"A batch of scouts was airdropped into Aus. The Australian continent has already become a living hell. There may still be survivors, but there's no longer any possibility of rescue."
"The war in the southern islands is escalating. They say Eastern Kingdom people have already been spotted on that battlefield. Some say they're our military, others say they're merely mercenaries, but what can be confirmed is that we've already intervened."
"I heard they seem to be from the Coast Guard. I also heard our government asked the Sakura Kingdom and the peninsula to send reinforcements, if only to cheer on the Archipelago Alliance and give them a boost, but they all refused. Aren't they afraid they'll be the first to suffer if the defensive line collapses?"
"In their eyes, isn't the Eastern Kingdom already holding the line? They're all counting on us to take the lead. Besides, their coasts are having problems too. They may not have the ability to send out a corps."
News from the front lines came drifting in like snowflakes, impossible to stop.
The vast majority of it was bad news. The invaders were far stronger than expected. When only Aus had fallen, many people had still clung to hope, because the Aus of this world truly lagged behind in every respect.
But even in the other timeline Lu PingAn remembered, Australia's military strength had been utterly unremarkable. This world's Australia was even less developed. There were no external pressures around it that required a response; it only needed to maintain public order. And because companies dominated its society, most of its armed forces were actually various kinds of "corporate security."
Unlike the "armed security" of those cyberpunk worlds, equipped with all manner of futuristic technology, corporate security in reality only cared about being good enough.