Carthaki Satellite City
Eastern Outskirts
About 163 minutes since Operation Hebron commenced
Stray bullets whistle through the air as the last Corrupted collapses. Amid the ruins of the "Graveyard", a flag bearing the emblem of Carthaki slowly rises.
K1 to all special task force units, the Corrupted surrounding the airport runway have been eliminated. My team has successfully secured the "Graveyard".
I repeat, we have successfully secured the "Graveyard". We're launching the green flare now to signal Company B to commence casualty evacuation.
Operation Hebron is proceeding more smoothly than anticipated.
Company A has successfully diverted most of the Corrupted, while Jagienka's special task force has captured the "Graveyard".
Get out of the way! Make room for the trucks! Move it!
While establishing defenses, Jagienka directs her soldiers to take the vehicles out of the hangar and position them on the wide runway, preparing for the upcoming evacuation.
Report! Company B's advance party has arrived with the wounded!
Truck engines roar across the runway as waves of soldiers carrying stretchers pass through the checkpoint, rushing toward the convoy of vehicles lined up in formation.
The wounded are gradually loaded into the vehicles. Amidst the bustling crowd, Jagienka suddenly spots a familiar figure.
...Zhang.
He lies on the stretcher, barely breathing and deathly pale. His sunken eyes are dull and lifeless, while bandages wrap around his already gaunt frame like a funeral shroud.
...
Seemingly responding to Jagienka's voice, Zhang lets out a moan as faint as a whisper.
How much longer can he hold on?
He's showing signs of infection. Without proper medication... it's hard to say.
Please take good care of him. You'll all be evacuated soon, I promise.
The medic sighs and nods wordlessly.
As she closes the vehicle door, Jagienka feels a sudden sharp pain across her scalp: the intuition forged through countless battles is warning her of something.
She whirls around, scanning her surroundings. The hastily established defensive positions, the crowded runway, the personnel rushing about...
Everything seems to be in order. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Perhaps it was just her imagination?
Casualty verification complete, ma'am! No one is hurt apart from two minor injuries in the 2nd squad!
The soldier's call interrupts Jagienka's thoughts.
Any word from the other units?
Not sure, ma'am. The officer in charge of Company B's advance party is over there. Should I bring him to you?
Take me to him. Something... doesn't feel right.
Thank god, finally a break... Sigh...
After loading the stretcher onto the truck, the medic exhales heavily with relief and slumps against the tailgate.
Ugh...!
He barely has a few seconds to relax when a pained groan suddenly comes from the stretcher.
Hang in there a little longer. I've used up all the morphine they gave me...
...Doc!
Suddenly, he reaches out and clutches the doctor's left wrist.
Have you ever... caught a cuckoo before?
...What?
The doctor furrows his brow, puzzled by the question.
I've lived in the city my whole life. You need to rest now.
Cough... When I was a child, swallows built a nest under our roof... One day, my mother brought a wooden ladder and asked me to climb up to see the eggs the swallows had laid.
Ignoring the doctor's warning, he continues his story with surprising animation.
I remember it clearly... a clutch of white eggs with black speckles, each no bigger than my pinky finger.
And among them, I found a light green egg with red speckles that glistened in the sunlight... like a translucent piece of jade.
My mother told me it was a cuckoo's egg... They'd lay their eggs in other birds' nests.
The doctor frowns, noticing that the patient's previously raspy voice is gradually becoming clearer.
Did you not grow up in Carthaki? I thought cuckoos were only found in Kowloong.
...Other birds would painstakingly care for this egg, nurturing it until it hatched. Only then would they discover that the creature wasn't their own flesh and blood...
I'm not following. What are you trying to say?
Heh... What I mean is, doc...
We're beating those bastards to hell and back! We're ****ing winning this!
What's with the long face, young lady? You're just like Li. We're about to get the hell out of this godforsaken place. Isn't that good news?
No, something's missing...
The tingling at the top of her head turns into a sharp pain. Cold sweat soaks Jagienka's inner lining as she squints, scanning the vast expanse of the "Graveyard" around her.
