armament and electronics were affixed to her back, creating an overall weight distribution toward the rear. With wings spread, she looked like a bird or butterfly. Her arms and legs were covered in shining white gauntlets and greaves that gives off an aesthetic that, if seen by an anime fan, would move them to tears.
「No matter what else. This has to suit your tastes. I think it’s pretty cool.」
「It’s not exactly my thing. But when compared with that mushroom head sitting safely in his office at Area 51, drinking cola and eating potato crisps–this remote-control girl gives off a better feeling. Because we can engage on a fair and square level.」
I expected this to cause G-3 to enter Hysteria Mode, but it didn’t quite.
「I agree. However…At first I thought I’d be fighting with a Gundam, but it’s actually a Z’Gok that looks like a beautiful girl, isn’t it? Fortunately it’s not red and gold.」
「What’s a Z’Gok? And the paint colour doesn’t matter!」
「Ask Riko next time you see her. She’ll give you a 2-hour lecture course on it.」2
After we had exchanged this sibling banter, Angus said:
「It would be a pity to lose what speed we have just gained, would it not?.You did say it yourself just a short while ago, Third-sama, that is will merely help us reach our destination more quickly.」
And he tossed more NOS-1 into the firebox. This time, 2 canisters.
–*WHOOOOooooOOOOOOOooOOOOSH!*
Once more, the TransAm shook. The acceleration caused Collins in the coal tender to fall over.
With a *Pop!* *Pop!*, iron rivets flew off the body of the locomotive and white steam began to escape.
Too much combustive power of the Nitro had pushed the boiler past its limit.
「S-speed–158 KPH! And increasing! Internal boiler temperature, 1,800 degrees! 100 kilometres to Area 51!」
Luca shouted.
Now–the desert landscape blurred as it sped by, as if we were on a high speed train. Except for the dark red smoke, it looked like an active volcano above out heads.
「Jaaysus! I haven’t felt such speed since a chopper in ‘Nam!」
…Old man Sanders, caught along for the ride, was well experienced with such things in war.
The sudden burst of acceleration hadn’t managed to shake LOO off so–
『–Barbariser!』3
A pile-drive like stake slammed into the roof of the passenger car from the inside.
Atlas gripped the steel plate in his right hand behind the iron stake that rushed out from his forearm. Then his left arm punched through the holes left by the heavy ion ballista and grasped the steel girder frame.
He accurately determined LOO’s position from the shadow she cast on the desert outside, but–
The sudden, unexpected attack from below did not damage her frame.
However, it did displace here to some extent. Heavy mass impacts are also effective against LOO as well. That being the case… perhaps we can use this to disrupt melee combat. Knocking her off would be helpful. Aiming to do just that–
『Third-sama, Loo is quite exciting!』
While hanging suspended in the passenger car in the posture for a chin up– *Clang!*
Wearing his advanced armoured helmet, Atlas punched his upper body up through the roof of the passenger car.
『–Please leave her to me!』
He lumbered slowly toward LOO who had taken up a position at the back end of the roof…! Atlas stood, a black figure in the middle of the passenger car roof–
With all of her angular equipment extended, LOO looked small. There was a large discrepancy in body size.
『–Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and armour for armour!』
「Alright, I’ll leave it to you. Do it, Atlas!」
G-3 ordered as he clenched his right hand, and Atlas turned to face LOO– the battle between the anime mecha girl and the CG American superhero was about to begin. I was dizzy with the excitement.
Even in this wasteland, America is a country of science. This battle is one between Neue Ange and Transzendieren Ange. Then I switched over my brain to gauge their fighting potential–
LOO is a versatile fighter, and Atlas is a melee combat specialist. In this fight where falling from the train constitutes a loss, it would seem that Altas holds the advantage.
However–with a glance at LOO and Atlas, it is possible to understand the generational difference between them.
It’s 22nd century weapons facing 21st century weapons.
「LOOoooo, LOOooooo…」
『That enemy is dangerous. Third-sama, please stay back. No one take my job! –LOO! Break this super alloy shield if you can! 』
Atlas’ shield that had taken MI6’s incendiary bullets back on the main road deployed in a pizza slice shape–on the back of his forearm with a *Shing!*– it fanned and spread out. The stacked pizza slice plates eventually formed a circular shield.
With his right armoured hand holding a stake and his left a shield, Atlas faced LOO like an ancient Roman gladiator, and she–
–An M-134…!
Gatling guns attached to her back stuck out on both sides of her hips.
It was just like the old film『Terminator 2』with multiple autocannons mounted on an android– 2 of them!
After 0.3 seconds of spin up–the M-134s on both sides *Ba-ba-ba-bang!* A laser-like volley of fire erupted.
If a human were struck by it, they would die without any sense of pain, and in a few seconds, 60 7.62 mm bullets hit Atlas.
But–Atlas took it on his shield, unwavering.
There were countless wedge-shaped dents where the bullets impacted, but the armour was unpierced.
Immediately, LOO discarded the glowing red M-134 behind the train–
–*Ching!* *Ching!* On both her shoulders, twin Mk 47 Striker grenade launchers opened up.
*Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* *Poof!* 6 double-shots of 40 x 53 mm impact fuse grenades popped out. As I watched, Atlas was engulfed in a swirling vortex of fire and flame, and Atlas–
–With a *Clank!*, he actually took a step forward, clear of the fire and smoke.
Despite all that, the P.A.A. was not destroyed, but… its entire surface was glowing red with smoke rising from it.
It looked just like a demon being born from a volcanic crater.
Then from the almost entirely unscathed helmet– several metal plates of armour from the mouth area slid open.
With the red helmet and the black void in the mouth region, it looked like it was laughing.
「–Smiley Atlas…!」
As we reached a curve in the track and seeing that profile, Luca muttered in a tense voice.
「…He’s really geared up to fight! Good, Atlas. Crush her!」
G-3 said, the first half by way of explanation to me, and the second was an order spoken into his communicator.
*Shing!*, Atlas drew a 60 cm long Sonic combat knife from his leg armour–
–With a popping sound atypical for such conventional weapons, he crossed blades with LOO’s claws.
As she grasped the blade in her left hand, the chainsaw edge sent up a shower of sparks–*Creak!* *Creak!*– Atlas destroyed the entire hand with his vibrating knife.
Then from the hand to the wrist, and from the wrist to the elbow–*Slice!* It was severed like a fish.
「…!」
From her destroyed right arm, green oil spurted like blood–
『–Rargh!』
Atlas used the edge of his shield like a blade and launched a left hook.
Using his Westpoint boxing training, he hit LOO’s ruined right elbow–*Pop!* severing the forearm.
Catching the heavy right arm as it spun, scattering oil drops–
Atlas used the arm as a blunt implement to bash her left leg.
…!
…Brutal. This real fight between two mecha is nothing like the cool scenes in anime. It’s just as unsightly as a battle between two flesh and blood people.
The sparks and smoke kicked up between LOO and Atlas mingled with the fumes coming from the train.
The TransAm was very much like a shooting star crashing through the atmosphere.
Dragging her left leg, LOO managed to cut around Atlas’ side, somehow, and create some distance.
Then, grabbing the girder frame at the back of the passenger car like he was going to perform a deadlift… *Creak!* *Creak!*… and heaved with all his power.
