Vol 2 Chapter 2.2 (1/2)

“...They actually fired on the city?!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. They actually attacked! The s.h.i.+ps in orbit fired on the planet! There are millions of hostages here, and they still fired at us!

The cannon fire flew straight from s.p.a.ce and landed somewhere in the city. Its power was likely reduced beforehand, but it was still a shot from a destroyer. They had plasma cannons that could charge up to fifty gigawatts of power. At full power, a single shot was far more powerful than Little Boy, a nuclear bomb that was dropped upon Hiros.h.i.+ma sometime in history. They had not charged the cannon to that degree, but I still felt a powerful quake sweep over the city.

“B-but there are innocent civilians here!”

Another light flashed in the sky as if to answer my shout, and another plasma shot landed elsewhere in the city. A giant explosion raged in the distance, and its shockwave triggered the automatic s.h.i.+elding to lower in front of the hotel’s windows. They kept the windows from shattering apart.

I immediately switched on the television to look through the camera on the outer hotel walls. a.s.sault drops.h.i.+ps were slowly descending from s.p.a.ce. They had just begun entering the atmosphere, supported by covering fire from the destroyers.

“They’ve gone insane! Do they even care about the non-combatants here?!”

“They might be thinking that they’re being careful enough.” Ensign Meihowa answered my question. She seemed just as distressed by these insane acts of terror, however.

Our sense of duty as soldiers was crumbling down. There are countless innocent civilians here, and they’re doing an a.s.sault drop into the heart of the city! And it’s a full frontal a.s.sault! Have they thought about how many casualties they’d end up with?!

The a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps continued dropping down. The s.h.i.+ps with platoons ejected various equipment and began retaliating against the ground defense on their own. Plasma cannons wildly fired, hitting the defending Alter-Armours and parts of the city.

Those cannons were nothing like the main guns on a destroyer, but they still weren’t something that minor-cla.s.s Alter-Armours could withstand-- and, just like that, any missed shots had a huge risk of civilian casualties.

One of the Alter-Armours nearby dodged an attack, and the plasma landed on a distant part of the hotel. The plasma burned through the wall and left a huge hole, filled with a cloud of superheated concrete, metal, and asphalt. Any people on the other side of that wall likely suffered the same fate.

“This is just crazy!”

The anti-air guns in the distance swiveled in the rain of a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps and their drop pods, blowing their parts that crashed into the hotel and other buildings nearby to create a thick cloud of dust. This operation… had absolutely no consideration of civilian casualties. They were only interested in finis.h.i.+ng quickly.

Only the insane could think of such a plan. I couldn’t sit there and watch it happen! I dressed up and prepared myself to head outside.

“Lezirth! What are you doing?!”

“Everyone, get to an underground shelter! It’s too dangerous to stay in the hotel!”

“But…”

“Ensign Meihowa! Pull the fire alarm! We need to bring all the civilians here to a shelter!”

Ensign Meihowa nodded. “Okay-- I mean, roger!”

Determination flared from her blue eyes. The vacation was over. The playful half-Elcro girl was no more, and she was once again an Ensign of the Federation. Though without any weapons, she armed herself with an armour of will and a sword of determination.

“Alright. We’ll need something to start taking control, right?” I kicked a window out. The gla.s.s shattered along with the protective s.h.i.+elding in front of it. It might as well have been a sheet of paper against a drops.h.i.+p’s plasma cannon, anyway.

“Let’s go!”

I jumped out of the building. Leaping from at least twenty-five floors above the ground floor, I turned around to slide down against the building’s exterior and reached the first floor lobby.

There, a Tri-Walker was firing upon the panicking civilians who were escaping the hotel en ma.s.se. Its three legs, standing over a meter and twenty centimeters, steadied its Colion rifle like a camera tripod and fired on the move. As a mindless drone, it was programmed to prevent anyone from leaving the hotel, and so it was mercilessly shooting at the civilians who fled the building before it collapsed under fire from the invasion.

One of the Tri-Walkers found and confronted me. [Please return to the building. If you attempt to exit the building, we will attempt aggressive persuasion.]

d.a.m.n it! I swung my fist in response.

--*Crack!*

The Tri-Walker was crushed into a metal sc.r.a.p without contacting with my fist. I used my telekinetic powers, of course.

[Hostile detected!]

“That’s right!” I grabbed the sc.r.a.pped ex-Tri-Walker and threw it at the other walker. They collided and were both reduced to an ugly mess.

At the other side, guarding the entrance to the casino, another Tri-Walker began firing its Colion rifle. I quickly turned around and projected a field of vector reversal.

