Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.29

I couldn’t believe how badly we fucked up—how badly

I

fucked up by not stopping Eve to confirm we actually had a plan. What had I been thinking, letting her drag me around without telling me

anything

about what she was doing? Was I really so in love with her it caused me to trust her this blindly to lead us directly to our destruction? I was supposed to be smarter than this—supposed to be clever even.

With Eve’s erratic behavior over the past few cycles, why did I ever trust she even had a plan in the first place?

The soldiers moved closer then, and Eve hissed and snarled at them again, forcing them to move back.

“Get the fuck away from us!” Eve shrieked, and even hearing her talk now it was obvious she’d lost it—not what she was saying, threats and violence weren’t strange for her, but this weirdly detached and erratic behavior, reacting to everything instinctively, rather than focusing her actions carefully to be more proactive.

I couldn’t help but wonder when things fell apart for Eve; was it somewhere while she was expending energy shapeshifting and killing those soldiers on our way here, or had she never really recovered even after consuming Gamma-11’s core?

It was all coming back to me now, the cycles of weird stares and isolation on the emergency shuttle, her limited conversation skills as she devolved into that strange, primitive state on Congoren.

I’d been a fool to ever trust Eve was back in control.

Belmond looked over to a technician at a nearby console, “Are our comms still being jammed?” He asked, totally unconcerned with the dangerous Predazoan before him—sure he was safe behind the repulser barrier.

The technicians weren’t protected however, and they looked quite nervous with Eve being so close. It took him a few moments to collect himself, but the alien technician finally nodded along after reading the report.

“Yes, Lord General, we still haven’t been able to contact the ground team on Congoren.” He confirmed.

Fextrenn narrowed her eyes at us, “I don’t suppose there’s much hope in asking if you left anyone on the mission team alive?” She asked, her tone harsh and clearly unforgiving.

Eve was still snarling, and I wondered if she would even have a part to play in this conversation, or if she was devolving to the point she wouldn’t be able to speak again.

I didn’t see how we could ever get out of this situation considering the deaths we left in our wake, but I figured complying would be our only hope at this point.

I nodded once, “We took the dropship back to

The Judicator

, but we left the team on the planet…” I tilted my head to the side, wondering what all I should divulge, “Dryden was killed in the confrontation, but everyone else is alive.”

“Shit.” Kei-Torruk shook his head slowly, “He’ll be missed—a rare officer to be so loyal without an agenda to overstep his station.”

I clenched my jaw, wanting to tell them how utterly useless Dryden was and what a terrible commanding officer he made on the mission, but I knew I had to tread carefully with every single word that came out of my mouth now.

I nodded once, “We completed the mission.” I gestured to Eve, “Eve killed and consumed Gamma-11.”

Fextrenn smiled, but it was predatory—clearly without even the ghost of amusement, “And is that why you had to steal a dropship and kill dozens of soldiers on your way here, all so you could tell us the good news?”

I couldn’t hide the surprise on my face when I heard they knew we’d killed people aboard

The Judicator

, and Kei-Torruk barked out a nasty, digitized laugh through his voice modulator.

“We have cameras in the hallways and lifts, you fucking fools, did you really not know?” Kei-Torruk shook his head slowly, “What a waste of a valuable asset.”

I tried to move forward, but Eve held me back with her tentacles, and all the guards shifted to point their guns at me.

“Wait, wait! You don’t have to kill us.” I shook my head quickly, no idea how I was going to talk my way out of this one, “We’ll still work for the Empire and the containment mission—we can still work to contain the other Predazoans.” I insisted.

Fextrenn rested her chin on her fist and shook her head slowly, “Right, and how did you leave Congoren after you killed Gamma-11? Did you act with discretion—did you hide your presence from the primitive natives? Or did you make a massive mess, same as always, forever altering the course of their history with your reckless actions?”

I waved my sword around in a frustrated gesture, “Gamma-11 already changed their history by becoming their new god! We freed them from that alternate history, and surely our actions will be forgotten in time—become an ancient myth or legend at worst.” I pressed.

“Time and again you refuse to follow orders, proving you were

never

meant to join the Empire in the first place.” Kei-Torruk said harshly, “You might call Congoren a primitive world, but to the rest of the Empire, Earth is primitive too, and you continue to show us humans still aren’t ready to join in with the enlightened Imperials.”

I knew I should be begging for our lives, pleading for them to spare us, but I was too angry to just roll over and submit—my fiercely rebellious human spirit refused to back down.

“And what about all you glorious Imperials who experimented on an ancient race you couldn’t even hope to comprehend? And when they understandably escaped from your cruel experiments, you have the fucking

audacity

to blame everyone else except yourselves and your researchers!” I gestured to myself, “It’s not

my

fault your missions keep failing so spectacularly—it’s not even Eve or the other Predazoans’ fault.” I pointed my sword at the Lord Generals, “It’s

your

fault and your Empire’s fault for trying to weaponize these amazing creatures, for trying to contain them when you don’t have the slightest clue what they’re striving for with their supremacy drive.” I hooked a thumb back towards nothing in particular, “Already we’ve dealt with a couple Predazoans who were fine with living a peaceful life—on the paradise stations in the Holistia Nebula and even on Congoren, but because you can’t control them, you want them eliminated.” I gestured to Eve, “Same with Eve, you tried over and over again to control her through force and coercion, and you wonder why you keep failing? You have no idea what you’re doing!”

