The western outskirts of Heaven Capital.
Sandbags were piled beneath houses reduced to broken bricks and shattered tiles. Foxholes had been dug in the yards, and wooden stakes used to reinforce the walls leaned behind the courtyard fences.
The residents who had lived here had long since moved away. Judging by the daily necessities left behind in the houses, they had left in quite a hurry.
Brahma soldiers hid behind those fortifications, repeatedly checking their equipment and ammunition to pass the remaining time.
No one spoke.
The position lay silent beneath the night sky, yet anyone could see the sorrow hidden within that silence.
Stationed here was Brahma's 700,000th Legion, commanded by Commander Pikeli—the old man of Gale.
As one of the conditions for securing his son's chance to attend Mammoth University for an undergraduate degree, Pikeli had volunteered to lead the vanguard and brought his men to the front line of the defense of Heaven Capital.
In Brahma Province, the first line of defense had always been where cannon fodder was sent.
Although General Duwata had permitted him to "act according to circumstances," he knew perfectly well that he was still more likely to die than survive.
He had heard that the Legion's shells could vaporize an entire position in an instant, especially those warheads that split apart in midair.
Even among The Alliance's corps, quite a few commanders had met their end in the first barrage, let alone a commander like him who had risen midway through his life.
Still, Pikeli had no regrets.
He had already paved the way for his son's future.
As long as that brat was not too useless and had not wasted his time at school, then even if Pikeli died and the boy never had a chance to become a commander, returning