Chirico finishes off the first platoon of Balarant Fatties, but a second quickly approaches after a brief exchange of gunfire between Battleship X and the Balarant patrol fleet. Chirico is thrown back into battle, but he is finally overwhelmed and Fyana barely manages to get him back inside after he is wounded.

News of the battle travels quickly to the Balarant HQ Command Satellite. Admiral Zanjeny and his staff review an audio record of the battle, in which Chirico's voice mentions the term "PS." Knowing this to mean Perfect Soldier, Zanjeny orders his patrol fleet to keep close pursuit. On planet Melkia, Rochina reviews puzzling data collected immediately after the battle in Kummen...data which reveals a single ship escaping the palace and being picked up by a larger one. Reports come in of a battle in the nonaggression zone, and Rochina meets with General Battentain for new orders. To Rochina's surprise, Battentain orders him to stand down from the pursuit of the PS; he has taken too long and gotten insufficient results. Rochina turns the table when he drops a hint about the battle going on in the nonaggression zone...and walks away to follow an agenda of his own.

The Balarant now keep their distance from Battleship X, but this gives little comfort to Fyana, who nurses a wounded Chirico and is continuously assaulted by the Red Shoulder video. A seemingly delirious Chirico wanders the flight deck and speaks to an unseen entity, demanding to know why he is being called and where he is to go. Mercifully, he passes out. But no sooner has Fyana gotten him into a cot than the Balarant decide to renew their attack. She prepares to face them alone and Chirico is left behind, unable to get to her aid.

"Fyana...why are you fighting? To protect yourself? To protect me, someone who despises himself? I've been a thoughtless, miserable fool. Why have I been fighting up until now? Who do I go on fighting? Fyana had finally begun to pry open my heart...and I'd slammed it shut again. And once more, almost unconsciously, my heart sought comfort in battle."

Zanjeny and his crew debate the continuing situation. Space Battleship X cannot be identified as a Gilgamesh ship, but the Balarant still cannot risk starting an incident in the nonaggression zone. All they can do is wait for their opponent to make the first move. On the ship, Fyana has come to a decision - she will surrender herself to the Balarant in exchange for medical treatment for Chirico. Her attempt to do so is observed by Futtor's men, and just as Fyana seems to have won, the Balarant ship is destroyed by the Teltain.

She makes it back safely to Battleship X, and as the unknown planet looms closer, the Teltain launches another attack. Fyana attempts to radio Ypsilon, begging him to stop the assault, but communication is knocked out before anything can come of it. The ship begins to descent into the atmosphere of the planet, and a platoon of MKII Tortoises is launched against Fyana. Ypsilon joins the attack in his Strikedog, but when he faces off against her directly, his emotions begin to cloud his judgment.

Despite this, he manages to capture her, and as his men haul her away, Teltain launches another barrage of missiles at the descending battleship. Horrified, Fyana tears herself away and plummets to Chirico's aid once again. She dives inside, followed by more Tortoises, but everyone is thrown into chaos when the giant ship finally smashes into the surface of the planet and comes to rest. Just as Fyana is finally cornered, Chirico rushes to her aid in a Scopedog of his own, and fights his way out to the surface of the smoking ship...where Ypsilon awaits. The sun of the unknown planet rises as they level their weapons at each other.

"My strength had returned to me. But, as strong as Ypsilon's murderous rage was, the smell of blood from this planet's past was even stronger."

Arron and Gurran monitor Ypsilon's emotional index from the Teltain. Now that he faces Chirico, his readings have levelled out to those of a proper killing machine. ypsilon and Chirico lunge at each other, and Fyana holds off the Tortoises, admonishing Chirico to rember that they're both fighting to live. He instructs her to get back inside and stand ready in the control room. Carefully, Chirico lures Ypsilon and his troops toward the engines of the crashed ship and leaps off the edge. Ypsilon follows - and Fyana activates the thrusters! Caught in the backblast, Ypsilon's Strikedog is smashed, and the invaders retreat.

Now convinced that a third, more aggressive party has joined the fight in the nonagression zone, Zanjeny and his staff order a task force into the area in support of their patrol fleet. On board Teltain, Ypsilon recovers from his injuries and thinks of his next battle with Chirico.

Knowing Ypsilon will be back, Chirico tampers with the verniers on the now-silent hull of Battleship X and finally realizes what planet he is on: Sunsa, the site of the bloodiest battle of the Hundred Years War...a battle he himself has remembered in nightmares. An AT landing craft appears, and Chirico and Fyana rush to the control room as it lands on the hull. Out steps Ypsilon in another Strikedog, with more Tortoises backing him up. One by one, the verniers blast away at them.

Ypsilon reports this setback to Futtor on the Teltain, who suddenly has to face a problem of his own - Balarant ships approach, and he has no AT platoon to fight them off! Forced to tip his hand, Futtor goes on the offensive, and a devastating battle erupts in space! Having found their way inside Battleship X, Ypsilon and his remaining men reach the empty control room, and discover that Chirico has set the entire ship to self-destruct! They escape just in time, and launch as the vessel rips itself apart.

chirico and Fyana has also gotten away, loading a transport truck with ATs and driving deep into the Sunsa desert. There, others await them...

"Would we ever have any peace? I felt like screaming. If there was a God on this world, he was a cruel one. Too cruel. This planet's name is Sunsa. And I know it holds no welcome for me at all..."

Huge vehicles watch the approaching transport truck and prepare to launch an attack. But they are unprepared for a skilled AT pilot in a Scopedog, who swiftly disables one of their vehicles. The struggle is interrupted by a voice from above; a ship passes overhead and calls out to the AT pilot. An astonished Chirico realizes it is Bouleuse Gotho!

In orbit around Sunsa, the Teltain has escaped its battle with the Balarant, and Futtor makes plans to continue the pursuit of Chirico and Proto-One. Meanwhile, Ypsilon examines data from Battleship X. To his disbelief, Chirico seems to have recovered from his earlier injuries three times faster than any normal human...

Gotho's vessel drifts over Sunsa. Inside, Chirico and Fyana are introduced to their attackers: Zophie and her gang, who salvage weapons from the desert for Gotho to sell off world. They travel to Zophie's fortress, within the airtight ruins of a damaged building. Vanilla and Coconna are there, and react to their arrival with mixed emotions. Vanilla is ecstatic, but Coconna is furious when she sees Fyana for the first time. Chirico says nothing.

Later, Zophie approaches a weeping Coconna, who reveals that as a Red Shoulder, Chirico has always been cold and unemotional. Meanwhile, Gotho berates Chirico for acting this way toward Coconna. Fyana argues for Chirico's sake, but stops herself before she can say too much. The scene is broken by the arrival of Ypsilon and a platoon of Tortoises from the Teltain. Setting up a perimeter around the fortress, they demand that Chirico be surrendered. Gotho prepares to answer with gunfire, but Zophie stops him - Chirico, after all, is one of the Red Shoulder devils who destroyed their planet, and she is more than willing to throw him to the wolves.

Chirico prepares to face Ypsilon alone, refusing even Fyana's help. She begins to wonder if he really is as cold and unfeeling as Gotho said.

"I know best how I should fight. Gotho had called me a war machine. A murder machine. And now so had my beloved Fyana. If I really was a machine, I doubt their words would hurt me as much as they did. But I'm just a man, and my battle is this hell continues...as does my crushed existence."