How to Survive on the Armored Front

Chapter 22

[Enemy group. Departing the combat zone.]

"Hah... hah..."

Watching the enemy colossuses recede, Yaan fought to catch his ragged breath.

"If this keeps up my body won't last."

Gaining near-infinite operational time had been a blessing, but the price was steep.

Without Nill's secondary support to absorb the shock, the impact of every shell would feed straight back and he could drop dead from shock at any moment.

The exact opposite of before; his body could no longer keep up with the frame that had started running wild.

[Pilot status check. Detecting convulsions due to impact.]

"Convulsions? I'm not shaking...."

Even as he said it, Yaan looked down at his own body, still linked to the frame.

"Shit."

There were no convulsions-

but every limb was shivering like an aspen. Yaan ground his teeth.

Neural connection followed by nanomachine infusion surgery.

Forcing the synchronization up so a human body could be crammed into a frame had side-effects beyond losing sight in one eye.

"While I'm linked I can't feel anything in my body...."

That was why Nill had stopped him, he now realized.

[Combat fatigue from the previous battle is accumulating inside the pilot. Second, the nanomachines will need over a week to fully settle.]

"Keep fighting like this and my body won't hold out."

[Searching joke list for situation-appropriate humor. A crow-tit tries to walk like a stork and rips its crotch....]

"Unless it's vital, skip the jokes. They piss people off."

[Understood.]

Yaan thought Ren and that tin can Nill were surprisingly alike when it came to messing with a person's head.

Once the colossuses had vanished from sight, Yaan turned his steps toward headquarters.

"Corporal Yaan is returning!"

"Make way!"

Soldiers lining the path to the hangar stepped aside, clearing a lane for the colossus.

Thud. Thud.

The ground had even been reinforced with civil engineering to bear the colossus's weight.

Each heavy footfall made the soldiers shudder as they watched the black giant pass overhead.

"I know it's on our side...."

"Yeah. Still sends a chill down my spine."

"Thank the stars it's not the enemy."

Soldiers in the trenches and outposts muttered after witnessing the midnight battle.

The bombardment had been so fierce they'd never heard its like even in large-scale battles.

Glaepnir, racing across the battlefield under that shellfire alone, had been a monster incarnate.

"Corporal Yaan! Damn it, are you all right?"

A movable gantry rolled up to Glaepnir's cockpit in the maintenance yard. As the hatch opened, Cain caught Yaan's collapsing body.

"I'm fine. I can take it...."

"You're shaking all over and you say you're fine-medic!"

As soon as Cain carried Yaan down, soldiers rushed in and carried him to the medics' ward.

Prince Klaus approached Cain, who was watching them go.

"It was the same the first time he boarded a colossus, wasn't it?"

"It was worse then. I mistook him for a corpse...."

"A colossus that gnaws away its master's life-like a cursed sword straight out of legend."

Klaus gazed briefly in the direction Yaan had been taken, then looked back at Glaepnir that had spat him out.

Glaepnir's red eyes had lost their light.

Heat shimmer still rose faintly from the scorched armor plates.

Drip. Drip.

"It's raining!"

One of the soldiers shouted.

Drop by drop, the rain grew heavier, and soon the front lines were drenched.

"Could turn into a downpour any moment! Check the drainage again!"

Sudden rain set the soldiers bustling. Cain, meanwhile, let out a quiet sigh of relief as the drops fell on him.

"Thank goodness for that."

"Right. If the ground softens the colossuses won't be able to approach easily."

The battle had ended in a human victory, but they'd burned through nearly all their forces.

The arrival of five new-model colossuses had almost turned the tide to despair.

Yet the timely rain let the prince breathe easier. Water-logged ground was poor footing for walking colossuses.

Their mobility would drop sharply on narrow footing, making them easy targets for artillery.

With a week until reinforcements arrived, the rain was a godsend for the human camp.

Screeeee....

Rain had begun to fall on the front lines.

The drops hissed against the overheated armor, raising clouds of steam.

"Did you make it rain?"

Klaus asked Glaepnir before turning toward the command tent.

Glaepnir had no weather-control tech; the ashen giant simply stood in the rain, cooling its heated body in silence.

***

"Ugh...!"

The moment the link was severed, pain crashed over him-every ache he'd felt while synchronized with the colossus returned at once.

"What should we do?"

