“The defense of the nation is at your hands! Join the Confederacy Army Scout Cavalry now! Pilot your own illustrious Wanderfalke—use its speed, find the enemy, mark them, and eliminate them, like knights of the old! Beat back those snot-nosed frog-eaters back to the nest of infestations they crawled from! Nearest recruitment centers!”

- Lotharingian Wartime Recruitment Poster.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Unknown

Once again…he was back.

Hans slowly, and tiredly opened his eyes, already expecting what he would see again. And as expected, it was exactly that. Alizée blissfully and peacefully sleeping on his lap—then the displays of his Wanderfalke controls showed the rising sun and the almost warm rays of morning light that bathed the Peacemaker. The fact that his body…was uninjured and uneaten.

And of course.

0633 Hours.

Hans gave a sardonic laugh. It was true. It was damned true. His own hypothesis was that he was truly looping back into this point in time. He was stuck, in a damned cycle of death and living. Starting at this exact point in time. 0633 Hours. He looked at the damned time again, laughing a bit. The number. It was almost as if it was mocking him. Here he was back again. At the same time.

0633 Hours.

He supposed that would be his afterlife then? What a cruel joke. He breathed out the oppressive buildup of trapped air in his lungs as he looked down at Alizée’s pure silver hair. This…this was his thing then? That when he died, he would return to a point in time. He wondered why then. Of course, there has to be a greater reason for this, but…

He knew he wouldn’t know it yet. Just as he didn’t fully know what that creature was, why it wanted to kill him, and how he could kill it first.

For all he knew, that creature was forcing him into some sort of cruel torture trap. He wondered what he could have done to that thing for it to desire his death. Not that his analysis was a sure one, but…

He wanted more reasons to hate it…

I’m sorry Alizée.

He gave her a tired pat on her hair, and the sleeping girl reacted with positive mumbling to it. She was…so innocent. So young. Someone who deserves neither horror nor death. Yet…her head…her bloody detached head…it was seared to Hans’ mind. Shame, indescribably shame, it flooded his soul. He had a damned duty. A damned responsibility for this girl’s safety. In a way, when he found this girl from the remains of her parents’ site of death, Hans felt as if their souls had commanded him to bring their daughter to safety.

To a place, they couldn’t bring her to. Yet Hans was failing at such a task. He just needed to drive through that town, break through it, and find the next town on this endless road, as indicated by the map that he received from that convoy. That was all he needed to do…

He had a damned Wanderpanzer II Falke Ausführung H with him. The latest damned mech of the Confederacy, the latest war machine of humanity, capable of beating most armored threats when needed. He was a damned Ace Pilot for heaven’s sake! His main gun’s kill rings showed it already. How could he be beaten by a mere animal of nature? He even had the ability to see the future. What kind of excuses did he—

He took a deep breath to calm himself. This was no way to do it. Yet that was how his mind and heart reacted. He had always been raised to take responsibility when he had the means to take it. Especially when life and death were involved. Perhaps it was why he ended up in this hell. Perhaps it was a folly. But that was who Hans was. To go against that would go against Hans’ inner being.

No. Damn it. He would find a way out of this. He’d scout out a way out of this. There was no way that damned thing would stop him this time, not when he already gained a decent amount of intel about that thing. He’d do what must be done. He saw it in its eyes. That monster—it wanted them.

It wanted to kill him. It wanted to kill Alizée. It wanted to kill Adelyn.

Why? He didn’t know. It didn’t matter. That damned thing was no mere animal. No mere local fauna of this world’s ecology. No damned simple beast that the construct of modern humanity itself, the vehicle he drove, would trump because he said so. To underestimate it would be the prime of stupidity.

And so, Hans decided enough was enough this time around. Three deaths. One day. Three damned deaths. More if he counted the deaths of Adelyn and Alizée in his failed lives. To one damned creature. He needed a concrete action plan, and perhaps, he finally found it. In his last life, he had learned much about its style of fighting. More about how it killed. More so about the vulnerability of both his and Adelyn’s fighting machines to it.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Even more about the nature of his mech now. That it had new upgrades from that mysterious [SYSTEM] that he had foolishly ignored as nothing but hallucinations since he woke up in this world. And most of all, he knew how to gain those upgrades—by way of increasing his own level to five.

Perhaps, for the first time since this ordeal, Hans felt some of his bravado return. That familiar confidence of an Ace Pilot on a sortie with his mates on an anti-Flandrian combat patrol. That same feeling when one knew of the enemy’s weakness, and knew how to take it down with monstrous precision.

In those three lives, Hans was prey.

