Chapter 135: Smile

The dust was awful.

I crawled forward on my stomach, reached the assigned position, and stayed there.

The ghillie cloak wrapped around me held in heat. My face was close to the ground, so every time the wind blew, it sandblasted me. Somehow, despite the fact that I had no memory of opening my mouth, it also delivered sand inside.

I had no memory of opening my mouth.

And yet my mouth crunched.

This was unpleasant enough that I started to put on my head armor, but then Monkey Unit handed me something dirt-colored. It had probably adjusted the water content of some construction material to make it. Soft, still flexible, and crude, but recognizably a half-face guard.

“Thanks.”

Response: No need for concern.

I thanked it and put it on. There was soil mixed in, but the feel was far from dirt. It was faintly cool. It had probably gone out of its way to draw the material into threads and weave them one by one. It was a little stifling, but it did not interfere with breathing.

Different direction from Sheep Unit, but between the cushions and this face guard, Monkey Unit was strangely good with its hands too.

I was in position.

What filled my view was an Insectum nest.

Built by Ants, it rose like an anthill. I knew it spread underground as well.

I lifted my gaze.

Not the muzzle.

It was probably about an hour past noon. The sun had climbed high enough to sit behind my back, throwing my shadow out in front of me. With the sun behind me, observation was still easy.

I looked up, careful not to put any killing intent into it.

Not at the anthill itself, which was about the size of a three-story building, but at the three watchtower-like structures built around it.

Lookout posts, most likely.

Their walls had narrow firing slits cut into them. Inside were Insectum snipers.

Wasps.

They fired from behind walls. For the heavy infantry unit about to attack the enemy position, that accuracy would be a threat.

For me, not so much.

A flaw of biological ammunition, I suppose. Wasps fired stingers, and their range was shorter than mine.

In a sniper duel, that was not just a useful trump card.

It was cheating.

Still, I could not afford to relax.

The Insectum had been acting strangely lately.

That was not rumor. It was true. And that strangeness had begun showing in their ecology.

Too many new types.

Around the time I was thrown onto this front line, a new type called the Baby Roll had been confirmed.

A small Armor Roll. In other words, an Insectum best described as a giant pill bug.

…Though honestly, a giant isopod might be closer.

Despite the name, Baby Rolls were not Armor Roll juveniles. Small as they were, they had hard, sturdy shells. Little tanks with good turning.

Their attack power came from speed and hardness, not weight and hardness.

Which sounded troublesome.

It was not.

Their attack method was ramming, and they were light. Shoot them before they get close, and they stop. Once they stopped, an enemy that was only hard was just an enemy that was only hard. Do whatever you liked with it.

The fact that they were too fast for Ant infantry to keep up with them was fatal too.

So, as the first new Insectum species in over ten years, they ended up doing nothing but delighting biologists.

But a few days later, Baby Rolls were confirmed clinging to Ants, protecting their tube-like arms.

Those were rather powerful individuals.

A few more days after that, individuals began appearing where Ants and multiple Baby Rolls had fused.

Armor Ants.

A new species that had appeared less than two weeks after the discovery of the Baby Roll.

Their evolution was fast.

For all I knew, those Wasps might already be the next generation too.

I felt a little tense.

Only a little, though.

I lightly licked my lips, wetting them.

At the same time, a call came through my headset. Not an emergency—just the signal announcing the operation start time.

A transmission.

From the captain of the company I belonged to.

『Smile to all platoons. Homeroom time. Did you finish the homework I assigned?』

『Highball. Ready to hand it in anytime.』

『Halloween. Complete.』

『Goodman. Clear.』

“Hound. Same here.”

Mercenaries in this era, with their strong individualism, were not suited for unit action.

So this was the compromise.

Count a mercenary and their Monoz together as one platoon, gather five platoons into a company, and assign operations that way.

That was how we humans waged war against the Insectum.

What Smile Company had taken on this time was suppressing the west side of the colony.

What Hound Platoon had been given was the opening blow.

In other words, the signal fire for the start of the battle would be the death screams of the enemy snipers.

『Okay, soldiers. Operation begins as scheduled. Hound, how long to neutralize the lookouts? When do we move?』

“—”

Let’s see.

A mutter too small to know whether it rode the comms or not.

I moved my gaze, tracing the watchtowers.

The Wasps operated in teams of three. Three locations, nine in total.

I did not need to kill every last one.

No.

All I had to do was stop them from observing and sniping.

If that was all—

“At the same time as my first shot.”

『Hyuu! That’s some confidence. Big talk looks ugly as hell when you screw it up, you know?』

A rough heckle flew back at my words.

The speaker was…

Ah.

Highball, with the bulbous nose.

“If it lands, nothing looks cooler. Right, Highball?”

『Good enough. Pull it off, and I’ll buy you a drink.』

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Comms out.

After finishing an exchange that sounded like something out of a movie, I looked over my platoon.

Twelve machines and one dog.

In other words, the usual beloved lunatics.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you heard the man. We land one shot, and we empty his wallet. Ah, don’t worry. The job hasn’t changed. Shoot. Kill. And this time, make him buy afterward. In other words, business as usual. Simple, right?”

