Perspective: Gestalt Iron-Gray-Resolute Sergeant
Three days.
Three full days had passed since the Gray Doves brought them back to Rocky City and placed them in these independent barracks. The barracks were called a "temporary billet," but they were really a form of semi-house arrest.
To Gestalt, however, it felt as though only three cruel moments had passed, relentlessly carving themselves deeper into his memory.
Late at night, the artificial sun above the dome was precisely adjusted to "Standard Night" mode. Gestalt sat alone at the simple metal desk in his Spartan single-person dorm.
In the corner of the desk lay a standard-issue Federation military identification tag, carefully cleaned, but with faint dark red bloodstains and combat scratches still visible on its edges.
Gestalt slowly picked it up, his rough thumb gently stroking the cold, deep metal engravings on its surface.
"Marcus Jones, Sergeant, Affiliation: Pan-Abyssal Federation Army — 7th Rapid Response Cluster — Worker Bee Six (Honorary Designation)."
The memory of Jones's face, always bearing a slightly roguish soldier's grin, his final sky-shaking dying roar of "For the Federation!", and the piercing cold dial tone from the command system when the green light representing his life signal suddenly extinguished on the comms channel tormented Gestalt day and night, like the most venomous "Core Whisper."
The "Wailing Aggregation"... For a "Calamity-Tier" horror of that magnitude to appear on a "low-risk" patrol route on the outer edge of the "Contact Zone" was no accident.
Was it a fatal intelligence failure? Or was there a deeper, unknown reason behind it?
He remembered Specialist Li Jian from the Technology Division and his "special interest" in Shen Kai. He also remembered the vague yet momentous encrypted directive from the highest echelons of the Federation from the enigmatic Supreme Commander Axis: "At all costs, ensure the safety of Pathfinder-04."
Shen Kai. He is the bearer of a terrifying power from his mysterious "Colorless Core." This power erupted at the final moment when all had fallen into despair. It is sufficient to subvert the existing system of strength.
Gestalt closed his eyes wearily. He knew the monstrous waves his detailed, almost provocative report would stir up within the Federation's Technology Division and the powerful departments led by the Internal Affairs Investigation Department.
The scientific madman Li Jian would surely be ecstatic. However, Internal Affairs would likely view any "unstable factor" as a deadly plague that must be eliminated immediately.
But how could he forget? At the end of that brutal battle, there was a light in the eyes of the usually silent boy—a light mixed with ultimate pain, overwhelming rage, and a pure, resolute desire to protect his comrades at any cost.
That was definitely not the pure desire for destruction and slaughter exhibited by an "aberration" contaminated at its core. It was a primal power filled with primitive wildness and ferocity but still shining with an unyielding will of "humanity" at its core.
A true "variable," sufficient to shatter all existing balance.
Gestalt stood up straight, his spine slightly bent from years of combat. He left his dorm, his heavy military boots clanking on the cold, hard alloy corridor.
Federation Medical Division, Sector A7, outside the Intensive Care Isolation Zone.
Through the thick, one-way, reinforced observation window, Gestalt first saw Ryan lying on a medical bed. The kid seemed to finally be asleep, but his brow was still tightly furrowed, tormented by nightmares. That battle had clearly left an indelible mark on his young, fragile heart.
In the isolation and observation room next door, Nadeshiko Sakuraba was curled up on an attendant's cot with a thin blanket haphazardly draped over her. She had barely left her post outside of Shen Kai's special care unit, stubbornly insisting on helping the medical department nurse him. Though she had seemed somewhat gentle before joining the squad, this girl possessed an inner toughness and persistence that far exceeded Gestalt's initial expectations.
Finally, there was Shen Kai in Special Care Unit 01. This unit was located in the deepest part of the isolation zone, which had the highest level of security and life support systems. He still lay quietly on the medical bed filled with biological gel, connected to countless sophisticated monitoring leads.
The various data points displayed on the state-of-the-art, comprehensive vital signs monitor at his bedside were eerily stable. Specialist Li Jian and his top-tier technical team, who almost never left the core laboratory, had practically been stationed here on a twenty-four-hour rotation for the past few days.
Gestalt looked at the young, pale face still unconscious within the observation window, a complex mix of feelings churning inside him.
For the Pan-Abyssal Federation, was this boy a sword of salvation, capable of cleaving through all the despair and darkness before them?
Or was he the ultimate catastrophe, one that could detonate at any moment due to his inability to control his power? A catastrophe that would be far more terrifying than any known "Iridescence Core."
Whatever the final answer, Gestalt Iron-Gray-Resolute, the current captain of the "Pathfinder" squad filled with unknowns and variables from its inception, must shoulder this responsibility—a weight heavy enough to crush anyone.
He slowly turned and left the corridor of the medical division, filled with an air of oppression and sorrow. The eternal, unchanging "Standard Night" of Rocky City was still cold and long. His footsteps were heavier and firmer than when he arrived.