Air Assault

Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Seconds later, the door flew open and a soldier rushed in.

“Commander! They’re hitting us from every direction!”

Zirka slammed her fists onto the desk.

“How is that possible?! We’re still in Sector 38A. According to the scouts’ reports, we should have been out of range…”

“I-I don’t know, Commander,” the soldier stammered.

Hermann clung to a rattling shelf as the tremors continued.

Enemy fire? Don’t tell me these insects have artillery.

The commander snatched the black coat hanging from the swaying rack, put the matching bicorne on her head, and stomped out without looking back.

“C-Commander, wait!” the young soldier called out before hurrying after her.

For a moment, nothing could be heard except the constant tremors from the bombardment.

“What do we do now?” Linly asked uncertainly.

“You heard her. Back to the barracks and wait until further notice,” Tong replied with a shrug.

Singe grinned broadly.

“And waste the chance to prove our discovery matters? No way.“

Then she was off.

“Come on!” her voice echoed down the corridor.

While Linly lowered her head in resignation and Tong shook hers, Hermann had already slung his rifle over his shoulder.

“Well then...“ he remarked dryly before following Singe, drawing irritated looks from the other two as they hurried after him.

“…You sure settled in quickly,” Tong said in surprise as they caught up, now sprinting through the trembling hallway.

“A soldier adapts,” he answered curtly.

By the time they caught up with Singe, she had already followed the commander down into a vast hall, where Zirka stood hunched over a large table in deep concentration.

Several other officers stood beside her, clad in long coats, arms crossed, expressions grim.

Standing with Singe and the others, Hermann watched from the back of the room.

So that’s her staff?

At the far end of the room, a soldier stretched out her hands, sending bluish waves of magic flowing across the table. 

Moments later, shimmering landscapes formed, like a three-dimensional map.

Above it hovered the fortress they were currently aboard.

“The Grapevine…” Tong murmured beside him.

Hermann stared at the layered structure turning slowly within the illusion.

Is that a map of the area? How can they reproduce the terrain so precisely?

“Incredible…” he whispered in awe.

“Detection magic,“ Tong remarked when she noticed his expression. “Combined with basic illusion magic.” She gestured toward the girl maintaining the map with intense concentration. “Soldiers who devote themselves to those schools of magic need an exceptionally high level of magical potential just to be considered for training. Only very few ever become cartographers on one of the fortresses.”

“Detection magic…” Hermann repeated, fascinated as he studied the map.

Between jagged rock formations, valleys, and forests, glowing red dots appeared, soon taking on the outlines of insect-like creatures.

“Are those…”

“Manylegs. And far more than there should be in this sector…” Singe muttered uneasily.

Hermann leaned in further.

The ones on the ground look like the thing we met earlier. But… what’s that next to them?

In several places, gigantic worm-like creatures rose on the map, barely moving at all.

Those things are at least five times bigger!

More tremors struck the base, making the floor quake beneath them.

“Report,” the commander ordered.

One of the officers stepped forward and pointed at the markers Hermann had just been puzzling over.

“It seems we underestimated the size of their underground network in this sector. Peripatus units have burrowed to the surface here, here, and here. They have us targeted from all sides.”

“How long until the barrier fails?”

“Depends on how many direct hits we’re going to take,” another officer said. “If we reinforce the barrier with the troops’ protective magic, we might be able to withdraw from the sector without suffering total losses.”

Zirka shook her head.

“And who’s left to repel the air assault if the troops are reinforcing the barrier? No, we'll have to make do with what we have…”

Hermann frowned.

Air assault?

Then he noticed.

On the holographic map, several silhouettes were moving directly toward the flying fortress.

These insects have air units?!

“Tell the helm crew to steer us back into Stratum’s airspace. They’re to keep the Grapevine out of the Peripatus firing range as much as possible,” the commander ordered.

The first officer immediately bowed and hurried out.

“And the air assault?” the other officer asked.

A bright voice suddenly cut through the room.

“We’ll destroy them!”

Heads snapped toward Singe.

Everyone looked at her in silence.

Then one of the officers stepped forward.

“A scout? You have no business here!” Her gaze shifted to Hermann. “And a man even less so.”

But Commander Zirka raised a hand.

“And how exactly do you intend to do that?” she asked in a cool but curious tone.

Singe placed a hand on Hermann’s shoulder, who blinked at her in confusion.

“With our new weapon, of course!”

Hermann frowned.

