Hello everyone — I’m the author.

  In the latest chapters, Jack and Nya grow closer (for example, they bathe together). I know some readers may feel this behavior is a kind of “betrayal” when Jack is also facing Nova and Meadow.

  I’d like to take this opportunity to dig into the core of the story:

  This is not a “harem” tale.

  I’ve been far more careful handling the relationships among Jack, Nova, Nya, and Meadow than I am when writing any sci-fi scene, because these moments touch the boundaries of human feeling, betrayal, and ethics.

  First: context matters.

  This is not a time of peace.

  In peacetime, a man drifting between three women is a standard asshole — an unforgivable betrayal. But Mech Coward depicts a meat grinder where an entire unit can be annihilated on any given day. In such an environment, moral boundaries have long since been shattered by artillery.

  When your lover or comrade “might be dead the next second,” our familiar categories of “loyalty” and “commitment” become luxuries beyond reach.

  People stop chasing “forever” and instead pursue the now.

  Trauma bond vs. love

  In peace, we have the security to fuss over ownership of a relationship.

  In war, however, when Nya, Meadow, and Jack have shared hellish experiences together (POW camps, tunnel escapes, etc.), their bond transcends peacetime “love.”

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  It becomes a trauma bond and a survival dependency.

  For Jack: their touch and affection are the switch that flips him from “coward” or “killing machine” back into a human being.

  For them, Jack is the anchor who dragged them out of hell. They are not counting “how many women this man has around him”; they are asking, “Is this anchor that keeps me safe still here?”

  Their intimacy is not about possession or betrayal. It is about clinging to one another to prevent collapse — a mutual warmth that confirms they are still alive.

  This is the most honest and tragic form of humanity twisted by war.

  About Nova

  Some readers may ask: “What about Nova?”

  Nova’s relationship with Jack is different. She was not in that POW camp, not in that tunnel; she did not undergo that extreme survival trauma.

  So when Jack forms a trauma bond with Nya and Meadow, Nova is outside that bond.

  That does not mean Jack does not love Nova. It means:

  Jack’s love for Nova is a peacetime love.

  His relation to Nya and Meadow is a wartime dependence.

  They are fundamentally different.

  How Nova will view all of this is a core conflict to be explored in later chapters.

  I will not shy away from that contradiction.

  ———

  Moral dilemma, not moral license

  I must emphasize:

  I am not saying “there is no morality in war.”

  I’m saying war pushes humans into extreme situations where peacetime moral frameworks break down.

  Jack’s actions would be considered a betrayal in peacetime. In that tunnel, in that POW camp, the word “betrayal” loses its ordinary meaning.

  This is not a question of right or wrong. It is a question of survival.

  My responsibility as the author is not to judge them, but to truthfully portray this moral dilemma.

  Let the readers ask themselves: “If it were me in that situation, what would I do?”

  ———

  A final word

  I know this letter will not satisfy everyone.

  Some will say, “No matter the explanation, betrayal is betrayal.” Others will say, “You’re just making excuses for harem plotlines.”

  I understand those reactions.

  But I want to say this:

  If this story makes you uncomfortable, that is the intended effect.

  War itself is uncomfortable. The distortion of human nature under extreme pressure is inherently painful.

  If you can accept Jack’s every action without friction, I have failed in my writing.

  Genuine moral dilemmas should make people struggle.

  So if you feel conflicted while reading, you are genuinely thinking — and that is what I hope for.

  Thank you to every reader willing to think.

  JunkyardJack369

  2025-11-10