"Where did the attackers come from?"

"Unknown! The Seventh Weaponry Factory's defense forces are confused as well. It seems they believe the enemy infiltrated from inside," the operator responded.

Inside the Banfield family’s battleship, Klaus, commanding from the bridge, demanded more information about what was happening.

However, even the Seventh didn't seem to have a complete grasp of the situation.

Klaus rested his chin on his hand and pondered.

(Attacking a weaponry factory is the same as defying the Empire. Even the space pirates, no matter how reckless, wouldn’t be that stupid. They'd only do something like this if they were utterly foolish… or if there was a massive group of fools involved.)

Over ten thousand ships were defending Asteroid Neya. Attacking the factory, which was the backbone of the Empire's military, wouldn’t be a cheap move.

Even large-scale space pirates avoided conflict with this facility.

“Are there any battles taking place inside?”

“Yes. We’ve confirmed that.”

“What's the status of the defense forces?”

“They seem to be moving, but they’re struggling.”

The Seventh Weaponry Factory had defense forces, but even though they were well-trained, they lacked combat experience.

They were skilled and well-equipped, but they were ineffective due to their lack of experience.

(Normally, this wouldn’t be a place they’d attack.)

Perhaps the soldiers had been complacent.

"Immediately deploy the Banfield family’s ground forces. Half the knights can be deployed. The other half should be prepared for mobile knight deployment.”

“Is it alright for us to interfere?”

Even though they were going to assist, it would be like sending armed soldiers into the Seventh Weaponry Factory, which would be unpleasant for them. It could also cause chaos.

But Klaus had a bad feeling about this, so he decided to deploy the troops.

“Inform the Seventh that we'll be sending ground troops. I’ll take responsibility.”

“Yes, sir!”

Suddenly, one of the operators turned pale and reported to Klaus.

“Sir, Lieutenant Chensie…”

...

The facility where the Atalante’s repairs were being carried out.

As Emma and the others burst in, Nias, clad in a lab coat, was working, her face distorted in annoyance.

“Can’t you be a little quieter?”

Doug, seeing Nias working while alarms blared, grimaced.

"There’s a weirdo in every world."

Molly pointed at the Atalante.

“It’s almost finished! Maybe we can get out of this.”

The modified Atalante was back to how it was before the joint reinforcement at the Third.

There weren’t any major changes. It felt like it had reverted to its previous state.

Percy and Mag were also around the Atalante, but everyone, including the other staff, was continuing their work.

Emma approached Nias.

“The enemy has infiltrated the interior. Please evacuate immediately.”

Nias sighed softly, her eyes never meeting Emma’s.

“That's very presumptuous of you. I have no reason to follow your orders. And you’re the ones who brought them here.”

“W-what?”

Emma looked in the direction of Nias’s gaze and saw a slight distortion in the scenery.

The woman in the powered suit appeared, her stealth mode deactivated.

"They call you a genius for a reason. Unlike that girl over there," she said.

Emma, unaware that she was being targeted, felt a cold sweat break out as she reached for her weapon.

She drew her pistol with her right hand and gripped the handle of a laser blade with her left.

She decided to step in front of the others to protect them, assuming that the woman was a knight.

"Get back!"

The woman saw Emma step forward and seemed to grimace beneath her smoke-filled visor.

The woman approached Emma without a weapon. Emma fired.

The pistol was an optical weapon, firing a beam of light. The woman, however, read the trajectory of the blast from the muzzle and dodged it.

Nias was shouting from behind, "You’re going to break the equipment! Please do it elsewhere.” But Emma didn’t have time for her.

Emma drew her blade and swung it at the woman. The woman grabbed Emma's arm and twisted it.

“Ugh?!”

“You're weak. You call yourself a knight with skills this pathetic? The Banfield family is truly nothing special. A hastily assembled Knights’ Order like this is pathetic.”

The woman drove her knee into Emma’s stomach, then delivered three punches that sent her flying.

In an instant, Molly and the others were frozen in place.

Emma, trying to get up, was grabbed by the hair and lifted into the air.

“Y-you!”

Emma tried to resist, but even though the woman’s expression was hidden by smoke, Emma somehow felt her suffering.

“A pitiful girl who knows nothing should just die here.”

The woman formed her left hand into a hand blade and moved it towards Emma’s face…

“Aha! I found you!"

Suddenly, another woman appeared, cutting through the door with a blade.

Her appearance was familiar to Emma, her knight uniform modified to look like traditional clothing. She had a pair of claw-like weapons in her hands, stained with blood.

She had been fighting her way here. Her face bore the marks of battle.

The woman paused for a second before shoving Emma away and grabbing her weapon.

Emma, looking on, saw two figures clashing.

The woman seemed to know the newly arrived knight.

“It’s unbelievable that a friend killer like you was hired by the Banfield family. They’ll accept anyone, even troublesome people."

Chensie, still smiling, tilted her head.

“You know me. This might be fun.”

“Oh, you freak.”

The woman was wielding a typical double-edged sword.

Her fighting style was classic, suggesting she was a knight. And a skilled one, at that.

Emma trembled as she watched, realizing that this was how the real knights fought.

(Incredible. I couldn’t even help.)

