17 The Day of Final Battle 4
Jin's griffin lifts off.
Once on the battlefield, Jin's mind grows clearer.
Complex questions, everything—washed away.
Nothing like Raven's unruly spirit.
One moment of distraction, and it's over.
Survival demands full focus on the fight.
Why can't the world be simpler?
Jin's battle was always about protecting comrades.
Protecting the one he loved behind him.
It was never about leaving someone important to die.
Noise.
Unnecessary thoughts slow Jin's griffin.
Operating at the absolute limit, his unease manifests more directly than Raven's.
"Sir. How's that one holding up?"
Two minutes until engagement.
Even now, at the edge, Kou asks.
He commands a select unit composed of ace-grade pilots.
In a mixed-type formation, pilots must at minimum keep pace with the Griffin’s maneuverability.
The unit formerly led by Jin—once the strongest candidate—has lost more than half its members to enemy fire and can no longer maintain cohesion.
A new unit was formed by selecting elite pilots from each existing formation to replace the losses.
All of them seem interested in the Griffin, a model designed exclusively for cybernetic pilots.
Even at this threshold of engagement, their attention remains fixed on the machine.
A moment of hesitation.
"Not bad."
The effect of nanomachine enhancement is evident—no longer the constriction he once felt with Raven.
Except for raw physical strength, Jin’s abilities surpass those of a cybernetic pilot.
This is the machine they chose as their final companion.
It cannot be ill-suited for Jin.
This battle could end too soon—such a waste.
‘Huh. That’s a good one. I’d like to ride that too.’
‘Hey, hey. I’m telling May about this? Distance under ten thousand!’
The opposing force closes in.
No sign of deceleration. The reactor signature moves straight toward them—unyielding.
‘I’ll go ahead.’
The Grifon, the only one permitted such a large Ether Thruster, unfolds wings of light and accelerates with force.
Jin’s Grifon, now approaching one and a half times the speed of the Raven, engages in dogfighting, wielding Ether Rifle and Ether Dagger.
Opposing them—
‘…ASID?’
It appeared that way to Jin. Not humanoid like the Terminans, but truly just a worm-like form.
Why is it here?
Could the Harold Fleet have allied with some other ASID swarm?
Sevens had claimed that the other clans that had become Hugle had all abandoned intelligence.
It seemed impossible they could have formed an alliance.
Fire from the targeting array.
Luminous projectiles struck down the worm-like forms in succession.
Though initial concerns remained about the increased size and mobility of the frame, it tracked perfectly at this velocity, without deviation.
Frame integrity had improved, lending greater stability.
It felt as if the shooting was faster and more precise than ever before.
No—given the rate of destruction, it was undeniably so.
Indeed, this was why Jin was struck with awe. To face such a machine was to face a formidable opponent.
‘Wait a minute… Instructor, you’re kidding. There were nearly thirty in the first wave? Just wiped out in an instant?’
‘If they’re annihilated before we catch up, we’re irrelevant.’
Kou and the others complained after eliminating the worm-like forms and finally closing in.
If one person advances alone and is annihilated alone, questioning the purpose of the unit is understandable.
Such complaints felt nostalgic to Jin.
It had been a long time since he’d fought ordinary ASID units.
Yes, ordinary.
An unremarkable ASID, nothing unusual about it.
That was precisely what raised suspicion.
Why had such a unit appeared in the conflict between the Harold Fleet and the Allied Forces?
"Jin."
"What is it, Edelweiss?"
"There’s an odd presence over there. Like Hugle, but not quite."
"An ordinary ASID was present, certainly..."
"No. Not just a simple Hugle. Be careful."
A vague warning.
The radar showed the other side was busy as well.
The Terminus people’s army clashed head-on with the cyborg squad.
Conversely, that meant the information sent was worth the risk during the midst of it all.
"Wait—this formation doesn't make sense."
Jin grimaced as he reviewed the data uploaded by the Terminus people.
Estimated total number of cybernetic squads.
It should have been all of Harold Fleet’s mobile units.
All of them were engaged in combat with the Terminus people.
And though reactor signatures approaching from the Third Fleet’s direction were numerous, identification remained unclear.
Likely the previous worm-type unit.
There was no other explanation—Harold Fleet must have been acting behind the scenes.
