City Series:Volume1 Chapter 7

Status: Incomplete

6/18 parts completed

   

Chapter 7: The Legend Rises

Part 1

At 2:51 PM, Oscar watched the sky from the Bladlikburg’s bridge.

Mayer stood behind him to provide a report on the incident.

However, Oscar did not turn around. He continued facing forward as he responded.

“I never thought this would happen.”

He heard Mayer move behind him.

“It was a mistake to remain armed at all times.”

He nodded at his aide’s comment and asked a question.

“How is he?”

“First aid is complete and he is being taken to the infirmary.”

“How is his injury?”

That was what he wanted to know.

“Oh,” said Mayer before answering. “My apologies. The bullet penetrated his right forearm. The state of the bone is unknown, but I would guess it is broken. The shot was at close range and he has not trained his body.”

“Most likely.”

“It seems his life is not in danger, so you can rest easy on that count.”

“Rest easy, hm?”

He smiled bitterly.

“I suppose so.”

Ever since hearing the report, he had been worried about his enemy’s well-being.

…Why is that?

They both had something they had to do, even if those two things were polar opposites.

He had to determine once and for all which one of them was right.

Normally, it would be Oscar since he was thinking of his nation and its people.

But what if one looked at it from the viewpoint of personal dreams?

What if acting on those dreams could change the world, change what was normal, and even change people?

…Which one of us is right?

He suddenly realized something.

…I am hoping that the dp-XXX comes here.

He had planned to hide that ship until the time came and he still hoped to do so if possible.

But the coming confrontation would determine the future course of the world.

“Mayer.”

He wanted to say “win”, but he swallowed the word.

He did not know why.

It was possible he too hoped that the dp-XXX would make it to space.

However, he could not allow that. As a father and as a soldier, he had a family to protect and men under his command. He had to eliminate anything that would harm them.

“…”

He bit his lip.

At that moment, he heard a roar.

Countless sounds much like bursting gunpowder reached his ears.

They came from outside, so he slightly lowered his gaze as he looked out the window.

“!”

The Bladlikburg Zwei floating in front of him was being struck by a series of Kugel. The Kugel had come from far below and more were coming.

The enemy had suddenly attacked with their full strength.

The repeating sounds of impact reverberated in his gut.

“Enemy ship detected! A single unidentified ship is attacking!”

The navigator’s voice filled the bridge just as the Zwei’s giant form burst into flames.

…Here it is!

There was no need to confirm who this was, so he gave a shout.

“It is the dp-XXX! All hands, prepare for battle! Scramble all fighters with the highest danger level equipment! This is all-out war!”

Part 2

It was 2:54 PM.

The Bladlikburg’s infirmary was a tidy white room. Other than the beds by the window, it only had shelves of medical equipment and a treatment table.

In that room, Walter and Paul faced the medical officer.

“Hm.”

The medical officer gave a quick nod while examining Walter’s arm as the young man lay on the table.

“The bullet passed through quite cleanly. You were lucky. As long as you don’t move it, it should stop bleeding soon.”

“Isn’t that great, Walter?”

“What about the bone?” asked Walter.

“It was hit quite nicely. It’s broken and it should take two months for a full recovery.”

“Now that’s a problem. I won’t be able to do anything scholarly.”

“How is that any different from normal?”

“Um, you there? Please don’t provoke the patient.”

“Don’t worry. My big heart is immune to damage.”

“Doesn’t that just mean you’re callous?”

“How rude. The only real callouses on my body are on my feet.”

“That’s not what I meant!” shouted Paul.

Suddenly, they heard a rumbling from outside.

It was the low yet sharp sound of destruction.

“Eh?”

Walter looked around pointlessly.

At the same time, the battle preparation alarm filled the Bladlikburg.

The earsplitting noise filled the infirmary and a panicked voice made a ship-wide broadcast.

“Enemy ship approaching! Enemy ship approaching! We are now engaged in combat! Prepare the Soldat unit for launch and all gunners to your stations!”

