No… I can't think like that…

Whatever happens, I have to give this everything I have. It's not just me here—there are others as well!! If I run away now, then their deaths will be on me!!

And if I stay and fight until my final breath… then even if I fail, at least they will know they were never abandoned… and I won't carry that guilt…

"Everyone!!" the captain shouted through the comms.

"I know the situation is not optimistic!! The enemy is too strong, their equipment far superior, and despite all our efforts, our progress has been minimal while the losses have been enormous!! We lost almost half our people right at the start…"

"But despite all of that—we cannot give up!!"

"We have to try everything!! Even if it fails, we still have to try!!"

"Look ahead!!"

He pointed toward the knight mechs that, despite being pushed back repeatedly and suffering damage, still stood firm against the abnormal crimson mech and its terrifying pilot.

From the look of it, they had already achieved something incredible simply by holding the line this long…

"So let us fight with everything we have!! Who knows… maybe there will be a miracle!!"

Hearing those words, the hopeless eyes of the remaining soldiers surged once more with newfound vigor and determination.

They nodded their heads firmly.

"Yes, Commander!!"

Regrouping themselves, they charged toward the crimson mech once again—prepared to fight until their final breath with every ounce of strength they could muster.

In their minds, only one side would survive this battle:

Either them…

Or the human.

On another part of the battlefield, something equally incredible was happening!!

The Alpha Group, which had broken through and charged deep into the Hegemony fleet's mechanical fortress 4th Wing, had completely split apart the Hegemony mech troops…

Attacking them from both the front and the rear at the same time, they rapidly accelerated the collapse of the Hegemony forces there!!

And even though the Hegemony forces tried their best to reinforce the wing, it wasn't helping them at all…

Instead, their own mechanical fortress—which had now practically become drifting space scrap—had turned into a shield for the human 4th Battle Fleet!!

Using the ruined fortress structure as cover, the human forces forced the numerically superior Hegemony fleet to lose coordination between their units, stripping away the one true advantage they possessed.

As a result, the Hegemony troops began suffering massive casualties instead of the other way around…

But while things looked disastrous for them, it wasn't as though they had made no progress at all.

Realizing they couldn't easily take down the human mechs hiding behind and within the remains of the mechanical fortress—which acted as cover against their attacks—they shifted their focus toward the human units fighting farther away from the fortress…

Those mechs had no cover protecting them at all.

They began attacking these human mechs in coordinated groups, and soon a new development started to occur!!

For the first time, they successfully destroyed the "turtle shell" shields surrounding one of the human mechs and relentlessly hammered down its powerful outer armor until almost nothing remained of it!!

Through nonstop long-range kinetic and energy bombardment, they finally pushed the mech into a desperate situation.

Knowing the human mech had now become like a cornered rabbit, none of them wanted to approach it too closely.

At this point, getting near it felt like a death wish…

And just as the last remaining layer of armor was consumed beneath the relentless attacks, the human mech—under its pilot's control—suddenly rushed directly toward the much larger group of Hegemony mechs firing at it from afar!!

Inside the cockpit, the pilot himself had also suffered considerable injuries.

Even while protected within the mech, the constant impacts and violent collisions from being overwhelmed and thrown around by enemy attacks had taken their toll on him.

Blood trickled down from his forehead, and his expression looked visibly drained…

Anyone could tell the battle had already taken a heavy toll on him.

Warnings flashed continuously before his eyes as he saw his mech's integrity dropping close to fifty percent, while most of its major systems had already suffered severe damage and become inoperable.

Knowing this was the end, he deliberately charged toward the swarm of enemy mechs while inputting the self-destruction sequence after first confirming that his emergency teleportation equipment was functioning perfectly…

Feeling slight emotion knowing the mech he had spent months with would meet its end here, he couldn't help but feel bitter.

"Don't worry, buddy… this won't be your true end. Even if your body perishes, your core will stay with me. I promise I'll build you again—and even stronger…"

Saying that, the black-haired boy pressed the red button.

