Chapter 1 - Ride of the Valkyries

The skies on the front lines were concealed behind thin clouds of Eintagsfliege, their eerily serene silver spreading as far as the eye could see.

"There´s another force of Löwe coming your way, estimated to be a battalion-size group…! We´ve got a platoon heading our way, too!"

The squadron's wireless radios were abuzz with frantic status updates. The fighting so far had claimed 30 percent of their forces, and the news of the encroaching Löwe spelled death for the 12th Company of the 141st Regiment of the Federal Republic of Giad's 177th Armored Division, which had only been pushed farther back with every passing moment.

"Forty-five seconds until contact! Oh, God…!"

"Tch… There's more of 'em coming…?!"

Eugene, the violent prodigy of combat maneuverability, groaned from the tandem cockpit of his Vánagandr. He had the silver hair and eyes of a pureblood Celena. Though he wore glasses, his face was still youthful for a seventeen-year-old.

Against the Federacy, the Legion employed a ruthless tactic—one unit would detach itself from combat and sneak off to summon reinforcements. Before long, that one would become many, and the newly formed horde would then rejoin the fray. The Federal Republic of Giad's third-generation Feldreß Vánagandr was able to rival the Löwe for dominance over ground warfare. Inferior units simply wouldn't stand a chance.

"Shit, what is the artillery brigade doing?! Where was the cover fire?!"

He could hear the company commander, who sat in the back seat as the vehicle's gunner, swear bitterly over the radio. Due to the heavy stride of the eight-legged Vánagandr, the reverberations of its tank turret, and the screeching of its energy packs, it was impossible to hear anything or hold a conversation within the cockpit, even from a short distance.

The commander, of course, was perfectly aware of this. Bathed in the darkness created by ceaseless deployment of the Eintagsfliege, his radar and sensors were dead, and it was impossible to pinpoint the enemy's location with eyesight alone. Battles against the Legion always began as one-sided onslaughts.

Equipped with cracked reinforced-armor exoskeletons and 12.8 mm heavy machine guns, armored infantry faced off against the Dragoon-type Grauwolf but only ended up getting crushed along with the trenches they inhabited. Meanwhile, their supporting unit, a fellow Vánagandr, was equipped with thick composite armor and a 120 mm barrel cannon that was unmatched in strength. But the resulting lack of mobility led to it being crushed as well.

The Legion were machines designed for slaughter, and human reflexes couldn't stand up to their reaction speed. The Vánagandr was especially weak when it came to acceleration; even if in terms of inherent cruising speed, it could match the Legion's forces, when it came to comprehensive motion capabilities like accelerating, braking, or swiveling, it fell fatally behind.

"Don´t flinch! Even if you dodge them, it´s not like they´re gonna let you run!"

"Come at me, you shitty pieces of scrap metal! It´ll be my fucking honor to shield my comrades, you hear me?!"

"God dammit, like hell I´m dying here! I refuse to be taken…!"

The infantrymen tried to shrug off their impending deaths, pelting the mechanical demons that approached them with jeers and bullets as nightmare-inducing screams haunted the radio waves. Eugene gritted his teeth as the voices, which had already come to grips with their fates even as they fought, echoed in his ears.

Beeeep. Their request for reinforcements, which they had been broadcasting since the beginning of the battle, had finally been answered, as signaled by a beep. And that's when it happened.

Several shells cruised through the air, cutting through the pale-blue moonlight and the darkness of night as if it were thin gauze. They landed on the upper section of the defensive Legion's line with startling accuracy, some bursting and others unleashing showers of smaller explosives onto them. The bombardment was concentrated perfectly, missing the armored infantry's fan formation and landing only on the Legion that lay deeper within.

The bombardment was nothing short of a superhuman feat. The thinly armored Scout types—Ameise—had been collectively silenced. The Grauwolf were purged by a barrage of rockets fired at their rear. The lightweight Legion may have had their combat capabilities reduced, but the Tank-type Löwe swerved their cannon turrets, unscathed…until they crumpled to the ground a moment later, having taken armor-piercing rounds to their flanks.

And as the deafening roars of the Löwe's consecutive cannon fire and their constant clouds of dust and rumbles fell silent, Eugene could finally hear it from afar, echoing like distant thunder. With an initial velocity of 1,600 meters per second, which far exceeded the speed of sound, the cannon's shot made an impact long before it could be heard. The impact was followed by the sharp, heavy, distinctive sound of metal plates banging against one another.

"An 88 mm…?!"

"Ugh, don´t tell me it´s…!"

It lunged at the Legion through the darkened sky like a jumping spider ravenously plucking insects from the ground. Landing on top of a Löwe at the center of the enemy formation, it drove the four electromagnetic pile drivers in its legs into the Löwe's back. The Löwe spasmed and twitched violently.

It had four nimble jointed legs and pure-white armor, the color of polished bone. Its two grappling arms, each equipped with a pair of high-frequency blades and a wire anchor, were currently folded up like a spider's chelicerae, and on its back was a gun mount arm supporting an 88 mm smoothbore gun. The 57 mm pile drivers on the tips of each of its four legs gleamed a brilliant shade of silver.

The machine was blessed with a cold, ferocious beauty befitting the name Valkyrie, but simultaneously, it also evoked the terrifying image of a skeletal corpse prowling the battlefield in search of its lost head.

"A Reginleif…"

The groan that leaked from the onboard wireless comm sounded less like something one might say in the face of an ally that came to provide backup and more like an utterance of fear in the face of an enemy.

The XM2 Reginleif. It was the polar opposite of the Vánagandr, which had heavy composite armor that stood for absolute defensive capabilities and a 120 mm cannon that encompassed maximum penetrating force. The Reginleif's explosive output stood in direct opposition to its weight, and its powerful and highly efficient linear actuators granted this late third-generation Feldreß high mobility.

For having emphasized maneuverability, the Reginleif sacrificed defense and firepower, and its hypermobility even damaged its passengers' bodies. It was a third-generation high-mobility combat aircraft designed by what was seemingly sheer madness. It was based off "their" machines: the diabolical drones created by the Republic on the other side of the Legion-infested territories.

The Legion lacked all traces of life and compassion and felt no sorrow for their fallen comrades. They did not fear death. The Löwe swiftly shifted their primary objective, preparing to shoot down the Reginleif, which had been caught in the wreckage of a downed consort unit.

