Chapter 38 – A Battle Between the Captain and a Brigand!
The scattered flashes of detonating debris lit the black sector in broken intervals.
On one side of the divided battlefield, two machines faced each other.
Schuelle, piloted by Grain, captain of the Seldia vigilante corps--and Blang's machine.
"Hey there, Captain! Real composed of you. Don't you care about what's going on behind you?"
Blang's sneer came sharp through the comm.
Behind him, Letaria and the others were locked in heavy fire with the two unknown mid-weight machines--but Blang paid them no attention. He had no idea who those machines were. What he knew was that they weren't targeting him, and they were making life difficult for the corps and for Letaria. That made them useful. Nothing more.
(Just like "he" said--this machine's performance is something. The headaches are bad, but it moves like I mean it to.)
Through the pain throbbing behind his eyes, Blang could feel the machine responding--genuinely, solidly.
"Then let's end this quickly."
Grain's words came as Schuelle leveled the prototype Photon Rifle from the right arm.
Three shots. White flashes. Precise.
They found Blang's machine.
They did not punch through the armor.
"Tough frame... Same type as before--Escado's Dien--but heavier than I remember."
Repairs and reinforcement, evidently.
"Not cutting it, Captain!"
Blang dumped hand cannon and machine gun fire indiscriminately and closed the distance. A wave of rounds swept at Schuelle--but this kind of attack was not enough for Grain. He read the barrage through subtle thruster burns, threading through the wall of bullets with minimal surface exposure.
(His reaction speed has climbed again--higher than the logs from Letaria's engagement. This isn't his own skill.)
Grain pushed the unease aside and returned sustained Photon Rifle fire. Several rounds caught the shoulder and legs of Blang's machine--but single shots alone could not deal critical damage to that armor.
"Then--this."
Grain seized a fraction of a moment and deliberately stepped into Blang's hand cannon line.
Blang pulled the trigger with all the confidence of someone who'd just been handed a gift. Schuelle tilted the shield by the smallest possible angle--not blocking, redirecting--absorbing the momentum and killing it. He used the same forward motion to close in, and locked the rifle's aim onto a single point on the Dien's left chest: the generator housing.
Burst mode. Three concentrated shots in rapid sequence. The first stripped armor. The second opened a crack. The third burned through to the internal structure.
Focused penetration.
"What--you--!"
Grain didn't let Blang recover. He mounted the rifle back to the frame and drew the Photon Saber from the left hip in the same motion.
The blade of light swept through Blang's armament systematically--the machine gun arm sent spinning, the hand cannon detonated. Each stroke stripped Blang's machine of another weapon.
In just a handful of heartbeats, it was over.
Blang's machine stood defenseless.
"It's done. Surrender and I won't take your life."
Grain's voice was the voice of a man who has already decided the outcome.
"Damn it--why can't I win--!"
At almost the same instant, the rear armor of Blang's machine blew outward in a controlled separation.
Before Grain could react, an escape pod with a miniature thruster array ejected at projectile speed into the densest part of the debris field.
"I'll remember this--I don't end here!"
Blang's parting words echoed and faded into the debris.
"...He got away."
Grain moved to pursue--then stopped. The situation where Letaria and the others were took priority. He let the pod go.
"At least we have the machine. ...Let's see how the others are holding up."
Grain turned and headed for Letaria's position.