The Eisengraf arrived at Roer's station not long after Count Rogner's order for the provincial army to stand down, facilitating the transportation of Irina Reinford to her company's headquarters.
Immediately after the success of both operations, Towa contacted the forces of the Imperial Army and RMP to move in to retake Roer. It was a chaotic night for the industrial city, while Count Rogner did order the Nortian Army to stand down, some of its forces refused and isolated conflicts sprouted in areas of the city.
There was a squad of provincial soldiers who made an attempt at storming the Reinford HQ to rescue the count but they were immediately stopped when Valimar parked himself at the building's entrance. The sight of the Ashen Knight's presence alone being enough to make the Noble Alliances' forces back away was witnessed by many of the citizens who were woken up by the mobilization and the news rapidly spread throughout the city.
With their part of the operation over, the Courageous landed at Roer's airport and the ground teams of the Crimson Wings were allowed a moment of respite at the airship before being mobilized again
"You fought a what?"
"Indeed, it was quite disturbing. But I must confess that ripping that atrocity apart felt very cathartic."
At the Courageous' cafeteria, Rean and Laura shared the events of their missions over a cup of tea. The idea of an archaism being programmed to copy the Eight Leaves One Blade was indeed insulting to Rean and he regretted not being there to destroy it himself and thanked Laura for doing so.
"It was quite the scene, I must say," said Gaius as he joined them. "I don't believe I ever heard you yell with such fury before, Laura."
"Sounds like I missed a good show," Rean said with a teasing smile that made the swordswoman blush slightly. It was just a simple result of her exertion during combat. Did she really seem that angry?
"Speaking of which, how is your arm, Gaius?" She made a poor attempt to divert the attention away from her but both Rean or Gaius let it pass.
The Nord extended his forearm, showing off the recently applied stitches where the archaism had cut him. "It's much better now thanks to Alisa's quick application of a healing Art and now I've had Linde apply the stitches, so there is nothing to fear."
"Oh, Linde, huh?" Rean asked with curiosity.
"Yes, she's been assisting the ship's doctor and he has taught her some basic procedures. But I'm sure that's not your line of inquiry, is it, Rean?"
"Nope."
"Alright, since you're curious. We used the opportunity to clear the air between us, I once again apologized for sending the wrong message and she as well for the awkwardness that ensued. Things are fine between us now, as friends."
"Well, that is good to hear, Gaius," said Laura.
"You should've brought that robot's head on a platter for Rean as a souvenir! It sounded so cool, Instructor Sara told me all about it!" Millium shouted out, joining to sit with them as well, accompanied by her stuffed bear under her arm. "See, I got myself something from our trip. His name is Mister Toodles."
"I see, he's very adorable." But not as cute as Mishy.
Rean turned to Millium, looking at her stuffed bear with incredulity. "Were you serious when you said Chancellor Osborne gave that to you?"
"Yep, Gramps gave it to me after my very first mission," Millium responded merrily.
"The Blood and Iron Chancellor?"
"Mhm hmm! He said he personally chose it and I know he was telling the truth because later I tracked his movements back to the store just to be sure he wasn't lying. Teehee, the store clerk in Heimdallr was still freaked out that Gramps walked in there to buy a gift!"
"How… peculiar," said Laura. It was harder to accept that the chancellor went out of his way to buy the toy than to believe Millium used her skills to know its origins.
"Why are you all acting so weird about it?" Millium tilted her head in genuine confusion at the inquiries. "Do you guys have a problem with Mister Toodles!?"
"No, Millium, of course not. It's just that it's difficult to reconcile the image of Chancellor Osborne as someone who would give you such a gift," Gaius explained. "He has always been regarded as a cold, ruthless pragmatic."
"Aw but that's just how he is because of politics, behind closed doors he was always nice to me and the other Ironbloods. I mean, he gave us all these important jobs, he was always asking how we were doing and he always listened to me talking for hours about my missions."
With the way Millium said, the others felt that "listening to her for hours" was not an exaggeration. Even the most patient among them could handle the girl for so long (surprisingly it was Jusis) and the fact that the late chancellor could actually stand her was nothing short of astonishing. It painted a much different image of the man.
"So when you call him gramps it's not just because he's old," said Rean, thoughtfully, drawing a somewhat sad conclusion from what Millium was saying.
"No but also yes? He was the one always watching out for me since I don't have parents but he was too old to be a dad so Gramps fit him better," the girl said without missing her bouncy attitude.
