The area of Tenryū Ward consisted of forested mountains with hiking trails and fishing spots concentrated around Sakuma Lake, which was the byproduct of the Sakuma Dam. Most of the flyers and recon teams have started flying across the surrounding peaks of Mt. Kurohoshi’s summit to observe any signs of the enemy.

Small towns and villages lined the rivers. There were shrines, temples, inns as they flew above the Ward. The helicopter took the squad to this wooded district.

Sixty-six meters away from the Camping Ground, they landed alongside four squad units on helicopters. Gaston dismounted the helicopter, his eyes traveled on the shallow Kumakiri River which was fifty meters away from the camping ground.

Boris followed while carrying a weapons cache towards the Camping ground. The Camping ground’s owner welcomed the JSDF and the Earthside Consortium representatives, who then left after the initial introduction to survey the nearest town which was two klicks from their landing point.

Nine of the buildings on the Camping Ground were either used by the Consortium or reinforced by the prefab automatons that the helicopter. Boris had talked about the owner and procured one of the buildings on the westward of the camp near the Kumakiri River.

Gaston made camp with Shion Jin and settled close to the Kumakiri River. The river itself looked cold and there was nothing else to do around the area other than enjoying a barbecue or grab a salmon from the river.

“Have you been here?” Gaston asked.

Shion Jin replied with a shrug. “Never been here. Nothing to do here. We’re two kilometers away from the denser population here. Most of the area here are rivers and forestry so who knows?”

Most of the wooded districts provided cover for the biomass entities. The frequency that they were on was discussing where to look for the monsters. Biomass entities were amphibious creatures, they could do well in land and water that it would take possibly days for everyone to search the whole ward.

Of course, wasting resources on the area was not the job of the Breaker Companies. To search the area better they had started deploying sparrow-type drones in that area armed with thermal and night vision imagery to detect biomass signatures. It was a netting tactic in which the sparrow-type drones fly below five hundred feet to detect the biomass entities.

Not only that this will detect the biomass entities hiding with the forestry and the rivers. It will also give them a live update of the map and detect changes in the field. However, it wouldn’t be a problem for the Babaika Company who has Cruisers that could do an area scan of about twenty square kilometers of a total area.

Gaston received a live feed from the Cruiser that had escorted the helicopters to this area. The Cruiser that the Babaika Lions deployed was hovering above the clouds, using the clouds to hide visually from any of the biomass entities who might be hiding. It came to Gaston that there was no proper debriefing because of the suddenness of the emergency. Although his AR-module was giving him updates on the situation. There was something off about how the live feed update from the Earthside Consortium, JSDF, and the Babaika Lions differ.

Gaston did not make a fuss about this. The data from the Earthside Consortium and the data they were getting from the UEDF and Japan’s satellites could be the result of mistranslation. He had experienced this problem back in Europe where they had used different words to translate a phrase which caused fourteen million dollars of misunderstanding.

Normally, Gaston would have requested a translation of the passage immediately for the foreign companies that are in the area. Gaston was sure that there were BPO’s and companies that were subcontracted to do live translations if the Earthside Consortium demanded it. Gaston manipulated his AR-module, and compared two pieces of information, and replaced keywords with better wording.

The night wind blew from the direction of the river. Shion Jin had deployed a mobile waypoint, Boris returned while checking out all the specialized ammunition while Yumina inspected the area, clearing each side. Gaston slung his SCAR-variant, operated the AR-module, and adjusted the rotating minimap on the lower-left area of his visual HUD.

“What are you doing, Gaston-san?” Yumina asked.

“Oh, I’m just adjusting my AR-module’s minimap software. I can help you calibrate yours.”

“Would you mind then?”

“Let me link your headset module with mine,” Gaston operated his module, found her account name, and linked her up. He then calibrated her minimap software to automatically detect any enemies that are detected either by the Cruiser and the sparrow drones that are making fifty-second scans of the area.

“Thank you for this, Gaston-san. I never really had training for the AR-module.”

“Usually, you would have a tech orientation, unfortunately, you would have to deal with self-learning because of this emergency. Hey, do you see a button in the upper right of your HUD?”

Yumina looked up. “I have.”

“Try not to update your software right now. I doubt that you want notifications popping up. Noise indicators and the retina scans would take time to get used to since they usually integrate what you are seeing to get a complete overview of the situation. So when you don’t want them seeing something that you don’t want them to see, just mentally press that button.”

“I’ll need to learn this well,” Yumina nodded.

She behaved as if she wasn’t used to AR-tech. Then again there were a lot of Breakers who are still against wearing AR-modules since they think that it was violating their privacy. Since it was revealed that some of the AR-modules are defective and are liable to security breaches because of the AR-module’s auto-recording function. Gaston didn’t personally mind them since it was convenient for a Freelancer like him who usually needed multitasking to get something done.

After helping Yumina, Gaston continued monitoring the data flow, and live feeds. Most of the areas around Tenryū Ward were still quiet, which suggests that most of the biomass entities haven’t moved to roads and crossings yet. They were still in the forested mountains. Of course, there were also areas in the upper northern section of the Ward that were currently under siege.

***

Two hundred sixty-five meters away from the Camping Ground. The rest of the squad had decided to scout the area, and calm the curious citizens. Most of the stubborn ones were left to defend their homes. The rest were in the shelter one kilometer away from the Camping Ground. Boris was on-point and led the group while Gaston operated their drone from the safety of the Camping Ground.

