I hopped onto the bike.
It was an old specialty of the Space Marines—the urban bike assault.
It's fine, it's fine,
I’d practiced in the simulator until I wanted to die.
Besides, Big Sister Luna had said it was safer than going on Big Sister Veronica’s ship.
The only real concern was that this was my first time actually doing it for real.
Helmet? Check.
Airtightness? Check.
Bike? All green.
Big Brother Leo and Big Sister Claire said they’d nearly died doing this once, but...
"Tatiana! Let's go, de arimasu!"
One-oh-one was with me, too.
I was invincible.
Shiyun, who was at risk of assassination, would follow later.
Today, Big Brother Leo was raiding the Taikyoku Nation Capital Planet.
My job was to infiltrate by bike while Big Brother Leo was busy wreaking havoc.
I would activate the Saint Barrier device with Wan’s unit.
Our escort was handled by Big Sister Claire and Big Sister Ren’s forces.
They figured that if even one Jester was around, we’d probably be safe enough.
One-oh-one and the Humanoid Zork people were also strong, so there were no problems.
Big Sister Ren’s Beast Race warriors were even called the Strongest of the Empire.
Yet, even those Beast Race fighters dreaded sparring with Big Brother Leo.
They were proud of their strength—though not quite as much as the Ogre God Nation people—and naturally boasted of their combat prowess.
Apparently, they’d all challenged Big Brother Leo once and had their pride thoroughly shattered.
He hadn't even given them a proper beatdown.
Even though he was clearly holding back with everything he had, they said they couldn't even visualize a path to victory.
...Big Brother Leo was apparently on an inhuman level of strong.
Yeah, that gave me a boost of confidence!
Alright, let's do this!
I roared out from the battleship and into the void of space on my bike.
The defense systems had already gone silent.
Big Brother Leo and the others must have been tearing things up already.
I fired the thrusters and began Atmospheric Entry.
Wan stayed right on my tail.
"Nyahahahahahaha!"
She sounded like she was having the time of her life.
Meanwhile, I didn't even have the breath left to scream.
Posture Control! Posture Control! Posture Controool!
Big Brother Leo had actually dove from this height into the sea on the surface to save Big Sister Claire, hadn't he?!
How was that even possible?!
Was he some kind of monster?!
"This is fun, de arimasu!"
There was another monster with bottomless stamina right here!
I pushed my physical capabilities to their absolute limit, focusing solely on Posture Control.
The ground finally came into view.
"De... decelerate!"
The moment I slowed down, a terrifying amount of G-force slammed into me.
This was nothing like the simulator!
Thrusters at full throttle!
Decelerate! Decelerate! Decelerate!
The ground rushed up to meet me.
I was never trusting Big Brother Leo’s "it’s easy" ever again!
"I’ll definitely get you back for this!"
The deceleration held.
I touched down slowly on the surface.
I was at my limit.
"Tatiana! That was wonderful, de arimasu! I want to do it again, de arimasu!"
Ignoring the ecstatic Wan, I hurriedly yanked off my helmet.
"Hurrrgh... blegh!"
I voided the entire contents of my stomach onto the ground.
"Tatiana, here is some medicine."
"Thanks..."
I swallowed the pills and waited by the roadside for Big Sister Claire.
A few minutes later, Wan’s stewards arrived.
They were already busy setting up the Saint Barrier.
Impossible. Everything about this was impossible.
Galactic Empire officers were all supposed to be able to do this? They were absolutely insane!
The medicine started to kick in, and I felt my energy returning.
I had a sinking feeling that I was over-adapting to the military myself.
A few more minutes passed, and a group calling themselves the Saint's Personal Guard—made up of people from the Ogre God Nation and Latarnia—showed up.
I refused to acknowledge them as my subordinates.
Within minutes, the installation of the barrier device was finished.
I had to hand it to the mass-produced version; it was impressive.
It was designed to be set up just by unfolding it.
Even the pile-driving into the ground was automatic.
The OS was optimized, and the initial setup was handled by the system.
The entire process took less than thirty minutes.
I wondered what all that initial struggle had been for.
Since I was physically weak and didn't know as much about electronics or computers as Big Brother Leo, I wasn't much help.
Seriously, what was going on inside his head?
The pre-activation tests were finished.
"Ussu, this is Tatiana. Everything's ready."
"We're close by. Just wait there."
I could see combat happening in the distance.
A Taikyoku Nation Humanoid Fighter fired its beam.
But there was no way it was going to hit Big Sister Claire.
It was deflected harmlessly by her shield.
Her movements weren't as nonsensical as Big Brother Leo's.
They were perfectly logical—right up until the point where the world started glitching.
Big Sister Claire closed the distance to the Taikyoku Nation machine. She reached out, grabbed its face, and simply crushed it.
The Ultra-close-combat Type Claire-exclusive Machine.
God's Fist of the Light Wings.
The durability of its joints was at the highest level of all machines.
Close-quarters equipment?
For her, the Knuckle Guards on her fists were more than enough.
A Backhand Blow followed by a spinning backfist slammed into another machine.
Its head snapped off and flew away.
...No way.
"Wan... were Humanoid Fighters ever supposed to move like that?"
"I certainly can't do that, de arimasu!"
Using the momentum from the backfist, Big Sister Claire leaped into the air.
Her machine's maneuverability was absurd!
She followed up with a jumping back-spin kick!
No, that was a professional wrestling move—a Rolling Sobat!
The enemy Humanoid Fighter went tumbling away like a ball, and Big Sister Claire landed gracefully with a thud.
"All clear. I'm heading your way now."
Wait, what?
There was still one more—
Boom! An explosion rang out, and the final machine lost control, rolling across the ground.
It was Big Sister Ren’s sniper shot.
...Were all of Big Brother Leo’s wives monsters?
Big Sister Melissa was so fast you couldn't even see her Katana move.
Come to think of it, Big Brother Eddie was a swordsman at the National Tournament level.
Even Isono-kun and Nakajima-san were top-tier elites in the Empire’s pilot rankings.
And Big Brother Leo was stronger than all of them... Just who the hell was he?!
"Mr. Steward..."
I called out to Wan’s steward.
"The thought that we once tried to fight them... it makes my blood run cold," he replied. "Furthermore... Lady Tatiana, His Excellency Grand Duke Leo Kamishiro's strength is truly on a different dimension."
Yeah, that was the consensus.
The sheer shock of the scene had managed to cure the last of my nausea.
They were expecting me to keep up with that, weren't they?
I decided that if I thought about it any further, I’d already lost.
Might as well activate the barrier.
I held my hand over the device's control panel.
I channeled my power.
The ore began converting the energy beam into the Saint Barrier.
The range wasn't enough to cover the entire planet.
But it could easily envelop the entire Imperial Capital!
The barrier roared to life.
"Big Brother Leo! The barrier is active!"
"Good! We're storming the Palace! You know the rest!"
"I'll stand by until Big Brother Thomas’s unit brings Shiyun! When given the signal, we'll storm the Palace!"
"Well done!"
Just wait, Shiyun!
I'm going to get your home back for you!