Chapter 104 – Masquerade Party (18)

Long ago, when I didn’t consider people as humans.

The battlefield was my school, my playground, and the only place that made me feel alive.

Its outstanding power. The indiscriminate fear that falls upon all. How could he not love the beautiful cries as the earth tore apart? Although he did change after meeting his wife, Ian still felt nostalgia sweep over him when he heard the sounds of those tank shots. Even when those shots were flying past his head at the moment.

‘Vex will probably be deep in the enemy formations, and the most heavily guarded location within them will be near the tanks. They should have left the hatches open when the railguns were still active to dissipate what impact they could, but now that they have started the advance, those hatches are going to be shut tight like clams. Is there something I can use to open it without hurting the ones inside?’

Charging through the battlefield alone without the other guys trailing behind made it feel like he was back to the old times again. He fought a lot tamer until now because of those two, but his normal style was to just charge into a crowd alone like a maniac and shoot everything down.

But because he had one thing missing, Ian was unable to fight in his usual style and instead quietly sneaked through the dust storms of the battlefield and managed to find a crater made from artillery fire, the tanks barely in sight.

The reason he was so nervous before he headed out here.

The reason why he was talking about his will and whatnot, acting weak!

“Hyde, that little parasite rascal blew up my car… at an important moment like this…!”

That was the reason. It was none other than the absence of a vehicle that turned Metal Jaw-Ian, the spice merchant who massacred hundreds of Psycho Gangs throughout the Wastelands, into this sorry state.

Pa-pat!

As another shot fired and Ian used the new billow of dust to move forward a bit more, he collected his breath as he roughly calculated the distance between him and the enemy base.

‘This is the limit. Any closer, and I’ll become a beehive. Even if I go all out like a maniac, I’ll turn into minced meat the second any of those Mini Shooters see me.’

My car! He couldn’t move discreetly even if his life depended on it, so he needed to at least move forward quickly.

But his car went up to heaven with that other dad’s head. Guess he’ll need to find a new one then.

Ian sharply scanned the enemy’s movement. Thankfully, they had a bunch of cars.

‘They’re planning to advance the tanks on each flank and surround the Investigation Bureau guys in a U shape. Since T-7s can’t turn, that’s probably the best they can do to destroy the siege.’

A familiar formation and a familiar tactic. Thanks to that, he was easily able to spot the weaknesses in the plan.

‘This is a formation to finish off the captured prey to begin with. So enemies that are circled around inside get annihilated without even a chance to fight back…’

Crack!

Ian tore off the cap of the nearly perfect spherical grenade he got from the Investigation Bureau. Under the plastic cap was a big red button. He didn’t know who the amazing creator of this grenade was, but they sure were wise for making it so intuitive.

Vwooooooom—

He pressed the switch. With a sound similar to a jet plane starting up, the grenade in his hand started to vibrate vigorously.

His target, the two combat vehicles, quickly came in his direction, oblivious to the hidden Ian in the crater.

Whoosh—

‘Its biggest weakness is the overly protruded vehicles on each flank in order to create the circle. A tiny pea bomb like this won’t do anything to the T-7s, even if it is criticized for being a retarded mod vehicle, but…’

Plunk!

The grenade created a perfect arc and landed squarely in the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles.

“Hm? What is….!”

“Second Lieutenant, sir! It’s a gren—”

.

.

.

.

Bl—ink!

Booooooooooom!!!

A massive explosion occurred, one difficult to believe came out of such a small blue orb.

“Cough cough!”

The soldier that flew out of the car from the explosion ran towards his superior, ears ringing to the point his head felt like exploding. His superior was normally a man who cursed at him and beat him cruelly, but watching him hold his ground even in the midst of such an explosion caused a splurge of respect to rise up in him. He needed to tell them. He needed to report the enemy’s attack and call for assistance from the others!

“C-Commander, sir! It’s an attack! Vehicle 3 has been completely destroyed! We need to dispatch assistance—”

“Ah, yeah. I’ll dispatch assistance.”

Bang!

“I’ll go assist my friend, so you go report to your commander in the afterlife.”

