93: ath

"This should be somewhere in the Pacific, but the seawater has been evaporated... SG, if you would."

The sg radar faithfully carried out its work as the girl with lapis lazuli hair arrived at this wasteland. Although she had seen such sights in certain experimental fields, she still felt a sense of... helplessness.

Since the Commander went missing, the Meta Ship Girls had begun their move, but they soon lost connection with the space-time where the port was located.

Without a doubt, the Commander had not returned, and the situation was growing increasingly dire. However, there was no other way but to keep moving forward, searching for any possible trace of their Commander.

Night fell.

She didn't turn on her searchlight; her crimson eyes warily scanned everything in the dim light.

The SG displayed some anomalous life signs as well as some wreckage.

These life signs weren't good targets for investigation right now, so she focused her attention on the wreckage instead.

"As expected, these are the remains of a warship." She quickly moved to a high point, observing these abandoned giant creations.

"Hmm... it looks like it went through a world-shaking battle."

She stepped on something and looked down to examine it carefully; it turned out to be a fragment of rigging.

"..." With a sigh, she sat on the edge of the steep highland slope and slid down toward the wreckage, deftly avoiding obstacles and landing steadily on the ground.

The sg radar continued its scan, but there seemed to be no special discoveries.

However, she soon saw something a bit different.

In a place where her line of sight was blocked, the sg radar scanned some strange biomass.

Passing through, she saw dozens of unknown creatures... or rather, their corpses. At the end of the trail of bodies was a... tank?

The tank appeared to be destroyed, with tread marks, footprints, and crawling tracks all mixed together.

The tank's turret lay overturned to one side, looking as though it had been penetrated and its ammo rack detonated.

"What on earth is this..."

She approached the... T-34. The tank had a white camouflage pattern she had never seen before. On the side of the hull, the words "Meritorious Service" were painted in a faint white, alongside "Serve the People" in red...

("...")

Fire was still smoldering inside the tank's hull.

On one side of the tank, a new set of tread marks appeared, looking as if they had materialized out of thin air...

"Helena? Where are you?" A familiar voice came through the comms. "What happened?"

"I'm safe here, Yorktown, don't worry about me," Helena... Helena Meta replied. "This should be some abandoned experimental field, but I've found something... strange here."

"How so?"

"A T-34-85, it looks like an Eastern Radiance modified model. It's painted in a white digital camouflage I've never seen, with some inscriptions... 'Meritorious Service' and 'Serve the People'..."

Helena turned on her searchlight. On the partially blackened hull, she could vaguely see the flag of Eastern Radiance and... what looked like a blue flag with a white globe pattern radiating outward from the North Pole.

Circling to the back, she saw written on the rear: "End War with Force, Live Through Death"...

After telling all this to Yorktown, Helena's expression became somewhat grim. "Yorktown, what do you think this means?"

"You mean the Commander... right?"

"He's probably the only one who would like such a paint job. Look, the corner of the turret even has the emblem of Eastern Radiance's famous Blue Army Brigade... He should be nearby; there's a set of tread marks appearing out of nowhere leading into the distance."

"I understand. Helena, do you need me to do anything for you?"

"No need. Your situation isn't great either; leave this to me." Helena closed her eyes and cut the connection. "SG, track these tread marks."

Then, Helena broke into a jog... if such a speed could even be called a jog.

About an hour passed, and the sky seemed to brighten slightly. Looking up, she could actually see the moonlight...

In a destroyed world, one could still see the bright, flawless moon and stars that appeared clear due to the lack of atmospheric pollution. She wondered if that was a form of irony.

With these thoughts, she continued forward along the tread marks.

A short while later, she paused again, realizing she was very close to some unknown creatures.

She slowed down. Although she was confident these creatures were no match for her, she didn't want to open fire and get tangled up with them; that would only bring unnecessary trouble.

She carefully circled around, but then she found that the monsters in the vicinity were increasing in number.

"Tch."

She had to engage. The tread marks went straight through, and to avoid losing her target, she had to open fire to clear the area.

Fifteen 152mm naval guns quickly adjusted their positions, firing precision shots at the clusters of unknown creatures.

Without a doubt, the high-explosive shells, enhanced by Wisdom Cubes and Meta-fication, were incredibly powerful.

After quickly clearing the area, Helena picked up her pace.

As she expected, more unknown creatures appeared nearby. She had no desire to linger and quickly left the area.

Various monsters soon gathered nearby, then followed behind Helena, only to be cleared away by her high-explosive shells...

Clearly, some of these creatures could burrow.

A miscalculation.

Helena frowned. These things couldn't hurt her, of course, but they were a nuisance.

A burrowing creature crawled out, only to be instantly shattered by an anti-aircraft gun.

After several hours of struggle, she finally finished off the last creature.

"Damn it..."

As time passed, the tread marks might be covered by wind and sand. She hoped there was still time.

Commander, if you heard the sound of gunfire, you would surely react, wouldn't you?

Thinking this, she continued to grope forward, hoping to find some new clues.

However, it was clear that the biodiversity in this area exceeded her imagination.

Looking at the giant lifeform surging on the ground, Helena didn't know whether to classify it as a prehistoric creature or a mutant.

It looked like some kind of insect?

Without a doubt, it had discovered her, but it didn't initiate an attack. Instead, it circled her, seemingly testing for weaknesses.

Tch, its dragging body had cut off her clues.

Somewhat dissatisfied, Helena's sg radar analyzed the weaknesses of this giant creature, which was several stories high.

And... a tank?

Boom—!

The roar of a medium-caliber cannon echoed across the empty wasteland.

Accompanied by a tracer, a shell struck it square in the eye.

"Roar!" Its head reared up high as it wailed.

On a distant slope, a dark silhouette drove out.

Its color was indistinguishable in the night, but the sloped armor of the hull, the vertical turret front, and the long gun barrel remained clearly visible to her.

Tiger II.

...

...