"The battle that followed lasted almost three days," the guide continued. "The garrison here was small, and help had to come all the way from Truimal. In the end, the Mekharans were driven off, but it cost the lives of nearly everyone stationed on this planet at the time."
She looked out across the plain.
"Everything you've learned at the academy about identification signals, about not trusting what your eyes tell you, about verifying every ship and machine before you let it near you, began here, on this plain, because of what happened on this day."
Nobody said anything for a while after that.
Naysha had gone very quiet.
Ning noticed it as they continued along the path. She walked slightly apart from the others, her gaze moving slowly from one piece of wreckage to the next, and she did not speak to anyone, not even to her roommate when the girl tried to ask her something.
After a while, she stopped beside a fallen human Mecha.
