Horizon:Volume 2 Chapter 03

Status: Incomplete

50% completed (estimated)

   

Chapter 03: Travelers in the Sky

When you leap

Is it your body that arrives?

Or is it your reason?

Point Allocation (Control)

On the back end of Okutama, Musashi Ariadust Academy was shaken by ringing warning bells, the rushing footsteps of students, and the vibrations of the bombing.

The torii-shaped crests of the defensive gravity barriers deployed around each ship of Musashi were shattered by the bombing. Everyone rushed to their stations below the glowing fragments and mist created from the destroyed barriers. They all looked up into the sky.

“Wait ,wait. Isn’t that the flagship of Tres España’s sports couple!? That’s vice-chancellor class!”

“Just hurry! Don’t let those debt-loving reddish-brown track suit wearers board us for free!!”

“The enemy ships that can’t descend onto us are descending to the port of Murayama and Oume! The firing unit and spell reinforcement unit need to build a formation just as you were trained and hurry there!”

The central command position among all the voices flying about was the bridge in front of the academy. A male student in glasses stood there with an armband that read “Secretary: Neshinbara Toussaint”. A dozen or so members of the broadcast, athletic, and cultural committees stood behind him giving instructions in rapid succession.

“The firing unit and reinforcement unit should focus on Oume. Murayama handles diplomacy and has a large number of foreign residents, so the enemy should hesitate to target it. They should focus their fire on Oume to make up for their small numbers.”

Neshinbara paid no heed to the explosions, wind, and glowing mist as he placed his civil official Mouse on his shoulder and spread out several dozen torii-shaped crests. As he checked back over the information, he spoke.

“The land soldier groups need to spread out on Okutama and the central road of Musashino. The anti-air unit needs to divide the sky into blocks of three rows and assign each member one block, but they don’t have to fire until instructed to. Also, Honda should…um…”

Ohiroshiki appeared in a nearby sign frame. His eyebrows were raised in an insistent expression.

“Ahh! With Masazumi-kun and Futayo-kun, we have two Honda-kuns! To make this easier, we should call one Flat Honda-kun and one Large Honda-kun or maybe we can divide them up like monsters and call one Crossdressing Honda and one Spear Honda. But to me, they’re both old h-…Ah! What’s with that look, sensei!? Why are you reaching toward me with that smile!?”

The static-filled sign frame remained as a form of self-admonition and Neshinbara took a breath after giving Futayo advice on her attack. In no time, a sign frame appeared showing a female student running with another tall figure through a wide block used for transportation.

“Ah, Neshinbara? This is Heidi. We’re working on purging the transport ship and arranging another team. How are things going up there?”

“Well,” said Neshinbara as the falling glowing dust was swept away by the wind. He checked the countdown timer which said they had less than a minute until Tres España’s expected descent time. “They just announced their justification for the attack. Apparently, they are ‘capturing a ship transporting goods to England’ because that ship is currently in their territory.”

“Oh, maybe we should have stuck to the mainland more. I hear tours to view the wild unicorns and other creatures in the forests and coastal areas of Hexagone Française are popular right now. I wonder what location would have been best to look down on during battle.”

“Yes, we could have run a bird’s-eye view tour of magical beasts,” added the boy with Heidi.

It’s always money with those two. It’s just too wonderful, thought Neshinbara as he continued giving instructions.

“Listen, everyone. I will now discuss what the enemy is after and how we will respond.”

As everyone fell silent, Neshinbara opened his mouth. He began speaking as he thought on how troublesome the situation was.

“We may be under enemy attack, but I doubt they will enter the city itself. Judging from the ships that were unable to descend on us, they should only be able to send about 200 men down. If we view this as an attack on a fortress, Musashi is the same as a large city. If they send 200 men down into it, they will be in unfamiliar land and cut off from each other by the buildings and streets. We would eventually suppress them. If they stop Musashi, their Wyvern-class ships could ram us, but that isn’t enough to sink Musashi and I doubt they want to take prisoners of war while so close to England.

“That is why we need to think of this as an assault rather than an invasion. It’s similar to being attacked by pirates. They have no supply line, so we just have to survive their first attack. Our only goal besides that is to sink their ships. That’s the policy we’ll be going with.”

“Judge. But why would they attack us like this?”

“Judge. First, they are acting as a major Testament nation by showing their hostility toward Musashi. It will give them a definite right to negotiation at Westphalia and it lets them save face with the other nations.

“Second, they can gather information on Musashi’s combat abilities. That will help them in later conflicts and they can also sell the information to other nations. At the very least, information on an attack from above like this would be useful to any country truly wanting to invade Musashi. Most likely, their vice-chancellor class members and the representatives of their different units will attack us with different weapons and spells to gather data.