Another rumbling reached them.

And this time it continued again and again.

The noise shook the walls and their bodies.

This was the sound of bullets hitting the metal armor.

“Wh-what?”

The medical officer stood up and the Bladlikburg Eins lurched from another hit.

“!”

Walter looked to Paul and Paul reflexively jumped onto the bed and pressed against the stationary window.

“How is it, professor!?”

“Wait! What do you two think you’re-…”

“Shut up, doc!” shouted Paul.

His voice was loud enough to drown out the rumbling outside and the alarm filling the ship. And his voice contained a hint of joy.

“Dammit… Is the little lady here? I can’t see!”

The Eins shook again and medicine bottles on the shelves loudly clinked together.

Paul pressed his face against the window in his attempt to peer out.

“…”

“Well, professor? Is it the Kaiserburg?”

“I still can’t see very well.”

“C’mon, find it already.”

“Oh, shut u-…ahhh!!”

“Eh?”

Walter received a definitive answer to his question.

“There it is!”

Paul’s voice was filled with delight.

“It’s here!”

Walter held his injured arm, stood up, and stared intently at the wall he could not see through.

Based on Paul’s posture, the Kaiserburg had to be flying alongside the Eins.

Walter began to approach the window to check on it, but then Paul said something odd.

“Hm? The Kaiserburg’s turning its nose this-… Whoa!”

He frantically moved away from the window.

A moment later, the window and the entire wall vanished.

With a great roar, a Kugel fired by the Kaiserburg tore the wall away.

Light burst and noise exploded.

“!”

“Watch out!”

The difference in air pressure blew everything outside. Pillars and panels made of iron and steel were torn away and tossed into the empty sky. The noise was enough to hurt their ears.

The beds were spat outside like paper and the white sheets spread out in the sky before being blown away. The paper and books on the desk danced across the floor and into the sky.

The room’s warm air came in contact with the cold wind of the high altitude and produced an icy mist.

A violent gust of wind danced through the room that was now directly connected to the sky.

In an instant, the infirmary was reduced to ruins.

The window-side wall and the beds were gone, so it was nothing but a treatment table and the edge of a cliff.

The medical officer shouted over the harsh wind.

“Wh-what the hell was that!?”

“A Kugel obviously.”

The Kaiserburg probably had no idea Walter and Paul were in here. It had simply opened a horizontal hole for them to escape through.

Paul had jumped from the bed to the treatment table at the last second and he sighed.

“That little girl is crazy.”

Even as he spoke, the floor below the table crumbled.

With a sound like rocks hitting each other, the floor scattered fragments and broke apart. The table tilted and then fell.

Still looking like he did not know what was happening or what was going to happen, Paul sat on the table and fell. Only his shrill scream remained.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

Their parting only took an instant.

Some white sheets remained in the air and fluttered lightly as if saying goodbye, but they were quickly carried away by the wind.

Walter stood speechless on the cliff’s edge.

The medical officer stood behind him.

“…”

After a short silence, the medical officer gave a shout. He had likely been unable to bear the silence.

“Wh-what!?”

“It’s the sky. You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”

“That’s not what I was asking!”

“Hm. From an objective point of view, the ship was hit, the wall was destroyed, and someone fell out. But the person who fell is a bit of a unique kind of person, so I doubt that’s enough to kill him. Don’t worry about it.”

Even as he answered the medical officer’s shouted question, Walter looked down at his injured arm.

The forearm was bent a bit about halfway down. It was broken and a fingertip-sized hole continued to the other side. The bleeding must have resumed because a blood stain appeared on his lab coat.

It had to hurt quite a bit, but the young man did not even frown.

He peered down from the edge of the cliff.

“I can’t even see the professor anymore.”

“Wh-what are you muttering about!? We need to get out of here! It’s dangerous!”

Walter nodded at the medical officer’s words.

“I see. I have to agree with you there.”

He sighed as he stood on the very, very edge.

“C’mon, professor. Rushing ahead is only going to hurt you.”

