04 Mainship Recovery Operation 4
……! The fleet has begun moving!
On the long-range feed, the remaining fleet emerges from the spaceport. Cheers erupt across the bridge.
Our distress signal reached them…!
Suddenly, the movements of the Second Fleet grow chaotic.
Naturally.
They had no way of knowing the remaining fleet would move.
If we can maintain beacon transmission and coordinate with the other squadrons, victory is ours.
No—accurately speaking, complete victory remains unattainable without that coordination.
The shift in momentum, triggered by the remaining fleet’s movement, has stabilized the situation to roughly 4:6.
The odds remain unfavorable.
The high-stakes operation continues, a tightrope walk.
Still, the sight of reinforcements lifts morale significantly.
Good work, Jake!
A communication relayed through a civilian channel to a former military personnel.
The transmission was severed mid-stream, yet Jake still acted on the information received.
And convinced command of its validity.
His skill is commendable.
Allied morale rises; enemy morale drops.
Just that shifts the balance slightly.
Two Griffons, sluggish in movement, were shot down in an instant.
Aiming and firing faster than a breath could be released.
Precise—targeting the cockpit with a single shot.
The cyborg squad is indeed exceptional.
Yet a critical flaw exists.
To achieve advanced coordination, they have been drilled in rigid tactics.
This equalizes individual tactical judgment—but now it works against them.
With superior physical capability, they execute the prescribed tactics flawlessly.
That meant the two hundred and fifty cyborg soldiers here would move nearly identically under the same circumstances.
Thus, once their movement pattern was read, projecting it across all of them was effortless.
Even if the pattern had been anticipated—predicted in advance by Jin—it made no difference.
If the opponent foresaw their actions, then one would anticipate even further, predicting the opponent’s anticipation.
When perfect coordination was maintained, there was no opening—yet if they faltered, if they showed a crack—then the situation changed.
A move, one might call it a discovered counter-pattern, would begin with the exposed piece.
'Monster!'
One of the cyborg soldiers spat the words.
One might wonder whether they were truly human.
They seemed no longer of the same species.
Close combat, blade drawn—etherdagger in hand.
Front and rear flanking was unavoidable—yet Jin’s Raven bent its elbow backward, deflecting the attack from behind as well.
Keep your eyes behind.
The words once thrown at a trainee, now embodied by him.
He smiles, as if to say: thinking you can slow my reaction with an attack from behind is a profound error.
That notion, however, is profoundly wrong in human terms.
A kick strikes the side of the opponent’s griffin.
The ether-coated frame sustains no damage, but the impact transmits clearly.
Violent tremor. The cyborg does not lose consciousness from such force.
Another tremor.
Collides with another griffin approaching from the flank.
Jin shoots both down in sequence.
Destroying them as a pair is more efficient than one at a time.
Then, rotating in place, he bisects the machine closing in from behind.
"Ha. No reaction means the worm-type offers more resistance!"
Spat out defiantly over the open channel.
It is not as simple as it sounds.
Jin would have no opening to strike back if the opponent's coordination remained unbroken.
Excluding the five just shot down, Jin had managed to down only one.
That makes it finally the sixth unit.
Even among the cybernetic battalions, over two hundred and forty units remain operational. As for the common soldiers designated Raven, nearly a thousand still exist.
Yet those one thousand were finally captured by the Ravens emerging from the residual fleet.
Approximately five hundred.
A fair fight would result in victory for the Second Fleet.
—Repeating. The Second Fleet has no intention of engaging the Third Fleet in combat. Our military buildup is intended for engagement with the super-large species. Your intervention violates the Fleet Charter. Repeating—
The transmission from the residual fleet overrides numerical superiority.
As a defensive force, every member assigned there fights to protect.
Jin does not know how Harold persuaded the common soldiers.
Yet the justification is likely highly contrived.
Engagement with the super-large species 'Stalt' was entirely incidental.
Thus, the Second Fleet's rationale for deployment was hastily assembled in response.
Moreover, Harold intends to forcibly reconcile all discrepancies through time leaps.
If he believed that simply obeying orders until then would suffice.
