Chapter 10:
The One That Got Away
WHILE THE PETACK and pirate ships were being utterly obliterated, Peter
was on his way home with Katerina at his side. When Peter's fleet had come to
pick them up, the viscount's daughter hadn't been able to hide her confusion. All
of his ships were obviously old, and they performed as poorly as their shabbiness
suggested. Even the Peter III, the ship that was ferrying the heir to his home
world, was several centuries past its prime. The ship's interior practically
screamed "retro," though its exterior had been updated to look rather gaudy. At
first glance, the outside made it hard to determine its true age.
Peter's rooms inside the ship were unnecessarily extravagant. There was
an overly large bedroom, a recreation room, and a party hall, all equipped with
frivolous amenities and occupying precious space on the ship. With his
preference for style over substance, the aged vessel performed all the poorer.
But Peter was completely oblivious. "What do you think of my ship? It's
the greatest, isn't it?"
Katerina didn't know how to respond. "I-It's very, er...vintage? Antique?
It certainly surprised me."
Peter was pleased to hear what he took as heartfelt praise. "It's amazing,
right? I'm quite fond of it. It's probably the best ship we have," he gloated in his
usual drawling voice.
Katerina was stupefied. This is the best? How bad are the others?!
Hand-me-downs from the Imperial regular army would be more
impressive than the Peter III. Katerina decided to give Peter some helpful advice,
thinking this could not be allowed to go on.
"I-I think I'd prefer a smaller ship, like a cruiser. The new ones are really
high-performance; you could get a good deal if you bought one used from the
Imperial Army."
I'd rather be on a cruiser from the Imperial Army's junkyard than this
sluggish old target. Maybe I should ask my father to give us one of his? I'm
worried about what'll happen on this thing if I don't.
Katerina had been uneasy the whole time she'd been aboard this ship. She
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had no idea when this thing might break down and become a sitting duck out in
space. Peter didn't have an ear to lend to her, though.
"A cruiser wouldn't do. If I were going to buy a new ship, I'd want a
superdreadnought, but the Empire won't allow us to own one."
"Huh? They won't?" Katerina's eyes flew open wide. Hadn't her family's
background checks on House Petack found that they had been granted
permission by the Empire to purchase a superdreadnought?
"Yeah. We asked, but they just won't give us the okay for some reason.
Sooo stingy."
Oversized vessels like superdreadnoughts and fortress-class ships like
carriers could only be sold to families who'd received special permission from
the Empire. It was a ritual that signified the level of trust the Empire had in the
family.
Katerina's confusion was edging toward panic. This isn't what I heard at
all! This was supposed to be a house I could marry into with pride! Was all
our information wrong?
Just listening to Peter talk was crushing Katerina with uncertainty, but
Peter was blissfully ignorant of her anxiety, boasting now about something
completely unrelated.
"You know, one could say I've really grown these last three years. One
part in particular has doubled in size..."
Katerina ignored his vulgar comment and contemplated her future.
I'll have to contact Father and see if we can break off the engagement.
House Razel will be dragged into the mud if we join hands with this crude
house.
The thought terrified her.
***
Back at House Razel's mansion, the viscount read through a report with
quivering hands. It said the exact opposite as the original report he'd received.
"We mistook House Banfield for House Petack?"
The two reports were completely the same except that Liam's and Peter's
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names and pictures had been swapped. Viscount Razel couldn't stop shaking at
this revelation. He simply couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. How
was such a mistake even made in the first place? These thoughts streamed
through his mind, and he shook his head as if to banish them.
"I have to order those pirates to call off their plan. I-If I don't hurry,
House Razel is done for!"
And yet, the battle was already long underway. The viscount's only option
was to send his own fleet to aid House Banfield, going up against the pirate gang
himself. He made the decision to do just that, but before he could act on it, he
received an emergency communication.
"Lord Randolph!"
One of his subordinates was calling to report the pirates' crushing defeat.
To make matters worse, the majority of House Petack's fleet had been wiped out
as well, its remnants fleeing to House Razel's territory for assistance.
"House Petack has requested aid, so we're preparing to resupply their
ships and perform maintenance at the spaceport! But considering their
numbers, we may be short on supplies."
"N-no! Turn them away! Do not aid them!" Viscount Razel shouted.
His subordinate was stunned. House Razel had just gone to great lengths
to join hands with House Petack.
"Huh? Sir, we can't just turn them away—our houses are bonded by
Lady Katerina's engagement and our military alliance."
Viscount Razel held his head in his hands. Along with the engagement,
they'd entered into various contracts with House Petack, and it was all coming
back to bite him now.
"Th-this can't be... It's impossible! House Petack's and House Banfield's
reputations were switched? How could that happen?"
Everything that he'd found appealing about House Petack had actually
come from House Banfield, yet Viscount Razel had treated the young Count
Banfield extremely poorly. In the end, he'd even expelled the boy without letting
him attend the farewell party. Viscount Razel doubled over, stricken by the
enormity of the truth, but the bad news just kept coming. This time, it was a call
from his daughter, Katerina.
"Father!"
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He prepared to tell her that this wasn't a good time, but his mad quaking
grew violent when he heard what she had to say.
"I'm in House Petack's territory now, but something's wrong with this
place! It's not developed at all—it's completely different from what we heard!
Already there are all these debt collectors demanding House Razel help pay
back some of House Petack's debt. Peter's parents are visiting the Imperial
Home Planet, and when I contacted them about this, they told me we have to
bail them out and wouldn't say anything else!"
If House Petack expected financial assistance from House Razel because
of the union between their heirs, that was one thing, but a viscount paying off a
count's enormous debts was unthinkable. Yes, House Razel was a relatively
affluent family, but there were limits to what could be expected of them.
