Chapter 16: Echoes of the Fallen.

Operation Record <173670-291>
Zone A817
August 17, xx
Full Text of Communications Record
List of Speakers
A1 = [1st Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Jack Logan Crossman]
A2 = [2nd Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Daniel Eugene Maverick]
AO = [Alpha Company Commander, Major Ceril Olsen]

A2
[“AO, AO, do you hear me? Request mission abort!”]
AO
[“2nd Platoon Leader? Is your side safe? What on earth happened?!”]
A2
[“During the operation, we encountered a unique signal. It appeared suddenly. The 1st Platoon in the lead encountered it first, but now that side is completely silent.”]
AO
[“What…? A1, 1st Platoon Leader, respond if you hear me!”]
AO
[“1st Platoon Leader! Lieutenant Logan!! Report the situation immediately!”]
A2
[“….Company Commander, it seems like the 1st Platoon has already been wiped out.”]
AO
[“What nonsense are you spouting! I received a perfectly fine report from them just 5 minutes ago…! At least the 2nd Platoon retreat, we’ll reorganize here and proceed with rescuing A1 right away!”]
A2
[“I don’t think that will be possible.”]
AO
[“What are you saying all of a sudden?”]
A2
[“The unique signal that the 1st Platoon encountered, it was a high-ranking mutated species of at least Epsilon class. It’s impossible to suppress with our company’s firepower right now.”]
AO
[“….How do you know that? You clearly said that contact with the 1st Platoon was lost, didn’t you? Did you perhaps get in contact just now?”]
A2
[“Company Commander, there is no time. I urge you to retreat from the operation area right now. It will only amount to buying a little time for us”]
a0
[“What? Don’t even think about it, A2! Keep up communications! I’ll cover the extraction route, so retreat along the 8th ridge, and if you join up with the Aegis team members in the outer zone-”]
AO
[“A2!! …2nd Platoon Leader, Daniel!! Respond!”]

AO
[“Respond!”]
-No signal afterward-

A corner of a pure white medical room.

Among the empty beds, a woman with disheveled light brown hair was sitting.

Her whole body was covered in wounds.

A bandage wrapped around her forehead, arms, torn and scratched 생채기 (saengchae-gi: wounds).

The bruised skin here and there showed how difficult a battle she had fought.

Injuries that would require several weeks or more to recover. But what was hurting her now wasn’t the pain of that body, but the wounds that remained in her heart.

Ceril Olsen.

A capable Allied Forces officer.

From her commission to the platoon commander, she hadn’t experienced a single operation failure, and that competence had always received decent evaluations from those around her. Thanks to that, she had been rapidly promoted and assigned to the 77th Reconnaissance Regiment, the most elite unit among the Allied Forces.

Even in that place, Ceril’s ability was recognized.

The missions of the Reconnaissance Regiment were much more high-risk than before, but she trusted the veteran members and did the best she could, and thanks to that, they also recognized Ceril’s leadership and had successfully completed many missions together.

To the point where she hadn’t lost a single member until she was promoted to company commander.

This was the first time.

It was the first failure she was experiencing as a commander.

The result was really…. a despair that she hadn’t even imagined.

Because she had lost half of the company members in one operation.

Now, all that remained in her heart was unforgettable regret and… guilt.

To Ceril, the members weren’t just subordinate troops.

To Ceril, who had lost all her relatives during the Great War and had once built a wall around her heart… they were comrades who had become a truly new family while going through thick and thin together.

But she had made half of those people die due to her own wrong judgment.

The more she recalled that reality, the more terribly painful regret came to her.

That’s why Ceril had no choice but to sit blankly on the bed of the medical room for several hours, and reproach herself while repeating the irreversible memory like a broken radio.

At that time, the door of the medical room opened.

Soon, one set of footsteps quietly came in.

Calm footsteps began to approach.

But Ceril didn’t turn to look at that side either.

She was just blankly staring at the air with a dry face.

The approaching presence stopped right before her.

“Major.”

At the voice calling her, Ceril finally slowly raised her head.

“There’s a part that needs to be checked during the settlement of this joint mission, so I’ll be rude for a moment.”

A young man with black hair was looking down at her.

Dark brown eyes mixed with light brown.

The sergeant rank insignia engraved on his collar,

It was a face she had seen sometime.

‘Yu Seo Jin… I think he said he was a Sergeant?’

The non-commissioned officer on the Aegis side whom she had met several times for the joint operation plan.

And, he was also an ally who had happened to rescue her company, which had lost half of its members.

In fact, Ceril’s memory of that time was vague.

She just remembered fragmented scenes of barely being supported by someone’s hand and getting out of the operation area while completely exhausted. That was the support from the Aegis unit that had been proceeding with a joint mission with Ceril’s company. One of them was the Sergeant in front of her, and if that was the case, Ceril had virtually owed him her life.

But… she couldn’t bring herself to say thank you.

Ceril’s heart was already submerged in too much despair, so she couldn’t think of anything other than self-reproach.

She had lost dozens of people.

The people who had believed in her and followed her,

The ones she had been together with joys and sorrows with so far,

With a moment of carelessness…

If she had made a more correct decision,

If she had read the situation properly,

The result might have been different.

But,

But…..

Her pale white back of her hand was trembling slightly.

A tightly clenched fist, to the point where red was seeping out onto the bandage.

Clenched lips.

Ceril thought.

Wouldn’t it be better to just bang her head against the wall and die right now?

Wasn’t that the only way to take responsibility for her irreversible mistake….

The names,

Faces,

Voices,

Of the members who hadn’t returned this time,

She still remembered them all vividly.

[“Company Commander”]

They were the ones that she had to take responsibility for until the end.

They weren’t people who should have died so futilely.

“Major!”

The hand that was shaking her shoulder for a moment forcibly awakened Ceril’s mind.

“Are you okay?”

She blankly looked at Seo Jin, and then slightly averted her eyes.

The medical room was submerged in silence for a while.

Seo Jin didn’t urge anything and just waited there silently.

He had clearly come to find her because he had something to do.

But it wasn’t important anymore.

In the precarious silence,

A voice that had been badly hoarsened finally slipped out.

“It’s my mistake…”

A rambling mutter.

Self-reproach that felt like it would burst inside if she didn’t spit it out.

Anyone who would listen was fine.

Ceril just wanted to confide.

“If I had made a proper judgment at that time…”

Her mistakes and self-reproach.

She just wanted someone to scold her, no matter who it was.

Seo Jin patiently listened to all of her story.

Until the trembling voice didn’t continue anymore,

He was quietly listening, and then quietly called her.

“Major.”

To someone who was submerged in so much despair that she couldn’t even bear to look back at the real reality…

He decided to teach her the truth.

“It’s not your fault.”