*Pop!* Tearing the huge rod-like object free of the car frame and sweeping it down to crush LOO into scrap–*Booooooom!*
While discarding several armaments, LOO rolled toward the front of the passenger car and dodged the blow– but her legs were grazed by the heavy metal rod and suffered a lot of damage.
Good. Atlas is dominating this melee battle. It looks like he is going to win.
「LOOoooo…!」
Seeing her own injuries, LOO appeared to be angry–
「It’s no surprise, LOO! Soldiers that aren’t wounded on the battlefield are extremely rare.」
While smiling, Atlas advanced again with a *Clank!*.
Any human facing this terrifying Smiley Atlas would want to raise their hands and run away… and LOO took up a prone posture.
From the viewpoint of the locomotive, LOO’s white bathing suited round buttocks were facing us… although she was a puppet-like doll, I felt a bit of the blood flow of Hysteria mode.
Almost as if in rebuke *Choo!* *Choo!* Luca blew two short blast on the whistle.
「Oh…」
Tsukumo was looking forward with wide eyes, and I turned to look as well.
「…!」
The train was rapidly approaching a huge fissure-like valley in the desert.
A V-shaped opening in a wall of rock led to a rift valley.
Was it a miniature Grand Canyon?
Passing through the valley, the tracks then crossed over a rickety wooden bridge.
The vibrations from this runaway train might just destroy the old bridge,
Seemingly having the same thought that I did, old man Sanders reached out to decouple the gears to bleed speed–
「Slow down, and I’ll kill you. Oi, Angus, faster.」
Scowling at the shuttle that was following close behind the train smoke, G-3 tossed an order behind him.
「As you wish. However, I only have 2 more canisters of Nitro remaining… and they are the larger NOS-2 and NOS-3. Shall I use those?」
Angus…he held out the bulky canisters as he asked this question cheerfully.
Tsukumo glanced over fearfully at the boiler that was already at its limit–
「They’ll do. On my mark, use the NOS-2. 5… 3, 2, 1, now!」
「NOS-2.」
Angus recklessly tossed in the dynamite-like fuel into the boiler–
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
「–Whaaaaa!」
「Aaaaaaah!」
Luca and Tsukumo’s screams continued as the cover to the boiler was blown off.
With the sound of a violent explosion, the smoke stack shattered, and steel fragments pelted the sides of the car. The already crimson smoke was now a scarlet and orange flame streaming behind the engine.
*Whoooooosh!*
The sound of the train was already quite different than it’s normally operating noise–
The TransAm sped up with a sudden lurch. Still accelerating, we neared the valley bridge. With a splintering sound, the train destroyed the bridge, the wheels grinding up the rail ties–and we flew through the valley.
…!
As the runaway train crossed the wooden bridge–it scattered fragments of track, leaving the framework behind. I saw the coal tender and passenger car that were being drawn behind us sagging slightly.
I-I see. With the TransAm running at high speed, the rickety bridge will be destroyed anyway. That means if we had slowed down, we would have fallen from the dizzying height into the ravine below. In order to avoid that–G-3 made us speed up.
This is the power of a Genion. Pushing mental limits.
「Internal boiler temperature, over 2,000 degrees! The gauge is broken, so I can’t be sure. Speed is 192 KPH–we are still accelerating–196 KPH—200 KPH! Distance to Area fishty, 51– 78 km. Ah, I bit my tongue!」
Luca reported tearfully from the inside of the clattering and shaking locomotive.
The TtransAm was overheating with steam, fire, and smoke pouring out from all over the engine. The trumpet-shaped smokestack had vanished without a trace, and it no longer served it purpose as a protection from harmful fumes, sparks, and flames. But without it, our mobility is unaffected.
*Screeeech!*… Looking back toward the high-pitched screech that was coming from the passenger car…
Even amidst the nightmarish crossing, LOO had not ceased fighting.
Using the claws on her remaining left hand and both legs, she took up a tripod position–
From the randoseru on her back, she pointed a Transzendieren Ange mortar weapon toward Atlas.
If I had to describe it, I’d say she entered artillery mode.
On the other side, Atls was kneeling with the steel girder in order to not fall from the train as it jostled and bounced. This is LOO’s best chance.
「A positron cannon… they have already deployed it in the field. It would be dangerous to be struck by it, Atlas…!」
Always calm, Angus furrowed his brows at the scene atop the passenger car.
The situation was self-explanatory. Atlas can’t move and will be hit–that was a decisive manoevre. Planned by LOO.
…Atlas…!
Atlas couldnt escape the train while we were on the bridge, and–
–In the next instant LOO’s cannon fired.
「Now I’ll steal a base. Despite the fact that I wasn’t up to bat!」
I heard Kaname’s carefree voice over the comms, *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*
3 sheets of P-Fiber ripped up through the roof of the passenger car roof like paper.
It covered up the cannon muzzle at the same instant LOO fired. It wrapped itself around the end, covering the opening in an asterisk shape.
「LO…!」
Unable to deal with it without tumbling from the train, LOO looked up past the muzzle–
–*Booooom!*
Blocked by the P-Fiber, the advanced mortar erupted within the barrel.
「–Very nice steal, Kaname-kun!」
Atlas, who at that moment was clinging on to the back of the passenger car–
With a *Clang!*, a section of armour on his back opened. Then they spread like a rhinoceros beetle’s wings.
Then with a *Ka-thunk!* *Ka-thunk!*, sections on his shoulders and legs split open.
Inside the armour, there was what looked like a lot of injection nozzles embedded in the body–
「–Uoooooooooooooo–!」
A rumbling roar overlapped with Atlas’ war cry as tongues of flame licked out from the nozzles.
This was the same whole body rocket engine that Kaname and G-3 used in Shinagawa–using unfathomable explosive power to leap forward at point-blank range, this auxiliary attack assist was a sure-kill device.
Using literal explosive power, Atlas–
–*Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!*
He launched the most primitive assault on the damaged Transzendieren Ange… driving in with a ramming attack.
Then amidst the swirling eddies of wood splinters from the destroyed wooden bridge–
「–Atlas!」
LOO fell from the car.
She sent coal from the tender flying and barely missed Collins.
「–….!」
G-3 and I rushed over to the window of the locomotive to see where Atlas and LOO had gone.
An incessant rain of remnants from the ruined bridged pelted the surface of the river below–and I spotted LOO first. With what looked to be an emergency equipment module, an airbag deployed from her partially ruined back… her body forming the seed and the airbag the flesh, it looked just like a large loquat fruit as she fell.
And… then I saw Atlas’ arms and legs falling and scattering. No, that was just his armour. His actual body–
「Third-sama. Enemy P.A.D. neutralised… a resounding success. Heavy damage sustained. It will be hard to continue the fight. Haha! Bwahaha!」
Hearty laughter was heard nearby. From the direction of the coal tender.
「Oh my! How expensive it will be to rebuild the P.A.A.!」
Collins cradled Atlas’ form in his arms, his white school uniform-like clothes spattered with blood. It seems that he abandoned the armour at the last possible moment, and Collins grabbed him and pulled him in by his own strength. Thank goodness…!