I have a feeling she’s overestimating the firepower of a rifle just a little…

His gaze drifted back to the table and the map, where the countless red dots seemed to multiply and creep ever closer.

There must be at least a hundred of them.

Instinctively, he checked his ammunition pouch.

Five loaded stripper clips left. Which means twenty-five rounds remaining…

Hermann sighed.

“It’s a rifle. Not an anti-aircraft gun,” he finally said. “It was effective against the Isopod, as you called it, but against so many air units? You’d need a MG for that…”

Silence fell for a moment as the officers exchanged puzzled looks.

“Em… gee?” the commander repeated at last.

Hermann nodded.

“Machine gun. Or Buzzsaw as we call it. Very effective for suppressive fire. But we don’t have one here. So…”

“But you have the plans for it?” Zirka immediately pressed.

“Well… yes. But to build one, you’d first need the right materials, tools, and technical understanding. It could take months before a prototype...”

“Show me the plans.”

He hesitated, opening his mouth again to explain the futility of it.

What’s the point?

But when he saw the determination in her eyes, he set down his bag with a sigh.

“All right…”

For a moment he rummaged through it silently while the others exchanged hushed whispers as more thunderous impacts shook the base.

One large sheet after another unfolded in his hands.

“Here…”

He handed the blueprint to the commander, who glanced at it briefly before unfolding it beneath the curious eyes of the others.

The thin, almost translucent paper rippled slightly beneath her fingers as her gaze traveled line by line across the precise technical drawings.

Gears, springs, bolts, and long rows of tiny components had been rendered with meticulous precision.

“As I said…” Hermann began, “before your engineers can make sense of these plans, it’ll probably take...”

“TANNA!”

The commander’s voice rang through the hall.

Footsteps echoed. A door opened, and moments later another girl rushed inside.

She wore a yellow jumpsuit with a large ruffled collar around the neck, her long, blue bangs nearly concealing her eyes as she strode hastily before her superior and bowed.

“Creationist Tanna reporting as ordered, Commander! How may I be of service?”

Singe rolled her eyes.

“How may I be of service? Tch… those creationists really think they’re the only ones who matter, don’t they?”

“Creationists?” Hermann repeated in confusion, until realization dawned on him.

Don’t tell me they can…

“Take a look at these plans. Can you make it?”

Tanna’s eyes widened as she took the paper into her hands.

“What is this?”

She studied the blueprint carefully, her eyes moving across the drawing with growing concentration.

Her finger followed the markings as though she could feel the mechanism beneath the lines.

Then she looked back up at the commander.

“I think I can create it… but… what kind of material is this?”

Hermann stiffened.

So it’s true…

He snatched the steel helmet off Singe’s head and rapped his knuckles against it.

“Steel. Same material as this.”

“Hey!” Singe protested immediately while fixing her tousled hair, but Hermann had already tossed it toward the bewildered creationist, who caught it in surprise.

Her hand glowed with a pale yellow light as she brushed across the surface.

“Fascinating… I’ve never seen any alloy like this...”

Another tremor struck the barrier, and dust trickled from the walls.

“How long?” Zirka asked intently.

“I first need to analyze the exact composition. So... an hour. Minimum.”

The commander nodded.

“Begin immediately.”

But scarcely had Tanna raised her glowing hands when the commander’s attention snapped back to the map and the red dots nearing the base.

“And what are you waiting for?” she snarled at Singe and the others. “Get to the anti-air positions!”

“But… the weapon…” Linly objected.

“That’s an order! Now move, or the next act of insubordination will end with me personally carrying out your execution. I promise you that!”

She had barely finished speaking as Singe, Tong, and Linly spun around and hurried toward the exit.

Hermann slung his rifle over his shoulder and followed them a few steps.

“Soldier!”

He froze.

“Where exactly do you think you’re going?”

Perplexed, he glanced after the girls, then back at the commander.

“I’m helping with the defense,” he replied curtly, gesturing toward his rifle.

But the commander shook her head.

“If you die, no one will be left who knows how to operate this weapon. You stay here until it is finished.”

Hermann’s grip tightened around the rifle.

I’m supposed to let these girls fight all by themselves?

He exhaled deeply.

Guess there’s no other way…

He walked back, took a round from his stripper clip, and set it on the table beside the blueprint.

“When you’re done, we’ll need more of these as well…”

Tanna raised an eyebrow as she studied the ammunition curiously.

“H-how many?”

Hermann gave a faint smile.

“Just a few thousand…”