USS Sable did its job wonderfully and broke most of the horde of Type-class monsters coming out of the split-realm opening. Gaston remained calm, collected, watching everything unfold with a watchful eye.

The split-realm opening caught everyone off guard, Gaston thought. But the Babaika Lions, the USS Sable, and the strike teams culled them. Breakers might be strong, fearless, and utterly reckless, but they know when to take chances at least.

Breakers were strong when fighting monsters, but they were not invincible when fighting hordes of the Type-class monsters. There are cases where Breakers with Messiah Complex would rush out, helping others, thinking it was their duty to do so. Gaston himself didn't have any problems with those kinds of Breakers. They were usually strange, and though there are cases where they go too far.

USS Sable reminded Gaston that air superiority was still the best tactic. And even though ground units are battling the horde. None of the Breakers, Mercenaries, and soldiers go out of their way to engage the Type-class monsters. The Rook Squad remained on standby, keeping a watch over monsters that might break the line of defense.

Yumina kept watch, keeping a tight grip on her multi-function weapon. Gaston soundlessly approached, sat on the stumps that they placed while Shion Jin took over. Yumina eyed Gaston carefully before placing her gaze on the waypoint device in the middle.

"You okay?"

"Gaston-san, how long has it been since you've been doing this?"

Gaston folded his arms, "About seven years, but I was in the military before this, so this is normal. Most of the time, the vehicles do the thinning, keeping the fighters safe. So if you are ever going to be part of this business, expect a lot of these. Hell, I think you are unlucky, Miss Yumina. To get this much action in your first days as a Licensed Breaker."

Her eyes wandered to the red sky, "My master and I used to hunt down Type-1 and Type-2's before. The biggest one we caught is the Type-3's. I read that some of the biggest incursions are like this."

"These incursions are mostly rare, but most of the time, your job's not going to monster-slaying," Gaston said. "Harvest the ichorium, process them, submit them, and get your pay. That's how things are in this business. You kill any of the monsters that threaten the sanctity of life. Then we use the parts we took from those monsters to kill more of them."

Yumina agreed, "Still, I admit that I have much more thoughts than this."

"Of course," Gaston placed a hand on the back of his left hand, "when you think of a profession of killing monsters, it's natural that you would think that you would be in the middle of that fighting. But unless it's an entertainment group or daredevils who are willing to put their lives on the thrill for the fight. No one's stupid enough to risk their lives fighting a horde like this. Breakers are employed, licensed, and graded by the UEDF and the Consortium. Breakers do this efficiently and professionally."

Yumina looked at the raging fire created by the fight. "This is how we do it efficiently?"

"This is."

Yumina nodded. Gaston had fantasies about this occupation, and usually, those who hold on to them did not last long either. Gaston took his eyes off Yumina for a second and focused on the AR-module. The USS Sable had a thorough clean-up of the Ward the moment of their arrival. The storming event may have been dire, but the appearance of the USS Sable proved to be the bane of the event.

[This is Constable Yu.]

Those words appeared in front of Gaston.

[Constable. What's the news?]

[We had not seen anything that may prove that the cult was involved. However, there are traces of the engines used to simulate a storming event.]

[Engines?]

[Yes, the engines found were among the debris. The strike team responsible for retrieval had identified sparticle engines alongside the unoxidized Type-class monsters that were guarding it.]

[Guarding it?]

[Semi-controlled Type-class monsters controlled through an unknown method. Upon their death, their atomic structure, which was supposed to oxidize, remained and created a blast that destroyed the sparticle engine found in the location.]

[You're telling me that they use a protective casing?]

[Same casing as the split-realm engines classified as graded four technology, and only a few who have access to them, which should make finding the culprits easier, but most of the serial numbers on the protective casing were fake.]

[I'm guessing that you couldn't identify the owner of the parts?]

[The serial number is fake, and the materials used didn't have the trademark of the known companies capable of producing the engine.]

[So you have nothing to offer then.]

[Yes. But I must inform you, Adjutant Gaston. After all, we are cooperating in hopes that we could solve this problem together.]

Constable Yu signed off. Gaston turned the interface of his AR-module off and looked at the red hell before him. With the constant bombardment finally going for a stop, the area turned into a burning wasteland covered in the corpses of the monsters that had revealed themselves.

"The Hotshots are going to have one hell of a clean-up for this," Gaston muttered. He noticed Yumina following the trail of destruction that was once a peaceful countryside. It wasn't that long when they were eating ramen after an orientation. And now they were in the scene of destruction.

Gaston took a flare from his pocket, loaded it into a flare gun, and fired it up. "This is S180003, Adjutant Hardy, reporting to the E-C that the area around the Camping Ground of my GPS location is clear, over."

"Copy that, Adjutant Hardy," the voice dispatch replied. There was a long silence over mission control for a moment. "All units are to remove any type-class monsters. I repeat that all units in the vicinity are to disperse the rest of the horde."

Accompanying the voice of mission control was the jump of a fleet of cruisers and assault ships just above the USS Sable. USS Sable covered the fleet that jumped into the area. Hundreds of ships filled with soldiers and breakers now covered Tenryū Ward airspace. It was a scene of majesty that Gaston couldn’t tire of seeing.

They were like stars that fell from the ships as they landed on the areas that were cleared. It was time for the Rook Squad to earn their pay. Gaston moved to the waypoint and took over the mission control of the Rook squad.

With the Sparrow-drone, he flew overhead, covering the squad from a bird's-eye view. “Rook Squad, clear the areas that were within your vicinity. I shall provide Overwatch, over.”