「Collins-kun, my sincerest thanks for pulling me out of that dangerous spot!」
「I’ve fallen in love, Atlas.」
Atlas gave Collins a thumbs-up, and as their fists met, the train crossed the valley bridge– the passenger car has been derailed and was being dragged behind, so Reki transferred over from the passenger car. Kaname also migrated over to the tender, while cutting the brilliant redconnector with a whip-like scientific blade.
The TransAm now only consisted of the locomotive and the tender–
Freed of both LOO and the passenger car’s weight, we began accelerating once more.
Our speed already matched that of a shinkansen, no, it actually felt like we had surpassed that.
The locomotive almost completely exposed the crew at the sides and rear sides.
Inside the engine that had become a flaming arrow crossing the desert–
「–Current speed: 210 KPH. Distance to Area 51: 58 km, Third. We managed to drive LOO away, but the boiler temperature hasn’t dropped! It’s going to break!」
Luca raised her mis-matched coloured eyes and shouted to G-3.
Even to my untrained eye, the TransAm looked to already be on the brink of collapse. 30% of the rivets had blown off due to internal pressure, and fire and smoke spurted from the holes like gas burners. Due to the excessive NOS fuel, the interior glowed like the Sun and was impossible to look at. A strange, splitting sound went up from the body frame and rails, and a long tail of brilliant red smoke streamed from the missing smokestack, leaving a dark black band across the Nevada desert.
In the first place, the frame was forced past twice its top speed of 100 KPH. It wouldn’t be strange if it suddenly broke.
However, staring at the space behind the locomotive, G-3 gave and order–
「Angus, don’t lose focus. Use the NOS-3, hurry!」
He gave the order for more speed.
Hearing G-3’s order, Angus said:
「As you wish.」
While smiling… he took out a canister of Nitro that was thick enough to shock all of us.
「Idiot! If y’all do that, we’ll blow ourselves to bits!」
Old man Sanders shouted angrily.
「That’s better than being blown to bits!」
With that alone as a response, G-3 extracted a 1 cm square of red paper from somewhere concealed near his ear.
Placing it withing his mouth, the paper-like film–disappeared. That was the neurotransmitter accelerator that G-3 ingested orally back in the skies above Tokyo.
That drug triggers your own Hysteria Mode–but it was a dangerous, life-threatening substance.
「Oi, G-3… why did you do that!?」
Ignoring my panic, G-3 drew his USP Match model from his leg armour…the first time he had done so here.
Then he reached out with one hand into the firestorm outside the window and pulled himself up.
「–NOS-3.」
Leaving Angus with those orders–
He lobbed the largest canister of Nitro fuel into the boiler that was about to explode.
–*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
The entire frame of the locomotive lurched forward–
The shock jumping it up several metres.
With a *Screech!*, the TransAm returned to the tracks, and the inside of the engine was washed in hot air like that from a wok. Unable to scream, we were all tossed about like ingredients in Chinese fried rice–
「…!」
–Inside the bullet train that raced along while shaking violently–
I pulled back Tsukumo who was about to fall onto the boiler, grabbed Luca who had bounced off the ceiling, and embraced Kaname who had slid in from the tender.
… The young woman Tsukumo, little ESP girl Luca, and the girl related to me by bood…
Each of them were beautiful girls. The 6 limbs and 6 young breasts were now above and below, and in front of a behind me, surrounding me.
–Unused to having three such bodies pressed up against me– *Ka-thump!*–
「I wonder if you would call this a three-wheeler…?」
With their eyes gritted tightly close, I kissed each of them on the forehead or a cheek.
「Wha-wha? S-someone…. looking like Th-Third-sama…. k-k-k-k-kissed me!」
「You imbecile!」
「How dangerous, Onii-chan. If I wasn’t your sister, I would have just fallen for you.」
The hair on Tsukumo’s tail stood up straight in shock. Pinned beneath me, Luca flushed deep crimson. Kaname gave her usually bright sisterly smile.
Haha! They are all cute.
「We will be alright. The train will be as well–it will still run. As expected of tough American products.」
「K-Kinji Tohyama! If we get back, I’ll stop your heart with ESP. I used to stop goat hearts at the Academy of Sciences.」
Wiping furiously at the spot on her cheek where I had kissed her, she ended up smudging her face with soot–
Standing up, I said:
「I wonder if you are better at piercing them, than stopping them. Hearts, that is. However, I would relish the chance for my heart to be stopped by the lovely Luca– But don’t worry, even if you stop it, I’ll start it again. Ah, it’s still working.」
I handed back the mechanical stopwatch that I caught before it flew out the window.
Luca snatched it back from me, then made a mental calculation after several seconds of observing the landscaping flowing past.
「–Current speed: 220 KPH! Distance to Area 51: 55 km! 15 minutes!」
She shouted both loudly and desperately so that G-3 could hear on the roof.
Already, the engine room was engulfed in a small sea of fire…but 220 KPH…
That was already beyond the highest speed recorded in a locomotive.
「Congratulations, Sanders-san! You’re going to make the Guinness World Records!」
Sitting in the operator’s seat and drinking alcohol,
「Jesus! The deceleration gear is busted!」
He said as he tossed the thin, empty tin out the window.
「Tsukumo, give a whistle when we’re within a mile.」
Kissing the shocked Tsukumo on the forehead, I put the whistle’s cord in her hand…
「I trust Onii-chan. And even now he’s changed. It makes me love him more.」
Toward Kaname who had orchestrated the 3 person crush– I sent her a wink.
This no-good sister of mine.
She caused 2 other girls to bump into me besides herself.
But thanks to that…
「Until now, I’ve only protected him–but now I wonder if this train will carry us to the final battle.」
I said, reaching my hand out of the window on the opposite side from G-3…then I swung up my Spikes, made by Hiraga, into the roof of the train so that I wasn’t pushed off by the wind pressure created by our current speed of 220 KPH.
「–Slow, Aniki.」
Arms crossed as he stared into the sky, G-3… he had changed. The impression of a legendary creature radiated from him like heat. He was entirely in HSS.
The Tohayama brothers– this was the second time two had stood together in the last month, the first time being with Kana.
Behind the trail of fire we were leaving behind– maintaining its original 3.2 km of distance, was the X-43E. From the shuttle… I saw some appendages detach from it and scatter in the blue sky.
Thankfully, it wasn’t little LOO, but…
…That’s…
They might be small, but it’s difficult to deal with.
An MQ-1– Predator drones. 12 of them spread out in the air.
With a nose section that looked like an eyeless dolphin, the drone gave off a strange feeling.
These drones were masterpieces, used in the last century in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq as scouts to pinpoint bombing raids… In short, used to conduct repeated assassinations. The innocent civilians unlucky enough to be caught up and killed in these raids infamously fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment.
They have the same top speed as the TransAm, but… the specifications released to the world by the US military appear to be bold-faced lies. They are clearly closing the distance.
「–These seem to be LOO’s honour guard escort.」
「Yeah. Those Predators are his favourite.」
G-3 said while scowling at the flock of Predators as they drew slowly closer.
These are Mash’s tactics–
With the vast resources of America, these are the tactics of overwhelming force.
In Sci-Fi anime, some kind of ultimate weapon like LOO is deployed, but… in reality, it’s the opposite. In combat, advanced weapons lack experience in the field and are subject to all kinds of unexpected problems. Instead, they are used to collect data at the outset, then thrown away.
