Ad Astra Per Aspera Chapter 1B

Ad Astra Per Aspera Chapter 1B: Night and Fog

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Shinobu Hazuki
 * A weird rabbit with 3 eyes
 * Shatou
 * Pati

Summary
After deciding to bring the weapon back to the empire and getting attacked by the empires robot soldiers, Shinobu Hazuki doesn't know what to do. A weird rabbit with 3 eyes who was in the weapon's cockpit advises him to escape. He decides to do so after sensing the killing instinct from the empire robot soldiers. Shinobu tries to reason with them, but neither of them listen to him.

Back from his preparation, Shatou is surprised that the weapon is in a working state. Shinobu warns him about the empires intention, but Shatou says that he doesn't care and Shinobu should just let himself get killed. Shatou said that he shouldn't have saved Shinobu that day, so he doesn't stick with Shinobu and will become Betelgeuse in the sky. Feeling betrayed, Shinobu starts to cry. Trying to help, the weird rabbit with 3 eyes shows Shinobu footage of Shatou speaking about using the weapon to rebel against the empire. The rabbit tells him that the one who deserves to die is Shatou, not Shinobu. But Shinobu decides to delete the footage to save Shatou instead. Shinobu declares that he will fight for the others sake even though they betrayed him.

Pleased by his speech, the weird rabbit decides to help Shinobu fight and reveals itself to be a young girl named Pati. She takes the weapon control back from Shinobu, revealing that the weapon has an AI system installed. The weapon explodes itself, showing its true form; a giant humanoid robot named Versailles with a pair of horns and samurai appearance, wielding a Katana. Pati asks Shinobu about his dream of going to space. She tells him that it will come true soon. Versailles warps himself and the empire's robot soldiers to space and destroys them.

Shinobu thanks Pati for saving him, but Pati tells him that the situation is now getting worse for Shinobu. Because of that attack, Shinobu has now become a wanted criminal for the empire. The only way to escape this fate is to apologize to the emperor of the empire. Shinobu decides to do that and continue fighting. Will he be able to do it?