We're about to go engage the 24th Mechanized Maintenance Battalion.
The mission objective is to defend the immigrant settlement city!
Demolish anyone who gets in the way!
Consider it done!
Goodness!
What an exciting turn of events!
I'm so deeply moved by your passion that I can't stop crying!
I'm sure that attitude is part of the service, but it's a bit annoying.
Then, first, let us stall them.
We will force the attention of the Objects to turn to us.
So, we move the combat zone away from the immigrant settlement city.
Hey, hey! Whoa, hey!
What's this about drawing their attention?!
If the Objects find us, we get turned to ash in on shot!
Shut up, you mooching bastard!
We can make it work if we use Birds and Animals!
What are those?
Our pride and joy, the Battlefield Cleaning Service's drones.
Birds are aerial units and Animals are six-wheelers.
Small, remote-controlled units that don't trip up antipersonnel sensors,
which can also be equipped with rocket launchers.
How many?
One Bird, ten Animals.
Let's start right away.
Anything I can help with?
It would be a great help if you could scatter the dummy antennas,
so that we can't be located based on the origination point of our signal.
Havia, let's get on it.
Yeah, yeah.
I swear, I wish I had diamonds, too.
Don't wanna die before we see our fire inside so...
We can fight!
In the distance, where your mud-covered expression is facing,
doromamire no sono hyoujou ga misueteru saki e
We can fight!
Our sweat that drips down, even knowing that everything will come to a futile end, Will still never forget how to fight!
nagareo chiru asa ga subete muda ni owaru to shitemo
tataku koto dake wa wasure wa shinai darou
You're so strong - able to smile in any situation, And no one has ever seen you cry...
itsudemo waraeru tsuyoi kimi no nakigao wa daremo shiranai kara
But that just leaves the bruises in your heart unhealed.
kokoro no aza wa kienai kedo
You always never gave up, you never gave up, So nothing's too late!
Just like that - Never wake up, you Never wake up
sou yatte Never wake up, you Never wake up
So let's just go on dreaming! We lamented this world, feeling unable to smile.
yume miteikou ze itsuka nageiteta waraenai sekai wa
But now we'll laugh to the ends of the Earth! That's right! Get Up, Get Up, Get Up!
dokomademo waratte sousa, Get up, Get up, Get up!
We just gotta blaze on through!
kake nukere bai
You Can't Put a Price on Honor
The Critical Running Battle on Victoria Island III
Let's go Havia.
I'll go east.
You go southwest.
Son-of-a-bitch!
I wish they'd knock it off with these all-out sprints through snow.
Hurry!
We take too long and the enemy will blow up the city!
Charm, give me a sitrep!
The 24th Battalion is still continuing to advance and their main guns
are expected to come in range of the immigrant settlement city momentarily.
Governance under a unified language will give rise to even greater power.
And that will hold true for both people and machines.
Let us swiftly dispose of factors that cause the various inferior languages to spread.
It's no use.
We won't make it in time at this rate.
Wydine, send the Bird flying!
That would be reckless!
They'll start by attacking the dummy antennas first.
Sir, you need to get far enough away or you'll get caught in the crossfire.
If the bombardment begins while we're taking too long, this'll have been for nothing!
Hurry!
Don't say I didn't warn you.
In a situation like this, life insurance companies won't be sympathetic, either.
Hey, Qwenthur!
You better not have forgotten that it puts me in the same predicament, too!
Shut up!
Quiet, you good-for-nothing!
Lemish, launch the Bird!
Roger. Launching the Bird.
Damn it! I've been spotted!
What's that?
Enemy shell confirmed.
Cylindrical, with a diameter of approximately 20cm and a total length of approximately 150cm.
It has what appears to be countless holes along its sides!
Gas?
That's the fixed base plasma cannon's...
Qwenthur, they're aiming for you!
Get away from there right now!
Confirmed hit!
Target coming down!
We can't have you dying before you pay the remaining balance, sir.
You saved me, Wydine.
I have to admire your excessively candid approach to life a bit.
This is bad, Qwenthur!
The Indigo Plasma still hasn't given up!
You're kidding! Come on!
Damn it!
Qwenthur!
Sir!
Qwenthur!
You alive?! Hey!
Qwenthur!
I... I'm all right.
I used Hand-axe to disperse the gas to the other side of the hill.
That bastard...
He let his own men get caught in it...
We'll confuse them with Animals.
Please use that opening to get back, sir!
Roger. Come get me quick.
Not you, you damn parasite!
Animal 4, down.
Using fixed base plasma cannons against toys...
The strategic AI...
In the end, it's an assortment of simple prioritization routines...
The armor was damaged where it got hit...
This is the dummy unit's armor...
It's this thick, but it's not that heavy...
Hey, where are we going?
What about school?
It's okay.
Don't worry about it.
Mother...
Don't ask.
But...
Don't bother glossing things over.
You must know that asking me isn't going to get us anywhere.
I'll keep you safe, without fail.