They can be used to shave off some of the enemy’s strength, but the finishing blow–that is delivered by an overwhelmingly large mass of tried and true equipment
That is the strategy in play here. As it is most times.
「…It was a Predator that took down the Sagittarius.」
「Ah. I thought that a pilot might faint if they tried to pull of those manoeuvres–they were unmanned after all. It was a FIM-92 from behind, but I thought it might have been a ramming attack from above.」
As G-3 and I conversed, the swarm of Predators–
Half of them dispersed on either side of the smoke grenade-like trail being left behind by the train.
Then– with a *Brr!*, machinery deployed beneath the fuselage of each of the drones. They were equipped with machine guns.
They kicked up a cloud of dust with their bullets with a roar on either side of the TransAm–and the distant sound of gunfire was audible. Then several 7.62 mm machine gun bullets began impacting the sides of the train.
「They’re shooting.」
「Yeah. They’re still out of range. Oi, you guys! Get ready for anti-air warfare!」
G-3 shouted, loud enough that his communication device unnecessary–
Then, simultaneously, the Predator drones fired AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles. 2 a piece, making a total of 24.
The missiles traced countless trails of white smoke through the air as they approached us. They spread out to fill my field of vision like spider silk… as an observer, it was despair inducing.
But ever the resolute and undaunted American,
「…Predators…huh? You bastards! If you’re a man, come an’ face us in person!」
Howling curses, old man Sanders who had been operating the train–*Bang!* Leaning out the window, he fired his wooden stock M1 Garand.
As G-3 and I watched… by pure chance, the bullet hit one of the missiles. One of the orderly smoke trails lined up like acrobats became kinked… then as it wobbled…
*Boom!*…! One of the missiles disintegrated midair.
「You did it!」
「Oi! Pay attention to the train!」
G-3 shouted into the train while wearing a wry smile.
Then Reki fired one, two Butei bullets–the incendiary bullets bringing down as many missiles. As each of the missiles she targeted were destroyed, caught up in midair explosions, each took out another missile.
As the AGM-114 slanted down to pursue us, I used my Desert Eagle on the right side and G-3 used his USP on the left to intercept them with incendiary bullets. The weren’t able to be destroyed with a single bullet, but it took 2 or 3.
The top speed of the missiles was just faster than the TransAm, so they kept approaching however–despite it not being easy, it wasn’t impossible.
Several types of gunshots rang out: Atlas with his M240, Collins with his needle gun, and Tsukumo with her FN P90 added to the volley. Despite being told to stop, Sanders fired his M1 Garand as well. This time, however, he missed.
Through the gaps in our frantic missile defence–the Predators steadily advanced. One of them *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*…scattered machine gun fire across the front half of the train. I’m feeling like I’m really trying to hit something without being able to get many hits in.
…What…?
As I frantically tried to intercept the missiles, I saw that their target had changed– With a rush of realisation, I saw it was the rail switch point 1 km ahead of us.
The Predator machine gun fire hit the switch– switching the train’s course from the one heading toward Area 51 to one heading back in a U-turn toward the valley.
Crap…!
If we take the U-turn, we’ll be headed back on the single track we came in on. The deceleration gear is damaged, and this time we’ll plunge headlong into the ravine. And as I paled–
–*Bang!*–
I heard the roar of a Dragunov’s sniper fire and a *Ching!* as the switch was thrown again.
A second later, we cross the switchpoint safely.
「…」
With her head half out the window, Reki performed the divine feat of『grazing the handle of the switch mechanism with a sniper bullet while the winds whipped by at 200 KPH』that I never thought possible… then returned to missile defence.
…I tried to turn her back twice at the Sugamo switchyard, but now I’m glad she came along.
「Aniki–shrapnel!」
G-3 lifted his head and raised his voice, in the sky– and I saw the rockets they fired disperse with a *Boom!* Each shell was packed with 48 small, grape-like shot like large buckshot. Each of the Predators fired, one after each other.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
From both sides of the train–
576 total pieces of shot rushed down. Filling the sky like locust.
「Don’t worry, G-3.」
I had already drawn my Beretta, stealing Aria’s signature double-wield style–I thumbed the fire selector on each gun with both my hands and at the same time started a rapid-fire volley.
*Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!* *Ba-ba-bang!*
The bullets flew into the air.
–*Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ching!*
–*Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-thud!*
On both sides of the train, hundreds of shot rounds kicked up dust clouds.
…The number of shots that hit: zero.
Of the 492 shots that were going to hit, they were deflected by chain shooting. My bullet’s trajectory was deflected as it struck a piece of shot, then another, and another–in a seemingly infinite chain.
「…You did it, Aniki!」
「When compared to the exponentially larger barrage that Sherlock handled, this is nothing. Actually, you’ve seen this before.」
G-3 looked at me with a laugh and sparkling eyes as I reloaded my magazine and returned his glance with a gloomy expression.
The gun technique of Billiard and Cannon shot were based upon the same principle, and I devised it– when I used 8 bullets to deflect the 13 bullets he fired at me. My good-for-nothing brother.
The next missiles fired then changed targets to try to destroy the tracks.
「–16 km to Area 51!」
Luca’s report came as BGM for the incessant fire coming from Reki and Tsukumo–
As their reserves of ammunition dwindled, it seemed that they wanted to conserve bullets, and the enemy concentrated their fire on the train itself. However, I dealt with the bullets, and G-3 took care of the missile.
The troublesome sniper, Reki, took aim at the machine guns– Kaname’s P-Fibre provided an active defensive system for the interior of the engine. And the Predator that Reki sniped precisely… *Bang!*…! crashed into the desert. Just one.
「11 left, Aniki!」
「–No, it’s 10.」
Intending to circle around behind us, one of them strayed dangerously close――as we spoke, I used Checker to fire a bullet up the muzzle of the machine gun.4 Suffering massive internal gun damage and the electronic system as well–the Predator began flying erratically, then was hit by Tsukumo’s P90 and crashed and exploded.
「–I-I’m almost out of bullets!」
Tsukumo shouted, and even Reki… she began to fire more conservatively. I’d used up my bullets, and G-3’s USP’s slide was stuck back.
Our enemy… had also depleted their large ordnance of missiles and rocket artillery shells.
However, almost all of their machine guns were going strong. There is power in numbers.
From where I stood, I saw one that appeared to be out of ammunition–
That one clearly broke formation.
It sped up… and headed toward us.
「–It’s going to ram us! A suicide attack!」
G-3 said unhappily, while those inside began to murmur at the enemy’s new manoeuvre. At the scene of the aircraft itself rushing in bodily… the Americans seemed to have some kind of allergic reaction. The US forces had lost many lives to kamikaze attacks–and it seems that Japan had instilled a generational historical trauma upon them, and so they were all necessarily fearful.
「–If they’re using that kind of attack, that’s proof they’ve been driven into a corner. Calm down and let’s deal with it.」
I advised–
*Ba-bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Half panicked, his subordinates were using valuable ammunition to try and intercept it.
G-3 must stop them.
「–Calm down!」
When I didn’t see him move to do so, I shouted. But I was just a moment too slow.
The Predator flew in and crashed in a fireball against the back of the train–amidst a hail of gunfire. But now, all of the ones below were out of ammunition. Then one at a time, they each reported in over the communicator.
