Counts Cruhteo and Klancain were two members of the Orbital Knights' thirty-seven noble houses.
Their Landing Castles had already approached the Martian lunar base. They intended to seize its communications array and override the system to broadcast a message to every Orbital Knight.
Judging by the situation, however, the other side had no intention of surrendering control voluntarily.
The base was clearly under the traitors' control as well.
To prevent Cruhteo and Klancain from taking it by force, five other Orbital Knights had moved their Landing Castles to the lunar base ahead of them and established a defensive perimeter.
"This is your final warning."
Cruhteo's expression was grim as he issued his ultimatum to the counts over the communications channel.
Their attitude remained unchanged.
"Fine. I have my answer!"
He severed the connection. There was no longer any point in talking.
Cruhteo immediately brought his personal Kataphrakt, Tharsis, fully online.
"Klancain, I'm entrusting the princess to you!"
"Understood!"
The Second Princess was transferred from Cruhteo's Landing Castle to Klancain's. Klancain was the count who had revealed the truth to him through laser communications.
Cruhteo's Landing Castle was going into battle as well!
Although Klancain would not sortie in his own custom Kataphrakt, he would still deploy part of his forces to support Cruhteo. They were facing five Orbital Knight houses and the lunar base itself, after all.
Cruhteo was already prepared to risk everything. He had transferred his family to Klancain's castle as well. If the worst came to pass, he would simply ram his Landing Castle into the lunar base and destroy it.
Doing so would cost them the communications equipment needed to broadcast to every Orbital Knight, but destroying the base's jamming system would at least make direct communication between the knights far easier.
"Don't hold back! They're traitors, the scum who tried to assassinate Princess Asseylum!"
"Understood!"
Cruhteo led his forces directly against an enemy formation containing more than five times as many machines.
The instant both sides entered firing range, they opened fire without hesitation. The battle reached a fever pitch in seconds.
However...
"Cloaking?"
Cruhteo's face darkened. One of the enemy machines had vanished from sight and was attacking with arrow-shaped projectiles.
The reason for using arrows was obvious. They allowed the attacker to strike without revealing the invisible unit's location through a beam or muzzle flash.
That specialized machine almost certainly belonged to Countess Rafia.
No custom Kataphrakt had visibly emerged from her Landing Castle. It must have activated its cloaking system from the very beginning.
As for the functions of the other four Kataphrakts, Cruhteo had no idea. He would have to discover them in battle.
The Orbital Knights were wary even of one another. None of them willingly disclosed the exact capabilities of the machines they had constructed with Aldnoah technology.
Once the battle descended into close-range combat, the remaining machines gradually revealed their abilities.
Count Orga's Kataphrakt could create duplicates. Those copies were not mere illusions, but solid physical bodies.
Although the duplicates were not particularly durable, he could continue producing them without end. Orga alone could form an entire squadron, posing a serious threat to the Kataphrakts under Cruhteo's command.
Count Zebrin's machine wielded ultra-high-voltage electricity as its primary weapon.
Count Marylcian's Kataphrakt relied mainly on remote gun drones.
Count Selnakis's machine carried high-powered laser cannons designed for long-range sniping.
What a nightmare. At this rate...
"Have the Landing Castle..."
Cruhteo was prepared to take them down with him by ordering his Landing Castle to ram the lunar base at full power.
Before he could give the command, however, an alarm sounded.
Something was approaching at tremendous speed.
It had appeared without warning from an unexpected vector, causing Cruhteo's expression to darken further.
Were these reinforcements for the princess, or another enemy?
Wait...
The newcomer did not appear to be heading for either of their Landing Castles. Judging by its flight path, it was making directly for the lunar base.
The targeting system captured an image and enlarged it. The machine was unlike anything Cruhteo had ever seen.
It definitely was not an Earth Kataphrakt. Earth's machines generally stood only thirteen or fourteen meters tall.
This unit appeared to be nearly twenty meters tall. It presumably belonged to one of the counts.
Had it come to reinforce them?
No, this was...
The machine was broadcasting over an open channel!
Cruhteo patched the transmission through immediately.
"I am Asseylum Vers Allusia. I am currently aboard this machine and proceeding toward the lunar base..."
Cruhteo froze at the broadcast.
He had been about to rejoice upon learning that the princess was still alive, but the moment he realized what she was doing, his expression became more solemn than ever.
Her Highness was far too naive.
