Chapter I: The Silent

  Strategic Base #16, deep in the American northwest. Its nickname: ‘Camp Erased.’ Normally, its existence was kept so quiet that not even the average soldier had heard of it, but today it was enveloped in deafening gunfire.

  “Intruder alert! Requesting reinforcements to sector 6-D! Repeat, intruder alert! Requesting reinforcements to sector 6-D!”

  The rat-a-tat-tat of assault rifles. The shouts of brawny men. The rumbling cadence of combat boots on concrete. All this noise was directed at a single intruder.

  A lone girl stalked down a metal catwalk. Yes, this was the intruder. She gazed at the men below, expressionless.

  “Deploy...” As her voice rang out, she was bathed in a veil of light. It coalesced into solid matter, and in a few seconds, she was wrapped in vivid blue armor.

  “An IS?!”

  “This must be the tango they warned us about!”

  The girl in the IS Silent Zephyrus—M—raised a gigantic rifle in her right hand. Designed to fire both kinetic ammunition and BT energy, it was named Starbreaker. Not that anyone there but her knew that.

  “What are you even after?! Don’t think you’re gonna be able to run and hide from America after this!”

  It was a question which expected no answer—but underneath M’s visor-style hypersensor, she mouthed a few words. “Silverio Gospel. The IS you have here.”

  “What?!”

  A blink of the eye later, they fell in a hail of her fire. Yet strangely, she wasn’t just avoiding unnecessary deaths—she was avoiding killing at all. The bullets were 100% lethal, but she was aiming ever-so-precisely to wound rather than kill. This ‘no killing’ thing is... so dull. But her commander Squall had issued orders not to kill with an IS, and she had no choice but to obey.

  No, It wasn’t just obedience. M had been injected with monitoring nanomachines, and no more than a breath after she disobeyed orders, they would burn through her spine. This was another one of Squall’s requirements, one which M had decided to endure for now.

  “Ugh...!”

  “Gah!”

  “Dammit! HQ! Come in, HQ! We need backup! Repeat! We need— ARGH!”

  M, bored of precise aim, floated up into the air before diving forth and sweeping her foes to the ground. She followed the map of the base overlaid directly over her vision as it showed a route winding, descending into its depths.

  As M entered an exceptionally large—the ceiling was at least five meters high—hallway, a shadow flitted across her sight. A woman, from her silhouette. Just as M began to relish the thought of cracking the woman’s ribs, an arrow of light pierced her right shoulder.

  “Wh-What?!” As M instinctively grabbed the feather-shaped arrow to pull it out, it exploded in her hands. “Tch!”

  The force of the explosion blew her toward the wall, and just before impact, she tumbled and fired her retro rocket. But in the half-second this took, she lost sight of her foe.

  Bzzzt! Another bolt of light tore through a piece of her leg armor, blowing it off. Even M, well-practiced at speedy and precise maneuver, couldn’t manage to dodge. It ate at her confidence.

  “You must be...”

  “Natasha Fairs. US Army. IS test pilot. And the pilot of the Silverio Gospel.”

  Natasha kept up her fire as she spoke. She cradled a gleaming silver weapon in her arms, its shape reminiscent of a pair of wings. It was the prototype hand cannon version of the Silver Bell. Its firepower was even higher than the final version, and Natasha was firing it on foot. Her silky blonde hair danced beautifully, tossed one way by recoil and blown the other by the shockwaves.

  “I won’t let you have her!”

  Natasha fought as fiercely as a mother protecting her brood. But still, she was only on foot. Once M regained her focus, she became unhittable.

  “Ugh...”

  “Out of my way.”

  Stamping on the wing, M swiped broadly at Natasha with her right fist. Natasha was slammed back into the wall with a hollow thud.

  “Is that all you’ve got?”

  M reached down, grabbing the motionless Natasha by the back of the head, and lifted her into the air. On foot, Natasha was the taller woman, but M floated in midair. Natasha’s arms and legs dangled uselessly. Each was visibly broken in more than one place. There must have been even more fractures which couldn’t be seen. They hung lifelessly, like the branches of a willow. But—

  “Ahahahah.” The passion in Natasha’s eyes burned without a flicker. “Hahaha.”

