A mercenary with no name.

　God d*mn it......what the hell happened to him? It's just my luck that I was recommended to the matchmaker because the money was good.
　It was certainly good at first. It was a surprise to me that we arrived in Antarctica, blindfolded, with our equipment in a transport plane, but we were able to enjoy a good meal and pay a lot of money.
　The money could only be spent in this facility, which the underground moles call their Antarctic base, but even so, I was able to get everything I needed, and the latest equipment, supported by the EU and US government officials, was unbelievably well distributed to the migratory mercenaries.　

But that doesn't mean it's not worth it. Well, I'll fight for the salary I'm getting, but...

Hey, you!　If you have time to complain, go defend the front gate!　They're going to get through.

　A regular army officer from the EU is yelling at me, but he's completely pale. That's probably true, too, because I'm a mercenary, but he's in the regular army, and that's on paper, and he's on unauthorized separation. If we lose here or get caught, we'll be court-martialed.

We'll be tried for war crimes if we're caught too. What's up, buddy?

Oh?　I don't know, jerk. I mean, who the hell are you, don't call me your partner without permission, I'll kill you.

　When I asked the man running next to me on the way to the gate, he poisoned me with a disgusted look on his face. It's just a matter of time before you'll be able to get your hands on some of those monsters. But still, I envy Noah's guys.
　My master, the New World, is an illegal armed group, while these guys are a legitimate armed group recognized by the United Nations, so what's the difference between them and a legitimate armed group? They use physical methods and creatures that dim-witted mercenaries can't understand at all, and they fight with weapons.

'Buddy, I hear that installed beam turrets are not very effective?

'Shit, that's why I'm not your partner.... Yeah, the beam weapon has been completely neutralized by a big wall of water. And that ice-covered canyon we were using as a barrier is gone.

What?　It's not like I've melted........

I don't know. But seriously, Noah is marching through what used to be a flat field canyon, using a wall of water to get there. The word from headquarters is that there's a stupid giant centipede and a spider-woman behind the water.

I've seen a video of a giant centipede, one that was maybe five meters across, you know?

Oh, but you could kill them with an armor-piercing round.

　I'm very optimistic, but I don't think that centipede is going to be able to kill it so easily, even if you use armor piercing bullets. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I think it is. Maybe its armor is thicker than the power suit. And a spider woman?　Since when did Noah become a surprise zoo, including that flying dinosaur mogul?

'Mercenaries!　There's a centipede on the gate!　They're breaking in.

　A power suit belonging to the EU yells at us. Are the regular army guys suffering from a disease that will kill them if they don't yell at us on the battlefield?　There is nothing more annoying. Well, let's get to work, shall we? Unlock the safety.

Here they come!

Welcome.

　Muttering to the centipede that peeked out of his face, he took the first shot. How is the taste of the 20mm railgun, which is directly connected to the cooling system of the reinforced exoskeleton? After confirming the green light for the next round to be loaded, I immediately fired a second shot........ Well, how was the effect?

I imagined it would work, but it's not going to work. Whoa buddy!　You're too forward.

　My partner, who was attacking the centipede while wielding a regular 7.62mm military rifle, was hooked up with a wire hook on his arm and dragged back towards us. A moment later, a mysterious liquid poured down on the spot where my partner was, and smoke rose from the floor.

'I see, so you used the liquid secreted from that mouth to make a hole in the gate. The black hull, by the way, says that a direct hit from a 20mm railgun won't damage it.

I'm sorry, buddy. Thank you.

Don't worry about it. More importantly, buddy, can you shoot that tank over there?

Oh.

Shoot that thing. I'd blow your hair out with my big one.

　I instruct my partner to shoot at the liquid nitrogen tank next to the gate, which is used for emergency cooling of the power suit. The liquid nitrogen gushes out of the tank, which my partner aimed and shot at, and freezes the giant centipede's outer skin.

Hmm, it seems that the hull becomes brittle when cooled to the extreme. It seems to be effective, but the energy barrier prevented it from happening.

"Oh come on, Noah is using an energy barrier that's not only capable of ships, but even personal cell phones?

Yeah. I mean, we're lousy at infantry, just like you and me. You're not well armed.

Should I run?

　You can run away, but it's not in your nature to run away without doing your paycheck's worth of work. If you can't get the centipede, then the spider girl is right behind her, you can't get the lower half of her body, but you can shoot her with a weirdly s*xy humanoid upper body. Hey, there's something on the spider girl's back.

'Buddy, all you talked about earlier was the centipede and the spider girl, didn't you?　Why is there a big praying mantis on the back of a spider girl?

I don't know!　Most of them are Noah's biological weapons too. I mean, that praying mantis is looking at us!

