The Dying Wish of a Certain ECHO
"Commence combat—!"
As the zombies began to appear in the distance, I signaled the ECHOs and shouldered the White Tiger.
Tatatatang! Tang! Tatang!
I aimed calmly and pulled the trigger.
Having grown accustomed to it, shooting zombies felt like nothing now.
The AP-5 armor-piercing incendiary rounds modified by Karen lived up to their name, tearing through the zombies' hides like sheets of paper and exploding inside, reducing them to bloody rags.
[Kuaaaaagh—!]
[Kaaaaagh!!]
Those with low endurance, like Runners or Crawlers, were taken out in a single shot.
Screamers, which gathered surrounding zombies through their shrieks, could be put down with two precise hits.
And then...
Thump! Thump!
"It's a Brute!!"
"Brute at three o'clock!"
The Brute—a biological tank capable of tearing through concrete walls, and even tanks or armored vehicles, as if they were paper.
"I'll handle it!"
Tang! Tatang! Tang! Tang!
Against this thing, I had to land exactly seven shots on its vital points, more than initially estimated.
Even after taking a hit to the head that blew away a portion of its skull, the creature merely flinched before charging at us again. For a brief moment, a chill ran down my spine.
"Quite a payout."
Still, taking it down netted me exactly 1100C.
If I controlled the distance right and focused my firepower, it was truly delicious prey.
"As expected of the Commander! Your marksmanship is truly incredible?!"
"Pomen, stop chatting. Focus on the front."
At Arva's reprimand, Pomen pouted and thrust the Queen's Calamity forward.
Tututu—!
Every time her Exclusive Weapon spat fire, the charging Runners were literally turned into mush and became a bloody pulp.
Tang! Tatang!
Karen Blaze and Madeline, armed with large-caliber pistols, were also bravely cutting down the oncoming zombies one by one.
...I'm glad I prepared Pomen's exclusive weapon.
The number of zombies descending from the mountain was far greater than I had anticipated.
Even with plenty of AP-5 Ammunition, if our firepower had been mediocre in the absence of the Cerberus Squad?
We would have allowed the zombies to close in and likely been surrounded in an instant.
And if that had happened, it would have turned into a grueling battle.
There was a reason people were so obsessed with firepower. Firepower was god; firepower was invincible.
Tutututututu!!
"Die! Die—! Die—!!"
Regardless, with Pomen's overwhelming firepower backing us up, the hordes of zombies rushing toward the noise were nothing more than good experience points and a lucrative source of cash.
"What about the Cerberus Squad?"
"There is no contact yet, but according to the operation, they should be taking a wide detour around the ridge."
The ridge...
Podic was likely running wild in that outer flank.
"Then that means we have to buy a bit more time?"
"That is correct, Commander."
I nodded at Arva's report.
Only if we drew as much aggro from the general units as possible here could the Cerberus girls, who had infiltrated the rear, easily assassinate the special units—especially the commander variants of the zombie horde.
"Then shall we put in a bit more effort?"
"Please be careful, Commander."
"I know. And if I get into danger, well, Arva can just protect me."
Giving Arva a grin, I readjusted my grip on the White Tiger.
I had to earn cash anyway. I might as well make the most of this.
Tututu!
Bang! Tatatang!
There were a few dangerous moments when zombies swarmed in waves, but we advanced without issue, slaughtering them without a pause.
It was then.
"Huh?! Commander! Two o'clock ahead! A—a survivor!"
At Madeline's urgent shout, I immediately turned my gaze in that direction.
Near a half-broken tree trunk, someone was desperately making their way toward us.
A girl...?
She wasn't human.
In the first place, there was no way an ordinary girl would be alone in this hellhole teeming with zombies.
Furthermore, her movements were far too agile to be human.
Above all, the equipment she wore was not a weight a human girl could handle.
"...A mass-produced ECHO."
“It is a SCOUT-106.”
Arva recited her identification code.
A mass-produced ECHO intended for reconnaissance and small-scale skirmishes, the kind commonly seen in the game.
However, because their firepower was poor, they were not deployed alone or in large-scale operations; they were, quite literally, close to expendables.
But why was such an ECHO alone in a place like this?
The question lasted only a moment before I saw a Runner about to pounce on her from the tree behind her.
"—!"
Without a moment's hesitation, I raised the White Tiger.
Baaaaaaaang!!
A single gunshot.
The AP-5 Ammunition leaving my rifle struck the Runner precisely between the eyes and exploded, turning it into meat chunks.
"Kyaah?!"
Startled by the sudden gunshot, the mass-produced ECHO collapsed on the spot.
She stared blankly for a moment, unable to grasp the situation as she looked at the shattered corpse of the Runner lying beside her, then spotted us and began to stagger toward us.
"SCOUT-106, survival confirmed. It is thanks to the Commander... thank you."
Having narrowly escaped death, the mass-produced ECHO staggered toward me and gave a clumsy salute.
Her entire body was a wreck, scarred by battle, and her empty eyes were a mixture of the fear of death and the relief of barely surviving.
"I am the Fleet Commander of Ark 69. Which unit do you belong to?"
At my question, she spoke immediately.
"I am from the SR-7 Squad of Ark 74."
Ark 74.
SR was an abbreviation for Special Reconnaissance, denoting a squad of mass-produced ECHOs.
In other words, ECHOs from the original Ark of the Cerberus Squad, located to the north of our Ark, were being deployed on this ridge.
If that's the case... things might get a bit easier.
An operation involving the forces of two Arks simultaneously?
Hopeful scenarios began to bloom in my mind.
"Were you also fighting against the Carapace Lord?"