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Mission accomplished. Signing off.”

  “......?” Before M could understand what Natasha meant, the floor collapsed under her feet. “......?!”

  “Gimme Nat back— Phantom Task!”

  A tiger-striped IS leapt out from the smoke, grabbing Natasha from M’s hands while plunging a throwing knife into the Silent Zephyrus’s armor. M may have been a steady-nerved veteran, but even still she instinctively dodged backwards.

  “So that’s America’s new third-gen, Fang Quake.”

  “Sure is. And I’m the National Cadet, Iris Calling... I’m gonna pay you back in spades for what you did to Nat.” As she spoke, she dropped Natasha to the floor to free up her hands for the fight.

  “Hey, Eye.”

  “What?”

  “You know I’m hurt, right?”

  “Oh, I know. Hold on a sec. I’m gonna give her a lot worse than what you got.”

  “That’s not really what I meant by that...” As Natasha sighed, Iris glanced at her in confusion. It seemed like she honestly didn’t realize.

  “Another new IS for us, then?” M slashed forth with a knife held dagger-grip as she spoke.

  “Hey, hey, haven’t you ever watched a movie? You’re supposed to sit there and wait while the hero introduces herself... There!”

  Iris caught the blade in her fist and wrenched it away from the Zephyrus with the sparks and groaning of twisting metal. Torn off, it spun up and embedded itself in the ceiling.

  “I’m gonna warn you, I’m pretty tough. You ready for a beating you won’t remember? That thing you ripped off from the English isn’t much more than a testbed. It’s not gonna do you any good against me.”

  Iris’s Fang Quake may have been a prototype too, but judging from its performance so far, it was one more along the lines of Shenlong: implementing stable, proven technology even better.

  “M, can you hear me?” Squall’s voice came over a private channel. M was too focused on her foe to respond, but Squall saw no need to wait for one anyway. Her words were as sudden as her namesake storm. “Listen, I’ve been watching the situation, and I think it’s time to get out of there. We just got a hold of the Zephyrus, we don’t want to lose it again.”

  M didn’t think she’d lose the fight, but she realized it would be a long one. And the longer it stretched on, the more likely it was that other IS would arrive as reinforcements.

  “Roger.” M replied emotionlessly.

  “You’re not getting away!”

  Iris gave chase with Ignition Boost. However, at the same time, M turned her thrusters around and also activated Ignition Boost, flying backwards.

  “You’re a slick one.”

  Iris almost admired the skill involved, but she didn’t have time to appreciate it. M was already accelerating away, firing as she flew backwards. She wormed her way nimbly through the twisting underground hallways, sending blasts of BT energy back as she fled.

  “Hey, wait up!”

  Iris gave chase, but was slowed by the need to dodge precise shots aimed at her IS’ joints. By the time there were only 100 meters left to the surface, M was already 50 ahead of her.

  Dammit! If I don’t grab a hold of her now, she’s gonna get away! Iris focused, trying to pull off a revolver Ignition Boost with her four thrusters. It may have only had a 40% chance of succeeding, but she had a 0% chance of catching up otherwise. Here goes! M, realizing what Iris was about to try, deployed her bits for burst fire.

  “GRAAAHH!”

  The hail of fire washed over Iris, but she kept accelerating. No matter how much armor was blown off, no matter how much shield energy she lost, she wasn’t going to stop.

  “Got you!”

  Close up, Iris stretched out her arm. M was within her grasp— But just as she thought she was wrapping her fingers around M, they instead caught the energy umbrella of a shield bit. One packed with a special bonus load of high explosive.

  “What?!”

  The repulsion of the energy shield and shock of the explosion brought her from supersonic speed to a dead stop. Foiled, she was forced to let M go. As she broke out into the sunlight, all she could do was zoom in and watch Silent Zephyrus disappear behind a faraway cloud.

  “Ahh— DAMMIT!”

  She beat a fist into her palm in frustration. The metallic clang of Fang Quake’s armor striking together echoed across the landscape.

