“As a soldier, I always wondered when death would come to me. It seems to simply surround me, after all. Always in the corner. Always waiting. Its dark hands looking for the opportune moment to snag me from the state of being alive. Many of my comrades have fallen to it, and I am no fool to believe I would not be next. I just want to ask. When? When would I fall?”

- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Unknown

Alright, here goes nothing.

Hans cautiously drove his Wanderfalke forward into the abandoned town. Finally, he didn’t have any kids to worry about as he ventured here. Just him…him alone in a potentially dangerous environment. One of the things he worried about after all was having Alizée be in his little death coffin should things go awry.

Wouldn’t be pretty to have a kid die from a stray shell.

For a brief moment, he stopped, subtly feeling the stabbing pain of shrapnel on his legs. He…really went through that, didn’t he? To die? Yet now, he was alive. Still, for a brief moment…he was there. And Hans felt it hard to move as he felt his heart collapse into itself for but a brief moment.

Am I…going to die?

He certainly felt like it.

As if something was wrong. Adelyn did say something felt wrong after all. If there was anything he knew about Captain Wittenstein was the fact that she had a keen eye for danger. Rarely had their unit been ambushed or were they caught in surprise since she took over E Company.

An on-the-books commander, yes, but she was also adaptable. In a way, it was why he trusted her. She should be able to handle any situation. If he was good at killing hostile forces, Adelyn certainly was better at keeping E Company and him alive. That was where she excelled at.

Hans continued on through the abandoned town. Like the last one, it seemed desolate. As if some sort of monster rampaged through it. He wondered where the bodies were, considering that there were many signs of fighting. In fact, he wondered why exactly was there no response force of some sort from that threat.

If that was a demonic entity, then it might have eaten these people. The Peacemaker trudged forward, stopping right in front of a market stall that seemed to still have some goods before whatever attack killed these people. Hans checked his sensors, especially his motion sensors, for anything close by and found absolutely nothing.

He took his SMG, alongside his pistols. He needed to inspect things by himself. Popping his hatch open, he cautiously jumped down, straight into the stone roads of this area. He looked at one of the houses beside him, the glasses on it seemingly smashed by something. That certainly didn’t bode well for him

Something definitely attacked this place. And the silence…it was consuming him. It wasn’t the good type of silence. It was the bad type. But his sensors already showed that no contacts were inside. Most importantly, he had a gun. These people didn’t, or at least, their weapons were no good.

Unlike them, Hans was a soldier of the Confederacy, one of the most advanced nations on Terra. He piloted a mech that while vulnerably unarmored, had good merits. It was fast, with an array of powerful sensors that kept its users well aware of the battlefield at all times. Most of all, it had a double coaxial and a 90mm main gun. Fear? It was unfounded.

He also held an SMG. Even outside of his mech, Hans was a soldier who packed teeth. And he had already proven it earlier when he killed that monster. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to fight a level 8 demonic entity barehanded, not that he would be able to even if he was equal to it. But he sure as hell could equalize that with modern weaponry.

He laughed, attempting to comfort himself.

Level two huh? Let’s see how they work against my guns. He checked the stalls, especially the papers and books, trying to glean anything from them. They can come at me, and I’ll just rain them bullets. Courtesy of modern technology.

Still, Hans recognized that overconfidence was not good. For this world seemed fantastical, he feared what magicks or whatever nonsensical creature was here. He was still a glass cannon, and so was his mech, and so was Adelyn’s mech. Even the Wanderadler was only well-armored on its remote-controlled turret, its important compartments, and its front. Its side armor was notoriously vulnerable, for example.

Too much armor after all would be a strain on a mech’s agility and mobility, which was the main reason why it was even introduced in the first place. To move in the battlefield and irregular terrain like a true monster, unhindered by merely relying on tracks for propulsion. The legs, for example, were a very vulnerable part of every mech, even if it could run with some of it knocked down (in comparison to a tracked MBT).

Considering the creatures here, he really should be cautious. Still, he didn’t need to fear that much. He’d shoot them first before touching his glass cannon of a vehicle, or his squishy body. That was who he was after all. The Falcon Ace of the Southern Front.

He wouldn’t be beaten by some medieval junk.

+++

Hans exited the fifth house he had visited near the vicinity of his mech. All he really had to show for himself was a few trinkets and looted books and papers. He dropped on one of the stalls, taking his flashlight as it was already getting darker, and sifting through it. And damn there was nothing he could understand.

He was hoping that there was anything, anything at all that resembled Lotharingian. At least, if there was, he’d glean something. Intelligence was the most crucial part of every warfare after all. And right now, he certainly treated the environment he was in as a battlefield. To be blind would mean he would not know where an unknown threat would strike. To be blind would mean he would not know how to strike.

And for a glass cannon, that was an unacceptable death sentence. To strike first was the entire SOP of a Wanderfalke Pilot. Of any pilot in fact. Even tankers subscribed to that idea.

Armored warfare had always been a question of who struck first. A game that usually lasts in milliseconds once it starts. Armor and mobility were all second factors to spotting the enemy first and firing one’s gun first. And Hans continued to follow that doctrine. In this case, whatever seemed to be threatening them, he must find and strike it first.

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But it was hard right now. If there was any equivalent to armored warfare in his situation, his optics were damaged. That essentially would render him useless.

“Alright…it’s really getting dark,” Hans said.

Movement.

Quickly, he flicked off his safety, dropped to his knees, and faced something in the darkness. On the far distance of the street…something stared at him. Yellow eyes. He couldn’t see it properly, almost as if it was a shadow. He tried to do something.

Target Status Check.

[WARNING! STATUS CHECK FAILED!]

