I lifted myself out of the loosened seat, crawling onto the palm. Then, with movements opposite to before, I was gently lowered to the ground.
I had to quickly unload my stuff from the buggy, which consisted of my change of clothes and the remaining emergency rations.
I was told that the fighter's mobility tops out at around 50 km/h, so I needed to carry enough food to last until we barely made it to the capital.
Once again, I found myself in the palm of the War Maiden as she returned to the pilot's seat. I stashed my belongings in the storage box behind the pilot's seat before settling back into my own seat.
"Your memory seems quite confused, but there shouldn't be any issues with daily life. Please recognize me as an extension of your own limbs. If you imagine moving me as part of your body, the joystick will act as the trigger for those movements."
First, I imagined walking and gently pushed the joystick forward, which is located at the tip of the armrest. The all-around screen displayed a slow forward movement.
Did I just make it move?
This time, I imagined picking up speed. Instantly, the speed increased, and I could see the surroundings rushing backward.
"That's the fighter's cruising speed. We're moving across the wilderness at 50 km/h."
So that's why there's a bit of up-and-down motion.
I then imagined going even faster.
"We're now running at 60 km/h. For even higher speeds, imagine gliding."
Glider? Is it like roller skating?
Let's paint the image of roller skates, and imagine the speed increasing even more.
"Your speed has reached 80 km/h. Since your feet aren't touching the ground, I think it's more fitting to imagine you gliding in a hover state. Would you like to increase the speed further?"
"Just how fast can we go?"
"If we're in ground gliding mode, we can reach speeds around 300 km/h. However, if you choose flight mode, you can go faster than 150 km/h. The maximum speed can exceed the second cosmic velocity. Increasing speed beyond that wouldn't make much sense; instead, we'd use hyperspace jumps for spatial travel."
I can feel my face turning pale. This is an incredible machine. I've never heard of anything like it.
Wait a minute... I remember something. There was talk about a craft positioned above fighter planes. Could this be it?
Even so, the performance of this battle maiden, Alice, is insane. If she had weapons too, it would be unmanageable.
I want to use her effectively, but using her too actively would draw too much attention. Plus, this form is eye-catching as well.
I should try out the ground gliding mode and flight mode to get a feel for them.
The fact that I can control this must mean I am indeed the master Alice referred to.
Well, it looks like I might not have been born from my parents after all. The old man who knew about my past is now among the dead. Oh well, no point in dwelling on it. With this, I should be able to get to the capital in less than three days. Maybe I'll hide somewhere and think things over for a while.
I can sleep in Alice's cockpit at night, which is convenient since it's safer than being outside.
The next morning, after a good night's sleep, I was making breakfast on the ground when Alice suddenly alerted me.
"Master, a moving object is approaching from the northwest at 50 km/h. It will arrive in about 10 minutes."
"Got it. I'm coming back right away."
I kicked the campfire to scatter it, dumped the pot water, and stuffed everything into my bag. Too bad—I was looking forward to that coffee.
As I settled into the cockpit, Alice's camera feed appeared on a virtual screen.
What do you know—it's a tank! There's no way a lone tank would be operating a thousand kilometers from the capital, so it must belong to some bandits...
"Six tanks are spreading out around us. They might think I'm a lone fighter," Alice said.
"We should probably run. Can we still make it?"
"There's an opening at ten o'clock. Let's try moving 100 kilometers in that direction."
The scenery in the panoramic screen whizzed by as we accelerated. A new virtual screen appeared, showing a radar-like display centered on Alice with a 50-kilometer radius.
"I've displayed the dynamic responses within a 30km radius. The range can be expanded up to 100km on the ground," the system announced. When I inquired about the types of sensors, another virtual screen popped up, showing a list of sensor categories. Besides the usual suspects like infrared and radar, there were quite a few others that seemed capable of detecting almost any physical changes.
"That high-speed movement doesn't look like a tank," I observed.
"It appears to be an ion craft. It's moving at 200 km/h at an altitude of around 200 meters," the system replied, displaying the object's height and speed on the sensor image. This feature seems designed for combat, but does Alice have any weapons?
"Yes, we do have weapons. If the target follows us after reaching the designated position, it would be wise to consider engaging them. ... I've decoded the encrypted communication between the ion craft and the tank. The message from the Three Kingdoms orders an attack on the pirate group with the code KA202 as soon as they are confirmed," the system informed me.
The stories about these pirate groups were well-known even in Yard. Apparently, larger pirate groups are referred to as raiders, and they're notorious for attacking even military patrol units.
"Looks like we might have to prepare for a fight," I mused.
"It will be over quickly. Ideally, we'd want to find their mothership, but it seems to be well hidden for now," the system added.
