Come on, Abh, you’ve got to be quick. Get on out of here.
If he was going to be killed no matter what, he wanted to at least witness the occupiers get outwitted and outmaneuvered before he bit the dust.
The indicator light switched from red to blue. “Interment preparations complete.”
“Hurry! Liftoff in thirty seconds!” Min announced through the loudspeaker.
“Don’t forget about our interstellar ships ,” said Marca, pointing to the coffin.
“I won’t. I promise I will ask.” And so Lafier laid herself into it.
“You too, young master,” urged Bill.
“Right. Thanks for everything...”
“You’d better return the favor.”
Jinto lay sprawled beside her.
The coffin got sucked into the door, and each of its three layers of hatches closed one after the other. The interior was pitch dark.
“The indignity,” Lafier muttered. “To be forced to ride a ship with neither outboard frocragh nor a control glove .”
“It’s not even a ship ,” said Jinto, as a reality check. “It’s a casket. A caaaskeeet.”
A pause.
“You’ve taken a sudden turn for the repellent. Get back from me!”
“Don’t be like that, it’s so cramped in this thing. Ow! Hey, I’m wounded here!”
“It’s just a scratch,” she intoned ruthlessly.
“I lied. Don’t you know that I do that sometimes? OWW! Stop!”
VHRRRRRR ... The coffin began vibrating.
“THERE!” Kyte’s eyes reeled wide, staring at the spire rising gradually from below ground. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you shooting!? Don’t you see it!?”
The five air-mobile military personnel transport vessels dispersed, alighted on the spire’s threshold, and deployed their troops.
“A flash signal!”
The soldier in the assistant steerer’s seat leaned over the console and began making the landing lights blink. But the casket-rocket’s majestic climb continued unabated even as they maneuvered.
Finally, the empennage reached above ground. The blast winds sliced across the surface. Several soldiers could be witnessed hurtling through the air.
The casket-rocket steadily picked up speed as it rose. Eventually, the fire ship briefly came face to face with it.
“Smash into it! RAM IT!!” Kyte demanded madly.
However, it was a firefighter who’d been compulsorily conscripted that was steering. There was no way they’d comply with an order that meant certain suicide. Even a soldier in the occupying army might doubt the validity of the idea. Contrary to orders, the steerer caused the fire ship to withdraw for fear of getting caught up in the rocket’s shock waves.
Kyte nearly slipped down and out of the window as he began opening fire himself. “Why isn’t anyone calling for backup, dammit? What are the anti-aircraft units doing!? Bombard them! Shoot that flying nuisance down!”
VWOOOM ...
Hot winds blew in through the open window, and the aerial fire ship shook. Entryua promptly braced his head against the back of the seat in front of him. Even Kyte wasn’t so crazed that he neglected to block against the shock waves with his arms. When Entryua looked up, he saw the casket-rocket had already reached high into the sky, its propulsor flames like a flower blooming in the night.
“Dammit, DAMMIT!!” Kyte opened fire again.
At last, fire opened from the surface. But it was too late. The casket-rocket had already reached well into the stratosphere. Like a phoenix glaring down at the lowly lower realm, its propulsor flames made nothing of the fruitless gunfire.
“It’s no use,” said a soldier in a cold tone. “The flying nuisance has become a space-soaring nuisance...”
As soon as Entryua heard those words, the urge to crack up rose from his insides and broke through to his lips. He threw his head back and roared with laughter. He hadn’t felt this invigorated in quite some time. The fear he might get murdered did flit through his mind, but it couldn’t suppress the primal need to laugh.
“Damn it to hell,” Kyte cried tearfully. “WHY!? Why must everything always go their way? Does God not grant us divine commendation? Is God unwilling to give us a single sacrifice? Give me something to salve my heart!”
That was when it clicked for Entryua. Though the Abh and the Silesia Unaging were both born of genetic modification, the environments of their upbringing could scarcely be more different. He realized that Kyte’s hatred stemmed not from anything personal, but from a severe, tribal sort of envy .
And while a faint measure of sympathy for the military police lieutenant returned, it wasn’t enough to restrain the Lune Beega City Police Inspector’s gales of laughter — and Entryua didn’t care to stop laughing for some time.
“The destruction of the materials depot at 38 degrees 11 minutes east longitude, 52 degrees 24 minutes south latitude, has been carried out to completion,” reported Cfadiss. “Next...”
