Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.20

Over the next few days, Eve and I got back into our training and joined in with the upcoming mission efforts. I was honestly surprised no one had any major problems with our brief disappearance, but it turned out our roles in the upcoming mission would be reduced drastically thanks to the recent restructuring. Apparently, they wanted the Predazoan handler and asset to remain completely focused on fighting the enemy Predazoan in the Vyrane capital, meaning we wouldn’t be very involved in daily mission operations. We really were just to be the nuke they would escort and drop in the heart of enemy territory.

It was all about compartmentalizing our roles; high-command said we wouldn’t be able to screw anything up if we weren’t making decisions during the mission. No more being part of the investigation, we were there for Predazoan engagement only.

Weirdly enough that kind of worked out because when we relied on Eve to help find the enemy Predazoan, it was thanks to her extra-sense or her spores. Now she couldn’t use those abilities, so it was fine they didn’t need that from her since we knew where this next Predazoan was holed up.

Of course, we would need to see how things turned out next mission if that Predazoan was camouflaged, because with the Empire’s limited technology, they’d be blind without Eve’s help.

We met with our mission team, and I was surprised to see Captain Seash would be the active commander for the ground team. Before, he’d been a member of the command council on

The Radiance

, but after the Lord Generals took control of all our daily operations, it seemed our old commanders were restructured into more active roles.

Captain Seash had always been rather fair with us, so I didn’t have any problem working under him now. He was one of those large red lizardmen aliens, with some obvious battle scars around his maw; clearly, he was a grizzled old soldier who knew how to handle these kinds of missions.

Eve and I basically stayed in the corner while he ran the meeting with the rest of our team, offering brief introductions for us, but sparing no additional time for pleasantries. Lieutenant Bryx, that bipedal wooly mammoth alien would be Seash’s second-in-command. There would be 12 other marines on the team, along with six power armor soldiers, six clandestine agents including Kotlokk, Vinnago and Lobae, and then four researchers. Doctor Gorgam and Doctor Kianna would be part of the mission team, along with two other researchers I didn’t know from

The Judicator

.

Quite a few members of the team I didn’t recognize, maybe people from

The Judicator

or even soldiers hand-picked from other clandestine missions, it seemed like the Lord Generals or their high-officers filled out the teams, rather than Seash or anyone from

The Radiance

. The Lord Generals were really taking charge of daily operations now, and it was obvious it was beyond frustrating for crewmembers aboard

The Radiance

.

The mission plan as Captain Seash explained wasn’t overly complicated, and at the very least Eve and my role would be incredibly simple; we’d dock with the Imperial Command Station in charge of the planetary siege, and from there we’d be given an escort with some of their soldiers, dropping down planet-side outside the hot-zones. Then our escort would connect us with members of the Vyrane resistance, and with help from their network we’d travel through their cities on the way to the capital. The hardest part would be getting into the respulser shields that surrounded the capital, but according to our intel, the resistance set up an entry-point through some sewer system that would get us inside the shield. Once we breached the capital it would finally be time for me and Eve to fulfill our roles and attack the enemy Predazoan. Everyone’s roles were so compartmentalized now the rest of the team would fall back to support while it would be Eve’s responsibility to kill the enemy Predazoan. No containment protocols in place, no option to talk things out; the enemy Predazoan had already caused too much damage, so Eve was authorized to use lethal force right away.

Everyone had their separate roles to play, everything was meticulously organized, everything was planned out down to the smallest detail before we even arrived in the Vyrane system. Of course, the Lord Generals had no idea how crazy chaotic things would be when a Predazoan was involved, so we’d see how well those plans held up.

There would be a few other teams dropping down planet-side as well, but they’d be acting more as cover for our team, and we wouldn’t be interacting with them during the mission. Their job would be trying to get close to the capital to pull the separatist forces away, hopefully decreasing the number of enemy soldiers we would face once we started our assault on the capital. I wondered briefly who would be on those teams, if any of my friends or the other researchers would be working as decoys, but in staying with the compartmentalization theme, they didn’t tell us anything about who would be working on the other teams—wasn’t pertinent mission information for us, apparently.

Since I’d be on the mission team acting as a regular marine now, I’d be fully geared up in armor and guns, so I figured I’d be training with the rest of the team, but instead they wanted me to keep focusing on my handler training running drills with Eve. We did weapons training, tactical training, simulation training, and still more of that battlefield communication training. It all seemed like nonsense, and after a few days I insisted we boot up some simulations that would help train me for planet-side combat since me and Eve would at least be

pretending

to be part of the special forces team on the way to the capital, so finally our various instructors complied and had us working on team simulations. It was so weird how we were that separated from the rest of the team, made me feel it was almost dangerous—like I’d be dropping down in the middle of a battlefield totally unprepared. But of course, my instructors said I wouldn’t be on the frontlines during engagement, would mostly only use my training for self-defense the way they told it; they wanted us to do everything we could to avoid active combat until it was time to confront the enemy Predazoan.

