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."

noisy for a few

lips, then said in a neutral

to go. Follow the flanking battalion for now and help them deal with the horde that's blocking your division from advancing south. Don't exert yourself and your soldiers, though. Take it

Sunny smiled.

"Will do."

Jet glanced at

"Good luck, Sunny."

He sighed.

luck to you,

signal had already cut, turning the screen black. All

lingered for a few moments, then shook his head and headed toward the exit hatch of the

changed outside. The sky was still cold, dim, and illuminated by the distant cannonade

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

already cleaning up the road and harvesting the soul shards. Sunny could have made a point about securing his share of the spoils, but it

were already back with their

the APC,

"Gather up!"

the cohort assembled around him,

bunch of abominations making a ruckus on the

were no questions. Ten minutes later, the Rhino joined the column of the army vehicles and rolled forward,

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

the defensive line of a well-organized human 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 of the mechanized infantry, and several hundred Awakened were doing a good job of containing

battlefield from

had disgorged the

to get old

them a packet of information, marking down priority targets

formed to start the assault on the flank of the enemy force, Sunny studied it all

this Gate Guardian down. You guys help me clear the

but Sunny was not going to miss a

making the