Fireline Defense

Although these men were always dismissed as "a bunch of useless guards," they were still the Commonwealth's regular troops, and they had at least a basic level of competence. The soldiers grumbled to themselves, but they still carried out the orders they'd been given.

Yu Lian was fairly satisfied. Of all the military organizations he'd seen, they were at least not the worst.

So, one minute after Ina's warning, everyone had reached their assigned tactical positions.

By then, Yu Lian had also climbed up to a sentry gun on the outer wall and inspected its overly primitive controls.

Hand-cranked, and no fire control either.

The meeting of the primitive and the futuristic, with a classical, old-fashioned core hidden beneath the magnificent expanse of the stars—what a dazzling, wondrous world!

Now this was proper space opera, wasn't it?

With a sigh, Yu Lian loaded a whole box of steel-tipped rounds into the magazine. Just then, under the blazing sunlight, most of the others finally spotted the black dots emerging through the shimmering heat haze.

The soldiers stirred briefly, but Lieutenant Monderson and Ina quickly hushed them.

"Just as I thought..." Yu Lian sighed, focusing on the approaching dots as he searched among them for smaller targets that posed a greater threat.

"C-commander, w-will we make it out alive?" Yu Lian heard a trembling voice behind him. He glanced over and saw a young private about his own age. The man had a rifle on his back and both arms wrapped around an ammunition box, as if it could give him even the slightest sense of security.

He seemed to be the loader for this autocannon. What was his name again? Bunanger?

"I'll do my best! You just make sure to protect yourself, too. Don't forget everything you learned in boot camp."

The private seemed to tremble even harder, looking up at him with the hopeful expression of a stray puppy. Yu Lian knew what he wanted to hear, but he couldn't bring himself to make the irresponsible promise that he'd keep every one of them alive.

By then, the black dots on the horizon had grown tenfold in their field of vision. At last, everyone could make out what they were.

They looked like huge, legless centipedes with giant bat wings. Four barbed spines jutted from their heads, and their enormous mouths took up more than half their faces. Their bodies were covered in jagged armor, even their undersides—the part that should have been vulnerable—completely shielded.

"Dragon bugs... Tch. As long as you haven't evolved, you're still bottom-tier! The real threat is the exploding mosquitoes! Uh, good... there shouldn't be any of those yet."

Yu Lian knew that when those tiny creatures, no bigger than sparrows, came swarming down like locusts, even the Titans that roamed the stars, invincible across the galaxy, would be left helpless.

The dragon bugs drew closer, shrieking through the air with a piercing "wula-la-la," like banshees.

Yu Lian glanced at the soldiers raising their weapons, then at Private Bunanger, who was still clutching the ammunition box and trembling. Finally, he gestured to Ina in the tower on the other side. He was sure she'd see him.

Only then did he turn his attention to the oncoming enemies. The sentry gun he was operating had no fire control, no rangefinder, and it was hand-cranked. If it had any advantage over a proper phalanx system, it was that it relied heavily on the gunner's skill and made for a very personal sort of heroism—quite in keeping with this universe's worldview.

At a time like this, he could only use his eyes to judge the best moment to fire. Fortunately, he'd gained plenty of experience with that in his previous life.

Two thousand... fifteen hundred... twelve hundred... Yu Lian silently estimated their distance as their howls grew louder. The mouths between their four spines were already open. The blade-worms slowly emerging from within were hard to make out, but they radiated a bone-chilling menace.

"Mom... Mom..." The loader let out a wail.

...So why did you enlist? Yu Lian wanted to feel sorry for him, but couldn't quite manage it. He yanked the lever down hard.

A beam of fire lashed through the air like a whip of light, striking a dragon bug in the head and splitting it open along with the blade-worm that had crawled up to its mouth.

Almost at the same moment, Ina opened fire. This time, she didn't use three-round bursts. She pulled the lever tight and fired more than a dozen rounds in an instant, sweeping across the sky and knocking three dragon bugs down on the spot.

...All right, Yu Lian had to admit that even a gun fitted with fire-control radar probably couldn't have managed a score like that. That was one of the most fantastical—and most captivating—things about this world.

"Born to be a sharpshooter, and a gunner, too! It's only natural that she'll eventually awaken as a Star Hunter. Or maybe no path could suit her better than Star Hunter."

The other sentry guns opened fire, though their aim was nowhere near as good. Still, they formed a curtain of bullets that restricted the enemy's movements. Yu Lian wasn't satisfied, either. Properly trained gunners could work hand-cranked anti-aircraft guns just as well, and coordinate a dense barrage even in space combat. Even against an emblem mech piloted by a high-level Awakened, they could pin the enemy down in a narrow area until they tore it apart. The elite forces of the Empire and the Alliance could do it, and the unit he'd served in during his previous life—no, back when he was still young—could do it, too.