"And... Um..."
"There's more?" Viscount Razel didn't want to hear anything else, but
Katerina proceeded to deliver the final blow.
"Peter...has an STD. I-I guess it's been going around our domain. J-
just a little while ago, his...his you-know-what... It exploded!"
When the viscount heard this, everything went black.
***
My fleet finally reached Baron Exner's domain. Well, most of my fleet;
I'd left about three thousand ships behind to mop up the rest of the pirates. I
brought about twelve thousand vessels to the Exners' territory, but House Exner
didn't have the facilities to maintain such a huge armada.
Baron Exner, speaking to me through a monitor, sincerely apologized.
"I'm so sorry, my lord!" He himself commanded a few hundred ships as part of
our pirate-hunting expedition. I kind of savored his groveling, the desperate
attitude of an inferior noble toward a count.
"Don't worry about it. I'm transporting supplies from my own domain."
The baron's eyes flicked briefly to Kurt, who was on the bridge with me.
"Not only did you bring my son home, but you're already prepared to assist us
in combat against the pirates who plague my territory. I am truly grateful."
"Don't mention it."
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We decided to have Kurt experience his first battle from my mothership.
He was pretty much a spectator this time around; we couldn't have him charging
headlong into his very first fight. As part of our families' new relationship, I was
treating him to a front-row seat.
Unfortunately, nobles usually weren't acknowledged until after they'd
experienced their first battle. They were taken lightly if they hadn't. It was pretty
messed up.
Baron Exner was a former knight, a military man who'd risen to noble
status. For that reason, he faced this mission with practiced calm. He shared the
latest update on the situation with us. "The enemy seems to have merged with
another pirate gang. Reports indicate they've added several hundred ships to
their forces."
"They won't be a problem."
"You know of them?"
"We've crossed paths. I let them go on purpose so we could follow them
back to their nest, but it seems they fled here. Lucky me."
I'd allowed some of the pirates who'd attacked us in Viscount Razel's
domain to escape so we could find their base. Instead, they'd come all the way
here, looking to join up with the pirate scum in House Exner's domain.
"Lord Liam, it's time," Tia said, notifying me that our attack was about to
commence.
I confirmed the opening moves of our joint mission with Baron Exner,
then ended our communication.
Turning to look at Kurt, I asked, "You sure you don't want to go ride with
your dad?"
"No, he told me to stay with you since I'd be safer here. Besides, I want to
see how you do things."
Kurt would remain on the bridge to experience the battle, but I'd
instructed Eila to stay in the shelter chamber for her own safety, as frustrating as
that might've been for her.
"Well, get ready to witness your first combat, Kurt. Tia, let's go—time for
a sortie."
I left the bridge, and Tia jumped to accompany me.
"Sir!"
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***
The Vár's hangar was so vast, it was hard to believe we were still aboard a
ship. It felt as though we'd entered some gargantuan fortress. A spotlight
illuminated my personal craft, the Avid. The two large shields mounted on its
shoulders were especially striking. Small or medium mobile knights as tall as
fourteen to eighteen meters were commonplace, but the Avid was a particularly
large one at twenty-four meters. It had a hulking look that tended to intimidate
those piloting other crafts. Naturally, it took up extra space in the hangar, but no
one in my crew dared complain. After all, I was the highest-ranked person on
this ship.
I donned my powered piloting suit, then approached the Avid. Nias, who
was performing a final check on the machine, noticed me and came flying over.
The hangar was zero gravity, so she moved freely through the air.
"Your craft's in perfect condition, Lord Liam. You can sortie whenever
you're ready."
I floated up to the cockpit and rested my hand on the Avid. "After three
years, I can finally cut loose again. I appreciate your maintenance work during
that time, Nias."
Nias scanned the hangar, looking displeased. "If you really appreciated
my work, then you'd buy your mobile knights from the Seventh too. The rest of
these crafts are all from the Third, aren't they?"
It was just as she said. Apart from the Avid, all the mobile knights
standing at the ready in the hangar had been acquired from the Third Weapons
Factory. It was a spectacular sight to see them all lined up in the hangar. Each
craft could have belonged to an elite division or a special forces unit of the
Imperial Army.
"But just look at these beauties!" I said.
"We'd be able to give you better-performing units."
"Your crafts are lacking because you still don't take looks into account."
The Seventh Weapons Factory persisted in emphasizing performance
without giving enough thought to the importance of appearance. The Avid was a
Seventh product, but none of their other mobile knights looked good enough to
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impress me, so I didn't care to use them.
"People say that, and I realize it affects sales, but can you win a war with
looks? It's what's inside that's important!"
"Then make mobile knights that look good on the inside too. If you do, I'll
buy 'em from you for a good price."
"You promise? You'd better, okay?" Nias lunged forward like I'd made a
binding commitment. "How many will you buy?"
"I said if you can make them look good! I'm not expecting much, though,
so why don't you just give up on this?"
"Ooh, you're gonna regret that!" Nias said, clearly up to the challenge.
Her attitude toward me was incredibly rude, considering our difference in status,
but I let it go—not because I was being nice, but because I needed a skilled
technician who could perform maintenance on the Avid. It was a real pain not
having spare personnel for this sort of thing.
I climbed up into the Avid's cockpit, which was far larger than it looked
from the outside. Impossibly large, in fact, since it had been expanded using
spatial magic. That was a special feature only possible in a super-expensive,
highly customized craft like mine.
I sat down in the pilot's seat that floated in this expansive cockpit, and
displays came to life all around me. When I grabbed the control sticks, the Avid
scanned me, performing a check of my physical health. Satisfied, the machine
activated in earnest, and its engines roared to life—at least, my monitors
indicated they did. Sound was dampened so much in the cockpit that I only felt
the slightest vibration.
