Post-Post-Apocalyptic Delivery Person (4)

Before

In the post-post-apocalyptic world, it is common knowledge, even among children, that Super Cubs can be harvested from fields.
Near proliferated posts, Cub seeds are sometimes found. When these seeds—highly compressed spatial information bodies of Cubs—are buried in carefully tilled fields, they connect their tachyon fiber roots to the underground network stems that existed before the apocalypse and once powered production infrastructure. They then receive public encryption keys, energy, and materials from special posts called composts, growing steadily.
The harvest season is spring, from March to May, and autumn, from October to November. While they are shipped year-round, it is said that spring Cubs have a softer ride, while autumn Cubs have a stronger sweetness in the scent of their exhaust. Super Cub farming is a vital primary industry supporting post-post-apocalyptic civilization, but in recent years, it has suffered from a lack of successors, with the shortage of brides due to severe global population decline being particularly serious.
The size of a field-grown Cub is approximately 1.8 meters. Even very large ones rarely exceed 2 meters, and only special varieties used for festivals reach about 3 meters.
I have never seen or heard of a Cub over 10 meters long.

"This pledge is intended to promote public welfare by providing postal military services at the lowest possible cost, universally and fairly, and ultimately to dedicate this body to the victory of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications."
I recognized the content that the white-haired girl was reciting clearly and fluently, a complete turnaround from her previously somewhat dismissive and lethargic tone. It was the oath taken upon joining the Campo Knights (Postal Order), touted as the most elite unit within the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
The Campo Knights were a mysterious, elusive legion led by the enigmatic Commander, Lord Campo. They are famous for having launched an overwhelming encirclement and annihilation battle against the South American United Kingdom forces during the Second Pacific Rim Limited Unlimited War, making maximum use of the mobility of Super Cubs capable of traveling on land, sea, and air.
However, the Campo Knights should have already been disbanded by the time of the Fourth Pacific Rim Limited Unlimited War, which was humanity's last war...
Before my eyes, as I stood in disbelief, the giant Super Cub—the Ultimate Cub—began to unfold its parts along the power lines in sync with the girl's recitation of the induction oath!
"Postal military duties shall be carried out by the Campo Knights in accordance with the provisions of this pledge."
Clang, clang, clang! The sound of the giant parts rubbing against each other was like the sound of a gong encouraging soldiers heading to the battlefield! The color of the light running along the power lines turned the same red as the girl's eyes, and the compressed steam blowing out dyed the dawn sky!
A laser beam was projected from the 〒 mark on the Ultimate Cub's cowl, enlarging and projecting a giant 〒 mark into space—then, the 〒 mark distorted its shape and stood upright as if it were human-shaped. The Ultimate Cub also changed its form to match.
Transformation! It is a transformation!
The side stand and main stand deployed in two stages, front-to-back and side-to-side, with a splashing sound, combining with the gear shift pedal and kick starter pedal to form sturdy legs.
The tires were also disassembled and reconnected, with the thick rubber becoming shoulder parts. The spokes intertwined to create hollow arms. Energy lines immediately ran through the gaps, filling them with mysterious tubes and cylinders.
The front cowl moved to the head, folding and bending into armor resembling a warrior's helmet. The position lamp and headlight lined up vertically on the face, and the cover was shattered from the inside by explosives, revealing a wide-area sensor and a mono-eye camera.
"Tasks related to mail must involve proper combat under the efficient operations of the postal service, and must include proper victory."
VROOOOOM!! The 5000-horsepower horizontal engine in the chest began to exhaust! It was an incredible idling sound that made me mistake it for the earth itself shaking and making noise!
Its majestic appearance, standing on two legs, was approximately 12 meters tall. Its divine presence was truly like Hermes, the god of mail, manifested in this world!
