The Sakurajima Battle had probably begun in early May 2005. By the time everything came to an end, it was already late July.
For a single battle, that was actually quite brief.
But in terms of casualties, it was probably the greatest single loss of human life in history.
After all, purely in terms of numbers, even Bai Qi's legendary burial of 400,000 soldiers alive, or the infamous meat-grinder battles of World War I and World War II, did not amount to even a fraction of the losses from the island nation's fall.
Sakurajima's population had numbered in the hundreds of millions, after all. Yet in the end, only those Lucky Ones who could board ships had been saved.
As for everyone left behind, they likely would not survive another six months.
"Plane War is too cruel."
"However brutal past world wars were, they had still been humans killing humans. Even inhuman madmen wanted to occupy territory and enslave the populace. But now, the alien races probably only need land and food."
"They see us as food. Humans who cannot enter the water do not even have the value of slaves. Some places tried raising them as livestock, then found the cost-effectiveness too low. They did not fatten up as quickly as pigs or cattle, and they did not taste good either, so they were simply disposed of."
"Perhaps we should strengthen cooperation between nations. In the face of alien races, nationality, ethnicity, skin color—none of that seems to matter anymore."
No matter how much the cruelty of Plane War had been publicized in the past, nothing had been as direct or brutal as this.
In previous world wars and even wars of national annihilation, people had still been of the same race. Aside from a tiny few who had