I checked outside and confirmed that the hangar mechanics who'd been
swarming around were moving safely away from the Avid. Nias had distanced
herself as well, and she waved at me. The Avid would move in whatever way I
imagined, so it would respond with even the slightest input from me. With the
mobile knight's great arm, I waved back to her.
"Whoops—that's hardly dignified. I need to remember I'm a villain."
I was aiming to be an evil lord, but I was more of a play-acting villain at
the moment, so I really needed to work on my dignity to look the part.
"All right, time to head out... Hm?"
I looked over just in time to see Tia preparing to board a Third Weapons
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Factory mobile knight with Eulisia by her side.
***
The mobile knights Liam bought from the Third Weapons Factory were
smaller than the Avid. At about eighteen meters tall, these machines would be
classified as medium-sized craft, a more mainstream model. Like the Avid, these
mobile knights were humanoid and clad in armor. Boosters completed the look,
forming a sort of flaring cape that almost looked like wings. This gave the craft
the appearance of a noble, winged knight.
Most of these mobile knights were a uniform gray, their faceless, helmeted
heads sporting a vertical optical strip in the shape of an I. They held shields in
their left hands and stored swords inside their frames. In their right hands, as
they waited to sortie, they held rifles. Despite being mass-produced, these were
high-spec, elite crafts.
Tia was in her pilot suit now, getting a rundown of her craft from Eulisia.
"The Third Weapons Factory has full confidence in these units, which we
call Nemain-types. An elite force of the Imperial Army intends to adopt these
units too, so that should indicate their performance."
"No complaints about their specs. I also like that they can be personalized.
Mine looks fantastic in white and blue."
Tia had requested a specific color scheme for her craft, along with some
other modifications. It stood out among the other units and would perform a bit
better than the rest. Her craft was mostly white with a slender visor protruding
from its head. Tia's craft also carried no shield, a sign of her confidence that she
could simply dodge all of her enemy's attacks.
Despite her role as a salesperson of military equipment, Eulisia seemed
unsettled by the frantic, pre-combat air in the hangar.
Tia gave the anxious woman a smile. "Oh? Is this your first real fight?"
"Of course it is. If I hadn't been riding on the Vár, I probably wouldn't
have come along at all. Not even for a little."
Eulisia figured she'd be safe on a superdreadnought, even on a battlefield
—high-spec ship that it was—but there were no absolutes in battle. Now, with
combat close at hand, Eulisia couldn't help being nervous.
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"You'll be able to see Lord Liam fighting up close. You should be happier
about this."
"Uh, definitely not," Eulisia said. Liam's fighters—Tia included—were
heading into battle in machines they'd just received and had never operated
before, and that kicked her anxiety up a notch. "Do you really have sufficient
training for this equipment? If you leap into a real battle without being familiar
with them, you won't be able to make full use of their abilities."
Eulisia appeared to be worried for the pilots' safety, but she was actually
concerned as to whether they'd pilot the brand-new crafts effectively.
"We've earned experience in education capsules and simulators, so all
that's left is to try them out in real combat. This is great, isn't it? We're giving
your crafts their trial run!"
Even though she was about to head into battle, Tia was in a sunny mood.
While she talked, she adjusted a sword that she wore in a scabbard. The pilots'
tight-fitting powered suits were covered in sensors that translated their
movements to the mobile knights, so the operators brought weapons like swords
and spears with them into their crafts. The mobile knights would duplicate the
movements with their own weapons.
Eulisia was aghast. "Come on, you don't have anywhere near enough
training to say you've mastered the units!"
"Our duty is merely to do as Lord Liam wills. He granted me this
personalized craft, so I have to show him that I'm worth the expense." Tia was
absolutely starry-eyed over her mobile knight, but the expression of rapture on
her face slowly hardened into a fierce, icy smile. "When I think about all the
pirates I'll be able to destroy with this machine... Hee hee hee!"
Suddenly terrified of this woman, Eulisia said, "A-aren't you scared?"
Tia flipped her long, blonde hair and turned around, her green eyes
glimmered. "Why should I be scared? The fun's just getting started!"
When Tia's exclamation echoed through the hangar, all the other crafts'
vertical eyes flashed as if to agree with her. Each I-shaped optical strip seemed
to share that same bewitching light in Tia's eyes.
***
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The pirates from House Razel's domain sat in a meeting room inside the
other gang's fortress. At the opposite end of the table, the head honcho blew out
smoke from a cigarette-like device clamped in his mouth.
Aware of his weaker position, the leader of the refugee pirates said,
"Thanks, brother! You really saved our skins."
The big boss snorted at the other man. They already knew each other and
shared a relationship much like siblings, but the big boss looked down coldly at
his "younger brother," who had lost the majority of his organization because of
one bad move.
"Guess you've lost your touch, considering you got bested by some noble
brat and came cryin' to me."
"I-I'm ashamed to admit it, but you're right. This kid really is strong,
though. It was like fighting the regular army!"
"Sure it was. Anyway, now that you're here, you'll be working for me.
And I mean for me, not with me."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"You think we're on equal footing? You, boss of a gang with not even a
hundred ships left, and me, with three thousand ships and a fortress?"
The displaced pirate leader had been in a superior position back when he
was working with House Razel, but now that he'd lost most of his gang, he
couldn't stand up to the man in front of him.
"I-I got it."
"Good," the big boss said with a smirk. "Anyway, who's this noble you
picked a fight with? Must be somebody with a solid reputation, right?"
"Some house called Banfield. A kid named Liam runs the show. Our info
said he was just some spoiled brat, but—"
"Did you just say 'Banfield'?!"
