“All right, let’s do it. Inform all units. After the flash-bang grenade goes off, we’ll take out the Lunarians. Vanguard squads, switch your visors to light-blocking mode after the countdown and don’t move an inch. No matter what happens, don’t move. If you move, you’ll be shot. Everyone else, prioritize shooting down the most dangerous enemies. Prepare to fire.” A chill ran down Jabami’s back as he listened to the radio transmission. He understood the logic behind it. An endless barrage of gunfire was about to rain down on them. They would have to rely on their instincts to tell friend from foe. He would have loved to avoid this strategy, but no other plan had come to mind. If he had an alternative strategy, he would have proposed it immediately. His instincts told him this was the best way to survive. “Three, two, one, fire.” His feelings were ignored. The operation began. Jabami switched to blackout mode and became as still as a statue. Just to be safe, he locked the joints of his composite armor and fired spikes into the ground from the soles of his feet. The shrieks of the blinded Lunarians swallowed him. The sight of the countless beams of light cutting through the dust filled him with the terror of death, and he was about to fall to his knees, but the lock on his armor kept him from moving. Several beams of light shot over his head. The next wave passed under his armpit. The urine pack attached to his composite armor displayed that it was full. Apparently, he had pissed himself out of fear. That was better than being shot, though. Dying meant he’d lose to Koizumi. Right now, all he could do was endure. Even if the enemy tried to beat him to death, he wouldn’t move, and he would put all his faith in his comrades. Jabami had never felt such terror before. Abruptly, the rain of bullets stopped. To Jabami, it had felt like it had lasted for more than an hour, but in reality, it had only been a few minutes. “Report your status, Squads 1112 and 1114.” It was a radio transmission from the company leader. Checking his subordinates' bio-monitors, Jabami saw one name in black, signifying death, and two in yellow, indicating light injuries. “Squad 1112. One dead. Three lightly injured.” As he reported, he realized that he hadn’t even had the presence of mind to check on his subordinates. The terror had been that great. “Squad 1114, two dead. One seriously injured.” It was the vice lieutenant of Squad 1114. Where was their captain, Imori? Jabami wondered for a second, but then he remembered that Imori was a rookie. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he was dead. “Roger. I’m sorry, but we can’t see you from here, so we won’t be able to provide any more support. Good luck.” Jabami’s thermosensor showed the presence of eleven enemies. Four of them were his squad mates, so that meant there were seven enemies. Would it be best to stay still and wait for them to come to him? If they attacked him, they had to be the enemy. He could see movement on his thermosensor, and a close-quarters battle was beginning all around him. He wanted to go help, but he couldn’t tell which ones were his friends and which ones were his foes. Even as the number of enemies dwindled, Jabami had no choice but to wait. —If it was Koizumi, he would have approached the enemy himself and destroyed them. He would have calmly evaded any attacks from his friends, and it would have been no problem at all. But I don’t have that kind of skill. All I can do is stay here and defend myself. ― Jabami felt ashamed. He gritted his teeth so hard that blood trickled from his lips, grappling with his own powerlessness. He needed more strength. More skill. More intellect. ―If I want to become stronger, I must let go of my pride. And I need to check Koizumi’s combat data. Even if I can’t imitate him, there must be something I can learn from it.― Jabami kept his assault rifle at the ready, as if it were a club, until the close-quarters battle ended. Eventually, the sounds of fighting stopped, and silence returned. The only things he could hear over the radio were pained moans and labored breathing.

He recognized that the battle was over and sent a rescue request over the radio. “Squads 1112 and 1114 have secured the area. Request rescue.” The dust was beginning to settle, and he was finally able to see his surroundings, though the visibility was still poor. With heavy feet, Jabami made his way over to the bodies of his dead squad mates. There was no mistake in the bio-monitors; Corporal Nagamushi was dead. The cause of death was a penetrating laser wound from the right side of the head to the torso. In other words, he'd been killed by friendly fire. He'd probably panicked and tried to run away from the rain of lasers. Sadness welled up inside him, but strangely, he felt no anger towards his comrades. The two surviving squad members felt the same way. In that situation, Jabami would probably have done the same thing. It put his comrades in danger, but the damage was limited to one person. Wait, Squad 1114 had reported two casualties. That squad was mostly new recruits, with the exception of the vice-captain. There was no other way to describe it but bad luck. No words of consolation came to mind. The only thing left for him to do was to work hard and become as good a fighter as Koizumi. If Koizumi could do it, then so could he. Jabami swore to himself that he would become stronger in memory of Nagamushi. October 6, 2201, 1343, Operation Zone: Inside the cave “Squads 1112 and 1114 have secured the area. We require medical assistance.” It was Jabami. It sounded like he was still alive. “Understood. Medical personnel are on their way. All squads, send medical personnel. Everyone else, maintain sentry duty. Headquarters reports that Company 112 is on its way for rescue." Both the company leader and headquarters seemed to be doing their jobs. He must have sent the rescue request to headquarters during the battle. “Saika, put down the rope ladder. Suzuran, you can go down now, I guess.” “Roger.” Saika pounded the rope ladder into the ground, and Suzuran, along with three other medics, descended. The other medics besides Suzuran had bandages wrapped around various parts of their bodies, stained with traces of red blood. On the monitor, I could see that Company 112 had changed course and was heading toward us. In this battle, Company 111 had lost four of its twenty members, and three more had been seriously injured, while six had suffered light wounds. That was thirteen casualties. A casualty rate of 65%. In other words, Squad 111 had been decimated. They had been defeated by the Lunarians. There had been more than a hundred Lunarians, but in all previous battles, no more than two or three squad members had been lightly injured. As far as I could remember, this was the first time a company had suffered such heavy losses. It had probably been more than ten years since they’d taken such a beating. Platoon 111 had accounted for half of the thirty casualties predicted by the combat forecast for the entire battalion of three hundred. The operation wasn’t over yet, and the cave was still a long way from being secured. The combat forecast hadn’t changed. It was still displaying a casualty rate of 10 percent. Even after we’d taken down so many Lunarians, the danger hadn’t decreased. It was an abnormal. The combat zone monitor showed a change. Platoon 113 had also changed course and was heading toward us. It seemed they were going to rendezvous with us. Headquarters must have changed the operation plan. Finally, the dust settled, and we could see again. Before us was a large hole that spanned the entire width of the cave. It was five meters wide and at least three meters deep. Before the huge explosion, this had been nothing more than a simple tunnel. But now, what I saw was a massive hole. This had not existed a few minutes ago. Looking at the side of the hole, I could see that it was nearly vertical, and it looked like it had been dug out by hand. When he looked at the boundary between the ground and the hole, it was irregular and wavy, but mostly straight. In other words, it was a man-made structure, not a natural one. Peering into the hole, I could see Suzuran and the others tending to our injured comrades among the countless Lunarian corpses. There were large and small boulders scattered everywhere, and it looked like some of the squad members had been crushed under them. The uninjured were digging them out. The dust had finally settled, and we could see normally again. I wanted to send someone to help dig out the survivors, but I couldn’t afford to reduce the number of people on sentry duty any further. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that only my squad was in any condition to move.