I gave the question with a little shrug.

The Monoz and the corgi answered by moving into position.

***

I probably only followed the countdown with my eyes until about four. After that, my focus shifted past the scope and settled on the compound eyes of the Wasp peeking out from the wall.

The yellow wasp-man was on alert, scanning the surroundings.

No.

He was not.

Was he slacking off?

The three Wasps were not keeping watch at all. They were clicking their scissor-like mouthparts at one another. Apparently, one of them had just delivered a very American joke. The other two doubled over as if roaring with laughter, while the first tilted his head up with a magnificent how about that.

The count hit zero.

Operation start.

For now, let us have him ascend to heaven with that smug face still on.

I pulled the trigger.

At the tip of my finger, I felt a life.

Took it.

That was what I thought.

So I did not wait for impact. I slid the muzzle.

Second one.

The one clutching his stomach in laughter—what would he do if the face of the colleague beside him blew apart?

He would startle and look up.

I imagined that scene.

So I placed a bullet there.

Hit.

The last one probably would not make it. He would drop flat and hide. Then leave him.

“B1, Yellow. I’m moving to B3.”

I said it aloud and shifted my gaze to the next watchtower.

B2 was assigned to S2—Snake Unit and Rabbit Unit—and C1, consisting of Ox Unit, Dragon Unit, and Sheep Unit. So far, there was no request for support.

Then fine.

I looked to the remaining terrace.

Gunfire rang out.

I could not hear it, but perhaps death screams were ringing out too. Either way, the abnormality had been transmitted. But they did not catch up to the situation yet.

That was how it looked.

One of them was calm.

He was trying to drag a colleague back behind the wall, a colleague who had foolishly raised his head and was looking around.

Calm.

Capable.

Kind.

And stupid.

I pulled the trigger.

I cannot have someone staying calm on a battlefield that has gone hot.

Cold spreads. 

Soon enough, it chills the whole battlefield.

That is not good when storming an anthill colony.

So die.

The insect’s hard carapace folded with a wet crunch, and I saw the insides spill out without the body changing shape all that much.

One Wasp, splashed with his comrade’s fluids, wiped at the stuff on his face as if checking what it was, then stared hard at his own hand.

The calm one’s death had gone to waste.

My hand moved.

My finger moved.

The mechanism moved.

A life was carried up to heaven.

One round left.

A message came from Rat Unit, the spotter watching the battlefield for me.

Report: Enemy confirmed from center loophole of B2.

As I read the text dancing across my headset, my body moved, the muzzle moved, and prey appeared inside the world of the scope.

Head hidden, ass exposed, as they say.

I opened a hole in his side.

Five shots.

One clip.

Empty.

“Reload.”

At my voice, A1—Monkey Unit, Rooster Unit, Dog Unit, and Rudo—currently charging forward, and A2—Tiger Unit and Boar Unit—began firing on B1 and B3, keeping the last ones suppressed so they would not show their faces.

I changed magazines.

Worked the lever.

Fed the next round.

Deep breath.

Inhale.

Exhale.

B1.

Confirm enemy will to fight.

He was aiming at me through the loophole.

Shoot.

“…”

Missed.

It drifted.

The wind had picked up.

I understood that.

Shoot.

Hit.

And with that—

“B1, clear. A1, full charge. A2, assist. —S2, status report.”

Report: Clear.

One from me.

Two from Snake Unit.

One and two make three.

Annihilated.

That left B3.

But the enemy was not moving.

Were they trembling?

They did not show their faces. They did not even try to aim and shoot at us.

What to do.

I thought.

Without noticing it, my hand went to the bone necklace and closed around it. Only then did I realize what I was doing.

I stroked it.

My hand had learned the shape.

Just as expected, my fingers moved, tracing the same outline as always.

“S2, watch B3. C1, grenade B3.”

Let them shiver apart and die in pieces.

That was my conclusion.

“Hound to Smile. My hands are free.”

I left the battlefield to the Monos for the moment and opened comms.

『Good arm, Hound. Next order. Support Highball while he gets to the entrance. —You hear that, Highball? The best damn sniper we’ve got is your guide down the road!』

『Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m getting saved on top of buying the guy drinks? Man, I’m lame!』

“A bit late to notice that, Highball.”

『Ha-haaa! Okay, Hound. Lovely provocation! But give me a chance to turn this around. How about if I take the colony in thirty minutes, we call it even?』

“Twenty minutes and we’re even. Fifteen and I’ll buy.”

『Okay, let’s do that! Escort me nice!』

I cut the line.

Rat Unit, by my feet, was looking at me like it had a complaint.

“…No, if we win, it’s fine, right?”

Suppressing a colony of this size did not normally end in such a short time. It was a maze inside. Compatibility mattered too, but if it were me, it would be several days’ work.

Highball saying thirty minutes made me feel something.

Even so, I shaved another ten minutes off.

Surely that was impossible.

At the very least, I should not be the one buying.