The man thought he'd be laughed at for admitting to losing to a mere kid,
but the big boss and his men had an unexpected reaction. The big boss suddenly
started trembling, and the cigarette device dropped from his mouth to the table.
He pointed at the other boss with a shaking finger, his voice strained. "Y-
you're tellin' me...you picked a fight with Liam Sera Banfield?!"
The pirate leader had clearly lost his composure. In fact, he was terrified.
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The lower-ranked fellow couldn't comprehend why. "What, you know him?"
"Are you kidding? There's only one Liam I know! He's the kid who made
a name for himself by killin' Goaz! You didn't hear about that?!"
At the big boss's shout, several armed men entered the room. Surrounded
by fearsome bodyguards, the lesser boss and his men were absolutely
bewildered.
"H-hey, what's all this about?"
"You picked a fight with Pirate-Hunter Liam—a lunatic who's made it his
mission to wipe out every last living pirate—and then you had the nerve to come
to my base!"
The big boss whipped out a handgun and pulled the trigger, shooting the
other man dead in his seat. In his wild terror, he even fired off a few more
bullets.
"This is all your fault! It's all your fault!"
The big boss knew Liam's name and his nickname all too well. The noble
rejected every single pirate's existence.
After he'd killed the pirate from Razel's domain and his lackeys, another
one of his subordinates rushed into the room. For a moment, this man was
shocked by the gruesome sight, but he quickly pulled himself together and made
his report.
"B-Boss, I got bad news! House Exner's fleet and House B-B-B-
Banfield's fleet are on their way to the fortress!"
When he heard this, the big boss went pale. A huge monitor covered one
of the room's walls and displayed the situation outside. On the screen, ships with
House Banfield's crest were bearing down on their asteroid fortress.
"Contact them immediately. W-we're surrendering."
At the big boss's words, all his men rushed to carry out his order.
***
House Banfield's force had just received a communication from the
pirates. It was an immediate surrender.
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"We surrender—please just let us go! We haven't done anything to you.
We have nothing to do with the guys who fled here!"
Despite being the leader of a pirate gang so big it had its own asteroid
fortress, the boss pleaded frantically with the commander in charge of Liam's
fleet. With Liam and Tia ready to embark outside in their mobile knights, the
commander had been left to oversee the military operation.
The commander sat on the bridge of the Vár, casually sipping coffee as he
took the pirate leader's call. "Oh? That's interesting."
Evidently, the pirates were desperate to avoid a fight. They knew that no
pirates had ever fought against Liam and lived to tell the tale. When House
Banfield went after pirates, the fight didn't end until every last one of the
outlaws was dead.
"I killed the man who picked a fight with you. I'll send his head to you
right now to prove it! I'll even hand over all the treasure in our possession!
Just, please, accept our surrender!" In contrast to the calm commander, the
pirate boss was sweating profusely. "We'll do anything you say!"
When he heard this, the commander chuckled. For a moment, the boss
hoped that his offer of surrender had been accepted, but...
"Save your babbling for dreamland. We don't even care about the pirates
who fled to you; we're here to aid Baron Exner. You've been doing as you
please in House Exner's domain all this time, and now you turn around and
shamelessly beg for your life?"
"Wh-what?"
"You know what it is we do with pirates like you, don't you?"
"But we haven't done you any harm! We've never been anywhere near
House Banfield's territory! S-so—"
"We don't negotiate with pirates, even if they present us with the heads of
our other enemies. Anyway, we let the man you killed go on purpose; you were
simply unlucky enough to be the ones he looked to for safety."
"What?! Y-you're gonna kill us because we were unlucky?!"
"That's right. That is Lord Liam's order."
"Y-you can't be serious! Who do you think you people are? What gives
you the right to play with our lives?!"
"Do all pirates have a script they follow in these situations? I'm tired of
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hearing the same thing from every single one of you. Lord Liam has his own
scripted message to pass along to the likes of you: 'It's your own fault for
showing yourselves to me.' Well, I suppose I do have a little sympathy for you
people, making an enemy of Lord Liam as you have."
The pirate boss opened his mouth to shout, but the commander cut off
their communication first. He sighed. "How unsightly. The ones who have some
backbone will be a bit of trouble, but look at their leader hiding in his fortress
like a coward. I guess it's to be expected."
Kurt, who'd heard the exchange, hung his head and clenched his fists until
his knuckles went white. "I feel pathetic knowing that my family and subjects
have been tormented by these people while I was away. Whatever their reasons,
I can't forgive them." A tempest of rage brewed inside him.
These pirates seemed to think that they could act as they pleased as long
as they were far away from Liam's territory. Their surrender carried no shame or
guilt for the harm they'd inflicted on House Exner.
Liam's commander looked at Kurt with compassion. "I can see you'll
make a fine ruler, Lord Kurt. You have a great disposition for it."
"I hope so."
"Lord Liam calls you a friend. That's proof enough you should be
confident in yourself."
But Kurt wasn't so sure they had that sort of relationship. Can I really be
Liam's friend? Can I stand on equal footing with him when he's been
mentoring me all this time?
He shook his head and expressed his doubts. "Liam can't depend on me
enough to call me a friend. I spent all my time in training learning from him.
One day I'd like to become a true noble, like Liam."
Kurt admired Liam for never backing down from his convictions and for
never allowing injustice. The boy could be a little crude, but to Kurt, Liam was
the ideal noble and role model.
The commander smiled. To him, Kurt's self-doubts further illustrated the
boy's fine qualities. "I think Lord Liam found himself a wonderful friend during
his training. We were all relieved to hear it. Sending him off like that worried us
all; we feared he would imitate the attitudes of a noble family with different
values and stray from his path."
"Liam? He would never. He stuck to his beliefs all throughout his stay at
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House Razel."
