Mob №124: [Hey you! The exercise is over! What are you doing acting on your own!]
[With this, the exercise is concluded. Everyone please return to your respective units. Mercenaries, please return to the aircraft carrier.]
With Lieutenant Colonel Floss’s communication, the troublesome exercise finally ended, but it probably won’t just be dismissed like this.
The pretext will be either a consolation party or a review meeting. At the very least, there will be a drinking session, and I’ll definitely be detained until tomorrow morning.
If that happens, I’ll just show my face at the beginning and immediately return to the ship to sleep.
I don’t want to be accosted by the people I shot down, and dealing with Dashid-Denoga is also troublesome.
While thinking about such things, just as I was about to return to the mercenary aircraft carrier, a warning alert sounded.
I instinctively turned the helm, and a beam ran through the space where I had just been.
Moreover, it wasn’t a training beam weapon Fake Zapper, but a real beam weapon, a Blaster Cannon.
There was a military combat boat in the direction the beam came from, and it immediately fired the next shot.
It was clearly targeting me.
A training barrier can’t block a real beam, and even if I attacked with a training beam weapon, I probably wouldn’t even damage the opponent.
On top of that, I’ve used up quite a bit of fuel in the exercise, so I can’t run around for that long, and escaping to the aircraft carrier would involve other people, which would be a bad move.
[Hey you! The exercise is over! What are you doing acting on your own!]
While I was running away like that, the General shouted at the person attacking me over the open channel.
Then the person attacking me said,
[If I, an elite, remain defeated, it will stain the honor of the First Fleet! Please let me clear that disgrace!]
Without listening to the General’s words and spouting their own interpretation, they continued to chase me.
[Corporal Edward-Nadils! Stop combat immediately!]
A person who seems to be his direct superior also called for him to stop, but someone who doesn’t stop at the General’s words won’t stop at their direct superior’s words either.
Moreover, unlike me, they probably have a full tank of fuel, so prolonged combat is possible for them.
Combat boats from the First Fleet have sortied, but since there’s distance, it might take a little time.
Fortunately, I still have some proton torpedo-style contact flash missiles left, so I might be able to buy time using these.
The opponent, Corporal Edward-Nadils-dono, is desperately trying to shoot me down right now.
But since he’s seen the [Shoot-Down Feint], it won’t work straightforwardly.
But that’s exactly why he might fall for it, so it’s worth trying.
As usual, I fly at full throttle while luring the opponent directly behind me.
Up to this point, it’s the usual [Shoot-Down Feint] procedure.
From here, the procedure changes a bit.
When the opponent comes directly behind, before raising the nose, I rotate the hull 180 degrees.
In other words, from the opponent’s perspective, it looks like I’m upside down.
And the moment the rotation finishes, I activate the usual [Shoot-Down Feint] by simultaneously performing a full-power burst of the attitude control thrusters on the lower part of the aircraft and stopping the main booster, timing it perfectly.
Then, while rotating, the aircraft goes under the opponent’s aircraft in a diving form, and I fired the proton torpedo-style contact flash missile at its lower fuselage at normal speed.
Even if it doesn’t explode, since an object is colliding with it, I thought there would be considerable damage.
However, since Corporal Edward-Nadils-dono had seen the [Shoot-Down Feint], he immediately reacted and did the same thing to evade my attack.
Being able to do the same thing after seeing it once is impressive indeed.
However, the direction of that [Shoot-Down Feint] was different from what I did this time—it was the original direction.
In other words, what happened was that the proton torpedo-style contact flash missile I fired was sucked into the main nozzle of the enemy aircraft that was rotating during the [Shoot-Down Feint].
Even though it doesn’t explode, it contains propellant, and it also contains flash explosives.
Above all, since an object of considerable mass collided at quite a momentum, there’s no way there wouldn’t be damage, and since the main nozzle is the engine for obtaining propulsion, it’s connected to the engine.
The opponent’s ship vibrated violently, was pushed by the momentum of the missile hitting it, and after a while, perhaps the fuel ignited inside, it exploded.
I confirmed right after the missile hit that the pilot ejected, and they were recovered by the First Fleet combat boats that had sortied, so they should be fine.
Having somehow repelled the rampaging Corporal Edward-Nadils-dono and returned to the mercenary aircraft carrier, everyone except Dashid-Denoga’s gang was happy about my return.
And then I wanted to rest in my ship until morning, but apparently they’re holding a consolation party at the military colony permanently stationed in the Halitok Sector, and this aircraft carrier is heading there.
