Hey!
Qwenser!
What are you doing?
Here.
Granny gave us cookies to take back with us.
Are you really sure we don't need to push them to evacuate?
There's nothing we can do.
And they even said that they've got no intention of leaving this place.
In that case, we should at least get away from here.
If the battlefield shifts to some other place,
it'll decrease the likelihood of the farm suffering any damage.
Yeah.
Come to think of it, just how powerful is the Bright Hopper?
It's a 2nd gen unit made for ground combat
and rumor has it that even with three Baby Magnums, you couldn't beat it.
In addition to maintaining constant high speeds of 7-800 kph in combat,
all its main weapons are lasers.
So, it's a specialized Object.
Literally, it's a monster that brings high speed to the battle zone.
It approaches at super high speeds,
fires countless lasers, big and small, at its opponent's legs,
and when the opponent stops moving,
it fires its main guns, the high-output lasers,
blowing away its opponent in one shot.
Fleeing backwards is only a choice for those with no honor.
Nobles of the Legitimate Kingdom, who put great store in our pride,
approach our enemies at top speeds and penetrate their armor.
Three-Legged Mountain-Climbing Is Life-and-Death
The Artillery Battle in the Iguazu Mountains II"
We have new intel.
We've confirmed that chaff missiles, used in weather warfare,
were fired from Paraná's mountainous region, 50 klicks north of here.
They fired chaff missiles?
The type that seeds existing clouds with fine particles,
temporarily turning them into shielding against laser sensors.
The satellite surveillance network is currently useless.
But that means the Mass Driver Conglomerate's main force
is somewhere in that vicinity, right?
Why would they bother at the risk of us backtracking their location?
They probably wanted to shield their giant
from the satellite surveillance network as quickly as possible
and pull a vanishing act.
If so,
the thing that was supplying power to those rail guns until just earlier...
Using chaff missiles to make the satellites unusable...
Other than for the purpose of fleeing,
maybe there's some other practical reason for it, too...
It can't be!
Chaff missiles?
Going into hiding, are they?
Just the sort of thing I would expect from cowards.
No matter what sort of Object the enemy has, it will be irrelevant.
With one glorious burst of light, I will consign them to--
Wh-What the?!
Charlemagne, alerting all units!
The Bright Hopper, 550 klicks north of us and en route to our location,
just took heavy damage! I repeat.
The Bright Hopper expected to rendezvous with us, heavily damaged!
Hold on a second!
That's a mountainous region!
Does that mean they blew away the mountains in between?!
It was a high-angle trajectory.
They fire the rail gun at an upwards angle and then let the round fall.
Whether the pilot, Major Halreed Copacabana,
successfully ejected or not is unconfirmed.
The emergency distress beacon hasn't been picked up, either!
Come on..... You're kidding, right?
Does that mean he took heavy damage in one shot?
The Bright Hopper's power reactor appears to be completely destroyed.
The estimated speed of the artillery shell is...
Mach 25?!
G-Get real!
If you sent it flying at Mach 25,
it'd just head off into the atmosphere without ever coming back down!
They must be bending the trajectory
by doing something to the giant artillery shell itself.
The scale is off the charts...
They didn't fire the chaff missiles to get away.
It was to keep from telegraphing the timing of their bombardment.
If they get us squarely in their sights, it's over.
An artillery shell flying at us at Mach 25?
There's no way we can dodge it.
How did they zero in so accurately at that distance to begin with?
Considering that they went to the trouble of using chaff missiles,
it's not as if they're relying on military satellites.
In which case...
Hold on.
They're using the clouds.
The clouds?
With chaff missiles, they create clouds that reflect signals
and emit a signal to lock onto their target.
By reflecting it off the clouds to aim at their target on the ground,
they can accurately lock onto their opponent
while remaining hidden themselves.
Even now?
Qwenser heading to Baby Magnum!
Run!
...no longer be fired!
Damn it...
I repeat! Baby Magnum, moderately damaged!
Main Guns 1 through 3 can no longer be fired!
I can still... keep going.
Of the seven, if I can even use just one main gun...
Propulsion system has developed a problem!
High-speed combat maneuverability may also be compromised!
Accidental detonation?
Was the artillery shell unable to withstand the Mach 25 speed?
What's going on?
They're coming this way.
To make sure they finish us off?
No. Even if that were true, this activity...
Maintenance crew,
check the Baby Magnum's suspension system right away!
