6AM November 8th, 1587 - Dijon, Holy Roman Empire From what I have gathered, the first mention of the Beans was from Paris, in the Kingdom of France, somewhere near the beginning of the year 1587. Though I do not know the exact date of the first Bean sighting, the rumors of monsters in Paris following the spread of a mysterious disease had become commonplace by April of that year, leading to a military response in June. By then, communication from France and Spain had already ceased, and nothing more was heard from them after. We believe that the Beans were able to completely conquer the Iberian peninsula some time before April.

Dear Sofia,

Sorry to break this to you, but the Empire is definitely invading France, or at least preparing to. Don’t believe what Captain Bösch or the rest of the Empire tell you; it’s a perfectly plausible story because that’s how they designed it. And I’m not claiming that I’m uncovering some grand conspiracy, just that what they’re telling us isn’t the truth.

All the evidence points to the Empire hiding something from us. If it’s not already clear to you, then I can try to explain it one last time: the Empire has nothing to gain from helping France. If they really wanted to help France, they would be helping areas affected by the disease they’ve been struggling with. Instead, they’re holing us up in tiny farming towns along the entire length of France. If you still don’t believe me, then I’m sorry, but you’re too far gone.

It’s kind of obvious something’s up.

And even if you ask me to, I’m going to keep on worrying about you. You are my baby sister, after all. Sorry this letter is so short. There’s not much that goes on around here that’s worth talking about. But I think something big is going to happen soon, something that probably won’t be very good. I can feel it in the air.

The air warns of danger, you know.

With love,

Barry.

Schmidt watched as Sauer scratched something in his journal. He glanced at the others; Rob was sitting down, still trying to catch his breath, Jakob was listening to Captain Bösch encouraging the other soldiers, and Gladisch watched the soldiers on the wall as they shot at the monsters below, her hand on her chin.

They stood just inside the western gate, the monsters pounding against the wood, making it shutter slightly with each wet slap.

The soldiers on the wall fired cannons and muskets at the monsters, though their attacks did little to harm the increasing horde. The monsters spread to cover the other three gates into Dijon, while more arrived from the forest in the west.

Though the monster’s shells seemed soft and malleable, they were able to withstand multiple shots from a musket. The only way they had discovered to kill the monsters was with a direct hit from a cannon, which was unfortunate since most of their ammunition was sitting unused in the countryside a kilometer to the west, thanks to Captain Bösch’s plan.

The town was eerily empty, most of the civilians having evacuated east before the monsters overran the town. At least a dozen men had died in the countryside, though it was impossible to tell an exact number at that moment, leaving around eighty Empire soldiers and a few dozen French civilians in the town.

Schmidt just stood there, in front of the gate, his mind wandering through the events of the morning. Jakob was right; the monsters were clearly intelligent. They moved to block the gates too quickly, their attack in the countryside too coordinated for mindless monsters. For a moment, he considered joining the other soldiers on top of the wall, but pushed that thought out of his head.

“So,” Sauer said, looking up from his journal. “We should continue discussing those creatures.”

“We should…” Rob wheezed, interrupted by a cannon blast. “We should worry about gettin’ outta here alive… before we talk about whatever the hell those things are…”

“Yeah,” Schmidt added, “talking about them won’t do us much good if we die in ten minutes.”

“Learning more about them may lead to us finding a weakness,” Gladisch said.

“Which would help us escape with our lives,” Sauer added.

“There’s too many of them outside…” Rob said. “Even if we find out how to kill one of them, ten more would take its place.”

Schmidt nodded. “We’re not prepared for a prolonged siege since all our supplies are outside of the town. We should be thinking about how to escape, not about how to fight them.”

“How do you plan to escape if we don’t know anything about them?” Jakob asked.

Rob threw up his arms in exasperation. “Man, I thought you would’ve sided with us! How are we gonna find a weakness, though, for real? We open the gates and we’re dead. Hell, you saw how much damage one of them could do. We can’t, like, hoist one over the wall to study. We have no chance against them, we should just stay in the walls and shoot them.”

“Rob…” Jakob said. “Barry just said we aren’t prepared for a siege. What you’re describing is a siege. Do you see the issue here?”

“Shut up, man,” Rob said. Another cannon fired.

“We are getting off topic,” Sauer said. “Robert is right. We can not study them, so that means we must find a weakness based on the information we already know.”

“But we already did that!” Rob said. “What did we decide on? That they don’t have eyes, they don’t have ears… I think that’s it. What the hell are we supposed to do with that!”

Jakob put his hand on Rob’s shoulder. “Rob, you should calm down—”

Rob shook off Jakob’s hand. “Don’t tell me to calm down! Jesus Christ, man, that’s, like, the worst way to get someone to calm down! None of this should be happenin’! What the hell is going on?”

Schmidt looked at Rob. “We’re going to get out of this, Rob. Remember? We have a deal.”

“God. Guess I can’t be the one to break up the three amigos.” Rob laughed at himself.

“Yeah, uh, sure,” Schmidt replied.

Rob put his head in his hands. “Just… gimme a minute to think, ok? None of this should even be happenin’… God…”

Everyone was quiet for a moment. A cannon on the wall fired.

“Like I was saying…” Sauer began awkwardly. “We can use the information we already know to escape Dijon. This may be our only chance to discuss and learn more about them before they enter the walls and kill us. And, I hope to God not, but we may very well be the only thing between those creatures and the more populated areas to the east.”

With horror, Schmidt realized the severity of the situation the soldiers in Dijon were in. The monsters had been able to kill a dozen armed, experienced soldiers in a matter of minutes. What would happen when they moved past Dijon to a more populated area?

What would happen to Sofia when they got to Rohrdorf?

“No need to be so dramatic,” Schmidt replied.