Flag

Shirasu spends a day and a night with the indigenous nomads. She assists their medical doctor, who was trained in both native and western medicine, with house visits and learns about the way of life of those people. Olowokandi is interrogated. The flow of news from the UNF to journalists comes to a grinding halt. Highly increased reconnaissance flight activity hints at a brewing political and military storm.

A replacement for the HAVWC mecha lost in the attack of the temple arrives, but training it to accept Ichiyanagi as pilot makes only slow progress. An unknown power penetrates the training camp's perimeter with three helicopters and the prototype of a Chinese XR-2 mecha. Ichiyanagi and Eversalt fight off the intruders in their mechas. This is considered a warning to the SDC, and complicates the situation because obviously a powerful member of the UN security council entered the playing field.

UN forces block access to the bombarded parts of the city and stonewall at the daily press conference, trying to cover up the incident. SDC researches how the flag's military grade IC encryption could have been broken and faked. In that course, more questions are raised. The UN started to move in more weapons into the country in secret, and attacked another target 400 km away without telling the public. This increases doubt on the official narrative in which the temple faction is the only violent actor.

Ichiyanagi stormed into the armed faction's stronghold to retrieve the flag. As the team were following the IC tag signal, something unexpected was waiting for them. They discovered the conspiracy to hinder the ceasefire. Facing return attack from the enemy and with nowhere to retreat, he attempted to break through.

On the night of the new moon, the SDC unit began its campaign to retrieve the flag and was heading towards the "Ruins", the armed faction's stronghold. Shirasu witnessed the crossfire while accompanying the unit. At the same time, the journalists, suspicious of the UN forces, found out about the UN's plan to bomb the city. Akagi had some idea where the target of the bombing would be.

It was established that the defence capabilities of the armed faction base were much stronger than expected. The SDAC unit decided to launch an operation to retrieve the Flag on the night of the new moon. Preparation of the HAVWC mecha, the key element of the operation, became a race against time, and Saeko spent all night covering the activities of the unit. Meanwhile on the same night, as reporter Akagi was pursuing a young girl, a reincarnate of the goddess Kuhura.

The SDC unit is planning scouting missions in area where the FLAG was believed to be hidden. Once again Saeko's request to accompany the unit was denied. Nadi Olowokandi offered his helping hand.

Saeko started her reporting inside the SDC secret base. However, Captain Chris denied Saeko's request to follow any military operations involving the use of HAVWC. Saeko tried to capture the soldiers on camera as they returned to base.

An armed extremist faction had stolen the Flag, which was previously seen as the symbol of peace that triggered the cease-fire initiative between armed factions and the government forces in Uddiyana. The UN secretly dispatched an SDC unit to retrieve the Flag. Saeko Shirasu was assigned as the embedded reporter.