The Lemea's hangar.

The hatch from which the Atalante had launched was closing.

As Molly watched, Larry approached her.

"Did she really just launch?"

His tone suggested she should have just run away.

Larry's lack of motivation irritated Molly.

"We're in the same squad, aren't we? You should have gone with her."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Are you just going to abandon her?"

Asked if he was abandoning her, Larry looked down and clenched his fists.

"What can we do? We've got nothing but outdated equipment, and the crew has no motivation. If we rushed in, we'd just get in the way. No, we'd just die for nothing."

"—That might be true, but..."

"You're too sympathetic towards her."

Molly looked down and muttered.

"She's the first friend I've made here on the Lemea."

She was surrounded by unmotivated adults.

Until now, Molly hadn't had any friends she could really talk to.

"You could make friends if you just left the service."

Despite telling her to let it go, Larry also felt guilty for letting Emma go alone.

Just then, Doug arrived.

"She really went and did it."

"Not you too, Doug-san."

As Molly puffed out her cheeks, Doug watched the hatch close and let out a heavy sigh.

"I wonder what good it does, trying so hard in a backwater place like this."

◇

In the cockpit, alarms blared.

Claudia glared at the massive weapon visible on the monitor.

It felt like she was challenging a mountain.

"Damn it!"

Foul language escaped her lips.

The Nevan that Claudia was piloting had lost its left arm.

It held a physical sword in its right hand, but the blade was broken.

River, piloting the massive weapon, praised Claudia and her team with glee.

"Isn't this amazing? You've already destroyed three hundred Zoks. And on top of that, you've even managed to scratch the armor of this Big Boar."

The armor of the massive weapon—called the Big Boar—was slightly scratched.

It was a scratch Claudia had made.

However, it was nothing more than a scrape on the armor plating.

She had tried aiming for the gaps and seams in the armor, but her blade couldn't penetrate.

(Is it impossible with the Nevan's output? If only I had a few more allies...)

An electronic warfare unit nearby had its legs burned off by the Big Boar's laser and collapsed.

"Tch!"

Her allies were falling due to her misjudgments.

The sight pained Claudia's heart.

(Where did I go wrong? I—)

If only I'd brought more forces.

If only I'd cooperated with the frontier security forces.

—But after thinking that far, she shook her head, realizing it was all pointless.

If she had pulled too many forces from the main unit, it would have hindered their operations.

As for the frontier security forces, she couldn't imagine that cooperating with them would have overturned this situation.

"Was it a checkmate from the start?"

Seeing the Big Boar's laser lens turn towards her, Claudia steeled herself.

Just as she decided to at least self-destruct at point-blank range to damage the enemy, the fallen electronic warfare unit opened a communication channel to its allies.

"A-An ally— This is impossible!?"

Claudia was momentarily distracted, wondering if her subordinate had lost their mind, but that single moment would save her life.

The radar of Claudia's Nevan also detected an ally approaching at high speed.

"A booster? —No, this is even more..."

There were no boosters left on the Lemea.

And yet, Claudia couldn't believe the presence of an ally approaching so rapidly.

On top of that, it was faster than the boosters they themselves had used.

The Big Boar must have noticed it too.

It changed the direction of its lens and fired its optical weapon in the direction the ally was coming from.

"Oh? So there were still some left. However, I've already obtained enough footage, so I have no intention of dealing with you."

Numerous lasers were fired.

They were fired ceaselessly at the rapidly approaching unit.

Some of the lasers curved, and thousands of beams were unleashed upon the allied unit.

The Big Boar was more powerful and troublesome than any of the interception weapons prepared at the plant.

The communication interference was so heavy with static that all she could tell was that it was an allied unit approaching.

In fact, it was being treated as an "unknown."

Although it was registered as an ally, there was absolutely no detailed information on it.

It was a truly suspicious presence.

Her subordinates had given up, believing it was impossible for the ally to arrive safely.

"That's impossible."

"What's it doing coming here all by itself?"

If only it would just run away—that was the wish of Claudia and the others there, but strangely, the allied unit approached the plant without being shot down.

"What is that?"

When Claudia noticed the anomaly, River was panicking.

The Big Boar's sensors must have been superior to the Nevan's, as it seemed to be showing the strangeness of the approaching allied unit.

"Why? How is it dodging them!?"

While the Big Boar continued its relentless assault, the allied unit flew almost in a straight line towards the plant.

Claudia's eyes widened as she saw the unit.

"—Emma Rodman."

The unit that had come within visual range was an experimental Nevan.

It was performing geometric maneuvers to evade the lasers and beams.

