CH 181

Refurbishment

After he returned from the vacation and got back onboard the [Radiant], Kisei’s group was greeted by the chief mechanic who clearly seems to be sleep-deprived. She then leads him to the maintenance deck in a strangely good mood. It seems there’s something she wants to show him.

“T, This is…..”

The maintenance deck which is much smaller than the storage deck is a place where they perform heavy maintenance work on strikers. The place normally only has a few crew but right now it is crowded with mechanics busily working on the Zeniths.

“We have been ordered to refurbish our strikers to be able to compete with the Noredian ones you see. Right now we are in the middle of remodeling our Zenith-types.”

Certainly, Schleer did say something about that. Kisei was impressed as he looked around the place. Surprisingly, he even found a mechanic that seemed to be a Terran like him.

“Ahh, those people came from Kawashima Ironworks. This time they sent over their technicians along with the parts we ordered. Since they are here, I asked them to help us out.”

“I see.”

Kisei replied while feeling a little disappointed. Even if they are certainly Terrans, all of them are women. Since companies that operate on the intergalactic scale understand the danger of having their male employees working off-world, it’s only natural for them to send a team fully consisting of women……still, he also wants to talk to a man who shares his birthplace once in a while.

“Does that mean you are working on [Caliburn-Revive] too?”

“Of course! I went out of my way to pick you up because I wanted to show you our work after all.”

When the chief mechanic said that with a grin, Kisei and Saki looked at each other. Incidentally, only the two of them and Diaroze, who couldn’t leave Kisei’s side, followed the chief mechanic here.

“It’s that way, look, it’s amazing isn’t it!”

Saying so, the chief pointed her finger to a striker that is currently being fixed onto the wall. Its characteristic rabbit-ear-like antenna seems familiar to him but the [Caliburn-Revive] has changed a lot from what he remembers. After all, it is now fitted with thick jet-black armor parts all over its body.

“U, Umm, that chest armor…….don’t tell me, [IT’S FROM ZENTIS]!?”

Diaroze was shocked.

“Yes! Since we managed to get our hands on such an ultra-high performance striker from Nored so we took its parts and made full use of it! ……..by the way, who is this noble-looking person here?”

The chief turned a doubtful gaze at Diaroze who’s quivering from the fact that she just heard that her personal striker was torn apart. At the moment, she’s wearing a high-performance military long coat that is usually provided to Calencian marines. That’s probably why the chief couldn’t tell who she was.

“I’M THE PILOT OF THE MACHINE YOU’VE JUST DISASSEMBLED THAT’S WHO!?”

“EhHH!?”

The chief was astonished. She was busy with all the refurbishment here that she didn’t hear about how Diaroze became a slave.

“Eh, that means you are Nored’s former commander? No way……”

“Yes, way. Well, I’m already freed from that suffocating position though. Right now I’m a slave serving my master here.”

With a loose smile, Diaroze smacks Kisei on the shoulder.

“Is that true!?”

“Yeah, it’s true. it’s a little irritating though.”

Saki added as she shook her head sideways while holding her head. Seeing that she’s not joking the chief’s face immediately stiffened as she took a step back.

“No way……rather, I was ordered to remodel [Caliburn] to be a two-seater, don’t tell me!?”

“A, ahhhh–……”

Diaroze’s slave collar was designed to detonate if she was separated from the designated master after a set amount of time. With the radio jamming that’s common on the battlefield, the only way to guarantee that her head would not accidentally fly off is to put her in the same machine as Kisei. It seems that Schleer has taken care of that before they left for vacation.

“Umu, it’s probably because I will be riding it too huh. My body can’t stand being apart from Master after all.”

“Is, is that really okay!?”

Having a former enemy being on board the same vessel as your ace is naturally concerning. There’s no guarantee that she won’t suddenly assault Kisei inside. After all, no matter how good a striker it is, if the pilot is taken out then it’s over.

“It’s okay, probably……..”

Right now Diaroze doesn’t even consider returning to Nored. Thinking so, Kisei replied in her stead while looking at Diaroze with a bitter smile. On the other hand, Diaroze looked back with her eyes sparkling.

“…….”

Rotten as she is, they are already in the kind of relationship where they lay in bed together. He can guess what she wanted to say. With a sigh, Kisei decides to go along.

“Hand!”

“Arf!”

Immediately after, Diaroze placed her hand on Kisei’s with a big smile.

“Sit!”

“Arf!”

With a momentum that almost made a swooshing sound, Diaroze quickly sat down. Her expression seemed ecstatic for some reason. Of course, since they’ve started that play in public, the eyes from their surroundings started to gather on them.

“As you can see, she’s completely obedient…….”

“We’ve been fighting for our lives, against this idiot-looking woman……….”

The chief shook her head as though she just witnessed something she wished she shouldn’t have.

“W, Well, more importantly! You’ve made the best out of this shameless idiot’s Zenith right. The [Caliburn-Revive] must have been improved a lot.”

Saki changed the subject to dispel the awkward air around them. Next to her, Kisei strokes Diaroze’s head and she stands up with a happy smile.

“Y, yes. We made a lot of changes. You can almost say that it’s an entirely different striker now! To differentiate it, we are calling it [Ex-Caliburn] now!”

“[Ex-Caliburn]…….”

Filled with anticipation, Kisei once again turns his gaze back to his now-remodeled striker.