Chapter 2

I'm just laying in bed not doing anything. Well with my left hand covered in layer upon layer of bandages, this is the best that I can do.

It has been 5 years since I was transported into this world. The world of a famous gacha game, Valkyries: Maiden of War. I played the game before but I'm just a casual player, so I don't know much about the story so much. The only thing I know about the story is that it was such a world plague by wars with millions of people dying everyday.

"Sigh~ why did my life turn into shit storm like this?"

I was just a normal guy, who just recently got accepted into college, when suddenly I was thrust into this god forsaken world. A world that is filled with wars and conflict. Sure, living in a sci-fi world with technology far exceeding my previous life is a plus but with the galactic war raging on... Well if I survived I can enjoy the world as much as I can.

"Sarge, you up?"

I looked back and saw a lady with blood red hair tied up in a ponytail. White porcelain skin with a beautiful face that can make men fall in love with her at first sight.

"Ah, Rio. How's your repair? Is everything running perfectly?"

"Ah yes they had repaired my damaged hand, it feels as good as new. But that's not important, what is important is you Sir. Is your hand okay?"

"Yeah I think it's fine. The doctor said it should recover fully after a week or two."

Rio takes a seat right beside my bed and grabs my other hand.

"I'm sorry Sarge. I failed to protect you..."

"Hey, hey, hey we don't expect to find two vampires during our mission. So don't blame yourself too much. If there is someone to blame it would be me for not being prepared thoroughly."

"No. I still fail my mission to protect you but that will never happen again."

"Like I said don't be too hard on yourself. We just got unlucky that's all."

I need to find a way to distract her from my injury.

"What happened to the others? I thought you all would be together."

"Well Tori and Rena head to the training area. They seem to be distraught after what happened, so they have been training non-stop since finishing their repair. The others were still in the middle of repairing."

Looks like I need to meet with both Tori and Rena. If I don't, they would definitely not stop their training. I tried to stand up leaving my bed when suddenly Rio grabbed my shoulder and forced me to lay back down.

"What are you thinking you're doing? You need to rest up and recuperate."

"Ah, well I need to meet up with Tori and Rena. Knowing them, they would definitely train until their servomotor jammed."

"No! Stay here, just rest up. I'll talk to them."

"You worried too much Rio, like I said I'm fi..."

"No, sit and rest."

Rio stared deep into my eyes making it hard for me to resist her plea.

"...okay I'll stay still."

"Good. Rest up okay."

In the end I just gave up. I followed what Rio had told me and slowly lay back to bed. When I think about it, I have been together with my squad since my first day on the frontline aren't we?

It has been a year since we deployed and we haven't lost even a single squad member. I say we are quite lucky.

I heard it's quite common for a new squad like ours to be wiped out. They are usually commanded by someone that is overly eager to prove themselves and quickly climb up the ranks or the one that is overtly patriotic and blinded by pride.

Well since the squad leader is the only human in a squad, on paper the casualties look manageable.

Anyway it looks like my luck is slowly running out. I need to head to logistics and request better weapons for the next mission. Rewards for the last mission plus injury pay should be enough for me to afford at least one .50 cal rifle.

***

In the training room two soldiers can be seen standing still. Not far from them a timer with the countdown slowly ticking down. As the timer reaches zero a plywood cutout with an image of Empire's ghoul soldier pops up. In an instant the plywood quickly turns into debris.

—TATATATAT!!!

—TATATATAT!!!

—BEEPPP!!!

"87% accuracy and 0.9 second reflex. That's quite good."

The trainer looks at the results with astonished looks but instead of satisfied the two soldiers have a grimace on their faces.

"No that's not enough. Can we run it again?"

"Tori, Rena that's enough."

The two soldiers quickly turned their heads and saw their squad's second-in-command, Rio walking towards them. They quickly put down their weapons and quickly give their salute to her.

"Rio, how's Sergeant's condition?"

Tori asked worriedly.

"Well, Sarge is in good condition. We are quite lucky that he only suffered minimal injury."

Both Rina and Tori, look down. Even though this is good news they don't feel happy because they fail in their mission. Rio seeing their reaction quickly act.

"Both of you, attention!!!"

Both Rena and Tori quickly stand straight on their feet.

"Listen up, We fail this time but next time it won't be the same. As much as I want both of you to train your algorithm, I want both of you to be in your top conditions to perfectly perform in our next mission."

Rio slowly walks towards the door.

"Sarge said that we don't need to blame ourselves too much, so take care of yourself a bit more."

***

It only takes about a week for my hand to be fully healed. Futuristic medical tech really is awesome. But when I remember that I will be sent back to the front again my excitement quickly evaporates.

I slowly walk toward the room with Second Lieutenant Rafzan written on the door.

—knock...knock...

"Excuse me sir, It's Sgt. Kim Hyun-woo. Reporting in."

"Come in."

After waiting for the reply from inside the room, I slowly opened the door. Inside a man in his early 30's, sitting, writing his report, looking up with serious looks. Not long after his expression quickly changed into the happy looks of neighborhood uncles.

"Hyun-woo, please come on in don't be shy. Here take a seat."

Second Lieutenant Rafzan Ilham, my direct superior and my mentor in the military. He teaches me a lot of things during my early months in the military.

"You here alone right?"

"Yes sir. It's quite hard to shake Rio off. She has been sticking close to me since the day I got injured."

2nd Lieutenant Rafzan laughed heartily.

"Hahaha!!! Well she is still young for an android, it's quite common for them to be overly zealous with their job when it's their first time experiencing failure. But they will start to cool down a bit after a while."

2nd Lieutenant then stands up and walks towards the tray of hot tea. He pours two cups of tea and gives one of them to me.

"Thank you sir."

"By the way Hyun-woo, You sure have a good relationship with your squad."

"Well I just followed your advice when I first got here. So we have been in a nice working relationship out on the field and inside."

2nd Lieutenant once advised me to always treat my squad mates as partners instead of tools that are easily discarded and replaced. He said, sure they're an android and on paper easily replaceable but on the field you always need to trust them to watch your back to survive. If you don't judge them as equal, when push comes to shove, you will ignore their advice and die.

Oh well, let's just take a small sip of the hot tea. Hah~ very refreshing.

"So why do you want to meet me, sir?"

"Oh you when straight to business. Well I already brief the other squads, so to make it simple, our next mission is to escort a small squad of Valkyries in their live fire exercise."

"...pardon?"

"We have been ordered to escort a new squad of Valkyries in their first mission."

"...this is our next? Are you certain, sir?"

"Affirmative, I have triple checked it with Major Wilson. Escort and assist the Valkyries squad in their mission. He also expects us to and I quote, 'do not fuck this up or I will make you regret you survive after returning from the mission'."

"Why doesn't the Major just order us to slowly march into the Imperial's machine gun nest? That way he can kill us much more efficiently."

"Listen up I also don't want to do this. But we don't have much of a choice."

"...Do I even be able to refuse?"

He just looks at me with a resigning smile on his face and shaking his head.