Gaston could still remember the first time he had experienced the strength of the Red Valkyrie. It was in Arabia, he was acting as an Adjutant for an Oil Baron who was trying to get into the ichorium business when there was a SPAWNING event. The first wave created a deluge when the split-realm opened. It was a sight that Gaston found amazing and dreadful. The desert became a shallow lake. There was flooding in the city and there was a sudden rush of water and biomass entities who started wreaking havoc in the streets. Most of the citizens immediately evacuated while the local garrison force and private armies held the line.

The first one to respond was the nearby Breaker Companies who held jurisdiction over the area. They fought like mad and yet even they were losing their strength when multiple Type-4’s appeared. Gaston was on the rooftop and saw through the whole thing. He could still remember clenching his hand and smiling in joy as multiple jump ships appeared in the skies of Arabia. Gaston almost wanted to abandon the person he was contracted with during that day to get a closer look.

Among the new arrival, he couldn’t forget the Red Valkyrie appearing from the air, swiping her dragon slayer left and right against the Type-4’s who were able to hold the tanks and helicopters. But she was a peak superhuman fighter, an evolved human who was Graded S in her assessment. She possessed great strength, agility, reflexes, and her natural ability made her a dangerous opponent. Breakers have a natural superhuman strength that allows them to use multi-functional weapons called MF-gears. Just like how a Lancer’s hand-gatling could transform into a lance. A Breaker’s weapon could transform to have two functions in one gear.

The Red Valkyrie however was non-conventional. She adapted a melee doctrine that focused on overwhelming her enemies with her dragon slayer. It was a two-handed greatsword that she channels her bioenergy to neutralize their bioshield. The Breakers all have this ability, but hers was extremely potent that one swipe could shatter the bioshield of a Type-4 easily.

Gaston saw how quickly she neutralized the Type-4’s. Lady Romanov, Jakob Stoll, naturally competed with her during that time. The three of them quickly dispatched the Type-4’s and left the Type-1 and Type-2’s. Jakob Stoll was a swift swordsman while Lady Romanov used her hand cannon to fire plasma blasts on any of the approaching enemies.

The Black Lions of Babaika were what they were called. Nevertheless, the one who truly stood out was the Red Valkyrie. Her silver hair that would turn red when she was in battle was mesmerizing. Her admirers and popularity made her the face of the Babaika Company. Not to mention that there are only a few like her who could truly stand out in battle. Gaston admired that sight and at the same time, he knew that the fighting style of the Black Lions was terrifying. Even though they have suppressed most of the enemies. The collateral damage of their fights was alarming. They produced results, which was their appeal. But they were also infamous for it. Gaston knew that the moment they appeared here, then this SPAWNING would be over soon.

Gaston saw that the Red Valkyrie’s dragon slayer struck the crustacean-like Type-5. She stomped hard, rose to the air, and produced a slash that cut even the water around the creature. The creature tried to produce another blast of plasma when the Red Valkyrie threw the greatsword on the head of the beast.

The beast roared.

“This is Base Command, multiple split-realm opening. Sparrow, be advised, keep your distance. All units are advised to keep away. Type-4’s detected.”

Biomass entities crawled out of the split-realms. The Black Lions who stayed in the air with their jetpack unloaded rounds on every Type-3’s. Jakob Stoll faced the Type-4’s and unleashed his high-frequency blade that immediately cut through the limbs of the Type-4’s. Gaston magnified his heads-up display and saw that while Jakob Stoll fought the Type-4’s. Ms. Yumina covered Jakob’s back, firing her MF-gear, tearing the Type’3 with every shot. Those that dared to attack her in a close range were swept by her MF-gear turning into a one-handed sword that cleaved on the creature's head.

The Type-4 that appeared was already neutralized. The Type-5 that threatened everyone a while ago was now like a helpless babe being torn apart by a dance of the Red Valkyrie’s dragon slayer sword. The Type-5 couldn’t fight back against the red-haired slayer. Ayumi looked at the shredded and peeled Type-5 with awe on her face. “She’s strong, so strong,” she said with clear admiration in her voice.

Some of the Type-4’s who stayed under the water were able to get near the land. The Black Lions however were able to stop the rest. With the cameras, Gaston saw Jakob Stoll strike his blade on the waist of the beast. The beast gave a mighty roar, and struck back only for Jakob Stoll to catch the claw-like limb of the beast, grabbed hold of it, and threw it like a rag up in the air. Jakob Stoll followed after, landed on the claw, and began slicing and dicing the beast from claw to the head. Then with a mighty leap, he brought down his blade and cleaved the beast in two.

“Goodness,” Ayumi swallowed a mouthful of air, “they are high-grade breakers.”

Gaston nodded. His eyes shifted back to Ms. Yumina. Though she was a newcomer and a rookie, it was clear that she was proficient in hunting down biomass entities. She had quite a mastery that made Gaston wonder how on earth someone like that could be only graded as a ‘C’. Gaston did understand that the ranking was based on the amount of bioenergy that they have. Those who ranked high are usually those who have massive reserves of bioenergy inside them. In terms of skill and ability she was quite a on par, no, she might be even stronger than the Black Lions that were sweeping the bay area.