“Please, Senior Staff Officer ,” said Associate Commodore Sporr, Commander of the reconnaissance half-fleet the Ftuné . “Don’t annoy me with such overly detailed reports.”
“But Commander ...”
“I’m leaving the cleanup campaign of all ground targets to you.”
“But I must at least report to you after the fact.”
“And I’m telling you, you don’t need your commander ,” said Sporr, looking away. “This isn’t combat. It’s closer to an extermination.”
Can’t argue with that.
Cfadiss, for his part, was beginning to regret having proposed this strategy. There were 15,000 people under the military command of the troops stationed in Clasbule on the transport vessels that they’d captured in Sfagnoff Marquessate astrospace, and the ships’ memory drives hadn’t had their information deleted.
That was why they had been releasing 300 million EM bugs across city centers. EM bugs were nanomachines that, upon receiving radio waves of a certain wavelength, emitted pure noise at the same wavelength. And though the generating power of each individual bug was weak, together they made for an energy output not to be underestimated. Once UH-made EM bugs were released, it was impossible to stamp them all out in a single swoop.
As such, the Star Forces couldn’t stop the radio jamming with great ease, but nor could the enemy themselves. In other words, not only did the remaining 200,000 enemy troops on Clasbule’s surface lack a unified military command, they also couldn’t communicate with each other.
With the strike on the alpine radio station at the mountain’s peak, the jamming had stopped being planetary in scale. In some remote areas, it was even possible to receive notifications from orbit. However, in the metropolitan areas, highly populous as they were, word from the Abh had not yet reached them.
So here the Ftuné , which flashed through space like heavy cavalry, was stuck making the aerial fleet ’s job as easy as they could, striking units on the move and enemy bases that were removed from urban centers, among other targets.
To tell the truth, it felt empty. It harmed the soul to shoot down defenseless enemy remnants. To complicate matters, most of the enemy was in hiding within the planet’s cities, out of the reach of orbital attack.
“Be a dear and ask me for approval only when it might cause harm to befall any terrestrial citizens . Apart from that, you can conduct this work as you please.” When she uttered the word work , she visibly balked with a pronounced frown.
“Understood,” said Cfadiss, head lowered.
“How many hours until the main unit arrives?” asked Sporr.
“They’re scheduled to arrive in four hours and fifteen minutes by ship’s time.”
“I see.” Sporr stood up from her seat. “Now I will take my leave and away to the Chicrh Raichacer (Commander’s Room).”
“Yes, ma’am.” Cfadiss saluted.
“Senior Staff Officer , it’s an urgent transmission,” said the communications staff officer .
“Forward it.”
“Yes, sir.” The compuwatch beeped, indicating that the information had been transferred.
“Please wait, Commander , said Cfadiss, calling her to a halt as soon as he perused the transmission’s contents.
“What is it?” Sporr about-faced.
“It appears the bodœmiac (recon ship) of the Lardbyrch has rescued some drifters in orbit.”
“So?”
“The drifters in question claim to be Her Highness the Viscountess of Parhynh and the Honorable Noble Prince of the Countdom of Hyde .”
“Fïac Bœrh Parhynr ?” Sporr repeated. “What’s an Abliar princess doing in a place like this?” She cocked her head. “Is she running away from home?”
“I doubt it...”
“You can’t be serious!” The Associate Commodore ’s long robe waved as she strode back to the Commander’s Chair . “There’s no elegance in keeping the company of a rebellious teen.”
“That’s not it, though,” said Cfadiss. “If I recall, Fïac Bœrh Parhynr was on the patrol ship Goslauth as a trainee starpilot , while Lonh-Ïarlucec Dreur Haïder was aboard for a ride. As such...”
“I know, Senior Staff Officer . I see you’re another serious-minded type.” Cfadiss stood there for a second.
“I apologize.”
“Don’t apologize over something so stupid.”
“I apol— ...Yes, ma’am.”
“In any case, it’s a miracle she managed to survive on a terrestrial world . How are they doing now?”
“They’re still aboard the recon ship . The captain of the Lardbyrch is asking what we should do. I believe we should have them come to this vessel directly.”
“We, the graceful Sporrs, have never gotten along with the unrefined Abliars...” So the Commander monologued, eyes cast down and arms folded.
“Then shall we have the Lardbyrch stay in place for the time being? To await handling by Commodore Tlife?”
“What are you saying?” Her red eyes stared into the senior staff officer’s quizzically. “Have them come here, because it sounds like fun!”