"I see… I'm really sorry, Mllium," Rean put a hand on her shoulder and the others offered similar words with a somber tone.
Millum looked around like everyone had grown a second head. "What's up with you guys, why are you all sad all of a sudden?"
"We're offering our condolences," said Laura and Rean followed it up.
"You just talked about the chancellor like he was your family, so only now we realized how much he meant to you. It must've been rough dealing with it all this time, sorry we didn't notice sooner."
"Oh don't worry about it, it's fine," she shrugged.
Rean couldn't have heard that right. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It sucks that Gramps got killed but that's how it is with politics and espionage and stuff. You can't afford to get sad and cry the whole time. Hmm, now that I think of it I don't think I've ever cried before, what is that like?"
That was disconcerting to hear and the three older teens looked at each other lost for words. Millium had always been so cheerful that, despite being an intelligence operative, they thought she was relatively well adjusted. She and Altina were more alike than Rean had first thought.
Before anyone could question Millium further, however, Towa's voice echoed from the speakers, announcing that the Crimson Wings' ground team should report to the bridge to begin preparations for the second phase of their operation: the assault on the Schwarz Drache Barrier.
The Crimson Wings united with Angelica's allies and Gwyn Reinford in their hideout and true to the Rogner girl's words, it was a small unit. Too small, in fact, one had to wonder what they expected to accomplish with a couple of armored cars and three soldats. "It was a work in progress," Angelica replied nonchalantly when that was pointed out. "Not that it matters anymore, we got the RMP and the Imperial Army on our side and, of course, Valimar over here. What else do we need?"
They were on the Courageous deck as the ship made its way to their objective, following along the land vehicles from the Imperial government's forces. It was still a small force, they didn't have the time to amass more men as it was important to avoid giving the Nortian Army time to properly retaliate. They hadn't planned on relying on only sheer force however, the expectation was to negotiate a surrender with Marquis Rogner, with Count Rogner under their custody and Valimar's presence as their bargaining chips.
Alisa and Sharon stayed back in the city to assist Irina with retaking the reins of the company. In the short month that Count Rogner called the shots he had made a complete mess of things, he had fired or demoted many of Reinford's commoner employees and filled those positions with his closer (and less competent) allies, and he was in the process changing much of the company's structure with no seeming rhyme or reason.
"Changing things for the sake of it, so it looks like he did something important," Alisa had called it.
The reunion between her and her mother wasn't as heartwarming an event as one might expected, partially due to the chairwoman's natural aloofness but also because Alisa restrained herself from any overt emotional demonstrations. Instead, after brief greetings, Alisa offered her assistance with her work and Irina raised an eyebrow in a show of surprise before accepting the offer. It might've seemed cold but Rean knew what it was, she was speaking to her mother at her level, putting emotions aside for the sake of business to get to her mother. It was oddly comforting to him that his words from months ago had stayed with her.
Three quarters of their way to the military fortification, an emissary from the provincial army was met by their ground troops and delivered a comuniqué addressed to the Crimson Wings. The letter, penned by Marquis Rogner himself, stated bluntly that he would surrender if Angelica could convince him in combat with panzer soldats between the two.
It was insane, illogical, bullheaded and what to be expected of the man who raised Angelica Rogner. The two might not see each other eye to eye on a lot of things but they were still father and daughter.
Angelica's reaction was actually tamer than expected, just a click of her tongue and a "sure" was muttered as she immediately made her way to the cargo hold to get on her panzer soldat.
"Do you want a hand?" Rean asked as he caught up to her.
"I doubt this is a trap from my father, but if you could keep an eye out for any soldiers trying anything funny, I'd appreciate it. Besides that, don't interfere," she cracked her knuckles. "This is something I've wanted to do for a long time."
Angelica and Marquis Rogner met at the front of the Schwarz Drache Barrier, both in their personal panzer soldats, hers a standard Spiegel and his a Hector model painted in the purple of House of Rogner, which made Angelica make a mental note of painting hers as well. Both stood alone but their respective allies were watching the events with close eyes from the military fortress and the Courageous hovering above them, with Rean already inside Valimar, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.
"So you've come, Angelica."
"I wouldn't miss the chance to wipe the floor with you for the world, father."