“What are you talking about!? This is an enemy attack! Hurry up and evacuate inside!”

Walter turned toward the desperate voice with a small smile.

“You’re right. I should leave here and go somewhere safer.”

With that, he jumped out into the windy sky.

Part 3

At 3:08 PM, the Bladlikburg Eins’s bridge was in a state of complete disarray.

“Levels 1, 2, and 4 were completely destroyed on the starboard side! Level 3 was damaged on the rear starboard side! Levels 5 and 6 were partially damaged on the mid starboard side! Our fighters can no longer connect to the starboard side!!”

“The Eins’s Eisen Soldat #1-4 will be unable land for the aforementioned reason. Have them land at Berlin Airport or Tempelhof Airport instead. Send out course instructions to ensure they do not collide with passenger planes.”

“We are scattering fragments of the armor. All fighters in flight should avoid travelling below or behind the Eins.”

“Our center of gravity is shifting to port! Everyone who is free, move starboard! Starboard!”

“Lock down the starboard water storage tanks and ensure all water that will flow from the outer hull will do so. Focus on the ship’s center of gravity.”

Amid the busy exchange of words and documents, Oscar sat in his command chair by the window and felt nearly worked to death by his instructions to the different ships.

He suddenly looked out the window.

Quite a bit of water and oil had spilled from above and stained the window. The water froze white on the glass and crystallized.

…They really got us here.

The components of the outer hull rained down from them.

He was suddenly worried about the city of Berlin below. Even a single screw would become a deadly weapon when falling from this height.

He looked down. The bridge’s window continued down to the floor, so his raised command seat gave him an excellent view of the area below them.

He saw the clouds, but Berlin was visible through the gaps.

…I’m sorry.

After that thought, he looked back up.

He could see the blue sky through the slightly dirtied window.

Something even bluer fell outside the window.

“Mh?”

He recognized the shape and color from somewhere. It was a round shape with some flesh-color stuck to it.

It was a person.

And given the color of the clothing…

“Wagner!”

He reflexively stood from his chair.

Suddenly, something else fell and he saw it clearly this time.

The man wore a lab coat.

“Walter!”

The young man fell straight down and their gazes almost seemed to audibly meet through the glass.

If anything could be called a coincidence, this was it. Neither of them had meant for it to happen, so it was a truly unexpected instant.

The strength in the young man’s eyes filled Oscar’s head with pain.

He ran from his chair, down the stairs, and to the window. He did not even hear the surrounding commotion. All he heard was the distant rumbling.

And that rumbling was approaching from above.

He knew what was coming after those two had fallen.

“The dp-XXX.”

That was exactly what descended before his eyes.

Its shadow raced through the bridge for just an instant. The collection of metal organs appeared outside the window and shot downwards.

It was fast.

In a heartbeat, the glass shook so hard it threatened to break. This was a shockwave. The air beyond the window had been torn apart by the passing battleship and thin clouds formed as it cooled.

The commotion inside the bridge was drowned out by the roar.

Oscar felt the sound in his head, gut, and limbs, but he could not tear his eyes away from the window.

The metal ship dropped toward the hazy city of Berlin. The ship remained horizontal, so it was a somewhat odd descent. A lab coat and blue work outfit were visible beyond it.

The three falling objects grew smaller and smaller.

However, the battleship was catching up.

“…”

Oscar silently stared down at them.

The sword-like ship reached the lab coat.

A moment later, it reached the blue work outfit.

The dp-XXX then fluttered like a leaf. It stopped falling and slipped forward.

It looked small at such a distance, but it glowed a brilliant gold as it reflected the sunlight.

“So they did it.”

Those words that not even he understood brought Oscar back to his senses. The commotion around him once more reached him.

He suddenly realized he was clenching both fists so tightly it hurt.

“The battle begins here!”

Part 4

At 3:12 PM, the Kaiserburg glided approximately four hundred meters above Berlin.

The cockpit door was open.

“Welcome back,” said Else as she stood from the pilot’s seat.