"No idea. It's a side-effect of the Ancient relic; we can't just pump him full of painkillers...."

The medics had carried Yaan to the ward on Cain's orders, but they had no clear treatment. One mistake in treating an artifact-induced symptom could kill one of the only two colossus pilots left on the front.

"Out of the way."

"Wh-who are you? This area is...."

The medic who turned around froze on the spot.

A snow-white girl had entered, face devoid of expression.

It was Ren.

"Sorry, this is a restricted civilian zone. Excavation team members...."

"Hey. Step aside."

"Pardon? But...."

A senior soldier clamped the protesting medic's mouth shut and quietly pulled him away.

"Why did you do that?"

"Haven't you heard the rumors? The excavation team member who keeps visiting Corporal's quarters."

"Ah, is that the fairy everyone's talking about?"

"Right. She knows more than us humans, I'm sure."

The senior glanced at the awestruck rookie and sighed.

He watched the rain pouring beyond the tent for a moment, then cuffed the dazed rookie.

"Ow! Why'd you do that?"

"Don't get any stupid ideas. Don't even think about it."

"Huh? I'm not an idiot; I'd never hit on Corporal Yaan's girlfriend."

"It's not about Yaan. You know what happened to the drunk who tried to hit on her?"

"What happened?"

The senior made two fists, thumbs and forefingers forming balls.

Slowly he opened his hands like something bursting. The rookie's face went pale.

"He really hit him there?"

"Not just hit-both of them popped. Both."

"Ugh...!"

While those sounds came from outside the tent, Ren approached expressionlessly and slid a syringe into Yaan's forearm.

Shhhht!

As the drug in the syringe dwindled, Ren called his name as Yaan's trembling gradually subsided.

"Yaan."

Yaan slowly opened his eyes and spoke.

"I more or less knew, but the shock's pretty intense."

The sensation of impact transmitted directly to the Frame. The feeling of assault-gun shells pummeling his entire body was something even Yaan, hardened by ten years of battle, was experiencing for the first time.

"The harder you move, the faster the nanomachines activate. The more they do, the worse the pain in your body will get."

"Close-quarters combat is the only answer, so I've got no choice."

When Yaan said that, Ren, who had been silently thinking, spoke after a moment.

"Glaepnir is a general-purpose Frame. With the right weapon, it can be outfitted for long-range support or artillery roles."

"Then where is that weapon?"

"Inside a preservation facility."

"You mean the ruins the dig team is scheduled to excavate?"

"That's a reconstruction facility. The preservation facilities are the sub-facilities around it."

So that's how it is.

Yaan's eyes quietly lit up as he rose from his seat.

One arm was still trembling, but he could at least move.

"Where are you going?"

"To the ruins. To the preservation facility you mentioned."

"Do you know the location?"

"I know an elf who should know."

After that brief answer, Yaan grabbed the uniform jacket and poncho hanging on one side. While he was doing that, Ren caught his hand and looked up at him.

"I've temporarily suspended the nanomachines to ease the pain. Even if you board Glaepnir now, you'll collapse again soon."

"Then I'll just have to go bare-handed."

"That's reckless."

"No time."

Once the rain stops, those five Frames will come again.

If they hunkered down on the front lines using the rain of unknown duration as a shield, they wouldn't know when they might die.

"Corporal Yaan. How's the body?"

The one who entered speaking was Dandel.

As soon as he appeared, Yaan grabbed his shoulder, handed him a note, and said,

"I've noted the enemy Frames' firepower, speed, and formation. Pardon me, but please report this to the commander in my stead."

"H-huh? Then what about you?"

"I'll be away for a bit to an elf village. I brought a colossus here before, so they won't harm me."

"H-huh!? W-wait a second! Corporal Yaan!"

Dandel called after Yaan, who had said his piece and vanished, but Yaan had already grabbed his pistol and gone outside.

"That fool."

Ren muttered and likewise threw on a poncho to follow him.

Left alone in the medics' ward, Dandel could only stare blankly at the tent flap through which they had disappeared.

***

"Right. Thank you for the report. Pass that along to Corporal Yaan as well."

"Understood!"

Dandel saluted stiffly and exited the prince's office.

Prince Klaus rose from his seat and surveyed the front-line base beyond his tent.

Soldiers busily digging drainage and reinforcing trenches. Behind him, Cain's voice came.

