Two units destroyed in an instant.
“heh, h-heheh……”
What’s left is Chihaya, one more Cyclone, and one Husaria.
“oh no oh no oh NO!”
Chihaya frantically sends the Allrounder fleeing into the forest. Bullets chase after it, scattering and kicking up the packed snow.
“Is that a light machine gun!? Get into the trees!”
Not that they need the Husaria to tell them — all three units are already sprinting into the forest. Simultaneously, someone provides information over voice chat.
“Just before it opened fire, I saw a white Berlet lying prone in the snow. One unit, single enemy.”
“A Berlet. Nasty opponent.”
Chihaya digs up knowledge she’d only just studied.
The Berlet is a Sprinter-series Actanoid developed by Onaka Manufacturing.
The only product actually selling from Onaka Manufacturing — a company mostly known for concept theft and cheap, shoddy goods.
Its distinguishing features are a slender frame, wide-sleeved arm armor, and a machine gun and longsword stored within the sleeves.
Being Sprinter-series, it has a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour — quite fast. Twice the Allrounder’s speed.
Its slender, feminine silhouette means it’s popular with female Actors. A well-balanced unit between offense and speed.
Chihaya looks around at her allies.
The Rounder-series Cyclone and the Rannoid-series Husaria are both slow. The enemy Berlet has speed but lighter armor from the weight savings.
But the sun is almost down. The only one that could realistically fight at night is the Cyclone.
The Husaria’s Actor speaks up.
“Did someone report this to the New Frontier Resource Agency?”
“Reported. Probably meaningless, though.”
“Because there’s no Self-Defense Force nearby?”
“Right, you’ve never been in an Actanoid fight before, have you. Actanoids are a type of construction machine — combat isn’t supposed to happen. This is an accident.”
Chihaya, who’d just been listening in silence, is speechless at what the Cyclone’s Actor just said.
The Husaria’s Actor cuts in with what sounds like a reflexive retort.
“We’re being shot at with a machine gun!?”
“Still an accident. The adult world is a sad place!”
If civilians started shooting at each other — even with machines, even with guns — it could run afoul of weapons laws and the like.
And so, apparently, Actanoid-on-Actanoid combat in the New Frontier gets processed as accidents. Adult logic.
They reported it properly anyway — partly to establish clearly that they’re the victims, so no one can point fingers if they come out on top. And partly because if the attack turns out to be accidental, they can claim damages. Groups that pick fights like this usually have connections to make things disappear, but there’s always a chance it’s unintentional.
“what kind of nonsense……heh”
The tension wrings a bizarre laugh out of Chihaya. She eases the Allrounder slowly, carefully, behind the tall Husaria.
The Cyclone raises the sniper rifle Yoichi. Against a Sprinter-series opponent built for speed, a sniper rifle is barely useful under the best of circumstances — it’s not going to land.
“We’ll have to drive it off.”
Brave words, but the odds are grim.
And quietly, Chihaya has started putting distance between herself and the Cyclone and Husaria.
Why?
“……th-the job’s done, so we’re basically strangers now. I c-can run, right? heheh”
Yes — to run. This socially anxious girl, of all things, was trying to flee to save her own skin.
Though in fairness — the job was completed, she’d never taken an escort contract, and the odds against winning were genuinely terrible. Ethically questionable. Logically sound.
Chihaya types at a speed she’s never hit before.
“——running”
Leaving only those two words, Chihaya’s Allrounder turns its back on the battlefield.
“Hey!? Dammit!”
Someone swears over voice chat.
“s-sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry”
Reflexively repeating apologies no one can hear, Chihaya glances at the rear camera through watery eyes.
The Cyclone takes a shot through the torso and goes down.
The white, feminine-silhouetted Actanoid swings its right arm from the Cyclone toward the Husaria. A gun barrel is visible in the muzzle of that distinctive draping, sleeve-like armor hanging beneath the hand.
That’ll be the Berlet’s standard-issue light machine gun. The recoil reduction comes at the cost of somewhat lower power and shorter range — but being sprayed at close range by something closing in at 160 kilometers per hour doesn’t leave much room to dodge.
The Husaria raises a self-defense handgun toward the Berlet. The Sengan — a pistol that fires armor-piercing rounds, enough to punch through Berlet armor.
But the Berlet moves with an agility unbefitting a humanoid machine, diving behind a tree and weaving past the handgun fire as it closes the gap at speed.
Missing that carefully aimed first shot meant the whole thing became one-sided.
The Berlet’s light machine gun outranges the handgun, so unlike with the Cyclone it doesn’t bother closing in — it just pours fire through the gaps in the trees.
Even marketed as a combat-capable Rannoid-series, full frontal combat was never what the Husaria was designed for, and it was riddled with fire one-sidedly. It can’t match the Berlet in armor or speed. An inevitable outcome.
The Husaria gets holes drilled through it from legs to torso and crumples against a tree trunk.
Two Actanoids taken down one-sidedly. The same pair that had been taking down Fernleg Scorpions one-sidedly — gone in an instant.
Partly bad weapon matchups, but the Berlet’s Actor is probably just good.
“……huh. The Allrounder ran. Quick decision-making.”
The Husaria’s Actor says it in a resigned-sounding tone that’s somehow also a compliment.
“They won’t let it get away, though.”
As the Husaria’s Actor predicted, the Berlet came tearing after her at ferocious speed.
Like it had no intention of leaving witnesses.
Chihaya had assumed — since destroying an Actanoid doesn’t put a scratch on the Actor back on Earth — that it wouldn’t bother chasing. That assumption was wrong, and the color drains from her face.
“——WHY!?”
And so the chase through the snowy mountains begins.
A chase where shooting eats into her profit, and getting wrecked puts her in the red.
Oh, and the enemy is coming at twice her unit’s top speed.
“I can’ttttt”
Chihaya stomps hard on the pressure mat and cries.
There’s no outrunning a Berlet in an Allrounder. Fighting, even at the cost of the profit — it’s the only option left.
Being a front-line Rounder-series unit, the Allrounder can take light machine gun fire from outside effective range for a while at least. It’ll dent the armor, rack up repair costs — but that beats getting totaled.
There’s nothing for it. She has to commit. Commit to fighting.
“heheh, heh heh heh”
Laughing and crying from the tension at the same time, Chihaya has the Allrounder raise its assault rifle.
Not toward the Berlet closing in from behind. Toward the snow at her feet, slightly ahead.
She pulls the trigger. The burst on full auto kicks up a fine cloud of snow, hiding the Allrounder from view.