The grenade was named Atom. People that see the weapon for the first time might think that the name was given because the blue, rounded exterior reminded them of the toy for the old superhero character, but once they see it in action just once, no one will be able to think of it as just a toy.

‘It’s a neat little thing that has enough firepower to take out a combat vehicle and then some, making the people standing near it knock out like flies.’

The survival against a bomb is not decided just by the initial damages from the explosion. Its sound and impact rattle the human brain and consciousness. Even if they don’t faint, they’ll temporarily become dumbos.

Opponents defenseless from the aftermath of the explosion, and a killer with a machine gun.

It’s already been a long time since Ian shot the enemy closest to the radio, the commander, and then finished off the rest of the soldiers.

“Don’t blame me too much. We’re all going to meet in hell anyway, so don’t bother embarrassing yourselves arguing over who’s worse and all.”

After a short moment of silence, Ian roughly pushed aside the corpses, then got in the driver’s seat and placed his hands on the wheel.

Hmmmmmm—

Ahhhhhh~

“Now this is what I’m talking about.”

The texture of the leather wheel that fit snug in his hands. An engine quietly roars, signaling that it’s ready to start galloping at any moment. A gear handle polished to a shine from usage.

The moment he got into the car, he automatically felt he ‘was back’.

“M’lady, what do you think about going on a drive with me?”

Vraaam! Vrrm! Vrrm!

“Oh, really? You’ll need to be prepared if you want to handle me. My drive…”

Kragkgkgkgk—!

“…Doesn’t use brakes!”

As if responding to Ian’s gleeful voice, the combat vehicle spit out a rough exhaust sound and shot forward. The destination of the black vehicle that had broken formation was the innermost part of the encirclement, at the center of the front row of tanks.

Bangggg!

Another artillery shell fell, and thick dust blew against the front glass pane. As the partially melted sand granules shot down, it replicated the sound of hail raining down.

‘Won’t be able to clean that off with a wiper.’

Kragkgkgkgk—!

Skreeeee!

He leaned his body towards the opposite side of the car that was tipping over and aggressively turned the wheel. Cars are like people. No, they’re a lot better than people. Cars listen when you tell them to do something.

Bang!

He started the drive at the tip of the U-shaped tank formation and decided to take the longer way around to the center. It would be suicide to charge straight in. Crossing past a line of tanks side by side at this close of a range. That wasn’t the type of suicide he planned on doing.

The best method is to fall in a straight line with the artillery and dodge left and right. Although it was impossible because there were too many of them…

‘So I need a little bit of a distraction.’

If they turn their attention to the shield bundle of Investigation Bureau members in the middle, then he’ll have a gap to work with.

Vraaaaam—!

Booom!

The shot landed a little closer than the last. Even if he was going around, he did admit that hoping that the enemy wouldn’t notice this pitch-black car was a little too much…

‘But you dare shoot me? That’s some guts they have there. Let’s see how well the kids these days are trained.’

It was easier if the enemy was aware of him. It’s better to have shells drop at semi-predictable places than completely random ones. It’s more than obvious how the guys in those tanks think.

“Hm~Hmmmhm~”

He felt oddly elated. Is it because he got a new car? No, he feels even happier than that. It’s the feeling that he’s actually achieving something.

Ian held onto the wheel with one hand and rummaged through the glove box with another. The Raptors had a rule to carry around at least one military song tape.

‘The guy back there called the other guy Second Lieutenant… If they’re about that rank, then, they’ll have…’

Clack!

‘Something like this instead!’

A rectangular piece of plastic with two holes on each side. It was a cassette tape.

“It’s funny. These guys are going around squeezing out oil from people, and they still try to make tapes so they can listen to music.”

‘Of course, you can’t say much different for a guy that’s humming happily to himself as he charges into the middle of artillery fire. Keheheh!’

Click— Chrrrrrr—

Oldies pop started to gently flow out of the player.

[That`s Life~ that`s what all the people say~]

Bannngg!

In between the rhythmical melody of a 70s pop song, the roars from the tank shells crashed down like a chorus.

Vrrraaam!

A car drifted through the battlefield, battered and bumpy from the hail of artillery.