The barrier could change the vectors of oncoming objects to deflect projectiles, but it required a lot of focus to be able to handle more than one projectile. Trying to use it against an enemy that was out of my sight was a little… risky.

--*Pew!*

The Colion round smashed against the barrier and changed its trajectory back at the Tri-Walker. Its legs snapped off and the main body crumbled with it. As if it were undergoing rigor mortis, it fired its rifle wildly into the air before dying down completely.

I turned my attention to the scared civilians nearby and the victims of the Tri-Walkers.

“...d.a.m.n.”

The local navy initiated a fight despite the hostages. And the rebels killed off even more hostages in order to secure their control. They were having their own war above this planet’s skies, in place of the Federation and the Alliance.

...Why did the local government’s military attack the civilians?

A little thought produced an answer. The Federation certainly wanted this situation to be over as quickly as possible. The local military was capable of doing just that, and the Federation would owe them a favour. Looking at the sequence of events that led to the moment, there was definitely a secret deal between the Federation and this planet’s government. They were probably promised some financial and political support.

Unlike the Federation-owned planets, the autonomous planets had their own economy and social structure, so they had to be mindful of the Federation government. Unsurprisingly, the winners in politics tended to be the ones with some backing from the Federation. And those people were the type to be unmindful of some civilian casualties if they could continue receiving their backing.

What a bunch of dirty pigs. There are innocent people dying here, all in the name of securing a political standing.

In retrospect, I should have realized this a lot sooner. How could I have been so slow to know that they were going to start firing on the city? Maybe I was subconsciously wis.h.i.+ng that the Federation had not reached such a level of corruption. But now, they had fully wronged me.

Then, what about the Alliance? Could I trust the Alliance?

Were they serious about leading an alliance of diverse races? Could it be more than mere propaganda? My instincts were screaming at me otherwise. ‘Don’t trust them, they are all liars’.

After their major victory in the Oden system, they were able to strike a peace treaty with the Federation in their favour. As long as they had the Hyper-Kis.h.i.+n Duskbringer and Tetragrammaton, they were too dangerous to provoke. The Federation Fleet was not in any condition to consider resistance, so they had to accept any unfavourable terms. This was how the universe saw its peace from the war.

Yet, they clearly did not want peace. What they really wanted was the total destruction of the Federation and the full inheritance of their power.

They demanded the autonomous planets to betray the Federation and join their ranks. If they were bringing peace to the world in exchange for the death of their major political enemy, then they could not be trusted to be bringing peace for the sake of humanity and love.

I could feel their hatred towards the Federation.

“Is it really a war between villains? Ugh, I’m tired of it already.”

I scrounged around the fresh sc.r.a.ps of metal for a Colion rifle. The gun was originally designed for infantry, so a little hacking could get the rifle functional for personal use. I tore apart the rifle’s control panel and ripped out the Hypers.p.a.ce-net communicator, leaving the gun at a factory state where pulling the trigger fired the gun directly. Anyone could use the gun now.

With the gun in my arms, I hopped up a pillar and jumped on the hotel’s walls. As I ran up the building, the rebel Alter-Armours were exploding into fragments around me from the invading s.h.i.+ps. Far away in the distance, the government building and the parliament were turned into rubble from the cannons of the s.h.i.+ps above. It did not look like there were many surviving rebels.

Was it the end of this skirmish?

Of course, this fight had basically gone off like a hostage situation where neither party actually cares about the hostage. If you just shoot everything that gets in the way, it was surely going to end quickly. It was horrible murder, yes, but I had to admit that it was an efficient solution.

But the fight couldn’t have been over just like that. The rebels had to have expected this.

As if to answer my questions.... something dropped down from s.p.a.ce and pierced through one of the landing s.h.i.+ps. The s.h.i.+p split cleanly into two halves, and a bluish, metallic board spun through it.

The flash happened first, and then came the deafening blast of sound. I couldn’t help but panic whenever I saw an explosion-- worrying about how much damage it would do this time, maybe.

--*Kaboom!*

“Kuh!”

I jumped through a broken window and returned to my room. Meihowa and Aroha hid behind a pillar to avoid the storm of shrapnel that blew inside.

“Kyaaa!”

“Meihowa! Aroha! Take this!”

I threw the rifle at them. Sergeant Aroha grumbled loudly as she checked the remaining ammunition. “Agh, I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. It’s all downhill from here, right? What’s gonna happen now?”

