17 Just a Forward Outpost 2
"Useless. It won't stop at all..."
Even leaping directly into the center of the ASID swarm, aware of the danger, they ignore Jin completely.
Utterly disregarded.
Or rather, nothing else occupies their field of view.
"Alpha! Can you clear the launch?"
"Control here. The main vessel will launch shortly. We'll begin covering fire for your position."
"The blockade failed! Speed remains unchanged. Recommend immediate evacuation."
"Understood. Continue delaying. The training cadets' trap zone is approaching. Maneuvering unit, withdraw."
Jin was surprised—the trap points had been set based on predicted enemy movement, yet they were already being overrun.
This wasn't a blockade at all...
"Instructor! The swarm!"
"Accelerating. Get out of there!"
"!"
Engaging the hover thrusters, he glides the unit forward.
As the trainees reported, the swarm accelerated.
Where before it had been a sprint, now it was full-speed run.
Jin, positioned directly in front of the swarm, could not evade in time.
"Damn it!"
He is swallowed by the swarm.
In a current no different from a turbid torrent.
Jin advances forward.
He maneuvers with hover propulsion, deploying the mounted heavy weapon.
The Ether Cannon—restricted for use on standard Ravens.
He fires it diagonally against the flow.
With such dense concentration.
No room to dodge.
Several ASIDs vanish into dust. He slips his unit into the gap, advances slightly, slides the frame along the current.
Repeating this, he inches toward the edge of the swarm.
Terrifying, Jin feels.
He is undeniably on the verge of death.
Yet there was no ASID attack present there.
They had simply advanced forward.
And that alone had nearly killed him.
If this swarm had launched a coordinated assault with clear intent—
what kind of penetration force would that be?
The thought was unbearable.
『Trap Point reached』
A pit.
Commonly called that.
Suddenly, the ASID were drawn into the chasm.
Sucked in. Sucked in. Then completely buried.
Perhaps the leading few percent might have been halted by the pit.
But the rest advanced, using their fallen comrades as footing.
『There’s too great a difference in numbers.』
『Instructor. Can I hit from the side a little?』
『That’s cheating, Kou. Let me join too.』
『No. Once you’re swallowed, you won’t come back.』
Yet Jin and the others had no recourse. Gathering the trainees here for shooting would be like pouring water on a hot stone.
The original objective of luring them had not been achieved in the slightest.
If the cruiser *Al* changed course, the swarm would follow.
The target was unquestionably the *Al*.
"Emergency contact! ASID has been compromised! Repeat, ASID has been compromised!"
"Wha—"
The swarm had not yet arrived. Yet why—
The answer came without delay.
"Assault from below! Damn it, the trainee unit is engaged!"
"Abort the diversion! Return to cruiser defense!"
Jin’s decision was immediate.
Abandoning the diversion, which had yielded little result.
Reassigning all units present to defend the cruiser *Al*.
No greater speed could have been achieved.
Yet still.
They did not arrive in time.
One ASID, the first to launch its surprise attack.
It searches for its target. Drives its quadrupedal limbs into the cruiser’s armor.
Roams across the surface of the cruiser.
Finds it.
Repeatedly hammers the armor with its chisel-like head—sharp, precise, like a woodpecker.
The cruiser’s defenses, already weakened by attacks from other ASIDs moving through underground corridors, are severely compromised.
“Huh?”
“Shit.”
This is the escape capsule storage bay.
The location where Mio and Shu were evacuated in case of emergency.
A slender wire extends through a narrow crack.
It attempts to entangle the target.
“Tōgō!”
Mio reacted too slowly, having expected the attack to come from elsewhere.
The wire, stretched straight, aimed directly at her head.
Given its speed, a hit would have surely bloomed into a crimson flower.
She understood that.
So.
Mio could not believe she was unharmed.
"...Tōyaku-kun?"
Before her eyes, Subordinate One stood.
Holding her close.
Blossoming red flowers upon her chest.
Even as she registered these facts, Mio’s mind still lagged behind the present.
"Why..."
To that question, Shu attempted to answer. But only a clot of blood escaped his lips.
