Through my light magic doll, I saw three big fireballs shoot out from the Midas's palm. Two missed the target, but the last one hit it and made a huge explosion. It was stronger than the ship cannons we saw before.
"... Barely passed. Next is moving target shooting!" The test officer was quiet for two seconds. He seemed calm and didn't say much before starting the next test. Soon, some smaller targets rose up and started moving around in the air above the base.
Cyra tried many times but couldn't hit any. All her fireballs hit the base ceiling instead. Loud booms echoed everywhere. It felt like the whole building was shaking.
"It didn't break through the ceiling?" I was surprised the base shell was so strong. Good thing we didn't try to escape by breaking the walls before. But Cyra's failures made the test officer impatient.
"Niki! What's wrong with you today? Aren't you usually good at hitting magic targets? How come you can't hit even once!"
"I can't help it. This Midas feels weird to control!" Cyra could only make excuses. She wasn't the real Niki and hadn't trained, so of course she couldn't hit the targets.
"Nonsense! How can the controls be weird?" The test officer wasn't fooled. With all her bad performance from the start, he stopped the test and ordered Cyra to come back right away.
"Stop the next tests. Change drivers now! Niki, you're not allowed to be a driver anymore!"
"What do we do? If they change drivers, won't Cyra be in danger of being found out?" I never thought things would turn out like this. Cyra would surely be punished as Niki. They'd probably ask her lots of questions, and the secret would come out.
"No! I can't go back now!" Cyra realized this too. Her face turned pale as she sat in the driver's seat. Suddenly she gritted her teeth. "I've already gotten this far. I won't believe I can't escape!"
Was she going to force her way out? I was shocked. With everyone watching, the Midas suddenly started running straight for the base gates.
The test people around were stunned. They never thought the driver would disobey orders. Most of them first thought the machine had gone crazy!
"Stop! Niki, I order you to stop all Midas activities and come out now!" The test officer quickly came to his senses and gave orders anxiously. But how could Cyra listen?
"At a time like this, aren't you going to think of something?" The most frustrating thing was that Reed, who planned all this, was just quietly watching. I couldn't help reminding her.
"What can I do? Isn't this exactly the situation we chose her as driver for?" She glanced at me without expression. It seemed she expected this all along. Then she turned to Cyra in the driver's seat with a crazy suggestion. "You can find jet roller devices on the feet. We provided a more efficient ground movement mode. It's much better than using legs!"
"Oh, really?" Cyra got even more excited. I felt a shake around us. Looks like she turned on this function right away.
"Hey, why are you teaching her these things? What if she falls?" I was almost stuck to the cockpit wall. The sudden big speed up made it hard to move. I could only open my mouth to complain to Reed. Those "jet rollers" were like putting four wheels on the Midas's feet. Of course it moved faster, but I worried Cyra was still new to driving and might lose balance and fall.
Luckily, this worry was unnecessary. Cyra used to be very good at roller skating. This was her strong point. The Midas only shook a little before steadying itself.
"Actually, most of the test items need special training beforehand. It's hard to pass if it's not the real person. So we didn't expect Cyra to hit those targets. All she needed to do was escape!" Mia, who hadn't said much, suddenly opened her eyes and tried to explain to me.
"Why didn't you say so earlier!" I was stunned to find out this was all planned. So those earlier "accidents" were all part of their plan? Was Cyra actually a test subject?
"If we said it early, you'd be mentally prepared. Especially for someone cautious like Cyra..." By now the speed seemed to reach its highest point. Mia hesitated but finally said it, while putting another "Light Shield" physical protection magic on me. "Knowing what to do ahead of time might not be good!"
"Huh?" I didn't understand what she meant at first, until I saw through my magic doll's eyes that the Midas was about to crash into the base gates...
"Haha, exciting!" Cyra in the driver's seat didn't slow down at all. She silently raised all shields and charged at the gates without hesitation. Then came a super big crash that made us fly up in the air.
"Damn!" It felt like the whole space flipped upside down and sideways. I flew from the back of the cockpit to the front, hit the wall hard, then slowly slid to the ground. Only then did everything finally stop moving.
The driver was fine because of the seatbelt. But the rest of us squeezed inside had it pretty bad. Good thing we all had magic protection ready. Even with the cockpit's cushioning, someone would've gotten hurt without it.
"Why didn't you stop her from crashing? Don't you know the base defense is super strong?" Adrian seemed a bit angry. He had the strongest body and could get up first without any protection to check on me. Though he couldn't see outside directly, he had guessed what happened.
At first I thought the same as him, but the crash result was different than expected - Cyra actually broke through! The gate material was different from the base walls. It was probably just normal metal, but there were two or three layers. Also, there were several protection magic formations carved on the door to make it stronger. If magic hit this, its power would be greatly reduced.
"I calculated beforehand. If the Midas crashes into the base gates at full power, its mass should be just enough to break through." Reed seemed pretty shaken up too. She rubbed her head as she explained.
"Should be?" I stared at her eyes and asked.
"...Okay, maybe." Reed turned her head away, whether on purpose or not. She pointed at Cyra in the driver's seat, who had swirly eyes, and explained.
"If we told you the truth beforehand, you might hesitate at the last second. Like backing out or shooting weapons at the gate early. These moves wouldn't work and would backfire. We might fail at the last step! That's why someone simple-minded like Cyra, who doesn't think much in a crisis, is better as the driver!"
"What! You think I'm simple-minded? I got into university by myself, you know!" Cyra woke up right away when she heard someone badmouthing her and complained loudly.
"Hmph, is that so special? Who hasn't?" I snorted. If she wasn't so unreliable, I wouldn't have been kept in the dark until now.
Though Cyra broke through all the gates, the Midas wasn't in great shape either. We could see some damage to the outer structure. Even with shields up, the right shoulder that hit the gate was totally broken and hanging useless. Luckily the legs were still okay, so maybe we could keep riding it.
Of course the base couldn't just do nothing after the gates were broken. Soon loud alarms rang out all over. The magic dolls still in the research center could see all the soldiers in chaos, calling to report to the emperor and send support.
"Hurry up, five empire airships are coming this way!" Mia could see all this through her stand-in and kept urging Cyra.
"My Gundam became a cripple. Reed, you have to fix it for me later... No, why not just make a new one? That can be payment for using me as a test subject!" Though she said this, Cyra still controlled the Midas to stand up again. The ground outside the base wasn't as flat, so she couldn't use the jet rollers anymore.
"This was supposed to be the empire's secret weapon, but you're using it to escape..." I couldn't help rolling my eyes. But we'd achieved all our goals for sneaking into the base. There was no need to stay any longer, so leaving early was the smartest choice.