"Even more of a relief, then. I should have expected as much from him.
Well, his tendency to charge into battle himself hasn't changed either..." The
commander shook his head, looking a little exasperated. "Now, then, let's begin
the operation."
The ships that had been standing by proceeded forward, and mobile
knights launched from them one after another.
Denied their surrender, the pirates commenced a desperate counterattack.
The operation to capture the enemy fortress was underway.
***
Once I'd sortied from the Vár's hangar, I was greeted with a different
view of the battle than I had aboard the ship. Our fleet surrounded the asteroid
fortress, which fired at us with cannons around its perimeter. Light beams
streaked toward us, and the resulting debris also came our way. They were even
launching small asteroids, several meters in diameter, at us. I bisected one of
these with the laser blade in the Avid's hand.
"I'm a little rusty after my so-called training. I would have improved more
just by staying home and living my life normally."
It had hurt, not being able to practice the Way of the Flash to my heart's
content during my noble training. I'd have to get back into shape once I was
back home.
The pirates' base ensconced within the asteroid was heavily fortified, like
a hedgehog. "Yeah, it'd be hard to take a fort like this." I found myself smiling. I
liked an actual challenge, and prior to my training, I'd grown bored with fighting
ships.
Blazing laser beams struck the Avid, but the shields mounted on its
shoulders generated a protective field that repelled them. No light-based attacks
would reach it.
"Well, I could charge in, but..." I contemplated plunging toward the base
and forcing my way through their defenses, but I sort of wanted to hang back a
bit and get a bird's-eye view of what capturing a fortress looked like.
Should I take all the glory for myself or just observe? While I was
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mulling this over, Tia's mobile knight approached me.
"Lord Liam, we will commence our incursion of the fortress."
"You're already going inside?"
"Yes. We're deploying our landing force now."
It seemed our strategy was to send in a small unit of mobile knights, then
have a landing force of soldiers in powered suits take the fortress from inside.
"Will this unit be enough?"
"Of course it will. We'll disable some of their main defense systems, but
since we are going to be within enemy territory, time is of the essence."
"I'd like to see this. I think I'll join you."
"S-sir? This isn't something you should have to participate in, my lord."
"Look, I'll go in first. I'll cut you a path with the Avid."
This way, I'd kill two birds with one stone: I'd get to see an enemy
fortress captured up close, and I'd get to go on the offensive myself.
***
Inside a small troop carrier, the landing force's soldiers wore tough-
looking powered suits and waited anxiously to charge the enemy pirate fortress.
The intimidating commander of this unit opened up the visor of her helmet and
shouted, "In a few minutes, we begin our attack on the enemy fortress! The
enemy is sure to send out many fighters, just like you, so make sure you're the
ones who survive!"
The small craft had dense armor and employed stealth technology, but
there was no guarantee it wouldn't be shot down. Even if they made it safely to
the asteroid, they still had to force their way into the base. The soldiers couldn't
help but be nervous.
While the commander was explaining the particulars of the mission, she
received an emergency communication on her tablet. On the other end of the line
was Tia, and the commander saluted her. "Do you need something, ma'am?"
"Wouldn't have called if I didn't. Lord Liam has declared his intent to
lead the charge. Today is your lucky day; you'll be escorted inside by Lord
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Liam himself."
"Th-that's—"
"That's that. Hurry and position your craft behind the Avid."
After Tia conveyed this information, she cut the communication, leaving
the commander looking baffled. The woman's shock quickly subsided, however;
she'd raided a pirate gang with Liam once before—the one belonging to the
infamous Goaz.
"You heard her. Lord Liam himself will be leading us into the enemy
fortress. Mistakes are absolutely not allowed!"
***
Within the fortress, the pirates readied themselves to fight for their lives.
They knew House Banfield showed no mercy to pirates and that their surrender
had been rejected.
"Hold them back, no matter what you have to do! Don't let them get any
further!"
The big boss shouted orders to his fleet over the comm system, but one of
his men turned from his monitors with a frantic report.
"Th-the enemy's invading! Our defense systems aren't going to be able to
withstand the assault!"
The boss ordered his pirates to the affected location, then added, "Station
men in every passage that leads into the fort in case their main attack is a
diversion! The second any of them make their way inside, shoot them full of
holes!"
How long could they hold out? If they could make the battle last a few
months, maybe House Banfield would lose patience with the effort and retreat.
This was all he could hope for.
We have to buy time, no matter what. There's no other way out of this.
With their asteroid surrounded by the enemy's fleet, there was nowhere
for them to run. The pirates' vessels were resisting the combined fleets of House
Banfield and House Exner, but the invading enemies kept crushing the ships in
their path and plowing onward. How much longer before the armada was beating
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at their door?
"Hurry and get those reinforcements in place!"
If they let even a small invading squad get through, everything would
crumble. The boss frantically continued spewing orders, but...
"I-It's not going to work... They're going to keep coming!"
The man's hopeless wail filled the command center.
***
"Outta my waaay!"
In her white-and-blue craft, Tia thrust a thin laser blade into one of the
pirates' mobile knights and spun it around. The boosters on her back spread
apart, and light blazed from their nozzles, making them look even more like the
wings of some warrior angel.
When Tia sped past the enemy mobile knight, a hole opened up in its
body, and the humanoid craft exploded soon after. As the white avenging angel
whooshed past them, more enemy machines exploded one after another.
Catching up with a craft that had dodged one of her attacks, Tia pounced
on it from behind and seized hold of it.
"Aha! Caught you!"
To the enemy, the beautiful white craft must have looked like a devil.
"S-spare me!" shouted the pirate inside the grappled mobile knight.
Inside her cockpit, Tia smiled coldly. "At least your pleading serves as
some nice background noise."
