Arknights story · Critical Phase Transition
17-16 Onwards, Ever Onwards
The Generalik prepares to take the research results out of Zelgrad at his mother's command, but Hierda stops him from slaughtering the researchers. Tulin gives a speech, joining with Tonya to reveal the truth, and calling for the people to leave Zelgrad. Scioppa officially defects, and Evgeny sends his war casters to suppress the rebellion.
1 scenes, 313 lines
1. Before Operation
313 linesWhy does Anatoliy not want me to go with him?
What is he... going to do?
It's better if you don't know.
Please trust in the Generalik. He will not break his promise to you.
......
...What a pain...
P-Please, sir, I'm begging you! All our research is here, all of it!
But that door, I don't know... I really don't know how to open it!
None of us have the authorization, except Director Alita Valueva, but she...
But she's dea—
ARGH!
......
Dead. Alita, dead?
At the back of the group surrounded by soldiers, Klim cannot stop himself from turning his head, looking back at the corpse tossed away in the dark corridor.
He cannot make out anything, yet still he franticly turns his head over and over, until the hilt of a soldier's sword strikes his skull.
(Quietly) Stop that!
Now, as for the rest of you...
Can anyone here tell me why not even my authority is able to work here, hmm?
Am I, perhaps, lower on the totem pole than a lowly lab director?
Silence. Nobody dares to open their mouth without thought, out of fear of the terrible fate that might pounce on them at any time.
You, in the first row, the closest to the corpse. Speak.
Only a small handful of high-level researchers can open that door, out of concerns for a security leak—
Which means even I am locked out of this door?
AIEE—
Don't kill her just yet. Tell me, where are these high-level researchers?
...Th-They w-were all, you—
Oh, how unfortunate. However, since you know so much about it, then surely there must be some sort of emergency opening procedure?
A laboratory like this must has one.
Or do you know, and simply do not wish to tell me?
N-No, sorry, I-I don't know, I'm just speculating based on past experience, it's my job—
Forgive me, Generalik, I—
Useless trash.
*sigh*...
What a waste of time. Kill them, starting from the right-hand side. Keep going until one of them figures out a way to open this, or until they're all dead.
What about the Marshal's orders?
Mother only told me to bring me back results. She said nothing about bringing back the things underground.
So long as I do my best, she will not blame me.
Look. Are these not the results of my hard labor...
The great effort of enduring this headache?
He points towards the corpses and bloodstains scattered across the floor, an innocent smile upon his face.
Yes, sir... Absolutely correct.
I truly don't understand what people see in this thing. If you don't supply it energy, it turns into a bomb. Why not simply blow it up ourselves and start over?
To think it was something like this that forced Mother to abandon Zelgrad... How wretched.
That man over there, what's he saying?
The man standing at the very back can no longer hear clearly. Those shrieks, those sounds of escape, capture, and execution, they are like an automated assembly line in a factory, occurring without his input.
He does not try to turn his head again. Instead, amidst all this noise, amidst his memories playing on loop, he sees only a glimpse of the corpse of his wife...
He falls to his knees, oblivious to the chaos around him.
Alita...
Hey, get up!
I said, GET UP!
......
The young man raises a hand, signaling the guards to stop. A sobbing man is yanked to his feet and tossed aside. Then he walks toward the kneeling man.
The panicking, numbed crowd automatically splits to form a passage for the Generalik.
What are you saying? Why are you kneeling?
Alita...
You know this woman?
I couldn't... leave her.
Merely one of the lab's logistics staff, Generalik, in charge of sweeping and such. He's just scared.
No, he must have some connection with that woman who allowed those people to enter the prototype core.
He might know more than the rest. Pull him up, use your swords or whatever to break him out of his daze—
Anatoliy!
Hierda? Why are you—
You didn't listen to me.
It was you who broke our promise this time.
I did not!
Then how do you explain the bodies on the floor, these trembling, pitiful people... and that man kneeling by you?
You're still... You're still hurting them, and hurting yourself at the same time. When you take the lives of others so easily, you increase the weight pressing down on yourself.
I have no way... I have no way of stopping you. I can only look on helplessly as you slide towards ruin. You can no longer know salvation, Anatoliy.
I can, I can still be saved! I just need you to be by my side—always!
Why... Why does everyone always try to coerce me like this?
Mother is disappointed in me, these servants have no respect for me... They all see me as a useless monster. Are you the same?
