Shin survives hell only to find that peace doesn't want him, duty does. The show knows the Spearhead Squadron will march back into the meat grinder willingly, and it doesn't soften what that choice costs them. By Part 2, 86 stops asking if they'll live and starts asking what living actually means when you've already died so many times inside.

After saying goodbye to Lena, Shin and the surviving members of Spearhead Squadron press on into Legion territory and suffer hardship after hardship. The Federal Republic of Giad, a reformed nation that replaced the old Giadian Empire, rescues them and grants them citizenship, freedom and a shot at a peaceful life. President Ernst Zimmerman takes them into his own home, where they meet his adopted daughter Frederica. Before long, though, a sense of duty pulls the Eighty-Six back to war. They choose to enlist and return to the front as part of the Federacy's Nordlicht Squadron, with Frederica at their side: a proud young girl with a rare ability and a wisdom well beyond her age. Once more facing the Legion, they come to see that death and pain on the battlefield are all the comfort they know, whichever side they fight for. The second cour of this mecha sci-fi drama mixes action with the heavy toll of war.