Zero used his simple silencer pistol to take out the rebel from behind. Surrounded by a cloud of smoke he looked at JP in a provocative way.
"What happened to your arm, JP?" Dawn asked.
"Don't worry," he said, making a grimace due to the pain.
His torn flesh reformed into a web of small interweaving tentacles and his bones solidified from a mortar-like mass until they finally receded into the shape of his arm and torn shoulder.
Dawn was astonished by his sudden regeneration, however, he had no time to think about it longer.
"Did the invasion succeed?" asked Dawn Zero, who seemed to be observing something carefully through his visor. He wiped it on a flickering monitor in front of the Grizzly's control panel. On it, Dawn saw the sight of a battle drone, which stopped the last rebels in their flight.
"Are you controlling this drone, Zero?" Dawn wanted to know.
"Yes, but this is only one of 256 that I am controlling right now."
"Oh, look! There is Jo" JP was happy to see her alive. Bathed in blood, she was slashing herself a way from the back, cutting off the rebels' escape route and drove them back into the arms of the advancing main company.
"I don't want her as an enemy..." Dawn said daunted.
Several minutes passed while the three watched this happen from a distance, as the battle was already decided. The defeated rebels committed suicide by the dozen before they could fall into the hands of the HMD. "The sun will rise again!" they shouted before killing themselves.
The few survivors were to be transported to the Grizzly's hangar.
"He will squeeze them like fresh oranges," Erik said when he saw them arriving.
"Who?" Dawn wanted to know.
"A man of importance to the HMD."
Some foot soldiers tied up the last twenty living rebels. "They were expecting our attack and evacuated half of them before we arrived. There is a leak at HMD, but who would that be?" Erik pondered. "This is not the first time this has happened."
"Maybe he's about to find out something," Jo said, pointing to a man with an upturned collar and coat, whose physical appearance made JP look like a regular person in comparison.
"I've seen him before" Dawn was about to ask JP, but he noticed that he had left with Zero.
" Parzival, finally there is some entertainment" when Jo said that, Dawn could also notice a sense of awe as well as fear in her voice.
The giant's intimidating aura spread not only among the shivering twenty shackled scourges but visibly among the HMD troops as Parzival walked past them. He was about four heads taller than normal people, which made him look even more frightening when he positioned himself in front of the prisoners.
"The field interrogation is about to begin; you can sod off if you want."
"Why should I?" Dawn asked.
"This is not for the faint of heart, JP and Zero have already left."
"My nerves are hard as steel, I can take it. And if they don't deserve it, how would this whole action be justified" Dawn said recklessly.
"Whatever you say..." Erik half-heartedly agreed while Jo nodded admiringly.
Eight of Parzival's companions entered the Grizzly's hangar. They lined up behind him and took off their helmets at the same time, exposing their similar faces. However they were identical, some were younger, some older and some had scars.
One of the rebels shouted "Filthy clones! Inferior products of war, an inferior imitation of a human."
"He has just chosen death" Jo laughed.
Parzival took a step towards the one when the latter anxiously continued to curse the clones and the HMD. There was no going back for him anyway.
RRRRATCH!
Without saying a word, Parzival grabbed him by his limbs and tore him apart with full force.
The other prisoners felt sick at the sight and covered their eyes.
"Please look," said Parzival with a calm sonorous voice.
When he was finished with the clone insultor, he turned to the others. He scrutinized each of them insistently.
"I have only one simple question. Who warned you?"
There was a dead silence. None of the prisoners spoke out.
"So silent? Then let me make you talk."
He walked towards the first in the row. He squatted on the floor with his hands and legs tied. Parzival kicked him in the back first, so that he fell forward on his stomach. Then he shortly stamped on his lower leg until it made a cracking sound. The man screamed briefly but didn't say a single word.
"I see you are persistent. But not for long."
"I will never give anything away."
"Then why should I let you live at all?"
"Because you are a sadist who likes to torture people. That is the real HMD."
"You know nothing about me or the HMD, but let me confirm your faith. Give him the injection."
One of the clones took out a syringe with a clear serum and stabbed the man in a vein. The man then became increasingly apathetic.
The Grizzly, which had already taken off, opened a hatch next to the hangar door, to which Parzival dragged the prisoner.
He grabbed him by the collar of his bulletproof vest and held him out of the hatch. "Now would have been the moment for final words."
The man wanted to say something, but his facial expression was paralyzed.
"Too bad" Parzival let go of him and the rebel flew down into the abyss.
"What was in that syringe?" Dawn wanted to know.
"It's a neurotoxin that affects your sense of time," Erik told him. "They used it as a method of torture in the war. It's made from snake venom, they call it a decelerator."
"That means for him, the fall feels like an eternity, and so does the impact."
"That's bestial."
"I warned you."
At the same moment, one of the tied-up rebels managed to free himself from his shackles and also ran towards the slightly opened hatch. Parzival saw him but did not prevent him from jumping out.
"I'm not getting my hands dirty for such a coward. Fortunately, I still have seventeen attempts remaining..."
He continued the interrogation, but no one disclosed any information, some said nothing, others claimed they knew nothing.
"In the Arc, I might be able to convince one or the other with the right equipment," said Parzival.
One of the prisoners, a young man with long brown hair, seemed to be unsettled by the thought "The spy is at HMD and has contact with the inner staff, I've been delivering messages, but it's going through all the backers and droids. And the messages are coded. I have no idea who's behind this, I swear."
"I'm sure there's more where that came from."
In this way, the interrogation continued for the rest of the flight without raising any further questions.
Some of them got ripped in half, others thrown out off the hangar, got the head smashed, or were punched through the chest. It was never meant to be an interrogation. It was an execution. An example.
As time went by, Dawn found it harder and harder to concentrate on what was happening and his vision became pixelated and crystalline.
In the corner of his eye, he recognized again the figure of the man in the suit, which had haunted him for days. First Dawn was paralyzed and questioned his perception.
***You are a product of my imagination, nothing more. ***
"Am I? Perhaps your imagination is just a product of our experience?"
***What do you mean? What do you want from we?***
The man distanced himself from Dawn without actively moving. It rather seemed as if the world around him was moving.
***No, don't leave again! I asked you a question?***
"I will come back when you are in a quieter place..." he said and vanished into thin air.
Dawn was shocked and fell on his knees.
„What is this? Who are you? What happened in my damn..."
The last thing Dawn felt was a pain in his neck. He heard Erik shouting, but he was too far away...