What's missing? I've told you several times already, all the ****ing Corrupted are being contained by Company A!
The Ascendant is missing! Why hasn't John Doe...
SCREEECH!
Suddenly, a piercing screech tears through the air.
—GET DOWN!!!
BOOOOOM!
A truck comes barreling through, narrowly missing Jagienka before plowing directly into the armory behind her, triggering a violent explosion.
Flames reach for the heavens as the scorching blast wave instantly knocks Jagienka to the ground. Then, a series of unsettling noises suddenly erupts behind her.
The soldiers freeze and turn around, horrified to discover that the dozens of trucks parked together before them are sparking like a massive chain of severed cables, each one erupting with brilliant flashes.
Crackle... crackle...
RUN!!!
The next second, dozens of explosions intertwine, compressing into a single earth-shattering tempest that violently tears apart the space before them.
A massive fireball surges skyward, lifting the ground like a tsunami. The floor rises, churns, and tears open scorched, ruinous gashes in its wake.
The vehicles are devoured and shredded, their tires instantly melted into sludge. Countless pieces of steel are torn apart by the flames, transforming into a torrential rain of metal that howls down like hail.
AAARGHHH!!!
White-hot metal shards baptize the ground like bullets, killing hundreds of soldiers instantly, turning them into mere fodder for this feast of steel.
HA HA HA HA!!
A high-pitched ringing tears at Jagienka's eardrums. Through her blurred vision, she sees Zhang standing at the center of the inferno, arms outstretched in a theatrical display.
The flames have burned away his skin, revealing a metallic skeleton beneath the flesh that gleams with an eerie green glow.
I am the lone cuckoo, and when I spread my wings... the entire world shall tremble!
Enemy attack!! It's the Ascendant—
Squelch—
John Doe hurls his melted arm forward, piercing straight through the soldier's chest.
Aah... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Die! Monster!
The surviving sergeant snatches up a standard gunblade and charges forward, slashing at John Doe's flank. With a loud clang, he severs the Ascendant's other arm.
And you...
In the span of a single breath, the mechanical Ascendant twists his neck around with a sharp crack, his shattered mask flickering with an eerie green light.
M-monster!!
Heh heh... Fertilizer...
BOOM—
An armor-piercing round tears through the air with a blazing tail, punching straight through the Ascendant's skull.
That's the second time you've died by my hand... Scumbag!
Thud—the Ascendant stumbles, his body collapsing like a tower of blocks and crumpling to the ground in front of the sergeant.
Huff... puff... ****! ****!
Um...
Seemingly having used the last of her strength to pull the trigger, Jagienka staggers, half-kneeling on the ground and gripping her weapon tightly to keep her swaying body from collapsing entirely.
Heart-wrenching screams echo in her ears as she looks up to see what seems like the entire world burning in a sea of flames.
Hold... on...
She bites her lip until it bleeds, struggling to her feet. But her legs give out after just one step, and she collapses onto the fractured ground.
A crimson sky reflects in Jagienka's eyes as the "Graveyard" around her transforms into an inferno, indiscriminately melting both steel and the flesh of her comrades alike.
Thick, scorching smoke fills her nostrils. As the world fades to black around her, she thinks she can hear the wailing of air raid sirens... just like she did on that fateful morning so long ago.
Meanwhile, Carthaki Radiation Zone
RAAAARGH!!!
Bzzzt...!
Not bad. But... it's only you left now, isn't it?
After a long and arduous journey, Nirvatia and you finally reach the base of the Alliance Heritage Monument. Now, the massive Golden Oak has burst through its original form, becoming one with the entire structure.
"For a Better Tomorrow"—though the monument is cracked and broken, ravaged by decades of destruction, the words on the monument remain clearly visible.
...
Nirvatia tilts her face upward, silently gazing at the monument that has witnessed both triumph and tragedy.
...The closer we get to the Golden Oak, the denser the Red Mist becomes. The Punishing Virus concentration here already exceeds our blocker's threshold.
Stay close to me once we're inside. Don't wander off on your own, understood, little raven?
Yeah, let's go.
