Flowers on an Iron Grave Marker: Gerbera Knows No Tears - Ashen Corridor, Crimson Reaper

Rain was falling. Cold droplets fell without end from the gray sky. Iris Cromwell sat huddled in the half-destroyed underground bunker of the former Zervia 7th Research Facility, her arms wrapped around her knees. Around her lay cracked concrete and twisted steel beams. The black stains crawling across the walls silently told the story of what had once taken place here. Her slender fingers touched the organic scar tissue running from her neck to her collarbone. A remnant of the experiments. It was cold, and it throbbed with a dull ache from time to time. The Battlefield Lifeform Plan — Project Titan. The forbidden project that had created her, and had devoured this entire land. Her almond-shaped eyes, gleaming like amethysts, wavered in the dim light. The dark circles beneath them could not hide her exhaustion. *(I had that dream again.)* Whenever she closed her eyes, she remembered without fail. The men in white coats. The cold sensation of the injection needle. Something with her own face, floating in a culture tank beyond the glass. They called her "ZVN-07-IRIS," like machines. Iris looked down at the brand carved into her left arm. ZVN-07-IRIS. An identification code for a weapon. It had never been a name. "...I'm cold." Her own voice was swallowed by the hollowed-out bunker. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders over her dark blue pilot suit. Through the fabric, she could feel the former Zervian military identification mark seared from her left shoulder across her back. Rainwater dripped down from the hatch above her head. *Plink. Plink.* That rhythmic sound was all that existed in this ruin. Eighteen years. She had survived alone in this forbidden zone — the Grauzarm Contaminated Zone, which had swallowed the entirety of the former Republic of Zervia. Born as a test subject, raised as a test subject, and even after the nation fell, she continued to fight as a weapon. Suddenly, she lifted her head. Deep within the bunker, Gerbera Tetra sat enshrined. A crimson assault mobile suit, standing roughly nineteen meters tall. Organic patterns, like blood vessels, floated across the surface of its armor. It was dormant now; the patterns were faint, pulsing only slowly. Iris stood up. Her body was small and slender. Yet her movements were supple and efficient, like a wild animal's. She stepped onto the wire cage and climbed up toward the cockpit. The link harness connector embedded at the base of her neck gave a faint throb. She opened the hatch. She slipped into the seat and put on her helmet. The terminals at the back of her head and on her cervical spine clicked into place. In that instant, the world changed. Gerbera Tetra's sensory organs linked directly with her nerves. The coldness of the air outside the machine felt as if it were against her own skin. Terrain data and alert information streamed across the head-mounted display. "Good morning." Iris murmured. To the machine. Or perhaps, to herself. Gerbera Tetra's head visor slowly shifted from purple to deep crimson. It was reacting to her emotions. For now, it was still quiet. Not calm, exactly, but at least not in a combat state. Iris placed her hands on the console. This machine alone understood everything about her. When she was angry, the machine became ferocious. When she was sad, its movements grew sluggish. When she was resolute, it displayed astonishing reaction speed. It was as if it were a mirror reflecting her inner self. Her one and only other half. *(Am I human, or a weapon?)* That question had been circling inside her for years. She had no answer. There was no way she could. She looked at her hands. Slender, pale fingers. Both arms wrapped in the pilot suit. She knew better than anyone just how much blood was caked onto the ends of them. All intruders were to be eliminated. That was her programming, and her reason for living. Survey teams from various nations came seeking the "Machine God's Core" that slept deep within the forbidden zone. They all tried to uncover the secrets of this land, and they were all devoured by the earth. Or — killed by her. Suddenly, an alarm blared. A red warning indicator flashed at the edge of the head-mounted display. **[3 Unidentified Craft Detected — Bearing 2-7-0 — Distance 15km — Approaching Outer Rim "Ashen Corridor"]** Iris's purplish-gray eyes narrowed sharply. "...Again." Responding to the shift in her emotions, Gerbera Tetra's armor patterns began to pulse more vividly. The visor's color shifted to deep crimson. The machine had entered combat readiness. --- The survey team from the Valtren Federation's Special Investigation Bureau, "Schwarzer Hund," was wrapped in tension. Five field divers, and three mobile suits for escort. The general-purpose units, called "Diamante," crossed the remnants of the old Zervian border defense line — commonly known as the "Last Wall" — and stepped into the Ashen Corridor, their soot-stained gray armor growing wet in the rain. "Damn, this scenery looks like a corpse." A transmission came from the escort team's lead unit. The pilot was Wilhelm, a veteran field diver. He was one of the few survivors in the Valtren Federation who had returned alive from the forbidden zone more than three times. "Shut up and move. From here on, anything can happen." The other pilot, a young man named Oscar, responded. This was only his second infiltration, and his voice was clearly laced with tension. "The survival rate's three percent, right? We're really something, coming here." "Because the country pays for it. A single fragment of Zervium Steel is worth twenty years of your annual salary." At Wilhelm's words, Oscar let out a dry laugh. The surface was covered in soil turned to gray mud, littered here and there with corroded anti-air turrets and the wreckage of destroyed old-model mobile suits. The rain beat down on them, diffusing the smell of rusted iron into the air. Without warning, the ground squirmed. Something crawled out of the mud — no, the mud itself moved as if it had a will of its own. "...What the hell?" One of the field divers walking at the front stopped in his tracks. The next moment, his right leg sank into the ground with a squelch. "Whoa!" "Pull him out!" His comrades frantically reached out, but the sinking accelerated. As if the earth itself were chewing its prey. Within seconds, the diver's body was swallowed by the mud up to his shoulders, and then — silence. The ground returned to flat, gray mud once more. "...A digestion pore. Be careful." Wilhelm stated it coldly. Oscar's face turned pale. "What happens to the guy who got sucked in?" "Who knows. He'll probably be part of the earth in a few hours." That was the essence of the forbidden zone. This land was alive. Grauzarm — the pseudo-life born from Project Titan's rampage. The soil, the air, the ruins — everything was part of an organic network. It sensed intruders, lured them in, and digested them. "The target point is near the former Zervia 7th Research Facility. There's a possibility that data regarding the Machine God's Core remains there." The analyst stationed at the rear reported over the comms. Oscar swallowed hard. The Machine God's Core. If they could obtain it, the military balance of the continent would be completely overturned — the Valtren Federation believed this. That was why they continued their investigations, even at such a cost. But. "...Commander, heat source reaction ahead. Approaching at high speed." "What?" Wilhelm checked his display. A single craft on the radar — heading toward them at an unbelievable speed. "Don't tell me... it's *that*." His voice trembled for the first time. "The Crimson Reaper..." --- Iris opened Gerbera Tetra's thrusters to full power, weaving through the gaps in the ruins as she flew. Rain pelted the visor. The machine's deep crimson armor stood out eerily against the gray landscape. Enemy silhouettes visible through the visor — three Diamante units. Mass-produced mobile suits of the Valtren Federation. She had cut off all communications. She didn't want to hear their voices. She didn't want to see their faces. *(Enemy.)* She murmured in her heart, as if telling herself. *(Eliminate.)* They were nothing more than that. Nothing more, nothing less. They were components of weapons, objects to be dismantled, and nothing else. "...Beginning." She gripped the control sticks. Gerbera Tetra leaped. Acceleration unimaginable for a normal mobile suit. The performance of the prototype developed during Project Titan surpassed modern mass-production units by two generations. The machine closed in on the enemy's face in an instant. "Wha—" The pilot of the lead Diamante didn't even have time to raise his voice. The beam saber mounted on Gerbera Tetra's right arm drew a single line of crimson light. It pierced the unit's abdomen, melted the armor, and bisected the fusion reactor. Explosion. The first unit scattered, turning into a ball of fire. "Damn it! Scatter!" Wilhelm shouted, but Gerbera Tetra's movements didn't stop. It burst out of the inferno, twisting its body in midair to take the second unit's back. It slammed its left-arm shield into it, and the moment the enemy lost balance, drove a knee kick home. The cockpit crumpled, and the pilot's scream leaked out for just a moment. The muzzle of the beam rifle was pressed against that unit's head. Fired. Flash. Explosion. "O-Oscar! Fall back! Hurry!" Wilhelm's voice echoed over the comms. But the last surviving unit, Oscar's machine, was frozen in terror. Gerbera Tetra slowly turned around. Its visor emitted a deep crimson glow. Iris locked her sights onto Oscar's unit. Her index finger rested on the trigger. At that moment. "...P-please, help me." Oscar's transmission slipped into her receiver for just a moment. An accidental interference that slipped through a gap in her comms blackout. A young voice. Not even twenty years old yet. Iris's hand trembled. Inside the cockpit, she stared at her own index finger. It wasn't even a centimeter from the trigger. Just a little more pressure, and it would be over. *(It's an enemy. Kill it.)* The combat program whispered in her head. *(You are a weapon. Do not hesitate.)* But — that voice. *He's the same as me.* The moment she thought that, something deep in her chest screamed. *I don't want to kill.* *(Stop it... don't make me stain my hands any more than this.)* The turmoil of her emotions propagated into Gerbera Tetra's control systems. The organic patterns on the armor surface flickered irregularly, and the machine swayed unsteadily. The glow of the beam saber became unstable for just a moment. "Now!" Wilhelm seized that opening and charged. A volley from his beam rifle. Iris dodged on reflex, but her reaction was delayed. One shot grazed the armor on her left shoulder, scattering sparks. "We can do this! This thing's movements are sluggish—" In that instant. The earth roared. With a thunderous sound, the ground split open. The wreckage of the two destroyed Diamante units was dragged underground, as if sinking into a bottomless swamp. "What?! What's happening— Gyaaaaaah!" Wilhelm's unit also had its legs seized by the writhing earth. The mud coiled around the machine like tentacles, corroding the armor as it dragged it down. Grauzarm. The very land of the forbidden zone was trying to devour the intruders. "No, no, I don't want to die—" Oscar's scream echoed over the comms. His machine, too, was about to be swallowed by the sea of mud. Iris stared blankly at the scene. Gerbera Tetra was unharmed. This machine was not recognized by the will of the earth — or perhaps, it was *because* it was recognized that it wasn't attacked. The sound of bones breaking. The sound of metal crumpling. The sound of flesh being crushed. It continued for several minutes. And then — silence. Only the rain continued to fall. The survey t

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Name: Flowers on an Iron Grave Marker: Gerbera Knows No Tears
Author: Novelia

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