It was not just Nero who was alarmed by Remi's absence. Without her, the machines were unusable. There were some machines that, if provided the least bit of aether, would automatically perform their function. But most machines required a higher quality or concentration of aether than Neophytes were able to provide, rendering them unable to even use the machines.
That meant that if they didn't find Remi, there would only be a few people who could enter the secure zone in the basement.
They spread out to search, and eventually found her, but her condition was not great. Remi, to begin with, had a very frail body. That not only reduced her stamina, strength and mobility, but her capacity to tolerate damage as well.
When Nero eventually found her, she was lying unconscious, her entire face black and purple from bruises. She was not bleeding from anywhere, and she was breathing, but it was impossible for him to judge the extent of her injuries. Most likely, she would not even be waking up any time soon, let alone using the machines for them.
In fact, even her survival may be at risk, considering that she needed to be carried out of the facility, and if she had any internal wounds they would only worsen if the journey was bumpy.
Even if she originally had ulterior motives in wanting to stay behind, there was nothing she could do about it now.
Nero exchanged glances with the others. They all knew that their situation had just become much worse.
After a head count they discovered that barely 13 of them were still in a decent condition, and the rest were wounded to various degrees. Since they did not know their exact numbers, it was difficult to tell how many of them had died, but the number was at least twenty of them.
The others started trying to contact the command centre, trying to decide what to do, but the decision was already in front of them. They had to take the wounded back, and leave the corpses here. But leaving the corpses here meant condemning them to being eaten by Mutts or even berserkers. It was… a disturbing thought. No one wanted to make that call, not even Maximilian.
Nero could see in their eyes the hope that reinforcements would come or that they would get other orders. It was unlikely. But regardless of what happened, Nero had something else to do.
He returned to the room where they had taken refuge, Jackal and the wounded soldiers still sitting in a corner. After making sure they weren't in need of immediate medical attention, Nero walked over to Herbert's corpse and began to check it.
Although body armour typically did not have pockets, sometimes they had hidden pouches. Besides that, each soldier here was wearing a small backpack and a few other strapons to carry other essentials, so Nero went through them meticulously looking for any clues.
He had no idea why Herbert might try to harm him, and the reasons could range from petty grievances, conspiracies targeting him, or someone targeting Major Liam. Heck, it might even be someone trying to target one of Nero's parents.
Without any clues, it would be impossible to get to the bottom of this. Yet as he went through all the pockets, Nero discovered nothing of significance. Most of his cards were generic, and he had little out of the ordinary in his bag.
There were a few potions, and a few random items that looked like they had been taken from the research lab. Even though they did not look like they might have anything to do with why Herbert attacked him, Nero grabbed them.
The remainder of Herbert's team hadn't joined them to begin with, so none of them were around. That meant that Nero had no way of knowing if he was being targeted by the whole team, or just Herbert? Perhaps the reason he had followed Nero to begin with was to find an opportunity to deal with him.
Soon the decision from the command centre came. They had to retreat immediately and return to the ground floor. Once enough Neophytes were gathered, Shirly would guide the way to the final security node.
For now, Nero, Arter and the rest would proceed into the high security area to scout out the area, and if possible, shut down the node. In the meantime, the army would come up with another way to access the machines so that they could continue to seek access.
The few who could move helped gather all the wounded, but bringing them all back would be a slow process. Not only did a lot of them need to be carried, even the ones who could walk on their own couldn't move quickly. Such a slow pace naturally meant that, sooner or later, they would encounter more enemies.
Compared to the ease with which they arrived, their retreat was much tougher, and Nero needed to fight much harder. But, at last, after two torturous hours, they reached the ground level without any further casualties.
The absence of the fog, and the countless soldiers standing on patrol finally allowed everyone to feel a sense of security, and what followed immediately was exhaustion.
Even Nero suddenly became aware of how truly famished he was. He had been eating nothing but rations for a day, and though that was not a long period, the amount of exertion he faced during that time was immense.
But Nero pushed thoughts of food aside. He had to contact the major as soon as possible and tell him about the assassination attempt on Nero's life. Since there were witnesses to Nero killing Herbert, chances were high that they would reveal what they thought had happened.
Before that happened he needed to have his defence in place. Even if, for whatever reason, the witnesses did not reveal the fact that he killed Herbert, Nero himself wanted to get to the bottom of things.
But as he asked around for the major, he learned that the major was inside the facility as well, somewhere on the upper floors.
Unable to get in contact with him, Nero told Gabriel, Wendy, Harold and Jackal exactly what happened in detail. As soon as the major returned, any who got the chance would need to share the details with him.
But that was all the free time that Nero got. Since he was not visibly wounded, and was one of the people suspected to have gained authority for the lower level, he was brought aside for inspection.
The doctors checked him for any internal injuries and treated some of the scrapes he had accumulated. Then he was ordered to eat and get some sleep to rest up while the Neophytes for the next push into the basement were gathered.
MVLeMpYr-unofficial-chapter
As strange as the orders were, Nero was immensely happy to obey. There was not much variety for food, mainly more rations but of a different variety. Even so, Nero ate ravenously, and drank water as if he'd never get the chance again, and his body thanked him for it by hitting him with a wave of intense exhaustion afterwards.
Nero was led to the barracks, which had walls insulated using spells, so there was no sound that carried through.
As soon as he lay down on a bunk, he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Nero woke up with a start to someone shaking him, and realised that he hadn't even heard the person approach him.
Either the other guy was incredibly quiet, or Nero was more tired than he realised. When he felt the familiar soreness in his muscles, spreading across his entire being, he knew that it was probably the latter.
"You're being sent back down, get up," said the soldier, letting him know what was in store for him. Nero was actually quite surprised no one had come to arrest him yet.
After all, he did kill someone in the basement. But maybe the witnesses had been too scared to speak. Or, the much more likely scenario was that they were so gravely wounded that they had been artificially put to sleep while they were treated.
Nero stretched and did a few warm up exercises, allowing the blood to flow to his aching muscles as he followed the soldier out. This time around, most of Nero's own team was also injured, leaving only him and Gabriel uninjured, so it was unlikely he would be leading a team.
As it turned out, he was correct, although he misjudged the situation a bit. Nero, Arter, Maximilian and Gabriel were put in a team together, since they were the only ones who gained the basement access, and Arter was the team leader.
The others would escort them and Shirly down to the security zone. Since the army had not been able to come up with a way they could deactivate the node safely, they instead handed over a very powerful bomb to Arter.
Although the activation card for that could be used by a Neophyte, the bomb itself was very powerful, which was another reason they had such a massive escort. They couldn't afford the bomb experiencing any shocks during a fight, which is why the others would be doing all the fighting.