When she turned around, she just about cried out.

Paul was supporting Walter who was covered in blood.

“A-are you okay?”

Walter smiled.

“Let’s just say I’m almost okay.”

He spoke in a jocular tone, but he did not actually say he was okay. It must have been a serious injury.

“What happened? Was it my bombardment?”

“Don’t worry. His wound just reopened from the difference in air pressure and the pressure of the wind as he fell. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Either way, this was our only choice. …More importantly, Else, thanks.”

“I didn’t do all that much… And this isn’t the time! We need to treat your wound!”

“This is the battlefield,” said the young man as he wiped splattered blood from his cheek.

She sighed, approached him, and checked his right arm.

It was still bleeding, but it looked like it would stop before long. She was more worried by how limply the arm was hanging at his side.

“Walter, don’t tell me…”

“Yeah, it’s broken. The bullet got me pretty good.”

Else had a thought while looking up at him.

…Does he not feel any pain?

She mentally shook her head to reject that thought.

It had to hurt. He was just not letting anyone else know about it.

…Why?

She had a hunch. Someone pursuing his dream could not show any weakness. Even if he wanted help, he would not let anyone reach out to him.

With that in mind, she said one thing.

“I’ll tie off the wound real quick.”

He looked troubled by that.

“But the enemy fighters should be approaching already.”

She slapped the face that said that.

It made a surprisingly satisfying sound.

Paul gave a joking whistle while supporting Walter.

She looked straight up at Walter.

“This ship is filled with delicate machinery, so I don’t want to get blood all over it.”

She gave a blatant lie and reached for the right sleeve of his lab coat and work outfit.

Once she touched them, she realized the inside of the work outfit’s sleeve had become a wet rag.

Ignoring how much she was dirtying her hand, she started by rolling the lab coat up to his upper arm.

“Mister, get to the pilot’s seat. Enemy fighters might be coming.”

“Sure, sure.”

Paul sounded oddly happy about that and he patted Walter’s shoulder before moving to the pilot’s seat. Walter smiled bitterly at the touch on the shoulder.

Else thought for just a moment and rolled up the work outfit sleeve as well. His arm was exposed and she could see the red oil-like blood covering it.

She saw the wound, rolled the sleeve up further, and stopped at the elbow.

“Is that too tight?”

“You’re trying to stop the blood, so it’s perfect.”

…Good.

She pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from his arm.

“I wish I had a splint. …Should I make a sling?”

“I can rest the arm on the armrest, so don’t bother.”

It still had to hurt quite a bit and Else carefully tied the handkerchief around the wound.

“That should do it.”

She stepped away from him and finally looked at his face.

He scratched his head with his other hand.

“Else.”

“What?”

“I’d only ever been slapped by a woman once and I was kind of proud of that fact.”

“Who was the first? If you say your mother, you’re about to get a third.”

He thought for a moment before answering.

“Try not to make it hurt too much, okay?”

She slapped his opposite cheek before he had even finished speaking. This one sounded nice too.

“Enough nonsense. Just get to your post. Honestly.”

She looked at his face and saw blood on the handprint from her slap.

…Ah.

She realized her hand was covered in blood. It was drying and her fingerprints stood out.

She sighed.

“Do you have anything to wipe the blood up with?”

“I always wipe my hands on the bottom of my lab coat.”

“Please don’t say that so seriously.”

She had no choice but to grab the bag she had left in Walter’s seat. She pulled a towel out and belatedly realized she could have used it on Walter’s arm.

“Stick your face this way.”

“…Are you going to slap me again?”

“What has you so scared? Now stick your face over here or I really will.”

He crouched down and leaned forward as she had asked.

“Good boy.”

She spoke as if to a pet and wiped the blood from his cheek.

“There. That should do it.”

“Am I back to my handsome self?”

“You? Handsome?”

“…I’m never asking you anything again.”

He frowned, passed by her, and sat in the gunner seat.

He used his left hand to place his right arm on the armrest, opened his right hand, and grabbed the sphere for the field emitter.