…There were still 9 left…
As if waiting for an opportunity, the flock of Predators–circled back. Without firing, they surrounded us and started to move in. They were coming. If they strafe us with machine gun fire, there’s no way to counterattack.
「…」
G-3 remained silent. The feeling that even the leader was troubled was transmitted to his subordinates, and they all were looking up as if they were about to die.
Americans are different from the Japanese who will fight on to the bitter end–when things go badly, their morale falls quickly. Being happy and upbeat are their most salient national features.
So in this spot…
「Alright, G-3. Let’s play baseball. We’re in America, so let’s show Mash how to hit a ball. You pitch.」
With as much of a smile as I could muster *Whoosh!*, I hopped from the locomotive to the tender.
Then I went over to where the remnants of the passenger car frame destroyed by Atlas were stuck in the pile of coal… Then I chose a warped piece shaped like a half of a pincer and hefted it.
It was about 1.5 metres long, but calling it a bat would be too generous.
「Even if we don’t have bullets, we have balls.」
I said as I picked out several ball-sized pieces of coal from the tender…
Understanding what I was doing, G-3 chuffed.
Then as the Predators drew even closer behind us, he laughed and jumped back into the tender laughing.
「Hahaha! You’re somewhat of an idiot, with a chance of being a genius, Aniki!」
G-3 roared with laughter at my joke, delivering it like a weather report. Americans might have found this funny. No, this must be G-3’s own way of raising his follower’s morale. But for all that, Atlas and Collins forced a smile, and Luca and Tsukumo were not laughing at all.
Without exchanging another word, I held up the girder like a bat–and G-3 tossed a ball of coal into a good position in an underhand pitch.
In order to avoid splitting the coal, I kissed the girder up to it lightly–
–Ouka–!
More like lacrosse than batting in baseball, I swung and hit the coal away.
The coal struck the inverted V tail like a rock, and the nose of one of the Predators lurched upward… then tumbling to crash into the desert.
「Next! 9 more to go.」
「Yeah!」
I swung and hit the balls of coal G-3 threw from the tender and hit another Predator.
Twice. 3 times. I repeated the feat, and they hit.
The Predator… couldn’t see the lumps of coal…!
I see. They would expect an attack by machine gun and missile, but they would never expect a ball of coal–without data, they wouldn’t be able to track them.
The Predators are even less evasive than they had been in the previous firefight. It seems as if they are wavering between attacking or evading. They don’t even know what they want to do.
Each time I take down another Predator and the rest scatter, a cheer goes up from our side.
「–Hahaha! They’re like turkeys!」
G-3 was in high spirits. Good. Our team morale is rising.
「We should have done it from the start! It’s fun like being in a batting center.」
I smiled at thee last Predator– *Whoom!* He tossed another piece of coal–
I just barely missed the Predator. Banking to both sides, it came closer.
「Huh…? Another ball, G-3.」
It also avoided the second ball of coal.
This… It was an uninformed opinion, but it’s possible that they hurriedly rewrote it’s software to allow it to play ball with us.
「Looks like that mushroom-head got here in the nick of time. Let’s get out of here.」
As we finally crossed paths, the Predator– punched the tender full of holes as G-3 and I, side-by-side, retreated to the locomotive.
「…Tch! Now what?」
As we took shelter in the locomotive with the rest of the group…the Predator cut a wide loop to sweep low to attack the locomotive, cutting time short.
「–I have an idea!」
Suddenly, Luca raised her hand and pointed at me.
「Abandon Kinji to draw off the Predator, then the rest of us can continue on to Area 51!」
「Oi! This isn’t the time for jokes–」
In response to my protests:
「I am not joking! You will be fine being chased by the Predator!」
She shouted, still angry from the earlier kiss.
Ignoring our spat, Angus…
「Can we not use this? I thought that it would be needed to breach the walls of Area 51, and I saved the explosive for that purpose– Let us replace some of out spine with guts.」
Surprised that he hadn’t gotten rid of it in the midst of the raging inferno– I saw him take out a bundle of NOS canisters that looked just like a stack of dynamite.
Then, immediately:
「–Bingo!」
The Genion G-3 was inspired.
「If we put it in the tender it is diving for, it will become a super-sized claymore. As soon as the Predator starts to descend, we’ll cut the tender loose and we’ll take it down in the explosion of coal. Move out!」
Putting the plan into action as soon as he conceived of it, everyone returned to the tender. Kaname used her P-Fibre to excavate…and the rest used brute force to dig into the coal and bury the explosives underneath it.
「It’s coming…! 32 seconds to impact! Blow it!」
Tsukumo bit the fuse cord into the appropriately prescribed length, and Collins used old man Sanders’ zippo to light it.
The tender transformed into an oversized directional charge, we all hurried back to the locomotive–
「–Cut it loose!」
G-3 gave the order, and the chains and pegs in the joint linking the locomotive and tender were removed.
「…!」
Then we all stared in dumb silence.
–It didn’t separate.
The linkage was warped, and the seams didn’t open easily. The joint only opened halfway, and they deformed under great stress. Then… *Skree!* the front part of the tender rose up, riding on two wheels.
20 seconds were left until it was going to explode.
Kaname immediately took action and severed the linkage with her scientific sword–
–*Shing!* The front wheels of the tender slammed back onto the rails, hit a railroad tie, and derailed causing it to butt into the back of the locomotive. With the shock, Tsukumo–
「–Ah!」
She pitched forward and tumbled. Into the tender just as it separated.
With only the front wheels derailed, the tender shook violently, knocking Tsukumo about, and the locomotive, free of towing it accelerated away.
Tsukumo–struck her head on the tender and swooned. Losing all her power.
The Predator continued closing in from above. The nose started sloping down toward her.
「–Tsukumo!」
In that instant, G-3–
Unwilling to abandon Tsukumo in this dire situation, from his artificial left arm– his hand, powered by compressed air, flew out from his wrist.
He lacks the weight to engage in an awful tug-of-war with the tender.
What’s more, it will explode into a huge fireball in 10 seconds.
*Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang!*
Machine gun fire from the Predator struck all around the railway, tender, and locomotive. Somehow, G-3’s wire attached to his hand survived through the hail of bullets–pulling him across to the tender!
「G-3~!」
「Third!」
「Third-sama!」
As his followers shouted, G-3 took up Tsukumo in his right arm. 7.62 mm bullets struck his back and left arm.
His left arm *Clank!* was stuck in one of the fissure created by the bullet that struck the tender. Unfortunately, G-3 ws now fixed in one place–
He can’t get back to the locomotive with Tsukumo.
「G-3~~~~~!!!」
I screamed, but couldn’t cross the distance between us.
The locomotive and tender inexorbaly continue to separate.
–G-3–!
As the Predator swooped low overhead, the dynamite in the tender–
「…A…Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!–」
–At the same instant as G-3’s shout, it exploded–!
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
The coal scattered in all directions like a volcanic eruption.
The final Predator was broken into pieces, and the fragments scattered about the desert.
—With the scene as the background I saw G-3 and Tsukumo in his right arm.
While taking the blast on his back, then being pelted with a pieces of coal… he flew toward the locomotive– No, he was blasted toward the locomotive.
The locomotive was momentarily lifted by the blast, but it was heavier than the rest of the cars.
It came down with a *Clang!* without derailing–and G-3 and Tsukumo barely reached our outstretched arms as we caught and pulled them in.