Broadcasting like this and openly declaring that she was aboard that specific machine was unbelievably foolish.
Wasn't she simply telling every traitor exactly where to find her?
Sure enough, the traitors who had been fighting Cruhteo immediately broke away and rushed toward her.
Count Selnakis was especially quick to react. His Kataphrakt specialized in long-range sniping with its powerful laser cannons, and he immediately fired on the princess's machine.
Every knight loyal to the princess felt his heart leap into his throat.
Fortunately, the unfamiliar machine evaded the shot.
But a massive wave of missiles followed close behind. So many poured out of the Landing Castles that the sight alone was enough to inspire despair.
Faced with that overwhelming barrage, the unfamiliar machine did not retreat.
In the next instant, more than twenty beams of light flashed into existence.
One brilliant fireball after another blossomed across the darkness of space.
Before the first twenty had finished blooming, another twenty beams tore through the void, igniting twenty more missiles like fireworks.
In the span of a single breath, more than half of the missiles targeting the machine had been destroyed.
But it was only a little more than half.
Five or six missiles slipped through the interception screen and appeared to strike their target, engulfing the machine in a swelling ball of fire.
Before the fireball could fully expand, the machine burst through it and accelerated toward the lunar base without a single visible scratch.
The opposing side completely abandoned its engagement with Cruhteo and committed nearly every available unit to destroying that machine.
"All units, follow me! Don't let these traitors harm the princess!"
"Yes, sir!"
Cruhteo pushed his Kataphrakt to accelerate even faster, closing the distance so that he could protect her.
The enemy was still closer, however. One count's machine was already about to engage the princess's unit, once again making the hearts of her supporters leap into their throats.
It was Count Zebrin.
His Kataphrakt released a torrent of ultra-high-voltage electricity, transforming itself into a massive sphere of ball lightning as it charged straight at the princess's machine.
Impact!
Blinding electrical light erupted across the battlefield.
The glare quickly faded, allowing the anxious observers to see one machine impaled upon a long blade. The weapon had pierced straight through its cockpit and emerged from the other side of its body.
Everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
The machine that had been impaled belonged to Count Zebrin.
High-voltage lightning still crackled across its frame, yet somehow none of it could reach the machine carrying the princess.
It was as though the princess's machine possessed an invisible layer of insulation. Every leaping electrical arc was stopped by an unseen barrier.
Before Zebrin's Kataphrakt could explode, the other machine pulled its blade free and disengaged.
It was not retreating out of fear of the blast. Its pilot simply refused to waste even a second.
Like a savage king of beasts charging into a flock of sheep, the machine tore into the traitors' formation.
Rounds struck its frame, only to be stopped by an invisible defensive shield.
It was clearly different from the defensive fields used by Martian Kataphrakts. The machine's field appeared capable of changing shape to suit different purposes. It could expand into a spherical barrier around the entire unit, and it even caught one of Selnakis's high-energy laser blasts, compressed it into an energy projectile, and hurled it into nearby Kataphrakts, destroying them.
The machine also carried remote gun drones.
They were even more agile than those deployed by Marylcian's Kataphrakt, and their accuracy was astonishing.
A single hit might not be enough to disable an enemy machine, but the drones repeatedly struck almost exactly the same point. Their concentrated fire melted through the armor before destroying the internal systems beneath it.
By the time everyone fully grasped what was happening, a swath of the surrounding Kataphrakts had already been destroyed.
The seemingly berserk machine then charged straight toward Count Zebrin's Landing Castle!
Despite the countless missiles and laser beams fired at it, the machine forced its way through.
Amid that densely packed barrage, it seemed to be dancing along a tightrope. Every attack missed by the narrowest possible margin, yet the machine never wasted even the slightest amount of power. The spectacle was as elegant as it was exhilarating.
It blasted a hole through the Landing Castle's outer armor and plunged inside.
Once the rampaging machine disappeared into the castle, no one could observe it directly. They could only judge what was happening from the Landing Castle's violent reactions.
The entire fortress shuddered.
It was as though a mechanical beast was roaring inside, unleashing its firepower in every direction. Some attacks were so powerful that they punched straight through the interior and blasted open enormous holes in the outer hull.
Finally, a blinding light erupted.
A massive explosion tore through the Landing Castle from within, reducing the entire structure to dust drifting through space.
Less than fifteen seconds had passed between the machine's entry and the castle's destruction.
(End of Chapter)
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