Immediately, the miniature fusion arc reactor inside the mech began overloading!!

At the same time, the black-haired boy—along with a dark orb-like object held tightly in his hand—vanished from the cockpit.

Just in time.

Moments later, the heavily damaged mech directly rammed itself into a clustered formation of Hegemony mechs before detonating—

BOOM!!!

A miniature white sun erupted across the battlefield, instantly consuming nearly every mech caught within the blast radius!!

Only a few barely survived thanks to extremely quick reflexes and emergency defensive measures.

And when the explosion finally cleared…

Out of the original sixty mechs present there, barely eighteen remained visible.

Several of them were heavily damaged, while the rest had flickering or shattered shields.

But before they could even stabilize themselves, the other mechs from Alpha Squad instantly took advantage of the opening and unleashed dense pulse and plasma fire toward the unprepared Hegemony survivors!!

The attack dealt a devastating blow.

Meanwhile, the remaining enemy mechs scattered throughout the battlefield were rapidly hunted down one by one by Alpha Squad with merciless efficiency before they quickly moved to support their commander—

The pilot known as the Crimson Lord.

Who, surprisingly to many, was actually being pushed back by barely forty surviving enemy mechs…

Yet those same forty had neither retreated nor paused, even after watching their comrades repeatedly fall beneath the crimson mech's attacks.

With utmost focus, they relentlessly continued attacking Crimson Star with everything they had, surprising the Crimson Lord greatly.

So much so that the leisure and arrogance he previously carried had been completely washed away. Even he now focused entirely on the fight without daring to lose concentration or let his arrogance run wild anymore…

At one point, after managing to take down another ten mechs over the span of nearly five minutes, Crimson Star's main shields—which had endured countless attacks until now—finally collapsed not long after the auxiliary shield units were destroyed!!

Seeing this, the Hegemony Fleet's 3rd Wing 10th Division Elite Squadron reacted like hungry hyenas spotting prey whose defenses had finally broken apart.

With renewed bloodlust, they charged toward Crimson Star!!

And even though their numbers had already suffered heavily, instead of the pressure on Crimson Lord decreasing, it only intensified to another level…

Real damage finally began mounting on Crimson Star.

Even though Crimson Lord was doing his absolute best to avoid incoming attacks, he had now shifted from pure offense into a constant balance between offense and defense just to create breathing room for himself…

Still, under his control, Crimson Star continued weaving through enemy formations despite being outnumbered over thirty to one.

With every passing moment, he created openings amidst the overwhelming pressure and ruthlessly took advantage of them—

Blinking behind enemy mechs to stab through them from the rear…

Or directly firing armor-piercing rounds from his back-mounted cannons to destroy opponents instantly.

At other times, he deliberately faked his movements to create openings and fully take advantage of the enemy formations!!

As he slowly thinned their numbers, the pressure on him eased slightly. But Crimson Star, having taken massive amounts of damage over the last few minutes, had suffered visible declines in overall performance, causing Crimson Lord increasing trouble.

Because of that, instead of fully capitalizing on opportunities, he occasionally fell into disadvantageous situations instead… 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

But thankfully, after cleaning up the battlefield around them, his allied forces finally arrived to support him, allowing him to break free from the dangerous predicament.

Otherwise… he truly would have suffered heavily.

Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, another human squad—under the forceful charge of the fleet—broke straight through the central point of the defensive field created by the Hegemony forces!!

Backed heavily by support fire, they rushed directly toward the Hegemony fleet lines.

The Hegemony forces immediately attempted to surround the advancing human units from three directions while their fleet in the rear also provided suppressive bombardment…

But as if the humans had already anticipated this exact move—

They continued charging forward while skillfully evading the incoming fleet fire support, which was itself quickly suppressed from behind by the 4th Battle Fleet under Crown's command overview!!

With terrifying synchronization, each human mech dove into swarms of Hegemony forces, and with every movement they brought down multiple enemy units.

One strike took down several mechs.