Time really did fly. It was enough to make anyone sigh.

Perhaps it was simply harder to go from luxury to frugality. Yu Lian had served in the most elite units and fought the toughest enemies, so naturally, he found fault with his current comrades at every turn. But whatever else could be said, the guards were doing their best to fire and keep the flying monsters from getting any closer.

The soldiers stationed on the walls and in the trenches were also getting ready to join in, but their sergeants stopped them. That, too, had been part of Yu Lian's advance plan.

At some point, Lieutenant Monderson had appeared in the trench outside the wall. He held his beloved chainsword, with his rifle laid out in front of him, and was quietly smoking a cigarette. He was thinking about how much of the loot he'd just acquired he ought to give that Moonie, so he could put in a good word for him with Commander Bonaparte.

"Sir, look ahead!" Sergeant Youyou shouted from atop the outer wall.

"I see it. So they're here." The lieutenant kept smoking in silence, watching the dust cloud suddenly rise and grow larger in his field of view. It grew until he could make out the monsters within it.

There were the "smaller" monsters that looked like clawed hyenas or armored cobras, and then there were others that resembled eight-legged scorpions and seemed even more formidable.

"The New Jade Gate colony's been here for decades, and nobody knew there were things like this around? What geniuses do they have in Intelligence? Uh, I suppose the big shots up top really are all useless. The only thing they've learned is how to use their dicks to get a late-night snack!"

The lieutenant took a final, deep drag from his cigarette, which had less than half a stub left, then flicked the butt toward the swarm. Without changing expression, he raised his rifle.

"Bang, bang, bang!" Three shots rang out in a near-perfect rhythm. Lieutenant Monderson might not have read many books, but he was always willing to learn. If that Moonie had fired like that, then it had to be some secret shooting technique used by elite troops.

A split second later, the steel-tipped rounds crossed more than three hundred meters and shattered the central nervous system of a Terrorclaw on the spot.

The soldiers in the trench cheered at the lieutenant's marksmanship. He looked pleased, though inwardly he was a little embarrassed. He'd actually been aiming for the "cobra" beside it.

As an old soldier—and a bit of a rascal—Mr. Monderson knew his own limits. He didn't think he could hit the weak point of that "giant eight-legged spider" from so far away. Uh, hadn't the Moonie said the weak point was between its two huge pincers? That spot was smaller than a human head.

Still, Lieutenant Monderson's "marksmanship" gave everyone a huge morale boost, and the soldiers opened fire one after another.

The sentry guns and the three-tiered, sloping firing positions formed an almost airtight interception net, creating a nearly impassable wall of fire beneath the gentle slope of the supply station. Bullets crisscrossed, dust billowed, and insect limbs and fluids flew everywhere. Not one stray creature managed to cross the line. Their shrieks didn't sound pained so much as increasingly furious.

If we'd been using our usual firepower, they might already have reached us, the lieutenant thought. His chainsword felt hungry for action, but he was also glad things were going this way. No need to take any more risks.

A Moonie really was a Moonie!

And up in the sky, with Ina's sharpshooting, even the hand-cranked anti-aircraft guns were scoring impressive hits. The dragon bugs were only the first test models, after all. They were nothing like the later, repeatedly upgraded monstrosities that could advance through space under the fire of warship particle cannons and hive missiles. A single hit from a 20mm high-carbon steel spike round could still knock one out of the fight.

Soon, more than half the alien insects on the ground and in the air had been killed or left broken and barely alive.

Private Bunanger, hiding behind the turret, had stopped calling for his mother. He stared at Yu Lian's back with undisguised adoration. He'd seen the whole thing and knew who had arranged the defensive line.

"Reload!" Yu Lian shouted.

The private took nearly a second to react, then hurriedly fumbled with the ammunition compartment beneath the turret. He pulled out the empty box and shoved in one full of steel-tipped rounds.

Everyone else was starting to relax, but Yu Lian remained tense. He didn't believe the enemy had shown all it could do. If they meant to silence them, why wouldn't they go all the way? They probably hadn't unlocked the exploding mosquito branch of their tech tree yet, but they had dragon bugs. So could there be...

At the thought, Yu Lian felt his heart clench, as if a dark cloud had settled over him. Then he realized it wasn't as if—it was actually happening.

A gigantic creature, seven or eight times as long as the dragon bugs and more than ten meters in length, appeared from overhead and pounced without a sound. It was less than a hundred meters away.