C-Rank Ranked Match — All-Out From The Opening!!

To avoid repeating last time’s mistake, I duck straight into a nearby two-story white house, climb to the second floor, and check my surroundings from the window.

The sky’s clear. Sea to the town’s west and south; to the east, a sprawling sea of trees; to the north, I can make out a paved road.

Down on the sandy beach, the Dust Mirage would really come into its own. But taking a low position is dangerous.

A little late to be noticing, but the Dust Mirage might actually be a bad match for a Sniper…

A sniper wants high ground. Wide field of view, clear lines of fire. The Dust Mirage, on the other hand, does its work on sand, and sand is basically low ground. A mismatch!

The place is mostly rows of pure-white two-story houses, with a few mansions standing off on their own. The most conspicuous thing is the huge hotel near the sea — five stories. There’s a golf course adjoining it, too.

Golf course aside, the town runs about 700 m across, and since I’m sitting right at its center, my Enhanced Radar (detection range: 500 m radius) covers the whole thing. On the overall map, this town sits pretty far out toward the edge, so it’ll probably fall outside the safe zone on the first or second shrink.

Three enemy-unit icons show on my Radar.

“Nikki’s 4.5 km to the northeast, Shii’s 1.8 km to the east. Pretty far apart, huh.”

Teammates get dropped in at least 800 m apart. More than a kilometer between us is just bad luck.

“Shiki, what is your situation?”

“Three enemy icons within 500 m.”

“I see. Those three are most likely every enemy near you. It is all but unheard of for five or more Space Girls to be dropped into one cluster.”

“Stay put, stay put! If they spot you, you’re the sniper — you’ll be the first one they gun for!”

Ugh… Niko’s advice is fair enough. But…

If I just meekly do as I’m told here, nothing’s going to change!

It’s not that I have absolute faith in my own judgment. Even so, I’m certain camping here (holing up and waiting it out) isn’t the best play.

“L-let me do it. I can take them. All three!”

“Then do it!!”

“Yes! …Wait, huh? I-is that really okay, Niko?”

“You’re overriding my call just to push for it, so you must be plenty confident. I’ll bet on that confidence. Right out of the gate — go wild, give it everything you’ve got!!”

“Y-yes!”

I open the second-floor window and peer through my sniper rifle’s scope.

This town’s key position is that resort hotel, no question. Seize the top of the resort hotel and you’ve got a huge advantage — or so everyone’s bound to think. To me, that hotel is nothing but bait. Head for the resort hotel out on the town’s edge, and your back naturally turns toward the town’s interior. Toward me, sitting dead center.

Range: 300 m. A Space Girl comes into view, riding a bike, headed for the hotel.

See? Wide open.

I fire at the back of her head. The laser round punches clean through her skull and deletes her, and the instant she’s gone, the other icons start to move.

The remaining two units are closing on me.

Moving in to crush a long-range sniper is the obvious play.

I climb from the window up onto the roof. Both remaining units are tucked in the shadow of buildings; even up here, I can’t get eyes on either. Which is fine. I don’t need to.

This is exactly why I fitted the Precision Radar.

As long as I know the target’s coordinates, I can shoot without seeing them. I’ll take the nearer one first.

Radar Shooting… take this!!

Never mind the buildings (obstacles) wedged in between. I pull the trigger toward the enemy’s coordinates. First shot: the laser round bores through a house and keeps going. I’m pretty sure it connects, but there’s no delete. Blocked by a Shield Piece, most likely. I fire a second and a third in quick succession; they hit again, but still no delete.

Range: 150. I dismiss the sniper rifle and switch to my assault rifle.

“Bullet Piece!!”

Six firing terminals lift off from my waist and streak toward the enemy unit.

A Bullet Piece can travel up to 100 m out from me and fire another 50 m from there, for a total reach of 150 m. My target’s holed up in a white detached house 142 m from mine.

I rake her head-on with the assault rifle, then work the angle and hit her with Radar Shooting from the Bullet Pieces too. Sure enough, a Space Girl comes tumbling out the front door into the street. She must have bolted from the cramped space to escape fire pouring in from every direction and every blind spot. But she’d made the call too late.

There’s damage to her legs. Her Shield Pieces are nearly spent, too. I can grind the rest down with the assault rifle.

Once it’s fired a shot, a Bullet Piece returns to me to recharge (recharge time: 3 seconds). The enemy unit has fewer than ten Shield Pieces left; I grind those down with a burst from the assault rifle, swap back to the sniper rifle, and land a headshot.

That’s two units down. One to go.

Range: 50 m.

She climbs onto the roof of another house, six down from mine, and opens up with the assault rifle in her hands. I slide across the roof to dodge the rounds, launching the Bullet Pieces and swapping from sniper rifle to assault rifle as I go.

Left and right, front and back, up and down — fire from all six directions and pin her movement down.

I place a Bullet Piece 7 m to her right, 8 m to her left, 4 m behind her, 8 m overhead, and 2 m beneath her feet, on the floor below. A simultaneous volley. And from the front, I rake her with the assault rifle. Fire from six directions at once. With no way out, she takes it on her Shield Pieces, and her feet come to a stop.

Got you.

I set the one Bullet Piece I’d kept in reserve directly above myself and fire. In the same instant, I draw the G-AGE from the holster at my hip and snap off a shot like a gunslinger. A live round rides hidden in the laser’s shadow. Naturally, the enemy blocks the Bullet Piece’s laser with a Shield Piece, and meets the live round chasing behind it with a Shield Piece too.

“What?!”

But the G-AGE pierces everything except lasers. The round I loosed punches through the Shield Piece and bores clean through the center of her chest, one of a Space Girl’s weak points.

All clear.

“All units destroyed! No significant wear taken!”

“Nicely done, Shikki!”

Where the enemy unit fell, a green case drops, much like the silver case a Machine Beast leaves behind when you take one down. I step up to it and open the lid. Out pop two Repair Kits and a Grenade.

Drop items.

Get killed in a Ranked Match and you drop the consumables you picked up during it. So these are what the Space Girl I just downed had gathered. I’ll gratefully help myself.

“I can link up in just a little while. Niko is—”

“Ahh, looks like I’ve tangled with a real handful.”

Over the comms, I catch the startup whine of a Wing.

“This sound… don’t tell me!”

Kurenai…?!

“Shiina! I’m fine over here, so get to Niko—”

“That will not work. To reach the town Niko is in, you have to cross the great bridge. The bridges on this map are what we call checkpoints — snipers and Bombers tend to camp them. Breaking through the great bridge alone would be… difficult.”

No…!

“It’s fine, don’t worry about me. All I’ve gotta do is beat this one down one-on-one, right?”

Kurenai is strong. Niko’s strong too, but my read is that Kurenai’s a touch above. Still, the gap’s narrow. There’s every chance Niko pulls out the win.

Niko…!

For now, all I can do is believe in Niko’s strength.