There was a pregnant pause as both stared down at each other and the onlookers held in their breaths in anticipation. Then Angelica's soldat burst forward, closing in the distance between them in a matter of seconds, and her father braced for impact. The Spiegel's fist connected with the Hector's arm, the bulky armor taking most of the force, then Angelica delivered another attack then another, launching into a flurry of punches that left almost no openings for the marquis to counter attack.
Instead, the Hector's pilot decided to use the soldat's weight in his favor and threw himself at Angelica, forcing her to back off and creating an opening for him to swing its heavy arm at her. He missed by a hair, but now Angelica was more wary of her opponent.
"It seems you've managed to familiarize yourself well with the soldat in just a few weeks," the marquis said with begrudging respect for his daughter.
"Well, sure, I didn't have the privilege of knowing about the panzer soldats beforehand and the time to practice with my own private one like certain people, but I'm managing."
Gerhart let out a grunt in response to his daughter's snark but had no rebuttal, no verbal one at least, and he went straight for the offensive, throwing the Hector's entire weight against his opponent. Angelica knew the bulkier soldat could pin hers down if she allowed it so she avoided allowing him getting too close to her while sneaking in a punch here and there.
She had to give it to her father, at least he knew how to fight and put himself out there, unlike the rest of the Noble Alliance's top dogs, safely in their mansions and personal airships, sipping tea and playing dictator while people fought and died for them. But somehow that only pissed her off more.
With her father right in front of her, Angelica pretended to back away from him, pulling the Spiegel's right leg back, just for it to launch itself with a flying knee strike that caught the marquis by surprise, making him lose balance and fall on his back.
"Aha! Take that, old man!" She couldn't help herself, she had to gloat. "Since we're here having some good ol' bonding time between father and daughter, how about we have a chat? Tell me, was it worth it betraying the Emperor and lying in bed with snakes like Cayenne and Albarea? All of that because you couldn't handle losing a little bit of power? Oh Aidios forbid such transgression!"
"Watch your mouth, young lady! You have no idea of what you speak of."
Angelica approached the fallen soldat, stomping on one of its arms to pin her father down. "Oh then excuse me, your lordship. What did I exactly get wrong?"
"Osborne was attacking the very foundation of our country, the authority of the noble families is what has kept us strong for centuries! It is not simply about power but our inherent duty to this nation that compelled us to act as we did. I will admit that some of his policies were beneficial to Erebonia but his so-called progress would lead to the destabilization of Erebonian society. Without a strong class system, with any commoner being able to buy their way into power, what's to stop anyone from taking the reins of the country for their own gain? Look at Liberl and their defanged nobility and how a upstart commoner in their army tried to take over the country."
"You mean just like you're doing right now?"
"When this is over-"
Angelica barked a laugh. "Over! You think it'll be over after you defeat the Imperial Army? Do you honestly think your duke buddies are just going to what? Bow out once the party's over? I can say many things about you, father, most of them unkind, but calling you naïve isn't one of them."
"We shall cross that bridge when we get there," Marquis Rogner bristelled under his daughter's words because he knew she was right. "I did what was necessary to establish order back to this country. My responsibility as an Erebonian noble, a concept you never understood!"
"My responsibi- Fuck you!" Those words set off a fire inside Angelica and, enraged, Angelica kicked her father's soldat. "What were my responsibilities again? Oh right, popping out heirs for some douchebag you arranged for me! Speaking of which, where is mother during all of this, no wait, let me guess, she's at home getting drunk and depressed like she's been for the past two decades! Is that the future you think I deserve!?"
Another kick.
And just like that, the argument had crossed over from the war to personal matters and Angelica's bravado had turned into angry, frustrated yelling. With her ragged breath and flushed face, Angelica realized how easily she had allowed her emotions to get the best of her and attempted to get her composure back. Not a good look, gotta get back on track.
"You talk a lot about responsibilities and duties but what messed up version of noblesse oblige is this where you send the country to Gehenna, huh? The lord of the land is supposed to care about the populace but instead you just threw everyone's lives into utter chaos. People are living in fear and uncertainty because of what you did, not only in Nortia but the entire country, so don't you dare talk to me about duty when that led you to do more damage to this country than Osborne could ever hope to!"
"It astounds meto hear you act so concerned about any other person besides yourself!" The marquis shouted out in anger as well. "Or is that just what you are telling yourself now?"