The wire retracted.
Shu’s body pulled away.
Carried back toward ASID.
"Wait."
She reached out.
"Don't take him."
Just as before.
"Stop!"
She pleaded, wishing not to lose someone important.
Her plea was answered.
ASID, aimed at Mio and her companions, was cleaved in two with a single strike.
Shu’s body, moments from being ejected, slid to a halt on the floor.
"...Otō-san?"
For Mio, the one who would save her was always Jin.
That was why she asked it this way.
What stood there was not what she expected. What peered through the gap was—
a single red gaze.
"Black Knight!"
The cruiser *Al*’s armor had already been breached.
Positioned within the crack—her long-standing adversary.
Once they had fought to the death.
Once, saved by circumstance.
And yet, the inevitability of their meeting here was nonexistent.
An abrupt arrival.
A Queen-class humanoid ASID.
The entity known as the Black Knight had appeared suddenly on the planet Merse.
Likely arrived via Overlight, though the reason remained unknown.
Still, when Jin lunged, it retreated, maintaining distance.
Its target: the swarm that had emerged on Merse.
If it joined them, the Second Fleet’s cybernetic squad would be in danger.
Already struggling against a single Queen. Adding another of equal power would shatter the current balance.
Thus, Jin had no choice but to pursue.
There was nothing else to do but prevent a rendezvous.
"Taoyakun! Taoyakun!"
"...Mio?"
For some reason, Mio's voice reached him.
It was not Jin's hallucination.
"Mio-chan?"
"What's wrong with Shu?"
May and Kou seemed to hear it too.
"Trainee Sasamori! Enter the fissure there and conduct a rescue! Others, cover the Sasamori units. Handle the rest as circumstances dictate!"
Jin issued the final order.
Facing a Black Knight, one could not fight without giving everything.
Ignoring the two machines accelerating away, Kou's Leopard opened the cockpit hatch and leapt inside.
"Shu!"
"What should I do? It won't stop bleeding..."
His face rigid with strain.
Mio pressed her hand against Shu's wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
The wound runs too deep for such measures to help.
The blood pool already formed was tinted crimson by Mio as well.
Medic! Hurry and come here!
Shouting, but Kou also realizes it.
The wound is too deep.
Excessive bleeding.
She might still be saved if treated immediately with medical nanomachines.
But the medic arrived.
Adjust the nanomachines for defensive use.
It won't be enough if you're doing that.
Big brother... Mio...
Guard! I am here!
Guard's unfocused gaze shifts toward Kou.
I'll take care of it. Don't worry—brother will handle this.
Kou tightens his grip on Shu's hand as he speaks.
As if sharing one's own warmth with hands growing cold.
"Status? Are you alright...?"
Mio is fine. Tōyakun helped her.
Good... it was...
Muttering that, Mio closes her eyes weakly.
"Hey... hey, Guard. You're kidding. Right? Hey!"
...It won't work.
Mio mutters, as if in a delirium.
Eyes more vacant than ever.
You can't just disappear.
Those eyes always captured what remained unseen.
To touch. To understand.
Surely this is how I can save Sō.
Mio understood it instinctively.
Why is such a thing possible?
Mio does not know the answer to that either.
What matters is saving Sō.
That is all.
Give back Tōyakun.
Mio’s command is issued.
The nanomachines left behind within the guardian—those originally designed for biological infiltration by ASID—had their command protocols rewritten.
"Tōyakun is Mio's."
Originally, the Third Fleet's nanomachines were derived from ASID's nanomachines. Therefore, the same capability was possible.
That is, achieving the same functionality as medical nanomachines.
The function originally intended to transform the body into ASID now serves to seal wounds.
Bleeding ceases.
At the moment just before a fatal outcome.
The medic arrives.
Astonished that the residual ASID nanomachines—by chance—exhibit the same functionality as medical nanomachines, they speak in hushed tones, calling it a miracle.
On their faces, relief is evident.
"Everything will be fine. This child will survive."
With that affirmation, Kou collapses, pressing his face into his hands.
And Mio—
stares at her own hands, crimson with Shu’s blood, as if at something terrifying.