Leaping out of harm's way at the very last second, the Reginleif fired at a stranded Löwe that ran aground a moment later. Its turret, weighing several tons, was blown off as its own ammunition exploded, soaring high into the air. The combat unit went up in an ostentatious ball of flames, a precaution to protect sensitive data from enemy hands.

The Reginleif rushed on, darting through flames of red and black, as well as a lethal rain of metal debris. Closing the fifty-meter gap between the Tank types within moments, it performed a short-range leap toward a Löwe just as it rotated its turret, spraying the Löwe's vulnerable flank with armor-piercing rounds from its 88 mm cannon as they intersected. Without pause, it cut down a group of Grauwolf that charged at it with its high-frequency blades before leaping to single-handedly engage the next Löwe.

Yes, single-handedly.

It was only one unit, but that one unit alone decimated a largely intact company of augmented, armored Legion. Its high-frequency blade screeched, its pile drivers discharged purple bolts of electricity, and its 88 mm cannon shook the battlefield with its roars, reducing the infernal hunks of iron to mere scrap metal.

This feat was not a testament to the machine's capabilities. Rather, the praise belongs to its pilots—once known as Processors when they manned the cruelly named drones—and their skills, which made all the difference.

The loss-exchange ratio between the Reginleif and the Löwe wasn't significantly higher than that of the Vánagandr and the Löwe, and the casualty rate of the Reginleif was, in fact, higher. In reality, when a test unit of Reginleifs was deployed during its trial stages, all but one company were cornered into annihilation—and that same company, led by them, wiped out the enemy force in its entirety.

The berserk soldiers who were rescued from the depths of hell by the Federacy walked right back into that hell of their own free will. They didn't fear going into battle with the Legion, didn't flinch in the face of the deaths that awaited them. Shunning armor, they rode the Reginleifs, which made light of the lives of their pilots, and hunted the Legion down with an impossible air of composure. They opposed the Legion's vastness by charging them head-on, tearing them apart with unbridled ferocity and meticulous coordination.

The madness.

A small shadow rose up, clinging to one of the Reginleif's long legs. The Reginleif raised its legs to shake it off—then gouged it with one of its pile drivers, skewering it through the head.

It was a self-propelled anti-tank mine. Eugene understood this but still shivered in terror at the sight. Was the Processor truly able to discern in that brief moment that this wasn't a friendly troop asking for help? Or maybe he didn't care to begin with whether it was a friendly and acted out of self-defense?

The Reginleif shook its leg, as if trying to get rid of a stubborn piece of trash, and the humanoid figure that had vividly stuck to the leg was thrown away, only to hit a Löwe. Its fuse triggered, and it blew up, the metal jet of its high-explosive anti-tank warhead eating into the top of the Tank type's armor.

The flickering flames illuminated the Reginleif's white armor, making the Personal Mark on it visible for a moment. A headless skeleton carrying a shovel—the ominous mark of the Reaper, the most abominable and maddest of the Processors.

The Personal Mark of the greatest among them. As all his consort units had been downed in their first campaign, he alone had defeated the entire enemy force.

His name was—

Eugene's eyes widened in realization when the company captain sitting behind him in the gunner's seat spat out bitterly.

The name of those born of the Republic's malice, tempered by cruelty and polished by ruthlessness. The name of those weapons of slaughter given human form, who were no different from the Legion.

"The Eighty-Six…the monsters of the Republic…!"

Fundamentally, armored weapons—be they treadmill types or walking types—break down significantly less if they are not operated outside of combat situations. Shin took a seat in the cabin of the Advanced Technology Research Bureau's 1,028th Trial Unit's combat squadron's special heavy-transport vehicle, which carried his Reginleif, Undertaker.

He wore a flight suit in the Federacy military's steel-blue color, with a badge shaped after the national emblem of the two-headed eagle and the rank insignia of second lieutenant. His light-blue scarf was, strictly speaking, in violation of military regulations, but everyone looked the other way so long as he didn't wear it in formal occasions.

He was reaching under his scarf to remove the RAID Device from his neck when he received a Sensory Resonance call from the maintenance crew in the rear storage box compartment.

""Second Lieutenant Nouzen.""

"You've still got the wireless switched on, Corporal."

He could hear him click his tongue from both the Resonance and the speakers.

""Right, shit. I can't get used to how different this Para-RAID thing is from the radio. Why'd they have to stick our unit with testing this thing when we've already got this crazy machine to work on…? Anyway. About your ammo refills, you're fine with half cast explosives and half armor-piercers, right?""

The majority of the Nordlicht squadron was made up of soldiers from the old combat territories of Vargus and wasn't officially in the army's register. When the Federacy was still the Empire, the Vargus were warrior-class slaves stationed in combat territories on the cusp of the Empire's borders as defense in case of emergency. Generations of life on the battlefield had made them rough and hardened, and the current regime employed them as mercenaries, making their discipline rather lax. They did, at the very least, refer to officers respectfully.

"Yeah, that's fine."

""Also, we're out of spare blades. There are fewer and fewer Juggernauts, and you're the only one using that crazy weapon, Second Lieutenant. The next time you sortie, do me a favor and refrain from swinging those knives of yours around like some crazy serial killer, okay?""

Calling this machine a Juggernaut—the same name as the Republic drone it was based on—instead of its official name, the XM2 Reginleif, was yet another characteristic of the Nordlicht squadron. Last month, shortly after they'd deployed for their trial sorties, half the squadron—including its captain—died in combat, leaving Shin as the most senior officer remaining and therefore its new captain. He would call the Reginleif a Juggernaut, and everyone else seemed to have gotten used to it because of him.

They all seemed to agree it was a far more fitting name than that of a Valkyrie. Compared to a bringer of salvation, the name of a grotesque, rampaging god was much better suited to an unruly, metallic beast that ruthlessly devoured its test operators during its development and half of its squadron later.

It was because of the Juggernaut's extreme tendency to pick its riders that the Nordlicht squadron, which was, as far as military terminology was concerned, on the verge of being considered decimated, hadn't received any new man power, not to mention had been reorganized since its formation.

"It'll be fine. The Legion should be retreating soon."

""Huh? Oh, right… That, uh, thing of yours. I don't really get how it works, Second Lieutenant, but it's definitely convenient.""

Closing out with something that was either a word of admiration or him speaking to himself, the corporal shut off the Para-RAID with a twinge of fear in his voice. Shin removed the RAID Device, a metal ring that had a similar, but far more polished and advanced, function to a throat microphone.

And just as he thought it wasn't much different from a collar, a voice that used a tone that went beyond antiquated and straight into the territory of exaggeration spoke to him from the driver's seat. It was the sort of voice that Shin, who knew only the battlefield, thought belonged a century or two in the past.

