Sovereign

"Unconfirmed reports of the CFN deploying 'autonomous machines' in the frontline are coming from all fronts of the war. The CFN did not comment on these accusations, while the Mandate of Nations High Command and every government has so far remained silent, and dismissed these as 'baseless rumors'. Still, with footage of these strange, sleek, mech designs ravaging MN lines spreading through the internet, with soldiers openly calling them 'AI', it is clear that the CFN unleashed something significant."

- Geopol Press

+++

Empire of Kusari

Rampur City

March 9, 2026

In the burning streets of the Kusari city, night had already descended. The sounds of battle, with the Mandate of Nations continuing Operation Eastern Jade's offensive, remained intensified in this city, which was one of the targets of the rapidly advancing MN forces.

Well…they were rapidly advancing.

An Orlish LSS Mech, its turret pierced with a hole that bellowed smoke and fire, limped with its six legs on a tight street. Its turret was stuck permanently in place, aimed to the side. The only thing coming from its doomed radio hails was words coming from its driver, who called for aid.

It continued limping backward, its speed already cut in half, when suddenly, a sharp metallic appendage, grey in color, sliced the driver's hatch in its hull. The LSS Mech's optical sensor immediately died, as it fell on the cold asphalt, the radio transmissions from it shutting down.

What stood in front of it was something else. It was a heavily armored grey spider mech—an eight-legged design. Its gun was massive for its size, perhaps 30 mm in caliber. It had two red optical sensors on the side of its angled turret, resembling that of the eye of a demon.

Beside it, a group of three smaller mechs, all of them four-legged, advanced. They were only armed with two machine guns in their small turret. Their sleek, angled design sure made them deceptively look terrifying, but not as terrifying as the eight-legged beast that just withdrew its leg on the LSS Panther it destroyed.

The group was about to advance when suddenly, a powerful shot pinged the side of the eight-legged mech's turret.

"Direct hit, Captain!"

"Load another one, Linze. MPAT on airburst now!"

The group of girls inside Captain Henrietta's tank moved rapidly, as Henrietta herself used her commander's controls to direct the coaxials and the remote-controlled HMG on top of their turret against the smaller mechs in front of them. One by one, she dismantled them by aiming desperately at their weak points, but one of them managed to launch an ATGM in their direction.

She was about to shout 'Duck!' when the missile narrowly missed their tank, flying instead on the building behind them. With an MPAT round loaded on their main gun, Freya, their pink-haired gunner, shouted that she was opening fire, sending a massive explosion that tore the street ahead of them.

As that happened, a candlestick fire tore through the eight-legged mech's turret, its bustle rack must have been hit, and the fires rapidly ate through it. In seconds, it erupted into a full explosion, burning probably half of its hull and the back of its angular turret. With their foes now downed, they all collapsed on their seats.

"Enemy cleared!" Freya shouted.

"Loading APFSDS!" Linze breathed out.

"Captain, are we retreating?" Jeanne asked from the driver's seat using the intercom.

"No," Henrietta flat-out denied it. "The rest of the company is still advancing. We can't let these things stop our mission."

Henrietta breathed heavily, as she listened and spoke through her radio. It seemed that the rest of her unit faced these things as well. Luckily, there were only two of those eight-legged mechs. They seemed to have been quickly dispatched by her subordinate platoons.

The only thing they suffered in this brief engagement was one of their IFVs being struck by an ATGM from those smaller, nimbler four-legged things. Luckily, the crew survived with minor injuries, and the soldiers were dismounted by the time they were hit.

Still…we faced nearly two dozen of them.

Henrietta's face turned grim.

If we were caught off-guard, we would have been annihilated.

"...Captain," Freya called out from below, her eyes quivering a bit in fear. "What…are those things?"

"They sure don't look like they're piloted by humans to me," Linze said on the side.

"So are they drones?"

"Who knows?"

"No way. Have you ever listened to drone operators? They say it's impossible to pilot one so easily on the ground. Those things moved fast and smoothly."

"Yeah? But we killed them."

Henrietta allowed the two to argue anxiously, though Linze seemed a bit less anxious about it, but she might just be hiding it better. Freya, on the other hand, seemed thoroughly worried about it. Now that Henrietta thought about it, they only got lucky with that shot.

Had that mech's turret been turned to them, there was a chance of their APFSDS failing. One of the tanks from her second platoon after all had their sabot ricochet when they tried to hit its frontal armor. Indeed, they were quite literally one inch away from their coffins moments ago.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"...I'll try to ask HQ," Henrietta said, breaking their back-and-forth. "Though to be honest, they probably have no idea either. This is the first time we've seen them, after all."

"...The lack of humans in this city has been concerning to me too," Freya continued, her young face filled with great worry. "It's like, we've only been fighting drones. Isn't that weird?"

"..."

Henrietta's muted response was broken when a vehicle suddenly drifted to the left of them, driving in the opposite direction of the road. It was an HMLV from the Marine Corps, based on the camo they used. The vehicle quickly stopped in front of them.

They seem familiar.

Henrietta picked up her radio to contact them, but that interference returned. It was brief, but in a few seconds, she could hear them.

"—This is Sergeant—"

"I can't hear you."

"We're requesting immedi—nearby—attack on the sector—"

"Attack?"