For my fake role on the special operations team, I was to be a communications technician assisting Eve as the heavy weapons specialist that could call in an orbital strike if needed once we were in the capital—which of course was a hilarious cover for her, being the secret weapon all along. There wasn’t much I needed to train for my role since my specialty was to stay out of the way until we were clear for the orbital strike in the capital, which would of course give me an excellent excuse to stay out of any frontline firefights. As for Eve, it was ridiculous they wanted to keep her back with me too since she’d be able to end any confrontation with grunt forces easily, which could help keep everyone on the team safe. But since high-command wanted to keep her powers and abilities secret—hide the fact she was a Predazoan, they didn’t want her out fighting and reveal what she was.

Again, you could make any grand plans you wanted, but we would see how they held up once the battlefield chaos started.

I was suddenly very thankful Eve increased my body’s durability and regeneration, otherwise I felt I would’ve been far too vulnerable.

We met up with Kianna to see how their training was going since they’d be part of the special force team as well, and she told me the researchers were given roles like combat medics or supplies specialists so they’d have a reason to be held back from the fighting as support, but they were still undergoing the training and simulations same as everyone else on the mission team. But even with the training, Kianna was quite nervous over being in an active warzone.

“I thought you wouldn’t want to drop planet-side again after what all happened in the Holistia Nebula.” I said while Eve held me from behind, resting her cheek against my back, in a sleepy mood today after all the tedious training.

Kianna shook her head, “I didn’t, but it’s not like I have a choice in the matter. The Lord Generals are saying since the Predazoan containment mission is so high-priority now, they only want their most valuable assets on the mission teams. That’s why both me and Gorgam are going down planet-side, and why Captain Seash is commanding the operation on the ground. They don’t want to risk any more fuckups, apparently.” She explained.

“Isn’t that dangerous though, putting all their most valuable people at risk like that?”

Kianna shrugged, “It’s part of the restructuring, using their primary resources while training up more teams to continue the research while investigations are ongoing.”

“You know anything about the two other researchers they put on the team?” I asked.

“Both researchers are from satellite stations, Doctor Hennor is an expert in Predazoan assimilation, and he did extensive studies on how the Predazoans can overtake living organisms. Then Doctor Ryo is a behavioral specialist like me with a focus on Predazoan manipulation—how they can use psychology to help blend in with their camouflage.” Kianna explained.

Doctor Hennor was a short blue alien with a rather bulbous bald head so he looked like a lightbulb, with large black eyes and no nose. Doctor Ryo was a plant-based alien with green skin and red leaves spreading over his body instead of hair, about the same size as a human. I hadn’t interacted with them much yet, just knew them by name now after all the meetings with the mission team.

Eve lifted her head from my back and looked around to Kianna, “Isn’t Gorgam an assimilation expert as well? Why are the four researchers accompanying us so specialized?” She asked.

“High-command wants behavior and assimilation experts while we’re planet-side so we can discover how the separatists have increased their numbers so quickly, either through psychological manipulation or Predazoan assimilation—or both.” Kianna clarified.

“And nothing else matters, just what involves those enemy forces?” I asked.

Kianna nodded, “Right, we’re there as consultants to assist the soldiers during the mission; we won’t be doing any research while we’re planet-side, that will be left to the teams back in orbit.”

“Part of the restructuring?” Eve guessed.

“Exactly.”

It really was strange how everyone’s roles were so separate now, how specific everything had to be. I understood it was all to contain the secret of the Predazoans, but didn’t the Lord Generals realize how many variables would be in play once the mission started? The way they structured everything so rigidly, it was like they really believed everything would all go exactly according to plan—like we wouldn’t have to adjust or adapt on the fly at times.

Well, what did I expect from the people who treated us all as mere names and numbers on a report? We would have to see how things would change once shit inevitably hit the fan, and how the Lord Generals might restructure mission operations

again

once it was all finished.

Of course, during all this training, I continued to meet with Doctor Jumomo the psychiatrist. Same as always, he offered no opinions or judgments while I talked about Eve. He asked how I felt about the new mission, if I was nervous over the potential danger. Obviously, I hadn’t told anyone about my recent metamorphosis, so instead I told him I was completely confident Eve would keep me safe. He asked a few more follow-up questions about my time on Earth, if I’d even been a soldier or even just involved in fights. When I told him I’d lived a mostly peaceful life back home, he asked if I’d suffered any kind of trauma in my past.