"A job well done, Shinei."

"…Frederica. You sneaked in again."

A small girl of roughly ten years old leaned back from the seat, facing him. She had slender limbs, a petite frame, and a delicate, doll-like face that looked at him from beneath her military cap. Her gemstone eyes were a Pyrope's red, and her long Onyx-black hair trailed down to her knees, clashing with her steel-blue uniform.

This cheeky girl he'd known for six months now—since before he'd enlisted in the trial unit—puffed up her chest proudly.

"Your attempts to exclude me by mingling with the maintenance crew were in vain, I'm afraid. As they were rather frantic in their final checks, there were ample opportunities for me to sneak in."

"…Corporal. We're gonna need to have a little talk when we get back to base."

"Second Lieutenant…?! No, hear me out here! We really were swamped with work this time…"

Leaving the corporal with that remark as he shut down the wireless line, Shin sighed and looked into Frederica's eyes, red, much like his own.

"I keep telling you, you don't have to follow us on sorties. Do your duties properly, Mascot."

"You're very brave or else very foolish to speak to me that way while you act under my command. Furthermore, you've no right to speak of properly performing one's duties. One who presumes to be a commanding officer, no matter how small the company, does not simply leave his consort units behind and charge onto the battlefield. This tendency to leap into the fray unassisted is a bad habit of yours. Bernholdt was complaining about you, I'll have you know."

This sergeant, the most senior member of the squadron and a young man in the prime of his life, shrugged. That silent shrug went to show that while he was displeased that his advice was ignored, he had no complaints from a strategic point of view. Bernholdt had acknowledged that Shin's judgment was sound, so Shin didn't pry any further into the matter.

"It's their fault for not keeping up with me. If I just stood around and waited for them to catch up, it'd defeat the whole point of mounting a mobile defense."

The Processors who'd been left behind all remained silent and smiled wryly at his words. Frederica, on the other hand, simply frowned.

"Mobile defense, you say. Indeed, it is fitting for someone like you. However, I cannot abide by it. Such tactics operate under the assumption that one's line of defense has been breached."

One would have to set infantry units as the front line and hold back the armored units, with their superior mobility and firepower, in the back lines. This defensive strategy enabled them to exterminate the enemy every time they broke through the front lines. As the Legion's fierce attacks over the past month locked both sides in stalemate, they adopted this defensive strategy in an attempt to minimize losses.

"While this may buy us time for the moment, the glaring difference in our armies' reproductive capabilities makes it clear this strategy will eventually fail. And when it does, what do you think will become of you out there on the front lines?"

From Shin's perspective, all of this was said far too late to matter. That didn't concern him in the slightest, so he merely sat in his seat. Did it matter to the troops in the front what happened once this country fell? Did it matter to them?

Frederica leaned forward to meet Shin's eyes, displeasure plain on her face.

"Are you listening, Shinei? Your penchant for reckless endangerment is also rather troubling. Have you no concern for your own well-being? Remember that you are no longer a soldier of the Republic's Eighty-Sixth Sector, but of the Federac— Hiyaaa?!"

She let out a high-pitched shriek. Shin had pulled Frederica's military cap all the way down below her nose to silence her prattling. Ignoring her squeals of panic, he leaned back against the hard backrest of his seat and closed his eyes.

The Legion had raided them tonight in large numbers, and they had received more appeals for reinforcements today than they could count. He had plenty of experience fighting over one or two consecutive nights and intended to savor every nap he could take.

Frederica, meanwhile, was still at the mercy of her hat.

"Uuuh, I can't get it off; it won't come oooooff— Bernholdt, help meeeeee."

"Sure thing. But once I do, please quiet down. Everyone, the second lieutenant included, has been fighting for days. Some haven't gotten a wink of sleep, y'know?"

"I see… My apologies."

Feeling a fleeting gaze turn in his direction, Shin surrendered himself to a brief slumber. Even in his sleep, he could hear the mechanical ghosts' wails and lamentations, never once abating as they prowled the lands to the west.

FOB 15 served as the advance base for the 177th Armored Division and as the second defensive line for the Federal Republic of Giad's western front line. It was home base for the 141st Regiment. Which meant that due to the large number of officers and Feldreß this base housed, its cafeteria was incredibly spacious.

Eugene carried his tray in one hand through the large cafeteria, scouring the area in an attempt to find the person he was looking for. Since it was rebuilt every time the front lines shifted, the cafeteria was fairly plain and unadorned. If it were ten years ago, before the revolution, when Giad was an empire rather than a Federacy, there would no doubt be portraits of past despots hung here. But instead, the Federacy's national policy, "Strive to be the justice the world prides itself on," and its crossed flag adorned the walls.

"Mm. If you're looking for the Nordlicht squadron's officers, I believe I saw them over there."

"Thank you."

"Making the effort to understand and accept our newcomers is an admirable gesture, young Second Lieutenant. The Eighty-Six have had it harder than most, after all."

This captain, who appeared to be a former noble of Sapphira blood, flashed Eugene a toothy grin. Eugene responded with a vague smile of his own and bored his way into the jumbled crowd of people that filled the room. The captain's words were true, but Eugene still found Eighty-Six other than Shin—not that he'd ever met another one—to be strange and scary. If he were to call out to them normally, perhaps talk with them and get a feel for their personalities, maybe he'd think they were decent people, but…

The Federacy was a multiracial nation. Its military bases were full of people from all walks of life, but there was a lot of disparity when it came to the soldiers' ages, and young men and women in their late teens stood out in the crowd. Eugene was one such example, a young officer who'd graduated from a special military academy. He was part of a system where after receiving the minimal secondary education, he was appointed as a second lieutenant. He then began his military term and gradually received the higher education that normally would have been mandatory for him to receive prior to enlisting.

This system was installed by the Federacy as a last resort to ensure there would always be officers, even after ten years of grueling war with the Legion. However, it did have the benefit of paving the way for children of middle-class families to become officers, and it was entirely voluntary. No matter how bad the state of the war had become, the Federacy's government had never stooped to forcing the civilians to enlist.

Only the lowest kind of scum would force others to fight their battles for them.

The Federacy was nothing like the Empire or that country to the west.

That said, his roommate and partner in the special officer academy had mentioned that this was also because a makeshift army of conscripts was inefficient in this day and age, and on this type of battlefield, where soldiers were required to have the technical knowledge and skill to operate weaponry.