She mercilessly skewered the enemy's cockpit, and the mobile knight
went still. Tia kicked the enemy aside and went searching for her next prey.
"This new craft isn't bad at all," she murmured in approval. "I quite like
it."
The machine from the Third Weapons Factory was doing a fine job of
mowing down all the enemies that swarmed her. It was a higher-performance
craft than the one she'd piloted back when she made a name for herself as the
Princess Knight.
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Two former knights who had stooped to piracy attacked Tia at the same
time.
"You must be the commander!"
"You've bit off more than you can chew, I'm afraid!"
The two spiky-looking, modified mobile knights thrust their swords at
Tia's craft, but she repelled one enemy with her left arm and thrust her laser
blade through the other's cockpit. Then she lunged after the craft she'd knocked
aside, slicing its body in two with another bladed weapon that had been
concealed in one of the legs of her machine.
"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to stop me. Now,
who's gonna be my next victim? Ah...that looks good."
Tia had set her sights on a pirate ship. She stepped on the pedal to
accelerate forward, dodging all the attacks the ship fired to intercept her. When
she reached it, she thrust her laser blade directly into the ship's bridge.
Before they even had time to scream, the men on the bridge were
vaporized in an explosion. With the command center and its crew destroyed, the
ship ground to a halt. Tia switched to her rifle and continued her attack. Once
she'd finished the pirate ship off, sending it spiraling down into a crash on the
asteroid's surface, she checked her score.
"Thirty mobile knights and six ships. Still not enough."
Even though she'd taken down so many enemies by herself, she hadn't yet
slaked her thirst for battle. Besides, someone else was still outperforming her—
Liam, of course.
Next to Liam's name, which was displayed in first place on the
scoreboard, the numbers shifted swiftly. Tia pivoted her craft so she could watch
Liam wreak havoc on the enemy. The Avid held a sword in each hand, whirling
to meet and vanquish one enemy after another. It swung one of its laser blades in
a bright arc, and several mobile knights in the path of the slash exploded in a
chain of fiery blooms.
"Keep 'em comin'!"
Tia could hear Liam laughing loudly as his score increased. She shivered,
and her cheeks flushed red. "What incredible work. I can't let myself fall
behind!"
Fixing her eyes on her next prey, the Princess Knight leapt back into the
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battle.
***
"There you aaare!"
We'd reached what seemed to be the principal entrance to the enemy
fortress on the asteroid, though it was sneakily camouflaged within the rock.
"This looks like as good a way to get in as any."
I sliced the hatch with one of the Avid's laser swords, and the afflicted
metal turned reddish-orange and began to melt. Once it broke free, the hatch
floated off into space, given that there was hardly any gravity on the asteroid. I
now had a full view of what waited for me on the other side—a pirate ship with
its main gun pointed right at me!
Right as the hatch broke away, the ship's main gun spewed flames. Well,
not flames, but a barrage of energy beams. The force was so great at this range
that it pushed the Avid back. Still, I pressed down on the acceleration pedal, and
the Avid made its way forward even against the fierce blasts. The sight of the
Avid creeping ever closer probably terrified whoever was on that ship.
"That mobile knight is too strong! If you don't do something, it'll be right
on top of us!"
The pirate ship was hooked up to the fortress by a thick cable, drawing
extra power to strengthen its main gun and keep it firing continuously. This
ultimately proved too much for the gun, its barrel turning red and melting away.
Connected to the same system, the rest of the ship's energy weapons began to
melt or break down too, sparks flying off the metal.
When finally I reached the pirate ship in the Avid, I pressed my craft's
manipulators to the vessel's hull. "Got you!"
At my command, several magic circles appeared behind the Avid, glowing
in the air, and the missile pods that emerged from within fired at all the pirate
ships and mobile knights gathered around me in the enemy hangar. The hangar
filled with overlapping explosions.
Yes, I'd forced an entrance into the pirates' base, but I wondered if I'd
gone too far. The shock from all the explosions made it feel like the whole fort
was already about to cave in on itself.
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"This might've been a tad much. I'll try to be a bit more skillful next
time."
Turning around as the fireballs subsided, I saw my accompanying mobile
knights and a number of small crafts flooding into the hangar. One of my knights
—notably, not Tia—sang my praises over our communication link.
"Incredible work, Lord Liam! Now we'll begin our ground invasion of
the enemy fortress!"
"They were no match for me. Where's Tia, though?"
"Christiana is still fighting outside to secure the path for more forces."
"Huh... Well, that's fine, I guess."
The entrance into the fortress was wide enough for pirate ships and mobile
knights to come and go, so the Avid had passed through it with no problem. I
headed deeper into the base and was soon met with another line of ships and
mechs all waiting to engage me. One of these pirate ships contacted me over an
open line.
"You're not taking one more step forward. Fire away, boys!"
The mobile knights pointed their rifles at me and three pirate ships aimed
their cannons my way. They were all hooked up to the fortress with cables, as
the last ship had been, so they could continuously fire stronger beams, but I
didn't want to waste time like I had earlier.
"Sorry, but I'm not gonna play along this time. Do it, Avid."
The great shields on the Avid's shoulders shifted forward, and the
spherical energy fields they generated around me grew bigger. The pale orbs of
light that enveloped the Avid spread further and further outward.
The pirates didn't seem to understand my intentions.
"Don't think you'll be able to shield your allies just by expanding your
barrier! That mobile knight is about to become your coffi—wh-what?"
The energy barrier was designed to block enemy fire, but as it continued
to grow, it eventually started crumpling the enemy ships and mobile knights. The
field expanded in a circle, creating cracks in the walls and ceiling where it
pressed against them. All the pirates before me were crushed, and several more
explosions rocked the fortress.
"That was kinda extreme too, huh? What should I try next?"