“Well, I did suffer PTSD and had a mental breakdown over a year ago, right before I met Evie.” I admitted.

Patient and calm as always, Doctor Jumomo nodded along as he listened to the details, writing more down than I’d ever seen him before. I guess to him, my trauma-dump was a goldmine of information.

“That’s actually really interesting, so you were in a fragile state mentally back when you met Eve.” He offered calmly.

I shook my head and sighed, “And there it is, you’re going to say she took advantage of me while I was vulnerable, right?”

He tilted his head to the side, “Why would I say that?”

I gestured to the room around us, “That’s what all this is, right? To niggle away at our relationship, find out when exactly Eve got her hooks in me. You’ve been trying to find something to latch onto all this time, so there’s your ammo I guess.”

Doctor Jumomo shook his head slowly, “Adam, I was making no such inferences; the way you tell it, you believe Eve was a part of your recovery.”

I nodded once, “Damn right.”

Doctor Jumomo stood up from his chair and walked with that tortoise pace over to the cabinet, producing some white device that reminded me of those old PDAs.

“Here, I want you to journal your time on Vyrane with Eve; keep a record separate from the reports you submit to high-command. Instead, write down little daily events between the two of you.” He told me.

I took the little data device, activating it to see it was basically a futuristic, hologram notebook, “Why?”

“Your life with Eve has always been intense and filled with danger, and even from the very beginning your situation was incredibly unstable while you were recovering from a mental breakdown. Once you’re down planet-side, things are surely going to become tense and unstable once more. Let’s just see if Eve is a positive influence or a negative influence while you’re on Vyrane; see if she’s a pillar of support, or an instigator that keeps your life unstable.” He explained easily.

I glared at him openly, “I know for a fact Eve’s the

heart

of my support system; I wouldn’t have

survived

out here in the Empire without her.”

Doctor Jumomo smiled kindly and gestured to the data-pad, “Then you’ll have no problem recording her support.”

It seemed like bullshit, another chance for someone to try and chip away at my relationship with Eve—maybe even another way command might try to spy on me, using my journal and private thoughts against me. But I wasn’t about to voice my complaints to Doctor Jumomo, instead I just offered that fake-smile of mine I used when I was greatly annoyed, figuring I would end up either filling the journal with lies, or just forget about the whole thing once the action started planet-side.

We were running out of time before we’d arrive in the Vyrane system, travelling along through void space without any more issues. We met with our friends when we could, confirmed what projects Zyno would be working on. Of course, next I saw him he had no interest in talking about work at all, instead gushing on and on about how he and Yun finally started officially dating. He said they got really close when she was taking care of him after his injury, and despite all the hurdles that could pop up when dating a celicapoz, he said they had quite a few dry, logical conversations about the logistics of dating and finally worked it all out—classic Zyno.

We also confirmed Lobae and Vinnago continued dating after leaving the Holistia Nebula but still didn’t want to define anything—didn’t want to make anything official either, especially after seeing how Eve and I were court martialed over our relationship, among other things. They didn’t even know how bad it really was, but just the few details they knew were enough to keep them cautious. Whatever their reasoning, they were happy with their current status and weren’t in a rush to change anything anytime soon.

It was nice how everything seemed to be working out for everyone else; the researcher grievances were taken care of with a pay raise, people were getting restructured into their specific research teams, people were free to date and love whoever they wanted without issue.

It all made me fucking sick.

What, because Eve was a Predazoan, we were forced to live as slaves, bound and burdened by the Empire’s will? They were the ones who created the Predozoans, a race of impossibly unique, godly beings. And instead of nurturing them, trying to take care of their creations, they wanted to kill and enslave them—use them as tools or weapons, no concern over their freewill.

I still meant what I said when I told Eve the Predazoans were dangerous and needed to be kept in check somehow with the way they killed and consumed people and planets without care or consequence, but it made me wonder between them and the Tritentarian Empire, who was the real villain in the story?

If Eve and I really could live a thousand lifetimes, powerful and immortal beyond anything regular people could comprehend, maybe there would be a time when we would need to take our revenge on the Empire—no, not just revenge, that was a given after what they did to us. Instead, maybe there would be a day when we would need to do our own restructuring, maybe start our own mission to destroy and dismantle this oppressive system.

Maybe after the Predazoan containment mission was resolved, it would be time for me and Eve to take up a new mission; the Tritentarian Empire destabilization mission.

Only time would tell how we’d feel about it, and what all we could do to change it. But that would be a concern for another time—another life maybe. For now, we were enslaved, and we needed to obey our master’s orders, no matter how much we might hate it. The time to rebel would come later. For now, the Predazoan on Vyrane awaited us.