“And third, this is a warning to the people on Musashi. They want to cause a reaction by letting the people here know we really are ‘at war’. Bertoni-kun, how are things on that front?”

“Everyone currently aboard has signed a waiver of liability saying they themselves are responsible if they meet an unforeseen death aboard Musashi. The approximately 20% of those aboard who could not sign that contract were let off in Shikoku or Kyushu. Another 10% wish to be let off in their native countries.

“Fortunately, we did not lose anyone from the engine division or the commerce division, but it was recommended that any pregnant women and those with young children leave Musashi. Currently, students in middle school or higher are being encouraged to work part-time even at night, so there will be a rush of makeup classes once this war is over. We should receive plenty of refugees, people from the reservations, and other people who wish to become naturalized, so we should fill the gap eventually.”

“But didn’t Aoi-kun say that kind of one-sided waiver of liability isn’t a good thing?”

“Judge,” replied Bertoni with a shrug. “If something does happen, we have promised them three months of compensation money and the assurance that we will ‘listen to them’. But that is a small price to pay for some peace of mind for our citizens.”

“I see,” muttered Neshinbara just as a divine communications officer from the athletic committee shouted out behind him.

“I have word from the observers! Tres España has sent out a unit!”

Everyone in the command center let out voices of surprise. The reason for this was simple: The countdown timer before Neshinbara’s eyes said they should still have more than thirty seconds to spare.

But Neshinbara stared up into the advancing sky which was shaking and filled with sound and light.

“They’re using the bombing to focus our gravity barriers on the back while they leap over them toward the front. This is the strategy used by Tres Españan pirates. They usually target the bridge from the front, but this is just that in reverse.”

“But, Neshinbara, isn’t it dangerous for their unit to drop down into the city? Having prisoners taken now would lower their morale just before their battle with England… Not to mention that the bombing and the gravitational barriers are spread out across several hundred meters. How are they going to jump over that?”

“They have a way.” Neshinbara’s eyebrows rose slightly and he raised his right hand. “This will be bad if they’re confident in their ability to land accurately. Anti-air unit, get ready! Here they come!!”

He took a breath.

“Their vanguard is Tres España’s track-and-field team!”

“Okay, it’s time to go, track-and-field team!”

Fusae’s voice came from the bridge of Tres España’s command ship.

“Testament,” replied the students standing at the back of the command ship’s flat aircraft carrier deck.

The deck had eight lanes on the port side and eight lanes on the starboard side.

These sixteen lanes created courses approximately 30 meters long and one meter wide. The lanes continued from the back of the deck to the front.

“On your mark!”

The members of Tres España’s track-and-field team stood at the back of the lanes.

Their uniforms were made lightweight by cutting them off at the elbow and knee and they held shot put balls or javelins as halteres. As soon as they stepped atop the lanes, the lanes moved back. The motion was similar to a bow being slowly drawn.

“Mark!!”

The sixteen lanes stopped and a student standing at the front of the deck held a rifle into the air.

“Get set.”

As if nodding, the sixteen students standing at the back of the lanes crouched down.

“Get set!” they repeated while taking the stance of a crouching start.

An instant later, three different actions occurred.

First, the student at the front of the deck fired his rifle.

Second, the students began running from the back of the lane as if struck.

And third…

“…!!”

The sixteen lanes shot forward at high speed with the students still running on them. The rails on the deck were used to catapult the lanes forward.

“Go, long jump unit!”

The Kraken-class command ship was approximately three hundred meters long. As the catapult lanes rushed across the deck with a clear noise, the trial runners accelerated even further. The air became a wall that attempted to stop the runners. However…

“Go!” urged Fusae’s voice. “You are from Ootomo, Oouchi, and the other long-lived families coming from Kamakura. Tres España holds Dan-no-Ura, so we specialize in the Hassou Tobi used by Minamoto no Yoshitsune!!”

And so…

“Show them that we can move freely to and from the eight ships of Musashi!”

Everyone cried “Testament!” in response and activated their acceleration Testament spell charms.

“…!!”

And they ran. As they moved faster and faster, step after step, they could no longer stop or slow down. Finally, they all stepped on the foul lines at the end of the catapult lanes.

The foul lines glowed with the activation of Testament spells and accelerated the sixteen runners.

“Leap, Hassou Unit!!”

With a roar, they were launched.

Aboard Musashi, Neshinbara at the command center, Mitotsudaira as she ran, Naito as she flew, and everyone else watched on either directly or via the footage sent out by the broadcast committee.

Students in the long jump pose were fired from Tres España’s command ship which was located directly above the front and center of Okutama.

