Ai-chan spoke with casual detachment, as if the matter didn't concern it at all.
"It appears to be a hidden mode, likely a function linked to your ESP, Army Lieutenant."
"What kind of ability user am I, anyway?"
"That information is classified."
"You won't even tell me about my own self?!"
"Captain! Focus! Ask her what the mode actually does!"
Uta’s sharp interjection snapped me back to reality.
"Right. What is this mode?"
"It is Limiter Removal."
The kind of thing that definitely doesn't come with a safety switch! But at this point, I had nothing else to cling to.
"F-For now, fire the missiles!"
No matter how much the exterior of my machine glowed, my job remained the same. Uta let loose the remaining missiles. We were practically out of ammo now.
"Direct hits on the Corpse Eaters! But they aren't stopping!"
"Of course they aren't!"
Even the high-output missiles provided by the Latania Nation had only managed to shave off the creature’s outer layers.
"The Corpse Eaters are incorporating the pirate ships!" Uta screamed.
Is this its third form?! The mass swelled from the size of a cruiser to that of a full-scale battleship. A monstrosity born of scrap metal and parasitic organisms loomed over us.
"Dammit! If only that defective rifle still worked! Is there any chance it's actually still usable, Ai-chan?"
Ai-chan let out an exasperated sigh. "It will explode."
"Glad I threw it away then!"
I had no other choice.
"We’re charging in! Uta! I’m leaving the rifle aiming to you!"
"Roger that. Mount it to the shoulder slot. I'm jettisoning the missile pods now."
With a sharp hiss of pneumatic pressure, the empty missile pods detached. I slotted the pulse rifle into the shoulder mount. It was a far better plan than me trying to aim it myself, considering my lack of talent for shooting. Instead, I gripped a katana in my right hand and a handgun in my left.
Oraaaaaah! I wasn't afraid of anything anymore!
"Charge!"
The size difference between the massive Corpse Eater and my unit was laughable. If I was a summer mosquito, that thing was a full-grown human. In other words, as long as I stayed close, it couldn't even see me unless it focused perfectly! That was its weakness!
...Probably.
A warning chime echoed from Ai-chan. "High energy reaction from the Corpse Eater Aggregate!"
A beam? Wait, that’s a destroyer main cannon!
The main cannons fired in every direction at once. Even the anti-aircraft pulse vulcans on the captured gun mounts began firing wildly. Luckily, they weren't aiming directly at me.
"We haven't been spotted! Or rather, it knows there’s a mosquito in the room, but it can’t pin down the location. It’s opted for the strategy of spraying insecticide everywhere."
"That is a terrible metaphor, Ai-chan! I really hate this military! Mosquito Leo, heading in!"
"Good luck, Captain~"
"Uta! You’re part of this too! We’re going for yakiniku when this is over!"
"Yeah, yeah, roger that."
The Corpse Eater’s aim was erratic, making its firing patterns impossible to predict. Despite that, I closed the distance. My glowing machine must have looked like a summer firefly.
...Wait. Had I ever actually seen a firefly? Was that a lost memory? No, I shouldn't be able to remember anything. My brain cells were gone. There was no way I could recall the past.
Well, whatever.
"Uta!"
"On it!"
I began slashing away as she provided covering fire.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Damage confirmed on the Corpse Eater Aggregate. —Wait, something is coming!"
Naturally, it had a defense mechanism. The creature began ejecting fragments of the pirate ships it had swallowed. Tens of thousands of pieces of debris swarmed toward me like a cloud of shrapnel.
"Evasive maneuvers!"
In the next instant, I saw the future. It wasn't a joke or a metaphor; I saw a split second ahead.
In that single moment—in a span of time shorter than a nanosecond—I experienced tens of thousands of deaths. It was a situation that should have been impossible to survive. I was forced to witness a myriad of futures where I was pulverized by the incoming debris.
But at the same time, I treated it like a game. I restarted the simulation over and over in my mind... until I found the winning path. The moment I conquered the "stage," I was pulled back to reality.
Staying perfectly calm, I mirrored the exact movements from my successful simulation to weave through the debris.
"C-Captain! You're moving like you're not even human!"
I didn't have the luxury of answering Uta.
Right here! I parried a chunk of debris with the katana, dodged another... and then, bang! I fired the handgun. More debris launched from the hole I had just opened. I dove through the gap and slashed the main body with my blade. I tilted my head to avoid a stray fragment.
Bang! Another shot.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Uta! It's coming! Shoot them down!"
"Understood!"
The Corpse Eater Aggregate extended dozens of tentacles. Uta picked them off one by one with the shoulder-mounted rifle.
"Ai-chan, there’s a destroyer computer buried deep inside! Its security should be full of holes. Hack it and trigger the self-destruct!"
"Yes!"
"Then use the same security key to blow the other integrated ships!"
"Yes!"
I had died ten thousand times at this specific point in my vision. By dying on purpose to test the variables, I had arrived at this strategy. The Corpse Eater had likely incorporated the destroyers to gain firepower, but in doing so, it had created a fatal vulnerability.
"Self-destruct authorized! Please withdraw immediately!"
"Roger."
I threw the machine into a violent corkscrew as I retreated.
"Wait—Captain! Bleeeeeegh!"
Sorry, Uta. Even your motion sickness was part of the calculation. I’m really sorry.
From there, it became a game of dodging beams and shrapnel. I evaded, twisted, and dived. I forced the machine into impossible angles. A piece of debris clipped the arm holding the katana, tearing the limb clean off, but that was within the margin of error.
"3... 2... 1... Detonation!"
With a series of muffled thuds, the destroyers within the Corpse Eater began to self-destruct.
"Here it comes!"
"Wait, what?!"
Finally pinpointing our location, the Corpse Eater Aggregate aimed a surviving destroyer main cannon directly at us. I evaded by a hair’s breadth. The shimmering surface of my machine was grazed, the armor plating melting instantly. But this, too, was as I had seen.
I aimed my handgun and focused. I had failed this shot and died ten thousand times before getting it right. My muzzle was pointed at a specific pile of wreckage—a ship that had been too damaged for the self-destruct command to reach.
I pulled the trigger. The bullet followed the perfect trajectory I had practiced in my mind. It struck the self-destruct mechanism of the wreckage.
An instant later, the Corpse Eater Aggregate vanished in a blinding explosion.
"And that’s how I ended up being the one paying for the yakiniku."
After the battle, a quick medical check showed no abnormalities. From there, I headed straight to a yakiniku restaurant with the rest of the squad. Apparently, a bonus was being issued to cover the costs.
Meanwhile, Uta was eating with a ferocity that suggested she was trying to replace every ounce she had vomited earlier. That girl... she has a stomach of iron.
As we were eating, a notification chimed on Uta’s terminal.
"Ah... finally, huh..."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Um... this is a little hard to say..."
"What is it?"
"Captain, your family has been found!"
"Pardon?"
My family? I thought they were all dead.