Shadow Slave

At that moment, Samara appeared from the hatch of the Rhino and called out to Sunny:

"Captain! We are being hailed on the comms."

He sighed, then opened his eyes and reluctantly stood up. As the Awakened soldier stared at the pale young man with wide eyes, he smiled pleasantly… and then disappeared without a trace, prompting the man to flinch and take a step back.

…Back inside the APC, Sunny emerged from the shadows, walked over to the communication suite and sat down behind a terminal. At the press of a button, Master Jet's face appeared on the screen.

Soul Reaper seemed to be standing in front of a pile of mangled corpses, illuminated by an angry orange glow. Dancing flames reflected in her icy blue eyes, making it seem as if they were glowing.

Set against that backdrop, her smile looked rather sinister.

"Hey, Sunny. I heard that your cohort won its first battle. I guess congratulations are in order?"

He nodded and studied the carcasses of Nightmare Creatures behind her.

"Yeah… you seem to have achieved a victory, as well. What's the situation like with the other divisions?"

The field army had separated into seven divisions after reaching the Antarctic Center… or was it brigades? Sunny was still a bit confused about the hierarchy of army units. In any case, one of them had stayed behind in Falcon Scott, while the other six had deployed south and were currently on the move. Each consisted of ten to fifteen thousand soldiers and was accompanied by seven hundred Awakened or so.

Master Jet shrugged.

"It's not too bad… yet. The Irregulars are doing their job as well. For now, everything seems to be going according to plan. What about you? How did your cohort perform?"

Sunny sighed.

"Not… bad. We mopped up the opposition easily enough. However, we wasted a lot of essence. If the intensity of the conflict picks up, I'm not sure if I can employ the same strategy again."

She nodded.

"It will definitely pick up, so… good thinking."

on the screen became noisy for a few moments. Soul Reaper lowered her communicator and looked somewhere to

then

horde that's blocking your division from advancing south. Don't exert

Sunny smiled.

"Will do."

glanced at him briefly

"Good luck, Sunny."

He sighed.

to

already cut, turning the screen black. All that remained

few moments, then shook his head and headed toward the

cold,

valley below, the army engineers were setting up autonomous observation posts around the active Gate and laying explosive charges around it. While humanity could not close every Gate, it had learned to diminish their threat in various ways over the years. Encasing them in cement or burying the rift under tons of soil were just a couple of methods to slow down the emerging

the soul shards. Sunny could have made a point about securing his share of the spoils, but it was too much hassle. The results would be tallied and converted to an appropriate amount of contribution points,

and Kim were

APC,

"Gather up!"

cohort assembled around him, he pointed to the

move out. Our next task is to support the assault on the flank of the bunch of abominations making a ruckus on the other

minutes later, the Rhino joined the column of the army vehicles and rolled forward, in the direction where

climbed high up the slope of the mountain, then crested a narrow pass and came in view

force. The soldiers were not in a hurry to attack and concentrated on keeping the abominations away from themselves. The barrage of explosive shells, squall of slugs unleashed by the towering war platforms and countless soldiers

at the chaotic battlefield from

Gates that had disgorged the horde were

to get old

marking down priority targets in the mass of abominations and transferring other important

the assault on the flank of the enemy force, Sunny studied it all and then

will be our target. We must take this Gate Guardian down. You guys help me clear the path to the big bastard,

had told him to take it easy… but Sunny was not going to miss a chance to earn a few shadow

bloodlust, making the members of the cohort