CH 234

Battle on two fronts

When Schleer was struggling with the enemy vanguard fleet, Kisei and the others were also locked in battle.

“How persistent!!”

While swearing, Eleanor aimed her twin mega blaster rifle at an enemy [Vil]. She was in a good mood when she got her signature weapon from the Fafleta fleet but her mood immediately plummeted because of the enemy’s continuous attacks.

“Uwawawa!”

The warning sound rang in her cockpit and she had to hurriedly evade. A beat later multiple thick beams fired from an enemy ship flew past the place where the [Parfeel] was.

“W, What a pain!”

Beyond her line of sight was a large crimson cruiser. It is a powerful warship with a size comparable to that of a battleship. The large-type cruiser aimed its 36cm twin barrels turrets at Eleanor and the others and mercilessly fired.

Naturally, being the top aces that they are, they were not slow enough to get hit by a ship’s turrets. However, when they are being fired at with something that has enough firepower to evaporate their whole striker with a single shot, they can’t help but tense up.

“Good grief, how troublesome indeed.”

Said Tersis in a carefree tone. Her striker is only armed with a longsword so she has no way to incapacitate a ship so she left handling the ships to the others.

“Seriously! Saying it like it’s someone else’s business…….”

Eleanor swore but there’s no use complaining. She glances at the console to see her remaining ammunition and–

“But if we don’t do something about those ships soon it will really be troublesome for us! Kisei, let’s go!”

Although they are being chased by large-type cruisers, if the Melemheim fleet, which mainly consisted of battleships, seriously fired back the enemy would stand no chance. However, since the enemy has seemingly unlimited numbers, taking them head-on is unwise. The enemy knew that as well so they kept firing at the Melemheim fleet from behind without worrying much about return fire.

“Alright, Let’s do this!”

Kisei immediately agreed. If the fleet retaliates, there will be a huge number of casualties from both sides. As Kisei is sensitive to death, he wants to avoid it and he’s been incapacitating the enemy ships with non-lethal means.

Opening the throttle, he accelerated his striker. His target is, of course, the enemy large-type cruiser. A barrage from its autocannons raced toward Kisei and Eleanor to intercept their approach but the two repeatedly made sharp turns and avoided it.

“NNnnnn!”

Diaroze raised a muffled scream. Whether it be its main turrets or its autocannons, a single shot from the enemy ship can easily destroy their striker. Seeing a barrage of beams and shells from such a ship racing toward them already made her stomach turn.

“How pathetic! Ohohohohoho!”

Diaroze angrily exhaled at Eleanor’s mocking laugh.

“So you are too stupid to even feel the fear huh, fool.”

“I will give you a punch later so be prepared alright!!”

With that back and forth, the group entered the range of the enemy AA turrets and the two strikers were greeted with colorful tracer rounds.

Although the enemy interception effort was intense, it was not enough to deter the [Wicked Star] and the [Heavenly Thunder]. While delicately operating this control stick, Kisei kept performing evasive maneuvers while observing the cruiser. It is so big that it wouldn’t be a mistake to dub it a small-sized battleship. The number of AA turrets and autocannons installed along its deck and sides is no joke.

“Target their propulsion engine!”

“Yes, yes, I got it!”

It would be much faster if they target the bridge or the main turrets instead but that would cause too many deaths. Taking down a ship by destroying its propulsion engine and thruster is Kisei’s style. Of course, he already let Eleanor know about his preference in advance.

The magenta and pure white Zeniths beelined toward the large cruiser’s propulsion engine like an arrow. While skillfully avoiding the coming AA fires, they approach the engine directly from the stern side. With the engine within range, the [Ex-Caliburn] and the [Parfeel] take aim at it with the anti-ship grenade launcher and twin mega blaster rifle respectively.

“First shot!”

The anti-ship missile and a supercharged particle beams hit the propulsion engine of the cruiser. A violent explosion occurred and even its hull started to shake. However, its thruster is still spewing blue fiery trails. It appears they couldn’t do enough damage to it.

That said, this much is within the expectations of those who are familiar with anti-ship combat. The two performed evasive maneuvers. With a slight difference, Eleanor’s [Parfeel] was faster in launching the second attack.

“Take this!”

Eleanor shot her beams into the same bullet hole her first shot made. The cruiser’s red armor plate began to foam up due to the heat and an explosion erupted from the inside. Following that, Kisei also shot another missile at the same location. Perhaps his shot immediately vaporized the propellant inside, the cruiser’s armor strangely swelled and white gas was leaking from the inside.

“One down!”

With this, the ship should no longer be able to navigate on its own. After that, Kisei takes aim at the next large-type cruiser. There are still many cruisers that are in pursuit of the Melemheim fleet. It would be difficult to sink all of them but making them give up their pursuit would be doable. However……..

“Kisei, can you hear me?”

Frea voice came through the cockpit’s speaker. She’s already got off the [Dainsleif] and is not onboard the [Mephisto].

“Saki-chan just called it in but it seems our forward group has encountered a large group of enemy destroyers ahead of us. Once we get through, we will probably enter the Calencia’s controlled space though…….”

After saying that in an apologetic tone, Frea turned silent for a moment.

“……even if we have a lot of battleships on our side, it would be ugly if their anti-ship missiles landed a lucky shot on us. That’s why we want you to clear out the destroyers in our path.”

“NNNNNnnnn! And it just started to get good here too!”

To come this far but have to give up pursuing the other cruisers is obviously a killjoy for him. The enemy seems to be in confusion from the feat they just pulled and their AA effort is not as intense as before. To be frank, he wants to continue demoralizing the enemy here by continuing his attack………..

“Fine, fine. I’m going!”

However, Kisei can not just ignore the request from the fleet so he has to reluctantly agree.

“Sorry. We will dispatch some of our escorts to fill in the gap……..”

The striker units of the Melemheims are certainly elite but it would be impossible for them to disable the enemy cruisers as skillfully as Kisei and Eleanor did. Kisei let out a small sigh. Surrounded by enemies from both sides, their situation is truly a difficult one.