"...Mio?"
The thought crossed his mind.
If Mio were the next queen, she could issue commands to ASIDs from other groups.
Yet the idea of her immediately mobilizing nearby ASIDs as combat forces felt off.
Harold Fleet is just past Overlight. It's unlikely they'd conveniently acquire a cluster of ASIDs so soon.
Above all, Edelweiss's warning.
It couldn't just be an ordinary ASID.
"Second wave incoming!"
A voice pulls awareness back.
This time, the numbers are greater. About one hundred.
"Even the Instructor couldn't instantly eliminate that many, right?"
"Who knows. Maybe."
Jin observes the target, half-dazed.
Still the worm-shaped form.
Should be. Yet a faint discrepancy.
He cannot identify the source. Fires the ether rifle in hand.
The ether round strikes the worm-shaped armor—then scatters.
Damage is inflicted, but not fatal.
"...What?"
He fires again, and again, finally downing one.
The Gryphon's ether rifle is larger than Raven's.
The firepower once excessive against worm-type units now feels misaligned.
(Has the aim drifted?)
A subtle deviation, unacknowledged, may be present.
If so, early correction is necessary—but it becomes clear that the fault lies not with himself.
The following Raven, having caught up, displays the same dispersion of ether.
"Captain, Captain! Don’t you feel something off about their armor?"
Upon the suggestion, Jin enlarges the telescopic image—indeed, it is clear.
The source of his unease is now understood.
What he had taken for a surface ether coating.
Instead, these are concentrated ether fields deployed around processors and reactors.
Not deflecting attacks through coating, but redirecting them via field manipulation.
An odd purity in abandoning all defense at the extremities.
ASID is a living organism.
Yet before them stood something that seemed to have abandoned even the survival instinct inherent to living organisms.
Certainly, as long as the processor and reactor remained intact, there would be no issue.
But that was akin to a human surviving with only the head and torso protected, regardless of whether limbs were severed—barely viable, at best.
The logic was sound, but whether one could actually carry it out was another matter.
Could even a queen issue such a command, one that demanded surrendering such primal instincts?
Or perhaps Mio, within her own flock, might exert such force—but she had no flock of her own yet.
And above all, the response was immediate.
Ordinary ASID adapted to external changes over years.
An extraordinary speed for a living being, yet what stood here was even faster.
Even as they watched, each individual changed autonomously.
No individual remained in the original worm-like form.
Limbs sprouted. Cannons extended from their entire bodies.
At times, they consumed one another to increase reactor output.
Appearing as ASIDs, yet moving in ways utterly unlike any seen before, Jin and the others felt unease.
"What are these things...?"
The hundred ASIDs had now dwindled to twenty.
Most had not fallen to Jin and the others, but transformed and perished of their own accord.
Yet those that remained shared a strikingly similar form.
A humanoid upper body without a head, with something resembling a shield. A lower body shaped like a disc.
From sensory feedback, the reactor and processor—critical components—were all housed within the disc-shaped lower half.
No organism here offered a basis for evolutionary reference.
Thus, this must be an ASID evolved specifically to counter assault frames.
Reactor output at approximately ten Lammy… Jin thought, the calculation did not add up.
Slight fluctuations existed in each instance, but overall remained consistent.
Given the previous worm-like state had produced one Lammy, he had expected the combined reactor output from cannibalization to reach only about five Lammy.
Whether that calculation was accurate would have to be left to the rear mechanics.
The Ether Rifle fired as a feint was, as expected, deflected by something resembling a shield against AF-type ASID. Apparently, that was an Ether Field deployment unit.
It advanced while deflecting our fire—fast.
It possessed maneuverability at least equal to that of Raven.
A机体 equipped with an Astral Package was still manageable. But one carrying the additional deadweight of a Phalanx Package could not keep pace.
The extended hand blade was intercepted by the ether shield—then severed as if there were no resistance.
The机体, having lost one arm in an instant, tried to create distance.
A barrage from the disc section, not allowing it to escape.
A Raven struck head-on by a beam from another机体 with equal reactor output detonated in midair.
"Damn—watch out! He's strong!"
Jin entered close combat with the enemy despite the warning.
Seeing a new arm grow from the opponent's shoulder, he was finally speechless.