“Could have joined the fun, Adjutant,” Boris said in the comms.

“If you pay me, I might think about it.”

“Hah, Rook-1 engaging the Type-class monsters. Rook-2, Rook-3, wedge formation, ten meters apart, follow me and do as I do.”

Gaston operated the Sparrow-drone and provided an Overwatch element to the squad. He scanned for hostiles, pointed where it was, and had the team eliminate the target before they could come close to their location.

Fire and movement were their movement tactic while the use of melee doctrine repelled fast-moving monsters who could catch up to the squad in a hurry.

With the monsters thinned, the operations went smoothly. Type-1 and Type-2 monsters were not an obstacle to a three-man breaker squad. If this was a normal infantry fire team, then they would have moved slower, and weren’t as effective when dealing with the fast-moving monsters.

Gaston continued to monitor the team while watching out for the comms. It was only after a few minutes he received a communication from the Babaika Company after hours of silence.

“This is the Bridge. Do you copy Adjutant?”

“Copy, Bridge.”

“Tagging you now. Shall we take over Overwatch for you, Adjutant?”

“Affirmative, I’ll leave Overwatch on you, Bridge,” Gaston switched to another line. “Rook Squad, Bridge will take control of your Overwatch now. I’ll be monitoring your status and keep the waypoint uplink operational, over.”

“Copy, over and out. Thank you for the support, Adjutant.”

“No problem, Rook Squad. Watch your six.”

Gaston transferred mission control to the Babaika Company’s Bridge. The camping ground was still manned and defended while there were citizens who had once stubbornly insisted to stay in their homes were staying under a protective layer of shielding deployed by the mercenaries.

The soldiers from the Japanese government had started their evacuation process after seeing that the breakers, the fire teams, and the strikes teams were starting the purging operation within Tenryū Ward. Monsters still flooded many of the areas and thus the helicarrier who had done most of the purging had moved on to the following areas after dealing with the areas where the storming event had taken place.

From the comms chatter, Gaston deduced it would take at least fourteen more hours until the combined efforts of the Mercenaries and the JSDF neutralized the storming event. Gaston thought that with the amount of monster corpses, there would be a harvesting process to decide which of the mercenaries had gained merit in the operation.

***

By 0500, which was five in the morning of the next day, they had cleared Tenryū Ward from the monsters. The UEDF forces alongside the Earthside Consortium had set up a complex trap that neutralized the monster that was still coming out of the split-realm opening. Made possible by using separate rods that created a connected field of area where every monster identified by the trap would zap the monsters. It was also the time where the Babaika Lions had shown themselves to the Yamato Defense Force and the UEDF.

Only Rook Squad was present in the Ward, but most of the other Wards had the Babaika Lions taking on the lead in purging the monsters coming out of the split-realm openings. The most affected area, north of the shrine close to the camping ground, was a scene of massacre from the footage that he had gathered from the bridge and the feeds.

Described as a ghastly sight that made even the mercenaries wonder how in god’s good name the Breakers could hold the line before the appearance of the USS Sable. Misawabo Lake, the center of the storming event in that area, got turned into a dry land after the storming event that took place.

The Babaika Lions and the Strike Teams that were deployed held the line between Yasaka Shrine and the Lake. The rest of the mercenary companies retreated to a small barrier built across a stream to provide support, while the monsters from the other side of the weir crossed the river. Monsters penetrated Route 389 and Route 362, creating a situation where the ground units made the choice of abandoning a route in favor of defending one. The defenders abandoned Route 362 and let the units defending the areas of Nakakawane Nanbu to hold on the line.

They successfully defended Route 389 at the cost of abandoning Route 362. Because of the rabid defenses around Route 152 and Route 290. There was no monster spillage that cost the lives of the civilians that had retreated to the shelters. Unfortunately, not all the shelters escaped from harm.

The shelter in Misakubocho Jitogata was overwhelmed by the Type-3 monsters. By the time the local defense force could deploy a strike team, the monsters had killed the civilians that were in the shelter. The sight was ghastly enough for the recovery team to puke their guts out, and though most of them were elderly and middle-aged adults.

It was still a reminder of what happens to those who cannot defend themselves from the monsters coming out of the storming event. It made Gaston rather thankful that he was far from the massive monster horde.

Other than that unfortunate event, the storming event did not cause Type-4 to Type-5’s from being summoned, which meant that heavy-hitters like the Red Valkyrie stayed on-guard just in case a monster like that appeared. Other than that, the assault ships and cruisers started a purging run that destroyed most of the monsters populating the ward.

Gaston and the Rook Squad had finished up their clean-up duty so the rest of the Company took over, sending in the mining team in order to extract any ichorium that will recuperate the deployment cost.

Jakob greeted them as he deployed alongside the mining team, acting as the security detail. With them around, he didn’t dare to imagine anyone trying to complain.

Inside the cruiser, Yumina placed her multi-function on her lap. Gaston slung his rifle on the side, sat next to her, and asked. “So, is this how you imagined things would go?”

“It breaks some of my fantasies about the business, but if I keep getting paid, I don’t mind. Better than the bits that I was earning before.”

Yumina and Shion Jin looked tired, so Gaston left them alone.

Gaston looked at the camping ground before connecting to the encrypted line as the rear was closed. When the connection was established, Janna’s half-opened eyes were staring at him with quite an intensity.

“I received the report from the Constable. Get yourself ready, we need to make contact with the intelligence officers for this.”

“Got it.”

Though Gaston hated the idea of working beyond his contract, this was also part of the deal that he had with the UEDF.