Chapter 70 Inferiority.

It took ten days for temperature around the forty sixth base to go down and for the radiations to get cleaned.

A short period when one considers that the area had experienced something on the level of a nuclear winter.

Even with the cleansing done the soldiers were still prohibited from leaving the base. It made it so they can come out of the nuclear shelter, sure, but that's only on the condition that the base's force field is deployed.

Sam was forced to come out much earlier to supervise and guide the Valkyries's repairs. Hearing what happened to Zero Five he quickly stuffed himself into a hazmat suit and headed to the lab.

While her injuries were severe, he was relieved that they weren't as bad as the last time. Putting her arm back into place took a while but it wasn't a difficult procedure. the same couldn't be said about the other Valkyrie though.

The forty fifth base was the closest so they sent their Valkyries to provide support. Two of them were destroyed, one survived but the last one was in a terrible condition.

They couldn't do anything about those who were lost. The one that survived returned to her base almost immediately, as for the last one it was requested that they at least perform the neccessary repairs before sending her back.

It was his first time putting a Valkyrie that had been split in two back together, but by tweaking Eir's parameters a little he managed to guide process and soon enough she was on the road to recovery.

"Guess there are things only you can do." Zero Three had said once.

She came every day to check on the injured Valkyries same as the last time Five was injured. She looked down the entire time but sadly Sam didn't have the leisure to comfort her.

There was another reason as to why he had to leave the nuclear shelter long before the other soldiers came out. On the day of the disaster Sam had discovered the corpse of sergeant Jordan Clementine laying down on the floor of the cafeteria. Almost immediately all fingers were pointed accusing him of murder. Everyone knew about the bad blood between him and the deceased so it was only natural that he would be the prime suspect.

By investigating the corpse it was concluded that the orange haired soldier died from his neck getting snapped, something Sam wouldn't be able to do even if he was in full health.

While the accusations ceased after the results were made public, some still looked at him with doubtful eyes making his stay in the shelter insufferable.

The investigation went on for days but no clues were found. Of course since Sam was innocent it means that the real murdered was still out there and that only helped to made everything more stressful.

Once Zero Five recovered the Valkyries went back to their usual daily missions, having stopped for a few days just in case another strong Calamity appeared.

With the commander's permission the three were now allowed to use their second armor without restrictions. There was no point in conserving energy if their chances at victory

decreased.

That said, Sam couldn't help thinking that it's all pointless. He had watched the footage Zero Three brought back again and again. The new type of Calamity that appeared, the one that is capable of speech. Even a blind idiot would tell you that they look like Valkyries. If not for their overwhelming power and their resistance to the nuclear contamination there wouldn't be anything to distinguish them from each other.

That said, since it threatened to create unimaginable chaos the higher ups of the Resistance ordered that their presence must be kept a secret at all costs.

The similarities to the Valkyries wasn't the only thing they were worried about. The humanoid weapons were humanity's last line of defence. So far the only Calamities that have been a threat to them were the Ragnarok heralds, but now new ones appeared, ones that the Valkyries were helpless against. Human had only recently regained some hope, it would be too cruel to inform the public that they had taken two steps backwards after advancing a single one.

A month after the big battle. Life finally began to return to normal. Everything had been peaceful with no Calamity appearances. Sam could finally walk around without his hazmat suit, but even though his body was longing for the warm light of the sun he had been spending more and more time in his lab rarely coming out.

"Old man, are you alive?" Zero Three called, looking around the messy lab.

Stacks of papers were laying around. The walls were scribbled with symbols, mathematic equations and indecipherable text, showing that the white boards didn't have enough space.

Several desks were brought in with multiple computer screens placed on them. It was as if the place went back to how it was a few months ago.

"Hm? Ah, you're already back." Sam emerged from underneath one of the desks. He was wrapped in a sleeping bag, the white of his eyes having gone red with heavy bags speaking of his lack of rest.

"Doctor, you've spent another night here…" Nine said, doing her best to hide her worried expression as she struggled to smile. "It's not good for your health."

"I know, I know." Sam said, taking his phone out and checking the time. "Shit, I missed another one. Hope Shizuru isn't angry…"

He quickly wrote a message to his girlfriend and hit send before turning back to the Valkyries.

"Alright. Let's start your examination."

"How about you go take a shower first." Zero Three backed away, pinching her nose as she spoke.

"Yeah, I get it already. I don't have the time so get in the damn pod."

Sam's response shook the three Valkyries and they all moved to the next room to undergo their examination.

Sam did notice their gloomy expressions however he couldn't bring himself to apologize. His life has been too stressful lately with the bad news coming in one after the other, he simple wasn't in the mood to watch his words.

As if things weren't bad already Alice returned from her recent trip to the HQ and brought with her the news of Odin's disappearance. Apparently he just vanished leaving behind the last batch of Valkyrie which didn't even make up for the ones lost in the last battle.

The mad scientist basically bailed on the rest of humanity. With his resources and genius it wouldn't be difficult for him to leave the planet on his own and with a few Valkyries in tow he could restart the human race all by himself somewhere else.

Sam couldn't blame the man for leaving. In fact if he had the chance he would've left as well. But sadly he was trapped there waiting for the next time death comes knocking. The only way he could keep himself from breaking down is to go back to his research trying to make something that could help them survive.

Seeing that the Valkyries were already submerged in the green liquid Sam turned to the papers on his desk and tried to recall where he had left last time.

Odin's disappearance would've been a much bigger problem if Sam hadn't discover the secret files hidden in Eir's terminal. At the very least they would still be able to create more Valkyries, but that came with its own set of problems.

First was the trouble Sam would find himself in if it gets out that he had discovered such a secret and kept it from the military. Just telling the Resistance about them is a big no go.

The second problem was the materials used to make the Valkyries. As if it isn't obvious the weapons weren't made using anything cheap, even their equipment requires quite a few rare components which is why it's very rare to find two Valkyries who have something with the same design.

One good thing is that, with the mad scientist no longer being the only one capable of creating the Valkyries, humanity could go ahead and mass produce them while taking shortcuts whenever they could. What they needed were the combat capabilities so they could even forgo the human appearance and personality and use a more practical design would save them some valuable materials.

That said, Sam wasn't looking forward to the day Valkyries are created with that philosophy. The Resistance would definitely want to focus on efficiency over anything else and if they end up creating something better what would happen to the current Valkyries? That was another reason Sam was afraid to turn in the blue prints to the Resistance.

That said, if he wasn't willing to share his knowledge with the rest of humanity in order to protect three artificial women then he needed to come up with something that would help them achieve victory and he needed to do so fast.

Sam had spent the past month studying the Valkyries' blue prints in detail. As he did he tried to come up with various ways to improve their performance all while pushing his research on nanotech into the next level even though he has yet to get permission to do any kind of practical experiments. That meant that everything he came up with so far was just theoretical, and as if that wasn't bad enough he felt like nothing he did mattered and that he had failed to add anything to what Odin had achieved.

Left with an indescribable sense of inferiority, Sam leaned against the back of his chair and stared at empty space.

"I really need a bath…"