Anatoliy.
Hm... hm?
Hierda steps forward, gently holding Anatoliy's hands. He is taller than her, lankier than her. His two hands dwarf hers, far larger than the average adolescent.
She holds them, slowly tightening her grip.
I don't know what this monster you speak of actually is, but a true monster wouldn't care about how others see it. A monster's heart only has space for itself.
You are angry because others mock you, you weep because your friends leave you... You feel pain, don't you?
You are always going against your own intentions to hurt others, to the point you can't see just how much you are hurting yourself.
I believe that deep in your heart, you don't want to do this. Your reaction today proves this.
You say that everyone is coercing you.
But I believe.
You believe... you believe in me? This means you won't leave me, right?
I don't want to leave, but if you keep being like this, without the slightest hint of change, I must leave.
You are so very tired. If you continue on, you will collapse. And all I can do is watch as you doom yourself to this future.
Et tu, Hierda...? Have you joined the others in refusing to save me?
It's not that I don't want to, but I can't. I simply cannot. As I said before, I can soothe the pain in your body, but I cannot soothe the scars on your soul.
It weeps blood. Can you not feel it?
You hurt yourself because of your mother's impossible expectations, but why would a mother be this cruel to her own child?
She has tossed you into such circumstance, forcing you to go against your own desires, to destroy a beautiful city, to end so many innocent lives.
She pushed you in front of all her problems. Maybe she believes you can handle them, but if you never had the right to choose, then does she truly believe in you, or...
Are you just a tool to her?
......
Tools can be replaced, Anatoliy. But you are not a tool, or a monster, are you?
What... What should I do?
Tell me, Hierda. Tell me—
Maybe all you need to do is give her proof.
Proof that you are not a tool, but instead, a human who lives and breathes.
...We've gathered most of the people in this neighborhood, Tulin. Tonya did her best, but not everyone wanted to come.
Reunion's helping us raid the sentry post. We can't afford to waste any time.
Right. Appreciated.
Tonya, you said this was something important, something to do with our lives. You're not lying to us again, right?
No, I'd never.
A crowd of people stand there, sunlight shining on their faces. Many of them look calm, glancing around in puzzlement.
The miners can no longer hold back their rage. They who have returned from the depths of hell can only see such aloofness as hate. They roll up their sleeves and clench their fists...
It's time, Talulah.
Time for?
Time for you to do what you do best: stand up and give a few inspiring words to everyone.
Red... I'm not sure if I still have the right to do that.
'Bam'—
Someone pats her on the back. Talulah turns, and is greeted by Tulin's smile. The ever-cool-headed leader steps forward, standing in front of the crowd.
My Zelgradian friends! My name is Ivan Tulin, and these are my companions behind me.
I am no different from the rest of you. I too am one of the many workers at the beck and call of Ursus, one who has mined in the Northern Tundra for over a decade.
For all those years, the first thing I do every time I left the mines would be to look up at the sky, memorizing the shape of the clouds, the warmth of the sun, the sound birch leaves make when you step on them.
Every time I was deep in the darkest, most dangerous mineshafts, I only had to close my eyes, and those beautiful things would be at my side.
But I could not do so just now.
What I have seen was a hundred times darker than the deepest pit. Underneath your feet, somewhere you cannot see, your fellow Ursines are being brutally murdered.
You mean...?
Some of you saw how we came from the nearby autonomous district. There, we discovered a military lab, and learned their secrets.
Have you ever wondered why Zelgrad opened its doors to those with Oripathy from the rest of Ursus, why all the Infected are being gathered in one place?
It's because the First Army's Originium supplies have nearly run dry! They are burning the Infected like firewood, then performing evil experiments behind those stone walls!
You do not want to know how those Infected are dying, dying with such indignity—
My nephew only had a mild case, but those soldiers still carted him away!
There is still time. We are fighting against the First Army, but we must first keep you all safe.
Keep us safe? From what? What are these 'evil experiments' anyway?
Their research may have led to the spreading of a mysterious disease. Some of you have already seen it for yourselves. Green pustules, spots all over the body—
Some of you even had family who died of it... This is the First Army's unforgivable sin!
News of this strange disease causes the crowd to talk amongst themselves. They talk and they talk, taking note of their conversation partners' expressions. Some faces turn grave, others look towards Tonya.
