“Mogami-san. The idea that more people will die because we’re not there is arrogant of us.”
“……”
“Besides, I don’t know about the Second Division’s division commander, but at least Colonel Shibano, who leads the intercepting force, is not a man without strategy. He’s someone who can devise countermeasures that work without us being there.”
I don’t actually know Colonel Shibano that well, but according to Isotani-san and Taguchi-san, it’s certain that reinforcements will be sent from the Sixth and Eighth Divisions to the Second Division.
If it’s about the same scale as last time, well, they should manage somehow, right?
The only problem would be the large-types, but even those.
From the previous experiment, we learned that large-types or whatever, they die if you blow their heads off, so they shouldn’t waste ammunition. Looking at it that way, they’re nothing but good targets.
We do need to prepare for attacks, but for veteran warriors, subjugating them shouldn’t be that difficult. We do have the corpse of the large-type we defeated last time.
I don’t know what kind of processing they’re doing over there, but just by running a little magical power through the outer shell, it becomes a proper shield. If properly utilized, damage from counterattacks should be considerably reduced.
If even a student like me can think of this, there’s no way professional soldiers like Colonel Shibano and Major Sato wouldn’t notice it. In other words, it’ll be fine. Maybe even the casualties I judged necessary won’t occur.
In that case… well, it wouldn’t be bad for me.
Because it would mean I don’t have to go to the battlefield every single time.
I’d miss the bonus, but I don’t want to go to places where I might get shot from behind.
“…That’s right.”
Hmm. A mix of relief about the guilt lessening and dissatisfaction at being told that the machine he built isn’t absolute?
But you know, I think it’s not good to ask for too much.
“In the worst case—though that’s a strange way to put it—if casualties are light, we should be satisfied with getting revenge by having the powered suits officially adopted. Just for this time, though.”
Don’t be greedy.
Keep it to a reasonable level.
But I’m not saying I’ll forget being targeted. This part is important.
“This time, huh.”
“Yes. This time.”
I’ll make them understand eventually.
Oh, that’s right.
“By the way.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Mogami-san, is it the Operations Policy Division? Do you know who the mastermind, or rather, the person who led the plan this time?”
“Ah. That.”
“That’s it.”
If I don’t know who that opponent is, I can’t make them understand anything.
“Speaking of the leader, it would be Colonel Kasahara, the chief of the Second Section.”
Hmm? Kasahara? I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere.
“However, even though he’s a chief, he’s a member of a faction. Naturally, he’s not leading this alone. In that sense, you could say the zaibatsu people and the Third Division faction are the masterminds and leaders of this incident.”
“Ehhh.”
The Third Division again!
Those guys really hate me!
Come to think of it, I heard through Isotani-san before that apparently they’re claiming my achievements were originally meant to be theirs.
According to their logic, they seem to think I stole their accomplishments.
Yeah. Honestly, I don’t understand it at all.
Incidentally, the Third Division people apparently got quite a few mass-production types through their connections in the Operations Division, but so far no one has been able to operate them properly.
Rather, the people from the Sixth and Eighth Divisions, who only got two machines each, are becoming more capable of using them. That’s not, of course, due to differences in ability stemming from their nature… but because when the Third Division was on expedition to Imphal and was completely wiped out by monster attacks, they lost a large number of experienced pilots, making it difficult to arrange test pilots.
This is apparently affecting my two classmates as well—Muto-san seems to be fine though.
In any case, according to Mogami-san, even the mass-production type’s firepower can blow through large-types with several hits, so I’d like them to do their best.
For now, what’s significant for me is learning that they weren’t short-sightedly trying to kill me, but rather didn’t want me to go to the battlefield.
Of course, even if it’s not short-sighted, there’s still the possibility they’re trying to kill me in the medium to long term, so I won’t let my guard down.
Anyway, now that I know who my immediate enemies are, there’s only one thing for me to do.
“Let’s hurry up and prepare to go to Far East Russia.”
Go to Far East Russia before deployment requests come from the Second Division or other divisions. That’s the only option.
This is the thing that seems most likely to be revenge against the Third Division among what I can do now, so there’s no reason not to hurry.
“Oh, and there is a prototype of the powered suit I’ll be using, right?”
I saw the proposal document, but that’s all. If there’s no actual product, there’s no experiment or anything, so I might get complaints later. However, since Mogami-san was the one who originally made this proposal, I don’t think he would have overlooked something this basic. In other words, I should assume the prototype is completed.
“Ah. Of course that’s the plan. The powered suit needs some adjustments, but it should be ready for actual combat use within a few days.”
“Should be?”
A scary word came up, but is it really okay?
This person hasn’t been bought off by the Third Division or anything, has he?
“That’s what the mission is for—to test it.”
“…Very reasonable.”
Yeah. That’s right. I even called it a test machine myself.
It seems my nerves are on edge. Sorry for being suspicious.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
3
“What… did you say?”
The news reached Colonel Shibano Yuhei, who was devising tactics utilizing the defensive line being constructed in North Kyushu and preparing for the expected monster invasion, while he was arranging joint training with the operational unit commanders from the Sixth and Eighth Divisions who had been dispatched as reinforcements to prepare for the coming monster attack.
“…Special Duties Second Lieutenant Kawakami—no, he’s Special Duties First Lieutenant now. That Special Duties First Lieutenant won’t participate in this interception battle? Is that true?”
“…It appears so.”
Seeing that Major Sato Yasuaki, who brought the news, wasn’t even trying to hide his bewildered expression, Shibano thought (there’s no point in yelling at the Major) and somehow managed to restrain himself from shouting.
“What’s the reason?”
However, his voice was filled with anger.
Sato, who had Shibano’s anger directed at him, couldn’t be said to be completely blameless, but since Sato understood Shibano’s feelings, he didn’t particularly complain. Rather, Sato was also desperately trying to contain his anger.
It was natural for them to be angry.
Keita had lightly thought something like [large-types can apparently be taken down in two or three hits, so it should be fine], but in reality, it’s not that simple.
Certainly, they would be able to hit the large-types with a preemptive strike.
But unless they defeat them in one blow, there will be a counterattack.
And a counterattack from a large-type has enough power to moderately to severely damage several Kusanagi-types that have gone on the defensive.
In previous offensives, because there were only a few large-types, they had managed to finish them off with concentrated bombardment from gunners and Yatsufusa-types.
However, the damage to the Kusanagi-types that moved to protect them was by no means light.
After taking that damage, they had to deal with the remaining medium and small types.
Even with damage from bombardment, you can imagine how dangerous that is.
If that’s the case even in normal offensives, then in a major offensive with at least 10 large-types and over 100 medium-types, the risks involved are unimaginable—just thinking about it makes his stomach hurt.
But if Keita were there, most of that danger could be cleared. Of course, Shibano and the others don’t intend to rely on Keita alone forever. That’s what the reinforcements from the Sixth and Eighth Divisions are for. They think it will become much easier once mass-production types and prototypes begin to be deployed.
However, for this time specifically, there simply wasn’t enough time. Training time was short, and only four mass-production types could operate properly. Even those could only jump sideways once after bombardment—they couldn’t perform the kind of omnidirectional evasive maneuvers that Keita could, so the current mass-production types could basically only attack once, twice at best.
The integrated headquarters apparently hopes they’ll defeat large or medium-types with that and grow and optimize, but they can only have such hopes because they have a plan for victory.
That plan has disappeared. And before the battle even began.
It was natural for Shibano, the field commander, to ask for the reason.
“…Special duties, apparently.”
“Special duties? Do you know the content?”
“That is…”
“No, you’re right. Sorry.”
TLNOTE:
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