Granny, can you hear me?
It's Qwenthur.
There's something I want you to help me with.
I'm close to getting information on the enemy.
But it's too much for a student like me to handle on my own.
Please lend me your professional assistance.
You idiot, don't say anything more.
I'm not with the military right now.
If you pass on information to me, you may very well be implicated, too.
Then I'll get tossed in detention or whatever right along with you.
So please help me.
The only ones who can protect that city is us.
Of the seven enemy units, six are dummies.
I got my hands on the armor of those dummy units.
It's constructed of two layers made of steel and some gray material, but it's extraordinarily light.
They're likely doing something to cut costs.
Please tell me how I can test what this material is.
Wait, one thing at a time, from the beginning.
Dummy units? How to test?
This might be the clue we need to turn things around!
So hurry!
Boy...
Grandma, what's wrong?
It's nothing.
Wait just a minute.
You have a portable terminal?
With that, we can use the radio wave method.
First, open up the portable terminal's wireless LAN and put it on the ground.
Then, put the armor on top of it.
Please hold on one minute.
I did it.
Next, while maintaining this channel, set a different channel on the radio to the transmission frequency.
Once you do that, press the radio on top of the armor and send the signal.
Yes, ma'am.
When you're done, call up the portable terminal's system screen and check the information on the signal it received.
Yes, ma'am.
It says 34.2.
Hmph.
If they were using anti-fire reactant, there's no way that much of the signal would get through.
But with it being constructed of two layers, there's nothing I can say for certain.
From here on out, it'll be highly unreliable speculation.
If they're your speculations, they're as good as correct.
The gray material is likely a special ceramic.
So, the bodies of the dummy units are made of the special ceramic,
which are covered with steel-plating to make them look like Objects.
Based on the analysis of the floats used for combat at sea,
we can surmise that the dummy units weigh less than 50 thousand tons.
Even based on relative density, the armor thickness is probably about a third of that of a normal Object.
Not only that, but they're not using anti-fire reactant, either.
They got us.
We were fooled by the visual impact.
If we'd handled things calmly and dealt with them one at a time,
our Princess's main guns could quite possibly have skewered them.
But there were seven whole Objects on the move.
Making us lose our calm based on that information was their greatest gambit.
Do you understand what this means, boy?
Compared to normal Objects, this means their armor is extremely thin, right?
That's not all.
It has to do with their tolerance towards heat.
Their main guns are fixed base plasma cannons.
And then, there's the geographical conditions of the Arctic Circle...
They must... think they have arrayed the most...
Granny? Granny?
Hey...
Damn it. We're being jammed...
It's Qwenthur! Do you read?!
Sir! Thank goodness!
You're all right!
Now, we are virtually guaranteed to be paid the remainder of the balance.
Looks like the signal still gets through on this side due to proximity.
Sir?
Wydine, how many drones are left?
Three Animals.
The Bird was shot down.
Launch an attack.
What?
I'll send you the location from my portable terminal.
Tell me your address.
Wow-wee!
The chance to collect a valued client's personal information!
Today is our lucky day.
This tactic is only possible because they're small unmanned drones that don't trip up antipersonnel sensors.
Think we can manage it somehow?
There's a stranded, partially damaged Animal that just happens to be right in their path.
They believe they've already destroyed it, so we're free to target whatever we like, right now.
Please do it.
As you wish, sir.
Hey, work!
You moocher!
Make it quick!
The strategic AI running the dummies isn't that advanced.
According to the Angelina List, the frame problem is a weak point for AIs.
The changing of priorities in response to an unfamiliar situation.
Programmed to disregard losses to its own forces and to give top priority solely to winning the battle with Objects,
the actions that such a strategic AI would take is...
In addition to the power of their main guns,
the tanks of special gas for fixed base plasma cannons that the infantry units were equipped with
will explode all at once.
The heat will be no ordinary thing.
Damn it all!
It's no use! It didn't work!
No matter how thin their armor is, us flesh-and-blood infantry just can't do anything about them!
Nope!
This is checkmate!
How do you figure that?!
They're still on the move!
They had a built-in weakness to begin with.
Subzero weather is the norm in this region.
The ice cold bodies of those units were exposed to the extreme heat of the plasma
and their temperatures went up abruptly.
This causes the special ceramic, which is a brittle material, to suffer great thermal shock!
Yes!
If they're expected to operate in a cold environment,
you'd typically set up some preheating mechanism for the armor,
but they were skimping on the thickness of the armor to begin with.
They probably didn't get around to it.
And after that, they'll just self-disintegrate.
Qwenthur, sorry to do this to you when you're celebrating, but our main opponent, the Indigo Plasma, is still alive and well.
This noise is terrible.
You're nothing but a grubby commoner!
I guess he finally tracked the signal of my radio back to me...
This is bad, Qwenthur!
Sir, please run!
I've been waiting for you...
...Princess.
The Indigo Plasma is an honest-to-goodness second gen!