[you`re riding high in April Shot down in May~]

And the bright, hopeful voice of a middle-aged man who seemed to speak of a completely different world.

“Keheheheh. You have good taste, Second Lieutenant!”

Vrrraam!

Thunk!

The area surrounding the Exosuit squad was carved into deep craters by the concentrated attacks.

On the battlefield was a vehicle leaping across the hill of artillery fire.

Ian, sticking his head out the window and waving hello.

And Ezel and Ralph, standing behind a sparking blue shield, mouths agape, pointed at the man in astonishment.

A car rugged and battered from all sorts of debris continued to race through the field like it was some sitcom.

[But I don`t let it, let it get me down~]

Bang! B-bang!

The closer he got to the enemy, the sharper the shots became.

His windows shattered from the shock, and pieces of melted sand and glass sprayed across Ian’s face.

“Cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin’ around~ Wahoo!”

But Ian smiled. In this spanking hot car, surrounded by the sound of gunpowder he loves so much, running towards his beloved comrade, how could he not be happy?

“Kehahahahah! Wow! Try and hit me, you bastards! Shoot at me!!!”

Like the man from the song said, this was his life. Even though it was full of pain, there was not a single spot of regret. He will make it that way.

[I pick myself up and get back in the race~!]

Vrrrrrraaaaaaam!

He had a small belt around him that he had put on earlier. And he turned on the power of the latest model personal shield that Anne handed him, claiming that ‘he could never die while it was on’.

Ian’s car shot through the explosions and continued charging towards the tanks. His target was one that he had been keeping an eye on…

“Hey, you in the middle! You haven’t fired a single shot for a while now!”

The only tank that wasn’t letting out smoke from its muzzle. So Ian continued in a straight line towards the only escape route he didn’t have to worry about getting shot from.

“A bad tank crew that doesn’t take care of the vehicle!”

Vraaaaaam!

“Needs to get their asses beaaaaaaat!”

The bumper of the combat vehicle collided with the massive metal shield, which blocked even railguns.

[That`s life!]

Crunch!

The bumper fell off, and while a white airbag was pushing away Ian, the massive wheels of the offroad vehicle touched the tank’s shield—

Grrrrrrvvvvvmmm—!

And the car climbed up the steep slope of the tank and flew upward.

Kla—baaaaam!

The car gracefully flew up and exploded in the middle of the enemy’s formation, and Ian was flung out of it under the protection of the blue shield.

D-d-d-d-d-d-d-du!

Even before his feet touched the ground, he heard a shower of bullets raining upon him.

“Damn it! What’s with a crossfire in the middle of their own… base?”

After immediately taking cover, he felt something was off about this situation.

Logically speaking, what he just did was outright crazy. What sort of madman would drive through that killing field with a single car and jump over the tank line?

In other words, it was impossible to predict that this would happen.

But the enemy was already responding even before he finished falling. They’re in the middle of their own base, created a crossfire towards the tanks, meticulously took cover, and even set up their stationery machine guns?

‘They’re not targeting me. Someone came in here before me and fought them. No, they’re still fighting them.’

Above anything else, there was solid proof right below his feet. The location that he determined as his destination was the armored car located behind the main tank and a carpet of corpses scattered on the ground.

“…Hey…”

Clack!

Ian jerked his gun toward the voice that suddenly appeared behind him and almost dropped the gun.

“You…urhghhh, late…”

“God damn it! Vex!”

The familiar voice came out in a fragile tone that he had never heard before.

As if proving that he was the cause of all these corpses, Vex’s entire body was covered in blood.

“You, you!!!”

“I-I tell you… every time… It’s not mine… just a lil splat…”

“Stop talking! Hey! Wake up! Get a hold of yourself!”

The man had normally always appeared in front of him after facing the enemy, shocking him with blood splattered all over him, then relieving him with a smile that it wasn’t his blood.

Ian desperately prayed that this would be the case once again, but reality was cruel.

The one that the enemy had been targeting was not the one that suddenly dropped out of the sky, but the man called Vex, who was aiming at the enemies as he stopped his intestines from spilling out of his side.