Infinity, Progressing from Arasaka

The vigorous soldier, in the prime of his life, roared and slammed his fist on the table.

"We have lost cities and territories at the front, the morale of our defeated troops is low, and our strategic reserve forces are still gathering and reorganizing. Whether it is sorting out intelligence, boosting morale, rebuilding the command system, or mobilizing military resources, it will all take time. If we retreat now, we will be hampered and disrupted by the defeated troops, and we will be caught off guard by Britannia's lightning offensive and targeted decapitation strikes!"

His grey eyes were filled with a sorrowful disappointment, but even more so with anger. His meticulously trimmed, thick, curly mustache instantly evoked images of arrogant and unruly generals.

General Foch of the EU pursed his lips. "If we collapse now, Lithuania will undoubtedly fall!"

"Königsberg is right behind us. What is that? The former capital of the Hohenzollern family! The family fiefdom that the old nobles and princes, led by Vera Britannia, dreamed of returning to!"

"Even if it's a border town, the damage to the alliance's political prestige is immeasurable!"

"First we lose the Baltic states, then Königsberg, then Belarus, then East Poland, then Ukraine, and then there's nothing left to lose. Are we going to have to fight a defensive war in Central Europe?"

At this point, he placed his hands on the 3D command table, leaned forward, and stared with a pair of extremely aggressive eyes as he asked a question.

"The mighty European Union, the descendants of the Gallic Rooster heroes who chased Britannia like dogs to the New World, have now lost a third of their Eastern Europe defenses without even fighting a decent battle?"

"General Pétain in the Ukrainian war zone is still holding out in Kyiv. Are we not even capable of launching a counterattack?!"

"Retreat, retreat, retreat, retreat again and again. If we lose Königsberg, do we still have the right to wear this coat?"

"..."

Faced with General Foch's stern questioning, a brief silence fell over the command room.

"Target: Britannia Northern Army Group North Front Field Command. Attack."

He broke the silence, emphasizing the order to attack concisely and decisively.

"This is the blood-stained intelligence that my best reconnaissance company fought to the death for. We cannot let those lads down. Annihilating or severely crippling them is the best chance we can have to turn the tide of the defeat."

Foch stared intently at the tactical sand table before him, his eyes as still and lifeless as stagnant water.

Death is not scary; what is scary is dying without any value.

"Twenty minutes. Tell Colonel Grandmaison I'll give him another armored company and take it down—"

Before he could finish speaking, a report came, "Enemy Aerial Strike group is rapidly approaching."

"What about our air force?"

An officer asked.

"Intercepted by enemy air force fighter jets."

"What's going on with the air defense brigade? Why have so many surface-to-air missiles been fired with such little effect?"

"This... According to reports, there are records of missiles being intercepted and some actually hitting their targets, but... how fast?! Faster than fighter jets!"

"What?"

The communications officer's report drew the attention of the staff officers.

"Retrieve the video."

Foch said in a deep voice.

"Yes, General!"

The probe captured an image appearing high in the eastern sky. Without a doubt, the first flying object, with its blue-purple wings, was clearly humanoid.

"How is this possible? It's Knightmare? Britannia's levitation devices have already been implemented?!"

The arm patch indicates that this is a general in charge of logistical support.

"Zoom in on the one behind it!"

Staring at the image, Foch spoke in a tone of urgency that was completely different from before.

The communications officer, jolted awake, immediately pulled up a magnified image of the battlefield.

"Hiss..."

Then came the exclamations of the technical officers and advisors who clearly understood how difficult it was to master Knightmare technology, especially its smooth and stable operating system.

Freeze-frame comparison images:

Use the blue and white Knightmare, which had already launched a dive attack, as a reference point.

This Knightmare has a levitation device on its back that looks like a butterfly with its wings spread out. It has a silver-gray paint job and gorgeous gold patterns. Putting aside the fact that the paint job looks like a taunt on the battlefield, its size is almost three times larger than the standard mechs of various countries on the world battlefield!

What kind of technological breakthrough is this?

