Without Precedent

"Rest in peace."

He knew why the other man had lost his mind, but many people had died here too. There was no right or wrong in this place.

If you didn't want to be killed, you had to kill. It was that simple.

Xu De didn't hesitate. He merely lowered his eyes slightly as he passed the now-cold wreck, then flew toward the rendezvous point he'd agreed on with Hans and the others.

The coordinates he'd given them weren't far away. The location was still within the battlefield, but it wasn't particularly important.

Most importantly, based on the gravitational pull between Earth and the Moon, it would be where the most debris had gathered.

Even a Ginn's armor would hesitate to go full speed through such a dense field of wreckage.

And the Ginn's machine gun couldn't penetrate most of the debris either.

Instead, bullets striking the wreckage would transfer their kinetic energy and send the fragments crashing into one another, making the situation even more chaotic.

It wasn't enough to turn the tide and let Mistral win, but it would at least provide a good place to hide.

And because of the distance, even if they had to submit their flight records afterward, they wouldn't be classified as deserters.

After all, even the World Tree had blown up. Communications were down, so it was perfectly normal for everyone to scatter.

"Communications still haven't come back. This jammer's range is way too big."

Looking at the radar, still heavily jammed, Xu De muttered to himself.

Radar worked differently in space than it did on Earth.

On Earth, the planet's curvature limited radar range, which depended on the radar's size.

But in space, without Earth's curvature interfering, radar should have had a much wider range.

That was one of the Earth Alliance's advantages, after all. They had far more bases and fortresses in space than PLANT did.

PLANT's colonies were practically useless in battle.

Unfortunately, the Neutron Jammer had taken away even that advantage.

As Xu De made his way toward the rendezvous point, an alert for a nearby heat source suddenly sounded.

The Neutron Jammer was in effect, but the infrared heat sensors were still working normally.

However, there were too many obstacles, so the temperature readings weren't very sensitive.

The alarm sounded only once before disappearing.

"A battle?"

Xu De furrowed his brow and cautiously headed toward the heat source.

Meanwhile, the five-man squad led by Hans was facing a Ginn, and they all looked troubled.

They had indeed taken advantage of the explosion's aftershocks to reach this location, but the Ginn had chased them relentlessly.

They hadn't had a chance to shake it off. Fortunately, with the coordinates Xu De had given them, and their daily practice fighting among ruins, they'd managed to reach the wreckage before the Ginn closed in. Their five Mistrals had held out there ever since.

"Holy shit, Xu De really is the God of Ruin!"

Milai exclaimed as he expertly piloted his Mistral through the wreckage.

"It's like he knew the World Tree was going to collapse ahead of time."

They'd often been dragged along by Xu De to practice fighting among ruins.

While everyone else had panicked over the collapse of the World Tree, they'd actually felt reassured.

It was downright ridiculous.

"Quit talking. That's a Ginn out there!"

Price said nervously.

They might have been used to fighting Ginns among the ruins, but a Mistral was no match for a Ginn. Even a ten-to-one advantage was questionable.

And they had only five machines, at most.

Even though they were used to fighting in the ruins, they didn't dare let their guard down for a second.

"What are you afraid of? We're invincible here!"

"Right, Hans?"

"...Maybe."

Hans replied halfheartedly to Milai's flippant remark.

His attention was entirely on the battle in front of him. He had no time to deal with their broken conversation, which kept cutting out amid the wreckage.

Xu De might come, but they couldn't just assume everything would be fine because of that.

Just as Xu De had said, if they wanted to survive, they could only rely on themselves.

Without realizing it, Xu De's way of surviving was slowly rubbing off on Hans.

He was gradually growing into a professional soldier.

By contrast, the Ginn's pilot, seated across from them, had thought he'd easily take the lives of those five Naturals. Now the surrounding wreckage had him completely disoriented.

"Filthy inferior! Stop right there!"

"Come fight me one-on-one!"

The young man, already seething with anger over Junius, hurled insults at them.

But the laser communications were obstructed, so his words came through only in broken fragments.

"He's getting desperate."

Milai said with a shrug, his carefree manner giving way to excitement.

"Hit him while he's down!"

"We can't rush it. We'll wear him down."

Flint shouted from the other side, his tone stern and serious.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Milai had already floored the throttle and darted out from behind the wreckage, firing both Vulcan Cannons at the Ginn's rear thrusters.

In Milai's brown eyes, he could already picture the enemy exploding like fireworks.

If Xu De could do it, then surely he could too.

He'd practiced it so many times already.

And now the chance to shoot down a Ginn with a Mistral was right in front of him.

If he succeeded, he'd be the first ever to pull it off.

It would be an even more incredible feat than Xu De's Moebius.

He could already imagine the glory that awaited him.

The brass would heap countless honors upon him.

Fast cars, beautiful women, fame and fortune.

He would become the next hero.

No! He would be the most extraordinary hero of all!

"Idiot! Get back here!"

Flint's warning had no effect on Milai, whose blood was up.

On the other side, when the Ginn saw the Mistral suddenly appear behind him, he didn't use his maneuvering thrusters to change direction. Instead, he flew upward a short distance, dodging the badly aimed Vulcan fire. The Coordinator inside grinned cruelly.

"You think I'm like you lowlifes?"

As he spoke, the Ginn turned sideways and opened fire with the machine gun in its hand.

The Mistral was cumbersome, and its massive inertia left Milai like a target moving at a constant speed through space. He had no chance to fight back before the Ginn's machine gun struck him with ease.

First came the flash of blood in the cockpit, then the machine exploded.

Like so many others here, the young man died screaming. He didn't even get to leave last words, let alone a body.

"Milai!!!"

Their teammate's death plunged the remaining four into a state of panic.

They were all new recruits, still carrying some of the mindset of ordinary civilians.

Professional soldiers could still fight when a comrade died beside them.

But this was their first battle, and the battlefield they faced was this violent.