[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/QVJPa75.jpg[/img][/center][hr][center][color=708090][b] Aboard the Behemoth; Luan Fields[/b][/color][/center][hr]
During the travel to their destination, when Hal wasn’t being his loquacious self, acting like a preadolescence child when interacting with Evangeline, or bursting into sudden musical numbers with the aforementioned young woman with heterochromia, Hal was quietly (a word that some might have thought was nowhere to be found in Henri’s dictionary) reading the news on an electronic tablet and/or listening to the radio, occasionally gently petting the head that leaned against him.

Information, in whatever form it may be or however insignificant it may seem at first glance, was valuable. Not that the news, both on the radio and in letters, had any particularly cheery story to tell the depressing world of Viera. Even the dispiriting news was more or less the same thing for a decade; the war had been going on much too long. What had the world come to when the most uplifting news was that Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine, a man known as one of the pioneers of Aeon technology, died at the ripe old age —something that has become a rarity in recent years. But of course there was more to the news: there was a rumor circulating that Ó Dubhshláine had been assassinated by SeeRs using biological warfare. The police, the government, and even the SeeRs have yet to make any public statement that would affirm or deny the rumor.

Hal chuckled bitterly then hummed, “Mmm-mmm! Do I smell politics? Wow! My favorite kind of BS! Can't start the day without people dying and the government being all secretive about it, now can we? I can tell today’s going to be another good day.”

Perhaps the day [i]would[/i] have been a peaceful one had he not jinxed it.

[hr]
When the wounded SOLDIERS came into view, Hal was one of the first to bolt out of the vehicle to aid the weakened fighters, but he was also the first to stop in his tracks just a few steps away from the door. Superego had inflated into massive proportions; it had become powerful enough to propel Hal towards the battlefield without a second thought. He wanted to get there as soon as possible; to be sure the situation didn’t get any worse. He would have been the first one to reach the three soldiers too, if ego hadn’t whispered into superego’s ear.

[i]And then what?[/i]

The energy that shot through his body just moments ago, instantaneously started to deplete into nothingness —much like the crash after a sugar rush. Hal had to stop right there and then. He became a rock just standing in the way of the flow of SOLDIERs that rushed into battle; an unnecessary and potentially detrimental obstacle that could have meant the death of the three SOLDIERs out there. But Hal had to stop and he couldn’t take another step.

[i]What happens after you go there? You won’t join the fight. You can’t fight. You are useless here, Henri. You know that. Yet, you jumped out without actually thinking about it… Again. Didn’t you learn from your mistakes? Are you really that stupid? Why did you go through college if you weren’t going to use your brain when it’s most needed?

[center]“Henri, you can’t save everyone.” [/center][/i]

Echoes of the past sent an unpleasant shiver down the man’s spine. Fear. Not from the prospect of fighting, getting hurt, or dying, but from what was most likely going to happen [i]after[/i] the battle. Regret. If he fought, he was going to regret it. 

Hal watched his teammates engage in battle with the giant birds. Both parties fought with what they all got. Of course they would; their lives depended on it. There was the option to run, but that would most likely not happen, much to Hal’s dismay. “They” were made that way. Only “their” makers were to blame for that. He even had time think about it and he still could not choose a side when it came down to these situations. His indecisiveness had cost him more than he knew or would like to admit. Henri was a coward: he was scared that his conscience could not take the idea of—…

[i]“Henri, you can’t save everyone. Sometimes you have to… give something up. You have to lose something to win something bigger… If you don’t choose, someone else might… and in the worst case, you will loose everything.”[/i]

Hal closed his eyes shut, hard enough to make his eyebrows furrow. As he mentally deflated his superego as much as he could possibly will it to, the scientist bit his lip and dug his nails into the palm of his hands. Hal didn’t know how long it took him to that, but when he finally relaxed and opened his eyes, his expression was abnormally blank. 

He was the only SOLDIER there to take a step away from the battlefield. He just stood there, observing… recording. If there was no chance of saving everyone, then he was getting something else out of this. “Their” deaths must not be wasted. 

[hider=Battle Summary][i][b]Battle Summary:[/b][/i] Hal does nothing. [/hider]