"Huh? What's that supposed to-" Angelica hesitated and, distracted by her father's words, didn't react fast enough as the Hector lifted its pinned down arm along with her Spiegel and threw her in the air. The soldat fell back on the ground with a loud thud and its pilot felt her world being rocked as the Spiegel's internal systems alerted her of the impact. Attention collision? Yeah, no shit.
"You've never… cared about anything but yourself," Gerhart grunted and he pulled on the controls for his soldat to lift itself up. Not a most graceful show for the bulky panzer soldat but he managed to pull through just as his daughter regained her bearings. "Beyond the arranged marriages, beyond my attempts to raise you into a proper woman of the nobility, you've cried, moaned and whined about every single sense of duty I've ever tried to instill in you!"
The Hector rushed for its more nimble counterpart and shoulder checked her just as Angelica managed to pull herself up, almost making her fall again.
"You've ignored the teachings of every tutor I sent for you, that is when you wouldn't outright flee the premises of our home to avoid their lessons, embarrassing our family in the process. You blew off every invite to accompany me on inspections across the province. The only reason you've ever bothered learning court etiquette was to woo other women. Then one day you disappeared without notice and I was beside myself, believing you to have been kidnapped, but months later you appeared on our doorstep like nothing had happened, saying learned to practice Taito of all things! Sending you to Thors was the last ditch effort to get you to learn anything and you even managed to use that as another selfish act of rebellion."
The marquis threw punch after punch against his daughter and between the assault and her father's words, she could barely keep up. Angelica tried to counter but her father blocked the attack and delivered a blow against the Spiegel's left shoulder.
"You may criticize my methods but I was acting with the best interests of the nation in mind, at least I took my duty as a noble with the gravitas that it deserves, so don't you dare try to lecture me about noblesse oblige, a concept that has crossed your mind before. You were supposed to be the future of the Nortia Province and House Rogner, but you've dodged your responsibilities and concerned yourself with your own self indulgence instead!"
"Shut u-"
Angelica took a punch center square to the chest of her soldat, shaking her cockpit. Another punch struck her, this time on her soldat's left arm. The Hector's heavy appendage descended, hammering against the Spiegel until its joints started to give out.
"Shit!" Angelica raised her soldat's right leg and kicked her father's soldat to push herself away from him.
She scrambled to try to get the Spiegel up again just to realize the left arm was dead and useless. Her father came rushing at her immediately, attempting to crush her under the heel of his soldat but she managed to roll away from the lumbering giant.
By this point she should've put her father in his place, saying something along the lines of "It seems you've managed to make me break a sweat, but it's time to end this," but instead she was running ragged, with a splitting headache and incredibly frustrated at her father and herself, and not just because of the physical aspect of the fight.
From the deck of the Courageous, inside Valimar, Rean watched the fight apprehensively. Sure, the two weren't on the best of terms, but Marquis Rogner wouldn't actually kill his daughter, right? He had promised to not interfere for Angelica's sake but if things took a turn for the worst, even by accident, well, screw Angelica's honor in combat. He wouldn't let one of his friends die.
Angelica's saving grace was that her father was feeling more fatigued than her and it made him slow enough to act, so she managed to get her soldat up on two legs again even with a lame arm. But now what? Her soldat was damaged and she was not in a good headspace at the moment.
Right now that doesn't matter, I can't lose here, not like this, not to him. If I fail, everyone else will have to fight against the army. Fuck, Master Kilika, what do I do?
As her father approached, Angelica stepped back, running through every lesson she had learned from her Taito teacher. She tried another tentative pull of the left lever to no avail. It gave her an idea.
Well, it's not exactly the same as fighting with kali sticks but it'll do.
Without ceremony, the Spiegel took a hold of its useless, broken arm and pulled it off. "Alright, old man, round two."
The action took Gerhart by surprise and he was stunned for a fraction of a second, time enough for Angelica to come at him at full speed and slam her improvised weapon on the head of the Hector, smashing its left eye. The marquis reacted, trying to swat away at the severed soldat arm but Angelica pulled back then hit him again, this time on the side of the soldat's torso, shaking its cockpit.
Metal bent and twisted and pieces of the arm flew off as Angelica hit her target with reckless abandon. It wasn't the most durable weapon one could ask for but there was no other use for it, so she might as well go out. Her Spiegel was faster, her opponent was blind on one side and now she had the advantage of being able to attack her father outside his reach.
