Chapter 67

Inside the trunk, I shoulder the weapon covered in cloth and shove it to move it.

"H-H-Heavy!!"

Space Gull's body has way more horsepower than my real one, but it's still too heavy!!

"Good grief. Touching the cargo disqualifies you as a transporter."

In the center of the trunk is a circular lift. I set the weapon on it, straddle the weapon, the ceiling opens in a circle, and the lift rises. It stops where it fits the open ceiling perfectly.

On top of the trunk, I rip off the cloth.

What appears is a turret—four units, twenty-four barrels—

"Maximum rate of fire: thirteen thousand rounds per minute, TW-type gatling gun, the reaper of the battlefield! MGL-13!! Because it's laser-fed there's no jamming. Let it rip!!!"

"Yes, sir!!"

I climb into the gatling gun's cockpit and grip the handles—the control levers.

Control levers stick out on both sides of the gatling; on the inner side of each are four buttons, positioned so the four fingers minus the thumb can press them.

(I've been told what the buttons do. Let me test them a bit.)

First, the buttons on the right lever. From top to bottom they're "Fire," "High-speed right turn," "Forward," and "Lock." While Lock is held, the turret's range of motion is completely frozen; the muzzle (aim) won't budge at all. When Lock isn't pressed I can swing the lever to adjust the muzzle direction.

I press with my middle finger and try High-speed right turn. The turret carrying the gatling and cockpit rotates right, and of course the gun and seat turn right with it. The gatling's range is about sixty degrees in every direction, so if they flank me on the right I have no choice but to spin.

Pressing Forward moves the turret's crawlers and advances it.

The left lever is almost the same: "Fire," "High-speed left turn," "Reverse," and "Reset." Reset aligns the turret's direction with the crawlers. Pressing it makes the turret swing until it faces the same way as the crawlers.

Hand check complete.

"Here I go!!"

I press the Fire button and begin shooting.

The noise is incredible, and a tremor like a magnitude-two quake hits my body. Yet the muzzle barely shakes, and the aim stays true. Still—

"Incredible...!"

Countless red laser rounds fly out. A rain of lasers. The bandits drop one by one.

(Each shot is powerful. Even when they defend with shields the rounds pierce straight through!!!)

People often get it wrong, but the gatling doesn't fire all barrels at once.

It spins the bundled barrels and fires each in turn from the top position. After firing, a barrel spends the time while the other five fire to eject, reload, and cool, then fires again and repeats the cycle.

With laser rounds, however, there's no ejecting or reloading; the cool-down time is literally spent only on cooling.

A laser is basically a lump of heat. The more powerful the laser, the higher the temperature. So the more power you want, the hotter the beam, and after one shot the barrel is searing. Keep rapid-firing at high power and the barrel will melt in no time.

But because the gatling swaps barrels, it can create cooling intervals. It can maintain high power while firing at high speed.

What am I trying to say? Isn't it obvious—spraying rounds with this gatling is unbelievably fun!!

"......This game is awesome!"

Gatlings give a thrill different from sniping!

Still—

(......Something's off.)

What's odd about the bandits is they don't vanish even when destroyed. My money hasn't increased either.

Normally Space Gulls vanish without a trace when broken, and the killer gets half their chips.

The possibilities are they're faking destruction and surviving with some armor, or they're not Space Gulls at all. I'm betting it's the latter.

(Their moves are superb. Any ordinary Space Gulls would've been wiped out in twenty seconds.)

The remaining seventeen Space Gulls start dodging the gatling like veterans, spreading left and right to flank the truck.

(Their movements are too mechanical. I feel no individuality in any of them—aiming, dodging, riding, all identical.)

I use high-speed left and right turns to hold them off, but I can't whittle their numbers. Soon they start shooting back. Ms. Eve and I block the fire with shield pieces.

"Ms. Eve! Full throttle and crazy steering are fine!"

"You sure? If I cut loose the truck's sway will be insane. You'll never keep aim!"

"No problem! Either way we're dead at this rate!"

"Roger that, partner! Let's ride to hell together!!"

The truck speeds up. Ms. Eve uses the wheel to open distance, then U-turns and plows through the pack, knocking two aside. But those two are still fine—being run over won't kill them. However—

"Two are airborne!"

"......Nice driving, Ms. Eve! —Bullet Pieces!!"

I fire six Bullet Pieces at the two launched into the air and destroy them. On the violently rocking truck I somehow keep aim and take out two more on the ground with the gatling.

"This truck is amazing. A body this big yet so nimble."

"Of course—she's my pride and joy."

All right, with this...

"Ms. Eve! When we're surrounded again, can you spin the truck!?"

"Hah!? —Fine, you always ask the impossible. I'm in!"

Thirteen left. I drop one more with the gatling, but the truck starts to be encircled.

(Great maneuvering. On this unstable sand, to push this far—she's no talk. Ms. Eve, you're a first-class driver.)

The encirclement completes.

"Now!"

"Yeahhh!"

Here. I'll finish it here.

(Lateral G incoming. Spin!!)

The truck begins to rotate.

(Add the turret's right spin to the truck's right spin—high-speed spin! Fire in all directions at once!!)

While spinning at high speed I aim at each enemy craft. As the truck completes one rotation, I destroy four.

(With this truck's horsepower we can do one more spin... please, Ms. Eve!!)

"Let's go!!!"

The truck spins again.

Sand kicked up by the first rotation blocks the enemies' view. Of course, it fills ours too.

(I can't see. But I've memorized every craft's position.)

No way they can dodge fire from an unseen source!

"Dance, grunts!!"

—The second rotation ends, and the truck comes to a halt.

The swirling sand settles, revealing the surroundings.

All that remains are humanoid mechs half-buried in the sand.

—All crafts destroyed.

"Not a single miss."

"...Well done. Bravo, Samurai Sniper."

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