"…Hey, what're the people from Nordlicht doing here?"

"Our unit called them over for reinforcements yesterday, remember? That Reaper and his headless skeleton… They give me the creeps."

"I heard they downed a crazy number of units in the month they've been here… Both enemies and friendlies."

"I mean, damn, he actually sits inside that thing, doesn't he? The whole Processor thing wasn't some figure of speech, was it?"

"Cut it out, man. If you're gonna say that, how are you any different from those assholes over in the Republic, y'know? Our glorious Federacy doesn't deal in those kinds of atrocities."

"You're not wrong. Glory to the two-headed eagle."

The conversation between those two officers—from the armored infantry forces, judging by their physiques—ironically helped Eugene reach his destination. At the end of a long table in one corner of the room, he found the person he was looking for. He was sitting across from a little girl dressed in full uniform. This young man, clad in a standard military double-breasted blazer, was putting his breakfast in order.

Both had black hair and red eyes, of respectively Onyx and Pyrope origins, and they looked like a pair of siblings only a few years apart. They had the graceful looks that were the mark of the old Empire's nobility, making their facial features quite similar as well. Eugene had heard, however, that the boy didn't have a family anymore.

Maybe the reason their corner was so empty in comparison to the rest of the congested cafeteria was because of their colors. The old nobility prioritized racial homogeneity and abhorred mixed blood, and the middle-class civilians despised the ruling class's descendants. Typically, the Onyxes and Pyropes were of the ruling class, but even if a person had blood from two different noble families, if those families were different colors, that person would be shunned by the nobility.

Another possible reason for their isolation came to mind. Perhaps the rest of their unit simply felt the same way everyone else did about their questionable reputations.

Poking the corner of her tray with a fork, the young girl spoke, her voice like the chirping of a canary.

"…Shinei. Do you enjoy eating mushrooms, perchance?"

"Not particularly. You don't have to force yourself to eat them if you don't want to, you know."

"This is true, however…leaving food on my plate would be most disrespectful to the ones who went to the trouble of preparing it for me, would it not?"

"Then eat the mushrooms."

"Nn…"

Despite his words, the boy shifted the buttered mushrooms from her tray to his, leaving only a small one for her to handle. Curt as he may appear, his nature was that of a kind older brother.

"It's been a while, Shin."

Shin turned and faced him with bloodred eyes, and after one long moment, he blinked.

"Eugene. You were assigned to this base?"

"Since last month."

After asking permission, he took a seat next to the girl. Shin's crimson eyes were trained on him.

"You were a huge help yesterday. That Personal Mark with the skeleton—that was you, right?"

Shin seemed pensive for a long moment.

"Um… Sorry, which unit were you?"

Even though it had happened only yesterday, Shin couldn't remember saving his life.

"Ah-ha-ha, you're pretty active out there, aren't you?"

Looking between the two boys restlessly, Frederica asked:

"An acquaintance of yours?"

"He was my squadmate in the special officer academy."

"We've known each other since before that, though. We both volunteered for the armored division, shared a room during training, formed a team, and even piloted the same unit during Vánagandr training."

Frederica averted her gaze uncomfortably.

"Oh… That sounds…rather unfortunate…for you…"

Eugene leaned forward enthusiastically, his eyes agleam.

"Oh, so you know? This guy's always silent and blunt, and you can never tell what he's thinking."

"Indeed, you speak the truth. He never lifts his eyes from his books when people attempt to converse with him, and if he loses interest in what the other person is saying, he simply nods in lieu of a verbal response. He is not above tuning someone out entirely when it suits him."

"He's usually so distant you'd think he was some cold-blooded creature, but then he goes and does something crazy before you even have time to react. Do you know about Shin's legendary zero-point failure?"

"Oh-ho? Do tell."

"He tried to get a Vánagandr to jump in a mock battle during combat-maneuvers practice. Got himself disqualified immediately for risky piloting."

That was four months ago, at the end of their three-month-long special officer academy basic training. On its own, it was an impressive feat of piloting, but forcing a Vánagandr—which weighed a whopping fifty tons when battle ready—to jump wasn't something the unit was built to handle, not to mention the risk of injury to the pilots inside. Eugene, who'd served as Shin's gunner at the time, had hit his head hard against the headrest, learning firsthand that seeing stars was more than just an idiom.

Shin was inherently incompatible with piloting Vánagandrs. It seemed odd to be opposed to the safety of solid composite armor and the power of the 120 mm turret because they were "too heavy," but this incident was what had led Shin to transfer to the 1,028th Trial Unit… Which had left Eugene feeling rather lonely at the time.

But even as his good name was being slandered right in front of him, Shin seemed entirely detached from the conversation and merely sipped on his coffee. No fun whatsoever. Exchanging miffed expressions, Frederica and Eugene both burst out in laughter a moment later.

"Second Lieutenant Eugene Rantz, of the 18th Company. Nice to meet you."

"Frederica Rosenfort. A pleasure to make your acquaintance… Now, then."

Finishing off her own cup of coffee, loaded with cream and sugar (though Shin had snatched the sugar bowl away after she'd scooped four spoonfuls into it), Frederica rose from her seat.

"I didn't intend to be the third wheel to a pair of old friends in the middle of their reunion. I'll be taking my leave."

Holding up her tray, which was intended for adults and still far too big for her petite frame, she nimbly wove through the sea of people and trotted away with brisk steps. Watching her go, Eugene had to address the elephant in the room. After all, such a young girl seemed quite out of place in a military base.

"…So that's your squadron's Mascot?"

"Yeah."

It was a tradition dating back to the Empire's rule, which some squadrons upheld to this day, installed as a precaution to keep conscripted soldiers from deserting. They would introduce a young girl—around an age appropriate to play the soldiers' little sister or daughter—into the squadron, giving her shelter and food, all the while trying to have them form a makeshift family. The hope was that the soldiers would be inspired to continue fighting, even to the death, all to protect their beloved "daughter."

"We're like a group of mercenaries, after all. I guess you could say she's a hostage, as the origin story goes."

They weren't like a group of mercenaries. That's exactly what they were. For example, Shin was the only registered military personnel in the rescue force that had deployed yesterday. The others were all Vargus, a type of mercenary, and most of the other officers, the squad's commanding officer included, had been killed by the Legion.

​​"…That's terrible. I can't believe they're still using Mascots in this day and age, and sending her into a unit of Vargus, too…"

"She chose to take this path."

Eugene grimaced at Shin's matter-of-fact statement.

"You say that, but a girl like that doesn't have a reason to fight."