The woman, skilled in swordsmanship, blocked every attack Chensie launched.

But that only made Chensie lick her lips.

“You’re good. You’re absolutely fantastic. I can see why your subordinates trust on you.”

The woman jumped back in response to Chensie’s comment.

"What did you do to my subordinates?"

Chensie waved her hand, fluttering like a bird flapping its wings. It left her completely open. It was almost as if she were tempting the woman to attack.

“I carved them up. They were fun. Many of them were challenging.”

The woman threw something.

Smoke, light, and a loud noise erupted.

The woman retreated.

But Chensie swung her claws, spraying blood.

Molly coughed.

“What was that? What happened?!”

Larry covered his ears.

“My, my ears are ringing.”

Doug was aiming his pistol at the surroundings, but Emma knew that the enemy had already escaped.

She got up and approached Chensie.

“Um, thank you for your help.”

But Chensie, looking at her claws, sighed softly.

“I let her escape.”

Despite that, she smiled slightly and walked out of the room.

...

"I never thought that kind of freak would be sent here.”

Sirena, removing her helmet, pressed her hand to her side, injecting a syringe into her neck.

She applied medication to her wound, which was healing, but the pain lingered because she had been slashed quite deeply.

Her face contorted in pain, but she thought about the subordinates Chensie had slaughtered.

She accessed her terminal.

“What’s the situation?”

Her subordinates sent reports.

“Commander, the Banfield family’s ground forces have arrived. We can’t attack.”

“I’m going to kill that woman! She killed Marco!”

“Commander, Chensie is here. She’s working for the Banfield family now. Be careful.”

As she listened to her subordinates’ reports, Sirena realized that her plan was going awry.

"I met her. Thanks to her, I’m injured. Anyway, I want to steal a mobile knight to escape. Can you see if there’s one nearby that we can take?”

Her allies sent her data, and it appeared that there was a mission to transport an important machine nearby.

“They're trying to transport a custom machine. This is the closest to your location, Commander. It’s active, so it should be operational if you can steal it.”

Leaning against the wall, Sirena smiled.

“It’s not my taste, but it’s unavoidable.”

...

In the hangar where the Raccoons were stored, a pilot from the Seventh Weaponry Factory was opening the hatch of the gold-painted Gold Raccoon.

"This is infuriating. They want me to transport this high-end machine in the middle of all this chaos," he complained.

But he got in, and the process of starting it up was laborious, since it was a custom machine.

He finished the process and opened the hatch, about to climb in, when...

“Good job.”

“Huh?”

The pilot was thrown into the floor, knocked unconscious.

Luckily, he was wearing his pilot suit, so he didn’t die.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Ignoring the pilot who was getting up to complain, Sirena took the pilot’s seat and operated the machine.

She closed the hatch and smiled at the sensation of the machine starting up.

“Not bad. I like it except for the looks. Now, let's continue the mission.”

Her goal was to destroy the Atalante and kill Emma, the girl she disliked.

...

“Lieutenant Rodman, evacuate the Atalante immediately.”

“Knight Commander?”

“We got information from the enemy that the ground forces captured. Their target is to destroy the Atalante.”

“What?!”

“I’ve received information that a mobile knight has been stolen from the Seventh. You're in danger if you stay here.”

Meanwhile, Emma was receiving a communication from Klaus.

As he instructed her to take the Atalante, Percy objected.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you newbie! If we could move it, we would have done it already.”

“I heard that the machine is complete.”

“A machine that’s been messed with won’t run on the old software, you know.”

“You don't need to ride it. Just bring it to the port—that’s all.”

“It’s too far from here! And the enemy is approaching, so we can’t use the passages.”

Percy argued with Emma through her terminal, but Nias, reaching into her lab coat pocket, approached them.

“There's a hatch leading to space. If someone is waiting outside, you just need to put the machine in it and let go.”

Klaus considered Nias’s suggestion and nodded.

“Understood. I’ll send a recovery unit. Lieutenant Rodman, I know it will be difficult, but please get the Atalante there safely."

“Yes, sir!”

Emma saluted, immediately preparing to get in the Atalante.

She was about to go to her locker to change when Nias called out to her.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

Emma turned around. Nias asked, "Where did you learn to pilot a mobile knight with the assist function turned off?"

Was this the right time to ask that?

Emma tilted her head but decided to answer anyway.

“Um, I learned by playing a mobile knight simulator at an old game center.”

It was a nostalgic memory.

An old game center near her house had a simulator brought in by someone.

Emma recalled how the man, who seemed to be struggling financially, had regretted buying it, with the owner complaining constantly.

He’d always call the man a "fake" and complain about him constantly.

This particular simulator didn’t have an assist function.

The children who tried it couldn’t control it properly, and it just sat there, taking up space.

Emma, who had always yearned to be a knight, was the only one who could use it. She kept riding it day after day, gradually learning to control it.

She walked, ran, jumped, and enjoyed piloting the mobile knight.

As she reminisced, Nias smiled slightly and looked at Emma.

“Yes. I’m sorry for stopping you. You’re free to go now.”

“Okay.”

Nias, watching Emma run off, looked down and chuckled.

“It’ll be fine to use that system anyway.”