「–G-3!」
As I took G-3’s bloody and soot covered body into my arms… his left arm was missing.
He had detached his left arm like a lizard tail to escape the tender.
「…Uh…!」
His styled hair unkempt and wild, he made an incoherent sound…
「…O-Oi…! How much further…?」
Even as he breathed in smoke, he was a proper leader.
「R-right, the distance to Area 51 is… 5 miles…!」
Her mismatched coloured eyes wide, Luca reported while everyone was busy looking after G-3 and Tsukumo–
「Ugh… Ah… Th-Third-s-sama…」
Tsukumo also began to regain consciousness. Good. She’s mostly unhurt.
But while that was happening:
「Well… It might seem a bit insensitive in this moment, but…」
Looking outside the window, Kaname–looked along our path of travel. But made no move to help us.
「What? We destroyed the Predator. Come help us.」
「…」
Even as I scowled at her, she didn’t avert her gaze outside.
That provoked a strange idea in my mind–
「…!」
Looking outside, I saw something for the first time in my life.
The moment I saw it, I was completely blown away. Quite literally, as I became speechless.
…What, that’s…!
Just like the SkyTree where I fought Watson and Hilda…
No, it was a taller white pillar.
That pillar was moving.
With a rushing sound of air, it was ripping objects up off of the Earth’s surface into a spiralling corkscrew.
「–It’s a tornado!」
Kaname shouted, and everyone looked up.
That’s… a tornado? That’s ridiculous! It’s a giant tornado. Even at this distance I can tell that it was 100 metres in diameter and 800 metres in height. It’s absurd in size! It might be an optical illusion… at least that’s what I wanted to believe… but all around us, it suddenly became dark. The wind changed direction, and the flames and smoke emanating from the locomotive were disturbed.
Unconsciously gritting my teeth, I squinted my eyes…
Underneath the cumulonimbus supercell cloud, I thought I could make out tractors and cattle caught up in the tornado and sand that it whipped up. There was no way that was an illusion. In response–
「Damn! We’re headin’ straight for that twister! Gotta be an F4, at least. Ya don’t usually see big ‘uns like that in Nevada…!」
The local old man Sanders furrowed his brows at the size of the tornado.
We were now racing toward it at 220 KPH. Directly towards it on the railroad track.There wasn’t a junction between here and there. And we had no brakes.
But then I knew we were on the exact right path.
At the side of the tornado, and on the horizon, I saw it. A man-made structure that hadn’t been there before–an Air Force base.
That was Area 51. I was able to see for myself that we had arrived!
「Don’t worry…! The train weighs 45 tonnes. We’ll break through…!」
Encouraging his fearful followers, G-3 stood unsteadily.
「Aniki, don’t look forward. They’re here…!」
He turned his back on the tornado that roared like a dragon, then glared at the back of the train.
Turning to face backward, through the gaps of my forelocks as they whipped up in the wind–
As I looked there was something large– the mothership for the Predator drones and LOO, the X-48E approached as the third attack wave.
It planned to ram us in a kamikaze attack.
It wasn’t aiming for the tracks, it was on a collision course with the locomotive.
If we were derailed, we might survive and, being in range, reach Area 51 on foot.
「The X-48E is a flying aircraft carrier, but it is also a flying artillery shell. Silicon Carbide–a mixture of diamond and silicon that formed a fine ceramic. With a hardness of 9.3 on the Moh’s scale, it’s essentially a huge sapphire. I… couldn’t even take down the smaller fused wing X-48D with Meteor. Crush us in a ramming attack–that’s the plan.」
「…」
Caught between a tornado and a flying shell.
Crash into the tornado, or be crushed by the flying shuttle. We have about 2-3 minutes.
All of us… can’t help but despair. It was a very desperate situation.
Even me… although things were usually bleak–this was twice as bad. This was awkward. The god of Fate the was trying to kill me must have been a particularly nasty ally of the Scarlet Goddess.
Then,
「G-3. The moment I saw the train, I came up with a particular move. But it only has a 50% chance of working.」
I said in this desperate situation.
「What a coincidence, Aniki. I might just have had the same thought. I give it 50-50 odds.」
That’s Hysteria Mode for you. Even when everyone else gives up, we brothers do not. Being struck by inspiration.
「It’s either going to be the train or the tender.」
「Right.」
We both took out our fists–but not to fight, to play rock-paper-scissors. Rock, Paper, Scissor. G-3 won.
「Damn…」
「Alright, you take the locomotive, Aniki. If I can’t take it out, then my older brother will. If I tell this to those brats in New York, it’ll make a great story!」
G-3 grabbed the edge of the window one-handed to go back up onto the roof, to the worry of his subordinates.
I thought I’d lose rock-paper-scissors. My bad luck in that has been established since my second year…
Then I climbed up into the violent windstorm raging on the train’s roof.
Then I saw the tornado standing directly ahead in our path, looking like a large white wall. It’s just like America to have just as dynamic natural phenomenon as well.
And– the shuttle loomed silently behind the train.
That is also huge. It looked like a whale in the sky. I began shaking.
But no.
It was not fear–my sense of anger had eclipsed that. Part of me wanted to take out that anger on something–
But this was someone who was fighting remotely, and with their body somewhere else could laugh loudly…
It was like the Scarlet Goddess with Aria, and it was really, really annoying!
In that instant– the TransAm shook violently as it plunged into the huge tornado.
Amidst the gale that seemed to pull my body apart–
I clenched my right fist and held out my left hand as if to grab the shuttle that I could see with my head up and body held low. I fixed my feet in place with my Spike, but I was still lifted by the updraft.
Behind me, G-3 was doing the same.
One minute until the shuttle collision.
「What’s its name, Aniki?」
「What!?」
「This sibling technique. I need a name for it when I tell the story back in Central Park.」
「Multi-stage Ouka!」
「The hell!? –What about Supernova? That’s Japanese for supernova.」
「That sounds like something those brats from the supermarket would come up with…!」
「–Really? You have to play the role, Aniki!」
「Fine, fine, I get it. We’ll combine the two to make『Cherry Bomb』. That good enough?」
「Hmmm… Alright, it’s settled! Cherry Bomb, it is!」
Happy to combine his sibling’s idea with his own, G-3 cried out in a happy voice.The hellish interior of the huge tornado was no better than a true hellscape.
Then the train pushed through an outer storm wall into what looked like an eye of a cyclone–
–Then the shuttle followed us, plunging into the tornado.
The differential areas of high and low pressure caused by convection gave rise to an inner wall of high speed airflow, and the shuttle began to fly erratically. However, its course was unaltered.
30 seconds until it crashes into us–!
「Trust me, Aniki!」
With a *Bam*– G-3 standing on both legs.
「What kind of older brother would I be if I can’t trust my younger brother?」
I also rose to my feet.
Alright. I’ve fixed my target.
On top of the TransAm and all around us, sparks danced violently. It was as if– the sparks were cherry blossoms.
「–If you can scatter this blizzard of cherry blossoms– then come and scatter it!」
Shouting that as I scowled at the shuttle–
–*CHOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!*–
The steam whistle signalling that we were within 1 mile of Area 51 rang out loudly.
If we can intercept this, we’ll win…!
From the wall of cloud and dust–*Whoooosh!*– the shuttle emerged.