The marquis threw a punch, she dodged it and raised her soldat's arm for an attack aiming at the Hector's other eye and her father raised the Hector's right arm to block the incoming strike but it was a feint. Angelica instead propelled her Spiegel forward, changing her strategy of keeping her distance and catching her father by surprise. She tackled her opponent, throwing both of them on the ground then hammered at the soldat's head with her fist, crushing it into scrap metal.
With no visual anymore, Gerhart flailed in the dark, trying to get his daughter off of him but hit empty air as she had quickly disengaged from him.
"It's over, father. You've lost," Angelica said, out of breath.
The Hector's arms lifted up tentatively but soon the marquis gave up, it was no use. Even if he could lift his soldat up, there was no way for him to continue fighting without being able to see anything. "Very well, I am a man of my word. I accept defeat."
Marquis Rogner picked the radio inside the cockpit, ordering his forces stationed in the Schwarz Drache Barrier to surrender, as well as that they relay the order to the rest of the Nortian Army to cease hostilities.
The crew of the Crimson Wings cheered when they heard it. They had actually done it, they had taken a meaningful step in ending that war, delivering a major blow to the Noble Alliance.
"Angelica, what you've said, that the lord of the land is meant to care for its people, do you truly believe that?" Said the marquis, his voice tired but not despondent as one would've expected.
Angelica exhaled and all strength seemed to leave her body with that breath as her hands let go of the controls of the Spiegel. "I…"
"IT AIN'T OVER UNTIL I SAY IT'S OVER!"
A loud, roaring voice boosted by a panzer soldat's speakers echoed from the Schwarz Drache Barrier and a behemoth of a soldat, so massive that instead of legs it used propulsor jets to move itself, like a crossbreed between a tank, an airship and a soldat. The giant came flying out of the military fortress and descended with a thunderous fall that cracked the ground and shook Angelica and her father's soldats like they were toys.
"Jaeger, what is the meaning of this? I have ordered all forces to lay down their weapons and that includes you," Gerhart retorted in fury.
"I ain't workin for ya. I was just hanging out, waiting for something interesting to happen and here it is! Come on out, Ashen kid!" The man demanded, pointing upwards at the Courageous.
Rean recognized that voice, it was Vulcan. He felt his friends looking up to him, expecting his response. There was no time to dawdle.
"Rean, be care-" Laura's words were interrupted as Valimar burst up into the air then went straight for Vulcan's position.
The jaeger leader barked a laugh and fired a salvo of bullets from the mounted machine gun on the back of his Goliath class soldat. Valimar banked left to avoid the enemy fire and his thrusters flared up, propelling him faster and with a swing of his sword, sliced the mounted gun.
"Aha! Good one, kid!" Not bothered one bit, Vulcan turned his soldat around to face Rean.
"I thought jaegers were supposed to abide by their clients orders. Battle's over, Vulcan."
"Good thing I ain't a jaeger anymore," the Goliath's thrusters lifted it up from the ground and it rushed forward but it was too slow and Rean easily dodged the attempted tackle. "Just a big ol' terrorist now."
Vulcan's speech was slurred, a mixture of anger and drunkenness. Combined with how reckless he was being and the little sense he was making, Rean was unsure as to how to even engage with that. Beating up a drunk man was not what one could consider a fair fight.
He took a defensive stance, wary of the jaeger's next movements.
"Heeey, come on, kid. Fight me, come on!"
"The hell is wrong with you, the fighting is over! You gain nothing by doing this, stand down."
A sizable blade appeared from an opening on the Goliath's forearm and Vulcan swung it at his quarrel. Valimar jumped back and dodged the haphazard assault as Rean waited for the right moment to strike back, still confused by the terrorist's behavior.
The Goliath's arm swung down and Valimar sidestepped the attack, the blade lodging itself on the hard rock ground, and Rean followed it up with a Helix strike through its elbow joint that severed the arm.
"Alright, we're done he-" Rean narrowly dodged a punch Vulcan threw with the Goliath's remaining arm. "Hey, quit it!"
"This isn't over until I get what I want from you!" A plate slid out of the Goliath's left forearm and a gatling gun sprung up.
Vallimar ran across the field while taking care to not lead the Goliath's sights and incoming fire towards the direction of his allies. While that was going on, Angelica had leapt out of her soldat and ran towards her father's, helping him out.
What does this guy want from me?
"Come on, Schwarzer. You're the one with a beefed up killing machine, you're the only one who can do it!" Vulcan let out a crazed laugh that felt forced to those who heard. "Ain't got nothing else for me, might as well go out with a bang, right!?"