There were sixteen of them and…

“They’ve broken the record of 800 meters! They’ve passed the gravitational barriers and are headed for-…”

The anti-air unit readied their bows and spells as they listened to the divine transmission from the command center. However…

“Do not fire!!”

They all stopped when they heard Neshinbara’s voice.

Fusae heard Neshinbara’s command because they were intercepting Musashi’s divine transmissions. She whistled on the bridge.

“I’m impressed any of them saw through this. So this is Ariadust’s secretary.”

As she spoke, several cadena firma appeared in the windows. A divine transmission officer explained the situation.

“The Hassou unit is being launched in order! The first group is landing now!”

A new light suddenly appeared beyond the current light and wind.

A single red beam of light stretched up into the air.

“Landing signal confirmed! Red means they arrived at their target destination!!”

Joyous cries of “testament” filled the bridge. The sixteen Tres Españan students they watched were not in Musashi’s city. They were…

“On top of the large transportation cargo yet to be brought inside Musashi!”

Trade between the ships of Musashi used the container transport loop created from the towing belts placed along the thick ropes spanning the distance between ships. Sixteen students stood atop those wooden boxes while wrapped in the shimmering of their acceleration spells. The containers they stood on were at least twenty meters tall and they were filled with…

“The materials being transported in the morning are mostly the food, drinking water, and resources needed that afternoon. If they destroy those, it will greatly affect their food supplies starting this afternoon.”

Fusae smiled and gave instructions to the ships, to the sixteen students who had landed, and to the additional students being launched in groups of sixteen. She sent them locations to attack using her stylus pen.

“Okay, that prevents Musashi from targeting you indiscriminately from below. So for now, attack with everything you have. To put it simply,” she said, “begin the throwing events!!”

On Fusae’s instruction, the leading group of sixteen dropped the free-fall bombs attached to the hard points on the back of their uniform’s shoulders.

The black bombs were approximately sixty centimeters long. They were hexagonal cylinders formed from wooden panels.

The sixteen students each had one on each shoulder, so a total of thirty-two bomb cylinders were dropped. As the sounds and light of the bombing washed over them, they began slowly but surely picked up speed and could be heard cutting through the wind.

“Begin intercepting the warheads!!”

On Neshinbara’s instruction, an anti-air spell formation was spread out. This was the same system used to intercept shells during the battle of Mikawa. The spell formation was used to track the enemy bombs and then they were intercepted.

However, another divine transmission arrived from the command center.

“A second and third group are arriving! They’re trying to reach beyond the range of our defenses!”

Tres España’s command ship was visible overhead, remaining perfectly stationary relative to Musashi. The eight lanes on the right and left of the deck opened in a fan shape starting from the base at the back.

Countless metallic noises and the sounds of wrapping wires and chains could be heard as track-and-field team members were launched above Musashi by the opening of the deck.

This group had decided where to land after seeing how Musashi spread out its forces. A group of sixteen reached a part of the sky not covered by the tracking spell formation and landed atop the cargo being towed.

This group began dropping their bomb cylinders while still in the air.

However, yet another attack arrived at the same time.

“Don’t forget about the sides!!”

As that shout echoed sharply through the air, a bombardment arrived from port.

It came from the three Wyvern-class ships flying perpendicular to Musashi on the left.

The three ships had backstop-style sails raised and a boy and girl stood on the deck of the central ship. They both wore brimmed hats and had a number and name written on their backs.

The boy with long bangs had the number I and the name Watanabe/P. Valdés on his back. The girl with short hair had the number XVIII and the name Watanabe/F. Valdés on her back.

Those preparing defensive spells on the port side of Musashi all gasped when they saw those two holding gloves and metal balls.

“Wah! Those are Tres España’s Valdés siblings, Pedro and Flores of the four deadly balls!”

The younger sister looked surprised to hear that.

“Oh, brother. They know us even though we didn’t make it past the best eight last year.”

Everyone on the port side of Musashi nodded, exchanged a glance, and spoke.

“When the brother pitched four balls, all four of them hit the batter, giving the other team one point. The sister laughed at him and pitched four balls of her own, but they all hit the batters too, giving the other team four more points. But the other team had lost eight players, so it ended in a no contest!”

“Sh-shut up! They tried to jump out of the way, but jumped right into my pitches! It’s all because my brother gave them the wrong idea about what I was going to do!”

“Sister, I have a large strike zone. Unlike you, I am a natural pitcher.”

“Brother, what do you mean by natural?”

“Sister, you hit them by accident. I hit them on purpose. That shows how much more control I have.”

“Did you have any intention of playing baseball!?”

The sister nodded in agreement with that shout coming from Musashi, but she suddenly entered a stance.

She was about to pitch.