Even though it was a prototype machine with exorbitant costs, Britannia managed to build it!

Capture it, or destroy it.

Regardless of personal life or death, this was Foch's first thought, based on his duty as a soldier of the Allied Forces.

The second thought was, what impact would its arrival have on the war?

At that very moment, as if some unseen force was confirming his conjecture, a powerful red light of death particles descended from the sky.

Two dark red beams of light abruptly pierced through the devastated wilderness.

Like a glowing, high-pressure cutting water jet, it ploughed two blinding, dynamic lines of death straight and meandering through the advancing EU armored assault group. A moment later, a deafening roar followed—!

Armored vehicles struck by the high-heat particle beams melted and exploded one after another, dozens or even hundreds, creating a chain reaction of explosions that almost merged into a single loud bang.

Even in the noisy battlefield filled with the sounds of gunfire, such a violent explosion still sounded particularly clear and piercing.

In an instant, the battlefield seemed to have been put on pause, and suddenly fell silent.

Many people stared blankly at the two straight, scorched, and burning dents on the ground.

It will injure you if you rub it, and kill you if you touch it.

Numerous vehicle wreckage exploded, and the surrounding area was littered with the remains of soldiers blown to the ground by the shockwave. The wounded, barely breathing, screamed in agony, and some had already fused with the sparking soil and rocks, while choking ash rose and swirled.

The air became scorching, filled with the smell of rust and burning.

At the same time.

"While the convergence mode greatly increases the effective range of the Hadron Cannon, its relatively narrow damage area is its flaw. The sweeping bombardment on the same horizontal plane is the way to maximize the performance of the Hadron Cannon."

Thousands of meters in the air, Vera looked at the ballistic prediction table on the holographic instrument panel, analyzing and recording the combat data of the Hadron Cannon while tilting the control stick to stop the Hadron Cannon from firing and control the [Excalibur] to descend.

"That's enough."

Overall, she was very satisfied.

The ample size of the mech, the surging energy output of the new Sakurastone engine, and the improvements to the power pipes and energy transmission cables all contribute to the formidable output power of the Hadron Cannon mounted on Excalibur.

Compared to the design of her second brother Schneizel's research institute, "Project Gawain," her work has already surpassed its predecessor.

Beep beep, beep beep.

[Missile approaching—]

Vera didn't even glance at it.

The entire fuselage shimmered with an emerald-like crystalline film. The next instant, the incoming missile made contact with the energy shield, exploded, and after a burst of fire, only a wisp of smoke remained.

Vera looked calmly at one of the Ninth Knights of the Round who was rushing into the enemy ranks, and said with a wicked smile, "Nonette, I have already won."

"A powerful particle cannon, huh?"

Inside the cockpit of the rapidly diving Bedivere Club, the Ninth Knights of the Round withdrew his gaze and couldn't help but curl his lip.

"That's a rip-off, I fell for your trick. I should have added a condition. In terms of damage output and wide-area destruction capability, the heavy turret-type mech is indeed more advantageous than the close-combat specialized decapitation-type mech..."

With a piercing, shrill sound as it pushed through the air, the blue and white painted Knightmare unicorn plummeted from the sky.

It was only then that the EU forces recognized the identity of the person leading the charge.

"It's the Ninth Knights of the Round!"

The EU's high-end mass-produced mech squad, 'Alexander,' which was on the verge of breaching the Britannian Army's defenses in the area, didn't have time to figure out what was going on with the series of explosions and the fleeting dark red laser in their own rear. Their attention was drawn to the enemy 'Lord BOSS unit' that suddenly appeared in front of them, and they couldn't look away. The squad leader roared through the megaphone, "Watch out!"

As a long-time adversary, identifying the organizational structure of enemy units is a very basic task.

Identifying the Knights of the Round is the most basic skill.

"Come, let's dance!"

Even while chatting with Vera, Nonette's actions remained completely unaffected. Multitasking is a basic skill for ace pilots.