"Seriously though, give me a break. Oh?　That suit...

　I was distracted by the appearance of the mantis monster, but before I knew it, I could see the Type 0 suit Arakawa Kouki is wearing on the other side of the gate, which had melted and expanded to a considerable size. The distance is about 1,800 meters, a comfortable distance for a power suit, but a delicate distance for a reinforced exoskeleton without a fire control assist.

I'm going to shoot the Type-0, buddy. I'll fire two shots and he'll run away, so just take care of my ass.

I'm on it.

　A power suit vs. mantis battle has begun up ahead, but I don't care. I don't care that the rifles the suits are equipped with are easily torn apart by the mantis' scythe. I look through the scope and aim at the weakest point of all the power suits' joints.... When I took a deep breath and slowly put some force on the trigger, the 0-type suit looked back at me.

''Did it notice you?　At this distance with no radio contact?　But it's too late.

　A mere 1,800 meters away. However, the warhead that should have landed as soon as it was fired on was ducked by the Type 0 that showed its impossible mobility. But in that stance, the next time it will definitely hit.... At the same time as firing the last bullet, the railgun is purged and like a de-rabbit, it runs backwards.

'Buddy!　Did you hit that last one?

..........

Hey, what the hell are you waiting for?

He played it.

What?

I played it off with the knife I had in my arm.

　Hahaha, stepping on the fact that you couldn't duck and flicking it with a knife. Did you calculate the best angle from the sniper's location in that split second by calculating the impact point and bullet speed, there's no way you bothered to load up a program like that, so did you use your own brain to calculate it?　What kind of calculation speed do you have in mind?

A knife that can play a railgun, eh? I wish you'd make me one of those.

You're over there!　You're an idiot, aren't you?　There's no way someone could do something like that monster.

'It doesn't matter if you blabber on about it, because you're actually there. More importantly, this hierarchy is no better. We'll go down one level and fight moderately and surrender.

　The Antarctic base is a deep underground facility. From the surface to the tenth floor, it's an upper level defense by mercenaries like us, but from the tenth floor down, it's guarded by elite soldiers from the EU and the United States. In other words, we're abandoned stones.... I don't know how deep it is, but those moles in the deepest part of the building aren't protected by strong protective doors like the new world's top brass, so it's useless to fight them out. I don't plan on dying for nothing, and after I surrender, hopefully we'll be able to escape in the chaos. But in that case, what will you do with your partner?

"What the hell, you just shut up and stared at me all of a sudden.

'No, I had a plan to get away after I surrendered, but I can't have my partner.

You can't say that in front of him!　I mean, what makes you think you can get away with it, you bastard?

Yeah, that's it. Here's the thing.

　When I take off the helmet of the reinforced exoskeleton to show him, my partner looks terribly surprised. Well, that's as it should be, most mercenaries are surprised when they see my face.

"You're an Asian..... No, you're Japanese?

Hey, I'm Japanese. Nice to meet you again, buddy.

　Normally, Japanese people don't become mercenaries, but I've been in the mercenary business for a long time, and I've only seen Japanese people once. I've been in the mercenary business for a long time, and I've only seen a Japanese once. However, that Japanese was a crazy man with no formal military training, just an arrogant military geek with a rifle.

I'm not sure why a Japanese person would be a mercenary. And you, looking at the way you just fought, weren't you an excellent soldier in your own right?

It was a long story. I got fired from the U.S. Army, and I'm out of the U.S. Army.

Fired, who were you with?

'Don't you know that a mercenary's past is delicate?　Well, that's okay. Before I was fired, I was in the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, 1st Airborne, affiliated with the Central Readiness Group.

".........oh, you!　Formerly a paratrooper ranger, eh?

Yes. I am, Ranger.

'How can such an elite be a mercenary?　You can find a new job as much as you want.

No, it's a dishonorable discharge.

　I pick up the rifle that had fallen into the aisle, while taunting my partner who was ranting next to me. It looks fine, I take out the magazine and check it, it's fully loaded too. Why did I throw this away?　I'll take it, though, because I'm thankful I'm not armed with a purged railgun.

"Hey, buddy. I have a question for you too, where were you before you became a mercenary?

SAS.

"Oh, British Army Special Air Service, that means you're a John Bull. Where's your walking stick?　You've forgotten.

"Shut up, you dishonorably discharged.

'Yes, yes, I'm sorry. Why did you quit?

"Well I need money. My wife's sick.

　It's hard to know how far it goes, but it always comes down to money. But, even if it's a lie, it's not a good idea to cut her off and escape by yourself. I've got to take this guy and run away with him somehow, though I think Noah had her. Well, let's try a little harder. I have to surrender and escape.