About the size of a passenger aircraft, the flying artillery shell–
Came closer. It was right in front of me.
–Mash.
Up until the very end, you use weapons to fight, without making an appearance yourself.
According to your simulations’ predictions, we should have been stymied.
But those calculations collapse here.
No matter how much you reckon, it’s still all abstract desktop theory. No, it’s meaningless programmatic theory.
Even now, you are in Area 51, eating potato crisps and drinking cola while piloting the shuttle remotely. It’s like a game to you.
But we are in this hellish desert, in the middle of a tornado, fighting for ourselves.
That’s good.
The final decision of victory between two men is not the number of bullets, how smart they are, or based on the size of their body.
–It’s their resolve.
How earnest they are, and how willing they are to put their life on the line!
I’ll show you this…!
Steeling myself, I pulled G-3’s right hand close.
Cherry Bomb, a combination of our supersonic attacks.
First, G-3 used『Meteor』to reach Mach 1, then I was pushed forward–using『Ouka』to reach Mach 2. I just matched the limit of the amour I wore under my uniform.
Such a technique required the simultaneous coordination of all the muscles in both of our bodies.
Meteor and Ouka in perfect harmony–it required perfect synergy.
But we did it.
–We were siblings, after all!
「Take this–Meteor–!」
「–Ouka–!」
–The very next instant–
The world was different than that of Ouka at Mach 1…
It was as if light distorted and blurred–completely changed at Mach 2.
This… is the world at Mach 2…!
The world became slow motion in my Hysteria Mode enhanced vision, and my fist shot across the dazzling space, soaring like a shooting star and forming a vapour cone compose of a blizzard of cherry blossoms around it.
–The shuttle filled my vision as my fist made contacted with it–
In less than the space of 0.1 seconds, an unnatural shock rocked the world.
Actually, I didn’t even feel something touch my fist. At the moment of impact I used『Clear Fall Water』, transferring all the power into the shuttle.
Including our equipment, our total body weight was–140 kilos, and I concentrated all of that into a single point on the shuttle. At Mach 2, I delivered a direct counter strike at a 90 degree angle.
It had about the same impact as that the best intelligence suggests a second model Type 91 armour-piercing round fired from a 20.3 cm turret on a former Imperial Navy heavy cruiser possessed. Cherry Bomb was an all-in technique that transformed us into human artillery shells.
Assuming that the naval guns had not fired at point-blank range– the flying shell would have been picked up and carried away like the dust thrown up by the tornado, causing an innumerable amount of microscopic damage…
But since I delivered it directly, the full impact was conveyed. Spreading from millimetres, to centimetres, to metres of damage. All in fractions of a second.
As I watched in slow motion, from the front to back–like eggs crashing against a wall, no, it was more like one being dropped.
With a rush–as my sense of time returned to normal–
As G-3 and I stood atop the tender, still in the position for Cherry bomb, the shuttle’s ceramic armour that was as hard at sapphire shattered into tiny pieces.
The fragments were caught up into the air and carried away to the outer wall of the tornado as they glittered like gemstones. Apart from the dazzling flow of sparkles, the exposed interior of the craft was ripped open by the wind–
–Behind the TransAm, it was tossed about by the tornado and crumpled.
Exiting the backside of the tornado, we left the wreckage of the shuttle behind as it crashed–
With a *Bam!* we crashed through the chain link fence surrounding Area 51, tearing through it like paper, and forcing our way inside the large Air Force base. All the while maintaining our speed of 220 KPH.
On the base, it seems that there are further construction plans, and in front of us it looked like there was an area laid out for an airfield–until now, the land looked just like the rest of the desert. Inside and outside of Area 51 there was a huge difference.
But there were no more railway tracks.
It looks like they took them up so that airplane landing gear didn’t snag on the old rail line…!
「…!」
Shooting off the tracks like a missile, the cow catcher on the front plowed through the desert.
*SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*–!
As the sand scattered in waves:
「…Hello Area 51! Hellllllloooooo…!」
G-3 laughed while scowling at the facility in front of us with raised eyebrows–
I was thrown from the train that began to roll, but was unable to alter course.
One of the Stars and Stripes on the front of the train was missing, and it soared high into the air, tumbling end over end.
Thrown forward from the rolling train, G-3 and I made a ski-like stop, kicking up sand as we landed.
While kicking up sand, inertia carried the locomotive forward– G-3 and I worried if we would be crushed as we rolled…
5 seconds, 10 seconds, and the avalanche of sand continued…
…And finally it came to rest.
Belching black and white smoke, it toppled onto one side and came to a stop barely a metre from us.
「…Heh… Fighting with you, Aniki, I’ll come to no good, will I!?」
With his legs buried it the sand up to his back, G-3 complained like a mole. But he was wearing a huge grin as he said it.
「That’s my line.」
I griped, half buried in sand myself and pushing myself forward in a crawl.. But I was scowling.
「After that, I know one thing for sure. The laws of Physics are a woman.」
「…Why do you say that?」
「Aniki, sometimes I hear you say the funniest things.」
Not letting me in on the American humour of the joke…
I looked around us. Then looking forward, I saw a flood of jeeps far away and headed toward us.
I didn’t know which controlled access area we were in, but I wanted to believe that we had reached an area friendly to G-3 as planned. I don’t have any more strength to fight.
「I wonder if everyone is alright?」
「Don’t underestimate my followers.」
Hooking a thumb behind him toward the train…
「Last stop~! Area 51~! Area 51~~!」
Kaname led the way shouting this message like a train conductor.
「We have arrived a bit sooner than anticipated. My apologies for the error.」
Angus politely bowed his head as he jumped down onto the desert sand.
「Well, for Third, that was pretty safe driving, by all accounts.」
「I wholeheartedly agree. Wahoo!」
「Oh my! It is time for prayers!」
「Third-sama~! That was so~ frightening~!」
Luca, Atlas, Collins, and Tsukumo were all covered in soot and cuts…. But they were moving under their own strength, talking freely like Americans, taking it upon themselves to pray on their own, and the girls rushing over to us.
Reki also exited from the back, as calm as if she were alighting from a metro bus…
「My TransAm…! Oh my Gooooood…! Waaaaaaaaugh!」
Crawling out, old man Sanders threw himself onto the sand and started to bawl. His voice was strong.
Actually, to look at him, he seem the least injured of our party. As expected, someone who came back from Vietnam is tough.
Then:
「We owe you a deep debt of gratitude. Of course we shall compensate you for your loss.」
Angus said from beside him
「–Good. I want the next ‘un to be a brand spankin’ new diesel!」
Standing up as if he had never cried, he forced a smile onto his bearded face. What was that?
But firstly–
「It’s settled, Aniki!」
「Huh?」
「We can do it.」
「Oh! Yeah, we can.」
I let him choose the post-fight words. Twice now. Because I’m a kind older brother.
After that, G-3’s followers lined up in front of us, forming a line–
With huge smiles plastered on their face, they saluted.
Even without an arm, G-3 was able to return the salute.
「Good work, all of you. We’ve made it into Area 51.」
At some god’s command–the Stars and Stripes sent flying a little while ago fell–
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, G-3 reached out, caught it, and draped it across his shoulders like a mantle.
Then with a swish of his right arm–
He struck a victorious pose in front of the group of jeeps that had stopped in a line in front of us.