No!
What they're after...
...is the base zone!
Qwenser...
Wake up.
Qwenser...
Are you okay?
What in the world... happened?
What about Heivia?
I don't know.
You don't... know?
Wh-What about everyone at base?
Most of them fled into the sturdy base
and that seemed to have proven fortunate.
At worst, some broken bones and the like.
They didn't score... a direct hit...
Perhaps due to some flawed maintenance,
it seems the artillery shell couldn't withstand the air resistance.
It detonated in the air, just before impact.
This much destructive power and it didn't even hit us...
It just might be that their main gun is a prototype.
But it took out the Bright Hopper 500 klicks away with one shot...
The enemy's shells fly on a high-angle trajectory.
The shorter the distance is between them and the target,
the tighter the parabolic arc,
and that would put a strain on the shells as well.
Then, why get closer?
The Mass Driver Conglomerate can't get resupplied.
So if they prefer to take the risk of a short war
over a safe, drawn-out war,
instead of retreating backwards,
they could end this more quickly by pushing forward
to target the Princess on a more straight-line trajectory.
If they fire the Mach 25 shells at us at close range,
without using a high-angle trajectory...
At any rate, I'm calling off this operation.
I hate to admit it,
but we've completely lost the ability to engage the enemy.
We'll pull out for now.
I'm going to search for our men until the last minute.
You can't do that.
I doubt the assault landing carrier that we'll be retreating to
will be able to escape outside the range of that Object's main gun.
I'll send our wounded men out to sea on the hydrofoils.
They won't rendezvous with the Charlemagne.
Then, what are you going to do about the Charlemagne?
Unfortunately, they're not under my command.
I imagine they'll determine that themselves aboard their flagship.
And besides,
the hydrofoils can't flee beyond the range of the main gun, either.
It's a tough choice either way.
Of those, this is best.
Can you stand?
Yes...
Ow...
It's not broken.
It looks like it's a sprain.
Come on. We're going.
What?
M-Miss Frolaytia...
I told you, didn't I?
That I'd search for our men until the last minute?
You're one of them.
This is the 52nd Mechanized Maintenance Battalion,
Corporal Bilany Saronna with the Forward Reconnaissance Platoon.
All right, considering the current placement of clouds,
you'll be safe there.
Stay hidden there until they fire more chaffs.
Is Qwenser all right?
I've been trying to raise him, but I can't get through.
He's probably all right, though, I think.
To the Legitimate Kingdom, 37th Mechanized Maintenance Battalion,
Baby Magnum.
This is the 52nd Mechanized Maintenance Battalion,
Corporal Bilany Saronna with the Forward Reconnaissance Platoon.
One of the low-ranking officers in Halreed's battalion, huh?
I propose that the most effective way for us to survive
is for us to work with the Baby Magnum
to destroy the Mass Driver Conglomerate's Object.
What about authorization from Major Frolaytia Capistrano?
We are currently ascertaining her whereabouts.
As this is a time of crisis, I ask that you allow us to come up with the mission plan.
Tactically, I recommend the manual that our Bright Hopper led with.
You mean, the method of aiming at the enemy's legs
and hammering them with the main guns once they stop moving?
Yes.
Having said that, unlike the Bright Hopper,
the Baby Magnum is currently incapable of high speed maneuvers.
So we will have one shot at this.
How do we bring the enemy Object to a standstill?
There is a giant dam in the Iguazu region.
If we destroy the dam and temporarily flood the area downstream,
it should bring an Object specialized for ground combat to a standstill.
Are you serious?
Of course.
Get real!
There's no way that plan is acceptable!
If we destroy the dam, it won't just flood the battlefield!
Tens of thousands of ordinary civilians downstream will die!
It is within tolerable limits.
They are not subjects of the Legitimate Kingdom.
Either way, if the Baby Magnum can't move,
there'll be no point to destroying the dam!
What you bastards are setting out to do won't accomplish anything!
No matter what happens, we will carry out this mission.
We will inform you later of when we intend to strike.
That is all.
Damn it!
The most effective way to survive, my ass!
I got through! Havia!
Qwenser...
Where the hell have you been passed out?!
We just had an outrageous plan unilaterally dumped on us
by the people in the Bright Hopper battalion.
As for that dispatch, we got it as well.
Do not go along with this mission in any way.
As long as we don't mobilize the Baby Magnum,
there will be no point in destroying the dam. They should realize that on their own.