As Shin's red eyes looked back at him suddenly, Eugene felt something nudge at his heart. As if there was suddenly a distance between them— No, that gaze made him realize the distance had been there all along. It made him feel as if they weren't in the same place. As if something stood between them, segregating them.

Shaking off that feeling, he said:

"Such a small girl shouldn't have any reason to fight. She shouldn't have anything to defend. No family or country, no justice or way of life. And still… Why should she have to fight? That's messed up, isn't it?"

He closed his eyes for a moment, as if to hide his expression. When Shin opened them again, they still somehow felt serenely closed, and Eugene could no longer sense the wall between them.

"…Yeah, I suppose it is."

Having gone to make a second cup of coffee, Shin also brought one for Eugene, who accepted the paper cup with a thank-you. They called it coffee, but it was a substitute made from barley and chicory. As the Federacy's sphere of influence was surrounded by the Legion and the Eintagsfliege's jamming blocked all communications, any diplomatic relations or trade with other countries was impossible, to say nothing of even being able to confirm one another's existence. As such, coffee beans, which grew in the southern and southeastern parts of the continent, were unobtainable.

"By the way, you had a little sister, right?"

"Ah, yeah. She's a bit younger than Frederica, though."

His hand touched a locket dangling from his neck below his uniform's tie alongside his dog tag.

"…Our parents are gone, see. And I have to earn money if I'm going to send her to a good school."

It had happened six years ago. The war with the Legion had intensified, and they'd had to evacuate their village. The evacuation train to the capital had been too packed for all four of them, and their parents had shoved Eugene and his sister into the compartment, hoping to at least save their children.

That was the last he saw of them.

As they hadn't had the leisure to take any family photos with them, his sister, who'd been a baby at the time, didn't remember her parents' faces.

"She's on summer vacation from elementary school right now, and I'm thinking I might take her out somewhere next time I get leave. A trip might be hard to manage, but the zoo should be easy enough. Oh, I could take her to the department store in Sankt Jeder. Girls like getting new clothes and shoes, right? Ah, now that I think of it, they opened a new café in the capital's department store."

Shin smiled thinly, watching Eugene fire off his options at a mile a minute.

"Being a big brother seems hard."

"Wanna cover my next 'big brother' shift? I totally don't mind."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I've already got a little troublemaker to deal with."

And after he gave Eugene a wry smile, Shin's expression hardened.

"But if that's the case, are you sure you should be a soldier? The war's not going well right now, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon."

If you've got family to look after all on your own…

Eugene's expression changed at those unsaid words.

"Are you saying that based on experience from your old battlefield?"

"…Yeah."

Back when they were in the special officer academy, Shin told him about it. Part of the training program was to deploy cadets out into real combat. In practice, they sent them out on patrol in field uniforms and with assault rifles, equipped with old-fashioned gear. It was only a task to get them used to the battlefield and build up their nerve, but as luck would have it, they were raided by the Legion. Eugene made it back only because he was paired with Shin.

That was when he asked. How was Shin able to tell how the Legion were going to move…? How was he so used to the battlefield? At the time, Shin looked pensive for a while before eventually answering. In that same detached, indifferent tone, he told him…

…of his past.

The story of how he survived the death his homeland had sentenced him to.

However, Eugene never did find it in himself to ask about the mark on his neck—a scar so gruesome that it looked as if he had once been decapitated. A scar from an act of cruelty, inflicted on him out of pure malice.

Eugene realized Shin was concerned for him only because he was that familiar with the horrors of the battlefield and the intensity that came when fighting the Legion. That made him happy. Shin never said much, rarely concerned himself with other people, and could be extremely hardheaded, but he wasn't a bad person. Even with that terrible past behind him, he still befriended an Alba… A pureblood like Eugene.

"But… Well, yeah… I guess."

He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. Bitter. He'd forgotten to put in sugar.

"Just yesterday, ten guys died in our squad. We did manage to expand our territory little by little over these ten years, and even this place was established last spring over land we reclaimed. But people are still dying all the time."

When the Federacy was still the Empire, its territory spanned from the continent's northwest to its north-central region, expanding to the west and east. It was a superpower that boasted the largest landmass and population on the continent—and was a militant nation at that.

Shortly after the Federacy was established, the Legion began a reverse invasion of their lands, and the Vargus protecting the country's lands fulfilled their role loyally. While the Federacy was cut down to less than half of its combat territories, this allowed it to keep the territories focused on production and the capital—which served as the nation's core—unharmed.

It retained most of its national power and was able to gain data on the Legion's performance by examining what few specimens still remained in the Empire-funded laboratories, on top of combat knowledge it had accumulated over ten years of fighting the Legion.

Backed by these factors, it mobilized against the Legion and was able to just barely match them, even gradually making headway and regaining lost territory. The nation's public safety and the expansion of its territory were gained by vastly consuming the Federacy's national power and the lives of its soldiers. The Legion, which operated without fragile, treacherous components like pilots, exceeded the Federacy's weapons in many ways.

On top of that, the Legion, which were created with an unchangeable life span set into their central processors, were able to overcome this sole limitation by assimilating the neural networks of dead soldiers—Shin called these specimens Black Sheep—which enabled them to perpetuate endless war and slaughter without anything to hold them in check. It was also confirmed that the Legion went on active Headhunts, where they sought out living humans to assimilate their neural networks before they went into a state of degradation. Which meant that it was the Federacy, not the Legion, that was on a timer.

"From what I saw yesterday, other squads aren't much different. I'm almost surprised the Legion didn't make it past the second defensive line."

"The commanding officers were saying that this many casualties are to be expected when things get bad. The western front is the Federacy's largest, fiercest front. The 177th Armored Division's sector is one of the most contested zones on the western front, too."

The Federacy's northern, southern, and eastern borders had their first to fourth fronts blessed with mountainous terrain with high elevation and a large river. They were natural fortresses, making it easy to hold a line of defense in those areas. The only front that was hard to defend was the western one, which was covered in vast plains, making it difficult to beat back large numbers. The front extended for four hundred kilometers, with the forces stationed there being four times the size of the forces deployed in each of the other fronts.

"To be expected, huh…? I only have one month of experience on this country's battlefield, but I don't think that number of casualties is something you can just shrug off like that. The Legion's losses just don't match ours. Considering we're still holding the line, we're losing too many troops."

"I agree. It doesn't really feel like we're winning here. The commanders might just be used to this, but the military's upper echelons are all former nobles. To them, the number of commoners that die on the battlefield is just a fluctuating statistic. To them, it's no different than sending livestock to slaughter."

