86―EIGHTY-SIX

For years, the Republic of San Magnolia has withstood relentless invasion by its neighbor, the Giadian Empire, whose assaults are carried out by the Legion—a ceaseless army of unmanned drones. Refusing to fall, the Republic poured years of painstaking research into developing autonomous weapons of its own, and at last its battles are fought by machines alone. Officially, the war has become bloodless: no casualties, no losses, no grief. But this is nothing more than a carefully maintained lie, for no war is ever truly free of bloodshed. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the Republic's eighty-five territories stretches a land the government refuses to acknowledge—the officially nonexistent Eighty-Sixth Sector. In that forsaken territory live young men and women branded as the Eighty-Six. Treated as less than human, they are forced to pilot the Republic's "unmanned" weapons into battle, sacrificing their lives in the shadows so that their nation can go on pretending the war costs it nothing.