The inconsistencies would be inevitable.
Indeed, from the perspective of the Second Fleet's common soldiers, they were told to prepare for war, then attacked the fleet immediately after concluding their ASID engagement.
The Third Fleet showed no signs of preparing for combat.
They were outright denied, face-to-face.
Believing in their cause under these conditions is difficult.
The formation of the Second Fleet Assault Frame Unit began to disintegrate.
With morale this low, a proper engagement is impossible.
Even as they outnumbered the enemy, being shot down one by one evokes pity.
Yet the cybernetic squad is different.
Most of them know of the Laitera Project.
Thus, they remain unshaken.
A portion of the unit veers toward the Raven Unit’s cover—another portion encircles the Raven Unit supporting Jin.
Thus, fifty Griffons remain near Jin.
Jin notices the forced fragmentation.
"……Fifty units."
The number is not worth celebrating—reduced to one-fifth of what they faced before.
These units move better than those that were previously in the vanguard.
The cybernetic squad may be uniformly refined, but even within that refinement, ranks exist.
This one is undeniably elite among the cybernetic squad.
A shot grazes armor.
"Damn!"
An off-target shot, reading their movement.
The ether rifle’s trajectory, fired with steady rhythm, adjusts finer still in response to Jin’s current position.
To disrupt that rhythm, Jin raises his rifle in preparation for a feinting shot—then an ether round strikes from somewhere unseen.
The explosion at close range forces Jin to release the rifle and step back.
Beyond the blast wave, several beams pierce Jin’s Raven.
"Damn it!"
One weapon lost.
With no spare supplies on hand, Jin’s Raven carries no surplus armament.
Only two rifles were ever in his possession.
In essence, firepower had halved.
Through the blast wave, one Gryphon approached, Etherdagger gripped in both hands, initiating close combat.
"Shin!"
"Chi!"
The rifle trembles.
He has faced hostility before.
He has faced lethal intent before.
But he has never directed such intent toward Chi.
He has resolved to shoot down an enemy.
But—never to shoot down Chi, the sister he was meant to protect.
A heavy strike.
He evades.
Cuts across as they pass.
Simple.
Hunting Chi, the outlier, the floating piece, is not difficult.
Except for one psychological barrier.
With one hand, Jin draws the Etherdagger from the side of the rifleless fighter, closing the distance for blade-to-blade combat.
Stopping was suicide, he knew that—yet there was no other choice.
And if force could not eliminate the threat, all Jin could do was speak.
"Stop!"
"What kind of weak words are those...!"
Yes, Jin admitted it.
To call for a halt once blades had met on the battlefield.
That was absurd.
"Come here. Hijiri Jin!"
So too was Chi's command—overwhelmingly absurd.
"The Laitera Project has reached its final stage. My wish and your wish are not in conflict! Our sister is returning!"
Yes, Jin accepted it.
He had wanted the prediction to be wrong.
But Chi's words confirmed it was correct.
Erasing Rin's death. Interference with the past.
If there were no risks involved, Jin would have gladly taken Chi's hand and waited for the return of the one he loved.
But.
"Where is Mio?"
A low query.
"What do you plan to make her do!"
The girl is involved.
He cannot stand by and watch.
"Answer honestly, you mean?"
"If you won't answer, I'll force it from you—by any means."
Jin's priorities are already set.
He doesn't care if he is hurt.
But if that malice is directed at Mio, there will be no mercy.
Chi's griffin and Jin's Raven entangle.
At point-blank range, ether daggers clash—frames collide head-on.
Through the camera, Jin feels Chi's gaze.
The deadlock is momentary.
Once balance breaks—
in the next instant, one frame will be severed.
Cut.
He resolves to cut down and discard his义妹.
The event that follows catches everyone completely off guard.
Perhaps Jin alone had remained a possibility, lingering at the edge of thought.
Overlight.
Suddenly, a single formation materializes within the space where the Second Fleet and Third Fleet are locked in combat.
"Humanoid!? "
The swarm of humanoid ASIDs that attacked the Third Fleet eight years prior—their military force.
They reappear before humanity once more.