Is this the weird disease you were talking about, Tonya?
...It is.
The Army covered it up, taking away anyone who caught it to do research...
But that research came at the cost of their lives!
My youngest sister, Nina... Lots of you have seen her, some of you even cradled her...
She caught that disease, and Doctor Nadezhda Pavlovna took her in for treatment, but she still got taken away by those evil men in army clothes... and now—
Nina... She's gone!
As Tonya lifts the swaddling blanket above her head, the raucous crowd falls silent. Many of the residents know that piece of cloth.
They have seen Tonya carry her little sister, wrapped up in that blanket, as she walked between the factories, a blissful smile always on her face.
But we really haven't seen an illness like this before...
Mark's seen it. He looked after Nina for a little while after she got sick. Where is he—
I...
Are you... Mark?
I... I shouldn't have denied you like that, Tonya. I was really, really scared...
But... I can't keep being scared.
He takes off his jacket as he steps forward, revealing terrifying pustules on his skin. The people around him shriek as they back away.
Tonya quickly helps support him. The man who was once her friendly neighbor is now exhausted and weak. This terrifying, debilitating disease has robbed him of most of his ability to even walk.
You have all seen this poor man.
But what you might not have realized is—
If we do not act, if we instead choose to cover our ears and succumb to the apathy they feed us...
This misfortune could fall onto each and every one of us at any time!
The First Army, those self-righteous liars, said the sound of cannons outside the city was to protect us. They said our missing neighbors had 'gone for treatment'...
Lies! Utterly shameless, despicable lies, all of them! When they are not busy beating prisoners, they are busy thinking up new lies.
Their 'secret laboratory' has no doctors, only butchers. They sealed our brothers and sisters in vats, like chopped up pieces of beastmeat.
Is this the 'kindness' Ursus shows us? Are such pitiful souls the Ursines they want to see?
Those who stand above us, those who point their spears at us, they eat the bread we bake, live in the houses we make, and now they come back to us, wanting to turn us into samples of meat for the laboratory bench...
So long as they require it, they will infect us with Oripathy, molding us into whatever form they see fit. It was through these means that they made us impoverished and downtrodden!
Look at the ground beneath your feet. It is rotten to the core. It has rotted and reeked for decades, centuries even.
But now, two paths lie ahead of us.
You can go and be fuel for those vermin, a path where you return to your 'homes', where you line up and wait to be shoveled into their furnaces and stoves, where you lie down in the graves they prepared for us.
Or you can come with me, and leave this damned place. Yes, this path promises only bitter cold, but it is a path you can walk upon your own two feet, a path we were born to walk!
Come! We shall walk away with all our children, all our family, all our friends!
Let them weep over the ruins, let their hollow souls feel the pain of having nothing!
For the sake of all our tomorrows, come with me, and leave this tomb!
As Tulin yells out the last of the speech, the crowd breaks out into enthusiastic shouting of their own. Several familiar faces step up once more—Reunion has routed the nearby sentry post.
Tulin's gaze sweeps across Red, across Sirka, eventually stopping on the one leading them. Tulin locks eyes with Talulah, until the cheers and applause die down.
Talulah does not blink. She saw the expressions on the residents' faces as they looked towards Tulin. She had seen such faces before.
Many years ago, in another plaza, people looked to her this way, with eyes that said, 'So long as we follow Talulah, we can do anything'. Eyes brimming with hope.
Talulah smiles. A smile of relief, maybe. It is as if after countless days of wandering the endless wastes alone, she suddenly sees another pair of footprints walking alongside her.
But there is not just one pair. Countless others walk with her through the Northern Tundra.
Tulin's people are ready, Talulah. They'll be in charge of mobilizing, organizing and evacuating the residents of other districts, while we draw the army's attention, just like we planned.
How are things on your side, Closure?
Ready to head out whenever. Whatever happens, I need to get past that wall.
I'll also be heading to the wall. Anatoliy must be overseeing the research institute...
He escaped me once through sheer luck. It won't save him a second time.
Right. Don't get too caught up in battle, Red. Protecting the residents while they evacuate is our top priority.
Got it.
...Take care, Talulah.
I still have a few things I need to say to everyone in Reunion. You can head off first.
Sure. Let's go, Sirka.
The crowd slowly disperses. Talulah turns around. A red-haired Reproba sits on some steps not too far away, silently watching her.