“Any scans, Adjutant?”

“No life signs at the moment. Biomass signatures, zero. Rook Squad, please report.”

“Clear,” Yumina Houki and Shion Jin replied. The two were standing near a white vending machine, purchasing cans of juice and soda. Boris eyed the two casually, before looking away to the left of the Kumakiri River.

“Lyubiteli,” Boris shook his head. He leaned his rifle on his shoulder and went into a one-knee crouch. He surveyed the area, then went back to his AR-module to get data.

“Adjutant, requesting an area scan on our position. 2.20 km² of total area, check for Biomass Signatures, and friendlies, over.”

“Requesting,” Gaston brought up the data link, set up a secure connection, and requested a transmission. “This is Adjutant Gaston Hardy, identification code S18003m requesting an area scan of Rook-1’s location. Bio-sign and friendlies check.”

“Understood, Adjutant. Cruiser shall move, requesting waypoint guidance, Captain Boris, please be advised.”

“Got it Bridge,” Boris held his left forearm and marked the area with his waypoint. Gaston flew the sparrow drone up its max flying range and proceeded to assist the Babaika Cruiser giving them overwatch for an aerial scan.”

Gaston waited on the Bridge for confirmation. While waiting he opened up his field data and monitored the changes. Then it came to him that there was almost no change in the data feed. He scrolled the feed down to the parts of the data feed. The highlighted data that he replaced and compared had been changed.

It was then that his minimap started popping up notifications after notifications. He enlarged the map and saw the area that the Cruiser scanned dotted with multiple hostile Biomass Signatures.

Gaston immediately called it out. “Rook Squad, please be advised, following coordinates: ‘53N-766675-3876033’ and ‘53N-767194-3876623’ are believed to have regiment-sized Type-1’s on standby,” then he switched to the area frequency used by the UEDF, Earthside Consortium Operatives, and the JSDF. “Please be advised, the area within coordinates attached are dotted with hostiles, please be advised. Aerial Command, request orders from the E-C, over. What is our course of action, over?”

“Copy that, relaying the message,” the Bridge replied and relayed the message. “This is Tanchō Command of the JSDF forces, allies are to rendezvous on coordinates ‘53N-767452-3876658’ and form a defense line over route 243, over.”

Boris cut in. “We’ll be heading over to the coordinates. Bridge, are there any orders from the Company, over?”

“Be advised, they’ll be sending Lancer-units to reinforce the area,” then the Bridge was temporarily cut off. “This is Bridge, aerial scans have revealed multiple hostiles coming from the direction of the Oguni Shrine. I repeat Rook Squad is advised to rendezvous with the Lancer-units that are going to be airdropped in the vicinity, over.”

“Roger that,” Boris affirmed. “Adjutant, will you be staying in the Camping Ground?”

“Hold on a moment,” Gaston checked the feed coming from the UEDF, JSDF, and the Consortium. The data showed that there were going to drop paratrooper units in the vicinity of the Camping Ground, and secure emplacement within the area.

“No, I shall be keeping my watch over here. I’ll have the Sparrow-drone provide Overwatch, over.”

“Got it, be careful, Adjutant.”

“Roger,” Gaston maintained his link with the Rook Squad. Then a line connected with him.

“This is JSDF Command, Adjutant Gaston, please relay clear landing area, on your waypoint, over.”

“Got it, transmitting UTM coordinates, over. Gaston relayed the coordinates. “Coordinates is ‘53N-767638-3876003’, over. Please be advised that the area around is a former rice field.”

“No worries, Adjutant. Requesting all units to keep clear of drop points. I repeat all units are to clear the coordinates attached.”

Then Gaston saw jump ships appear from a portal that appeared horizontally, the dropships then landed on the former rice fields, creating crater-sized holes. The drop pods revealed heavily armed Lancer and Supresser-units armed with exoskeletons. One of the drop shits lowered hound tanks and mechanized units that stood about six meters tall, packing enough heat to level the vicinity.

The bipedal mechanized unit made a remote scan and scanned the area. Gaston accepted the link from the mechanized units and registered himself as an allied unit to keep track of all the allied units in the area.

“Adjutant, we’ve arrived at the coordinates, over,” Boris called in. Gaston looked at the clock and saw that it only took them four minutes to reach the top of that place. Then again, what did he expect from a squad of Breakers?

“Remain on standby, linked up with forces, and keep a standby until further notice.”

“Adjutant, there are traces of ichorium in the air, and our senses are reacting to the spread.”

Gaston turned on the surveillance feed of the sparrow-drone he was controlling. There were thousands of bio-signatures in the area and from the looks of how there was a faint reddish glow on the skin of the Breakers. Their bioshield was reacting, absorbing, and the bracer on their left arm was sending a data feed on him.

What is happening? Gaston observed the data, then his eyes abruptly widened. “Rook Squad, and all forces in the area. Take cover! I repeat, a critical mass spawning event is happening, I repeat, a critical mass explosion event is happening! I repeat every ground unit is advised to take cover and activate their bioshields to maximum output!”

Then without warning. The pillar of red light broke through the clouds and caused intense shockwaves. Gaston braced himself while measuring the radius of the wave.

Seven hundred twenty-one thousand six hundred fifty-four and sixty-eight hundredths, Gaston clicked his tongue. It’s a level three spawning event damn it!

Tenryū ward was entering a terrible spawning event.