Chapter 44: CH 42

When the tank corps’ Roger had taken a hit, a wave of tension ran through everyone on the field maintenance team that was a part of the rear combat support unit.

The tank recovery vehicle deployed as soon as it could to fetch Roger’s machine. Although the tank could still run, it was going at a snail’s pace and was still in considerable danger.

「Let’s go, Flack.」

「Gotcha, Ma-chan.」

A pair of siblings riding Silhouettes called out to one another.

The young pair, who looked out of place in a battlefield, wore matching jumpsuits as they piloted their Silhouettes. The cockpits of their Silhouettes seemed almost too big for the two young kids.

The older sister’s name was Marl. Her little brother’s name was Flack. They were two of the rare human members of Storm Hound.

Flack, a bright-eyed black-haired boy, had taken to calling his older sister “Ma-chan”. He was just eleven years old; an age that still seemed too young to be on a battlefield even in an era where young people working as mercenaries wasn’t that uncommon. And his older sister wasn’t that much older either. She was just thirteen.

They were war orphans. They have been traveling together with Storm Hound ever since Rick saved them. While Rick and the rest of the members were at first reluctant to let the siblings tag along with them, the two appealed to them with the reasoning that they could pilot a Silhouette and were eventually accepted into the Underground Force.

They became in charge of field repairs using Silhouettes that Familiars were simply incapable of performing.

「Here’s Roger guys!」

Roger’s tank had finally been brought back by a racoon-type Familiar driving the recovery vehicle. It had been towed with a winch.

The Silhouettes piloted by the two young mechanics and the combat support team’s truck quickly surrounded it. The tank was hoisted up by the support vehicle’s crane.

「Roger-san! Please turn the Whis reactor off!」

「Gotcha!」

Roger shut the reactor powering the tank down.

The two young mechanic’s battle had finally begun.

「I’ll take care of the undercarriage. You handle armor replacement and repairs.」

「Yes!」

The boy responded to his sister’s instruction with a serious look. He treated his sister as the boss while out on the battlefield.

「The wheels and sprockets are still good for combat. Track replacement complete.」

Marl quickly removed the damaged track and replaced it with a new one she had prepared in advance.

「Ma-chan! I’m sorry, but I can’t remove the armor. The frame got distorted from that direct hit!」

The boy screamed out in a half-crying tone.

The impact of the railgun shell distorted the frame that was reinforced by high-dimensional projection. It seemed that the main gun of the enemy super-heavy tank really did rival a battleship’s gun.

The armor that normally would have been easily removable by using a Silhouette would not budge an inch due to how distorted it got.

「Move aside. You replace the magazine instead!」

「Yes!」

Marl quickly took out a super-large electromagnetic hammer bunker from the support vehicle and brought it over.

The equipment’s length was enough to cover her Silhouette’s entire arm.

It was a mechanized cylinder that launched out an alloy hammer similar to a standard pile bunker. But it used an electromagnetic charge and not an explosive one, so it could be used repeatedly to hammer down on targets.

It could use hammers of different sizes and weights, ranging from 300 to 50,000 tons, for multiple purposes. The pressure within the barrel was adjusted by electric power.

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The hammer bunker was equipped on the right arm of Marl’s Silhouette. Its left arm was equipped with a high-frequency electric heat-type vibration cutter for work use. Marl resumed conducting the repairs once everything was set up.

「Enemy attack!」

The tense voice of a rabbit-type Familiar rang out from the communications vehicle.

「At a time like this!?」

Three enemy Silhouettes were fast approaching their position. They made sure to always keep alert, but in the end, the enemy still had the advantage of knowing the terrain better. They eventually made their way to the rear line.

They were likely aiming for eliminating the repair and supply units.

Marl became flustered. There was too little time to intercept the enemies even if she persisted in completing the repairs.

Flack was hurriedly trying to equip a rifle, but he had absolutely no combat experience.

Marl resolved to try and hit the enemies with her hammer and raised its output to maximum.

It was never meant to be used in combat, and if used to hit an enemy, it could, at most, break a Silhouette’s arm.

However, two allied Silhouettes suddenly stood before Marl and the rest.

One was the machine of Metal Iris’s Blue. The other was Unit 5, the personal machine of Kou, their client for this operation.

「Continue the repairs!」

「Yes!」

Marl decided to trust in their client, Kou.

For Marl and the others, Sending Roger back into the fray as soon as possible would let them contribute more to the combat effort compared to them taking up arms themselves.

The deformed armor wouldn’t budge. Marl used the hammer to pry the slightly loose parts of the armor sheet even looser.

Once she’d pried it enough, she set the hammer’s output to the max and knocked the armor sheet down.

She then repeatedly knocked the distorted frame with the hammer. The distortion of some of the grooved portions for inserting parts underwent plastic deformation so they couldn’t be repaired, but the minor distortions of the rest of the frame could be set back to some extent.

The distorted grooves were then forcibly removed with the high-frequency cutter. In the meantime, it just needed to be able to equip armor again. It would need to undergo full-scale repair at a workshop later on to replace all the damaged parts.

It was repair work that was possible because the subject was made of metal.

This method couldn’t be used if the armor was made of ceramic material. Ceramic materials were said to have a Hugoniot elastic limit up to ten times that of steel, but they had the troublesome propensity to crack easily, and hence, were quite fragile. They were very easy to break. Nanoceramic material had the same tendency even though they’re used to synthesize rather tough composite materials.

「Next, we just have to forcibly slap some armor back on. Flack, hand me some armor components!」

「Here you go, Ma-chan!」

Marl’s younger brother, who had just finished replacing the tank’s magazine, was already standing by at the side with some armor components. He was her prided younger brother after all. He was very competent in his job.

It was difficult to fit the armor replacement on the frame, but she just forcibly pushed it in using her hammer.

Flack then sprayed glowing restoration material at the repaired portion. It was a quick-acting emergency repair thermal spray.

「You’re fine now, Roger-san!」

「Thank you, Marl-chan!」

The fox-type Familiar Roger expressed his thanks.

It was fast and efficient repair work that was done in just ten minutes since he got towed over to the rear line.

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