I appealed to Ailud-officer, the liaison officer, about being absent due to poor health, but since the colony has good medical facilities, I was recommended to disembark and get examined.
Incidentally, Ailud-officer and Todel-officer apologized to me, saying they were sorry that their subordinate and junior had done something outrageous.
They said they wanted me to attend as part of that apology.
Thus, I ended up attending a consolation party/review meeting that was nothing but painful for someone like me.
The consolation party is held in a large hall inside a hotel-like building within the military colony.
Actually, this hotel-like building is apparently for royalty, high-ranking nobles, and military brass to stay in.
“Then! For this exercise, there was a bit of trouble, but a toast to its safe conclusion and to the mercenaries who cooperated!”
The General, who went up on the stage, drained the beer in his hand in one gulp as soon as the toast greeting ended.
Since the meal was buffet-style, I took a little roast beef and crackers on a plate, got some sparkling wine, and evacuated to the edge of the hall.
Once I finish eating this, I plan to make an excuse about going to the bathroom, return to the aircraft carrier, and go back to my ship.
Fortunately, Dashid-Denoga is insisting that we won thanks to his command even though he did nothing, Rossweisse-san, Tiursad-san, Seira-jou, and Shiora-jou are surrounded by men, Arthur-kun, Lambert-kun, Levin-kun, and Yuri-kun are surrounded by women, and the military people are also making noise among themselves, so it’s quite lively, so even if one person like me disappears, there shouldn’t be any problem, and I won’t be noticed.
Just when I had safely finished eating and was about to leave,
“Hey. Are you enjoying yourself?”
I was caught by the General.
“Yes. I’ve enjoyed myself enough, so I thought I’d take my leave soon.”
“I see, I see. I don’t mind you leaving, but I have something to talk about first.”
Apparently, he’s seen through that I’m trying to escape early.
Then,
“I’m sorry that my subordinate ran amok this time. It’s my lack of supervision. Not only was the exercise over, but—or rather, even if it wasn’t over, it’s not allowed for someone who wasn’t selected to participate. He attacked someone with exercise equipment using real combat weapons. A court-martial is certain. I’ll probably receive some punishment as well. Right now, he’s confined in the flagship’s brig. I’m truly sorry.”
He bowed deeply.
They probably did this exercise to flush out guys like that, but they probably didn’t expect it to go that far.
“Then from now on, don’t recruit me into the military or forcefully push requests on me, okay?”
So it should be fine to demand at least this much.
If I ask for too much, he’ll get angry, so this much should be enough.
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“Understood. I’ll strictly order my people not to recruit you.”
I feel a loophole in “my people,” but if it decreases even a little, I’m grateful.
However, at the General’s next words, my eyes widened.
“That’s right. About your father’s rear-end collision case. It might be resolved when you get back, you know?”
☆ ☆ ☆
【Side: Shiora-Dilopaz】
In the large hall of a hotel-like building inside the military’s dedicated colony, a consolation party for this exercise was being held.
At that venue, I was fed up with being constantly approached by quite relaxed, drunk male soldiers.
Then, I found a certain person.
It was the person who saved me when I was about to be shot down.
Since it was training, there was no danger to my life, but thinking about what would have happened if it were real combat, I couldn’t stop trembling.
I made up my mind and decided to call out to that person.
“Um, excuse me… You’re Tiursad-san, the [Leopardess], right?”
“Yes, but…?”
“My name is Shiora-Dilopaz! Thank you very much for saving me this time! Please let me repay you somehow.”
When I expressed my gratitude, Tiursad-san made a slightly surprised face and said,
“These things are give and take, so don’t worry about it.”
She said this with a smile.
“But…”
However, as far as I’m concerned, if I don’t repay her for saving me, I just can’t settle it.
Then Tiursad-san smiled gently and said,
“If that’s the case, then let’s see. If you’re grateful, next time you help someone. Well, it’s what I was told when I said the same thing as you after I was saved.”
That’s what she replied.
“Besides, the person who saved someone tends to forget about it, so it’s pointless to worry about it.”
Tiursad-san said this while tilting her glass of sparkling wine.
“But, if someone uses saving you as leverage, you can thoroughly beat them down, OK!”
“Yes!”
I also have experience with those kinds of scoundrels, so I have no intention of showing mercy.
After that, I had a casual conversation with Tiursad-san and decided to wait for the end of the consolation party.
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