Then, another s.h.i.+p exploded in the sky. After that, a cruiser slowly descended from the sky-- closer look revealed that an Alter-Armour was carrying the entire cruiser. The Alter-Armour was projecting a dark force field that engulfed the cruiser!

That size was definitely a Kis.h.i.+n!

It wasn’t like any Kis.h.i.+n I had seen before, however. It was covered in metal sh.e.l.ls, yet retaining its figure and standing at… thirty-eight meters tall? Its reflective, red sh.e.l.l was reinforced by black plating. Its body was slender and thin overall, making it look swift by design.

Around its hips, it wore a skirt made of metallic boards, accentuating its womanly proportions. But that skirt wasn’t just decoration-- it was the object that previously split one of the s.h.i.+ps in half. It seemed to be a remote-controlled BIT weapon that could individually send and control each piece, and since it was a Kis.h.i.+n weapon, I had to watch out for special powers that may have been hiding within them.

--Discordant ThunderG.o.d, Saika has arrived!

As the will of the Kis.h.i.+n made its presence known, it threw the cruiser down. An eight hundred meter long cruiser was flung at the city without any of it being sc.r.a.ped off by the atmosphere!

Or so I thought-- the cruiser was maintaining its height within the atmosphere. Not only that, the cruiser and the Kis.h.i.+n was working together. It fired its cannons and destroyed the surrounding landing s.h.i.+ps, and more frigate halves fell from the sky.

The cruiser was taken over!

“Of course. I was wondering what got them so confident-- this whole rebellion was done with the help of the Alliance.” I sighed.

“A Kis.h.i.+n? Again?!”

“The Alliance probably didn’t have any Hypers.p.a.ce-warping s.h.i.+ps to spare.”

Right, what to do now? The situation had been turned upside down. At first, I thought I would punish the local military for their complete disregard for human life and save the innocents. Then, some other guys showed up and killed off everyone who I wanted to punish. And they weren’t any nicer, either. Really, what was I supposed to do? I may have risen to the rank of Vice Admiral at one point, but when situations change this rapidly, I couldn’t get used to it myself.

Then, Admiral Luise rose from her seat, yawning loudly.

“Ahhh…. Lezirth?”

“Yes?”

She rubbed her sleepy eyes. “I’ll try to take over the Alliance’s network.”

“What?!”

Ensign Meihowa, Sergeant Aroha, and I stared at her, jaws dropped, while Admiral Luise simply smiled back at us.

What was she thinking?!

The Kis.h.i.+n of the Alliance, Discordant ThunderG.o.d Saika had made its appearance. With it came its supporting troops that quickly captured the cruiser. The local military continued their resistance, only to be destroyed by the overtaken cruiser.

From these events, we came to a conclusion: the Alliance had their own autonomous military AI, and its system was comparable to, or able to outright steal the Federation’s systems. If that wasn’t the case, even if they were able to kill every single personnel within the cruiser, they couldn’t possibly have taken over the s.h.i.+p that easily.

Without the authorization from the military AI, it was impossible to make any militaristic action through the system. The AI controlled every aspect of the Federation’s military, down to the individual infantry-issued rifle. Perhaps in old films you might have seen a boarding crew taking over a s.h.i.+p through force, but such a strategy was no longer possible.

And yet the Alliance managed to do it.

I should have known, however-- the whole reason the Replicant rebellion remained strong was because they managed to overcome the problem with the military AI. And, of course, the rebellion at this moment couldn’t have succeeded without the Alliance’s support with its own military AI.

And now, Admiral Luise wanted to control it as her own.

If anyone else were to suggest it, I would have dismissed it as someone rambling in their sleep. However, she already held the record of gaining the highest level access into the Federation’s systems. Since she could hack into the Federation systems, she should have no problem with the Alliance’s.

“So, what should I do?”

“Hm. First, we’ll need to acquire some communication equipment that is networked with the Alliance’s system. Oh, nothing simple like the Colion rifle. I doubt there is any information to be had from a soldier-level access. And it would be helpful for my hacking attempt if we had something owned by the rebellion’s leader, yes? Or maybe we can get an Alter-Armour?”

Sergeant Aroha waved her hand in disapproval. “Wait, but we only have three Colion rifles! Are we going on a suicide mission?”

But Ensign Meihowa, who had been on board Dawnbringer Minion with me, shook her head. “It’s possible if it’s Lezirth.”

“Wha-? It’s possible?”

Then, Admiral Luise arose from her seat. She looked back at the ma.s.sage chair with a slight look of longing, and then turned away. “Lezirth, could you bring me to one of the enemy Alter-Armours? I feel more comfortable stealing one myself.”