Then from all the soldiers–U.S.A.!!!–U.S.A.!!!–U.S.A.!!!–a loud chanting chorus came. It was like giving three cheers in Japan
…Good. This controlled access location is friendly to G-3. We were rescued at the last possible moment.
But in my case it would be J.P.N. This can’t be my luck; it has to be G-3’s at work.
**************************************
–The day drew to the end in the American desert.
Pulling a blanket around myself, I stared out blankly. Then I sat down next to Reki who was hugging her knees.
We made camp outdoors and were being entertained with a barbecue with so much food that it was impossible to eat nearly all of it…
There were two stereotypically macho American soldiers in fatigues.
Each of them held one of a haggard looking Mash Roosevelt’s arms between them.
The mushroom headed boy… he had definitely taken up a position in Area 51.
For some unknown reason, they dragged him between them. Well, I don’t think that is a partially bad end, myself.
A large, middle-aged uniformed man smoked a cigar– the very image of an Air Force brigadier general saluted G-3.
Returning the salute, G-3…
「…Yo, Mash. Unfortunately we’re not meeting in a body bag.」
Flopped down on all fours with his face lowered, he sat up crossing his legs.
「Mash has been taken into custody. In the same moment you reach Area 51, Mister G-3, the NSA dismissed him– They received a Federal False Claim and Liability report and in accordance with section 110, paragraph 1, an electronic arrest warrant was issued… and so he was detained.」
The brigadier explained.
「The charge is bogus. There hasn’t been any false reporting of financial assets. It will be overturned in court.」
Mash muttered…
But his words lacked conviction.
「Mash-kun. Don’t worry. In Alcatraz there will be a lot of kind, older people who will help give you the chance to rehabilitate. Everyone there owes you so much that they’ll practically dote on you.」
The brigadier told Mash as he puffed out purple tobacco smoke.
Back in Cafe Lalo, I had recklessly given Mash『3 Reasons Drop-outs are Better than Elites』– They have a position, and they can lose it.
Had that exactly just happened to Mash?
Missing a single step… he’s fallen all the way down.
The black woman who voided Angus’ ticket had said it: Mash was an unlikable person. He merely had his perfect record of success, and no saving grace of popularity to fall back upon. It stands to reason that he made himself enemies.
Having risen near the top level of the elite, he had made himself a petty terror and dictator to his rivals.
And because of that, as soon as he got his first black mark against him due to his loss to G-3…
They gathered together to attack and bring Mash down like a wounded animal. It was political.
「…Oh, Mash. I might be a peace-loving Japanese. However, it seems like your experience in combat is somewhat lacking. If you ever get out, try starting in the infantry.」
Kneeling next to G-3, I threw his own words back in his face in a cutting remark…
But it didn’t make me feel any better.
Because, he’s as powerless as a caterpillar torn from a tree hollow, after all.
The battle of Nevada…
Was a pointless fight. That’s really all it was.
No, where one side’s life was not in any danger… it couldn’t even be classed as a battle.
But in the future, wars will definitely be fought by people like Mash. The US military is pushing forward, and it will not halt its advance…
Seated in front of PC monitors, controlling weapons of war like it is some kind of game… is that how it is going to be?
That’s pointless. Well, killing each other with guns and swords is pretty ridiculously empty as well.
「…Why?… Why… did I… lose…!? All of the data indicated a total victory…!」
Seeming not to quite understand, Mash finally cried out–
「Because you’re an idiot. You might give my siblings a run for their money for the Noble Idiot Prize.」
G-3 gave a tight smile while indicating me and himself with his thumb.
Then Angus arrived.
「Now then, Third-sama. What are your orders concerning this naughty child? I shall take upon myself any method of execution you prescribe.」
With a devilish grin… his already tight face stretched even further into a smile.
As Mash paled in front of him, G-3 burst into soft laughter–
「Hold on. I only kill those who are worth killing… That’s my rule.」
Hearing that, I blurted out:
「You’re too easy-going, no matter how you look.」
With a vein pulsating on my head, G-3 looked at Mash who was directly in front of him. Then:
「What’s more… in a very real way, we lost. This round at least. This guy doesn’t even have a scratch on him. And we weren’t the ones to strip him of his political power.」
He said, with a face as empty of expression as mine.
A moment of silence passed–
「G-3… If… you want to laugh at me, go ahead and laugh. If you want to kill me, then kill me.」
Mash managed to squeeze out with a groan.
「I… was not designed to be strong like you, I was born into this world. Everyone around me… even girls, were stronger than me. I knew that the girl agents… were laughing at my weakness behind my back. But I still pushed on. I seized political power. I was recognised… by just one agency, the NSA…!」
With tears dripping onto the desert…
Mash spoke while on all fours.
Mash was obsessed with his career… and his whole mental landscape had just been inverted.
Pathetically, Mash had gambled his own life on the NSA–but with just one mistake, they had washed their hands of him and cut him loose.
It must have been a harsh, unforgiving organisation. American society.
Just like this desert.
「…The only one to recognise me in the entire world was the NSA…!」
Mash cried, choking as he faced down into the sand…
「No, that is not correct. You have been recognised by 1 other man.」
G-3 laid a hand on the trembling Mash’s shoulder.
「…? Who? There’s no one like that!」
「There is! He’s in front of you.」
「…!」
「It’s me. Even if you almost killed me. Even this time– you really pushed us into a corner. So raise your head. Now, don’t cry. Laugh. You and I are the same, pitiful people created by America. Two people they’ve thrown away, coming to face each other and looking like idiots in the desert. What about that? Can you laugh at that?」
Hearing that, Mash, who had been crying pathetically looked up–
Beneath his skewed glasses, he laughed. Even as his nose dripped.
「…Fufu! Don’t laugh. If any one’s stupid looking, it’s you.」
「Hehehe! No, you’re the stupid looking one. I’ll give you that.」
The two loner Genions, Mash and G-3… feeling some kind of empathy, laughing and getting along. Finally reaching this point.
Then after exchanging a mutually awkward laugh…
…Mash stood up
Then smoothing down his collar, straightening his necktie, fixing his glasses, dusting the sand off his knees, running a hand through his mushroom haircut to straighten it, Mash took out a handkerchief…
Then finally wiping away his tears like a man, he raised his head sharply.
「–Even emaciated and withered, I’m American. Every American citizen has the right to do what they believe is just.」
With that preamble, Mash looked across all of us–
「Therefore, to prevent further sabotage by you–I will lead you, G-3, to the ruruirokane. Come. The area is under the NSA’s jurisdiction, but I’m no longer an employee. However, I just so happen to know an exclusive emergency exit, but it is only passable by a Genion.」
–He finally declared proudly.
He had been struck down, defeated, forgiven, and acknowledged by G-3 without words… and he offered this as an apology and thanks.
[END]
*****************************
1. Not sure where this is coming from. Usain Bolt’s top speed was just under half this at 45 KPH.
2. Z’Gok are mass produced mecha suits in the Gundam series universe. Obviously not as powerful as the custom suits. The Gold and Red colour scheme was used by commanders and had increased ability and firepower.
3. Kanji say ‘penetrating stake’
4. Seems to be a technique name that was lost from earlier volumes when he shot up the barrel of the UZIs or other guns.
