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.