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My soldiers behind me were unharmed, luckily, but I needed to bear in
mind that the Avid was so overpowered, it couldn't keep from going overboard.
Like the Way of the Flash, it was impossible to hold back when I used it.
As I proceeded forward, the small crafts that followed behind me entered
narrow branching passageways and unloaded their soldiers, who spread out to
take control of the fort's interior. I lumbered along ahead of them until I finally
reached the core of the fortress: an incredibly spacious room.
Was this a space to moor pirate ships for maintenance and resupply? Only
a few ships were in here now, as the majority of them had been deployed to
resist our attack. There was no top or bottom to the chamber; it was a gigantic
vertical tunnel with facilities fitted in the rocky walls. One of these structures
was a giant metal pier jutting out from the wall, where a number of ships were
docked above the deep pit below us. Honestly, this structure looked like a giant
skewer of grilled meat.
A group of our small crafts followed the Avid into the vast chamber, after
which the hatch through which we'd entered shut behind us, trapping us within.
"Lord Liam, stay back!"
My team of mobile knights stepped out in front of the Avid just as a slew
of pirates came out from their hiding places. It was a considerable army of
strangely modified, smaller-scale mobile knights.
"An ambush?"
"We've been waiting for you," said the pilot who commanded this small
army, and I realized he was a former knight who'd fallen to piracy. He'd be the
toughest foe yet. "In the confines of a fortress like this, smaller crafts have the
mobility advantage. A monster like yours can't fight freely!"
I guess he thought the Avid, which was extra large for a mobile knight,
wouldn't be able to maneuver very well inside the fortress. The enemy was a
formidable group of nothing but small crafts, so I do think he had the right idea
in general. These small mobile knights, with their rounded bodies, had been built
to fight in confined spaces. Normally, this would have been an extremely
troublesome trap. Normally.
Addressing my people, I said, "Well, I could beat these guys myself,
but...let's see what you folks can do."
"Sir!"
The mobile knights in front of me all raised their operators' preferred
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weapons aloft and charged. Thus, the skirmish began.
"Ha ha! Take them all down! I want every last pirate dead!"
This was a great opportunity for me to see just how well the mobile
knights from the Third Weapons Factory performed.
***
One of the Banfield pilots was a knight candidate. He was still young, but
he'd grown out a beard to give himself a mature look as the commander of his
squad. The man was thrilled to finally show off what he'd learned as a knight.
I really admire Lord Liam for charging in first and cutting his way
through, but if I just stayed hidden behind him the whole time, my squadmates
might think I'm slacking off.
The sight of the Avid striding forward into the enemy base had made a
huge impact on Liam's people. Even the male knights looked upon the craft with
adoration, immensely proud to have a fellow like Liam as their lord.
Well, we should probably earn our keep, eh?
Being protected by their charge had been frustrating for his fighters, and
the young commander was relieved that he could now take real action.
Over their communication system, he cried, "You heard Lord Liam,
everyone! Let's show our master what we can do!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" his squad members all answered at once.
The commanding knight drew a sword from its slot in his mobile knight's
shield and leapt at the closest enemy machine, slashing through it.
All of the enemy crafts gripped two submachine guns with axes beneath
their muzzles. The pirates' mobile knights were equipped for close combat and
long-range attacks. They were highly maneuverable, flitting inside the strange
chamber, making it hard for the knights' mid-sized units to keep up with them.
Liam's crafts, however, were more state-of-the-art.
The young knight said to himself, "This would've been a real challenge
for an old model, but this baby's brand new. Time for you scum to die."
He swung his laser sword down and sliced through the thick armor of an
enemy mobile knight, tearing into its cockpit. The machine immediately stopped
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moving, and the commander kicked it aside to get it out of his way.
The pirates quickly rallied, sending several crafts directly at the
commander, but a member of his squad gunned them down from behind him. He
heard a pirate crying out in confusion over an open comm channel.
"H-how did they pierce my armor? This thing was custom-made!"
Apparently, this pirate's craft had been specially modified with thicker
armor...which had now sustained some serious damage.
The commander's mobile knight gripped a shield in its left manipulator
and aimed its pointed tip at the enemy. As he leapt at the pirate's mobile knight,
the tip of the shield glowed with a pale light, firing a beam that pierced the
enemy machine. The defeated mobile knight spewed oil like a spray of blood,
and the dark beads floated off into the weightless void.
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The commander said to the dead man, "Our crafts are special-order too,
you see. But they're leagues ahead of yours."
As more and more enemy mobile knights were destroyed, some of the
pirates tried to flee, but House Banfield shot them down. The mass-produced
units from the Third Weapons Factory were overwhelmingly more powerful than
the pirates' mod jobs.
***
The big boss watched his underlings get picked off one by one on his
command center's main monitor. House Banfield's mobile knights were
relentless as they mowed down the pirate legion. While the machines on either
side were unique, it was the pilots' abilities that made all the difference.
All the other pirates in the command center shuddered at the tremendous
bloodlust of their enemies. The small crafts dispatched from House Banfield's
fleet kept pouring into the fortress, and on the outside, the Banfield fleet
dominated the battlefield. With the fortress's defense systems being destroyed
one by one, they couldn't even buy time as they'd hoped.
"Boss!" one of the pirates shouted from his station. "Enemy infantry is
headed for the command center!"
The boss checked one of the security camera monitors and saw a well-
equipped landing force advancing along a corridor, cutting down any pirates
who tried to stop them. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at this
very room.
He looked up at the ceiling and laughed fatalistically. "Ah ha ha! Perfect!"
"B-Boss?"
"We're gonna launch some major fireworks, boys. If this is the end for us,
then we'll blow ourselves to smithereens and take House Banfield's entire fleet
with us!"