It's just us here now, Talulah.
Get started with your excuses already. You could've kept skulking around in the shadows, but you chose to show yourself again and stir up trouble for some reason—
I need to apologize to you, Lyudmila.
...What?
Not just to you, but to everyone from that time, to those who believed that I could bring them into the future...
Even if many of them can no longer hear me.
So you came to Zelgrad to atone?
Atonement is beyond me. I just want to do... the things I did not do back then.
(Quietly) ...Enough.
Are you going to go with Closure to find the Sarcophagus?
The young redhead turns her head to look at the crowd heading towards the edge of the city. The din in the background is formed from their footsteps, alongside cannon fire from who-knows-where.
She understands that there is not much time for a chat right now. Whether they want to talk about the past or the future, there are much more pressing matters when countless lives are on the line—
But she speaks all the same.
No.
I should be investigating it thanks to some intelligence I found, but I figured something would go wrong, so I gave that info to some other people who are also looking for it.
If my guess is right... The answer should be inside.
It's a strange feeling. I only learned recently that there's a lot of things I don't have to take on alone.
......
Besides, you know how it is. If we have to fight in the alleys, my Arts can stop an entire army. My smoke can screen more people while they get out of here.
Lyudmila, what I meant was, your father once gave everything for the Sarcophagus. I'm not trying to change your mind, but if you still have regrets—
Listen, Talulah. I used to hate you, just like how I hated how powerless I was.
Lyudmila...
I hated all the lies and betrayal, until... I suddenly realized one day, all those memories that chained me, they didn't feel so heavy anymore.
Slowly but surely, I found myself with more things I have to do. Like how I should be heading off with those people over there right now.
Ivan Tulin... An amazing one.
Hmph. I've heard that name before. One who writes good essays, ones as sharp as a knife, but what Tulin's really like, that remains to be seen.
I won't believe in perfect leaders again.
You might be right.
So you see, we don't need to keep working together. We have our own battlefields to fight. I need to help people evac, and you...
You need to do the things you haven't done yet.
...Alright.
I will.
Then... I still have... one last request.
Oh? And what do you have left that affords you the privilege?
The fact that the Volnov is the closest Fourth Army unit to Zelgrad.
You know I've got a choice. I can choose to 'help' you declare war on the First Army, trigger some mutually assured destruction, the works.
You would rather go down and be reunited with Lieutenant Sirka than be resigned to your fate? How touching.
Then let me hear her voice one more time.
Just one last time.
After that, Sechin will follow your plan to the letter.
......
Bring her here.
I thank Your High Excellency for your kindness.
...Scioppa—
It is the exact same voice. The same voice he has heard reporting in over staticky comms countless times.
It is unlike the one he hears when they are together, talking face to face. Only on the battlefield, during drills, during dire circumstances when emotions are hard to read—
Does he hear this calm but cold voice.
...I will find you, Sirka.
Don't, Scioppa. Not for me.
It's not just for you. I'm not letting any of my people get banished because of Oripathy again.
I'll find all of you.
...Arrogant fool.
Now, I set off.
But before that, I've got a question for you. The last words you said to me before we got—
Enough, take her away—
—What was it?
......
I said, take her away!
I have satisfied your final request, Major Razin. Do not push your luck.
Yes, you have satisfied me, and I've got no further requests.
I'm just a little hurt. Seems she's forgotten them already.
But I still remember. Her last words to me were: 'We will not meet again, not until we hear the call of death herself.'
What a cruel woman.
Cut the call.
Roger!
Scioppa Razin! You—
That actually was Sirka, Scioppa—
I'm an idiot.
What?
That wasn't Sirka. It was never Sirka!
It was just a war caster imitating her, using snippets from open comms as a model! How did it take me this long to notice?!
No wonder he didn't let me take that dagger. Probably another product of Arts, unable to keep its shape...
The only bit I understood was you saying that wasn't Sirka. Are you a hundred percent sure?
They analyzed how she speaks, even compiled the details of how she tried to kill herself after they arrested her for extra believability, but it was all wrong. Now that I look back, every single word was wrong.
War casters can't read minds, so they have no idea what Sirka said to me.
Besides, our noble lady wouldn't kill herself the moment she got captured, she'd take down a bunch of them with her.
Hah. Even you saw right through it, while I only just realized. I really am a complete idiot.
