VOTOMS Ep. 16: Clean Sweep

Chirico and his teammates are awakened in the middle of the night when Veela guerillas attack the AT hangar. Everyone grabs machine guns and runs outside to fight off the guerillas. The mercenaries outnumber the guerillas and begin to mow them down. A mercenary named Monica Marcus attempts to escape and is attacked by a mercenary on a gunbike. She attacks him and steals his bike. Potaria shoots her and destroys her windshield. He recognizes her as she drives by him and kicks him aside. She then drives through a broken fence and escapes into the jungle. After the battle ends, Gotho tells Chirico’s team that the Veela weren’t able to damage the AT hangar. Kiderra jokingly asks Gotho if he hired the Veela to attack for his own profit. Gotho offers to buy everyone a drink at the Fantom Club. While Coconna sings a sad love song, Chirico and Gotho sit down for a drink at the bar. Vanilla serves them some alcohol stolen from the Kummen army, and Gotho says that the Kummen army is worthless. Vanilla mentions that he shouldn’t talk like that in front of Potaria because he’s a Kummen army officer. They wonder why he’s a mercenary if he’s in the army. The next morning, Gon Nu and Kan Yu assemble all the platoons for an emergency meeting. He tells them that new intelligence has revealed that the Veela are operating 80 klicks north of them in the village of Zonmu on the Munamera River. He wants to initiate a surprise attack on them and is sending in a special strike team. Kan Yu announces that the strike team will consist of himself, Chirico, Potaria, Kiderra and Shako. Kiderra asks for a bonus because the mission will be tougher, and Gon Nu agrees to pay out 500 gildans for every destroyed Veela AT. An hour later, AT Flys begin transporting Kan Yu’s platoon. A bomber squad accompanies them and begins a bombing run on Zonmu. Potaria asks Kan Yu why they’re attacking a village filled with women and children, and Kan Yu tells him they’re clearing out the area so that they don’t get attacked by the Veela when they land.

The AT Flys drop the ATs on the ground, and two helicopters unload two companies of ground infantry. The ground infantry units invade the village and drag everyone out of their homes into one spot near an old temple. Kan Yu asks who the village chief is, and an old man named Obora says they are all peaceful followers of the god Van Nu. Kiderra demands to know where the guerillas are and begins destroying tractors and other farm equipment. Chirico can’t believe the villagers are guerillas, but he thinks maybe their innocent appearance makes them perfect for guerillas. The soldiers begin ransacking all the houses and find Monica hiding in a pile of hay. Although they found no weapons, Kan Yu wants to search the villagers themselves now. Obora tells him that they will be smitten for their actions. Kan Yu picks out Obora, Monica and three other men and puts them in a line. He plans to get them to talk by playing a game of Russian roulette. He loads one round in his pistol and has a soldier pull the trigger next to everyone’s head. With only two shots left in the chamber, the gun reaches Monica. Potaria interrupts and says that Monica is an old friend of his. He asks her to say she’s not a guerilla, but she refuses. She says that the people must return to the ways of King Branjelman, and she would rather die than say false words to live. Chirico says there are other ways to find guerrillas, and Kiderra starts shooting at the temple. Inside, a squad of Standing Turtles attacks. A battle begins, and more Standing Turtles emerge from the forest to attack the Assemble platoon. Shako and Kiderra chase several Standing Turtles into the forest and destroy them. Chirico wanders through the forest and is attacked by the Snapping Turtle. He broadcasts Melkian military signals to reach Fyana, but at first he gets no response. The Snapping Turtle stops, and Chirico gets out of the cockpit of his Marshydog. When the Snapping Turtle’s cockpit opens, Chirico is shocked to see that the pilot is a man.