The realization of what he had just said hit him, and he pursed his lips. The person right before his eyes was treated like livestock by the Republic and wouldn't even have been counted as a casualty to begin with.

"…Sorry."

"Hmm? What for?"

Shin made a dubious face, and Eugene simply waved his hand, dismissing the subject. If he didn't get it, that was fine. There was no point in stirring up painful memories.

But.

It was then that Eugene wondered. If that was really what happened to him, why did Shin return to the battlefield?

Shin didn't have a family. They were all stolen away from him by the Republic that should have been his homeland, and he alone was left alive. He wasn't native to the Federacy and didn't have anyone to protect in this country, no ideal to uphold by defending his homeland or comrades. And with the government granting him aid and support, he didn't even need to work here to get food or shelter.

So…why?

"Umm…Shin."

"What?"

"Well… I mean, I could ask you the same thing you asked me earlier."

Should he really ask? Eugene fell into a hesitant silence. Shin's red eyes suddenly shifted from Eugene, his gaze glaring in another direction. He looked far away, beyond the base's thick defensive walls, as if seeing something well beyond it. The atmosphere around him chilled immediately, making Eugene hold his tongue.

"Wh-what's…?"

And just as he was about to ask "What's wrong?" the blaring of a warning siren silenced his words.

This alarm meant that self-propelled, unmanned reconnaissance probes that were deployed in the contested zones had detected the presence of the Legion. The Legion had been developed by the Empire, but its successor, the Federacy, employed only these reconnaissance probes as their sole unmanned machines. Higher education was monopolized by the aristocrats, who made up the core of the dictatorship, and the lower nobility.

The Federacy, however, emphasized the middle classes and couldn't match the Empire's overwhelming technological advancements. The lead researcher who'd effectively invented the Legion's advanced artificial intelligence had passed away before the war even broke out, and the Federacy failed to develop a fully independent AI capable of matching the Legion.

And even if they did, the government and the civilians all agreed that they would not employ such a tactic. Fighting to defend the country and their brethren was both the duty and right of the people, and they wouldn't let machines take that away from them. Many people were also deeply traumatized by the lethal capabilities of rogue autonomous machines—a horrific reality that they were forced to confront every day of their lives.

After a long moment of tense silence, the two stood up as the cafeteria filled with suspense and confusion.

"Those stupid hunks of scrap never let up. It's one day after another. This isn't going to score them any points with the ladies, dammit."

"The Auto Reproduction types are called Weisel, which means queen bee. That makes the rest of the Legion worker bees, so technically, they're all female."

"So they've come to court us Federacy soldier men, huh? They're so clingy it makes me wanna cry."

As they reveled in their dark humor, they left the cafeteria only to part at the hallway. Eugene's armored division and the research division Shin tentatively belonged to as part of the trial unit had different chains of command and different hangars.

"I'll see you later."

"Yeah."

It would not be an exaggeration to call the Federacy's western front an obstacle course, with its narrow forested zones and city ruins that could be established as battle zones. These areas would be the focal points in strategies to defeat the Tank-type Löwe, which served as the main force of the Legion, and the Heavy Tank–type Dinosauria, which were sent to break through defensive lines.

But this decision did not always benefit the Federacy. For the Vánagandr, whose massive frame was just as large as the Löwe's, this terrain was very difficult to maneuver in. And if one became cut off from coordination with its consort units, this kind of terrain could prove fatal if it was cornered by a group of Grauwolf types.

They were in a forest filled with the conifer and broad-leaved trees native to the western front. Pursued by Grauwolf types that attempted to cut into his unit from all four directions, Eugene spurred his Vánagandr forward. The silent forest trembled at the force of the fifty-ton unit's steps as its propulsion system moaned in agony.

The Legion washed over the Federacy like a tidal wave, no matter whether it was night or day. Their raids were irregular and intermittent yet relentless. They repeated these attacks, steadily exhausting the Federacy's stamina and morale, and once hostilities commenced, the battles would continue for half a month. The Legion could employ this strategy because, unlike humans, who took roughly a year to reproduce, the Auto Reproduction–type Weisel, which lay deep within Legion territory, could churn out new units with the same speed and fluidity as the jet-black smoke billowing from their exhaust vents.

The sky over the battlefield was blanketed by the silver filament of the Eintagsfliege clouds, which jammed the radar and data link, and the Long-Range Gunner-type Skorpion's bombardment sporadically rained down on the entrenched soldiers. In terms of individual capabilities, the armored infantry was no match for the Grauwolf, and the Vánagandr wasn't quite equal to the Löwe, which meant the Federacy would have to use coordinated strategies to overcome them. But the Legion—ever living up to their ominous name—had the overwhelming numerical advantage, which allowed them to overcome the weakness of their lack of sophisticated tactics.

At times, Eugene had thought, Are we going to lose?

We—the Federacy. Or perhaps all of humankind. Were they going to lose to these murder machines who had no reason to war against them? Would they eventually lose the strength to fight, and one day lose—

"Second Lieutenant Rantz! Quit daydreaming! Do you want to die?!"

Those words were accompanied by a kick from the gunner's seat, jolting Eugene from his thoughts. The radar screen was covered with the Legion's red blips. The information system just barely remained online, projecting information regarding the combat status of the other units on the holo-screen.

The battle wasn't going well. The armored unit, which was in charge of mobile defense and was to be stationed in the second defensive line's rear, was nearly standing on the front line. Shin's Nordlicht squadron was deployed nearby. It attacked the flanks of the charging Löwe, repelling their advance in a melee engagement that didn't distinguish between friend or foe. As that took place, the armored units, who had been at the head of the offensive until now, took this chance to reorganize themselves and commence a counterattack in coordination with the Nordlicht squadron.

Shin's squad would always appear on the battlefields that needed it the most, which also happened to be the most dangerous ones. As the wreckage of the destroyed Legion scattered over the battlefield, friendly troops also died like flies, their dead bodies piling up until they created a mountain of corpses.

The Nordlicht squadron would always plunge into the most terrible hells any sane person would recoil from, and they would do so without fear. Eugene was aware there were people on the front who mockingly called them demons in human form and said they drank the blood of the fallen for sustenance. The headless skeletons, who bore the name of the Valkyrie, the decider of life and death on the battlefield, charged into combat once again, lured by the scent of their slain comrades.

Suddenly, white noise rushed through all their optical screens and multipurpose holo-windows. The value on the screen indicating the Eintagsfliege's density changed. The electronic jamming had intensified.

