All Arthur could see was blinding, yet dark white, unimaginable pressure bore done on him, he couldn't breath, couldn't move unless he truly tried.
'Is this what it feels like to die?'
A fruit he couldn't eat sat before him, if he stayed here long enough would he eventually drift off?
'This isn't worth the effort.'
He then thought of Alara, doing her best to survive, he had to strive to be a good enough man to stand by her side. He knew these thoughts made him lesser than he could be.
He began moving his arm, pushing as hard as he needed to, moving the tons of snow aside.
Above on the surface, a gargantuan crack appeared on the surface of the piles of sheer white and gray, the very upper layer collapsed downwards. After a few moments a hand appeared above the crack, than Arthur pulled himself up out of it. He let out a sigh, and then inhaled deeply, feeling the brisk air fill his lungs.
He was free.
He began walking across the surface, the cold air assaulted his bare arms, but he continued unwavering.
...
The base was quiet on all fronts, no one had yet to try and retake what was lost. It was now truly property of the Front, all entrances were guarded by men with rifles, the bedrooms now occupied, the storage now completely organized and accounted for. Unfortunately Arthur had completely demolished the control system, disabling them from moving the behemoth to a different location, but also disabling them from tracking its location.
Two men stood next to a door outside, the cold assaulting their bodies, one was bouncing between his legs while the other rubbed his hands together as if he were trying to start a fire with the friction.
"How long have you been with this unit?"
The other turned towards him, continuing to bounce between one leg and the other.
"Huh?"
The other stopped rubbing his hands for a moment.
"Come on, our shift will go faster if we talk, how long have you been with this unit?"
The other looked away, unwilling to speak on his time. The other man continued.
"Fine, be that way, I'll just talk enough for the both of us, you dick. I was recruited after a raid on one of the human battery farms, the place was massive, probably the size of a megacity. We were there to free a portion from servitude and the mission wouldn't have been successful without me."
The other man looked over, feigning interest in the one-sided conversation.
"If I tell you, will you stop talking?"
The man rubbing his hands shook his head.
"Damn it, four years, I've been with them four years. First time I've been put on guard duty since then."
The man rubbing his hands continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted.
"That place was hell, I saw men biomechanically grafted into machines, being drained of all the energy their bodies produced. We found out the hard way they couldn't leave with their collars on as well. I went in alone, killed five men and disabled the internal sectors radio coverage long enough for them to get outside range and destroy the collars. I saved about twenty thousand lives that day."
The man bouncing back and forth looked at him.
"Why are you still talking?"
He looked at his watch and smiled.
"Did you know it has been ten minutes since I started?"
"No shit, feels like hours."
"You know you could spice the pot, add some of your own stories."
"Why they are nothing to brag about."
"This is a special recon unit, made and trained to be completely autonomous from the Front's governing body. By comparison sure, our stories are nothing grand, but to the average citizen, they are something magical."
"Not compared to him."
Arthur appeared from behind the solid wall of falling snow, his sleeves were missing and his pants were gone entirely. Blood soaked his body up to his neck but his handsome face was surprisingly spared. He stepped past the men and opened the door, not saying a word, he closed the door behind him and both the men looked at each other. The loud one spoke first.
"He scares the shit out of me."
The less-talkative one nodded in agreement.
"May we never end up on his bad side."
Arthur walked through the pristine halls, growing sick of the color white as it drenched both the outside and the inside of the sleeping behemoth. He found Cap' towards the cabin, sitting in one of the chairs with a cup of coffee, flipping through reconnaissance reports from the surveillance teams. She looked at him a bit surprised.
"A week? You were done quick."
He sat down opposite her and put his legs on the shattered console between them.
"I move quickly."
She set the coffee down and swatted his legs with the reports.
"It might be broken, but I'd like to keep this place clean."
He put his feet down and sighed.
"So what next."
She furled her eyebrow and set the stack of papers down.
"First things first is your report."
Without blinking he answered.
"One hundred and seventy-two tanks gone, three walkers collapsed and buried, well over three thousand men dead."
She rolled her eyes.
"Good enough, but you aren't gonna like what comes next."
He looked at her through the fingers of the hand his head rested on.
"That is?"
She smiled and leaned back in her chair.
"We wait, at least a month, let them get desperate. You cut off their supply line for the moment, so we need to wait to reap our results."
He paused for a moment and then said.
"I'm not waiting for a month, we need to make them come to us. I didn't sign up for the long haul."
She pursed her lips and looked at him with annoyance.
"So what are you thinking."
He smiled at her, ire burning in his eyes.
"Use your weapon, Cap'."
She cocked her head to the side, her golden hair falling on one shoulder.
"What do you mean?"
He leaned forward, staring into her deep, blue eyes.
"High command in the front gave you a nuclear option, I'm giving you permission to use it. I'll go into the base, you and your men relay any important information to me while I do it. Direct my movements so I destroy the most pertinent areas and collapse their infrastructure, high speed hit and run tactics. We can keep playing the starve them out game, I'm just saying speed it up."
It was her turn to smile.
"I like your style, Arthur."