What was astonishing was that it had reached this point without being hit even once.

And then Emma's unit—overshot the plant.

"—Huh?"

◇

"Aaaahhh!! Please, just stop!!"

Inside the Atalante's cockpit.

Emma, struggling with the overly sensitive Atalante, had overshot her destination, the enemy plant, due to her momentum.

She immediately tried to turn around, but the booster's output placed a heavy strain on her body.

Amidst this, lasers fired from the giant weapon closed in.

Emma took in all of their movements with a momentary glance, then rapidly moved the control stick again and again.

A normal unit would have felt sluggish at this point, but the Atalante, said to be overly sensitive, was keeping up with Emma's reaction speed.

"I can do this."

The Atalante weaved through the gaps between the lasers.

"With this one—I can do it too!"

The sluggishness she had always felt was gone.

No matter what unit she piloted, it always felt like she was moving through viscous water.

But now, that feeling was gone.

The Atalante moved just as Emma wanted it to.

Like a fish in water, Emma piloted the difficult machine as if it were her own limbs.

To approach the plant again.

This time, to avoid the lasers and beams, she lowered her altitude, only to find the ground swarming with Zoks.

"I didn't hear there'd be this many!!"

Emma screamed, but arcing lasers and beams rained down on the Atalante.

As she passed directly over the Zoks, the lasers and beams rained down on them as well, even though they were supposed to be allies.

"It involved its own allies!?"

Emma was surprised, but so was the enemy.

"What the hell are you!"

The enemy pilot shouted the question, his voice laced with considerable impatience and irritation.

Not expecting to be asked who she was by the enemy, and caught up in the excitement and chaos, Emma blurted out a response.

"Uh, um, well—Emma Rodman! A knight of justice!"

Hearing Emma call herself a knight of justice, the enemy must have thought she was mocking him.

"M-Mocking me. You seem to be the third unit, but a machine of your level is no match for this Big Boar!"

Just as the Big Boar was about to attack again, a communication channel with an ally opened.

"Cadet Rodman—I mean, Second Lieutenant!"

"Instructor Claudia!?"

The fact that Claudia almost used her training-days title was proof of her panic.

"I'll make this quick. It's connected to the base's power generator. Its energy is constantly being supplied. The armor is thick, too. The weapons available to a Mobile Knight can't get through."

The Atalante, having gained altitude, looked down at Claudia's struggling Nevan.

(Even the instructors were pushed this far!? B-But—no. With this unit, I can do it. I'll do it!)

The Atalante raised the rifle in its right hand and pulled the trigger.

The bullet pierced the lens that was firing the optical weapon.

However, the destroyed lens was immediately ejected, and a new one appeared.

Emma continued to attack, destroying the lens again and again, but it was replaced every time.

"That's cheating!"

"It's useless. The lenses can be replaced any number of times. No matter how much you fly around, you have no chance of—"

Before he could finish saying she had no chance, the enemy's condition changed.

"A drop in output? Did it switch to internal power? The connection to the generator has been severed—"

The Big Boar's movements became slightly sluggish.

At that moment, the communication interference cleared.

The face of the ground forces commander appeared on a part of the monitor.

"—We've seized the enemy's power generation facility."

The missing ground forces had seized the power facility located deep underground.

This was the reason the Big Boar's power supply had been cut.

Claudia was surprised to learn that the ground forces were safe.

"You aimed for the underground in that situation?"

The ground forces commander's lips curled slightly into a smile.

"We're used to scrapes like this. But that monster up there has an internal power source. I hear it won't last ten minutes, but the problem is that it's set to self-destruct when the internal power runs out."

Next to the commander, a man who looked like a pirate executive lay defeated.

The information must have come from him.

"Can you take it down within ten minutes?"

Asked if they could defeat it, Claudia was unable to answer, but in her place—

"I'll do it. I'll show you I can."

—Emma answered.

Hearing her words, the commander gave a troubled smile.

"Did he foresee this, or was it just a whim?"

What was he talking about? As Emma and Claudia struggled to understand, the commander closed the communication channel.

"I wish you luck."

◇

Underground at the plant.

The ground forces began to head for the surface with the captured pirates.

As the commander walked, the woman who had delivered the Atalante to Emma spoke to him.

"She really got it to move."

"I thought only our boss or some knights with a few screws loose could pilot a ridiculous machine like that. I never expected a girl like her to be able to control it."

All the surrounding subordinates understood who he meant by "boss."

The commander seemed to have taken an interest in Emma's future.

"That Second Lieutenant might just be one hell of a monster."