Then he turned back toward her.

“This seat is shaped a little different from before.”

“I increased its range of transformation so I could sit in it. I also modified the voice recognition system a bit.”

She pulled the communicator from her pocket and handed it to him.

He extended his left hand and took it.

“How much can we use it now?”

“It should be a bit smarter than before.”

“I see.”

He faced forward and gave a single command.

“Sit.”

The Kaiserburg did not respond.

“This thing isn’t smarter at all, Else.”

“Are you sure it doesn’t try to match the intelligence of its user?”

“Hm, you may be right. So when I use it, it’ll only accept a complicated, intellectual, and highly refined command.”

“Are you sure you didn’t take a bullet to the head too?”

“How rude. I’ve always been like this.”

“Hey, you two. This is no time for saying stupid things.”

“I was not saying stupid things.”

“Neither was I.”

“Shut up!” shouted Paul as he slammed a fist down on his armrest. “Try to be a little quieter. The enemy’s here and they’re trying to charge in at us all at once.”

Sure enough, several contrails raced across the sky toward them. Else frantically sat in the seat with the navigation equipment.

The enemy fighters appeared as dots of light on the radar.

“Wow… There’s a whole army of them!”

“Don’t say there’s an army! Give us some numbers! Can you not count above three!?”

“That’s right, Else. Instead of calling this an army, call it a spectacular catch.”

“Shut up, both of you. None of them stand a chance, so what does it matter? We only have to worry about that black one, right?”

Was that fighter coming? Was Mayer coming?

…If he is, we can have our battle.

With that thought, she fastened her seatbelt.

The battle was truly beginning.

Part 5

At 3:21 PM, the number of destroyed fighters had reached the double digits and Oscar gave new orders.

“Once the Eins’s center of gravity has recovered, send out the Flammen Ritter. Until then, have all fighters cruise above Berlin, pursue the Kaiserburg, and keep the pressure on it. But do not actually attack. Once the Flammen Ritter has launched, all fighters are to return to their ships.”

Part 6

At 3:23 PM, the Flammen Ritter was still attached to the eighth connector on the Eins’s port side.

Mayer stared into the sky from the cockpit.

“Can’t they hurry up?”

The sun would set before long and the moon’s effects would come into play. If he did not settle this before the moon came out, the Kaiserburg would almost certainly fly into space.

“I can’t believe this.”

When the Eisen Soldat had been launched, he had still been on the bridge with Oscar, so the damage to the Eins had delayed him.

…I was careless.

The commotion below seemed to have settled for the time being.

Oscar had decided only this fighter could fight on even footing.

It would come down to a one-on-one fight.

…He has high expectations of me.

That made him happy and he smiled bitterly when he realized how childish that was.

He was enjoying this entire situation. That meant he had hoped for something like this. At the very least, he had not been forced into it and he had not been reluctantly dragged into it.

He had wanted it himself.

…Yes.

“That’s right.”

…There’s something I need to do.

He closed his eyes.

He had no goal. He could not truly say how much he could do. However, he was glad he could not say that.

If he won here, he would aim even higher. If he lost, he would overcome that regret and still aim higher. He was prepared to keep doing that until the day he died.

…How far can I go?

He opened his eyes and saw the blue sky beyond the canopy.

He suddenly reached out a hand and grabbed at the empty space with his glove-covered fingers.

…I want to advance farther than anyone someday.

As soon as he thought that, he received a transmission from the Bladlikburg.

“Second Lieutenant Mayer, the Eins will have finished its preparations in about a minute.”

“Understood. I’m ready when you are.”

“Commander Oscar has a message. Do you want to hear it?”

“I do.”

The other man hesitated for just a moment, cleared his throat, and continued.

“Believe in yourself.”

“!”

“That is all. Please wait just a little longer.”

Mayer was so busy thinking about his commander that he completely forgot to respond.

…He saw right through me.

Part 18

Back to Chapter 6

Return to Main Page

Forward to Final Chapter