Chirico Cuvie joins the Gilgamesh Confederation army as it launches an amphibious invasion of a Balarant Union stronghold in the Taibas River on planet Lowmes. The Balarant defense holds the line and Chirico is the only survivor among the 1,500 Scopedogs and Diving Beetles that land. He is later evacuated to the planet Galeade. Meanwhile, in Melkia, a court-martial is convened for Red Shoulder Battalion commander Col Yoran Pailsen. The colonel does not reply to a military prosecutor's questions about the unit's operations and its supposed defiance of authority, especially during the Red Shoulders' recent uprising at its base on planet Odon...