Then do we stick to that old bastard's plan?
No... of course not.
Oleg, get everyone who can use concealment Arts up on deck right now. Use the technique I taught you to wipe the Volnov off the positioning systems for a while.
Test all our equipment, Efim. Once the ship is concealed...
I'll give a ship-wide broadcast.
Huh? New orders from the boss?
He better not be trying to get us off the ship again! I'll hide in the boiler room if I have to—
All hands on the Volnov, this is Scioppa Razin.
So formal... What's going on?
First, let's forget all the foolish decisions I made earlier. Once everything's been settled, you can turn around and have a good laugh at me.
This next part of the announcement is more important, though.
I've already transferred all command authority to Oleg Khmelnytsky, a fine fellow you all know and love.
What?
Transferring command authority...
Where're you going, Chief?
...Ever since that annihilation operation in December, I've found myself thinking about what 'Volnik'—maybe even the 'Sechin' made up of us Volniki—actually means.
In peace time, we're relatively privileged, looking after the land outside the cities for the tsar, but at the same time, we have to face Catastrophe, along with unending migration and separation.
In war time, we're valiant fighters, the sharpest, nimblest blade in any army's arsenal. But we're forever outsiders, never fitting in, never allowed to die with even a little dignity.
......
I often wonder, does it really have to be this way? We non-Ursus have been living and dying like this for so long, but is this actually right?
But now I know. It's not right. So we need to get ourselves out of this mess.
...To be honest, I should've realized before we wandered into the clutches of the Fourth Army.
The past exploits of our people have already been forgotten. Even deeds as recent as our parents' generation, where they served as the vanguard for both sides of the Great Rebellion, have been lost to history, their names unrecorded.
And now, will we follow the same road they did, a road that ends only in the blackness of death?
No, no we won't.
You tell 'em, boss...
As your chief, I should be fighting for you all. Even if all I'm fighting for is a chance to break free of our chains.
Upon the deck, inside the control center, in the boiler room, in the corners of the storeroom, countless men and women lift their heads to listen to their chieftain's speech. They silently nod, or they wait in doubt.
They feel ripples echoing across their hearts as they hear these words, even if they do not fully understand their meaning.
Sirka hasn't been captured by Evgeny Andrianov. We were all taken in by his lies.
And the entire reason he used such a despicable scheme was to ruthlessly send us into the front lines against the First Army as cannon fodder—
Well, we're not just going to sit back and let them kill us.
Some people who are already dead said it best. Ursus is burning down, we just never saw the flames.
The mines in the north are shut, and so are the factories in Central. Angry workers march through the streets with weapons in hand. Even students are lifting their skinny fists in resistance—
I say it's time. Time for us to ask Ursus to honor our promise.
Our ship and her crew are no longer in the 'terrorizing commoners' business.
I want us to leave the Fourth Army, leave anywhere that would treat us only as weapons.
I want freedom for the Volniki, true freedom, even if it means meeting with the Viy.
Hah...
I declare that the Volnov will not be heading towards Zelgrad. From now on, the Special Tactics Formation 'Sechin' is no longer a part of the Fourth Army.
I will personally inform Kuznetsov—
—Who?!
Mutineering, instigation, insubordination...
You have violated martial law. You have betrayed your orders.
You all... should die.
The very next moment, space warps around Scioppa. He senses himself being dragged into a free-floating space, apart from the ship.
'Morvan'. This is clearly 'frozen space', a place that leaves the one being interrogated feeling like they are being eaten away by fire, both mentally and physically.
He knows this is only an illusion, but it also means he has to use all his mental fortitude and more to break free of it.
Kuznetsov's personal guard... The war casters.
It's only been a few years, but I don't recognize your uniforms at all now. Did they rework how they make you people, or did Evgeny have other designs for you?
The war caster does not reply. Several streams of Arts fly towards him like arrows without the caster even raising their hand, piercing through his flesh.
His one and only warning.
Gah—!
Major Scioppa Razin, commander of Special Tactics Formation, Sechin.
In the name of Marshal Evgeny Andrianov Kuznetsov of the Fourth Army, I give you your final orders.
'Direct your men to continue onwards. You are not permitted to rest before you reach Zelgrad.'
If the Volnov deviates in the slightest, or slows for even a second, all hands on deck will immediately be executed. Without exception.
The ship will continue on to Zelgrad, carrying your corpses.