  ◆

  “What?! Your birthday’s this month, Ichika?!”

  “Yeah.”

  It was dinnertime in the dorms, and the usual suspects were quietly chatting around the table until Charl suddenly spoke up. I wondered what was so surprising about that. I wouldn’t have expected it to be so shocking that she’d spring out of her chair.

  “What day?!”

  “September 27th. I don’t know what the big deal is, though.”

  “Hm...” Charl sat back down, then, suddenly said, “A Sunday?!”

>
  She didn’t quite spring up this time, but I could tell she was ready to. What had gotten into her?

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “I see... Mm, yeah, I guess. Yeah!”

  As I confusedly watched Charl mumble to herself while nodding, Cecilia, who was next to me with a plate of beef bourguignon, set down her bread and began to talk, “Ichika, you simply must remember to give us proper warning in situations such as these.”

  “Huh? Oh, sure. Sorry.” I apologized, not really knowing why.

  “Very well, then. Sunday, 27th September.”

  Cecilia intently drew a star next to the date in her white leatherbound pocket organizer. Was it really that important?

  “Why did you keep quiet about it?” Laura intoned ominously. She was sat next to Charl, so across the table and one seat to the right of me.

  “Huh? It’s no big deal, I’m not sure why I’d even mention it.”

  “Hmph. That explains you, but you’re not the only one keeping it secret.”

  “Ugh...” Laura’s glare turned to my two childhood friends, who stiffened in their seats.

  Before we go any further, our dinners: Laura had a macaroni salad with seasonal vegetables, Houki had the sanma meal, and Rin had the mapo meal. And I had the savory omelet meal. It was one of my favorites, the broth used to cook it was fantastic.

  “I wasn’t hiding it! You just never asked!”

  “She’s right! How awkward would it be if I just started blabbing about it for no reason? Too awkward for me, that’s how awkward!”

  Houki and Rin each continued scarfing down their rice as they spoke. They were definitely making excuses there...

  “Anyway! September 27th! You’d better not make any plans, Ichika!”

  “Ah, um, about that. I was going to get my friends from middle school together at my place. Why don’t you all come too?”

  “Of course we will! What time?!”

  “Around four, I guess? There’s that other thing on the same day, too.” As I spoke, everyone grimaced as if to say “oh, right.”

  The ‘Cannonball Fast’ IS battle-race. It was originally an international tournament, but with IS Academy here, it would be a little different. The Academy’s students would be signing up for an event run by the city. Of course, those of us with personal IS would have a major advantage, so there would be separate divisions for us and for normal students in practice IS. And because it would be an off-school-grounds event using IS, it would be held in the city IS arena. It was this gigantic place down by the docks, with seating for over 20,000 people. One time, some idol group or something booked it and couldn’t even sell out, which pretty much put an end to concerts there. Of course... it was supposed to be just for IS to begin with, so...

  “You know, now that I think of it, aren’t we supposed to be starting our high-mobility adjustments for the Cannonball Fast tomorrow? How exactly does that work, anyway?”

  “Well, we’re by and large getting high-mobility packages installed, but Byakushiki doesn’t have one,” Laura began as she bit down on a cherry tomato.

  “So you’re probably going to be tweaking your thrusters and reallocating energy output,” Charl followed up, nibbling on some fried fish.

  “Hmm. Didn’t Cecilia’s IS have a high-mobility package?”

  “Why, of course! My Blue Tears can be equipped with the Strike Gunner package, designed specifically for high-speed combat!”

  Cecilia proudly tapped a fist to her chest. Her other hand was perched on her hip, in a pose which wouldn’t have looked out of place on a supermodel. Looks like she’s finally out of her funk. I guess she got over whatever it was.

  Lately, she’d been practicing pretty intently after school. I hadn’t really heard why, but it seemed like it had something to do with letting the enemy get away after the school festival. Laura wouldn’t tell me anything about it either. Chifuyu had told her to keep her lips sealed. I guess what happened was even more serious than I had thought at the time.