Are you planning to take out the mothership? But the fighter's weapons are supposed to be 50mm anti-tank guns. It's doubtful they can handle the ioncraft's mobility, and the approaching tanks have sloped alloy armor, which is probably about 20% thicker than standard. I think we'd need to get pretty close and target the engines at the rear to destroy them...
"Rest assured, the guns can penetrate tank front armor from over 3km away. The targeting system will display a dedicated scope image for you. Use the joystick trigger to fire, and I'll handle the adjustments."
The things chasing us seem to have lost their human rights already. If that's the case, we might as well fight back.
First, let's take care of the pesky ioncraft. It must be relaying our position to the tanks.
"We'll take down the ioncraft as soon as we reach the new location. Get ready."
"Acknowledged."
As Alice's arm reaches out sideways, she pulls something out of thin air.
What's going on? Don't fighters always carry their weapons?
"I've retrieved a railgun from subspace. It only has tungsten sintered metal rounds, but there are about 20 in each magazine. We have eight magazines, so we can keep using it for a while."
As soon as Alice finishes speaking, the view starts to rotate, giving the impression of looking slightly upward. Soon, one part of the view begins to zoom in, revealing a standard-looking ioncraft.
The standard ion craft has rings that project ion thrusters in all directions around its mid-sized buggy-like body. Powered by a small semi-gravity generator and a hydrogen turbine engine, it boasts a maximum altitude of 3,000 meters and a top speed of 250 km/h. However, as the old man explained, its fuel efficiency is terrible, giving it a maximum flight duration of only about two hours.
Considering this, the pirate mothership must be nearby, but unfortunately, there's no sign of it on the sensors. It might be beyond the sensor's maximum detection range.
'The crew consists of two members, armed with two 50 kg bombs each. They have just passed the designated movement point and will maintain their current speed. … Railgun safety release complete. Ready to fire at any time.'
Is this where my saga begins? Although they aren't the bandits who killed my parents, I won't show any mercy to pirates.
I slowly maneuvered the joystick, guiding the targeting crosshairs onto the target and pulled the trigger. A beam of light shot from Alice's rifle, and the ion craft exploded. What happened?
'The railgun was used in medium-speed mode. The tungsten sintered metal projectile was launched at a speed of 6 km per second, disintegrating the craft upon impact and from the shockwave.'
'Understood. That means the next one will be a tank. Is this alright as is?'
"No problem. Since they've stopped, destroy them one by one."
It's even easier than a video game. Probably thanks to this battle maiden, the performance is incredible. I've heard that it's tough to take out tanks with fighter jets in a direct attack.
Watching the tanks explode and seeing the black smoke rise one after another, I can't help but be impressed by how overwhelming the difference in armaments can be.
"Can you pinpoint the location of the mother ship?"
"It seems to be quite far away. With my abilities, if it's buried 20 meters underground, I can only search within a radius of about 10 kilometers."
It must be buried in the sand. There's no reaction on the surface at all.
If we keep going like this, we might end up marked by the bandits. Heading straight for the capital could also be problematic.
I speed up and move north. When I find a small oasis, I get off Alice and have a meal. It's just leftover ham roasted over a campfire, but after eating this, the remaining food will be just bland biscuits. Making coffee with the little water left helps me calm down a bit.
Lighting the last few cigarettes and sipping coffee, memories of my old life come flooding back.
The blazing yard under the scorching sun was a battle against the heat, but the beer after work tasted great. Most of my salary went to cheap lodging and meals, but there were times when I rejoiced as my savings slowly increased.
Can we really go back to that life again?
While fighter aircraft are not for sale, they occasionally show up in the black market at prices I can't even imagine.
The pirates from earlier were probably after Alice. Most fighter aircraft are owned by the Knights' Order; otherwise, it would be the Royal Army.
As we get closer to the capital, more and more bandit groups might come after us.
Sure enough, the next day as we headed toward the capital, there were bandits lying in wait.
I can't believe there are this many bandit groups. When I left the capital in a used buggy and headed north, there was nothing like this...
Hold on, maybe the bandits only attack if they think their targets have something valuable to sell.
The buggy I was riding was second-hand and practically on its last legs.
This is getting troublesome. Our food supplies are running low, and most importantly, our water is almost gone, but it seems we can't even head back to the capital.
I didn't realize there would be so many bandits trying to steal high-performance fighter aircraft.
To find water, I'll move a bit northwest. As far as I remember, there should be one of the large rivers that wind through the area. Even if I can't drink directly from it, I could boil the water and make it safe. Food is getting scarce too, but it should last a few more days.
"A large moving object is approaching from the south-southwest."
"Is it not a giant beast?"
When the flow of the great river finally came into view, Alice told me something important.