It's a monster the Princess might just barely manage to put a hole in
and that's if she were in pristine condition with all her main guns!
It's not an opponent the Princess can defeat right now!
Nope!
She'll be fine just like this!
Do it, Princess.
Let's finish off this stinking enthusiast of discrimination!
Okay.
The commoner can come later!
I won't lose against some first gen that's behind the times!
What?!
The gas!
Hey there, you alive?
I'm about to drop dead any minute now.
Yo, Granny.
Here's your chauffeured luxury car come to give you a ride.
I'm prepared to face the music.
What's my punishment?
She says she's putting the matter on hold.
On hold?
A message from Miss Frolaytia.
"Make up for your mistake with results.
It's a good thing for you that you're skilled enough that I'd hesitate to dismiss you,"
is what she said.
I see.
Grandma.
Did you make that, Grandma?
That's right.
That's the robot of justice that I built and these guys are my fellow crew who make me proud!
No smartass comment?
I'll let her have this moment.
Man, it's just terrible.
Now, the higher-ups are clamoring about who gets the credit.
The amount of paperwork I have is no joke.
I'm surprised you didn't lose it and beat up the brass.
What kind of person do you think I am?
I'm the kindhearted, peace-loving, steadfast champion of justice,
the pure-hearted, lovable female officer, sweet Frolaytia Capistrano!
You think I could possibly behave in such an unseemly manner?
If you were really that kind of person,
I don't think you'd chew us out for three whole hours right after combat when we were totally beat.
If you don't like getting chewed out, I could throw you in detention without saying a word.
By the way, Qwenthur, you hired a small Capital Enterprise PMC without authorization?
Wh-What?
I-I have no idea what you mean.
As compensation, I hear you paid them with gems that you stole from the diamond mine on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Leaving the reprimand for later...
Qwenthur, what was the name of this small PMC?
I-It was the Battlefield Cleaning Service.
I see.
Qwenthur, listen to me closely.
I got confirmation from the Capital Enterprise military.
Their military is completely privatized as well, and every single mercenary firm is registered.
However, it seems that there's no small PMC registered under the cheery name of "Battlefield Cleaning Service".
What?
Looks like you made the acquaintance of a troublesome bunch, Qwenthur.
Hey, there, we just got back.
Lemish, peel off that fake label.
Sure thing.
We made a killing this time, didn't we?
Yes.
I never imagined we'd turn up whole handfuls of diamonds.
Sounds like that's the norm in the Capital Enterprise.
Are you hooked now?
You must be joking.
Who would ever want to willingly let money dictate their every move?
And those dummy units using AIs?
Yes! Shattered to pieces!
We also dispatched a separate unit to the 24th Battalion's Development Division to blow it up,
and got rid of all their research findings related to strategic AIs.
I swear, what a dirty little trick to pull.
Sending in spies, thinking to steal strategic AI technology...
Strategic AIs, most notably exemplified by Juliet, is the specialty of the Intelligence Union's military.
No other power will be permitted to develop it.
Is that it, Lieutenant Colonel Lendy Farolito?
With this, we've erased one of the technologies that were stolen.
That just leaves one more.
Incidentally, where might our pop star Elite be?
Were you finally able to clear up the misunderstanding?
Yes.
We're intelligence specialists and to attempt to hurt us by using information against us...
That Legitimate Kingdom student seems to be quite fond of irony.
I'm starting to get a little interested.
You see?
He was a fascinating gentleman, yes?
Yes. Generous and quick-witted.
I think I might fall for my valued client.
Oh, but I am not about to let you have him.
The seasons run on by, our of breath.
kisetsu ga kaketeku iki o kirashite
I try to keep up on an impulse all too faint.
hishi ni tsuiteku awasugiru shoudou
By the time i take notice, everyone's changing their faces
kizuke ba daremo ga kao o kaeteku
Anxious of those around me, i call everything white, "black"
mawari o ki ni shite shiro o kuro to iu
But i don't want to lie to myself, 'Cause there's more than just one form of happiness.
jibun ni uso o tsukitakunai shiawase no katachi wa hitotsu dake janai kara
Rather than a flexible strength, I want a strength that never changes.
kawaru tsuyosa yori kawaranai tsuyosa kokoro ni te o atete jibunjishin o ima aishi tea geyou
Placing my hand upon my heart, I'll make an effort to love myself.
Rather than a flexible strength, I want a strength that never changes.
kawaru tsuyosa yori kawaranai tsuyosa
Not for anyone else's sake, Right now, as i head for the future.
dareka no tame janaku ima, mirai eto
So?
What in the world does a young lady from oversight want with me?
Let's hear what you know about the List and former Councilor Flide,
Sladder Honeysuckle.
So, it's finally come to it...
If you want to put out the fire, you better hurry.
Leave matters alone and the 37th Mechanized Maintenance Battalion...
...will be annihilated.
A Requiem for the Flowers Blooming in the Field
The Battle to Destroy the Baby Magnum I