However, there was still a void in the chest area. But looking at the two handle grips growing there, their role was clear.
"...No one shall be discriminated against under the protection of the Knights."
The white-haired girl crouched down and made a great leap, kicking up a cloud of dust. After performing a twist in the air, she settled perfectly into the cockpit 8 meters above the ground. At the same time, a transparent canopy sealed the cockpit from the outside world.
"Non-standard Super Cub-type decisive delivery machine <Ultimate Cub> - Conceptual address for individual identification 'Trismegistus'. Startup complete. Delivery Person <Postlude> pledge authentication confirmed. Good morning, Delivery Person Natsuki."
While glowing its mono-eye in a 〒 shape, the Ultimate Cub Trismegistus spoke in a calm male voice.
The white-haired girl—Natsuki, was it?—responded with her eyes literally shining.
"Morning, Tri. Has it been about 1200 quarters?"
A quarter is a mysterious unit of time that existed before the apocalypse. It was mainly used as a military calendar, and it is said that wars were conducted according to it.
"To be precise, it has been 1211 quarters, Natsuki."
One person and one machine having a leisurely conversation. This is hardly the time for that!
The Stamp Collector had already recovered from the damage of being slammed by the Ultimate Cub and had even expanded its body by about two sizes. Its giant frame was now comparable to Trismegistus!
Given its recovery from my gunfire, there is no doubt that the secret to its eerie toughness lies in the tentacles wrapped around the surrounding posts, sucking up some kind of postal energy.
"SHUSHUSHUUUUUU!!!"
The Stamp Collector bundled multiple tentacles and rotated them at high speed. The sound of it tearing through the surrounding atmosphere while scattering droplets of dissolving mucus was truly that of a flesh-colored rock drill. A nightmare!
In contrast, Trismegistus was just dangling its arms, which had six manipulators, back and forth without even guarding. Hey, is it going to be okay?
"Kid, get down, it's dangerous there."
Natsuki sent a warning to me through the external speaker, and the moment she did—a hurricane raged.
"Whoa!?"
I grabbed onto a nearby post just in time, barely avoiding being blown high into the air and falling to my death.
"Hahahaha!!"
Natsuki's voice, which sounded like neither a laugh of exhilaration nor a cry of spirit, reached me a beat late. Even in the 120fps slow-motion mode of my retinal nano-eye camera, I couldn't quite capture it; it was, simply put, just a step. The ground exploded, sending sand and posts flying, and the waves of sound collided with the waves in front as soon as they were generated, creating high-pitched bursting sounds that were scattered throughout the area. It was a catastrophic sight, but I realized that for a 12-meter-tall, 50-ton iron mass moving at this speed, it was too quiet and the scale of destruction was too small.
I remembered that just a moment ago, Natsuki had held Trismegistus with one hand. This, as expected—there is no doubt that gravity control is being used.
In the pre-apocalyptic civilization, humans succeeded in forcing submission from three of the four fundamental forces. Technologies like room-temperature nuclear fusion reactors, room-temperature superconductivity, and teleportation are the fruits of that. But the final wall, gravity, stubbornly refused to surrender to human military power. That should have been the case.
I looked around at the strangely distorted scenery. A 4-stroke single-cylinder two-stage gravity engine that uses gravity control to super-compress dark matter omnipresent in space, using it as a catalyst to draw in dark energy as fuel. An over-technology that was only listed as a hypothesis in the pre-apocalyptic data library.
Who on earth are these guys?
Trismegistus easily succeeded in getting behind the Stamp Collector, pulling both arms back like a bow—the fact that its fingertips were shimmering like heat haze was because dark energy was concentrated there.
"Archdemon class..."
The bow—is released.
"...I'm already sick of eating."
Trismegistus's arms pierced through the Stamp Collector's torso and tore it left and right in one breath.
SPLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!
The scattered pieces of flesh and dangerous mucus were immediately consumed by the heat haze in the air and vanished. The monster couldn't even let out a death rattle, and it disappeared completely and perfectly.
The nano-eye camera stopped recording. The recording time was 1.98 seconds.

[To be continued]