The other pirates all hung their heads in resignation. There was nowhere
for them to run. If the alternative was getting caught and killed or tortured,
they'd rather blow themselves up instead, especially if it meant taking their
enemies down in the process.
Their boss left the command center, removing a keycard from his pocket.
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He proceeded down a hidden passageway and entered a room containing a huge
device.
"You'll see what happens when you try to make a fool of me. You
wouldn't have had to die if you'd only made a deal with me."
He inserted the keycard into the hulking device and activated it. Once it
started counting down, he declared, "We're all gonna go out with a bang!"
The door to the secret chamber was shut and locked, and it couldn't be
easily opened. Their fate was in motion.
Using his tablet, he opened a communication channel to House Banfield's
fleet. "Yo! Can you hear me, Pirate-Hunter Liam?"
There was no response, but the boss continued in case they were listening.
"This fortress was used by the Imperial Army several thousand years ago. They
stripped the asteroid's resources and abandoned it, but they left an impressive
base behind, and we decided to use it for ourselves." He gave the device behind
him a light rap with his knuckles. "It's a bomb—powerful enough to blow this
whole thing into dust, along with anything in the vicinity. I don't know its name,
its make, or why it's here, but I'm confident in its power."
Documents left behind in the fortress had made it amply clear to him what
would happen if the bomb were ever detonated, and the device's readouts proved
it was still perfectly functional. He didn't know why the fortress contained such
a bomb, but he was going to go down, so he wanted to go down swinging.
"Too bad for you. If you'd just left us alone, you wouldn't have had to die
today!"
As the boss concluded his taunting spiel, a child appeared on the tablet's
screen.
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Hey! You're—"
"That's enough. Don't say anything more. It's pathetic trying to blow us
up this late in the game. If you're gonna go through with something like this,
then why not just lure us in quietly and do it? Course, I'd still live through it,
but..."
The boss snorted, thinking the child was merely putting on a brave front.
"No point in acting tough, kid—it's over for you!"
"It's not over for me. You, on the other hand..."
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***
The guy the other pirates had been calling "Boss" in the messages we'd
intercepted had obviously decided on a last desperate move. The energy readings
throughout the fortress had suddenly spiked, and my people had started to worry
for my safety, trying to get me to evacuate. That was when this Boss person
suddenly contacted us and said he'd activate a bomb that would destroy the
asteroid and the fleet that surrounded it. So this was his way of outwitting us at
the end—by sacrificing himself?
"Was this the best move you could come up with? If it were me, I
would've at least kept quiet about the bomb. Nah, it's already over if you've
been cornered so badly that your only choice is to blow yourself up."
If you got into a situation like that, it was checkmate. A real villain
would've figured something out before things reached this point.
Nias, who'd been analyzing the situation with the energy spike, appeared
on a monitor in my cockpit.
"Lord Liam, we're finished with the analysis. You can safely destroy the
device before it completes the chain reaction that was set in motion. But
please, get it done immediately, because if that thing does overload it will be
like a miniature supernova!"
I guess they don't call them experts for nothing.
"Send me the data on the device's exact location."
"Already sent to your targeting screen."
"Wow... You actually are capable, after all."
"Hey! I've always been capable!"
Nias puffed out her cheeks and cut off the communication before I could
reply. You know, I'd have used you to test my Way of the Flash skills by now if
you were anyone else!
"Oh, whatever. Let's finish this, Avid."
The Avid's eyes flashed. As I directed the mobile knight toward the
location Nias had marked on my targeting screen, a large magic circle
materialized behind my craft. A cannon large enough to serve as a battleship's
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main gun emerged from within. The Avid reached behind with its left hand,
gripped this bulky weapon, and drew it out of the magic portal with a flare of
light.
This weapon was a product of both science and magic, so it was potent but
unstable. While it was difficult to fire at a moving enemy, the cannon was
supposed to be highly effective at destroying a fixed target. I'd never used it up
until now because it was so challenging to wield.
An electronic voice sounded inside the cockpit. "Coordinates and range
confirmed. Target locked. System power at maximum. Weapon ready for
firing."
The Avid held the gigantic cannon at the ready, planted its feet, and aimed
at a section of corridor wall. On the other side was the chamber where the boss
was hiding.
"Sorry, but you're the only one who's gonna be turning into dust today."
I pulled the trigger on the cannon's main grip, and a series of small magic
circles—hundreds of them, actually—appeared down the length of the gun's
barrel, coalescing into one huge magic ring. Then, this blazing wheel of light
rushed away from the gun's barrel, propelled into the wall, and vanished.
But as I lowered the cannon, it all seemed a bit anticlimactic. In firing the
gun, there'd been no bang, no recoil, and now I saw there wasn't even a physical
hole punched through the rock wall. Another wave of magic cooled it down right
away before it could overheat. Kind of boring, really, like I hadn't even fired a
weapon at all. Until...
***
The big boss trembled in fear as he stood in front of the self-destruct
device, watching the countdown slowly advance toward his doom. He talked to
himself with bravado to keep his fear from turning into panic. It wasn't to show
to anyone else, but just to fool himself.
"I'll blast all of them to atoms. House Banfield's fleet and that so-called
Pirate-Hunter Liam! And if I erase his name from history, maybe mine will
remain, huh?"
Just then, however, the big boss looked up to see a huge magic circle on
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the wall above his head. A cylindrical metal object emerged from the center of
the circle, flying straight toward him.
By the time the boss realized what was happening, there was no time to
flee. The metal projectile fell directly onto him, crushing him before he could
even scream.
And before the pirate boss's secret weapon could complete its cycle and
explode, the shell from Liam's own secret weapon exploded instead, blowing
apart everything in the room.
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