Muttering Vera's favorite phrase from her sparring sessions at the officer academy, she began with a knight's thrust, holding her large, armored combat lance Bedivere Club.

The jetpack, equipped with dual jet engines, accelerates in two stages, humming.

Sizzle!

Accompanied by a tooth-grinding metallic creak, an EU [Alexander] armored cavalry unit that had climbed onto the roof and was continuously suppressing the Britannian Army with its heavy machine gun mounted on its back was pierced by the lance before it could even transform from insect form to human form, and its capsule-shaped cockpit disintegrated in mid-air.

With this declaration, the Ninth Knights of the Round enters the fray!

"Even if our opponent is Knights of the Round, there's nothing to be afraid of!"

The remaining Alexander transformed into human form, unleashing their anti-armor combat spikes, ready for battle.

"To utterly defeat Bedivere and bring glory to our WZERO Unit! If the people of District 11 could defeat the Order of Saint Raphael Knights, there's no reason for us France to be afraid!"

"Wow."

After sending the wreckage of the Alexander flying with his lance, knocking down a KMF fire support mech and smashing another in his path, Nonette's lips curled into a slight smile. "So you're the WZERO Unit? Veterans or newly formed? Let's see what you're made of!"

Charge!

Clang clang clang—

Having taken everything in view, Vera was not particularly surprised by the expansion of the WZERO Unit.

The enemy's counter-offensive forces were stronger than the intelligence indicated.

Is this a desperate, all-or-nothing attack?

If the outer sentry troops guarding her hadn't immediately dispatched reinforcements, the enemy might have actually managed to break through.

The Riga encirclement is still unstable. Many EU field troops, separated and surrounded in the open fields, are still resisting. This fresh force is a big problem wherever it goes.

These white-painted, dual-mode armored vehicles are EU's new mass-produced mechs.

Not long ago, only special forces composed of people from District 11 were deployed, but now even the French have started using them. It seems that the data collection is complete, or perhaps it is because of the news that she was recruiting people from District 11 in a competitive manner. Based on propaganda and practical needs, the EU has started mass production.

"It's too late."

[Excalibur] The silver-gray mech, gleaming under the sunlight, slowly descended towards the EU army's counterattack group, hovering at a height where its entire form could be clearly seen with the naked eye.

Behind the aircraft Britannian Army who had been on a mission to infiltrate and encircle the enemy but had run into a counterattack group.

And reinforcements kept arriving.

Vera pressed the button on the lever without hesitation.

The left and right shoulder armor opened and closed with a click, revealing the dark hadron Hadron Cannon. Focusing its energy, the dark High Particle Beam reaped lives like the Grim Reaper's scythe, and the deadly red light once again engulfed dozens or even hundreds of vehicles.

In an instant, EU soldiers, organized into platoons, vanished into the intense particle stream.

This time, the Hadron Cannon did not briefly cut through the enemy's ground formation, but rather fired continuously like a scalding blade!

Under Vera's control, the dark red energy pillar changed its launch angle, like a divine blade splitting heaven and earth, leaving behind an explosive band in the air near the ground that was twisted by the high temperature. Countless EU helicopters and airships that could not avoid it in time were turned into piles of burning scrap metal and fell like fire meteors.

Vera then switched the area communicator she had on hand to full-channel open mode.

"Announce to the entire army, I am Vera vo Britannia."

"Follow the Ninth Knight, attack, crush them."

Descending with the overwhelming power of a judgment angel, showering down a rain of fire and death, and arriving with a massive army to salvage their crumbling defenses, Vera's straightforward orders were more irrefutable than any pre-battle mobilization.

"Yes Your Highness!"×N.

The Britannian Army, having realized what was happening, was greatly encouraged and charged forward with shouts and cheers.

With the Ninth Knights of the Round, who roamed the battlefield, as the spearhead, the counterattack began.

On the other side, the bridge of the EU command mothership.

Foch stood with his hands behind his back in front of the tactical sand table, his stiff and serious face filled with tension for the first time.

The staff officers standing beside him looked ashen-faced.