Perspective: Gestalt Iron-Gray-Resolute Sergeant
"Stand by on site and await the takeover."
Gestalt's body went rigid the moment the emotionless, synthesized voice faded from his earpiece. A chill, more bone-piercing than when he had faced the "Wailing Aggregation," shot instantly from the base of his spine to the top of his head.
He didn't have to wait long.
Several hours later, three unmarked, pitch-black VTOL transport crafts shaped with ominous angles tore through the sky with thunderous force and hovered above them. Gestalt knew that everything had moved beyond the scope of standard procedure.
The powerful downdraft from the engines sent the purified ash on the ground scattering in all directions.
The cabin doors slid open, and over a dozen soldiers in silver-gray, information-blocking, power-assisted combat suits descended like the most precise killing machines. Their faceplates were made of one-way black crystal, so you could not see their eyes or sense any emotional fluctuation.
Their movements were silent and filled with suffocating efficiency and pressure. With an air that brooked no argument, they quickly took over the defensive deployment of the entire area.
They were the "Gray Doves," the Internal Affairs Investigation Department's most mysterious and feared "cleaners."
A Gray Dove operative walked toward Gestalt. He did not salute nor offer any words. He simply faced Gestalt with his black faceplate and tilted his head slightly, indicating that they had completed the takeover.
Several other Gray Dove members walked straight toward the still-unconscious Shen Kai. They took out a specially made, energy-restraint stretcher. With the professionalism and cold indifference of someone handling a high-risk object, they secured Shen Kai to the stretcher and carried him onto one of the transport crafts.
Throughout the entire process, there was no communication with Gestalt, Ryan, or Nadeshiko.
"Where are you taking him?!" Nadeshiko tried to step forward, but a Gray Dove member forced her back with a cold stare and silently raised a pulse weapon.
Gestalt reached out and pulled Nadeshiko back behind him. He shook his head slightly but with an unmistakable finality.
He knew that, in front of these people, any form of questioning or resistance would be meaningless and lead to worse consequences.
He, Ryan, and Nadeshiko were "invited" onto another transport craft by two other Gray Dove members whose posture allowed for no refusal.
Inside the cabin, aside from the cold metal seats and two "Gray Dove" guards standing as silently as statues, there was nothing else.
Ryan tried to speak up and question them several times, but Gestalt silenced him with a look. Frustrated, Ryan could only rest his head against the cold porthole and watch the ravaged landscape of the "Contact Zone" speed by below. His heart was filled with humiliation and fear of the unknown.
Meanwhile, Nadeshiko tightly clutched the medical recorder containing Shen Kai's blood sample and preliminary scan data—the only thing she had salvaged from the chaos—her knuckles white from the force of her grip. She didn't know what awaited Shen Kai, nor did she know what awaited them.
Gestalt closed his eyes, burying all his emotions deep inside.
He knew that, from the moment the "Iron Curtain Protocol" was activated, the fate of the "Pathfinder" squad was no longer in their hands. Their battle might have ended, but a new, more perilous, and silent war had only just begun.
When the transport craft passed back through the thick alloy dome of Rocky City, Gestalt opened his eyes.
In his eyes, the familiar gray dome looked more like the entrance to a giant, cold cage.