Hansen had slowly begun to regain consciousness. He still couldn't properly hear the surrounding sounds. Everything felt terrifyingly silent.
He also felt himself being jostled around as he was carried under the arms by Mickey and another soldier, running frantically through the bunker corridors. His vision was mostly made up of streaks of light mixed with dark shadows, overlapping each other and sometimes creating almost crystalline reflections edged with small rainbows.
A terrible sense of constriction gripped the soldier's body, making him feel like he was suffocating, as if his heart had stopped.
Everything seemed to move rapidly. His movements felt like flashes that, with almost every blink, showed him different images.
"What the… hell is happening?" the man kept thinking.
Suddenly, he perceived abrupt noises—impulses, like explosions.
His hearing seemed to slowly return.
With every passing second, more horrible sounds emerged. First came the explosions, brutal and powerful, accompanied by metallic screeching and crumpling, as if objects were slamming to the ground, rolling, and breaking under the sheer noise. Then, among the roars, one seemed to dominate over the others. Hysterical cries alternated with sadistic screams. Both were terrifying and revolting. Hansen felt increasingly irritated. His nerves were on edge. His head throbbed violently, as if his veins were about to burst. He knew he was in danger.
His vision began to return as well. He was immediately blinded by an intense and painful flash of light. "Sunlight…? Did we get out of the bunker?"
He felt his head being rested against something metallic and hardened. His senses were slowly coming back. At first, he perceived almost nothing except an immediate heat against his head, followed by a milder, cooler shade. Hansen's breathing seemed to improve. He coughed a few times as he was gently set down against the door of a wrecked vehicle. He began to feel the dry, grainy sand on his face, especially on his cheeks, made irritating by the sweat that made it almost sticky.
"Sergeant! He's awake!" one of the soldiers noticed Hansen had opened his eyes—eyes that were still red and pale.
"Uh…" The man still couldn't speak. Only faint sounds came out.
His vision kept improving. Turning his head slowly, as if it were made of rusted gears, he looked at his numb hand, slowly trying to lift it to examine it more closely. He tried opening and closing it, attempting to understand how it moved. His fingers felt like metal, their movements mechanical. He still felt stuck, not quite able to move properly.
Then Hansen looked around. Many soldiers had gathered around him, mainly to assist him. Next to him, though he initially struggled to recognize them, were Toria and Abner. The former was still motionless, completely devoid of any sign of life. This terrified Hansen, making him feel as if he were staring at a corpse. The girl's skin was almost completely white. Her once gentle face was distorted by dark circles, with severe purplish bruises on her neck and face, along with small cuts, especially on her gray lips. Abner, on the other hand, was awake. He had realized Hansen had woken up as well.
"Welcome back, Sergeant…" Abner spoke with biting sarcasm. His entire body was in shambles. His breathing was metallic. Irritating electronic sounds came from him, mixed with small sparks that flickered out of his mouth.
"Lieutenant…" Hansen's voice was shaky, breaking his words apart. He also struggled to breathe for a few moments. His expression was completely empty—apathetic. He couldn't feel emotions, not even at the sight of the lieutenant he had tried to save. Still, he forced himself.
"I'm… sorry…"
"I'm the one who's sorry, kid," the lieutenant replied immediately. "You're not obligated to say these things if you don't feel like it. I know you don't want to talk. You shouldn't have tried to save me. I put you in danger…" Abner was interrupted by violent coughing. In the process, he spat blood and oil onto the ground, splattering it around, while some of it dripped nearby, sliding over the metal in a slick yet heavy way.
"With all due respect, sir… you're talking a lot of bullshit right now…"
Abner looked at Hansen. He slowly turned his head just enough to meet the man's eyes with the only one he had left.
"No. You're wrong…"
Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a sudden blast. Hansen was among the first to turn, shocked to see a Kariudo that had just been repelled and thrown away deactivate before his eyes.
"There are Ijo…"
"This is Giacalone!" one of the soldiers shouted over the radio. "Requesting immediate reinforcements! We're under siege by two Level B Zmij! Soldier Michal Ullryk is down! We have wounded! We need armed and medical support now!"
He was suddenly cut off by gunfire from rifles and tanks that had begun to arrive. Even though he couldn't see anything, Hansen could only imagine the brutal situation unfolding. The massacre that would follow.
"They won't make it…" the lieutenant muttered with deep melancholy. "These demons are too powerful… Even if they're defeated, what chance do we have of surviving?"
Hansen looked at the lieutenant with strong compassion mixed with contempt. He couldn't stand surrender, especially from a superior. He looked around. He saw empty souls. The soldiers kept calling for support. They shouted. They prayed. They prepared for battle. Everything was pointless. There was no real ideal. Just a system. Just an action. A simple mechanical operation. Hansen deeply hated all of it.
"And you just stand there…? What kind of survival instinct is this?!"
The man felt betrayed. For him, it was personal. He believed hope was built on one's convictions and possibilities. He had always been a rigid man, but he knew how to smile. He always wanted to make the right choice—though in such an unjust world, that was complex, almost completely unnatural. Yet he believed in it.
At that moment, he looked at Toria again. Seeing her eyes slightly tighten, as if she were scared, snapped something inside him.
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant… I want to see that girl live."
The lieutenant didn't respond.
Hansen rushed toward the Kariudo. His movements were clumsy, but he was relentless. Crawling forward without being noticed, he reached the armor. Immediately, opening it, he tried to be as careful as possible while removing Mickey's battered and wounded body.
"Sergeant! No, the suits are calibrated for one pilot—you won't withstand the pressure!"
Hansen wasn't listening anymore. After pulling Mickey out and laying him nearby, he entered the armor.
Once it closed, the usual cycle repeated.
IJO DETECTED: K44-83, K81-11. ESTIMATED LEVELS: BETA. CODENAMES: STARFISH AND BAKUNIN.