That was bad. Hans turned on the night-vision mode of his scope and placed his eye on it. It seemed to be near a fountain. The creature…it looked pitch black, massive…like a dog…its tails…no, that didn’t make sense. Why did it have four of them…and why did it extend that way?

It snarled at him.

Local fauna perhaps? He should probably return to his Wanderfalke. This wasn’t looking good. It was almost two hundred meters away, and while he could test out his SMG on it, it wasn’t attacking him yet. Perhaps it only wanted to observe him. Perhaps he didn’t have to enter this area that it marked as its territory. There was no need to poke a beast unless it truly attacked you.

“Hans!” His radio suddenly blared out. He leaned his shoulder and pressed a button.

“Captain?” He stood up and continued aiming his SMG on it, as he methodically backed away to his mech. “Captain, what’s happening out there?”

“Local fauna of some sort. There’s…there’s three of them…surrounding my mech. I retreated myself and Alizée, and I’m not engaging. But shouldn’t these things go away?”

“Captain…hold your breath and don’t do anything stupid,” Hans said. “We might get swarmed if we’re not careful. Do not provoke it.”

“I’m inside the town,” she said. “My mech is backing off in your direction.”

“Captain, what?” Hans said. “There’s one of them here. Be careful.”

“Should we not engage, Lieutenant?”

“Don’t. Not yet,” Hans said, as he climbed back on the Peacemaker. “Not yet. I’ll try to find a way out of this town. If we can retreat without hostility—”

“I have a 120mm main gun and an MPAT round locked and loaded for these creatures,” Adelyn warned. “We’re driving Confederacy mechs. We shouldn’t see any issues.”

“I agree,” Hans said. “But caution, Captain. We do not know what these things are, or what they are capable of. We’re blind.”

“I understand.”

He closed his hatch and returned to his controls. Hans’ Wanderfalke stood alive, as its chassis turned in the direction of Adelyn’s mech, while he kept his turret and main gun locked on the unknown creature. In merely ten seconds, he stopped behind Adelyn’s mech.

“Follow me, we’ll try this route,” Hans said.

“Copy that.”

The two of them drove through the tight lanes of the town. Due to its nature, the streets were only a few meters wide, and they had to raise their mech’s chassis in order to reduce the distance of their legs from the center of their mechs. This, however, meant that they were slightly more unstable, and in an actual combat environment, it would be a detriment, as raising one’s height only meant giving the enemy a bigger target.

However, it wasn’t like these creatures had cannons to take them down, so Hans didn’t worry much.

They continued on, passing through the minor lanes until they were back on the main street, and their mechs lowered their chassis again.

Suddenly, something slammed into Hans’ mech. He heard Alizée scream on the comms from Adelyn’s mech, and his Wanderfalke was thrown nearly eight meters and slammed into a building. A warning appeared on his displays, with two legs being suddenly disjointed. He however forced it back up, and while his mech stood up shakingly for a second, it snapped back in place, and his turret turned into the creature that knocked him down.

Gunfire from Adelyn’s mech opened up, but the creature dodged it, climbing into one of the houses, as Hans’ double coaxial opened up. Tracers filled the night sky, as Hans followed it, while it ran from him. It jumped down on his mech, but he dodged it, firing a loaded MPAT from his main gun, and obliterating a house instead.

“Damn it! It’s fast!” He shouted.

“I’m down! I’m down!” Adelyn was distressed over the comms. “Damn it, it sliced off two of my legs! Its tails Hans! Its tails can slice my Wanderadler’s legs!”

“What?”

A sudden movement charged from his left, and out from a tight lane, was the creature. He jumped away from it, but one of its tails sliced clean through the two aft legs at the left side of his mech. Hans’ Wanderfalke dived into the road face first, as sparks appeared, stopping right in front of Adelyn’s disabled mech.

The area was too tight. Too tight! And the damned thing was now jumping above them! With his mech completely immobile, Hans knew he wouldn’t be able to fight it with his turret. In fact, it seemed that Adelyn knew the same, as she popped her hatch open, and began firing her gun wildly.

“Adelyn!” He shouted. “Adelyn, what the hell?!”

He took his gun, opened his hatch, and jumped down into the road. Damn it, this escalated in ways he didn’t expect. Now their two mechs were out of commission! He ran straight to Adelyn, noticing the creature charging at her, but the thing…its dark tail sliced through her clean. Its paws threw Adelyn’s body straight to Hans, dropping both of them down on the road.

“Captain!” He shouted as he caught her bloodied form. Her kevlar body armor was sliced clean, fresh blood pooling straight from her abdomen. Hans fired his SMG at the creature with one hand, his other hand wrapped tightly at her as he pulled her away. “Captain! Stay with—”

It was sharp…and he had not even a second to react to it. He looked down at the arm of his that used to hold his SMG as it flew on the sky, and dropped on the road. Pinkish shards of light however attacked the creature, and Hans looked at a crying Alizée that was running straight at him and Adelyn, her hands aimed at the creature as she fired off magic of some kind.

But Hans only felt the raw, bloody pain reverberate on him, as he dropped with Adelyn on his arm. Strangely, he couldn’t breathe. That was when he realized it. He was already drowning in blood. His neck…it was…

No…no…it’s…

It hurts…

He couldn’t choke anything out.

He couldn’t cry for help.

He couldn’t shout out, “Alizée, run!”

He couldn’t do anything.

Was this it?

My blood…it’s everywhere…her blood.

Her golden blonde hair had his crimson red blood on it. Her halo. It was gone. Her body was right on top of his. And no more could he control his other hand.

Everything…everything was turning black…

No…no…I can still…

No…

Why did I fail?

Why?

His singular job. To protect them.

And he failed.

The last thing he heard…was Alizée’s cries turning into a blood-curdling scream…just as all the pain stopped.