If they do, that'll be great.
What?
It looks like they only want to mess with things
as payback for the heavy damage the Bright Hopper took.
I get the sense that all rationality and the like have gone out the window for them.
I'm thinking they'll blow up the dam, no matter what the situation is.
Unless someone goes to stop them by force.
Havia, I want to discuss something with you.
I was just getting into the mood
for a somewhat serious talk myself, Qwenser.
I'll do something about the dam.
I'll take care of the Object on my end.
--I'll leave things over there to you! --I'll leave things over there to you!
No.
I can't work with that.
Your plan is too reckless.
Then please report that you were unable to find me.
I'm a student abroad on deployment.
No matter what I do here,
it shouldn't impact your life as a member of the military.
Qwenthur, you...
Please let me go.
Ordinarily, this kind of thing wouldn't be my job.
But even so, I couldn't bear to retreat and just let this go.
No.
I'm the superior officer here.
The authority to issue orders lies with me.
I haven't found Qwenser.
Therefore, I'll also continue in my search.
Miss Frolaytia?
What can you do with that leg?
You'll only die if you go face them half-cocked.
Now that we've made up our minds to do this,
we're going to give it our all and consider every possible alternative.
And as part of that, I'm saying that I don't mind
playing the part of the walking stick for my less-than-stellar subordinate.
By the way, do you have a specific plan worked out?
I'm going to get the Princess's help.
But for this to work, first,
we'll need to know which route the enemy Object will take to get here.
Due to the effect of the chaff missiles,
we won't be able to use the satellite surveillance network,
so we'll report back the location and have her bombard it with precision.
Let's get set up to do this.
If the enemy predictably threads the mountains and comes down a gorge,
at most, there are about three routes.
There'll be no need to patrol all of them.
We can tell the general direction by sound.
And they won't be able to cover up the Object's drive noise.
I hope it runs...
I'll go look, so you wait.
It flew all the way here in the explosion?
I'm so sorry for all the trouble I'm putting you through.
No kidding!
Maybe later, I'll have you give me a shoulder rub until it kills you.
This is the Charlemagne.
To Major Capistrano, who is currently out on a search.
With regards to the Mass Driver Conglomerate's main gun...
Several things have come to light as a result of analysis, so we will relay that to you now.
Please reference the diagrams.
The enemy's main gun, accurately speaking,
appears to be a combination of rail gun and rocket technology.
First, they fire the giant shell with a rail gun
and immediately after it's fired, that shell splits into three.
Furthermore, just before impact,
it appears to have a feature
where it ejects ten or so submunitions in a ring formation.
If even one of the submunitions hit her,
even the Princess will be killed instantaneously for sure.
The shell is fired at a high-angle,
but its trajectory turned out to be somewhat peculiar.
After climbing to roughly 2500 meters almost directly above the target,
the arc of the trajectory suddenly goes into a nosedive.
They're forcing the trajectory using a tail assembly or something?
After the shell splits up to concentrate the kinetic energy,
it then goes on to ignite the rocket engine at the rear
to ultimately achieve its phenomenal speed of Mach 25.
It likely changes its trajectory with adjustable grooves or something.
That is all.
Mass drivers, rockets, missile submunition technology...
So, it's a monster weapon truly worthy
of a conglomerate that specializes in space development.
Along with the targeting method of using chaff missile clouds
to reflect the lock-on signal,
there's nothing straightforward about this setup.
Whoever came up with it, the twisted way this guy's mind works
is way past anything normal.
As a budding designer, is this where you get jealous?
It's where I genuinely fear for my life.
Now that the Object has been officially confirmed,
we'll need to decide on a provisional codename, too.
How about we go with something like "Break Carrier"?
"One that carries destruction," is it?
What are you doing?
I'm adding bookmarks.
The mountains in this area seem to have quite a large number of tunnels,
forming a labyrinthine network for mining and transportation purposes,
so I thought it could prove useful in a critical moment
if I made it so I could call up maps and layouts with one tap.
Don't go too crazy.
If the Break Carrier's people pick up your signal,
this will all be for naught.
It's to be expected, but I feel so nervous.
Qwenser, I don't care what it is.
Tell me a story to take my mind off things.
Don't talk like you're some corporate manager
pressuring people to perform a hidden talent.
You're a student. Don't talk like you know anything about that.
You're a boring man.
That reminds me...
I heard that you're a member of the nobility?
