The staff of the laboratory in the refugee camps said as much, but Citri, Kiki, and the other Actaeon girls all knew that wasn’t true.
Yes, girls. The Actaeon were all girls in their late teens.
Women had a higher body-fat percentage than men, and larger adipose tissues in their chest, pelvis, and thigh regions than strictly required for survival purposes. In addition, their capacity for pregnancy—the act of carrying a different life-form within one’s body for an extended period of time—meant their bodies could exempt foreign objects from immune-system rejection under certain conditions.
And—girls were less useful than boys for fighting the Legion.
“What we are, Yuuto—we’re weapons to be used against Eighty-Six. When the Legion War ended, we’d be used to dispose of any surviving Eighty-Six.”
Looking just like the Eighty-Six, they would live alongside them—and, once the time came, detonate to kill their own.
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“They were likely meant to be antipersonnel weapons. I’ve heard of an anecdote like this. A demonstration tape mentioned that if the Republic was to attack, they would fight back not just with their Republic soldiers, but with all creatures from everywhere they could find.”
This was all before Vika’s birth. It showed magnified footage of artificial cells rapidly devouring adipocytes to grow in size and eventually burst. Following that, a pig scuttered in a panic behind blast-proof glass, before rupturing in an explosion much larger than any explosives placed in its stomach could ever produce.
The Republic was an agricultural country that relied on stock farming. Their vast territory was, at the time, full of countless sheep, goats, cows, horses, and pigs—the number of livestock was significantly larger than the Republic’s population.
“Nitroglycerin. As is, it’s too unstable and reacts too easily, so like dynamite, a plasticizer is used to lower its reactivity. Either way, it lacks the force to damage an armored weapon’s frontal armor. Against the Legion, the Republic would have to use large numbers at point-blank range like the self-propelled mines do, and since nitroglycerin lacks the necessary force, it must make up for that with some kind of trick. But when used against human opponents, all those flaws aren’t a concern.”
The Republic pushed the battlefield to the distant Eighty-Sixth Sector and the fighting onto the Eighty-Six. They didn’t know the Legion had overcome their lifespan and thought the end of the Legion War was in sight. So if any countries survived, they’d need to begin antipersonnel combat.
Lerche spoke with an expression of disgust that she heard of such tactics being used across humankind’s long history of combat.
“Soldiers do tend to let down their guard around women and children.”
They’d come with a flower in hand or beg for candy. And once the soldiers approached, the woman and children would turn into suicide bombs, taking out enemy soldiers.
“No, Lerche.” Zashya shook her head. “It’s more than just that.”
This was what the demonstration tape was about. It’d likely been distributed as a warning to other nations at the time, for if the Republic gained the materials needed for human experimentation…
“They would mainly be used on prisoners of war.… Imagine if a rescued prisoner suddenly suicide-bombed? Be it on the front lines or, worse yet, back on the home front, where it should be safe and peaceful.”
Lerche knit her brow in displeasure. Vika finished the explanation coldly.
“It could happen in the Federacy. They would start suspecting that presumed allies are, in fact, enemies. I doubt they made the thing infectious, but even still.”
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“Colonel Milizé, Major Penrose, surely you understand. We must take you under our protection, both for your own safeties and for this country to maintain its form as the Federacy.”
Despite his words, Lena and Annette couldn’t nod in agreement. They said nothing, their silence a clear rejection, but Jonas didn’t so much as furrow a brow. They were frail Celena, and female officers at that. Even if they were to physically resist, they were as powerless as a pair of kittens to Jonas. Their silence alone hardly did anything as a form of resistance.
“As your guard and head attendant, I will assume full responsibility for your safety and comfort. However, I am a man, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to attend to the needs of two ladies, so House Ehrenfried sent subordinates to look after you.”
A few female soldiers silently entered the room and bowed. They were all black-haired and black-eyed Onyxes, and every one of them had the fair but oddly forgettable features typical of former Imperial nobility. For generations, they’d disciplined themselves to serve as shadows to their masters, not seen unless it was required of them.
“They will serve as your shields, should anything happen. But on the off chance the situation requires you to leave this barracks, a few of them must always go with you.”
Fundamentally speaking, Lena and Annette were not to leave this room. The two didn’t respond to this implicit instruction, but Jonas paid their silence no mind. Because just as he said earlier…
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Grethe picked up the conversation after Amari, her expression stiff but her voice soft.
“We can’t send Colonel Milizé to the front lines until the Actaeon incident is resolved. You do understand why, Captain, right?”
Grethe had no intention of bringing Lena back at this time.
Anger burned through Shin’s thoughts, but he just barely managed to suppress it. Lashing out at Grethe here and throwing a childish tantrum would solve nothing. More importantly—
“.…Still. This arrest is unnecessary. Can’t we file a complaint?”
Grethe blinked slowly.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Demand that they act swiftly and diligently to resolve this, and that they confirm her immediate return once the situation is over. Tell them that the Strike Package’s 1st Armored Division will not work under any commander but her.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Leaving the office, he somehow managed to keep a front of propriety and gently closed the door behind him. But then his anger flared up, and he couldn’t stop himself.
“—Shit!”
The intensity with which he breathed the word out made Amari, who’d left the room with him, jolt. Seeing her flinch away from him, Shin forced himself to calm down. He exhaled and then asked again.
“Yuuto’s RAID Device… He took it off during treatment, right? Did he have any other means of communication?”
The Actaeon asked Yuuto to take them home. As a fellow Eighty-Six, Shin could guess at what Yuuto was thinking and felt. Albeit, it came as a bit of a surprise that Yuuto, cold and emotionless as he seemed, had actually agreed to the request. But Shin didn’t question the reasoning behind it.
They asked to go back home, after being deprived the right to return there. To the Eighty-Sixth Sector’s battlefield. So had Yuuto contacted him and asked for help, Shin would have done what he could to provide it. Shin wouldn’t have told him not to do it, and that was likely true of any other Eighty-Six.
Yuuto knew this. So why did he stay silent? Why did he hide it from everyone, like this was a betrayal?
“He couldn’t take you along for this.”
Amari shook her head.
“We’re fellow Eighty-Six, after all… If he’d told you or Saki, or anyone from the Strike Package, you’d have been seen as responsible for this. People would say the Strike Package colluded with the Actaeon.”
“Tch.”
Shin felt his breath catch. So this was what Yuuto feared. The Actaeon were Eighty-Six, and many people had already been lost. And Shin and the Strike Package were likewise Eighty-Six.
“He couldn’t let the Strike Package—all the Eighty-Six—take responsibility for this.”