In the Republic, the fighting has become fierce, with Lena managing a forward command post as the Alba citizens scatter in terror. But more than that, we’re concerned with that attack that hit the Federacy, and what it might mean for the eighty-six and their new homeland.
The duck and cover from that initial attack did the trick, as Shin and the others aren’t really any worse for the wear (a flesh wound, at worst, delivered) and soon enough military intelligence is picking up the pieces and determining what their enemy is. Specifically, the Legion has a new weapon, an ultra-range artillery piece that’s able to pound human bases to rubble from far outside the range of any effective retaliation. The best they had managed to get eyes on it and even damage it a little, but the thing won’t be out of commission for very long before it’s once again threatening to snipe everything into oblivion.
This weapon is recognized as both a railgun in its function (from its massive range and the firing pause identified as a need to replace the barrel, which is a fairly realistic limitation of railgun-style weapons) and a railgun of a different sort in its form, in that it’s effectively a huge train car using the old imperial high-speed rail lines to reposition what would otherwise be unfeasible to move on land. This entertains me greatly because rail cannons are actually real designs, including some of the most hilariously over-the-top ballistic weapons ever developed, and they rarely get much credit as such. Well, now the Federacy and its allies have to deal with a really nasty one. Their forces are hurting and spread thin after the last Legion surge and to make matters worse their air power is depleted, and cruise missiles would simply be shot down by Legion anti-air fire. This means the only feasible way to go and get the railgun before it’s repaired, without the men to push the battle line or the metal to take it from the skies, is to send in a strike team on an almost certainly suicidal mission.
This is kind of old hat for Shin and the others, isn’t it? They’re even back to being called ‘Spearhead’ for their role in the upcoming operation. We actually get a really good scene where Shin, watching his current commander argue that he should be spared deployment, experiences memories of his former friends talking about the likely deaths of the Republic’s population, their own deaths, and what Shin should do, ending with him practically seeing a vision of Lena and being quite affected by it, remembering some of her last words that came across the Para-Raid.
Speaking of that, the whole squad seems to be thinking of their former commander a lot these days. Theo even breaks the unspoken rule and mentions her directly. It’s kind of interesting how partitioned their thoughts about the Republic are: they look at the Federacy army and comment, even mockingly, that the ‘white pigs’ would have turned tail already, only to in almost the same breath remark that there’s no way ‘the Major’ would have run with a distinct melancholy. The one person they’d actually hope would get away from the slaughter that seems to be taking place over there is the one who never would.
Also in good scenes, after the briefing where Shin and Nordlicht are assigned to dive deep and take out the railgun, his commander tries to insist that he’ll be staying behind, and he gives her a really good talking to about being pitied rather than being respected. This of course ends up meaning that despite many opportunities to step out, the former Republic spearhead is stepping up to serve the role once again.
At the end of the credits, we take a final look back at the Republic of San Magnolia, and things are looking a bit devastated. The streets are silent, the buildings shot up and ruined (all the way to the central district, including Lena’s home, not that she would have been there), and destroyed Legion units and Juggernauts are strewn around. We don’t see Lena or anyone or anything else alive (or animate) for that matter, so it’s unclear if this was a Pyrrhic victory, a crippling loss, or a crushing defeat in which Lena may have lost her head – much like the uncertainty for Shin at the cour break, things look pretty grim.
And the cherry on top of that is that next week is a bloody commentary episode, so there’s a long break before Spearhead is back in action and before there’s even a chance of revealing Lena’s fate. We’ll be back when it’s the time.