The Capistrano family has an extremely attractive trait,
which is something that's pretty well-known, you know.
But maybe it was of more interest to the aristocracy.
Trait?
My family is a family of all males.
No matter whom we marry or how we produce children,
the children that are born end up male almost 100% of the time.
It's a pretty important thing among the aristocracy, you know.
Owing to things like the right to inherit.
Not a very relatable topic for a commoner like you, Qwenthur?
Even things to do with pedigrees and lineages
are kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around.
It's kind of like, who cares? Just marry if you love each other.
Though, well, I'm a brat, as you can see,
so even the word "marriage" doesn't feel very real to me.
That makes sense.
What an utterly enviable position to be in.
Anyway, my family has this trait.
Still, you say your family has boys almost 100% of the time guaranteed,
but Miss Frolaytia, you're a full-on woman, right?
That's the beauty of it right there.
I'm a noblewoman who will bear boys almost 100% of the time guaranteed.
For men who want male heirs but are having difficulties,
I'm the human resource they'd die to get their hands on, right?
They desperately want the use of my uterus.
Are we talking about a marriage of convenience or that sort of thing?
Even if I were married according to the family register,
I'd say, in practical terms,
I'd be a tool for them to completely overcome the issue of succession.
It seems the important part
is that it's the uterus of a girl of the same social class.
It's one of those issues to do with aristocratic pride.
If it weren't for that, a marriage of convenience wouldn't be the end of it.
It might've been one man who wanted a male heir after another for me.
I have a whole pile of requests, after all.
Well, that's how things were, but somewhere along the way,
it became "the Capistrano girl can produce a boy, absolutely guaranteed,
no matter how impotent the man"
or "she's supposedly so good,
that a certain prominent nobleman is dying to get his hands on her"...
Nowadays,
it's anyone from elderly gentlemen who've been impotent for ages
to pervy old letches from who-knows-where
bidding like crazy for the privilege of bedding me.
That's also the reason why
I prefer to be on the battlefield over being in a safe nation.
Even if I retire from military service,
all that's waiting for me is the top candidate and a big bed.
And he'd probably be some middle-aged man I'd never even met.
Oh, speaking of which...
Remember the pilot of the Bright Hopper named Halreed Copacabana?
Yes...
He's about number three on the candidate list.
He's considered one of the kinder ones among the candidates.
When his Object took heavy damage,
to be honest, I was relieved.
Even though one or two dropping out
won't make a dent in the long line of candidates.
Basically, I just have to keep fighting on the battlefield
until I become an old hag and I cease to be useful.
It just might be
that living on the battlefield and dying on the battlefield
is the most free way that I can live my life.
All that aside, you sure do smell nice, Miss Frolaytia.
Coming up with those words after hearing that story...
I seriously think you might actually be a tremendous genius.
Where's it coming from?
I don't know.
It's reverberating like echoes among the mountains.
Which of the three routes is it?
If we misread this, it's over.
We get one chance at this.
This is...
This direction is...
I do this all the time, putting myself at last.
itsudatte sou da jibun no koto atoma washi de
Thinking that as long as everyone else is happy everything's okay.
minna ga waratte yorokobu nara sore de jinda te
This isn’t anyone’s fault—things are just happening as they should
dareno sei demo nakute korega atari mai date
That's what i would i always tell myself
sou ikika sete i tanda
I'm not wrong to think this way, I'm not. That's what i always thought.
machi ga tenai machi ga tenai to omotteta noni
But then why have I ended up so bruised and battered?
doushite konna kizudarake nandarou
You were the only one who noticed, not letting a single detail slip by
kimi dake wa nogasazu ni kidzuitetanda ne
This tiny voice I’d been keeping subdued all this time
oshikoroshitekita kono chiisa na koe o
When was it that I starting feeling I wanted to be by your side?
itsu kara darou soba ni itai to omottanda
It feels like my tangled heart is being gently unraveled
motsureta kokoro yasashiku hodoku you ni
When I brushed the warmth of that hand you extended to me
sashidasareta sono te no nukumori ni
It all became clear:
fureta toki ni kidzuitanda
I’m not alone anymore.
mou hitori janainda te
"Three-Legged Mountain-Climbing Is Life-and-Death".
"Three-Legged Mountain-Climbing Is Life-and-Death The Artillery Battle in the Iguazu Mountains III"
"The Artillery Battle in the Iguazu Mountains III".