And just before the noise completely drowned out all their comms—the Nordlicht squadron's blips began retreating at top speed, and a voice yelling something into the open line only barely registered in Eugene's consciousness.

Something rained down from above—and burst. Shock waves ripped through the air. In this age, when even sluggish, recoilless rifles fired bullets that traveled faster than the speed of sound, the roar of explosions always came last.

A shower of steel washed over them.

Sensory Resonance, which traveled via the collective unconscious, wasn't affected by the electronic jamming that silenced all manner of wireless communications.

"Are you unharmed, Shinei?"

"Yeah."

"Thank goodness…"

But as she said that, Frederica's voice trembled.

"…However…I am afraid I have bad news."

Looking down at the smoking steel-colored wreckage that had been ripped apart by the hail of self-forging fragments, Shin opened his mouth to speak.

"Frederica—close your 'eyes.'"

When Eugene opened his eyes, he was met with greenery hanging over him. Green oak and beech leaves gently wavered overhead. Spruce and pine trees cast a dark-green shadow over him. The emerald of the foliage mingled with the Eintagsfliege's thin clouds, catching trace rays of sunlight and rendering the mist slightly transparent. Green painted over the very fog, the hazy iridescent shades of a northern forest's summer.

Feeling the grass, moist with dew, against his cheeks told him he was lying down on the ground. He could make out the massive gray silhouette of a mechanical carcass that resembled a giant beast—his shredded Vánagandr—crouching a short distance from him.

A slender shadow knelt next to him. Eugene strained his eyes to make out who it was.

"Shin."

Shin's bloodred gaze looked down on Eugene. His cold, serene gaze never wavered, not even now. If the Grim Reaper existed, his eyes would surely look like that.

"The commander…?"

"He's dead."

"And…me…?"

He vaguely knew he was beyond saving. If there was any chance of helping him, Shin wouldn't simply be looking down at him like this.

"You don't want to know."

"Tell me."

Shin gave a long, resolute sigh.

"Everything below your stomach is gone."

He could tell he wasn't just cut up. He could imagine how bad it was from the blood on Shin's steel-blue flight suit. He looked as if he'd trudged through a river of blood.

Really… He wasn't a bad guy. As inappropriate as it was, Eugene found himself smiling. Even though he knew it was hopeless, Shin had still pulled him out of the wreckage. And judging from how he didn't feel even a tinge of pain, Shin must have administered him morphine, too.

He'd wasted precious painkillers on a dying soldier.

But Eugene was still grateful he'd pulled him out of the Vánagandr. He didn't want to die stuck in that sealed cockpit, choking on the stench of his own blood and entrails.

"Shin… I've got to ask you for one last favor."

"What is it?"

"I want you to take my locket. I'm wearing it just under my gear…"

Shin's eyes wavered slightly when Eugene realized he no longer had the hands to complete the task. Removing his gloves, perhaps not wanting to dirty them, Shin reached out to take the locket. After a moment of hesitation, he reached into the flight suit's collar, his fingers clasping the cold metal object. It slowly heated up, taking in Shin's body heat.

As he rose to his feet, towering above Eugene like a great black crow, Shin retrieved a pistol from the holster on his right thigh. He pulled back the slide and put a bullet into the chamber. It was a 99 mm automatic pistol, larger than the ones the Federacy provided its pilots. It was a weapon that was completely ineffective against the Legion's armor.

Eugene's hands would have probably shaken too much to complete the task if he'd been put in Shin's position, and yet, neither the muzzle nor the gaze directed at him wavered in the slightest. But he knew by now that it wasn't out of coldheartedness.

So the least he could do to repay him was to muster the last of his strength and force a smile.

"Sorry… Thanks."

A single gunshot echoed across the battlefield.

Frederica had said he was still alive, but she'd never told Shin to save him. That had made the situation perfectly clear.

"Fido…"

He called out to his faithful Scavenger, only to remember he'd left it behind in the Legion's territories, as he'd been unable to take it back, and closed his mouth. Once this battle ended, Eugene's corpse would be recovered, sent back to his family, and given a proper, dignified burial. Probably before his soul—or something similar to it, if such a thing existed—returned to the darkness at the edge of the world.

But his name, his final expression, his smiles, and the stories of the family he often spoke of were etched into Shin's heart. Along with those of the untold hundreds that he had accompanied to the end until now.

That was always the only thing he could ever really do.

As he broke off one of Eugene's two dog tags for the sake of his death report, Shin heard a heavy machine's loud footsteps approaching him. It wasn't the Legion. Their highly efficient propulsion and buffering systems made it so even the Tank types didn't make noise when walking, and besides, he would know if the Legion were approaching him.

Before long, he saw a damaged Vánagandr bearing the 18th Company's insignia of a porcupine approach him through the emerald fog.

Noticing the totaled Vánagandr and the corpse of his comrade, along with the young soldier who served another unit, the operator of the last remaining Vánagandr from the 18th Company brought his machine to a halt.

He was standing in an abandoned corner of a dangerous battlefield where there was no telling when the Legion might attack. He didn't even have an assault rifle for self-defense on him, but oddly enough and despite the recklessness of it all, the boy's silent posture didn't seem to give off any sign of crisis.

Lying hidden near the broken Vánagandr was the boy's own unit, a white, four-legged Feldreß, waiting on standby. The operator swallowed nervously. A Reginleif. The headless skeleton that appeared only in battlefields of countless casualties.

The boy didn't have his headset on, so they couldn't talk via wireless. The unit's commander cautiously opened the canopy of the back, gunner seat. The young soldier cocked an eyebrow, looking up at him. The operator gave a small moan.

"Nouzen…!"

They'd been in the same class at the special officer academy. He was one of the more gifted recruits in a program that consisted mostly of children who'd been sent off by their families to reduce the number of mouths they had to feed. His grades in combat drills were head and shoulders above everyone else, but he was pawned off to some trial unit for repeated disciplinary violations and breaching of orders.

Rumor was that he'd been sent to some disciplinary unit filled with mercenaries from the combat territories to test a suicide weapon.

Shin had also been the roommate and teammate of Eugene Rantz, another one of their classmates… And the operator swallowed nervously yet again when he realized the half corpse lying nearby was that very same Eugene.

"Good timing. Could you report his death for me?"

Catching the dog tag Shin casually tossed his way, the gunner asked:

"Did you euthanize him?"