  ‘Phantom Task.’ They’d been active for more than 50 years. From what little I could piece together from online rumors, they’d sprung out of the chaos of World War II. They weren’t nationalists. They weren’t radicals. They weren’t fundamentalists. And they weren’t racial supremacists. So what exactly they were after was a mystery. And the scale of their operations was just as mysterious. The name ‘Phantom’ really fit. At least according to Laura.

  The two things we did know were that they were split into a strategic counsel and operational cells. And that lately, they’d primarily been targeting IS. Just what the heck are they? I’d heard the ‘Remover’ they’d used was a ‘nonexistent weapon’—that is, something considered top secret. Yet somehow they’d managed to ‘acquire’ it somewhere and put it to use. Phew. There’s no real point worrying about it. At least not right now. I turned my attention back to the Cannonball Fast.

  “Good thing we’ve got you on our side, then, Cecilia. You’ll have to teach me how to fly at supersonic speeds.”

  “I’m sorry... But not at the moment. Perhaps you could ask Laura?”

  I noticed a frown flit across her face before she covered it with a smile. It seemed like she wanted to spend all the time she could on her own practice. Yeah, it was written all over her face.

  “Oh? I see. Could you teach me, then, Laura?”

  “Very well. You’ve been spending far too much time with that woman lately. Better for you to spend it with me.”

  ‘That woman’ was, of course, IS Academy student council president Sarashiki Tatenashi. Tatenashi had finally moved out of my room in the past few days, but she was still drilling me hard after school every day. I’d been shaping up a bit, but it seems like Laura still barely trusted me with the safety off. She was definitely Chifuyu’s student.

  “You’re the same, you know. Byakushiki’s baseline specs are on a level with other IS’ high-mobility loadouts... I guess the Akatsubaki’s the same way too,” mentioned Rin.

  She really had a head for IS facts and figures. It was never her thing back in middle school, so she must have studied hard while she was back in China. Yeah. Rin’s pretty impressive.

  “Anyway, I don’t know what the hell my country’s doing. There’s no way they’re gonna get Shenlong’s high-mobility package here in time. What about you, Charlotte?”

  “The Revive’s a second-gen IS, so they’re not developing it any further. But it supports auxiliary boosters. Really, it was always designed to be tweaked for speed. They didn’t name it ‘Rafale’ for nothing.”

  Charl’s IS, the Revive, was more properly called the ‘Rafale Revive,’ or ‘Reborn Gust.’ Yeah, that made sense.

  “Mm-hm. How about you, Laura? Yours is third-gen, right?”

  “They’ll likely adapt the high-mobility pack from its sister IS, the Schwarzer Zweig. It’s deployed in Germany, so most development takes place on it.”

  The conversation got a lot more serious as it turned to IS particulars.

  “So Schwarzer Regen has a sister IS? What kind of weaponry does it have?”

  “You may be my bride, but I still can’t tell you. It’s a national secret.”

  Zweig—That was German for ‘branch.’ Since it’s paired with Laura’s Regen, or ‘rain,’ it must also be an all-range IS equipped with an AIC.

  “Nice grin on your face, rookie.” Laura grinned back at me as she spoke.

  “Thank you for the compliment, Major.”

  I was finally beginning to understand Laura’s personality enough to play along with her jokes. Her frustration at the mention of Tatenashi was replaced with merriment—but deep in her eyes, there was still a chill. The Teutonic ice queen, Laura Bodewig. Her gaze was as beautifully clear, but just as piercing, as an icicle.

  “Then it’s time for our first real practice in a long time. We will commence at sixteen hundred hours in the second arena. Understood?”

  “Ma’am! Yes, Ma’am. Don’t expect this time to be so one-sided, though.”

  Laura giggled, “Perhaps. Or perhaps, tomorrow I may reveal the capabilities of my new equipment.”

  Laura turned her fork as she spoke. The prongs thrust through the pasta in her macaroni salad as precisely as pistons.

  “Now, Ichika, I expect you to stay sharp during practice.”

  “I’ll—”

  “—You’ll ‘really use your noodle.’”

  “...Is what you were about to say, right?”

 

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