"After that battle, the wall between the Penal Corps and ordinary soldiers has completely crumbled."

"I'm surprised myself. I've never seen such a cohesive army."

"Not just the soldiers-Second Lieutenant Dandel and the officers you saw just now are also exceptional."

"Did you extend the offer?"

"Most were positive."

"Hmm."

A Penal Corps member and a soldier carrying supplies together.

A noncom from the ordinary troops asking a Penal Corps member about machine-gun positions and placement.

Scenes he had never witnessed in any other unit.

"Strong cohesion is good, but there are side effects. Even if reinforcements arrive, they'll be hard to integrate."

"That's exactly why I suggested what I did."

"Rather than give them independent authority, we should place them at the vanguard."

Saying that, Prince Klaus picked up the document on his desk.

Listed at the top was Yaan's name, followed by promotion plans for the Penal Corps officers and the soldiers under their command.

"Even if they're my direct independent company, their place on the front lines won't change. Will they accept that?"

On the front of the document was written "13th Prince's Direct 87th Independent Company, Greyhounds" in Cain's distinctive elegant script, and in the center was an image of a hound gripping a human forearm.

It was drawn by a Penal Corps member who had once been a street artist.

"What they want isn't stability but respect. To be treated as human beings. If they're treated as soldiers, not expendables, they'll exert greater strength than any army in the world."

It had been Glaepnir that neutralized the rear mages and Orcs in that battle.

But it was these soldiers who, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, held back the goblin advance and even pushed into the Elf Kingdom's main force.

"If those fools on the central front could even match half of what these men do, we'd have won this war long ago."

"Is the situation on the central front that bad?"

At the prince's grumbling, Cain asked, and Prince Klaus gave a wry laugh and spoke as if chewing each word.

"Even after abandoning three fronts, including this one, and going on the offensive, we're at a stalemate. Neither advancing nor retreating, just bleeding men."

"The one in command of the central army is...."

"Second Prince Gard."

At those words, Cain quietly closed his eyes and clutched his head.

He looked as if even the energy to complain or lament had drained away.

"Thanks to that, holes have opened all along the front. The Alfraian army is disrupting supply lines with small mobile units. If this continues, the central front will wither and die."

"Then the colossus that arrived this time...."

"If it hadn't been for Corporal Yaan, it would have broken through this front and reached the rear supply base."

It was absurd.

The decision to throw away an entire front was bad enough, but to concentrate forces like that and achieve nothing?

If the only reason this front held was the absurd variable of the ancient colossus, then the other two fronts must already be in the Elf Kingdom's hands.

"Once the excavation stabilizes, I'll head to those two fronts."

"You'll go personally, Your Highness?"

"By order of His Imperial Majesty."

Saying that, Prince Klaus drew a gold pocket watch from his pocket.

The two-headed eagle crest engraved on it was a symbolic item given only to the heir apparent.

Looking at it, the prince gave a wry smile and continued.

"Gard and his faction, backed by the Belkuth family, are making the mess, while I, the heir trailing behind, am left cleaning up after them. It's enough to drive me mad."

"Your Highness. Such words...."

"Let it be. Even if they lecture me for days at home, I can't change the way I speak."

Even while saying that, Klaus continued to skim the document outlining the independent company's structure.

"We can't move the entire front line just to stop a small colossus mobile unit, so we'll need matching mobility on this side."

When Prince Klaus said that, Cain's face brightened.

Seeing that, Klaus gave a wry smile, closed the document, and rose.

"October 12, 621 Vailsar Year. Establishing the 87th Independent Company, 'Greyhounds,' under the command of Royal Guard Cain Lorenz."

As the prince spoke, a corner of the document began to glow and his signature etched itself.

"By the name of Klaus van Vailsar, thirteenth prince of the Vailsar Empire and lord of the domains of Bultha, Cardin, Zambark, and Garem, I so certify and command that they shall fulfill their given mission to glorify the might of the Vailsar army throughout the world in the name of His August Imperial Majesty!"

As Prince Klaus declared, Cain knelt on one knee before him and spoke.

"I accept Your Highness's command. Glory to the Vailsar Empire."

Hearing that, the prince looked into empty space and smiled again.

A sneer, not a smile.

Whether it was directed at the Empire or at someone else, only he could know.