He figured as much from the pistol in Shin's hand and the puddle of blood that spread over the undergrowth. It was usually the job of military physicians to decide how to treat the injured, but war wounds being what they were, situations often arose when it was obvious some injuries were beyond medical treatment. In cases where the injured would have likely succumbed to their wounds on the trip back, putting them out of their misery on the spot was seen as an act of mercy.

Shin nodded. The gunner, his face a mix of conflicted emotions, parted his lips to thank him when the other soldier, the operator, shouted.

"Why didn't you save him?!"

Shin didn't answer. He simply looked back at him with cold, calm bloodred eyes.

"You knew it was Eugene, right? He said he met with you this morning before we sortied. So you knew it was him, right?! Why didn't you come to save him?! You didn't mind butting into other units' fights and wrecking everything in sight, did you?!"

Within all units that were charged with mobile defense, the Nordlicht squadron boasted the highest number of kills, which was only natural, since they charged into contested zones other units would shy away from.

They were that strong, and yet.

They'd been rescued and given refuge by the Federacy. They had no reason to keep fighting, and yet!

"You probably prioritized killing those hunks of scrap over saving him, didn't you?! You war-obsessed Eighty-Six!"

Eighty-Six.

That was the name his homeland, the Republic of San Magnolia, gave them when it defined them as pigs in human form, before the Federacy rescued them. The name of those five young soldiers who made it to the edge of the Federacy's territory after they'd been sentenced to death on the battlefield.

Shin was silent.

The gunner grabbed the operator's shoulder, stopping him from saying any more.

"Knock it off, Second Lieutenant Marcel. Are you trying to be as horrible as those scumbags in the Republic?"

Marcel fell silent at the gunner's admonition. He knew that the atrocities the Republic had committed against its citizens, the Eighty-Six, had been widely reported on national television six months ago, when Shin and his group had been found.

He didn't want to be anything like the Republic. But…

The gunner lowered his head, his hand still gripping Marcel's shoulder.

"I apologize for Second Lieutenant Marcel's impolite words. And allow me to also extend my thanks for the mercy you've given Second Lieutenant Rantz, as well. Thank you. And I'm sorry."

"…It's fine."

Looking at Shin, who merely shook his head, the gunner continued.

"Perhaps you volunteered with the Federacy's military to return the favor for our saving you. But you don't have to do that."

"…"

"We, the Federacy, will never surrender to the Legion. We will rise to the task on the battlefield, and we will uphold our sense of justice. We fight of our own will to defend our families, our homeland, our comrades, and the ideals of this country. We won't force you poor children to fight for us… It isn't too late. Retire from the army and live a life of happiness this time."

Shin's only response was a cold glare.

But the next moment, he looked away. Answering a superior officer—albeit of another unit—rudely by turning his back, he said only one thing, with ice in his voice.

"The Legion are coming. Regroup with the rest of the force, immediately."

Sitting in the cockpit of his Juggernaut, Undertaker, Shin scanned over the multipurpose windows, trying to discern the state of the battle. By now, he'd already pushed Eugene's death to the back of his mind. Five years on the battlefield had made this machinelike behavior second nature to him.

Suddenly remembering he had it turned off, Shin switched on the Para-RAID, activating his Sensory Resonance. He wouldn't have minded if it was the other soldiers, who had made war their livelihood since the time the Federacy was still the Empire, but at the very least, he wanted to spare Frederica from having to witness the death of someone she knew. He'd made that clear and hoped she wouldn't look anyway.

The moment Shin turned the Para-RAID back on, Frederica began speaking. She'd probably been waiting for him to reconnect.

"Shinei."

"What's our status?"

The integrated information system's data link was still severed. He could sense the Legion's positions to an extent but was blind when it came to where any surviving friendly units were. He would have to infer that from the enemy's movements but didn't know the Federacy's terrain well enough to do so, and there were far too many consort units deployed for him to make guesses. Asking someone overlooking the battlefield would be faster.

"Unfavorable. Our main force has fallen back to the secondary line to regroup. The bombardment from earlier has crippled us greatly."

"Do you have detailed information on the damages?"

"I'm still able to see several squadron leaders, however… We're doubling as the command vehicle, but the data links are off-line for the most part…"

The Eintagsfliege had deployed in several layers, effectively killing their data links. The antiaircraft guns they deployed to disperse them had their advance blocked by Skorpion fire.

This is rough, Shin thought, his expression unwavering.

The Federacy's war potential was significantly larger than the Republic's. Every weapon system they deployed to the battlefield was well-made. They also had artillery and data link support, but…even so, the Legion were much stronger. The only reason the Republic had survived for nine years was because the majority of the Legion's forces were sent to fight the Federacy. Or perhaps the Legion simply treated the Republic as nothing more than a test site.

"—We've received an update from Division HQ. Once we begin our counterattack, the Nordlicht squadron is to raid the Legion from the flank. Regroup at coordinates 27–39 and remain on standby until further notice… They had to run a messenger to deliver this message. What a dreary state of affairs…"

"Roger that."

He rotated Undertaker's bearing and set out. Before long, Bernholdt regrouped with him, and they were joined by their two remaining platoons shortly after. The squadron's surviving units converged around them from all over the battlefield, the blue blips marking them on the radar screen slowly moving their way. And just as a blip with a familiar Personal Name approached him, there was a voice he hadn't heard for a while on the battlefield.

"They don't gather the whole squad like this every day. What, have the Vánagandrs all been done in already?"

Wehrwolf.

Regarding the squadron code and machine number that appeared on the screen, Shin answered the voice that connected to him through the Resonance.

"Raiden… How did the reinforcements go on your side?"

"Sad to say, but the standard armored unit is pretty much wiped out… The guys up there are expecting us to mount a counterattack, but I wouldn't anticipate much help out of the main force, the way things are."

"…Not that we were counting on them to help anyway."

"I mean, here we are again, with the counteroffensive failing and our army isolated. They tell us to raid them, but it's more like they want us to cut through the front lines and act as bait."

"I guess when they tell you to fight your way out of a bad situation, it's all the same no matter where you are."

His fellow Eighty-Six spoke up one after another, appearing from their stations throughout the battlefield. The familiar names appeared on the radar screen as it crackled from the powerful electronic jamming. Looking at those names, Shin sighed. Even after reaching this country, war had remained the same as ever.

When they'd ventured beyond the battlefield that had claimed countless souls, they hadn't known that what awaited them was more of the same war. They hadn't expected to step back into the same hell.

Back then, when they'd set out on the death march known as the Special Reconnaissance mission—