"Affir—crap—comms aren't—can you hear—?"

Henrietta sighed. This was truly difficult. Opening her hatch, she climbed down her tank after she ordered Jeanne to pull back into a less exposed area. She calmly walked straight to the parked HMLV. Looking up, she saw a familiar face on top of the machine gun nest.

Corporal Oakley Fried…

So it was Sergeant Mark Higgs again. Funny how they kept running into this group of marines. Then again, her KDU, the 3rd Knights Detachment Unit, was being increasingly deployed with marines due to the areas they operated in (overseas). The 6th Marine Regiment had always found itself being attached a lot with the 3rd KDU as a result.

"Captain," the old NCO left his vehicle, a small smile on his face as he looked at her. "Knew that was your tank. You girls are becoming an ace unit now, huh?"

Henrietta stopped, a faint blush appearing on her face. She looked back at the gun barrel of their tank. Already, sixteen white rings were on it. They had already been in so many battles, where somehow, Henrietta managed to keep not just her unit largely intact, but her tank intact as well.

Considering her penchant for participating in the thick of combat while commanding, for she couldn't stomach the idea of letting any of her girls fight without her in the front, kills became natural.

"...It's more so because of Corporal Blum's gunnery," Henrietta replied as she looked back at the marine. "She's a pretty good shot."

She noticed the bored marine on top of their HMLV, who was looking at the distance while smoking, turning his eyes a bit in their direction.

"That's good. It makes me more confident of our chances," Sergeant Higgs pulled her close to their HMLV. Producing a map of the city, he placed the paper on top of their vehicle's hood. "Alright. Right now, we have a major problem."

"...What is it?"

"We've been struggling with communicating with other units in our vicinity, as you well know. But twenty minutes ago, HQ told us to keep pressing on. Therefore, we'll have to coordinate our plans to capture Districts 3 and 5 of this city."

"...Where are we doing this?"

"The officers of the 2nd Marine Division are gathering here," he pointed at a hospital just slightly behind them on the map. "If you can grab a few more officers from your unit to us, we can talk things out, and make a new plan."

"To be honest with you, the consensus with us is that we should stop the assault."

"Not acceptable, Captain. The Marine Corps won't retreat from this one."

"You can't seriously tell me you folks are going to be more prideful than the Royal Guard."

"I'm just saying. The 'oh, they have autonomous forces' excuse isn't going to stand. Besides, we're still churning forward, so we expect that we'll do half-decently."

Henrietta crossed her arms. She had been skeptical already about this whole 'advance, advance, advance' mentality since they met these things for the first time, but this was a new low.

Not that she could blame these people. HQ ordered them to push onward. While the Marine Corps practiced chaos by taking a more independent stance on the battlefield as local commanders, she knew too that at the end of the day, they only used that 'independence' to meet the goals they were given.

Their goal today was to capture the city, open the roads, and let the incoming Asanaian 4th Armored Division speed through here safely within two days. These men would do everything to ensure that goal was met.

"What?" Sergeant Higgs raised an eyebrow. "Got a problem?"

"Certainly, but there's no point arguing. You're just the messenger anyway."

"Right. If you will, you can leave your girls in standby mode here and grab your command HMLV. The road to the hospital is clear."

+++

Oakley sighed on the side of the road after he stretched a bit. Already, four marine HMLVs had arrived in their position, all of them parked on the side of the streets. Scattered in this city block too were the tanks and vehicles of Captain Henrietta's H Company.

The Royal Guard girls, in the distance, seemed to be all equally weary and tired as them. Quite frankly, Oakley still found that fact quite surprising. They sure were fighting hard now, side-by-side with them, for months already.

Taking his mind off that, he took his hip flask for a quick drink of whiskey. As he did that, he felt someone bumping on his side. A fragrant, flowery smell filled his nostrils, a surprising welcome on a battlefield that smelled like crap. He looked to his side, noticing a pink-haired woman looking up at him.

"Hello!" she cheerfully called out. "Seems like we meet again. I'm glad you're alive."

"...Miss Freya?"

"It's only Freya, or if you want, Corporal Freya. I don't need that 'Miss' part. I'm not exactly a noble anyway."

Oakley looked away, surprised and a bit embarrassed. What's up with this woman? We only traded rations back then. He wasn't sure why she was even standing so close to him.

"I see. Apologies then. Had a tough day?"

"Yeah…I did kill one of those big mechs though, just earlier," she seemed a bit shaky. "So it's not so bad yet."

"Yet."

"...Right."

The two fell silent until Freya spoke up.

"Anyhow! I was just interested again in the stuff being given to you marines," she said, her voice turning a bit lower. "Can…can we trade again?"

"You know you can trade with other folks. I don't have much."

"Aww, but you're the only guy I know."

"I have some chocolates. But it's probably crappier than what you have."

"And that's exactly what I was searching for!" her eyes lit up. "You see, I kinda…used up all of mine, and my crewmates don't like sharing. So uhh, what do you say? I'll give you a nice full course ration, in exchange for something like five bars?"

Oakley frowned. He didn't have that much left either. Then, an idea popped into his mind. Wait, we passed on an intact store earlier. Thinking that it would be a better way to sate this lady's sweet cravings, he asked her cautiously.

"...What's your opinion on looting abandoned convenience stores instead?"