"I'm tellin' ya, Scar, that kid could be the one to do it, you know?"
"His spark is gone."
"Some people can only fly so high."
"He's gonna be the one to do it."
At that moment, Rean made a dark realization about Vulcan's behavior that sent shivers up his spine.
"Are you crazy!?"
The gatling gun retracted back to the Goliath's arm and its thrusters burst to life as Vulcan attempted to rush Rean once again. At first Valimar met him head on and both seemed to ready to collide with each other, but at the last moment Rean's engaged only Valimar's left thruster and the Divine Knight spun in the air, letting the Goliath pass him by, and delivered a heavy blow on the back of its bulky legs.
The landing of the Goliath made the earth rumble and Rean sighed in relief after it tried and failed to maintain altitude. It seemed he had managed to damage its levitation mechanism.
"I'm not going to fulfill your sick death wish."
Vulcan baughed bitterly. "Don't be a spoilsport, Schwarzer. We are warriors, this is what we do. We fight, we kill, we die!" Another mounted weapon popped up from the Goliath's back, a missile launcher that spun around looking for its target then fired six projectiles at Valimar's direction.
The Divine Knight raised his arms, blocking three of the missiles and the others missed their mark as Rean immediately engaged Valimar's thrusters for evasive maneuvers, the stray missiles hitting the fortress.
Rean ignored the burning in his arms and charged once again just as Vulcan was reading his gatling gun for another salvo of bullets and he sliced the mounted weapon off the soldat's arm. He then pressed on and stabbed Valimar's sword through the Goliath's head, eliminating Vulcan's sight of the battlefield.
"Now it's over," Rean mumbled, talking more to himself than to his opponent.
But somehow the Goliath kept on undeterred and it slowly turned itself around with its bulky legs. "Nah, I ain't rotting in some prison cell. Wanna know of the main features of the Goliath model, Schwarzer? Redundant systems!"
Secondary thrusters sprouted from the bulky soldat's back, lifting it up, while auxiliary cameras on its torso kept Vulcan aware of his surroundings.
"Like I said, it ain't over. And if this isn't enough encouragement for ya, kid…"
Vulcan launched another salvo of missiles that forced Rean to jump away to protect himself and Valimar, but the projectiles instead hit the ground in front of them, lifting up a cloud of debris that blocked Rean's view. A swing of the sword in Valimar's hand dispelled much of the dust and smoke in the air and Rean expected Vucal to be rushing at him but instead the Goliath was moving to another direction: towards Angelica and her father, who had been trying to distance themselves from the battlefield.
Rean's heart sank at the sight as the Goliath's secondary thrusters engaged in their maximum output, Vulcan screaming madly as he rushed to crush his targets. "Maybe this will light a fire on ya!"
"Dad!" In a gesture that would be unthinkable for anyone who knew Angelica, including the girl herself, she put her arms around her father and used her body to protect him. Not that it would make any difference.
"No!"
Valimar darted across the field at top speed and intercepted the Goliath with the tip of his sword right before it crushed the Rogners, ramming it through the soldat's armor, pushing it and its pilot away until the giant was pinned against the rocky face of a nearby mountain.
"Yeaaah, that's the stuff," Vulcan groaned as the dust around the two started to settle.
"Stop. Just… stop," Rean pleaded as he pulled the sword from the Goliath. The blade hadn't managed to stab through the entirety of the soldat's body, the tip shattering upon impact, but the force of the collision caused massive damage to its armor, crumpling the Goliath's torso.
Vulcan coughed and choked as his panzer soldat's slumped on the ground, unmoving. "S-sorry about that, kid. This was mighty selfish of me but…" He coughed and Rean could picture the blood coming out of the man's mouth. Even through the loud speakers it was hard to hear what he was saying. "Couldn't go on anymore. Job done, bastard's dead, nothing… nothing else to keep me going. Gonna… see my men now, all of us together… In Gehenna…"
As Rean stared at the now dead panzer soldat, smoke and fire flowing out of its armored shell signaling the end of all sound and fury of the battles that had happened that day, his mind wandered. Most of the Imperial Liberation Front members had deserted after Osborne's death, the ones who stayed did so out of a sense of duty or were like Vulcan, he realized. The former jaeger wasn't simply ready to die, he had nothing else to live for and thus actively sought it out.
What about Crow?