In those three lives, Hans was a failure.

In those three lives, Hans was dead meat.

Now, he vowed. He would not be one. He would not fall again to such a creature that he already knew much about. Not when he already knew more about his situation. That sense of responsibility, when he already had these many advantages against it… commanded Hans one order.

Kill.

This time, Hans would be the hunter.

+++

Hans’ Wanderfalke faced Adelyn once more. As expected, his commanding officer was surprised at meeting him, as she always had. Hans exited his mech and dropped down to the dirt road. Walking straight to Adelyn, he watched as a relieved expression grew on her face.

Briefly again…he remembered that face of hers…her halo gone…being hoisted to the skies by a pitch-black tail…

He shook his head and gave her a smile. “Captain, it seems like we’re in a bit of a situation.”

“Lieutenant…it is you,” she smiled. “Finally, I thought I was truly alone in this. I was having such a bad problem with my comms, not picking up any friendly units. Second of all, I woke up in my own mech, in this weird place, for no reason. That’s strange, isn’t it? Especially when it’s already early winter…”

“Yeah, that’s the problem, exactly, Captain,” Hans said. “See…don’t look at me weird, for heaven’s sake. We are in another world.”

She blinked. “Are you hearing yourself, Lieutenant?”

“What? Does it not make sense to you? Look around you. Do you think we’re anything close to our continent? Do you really think a place in Terra looks like this anymore—”

“Well, there are still underdeveloped—”

“Yeah, exactly the point. Listen, hear any sounds? Planes, helicopters, booms? Does that make sense to you? Yeah, no.”

“But—”

“And most of all, you said it yourself. It doesn’t make sense that you woke up here out of nowhere. Unless someone kidnapped you and sent you here. But I doubt they’d send your thirty-tonners of a war machine with you if they kidnapped you now won’t they?”

Hans clapped. “We have to get a move on. I have a big proof of my words. Time is of utmost importance. As you always say to me, chop-chop.”

+++

Suffice it to say, Adelyn was, as usual, both baffled by Hans’ revelations and already partially excited by Alizée’s existence, as expected of her. And so, since it was morning, Hans, Adelyn, and Alizée started off again by having breakfast on the side of the dirt road. This time, however, Hans’ mind was clear as he ate spoon after spoon of his beef stew.

“She truly is a hungry girl huh?” Adelyn asked. “That’s two MREs I used immediately….”

“We should get into a civilized settlement before that,” Hans reassured. “Doubt she’d use up your MREs too much. More importantly, after this, we’ll try that upgrade thing that I was talking about.”

“You seem to have a lot of intel about this unknown situation quickly huh?” Adelyn asked, a little bit baffled. “Then again, I suppose that’s who you are. 1st Platoon’s ace, always the first at the front, and the first to see the enemy.”

“Well, I should warn you about that then,” Hans said. “I have a feeling that our old ways of fighting would not bode well in this situation. Remember, those doctrines are made for fighting armored vehicles.”

“I seriously doubt that it’s possible that anything can threaten us here,” Adelyn said. “We have modern weaponry. You said it yourself. They had muskets. Muskets! Those weapons were hundreds of years ago. We might as well be in the age of colonization when our forefathers subjugated innocent people with guns and—”

“You’re getting pissed again, Captain.”

“Because it’s evil!” She said. “Anyhow, in this case, I believe our goal is to not cause as much trouble to the natives, find our way out of this place, and perhaps find a way back to our world. As officers of the Confederacy, we have a duty to our men not to desert them in their time of need.”

“And thus find our way back to them,” Hans finished.

“Um…” Adelyn turned. “Well, I guess you think the same way, huh?”

Of course, I’ll know what your next words would be. I’ve been here multiple times already.

He placed another spoonful of beef stew in his mouth. Hmm… these things certainly tasted empty still for him at the moment. While he wanted to act all stoic in the face of his upcoming battle, which he was sure would happen, it seemed that the fear was still subconsciously implanted in his mind. He was more like force-feeding himself to stave off hunger, even when his gut didn’t seem that interested in eating.

I suppose that’s what seeing bloody death three times does to you. Hans wanted to shake his head. What the hell did he do to end up in this situation? Such a difficult one. But bellyaching would not help anymore. He needed to start working on getting himself out of this cycle. He didn’t want to taste anything sharp stabbing or slicing through his skin and flesh again.

And he certainly didn’t wish to end up like the cow on his ration again. Certainly helped him realize perspectives for once though. So that’s what it’s like to be eaten.

Better get himself out of this then.

He hoped this little meal would keep him sharp for what would be coming next.

He certainly would need it.