86 -EIGHTY-SIX- Season 1, Episode 9 (UNCUT)

So I want to explain a little bit of the significance behind Shin's goodbye to Lena. For all 5 of his years on the battlefield, Shin has always been the last survivor who has carried on the names and the memories of his fallen comrades. Its been stated by Kurena before that Shin may carry the names of those who have died, but who will carry his when it's his time? Since this mission is effectively a suicide mission (unlimited time, no support, etc.), Shin and the gang are 100% expecting to die at some point. To Shin, Lena is the only person he is completely sure will outlive him. So he entrusts his memory to her and says that they are "going on ahead", meaning going on ahead to whatever is on the other side of life. As for "the next ones", y'all are pretty spot on. Regardless of the plot, once this current Spearhead squad was gone, they were going to be replaced with a new group, still under Lena's command or if she transfers out of Spearhead, she'd be commanding a different group of Eighty-Six. The only way that there wouldn't be new ones is if Lena either dies or she retires from the military (which is tantamount to giving up, something Lena absolutely refuses to do). Regarding your point about the other countries, remember that the Legion have something called the Eintagsfliege. The Eintagsfliege are little mayfly shaped Legion that fly around and their only purpose is to jam communications (they are Electronic Disruption type Legion). They are the reason the Republic started using the ParaRaids over traditional radio or wireless communications, which can easily get jammed by the Eintagsfliege. As the only known country with ParaRaids or similar technology, any surviving countries outside of San Magnolia would have a hard time communicating with each other. Although there is hope, Shin said last episode that if you go far enough to the East, there is a place where you won't "hear the voices of the Legion", meaning the Legion don't go there for some reason. Shin tells Lena that there may be survivors there to link up with. The good news is that the next episode, episode 10, is a little more lighthearted, so we get a break from all the sadness and depression. The bad news is that episode 11 (the 1st cour finale) gets right back into the depression. So 2 more episodes until the 1st cour is over!

Nox