“There go my assumptions,” Gaston thought. He couldn’t help but measure a Breaker with the grading that they gave them. After all, most of the Evolved relies on their bioenergy to survive the split-realms. Still, Gaston felt like there was something wrong with her aptitude. Not to mention that from the bits he could see, she was released quite a dense and compressed bioenergy, unlike the others. It was quite refined that there were probably only a few who could see it.

“This is Base Command, no more signs of split-realm openings. Ground units are to clean the strugglers. Keep your toes away from the Black Lions, the rest of the Breaker Companies are free to engage around them.”

“Copy that, Base Command.”

The cruiser ships of the other breaker companies didn’t come and disturbed the Babaika Lions as they cleaned up the Type-4’s. The Type-5 that appeared had already been crippled by the Red Valkyrie and had her squad dragged the beast on the beach alive. The assault ship that hovered hundreds of feet in the air landed on the area around the beach to quickly extract the carcass.

It was reckless to Gaston. But the Babaika Company wasn’t a company that followed proper conventional methods in the first place. All the units around the area started to clean up the strugglers. Without the Type-4’s and Type-5 protecting them. They became easy prey to the Lancers, Suppressers, and the Grunts who were filling the bastards with lead.

Gaston didn’t settle down like the rest. He remained vigilant and kept his eyes on the water and the skies. The troops that appeared in the Tokyo Bay were an immediate detachment in the first place. With the appearance of the Babaika Company, the Breakers, and the Yamato Armed Forces, the damage was only limited to the Miura area.

Gaston looked at the time and saw that almost an hour had passed since they flew to this place. Battles were quick, loud, and violent enough that he wasn’t surprised that the battle was won so easily. Not to mention that with the appearance of the Breakers during this operation. The monsters were fated to be suppressed as easily as they came. Since it was only a SPAWNING that had two waves, there should be no need to worry about more enemies appearing.

Not to mention that the Babaika Company already had felled the most dangerous monsters in the vicinity. The radio chatter became less noisy as they started to mechanically eliminate the targets that are still alive. There were a stream of reports, announcing deaths, and destruction. Although the suppression of the most dangerous enemies has been done, death wasn’t new to this kind of profession. Back then when the true first split-realms opened on the African States and Southeast Asia Countries, and islands near the Equator, death was rampant. No one knew how to fight these things. The earth’s very crust was moving as well so it took ten years for the world to stand back on its feet. Humanity had this ability to keep on standing up and surpassing their foes. When the sparticles were discovered, the development and mining of the ichorium had started, and the appearance of Evolved Humans threw this world into a different age.

Gaston could hear in the radio chatter how many had died ever since they appeared. If it was only a GOLIATH then casualties might have been lower than what he had heard. But with a SPAWNING it was going to cause deaths.

Ayumi held her head and called out. “Adjutant, we’ll be meeting Constable Yu now.”

“Is the area cleared?”

“It should be soon.”

Gaston looked at the bay. The Black Lions were still systematically killing the strugglers. They were going to sweep the area and give chase to any biomass entity that escaped the area. “Let’s go, Captain, nice flying.”

Captain Hiroyoshi nodded his head in the cockpit. Gaston turned the safety off his rifle. He clapped the back off the soldier manning the machine gun. “Nice shooting, mate,” he said. The soldier grinned and shifted his eyes back to outside. Gaston sat on the seat and rested his back as the helicopter flew to a beach called Oura.

The helicopter landed on the beach. Gaston assisted Ayumi out of the helicopter and waddled to the man in a business suit. Constable Yu wore a formal suit and accepted the handshake from Gaston. “Thank you for the assistance, Secretary Nara.”

“It’s nothing,” she replied, leaving her mobile pad on her vest. “I merely assisted in overwatch.”

“Still, with you on overwatch so most of my men were able to relax. The angel is here boys! We are going home alive, my men would say in the chatter. We lost a lot of people today,” he turned towards Gaston. “I heard that this wasn’t supposed to happen?”

Gaston denied. “No. This is just a SPAWNING with two waves. CERN’s predictions should be accurate, but since I can assume that the Constable had read the reports, the readings are volatile, and the low-pressure area might have influenced the split-realm opening. If anything, it's better that they opened up here in the bay instead of a city.”

Constable Yu calmed down. That questioning expression on his face was gone. Ayumi looked at Constable Yu and added, “Constable, we already have incidents in Chiba and Oshima Island. There was a minor spawning on Atami as well. If anything, we just failed to get a read on the appearance pattern.”

“No, it’s not the Consortium’s fault. We should have been better than this. Then again, it only proves that something is lacking in our data collection."

Ayumi looked down and held her chin. Constable Yu crossed his arms and was in deep thought as well. Gaston could guess that something was going on between the scenes. Japan is a first-world country and one of the many nations that have seriously adopted and developed technologies to combat the biomass entity threat. So how could they have allowed this in the first place? Especially with the Consortium around, it was impossible for them, not to notice any readings and signals unless there was someone who was deliberately sending inaccurate reports.

Gaston felt his stomach stiff. He hated monsters like everyone around him, but humans who are acting like monsters were even worse. He didn’t like the idea that there might be someone that was trying to sabotage the data flow around areas that have spawned these biomass entities.