"Yes. Following the final order of the Fleet Commander of Ark 74, the squads and ECHOs within the Ark were deployed to draw the attention of the Carapace Lord and its horde until reinforcements arrived."
"...Huh?"
What? Did I hear that wrong?
To draw attention? They sent ECHOs into a death trap?
And her subsequent report was so shocking that even my soul began to shiver.
"..."
Ark 74 had been unable to stop the continuous attacks of the Carapace Lord to the point where they had reached the stage of abandoning the Ark.
Eventually, they requested support from Ark 86, and it seemed they had ordered a suicide mission, driving all the Ark's ECHOs to act as bullet shields to buy time until the reinforcements arrived.
"Th-Then...?"
"Along with the Ark's Sacred Front squad, over twenty ECHOs were deployed. We have been in combat for four days now... but I do not know how many survivors there are. My own squad also..."
SCOUT-106 could not finish her sentence and hung her head low.
It seemed her squad had also been wiped out after a battle with the zombies, and she had been wandering alone.
"That's horrific."
"...The former fleet commander of our Ark used to give similar orders several times as well."
Hearing the story, the ECHOs all clenched their fists with grim expressions.
They all looked as if they were trembling with suppressed rage, but perhaps because I was human?
They didn't use high-level insults toward the humans of Ark 74 who had driven the ECHOs to their deaths.
"...Sigh. What kind of bastards…"
But I was different.
No matter if I'm not from this world, this is just too much.
Does it make sense to discard the ones who protected the Ark until now like consumables?
It's not as if these girls don't have wills or thoughts.
"This is fucking bullshit, seriously. What the hell is going on in their heads?"
More than that, a deep sense of disgust and loathing welled up as I wondered what the developers of Echoes of Humanity — ECHO were thinking when they set this as the background.
And I made a decision.
"Save as many ECHOs from Ark 74 as possible."
Every single trained ECHO was a precious asset that could not be replaced by anything else in this hellish world.
Therefore, I intended to recover all the dolls that the incompetent fleet commander had thrown away.
Even if that weren't the case, rescuing them was the right thing to do on humanitarian grounds. I immediately declared a change in the operation.
"Relay my orders to the Cerberus Squad. Tell them that along with annihilating the special units, rescuing surviving ECHOs from Ark 74 is the top priority."
"Yes, understood, Commander."
At my words, the eyes of the gloomy ECHOs changed at once.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Click—!
The rifle in her hand made a hollow sound as it ejected an empty magazine.
Quickly reaching for her waist, Cordelia swapped the magazine and precisely crushed the head of a zombie lunging at her.
"..."
Fortunately, with that as the last, the rotting wails that had been echoing from all directions fell silent.
"Cordelia."
"Lapis Theron. Are you safe?"
"Hmm... I don't think I can hold out much longer. My core armor was shattered while fighting a Brute a moment ago."
"Same here. The one I just swapped was my last magazine."
As she spoke, Cordelia looked around.
Not far away, familiar comrades lay rolling as cold corpses.
"Sable and Jin are..."
"Confirmed that their cores were contaminated during combat. They self-destructed before mutating. Anyway... they wouldn't have lasted long regardless."
"..."
At Lapis' calm words, Cordelia, the leader of Sacred Front, closed her eyes tightly.
"Sigh..."
Was this how she died?
Was the end of Sacred Front, called the Miracle Frontline by the ECHOs within the Ark, merely this?
"Heh."
Suddenly, a hollow laugh escaped her.
Because it was absurd. Because it was so futile.
"...I just wanted to live normally."
She wanted to walk the streets of the Ark wearing a fluttering dress instead of a combat suit.
She wanted to sit in a cafe filled with the fragrant scent of coffee rather than the smell of gunpowder, chatting and joking with her beloved squadmates.
She wanted to listen to sweet music instead of loud gunshots, and laugh to her heart's content without worrying about anyone's gaze.
[Cordelia, your taste is way too much like an old man's.]
[Shut up. You don't even know the charm of an Iced Americano...]
[There is only Espresso. Everything else is a fraud. Leader, you have just committed a crime against coffee.]
If her comrades had been with her, wouldn't they have bickered like that?
At the voices of her comrades sounding like hallucinations, tears welled up in Cordelia's eyes.
She hadn't asked for grand treatment, but she had fought her best for the Ark.
But in the end, they were consumables. Dolls that had to be willingly discarded for the survival of humans.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Grrrr—!
The howling of a zombie that had spotted them nearby echoed loudly.
"It's a Screamer."
"The zombies will swarm in soon, right?"
"...Fine. Then shall we go for one last fight?"
Watching Lapis spiritedly raise her hammer, Cordelia touched the military knife on her thigh.
Once the bullets ran out, she intended to take down as many of the monsters that had driven her comrades to death as possible with her military knife.
That would be her consolation and her own way of offering flowers to her fallen comrades.
Tutututu!
Kwaaaaang! Kwang!
Starting with the Runners, the zombies began to swarm like a tide.
As Original ECHOs, Cordelia and Lapis did their best to take them down.
But there was no way to overcome the sheer numbers.
"Urgh—!"
Her vision was gradually blurring.
There was no way to save Lapis, who already had three zombies clinging to her.
And I, too, will end up like Lapis.
Just as Cordelia prepared herself for the end.
Taang! Tang! Tang!!
Bullets flying from somewhere precisely pierced the heads of the zombies trying to bite her neck.
Following that, the heads of the zombies clinging to Lapis exploded simultaneously.
Tututu—!
Then, with the violent roar of a minigun, the zombies surrounding the area were blown apart in droves.
Cordelia reflexively looked toward the source of the gunfire.
There...
A man wearing a combat suit with a mark she had never seen before stood there like a savior.