It was pretty obvious then I was just rambling angrily, and I could see not a single person in that room cared what I was saying—most didn’t even look like they were really listening.

“Fuck you all, I hope the Predazoans take over the entire fucking Empire!” I declared.

No surprise the Lord Generals ignored my outburst, and Fextrenn activated a hologram that displayed a picture of me and Eve and our mission profiles—including the crimes we’d been accused of.

“We’ve performed countless simulations and have come to the conclusion no amount of remedial training or corrective punishment will bring you back in line with our mission goals, nor do we believe you’ll ever be able to properly control Alpha-03 to make her a compliant asset.” Fextrenn confirmed.

Belmond nodded, “As such, you will be stripped of your rank and transferred to military custody to carry out your prison sentence.” He added.

“Fuck you!” I spat at them.

Kei-Torruk continued as though I hadn’t interrupted, “Adam Samson, we hereby remove you from the position of Specialty Resource Agent effective immediately and will be placed under arrest for the original charges against you before your time on Congoren, but there will be additional court dates later to address your pending charges, including but not limited to assaulting an officer, murder of an Imperial officer, multiple counts of assault, multiple counts of attempted murder, several counts of murder or accessory to murder, espionage, treason, and terrorism.” He listed off easily, then his scope monocle seemed to zoom in on me, “And of course before all that, your genetic modifications are considered top secret Imperial property, so you’ll need to be dissected until all that genetic material can be removed and reclaimed from your system.” He leaned forward in his seat, as though incredibly excited by the idea, “Your survival is not our primary concern in this matter.”

Two soldiers moved forward then, holding some electrified manacle device, but Eve shrieked at them again and pointed her spiked tentacles towards them.

“You stay away from my Adam—leave him alone!” She trilled, sounding half-crazed and wildly animalistic.

The soldiers took a step back, looking up at the Lord Generals for how to proceed.

I gestured towards Eve, “And what the hell are you going to do with Eve? You gonna dissect her too?” I demanded.

Fextrenn shook her head slowly, “Unfortunately, whether we have you working as her handler or not, we’ve confirmed with our simulations it’s impossible to ever control Alpha-03, so at this point she’s going to go back in containment until we can discover some proper use for the asset.” She confirmed.

Out from the destroyed bulkhead doorway, power armor soldiers started filing on through, taking point before the regular soldiers, completely surrounding us. For the most part they were equipped with heavy carbine rifles, but a few had some long, electrified rods that had blue glowing tips I knew would be strong enough to totally paralyze a regular person, but I wasn’t sure what they expected it would do to me or Eve.

The convoy of soldiers parted down the middle, and a couple more soldiers wheeled forth two mobile containment units.

Kei-Torruk gestured towards the cells, “Cooperate and go away willingly, and we’ll ensure your imprisonment is more…

comfortable

, otherwise…” He held up a tablet, and I could see the display showed an anatomical reading of Eve, with a control for the failsafe bomb over her heart primed, “We’ll be forced to dispose of two

very

valuable assets.”

I shook my head slowly, no idea what to do now—no idea what we

could

do. Eve was out of her mind still, snarling and snapping at the soldiers nearby, but she refused to move while standing beside me protectively.

~Eve, what do you want to do?~

I asked through the humming vibrations.

Eve didn’t answer me, her snarling didn’t relent at all, and I wondered if she could even hear me now. She was beyond livid—angrier than I’d ever seen her before, eyes blazing with fury, lips pulled back over elongated fangs, claws lengthened like daggers, with a dozen manifested tentacles poised to strike any soldier who broke the circle.

I didn’t want this to be the end, I still wanted my forever with Eve—the happy ending we deserved. Eve had been experimented on, tortured, abused, made to be some weapon, and when she refused to follow along with her orders this was what awaited her? I knew more than anyone how unfair life could be, and yet there was no way we could let things end like this—no way we could submit to their enslavement and imprisonment.

For my side of things, they’d break me apart and rip out all the Predazoan cells they could, and even if I survived, I’d end up in some Imperial prison, never seeing the light of day again. But for Eve, endless experiments would await her, manipulating her DNA, unmaking and remaking her over and over again—endless torture until they could find a way to either control her or create a weapon out of her some other way.

I just couldn’t submit to that—I couldn’t let that happen to Eve, even if it meant we’d die fighting against it.

I pointed my sword at the Lord Generals, “You can all go straight to hell!” I declared, then turned and stabbed the nearest soldier straight through the chest.

When I moved Eve exploded into activity; I started cutting down every nearby soldier I could, while Eve was taking them out so fast they couldn’t even react. She slammed her tentacles into the containment cells, destroying them completely, then started tearing into the computer consoles, maybe hoping she could disable the Lord Generals’ repulser barrier—or just mindlessly attacking anything nearby.

It didn’t register in my mind I’d finally broken down and started killing—couldn’t think about it as my rage and pain consumed me, and I unleashed it all on everything around me.

For a few brief, glorious seconds I felt free—free with my Eve beside me, cutting down the Imperial soldiers who wanted to enslave us. I felt tears welling in my eyes and I laughed madly at that carnage, and I could hear Eve’s terrible shrieking laughter in response.

But after killing a couple dozen soldiers, reality set in, and our enemies finally reacted to the chaos we caused.

“What an absolute waste.” Kei-Torruk muttered, sounding more disappointed than anything else.

I hoped beyond hope Eve had a plan in all this—maybe she realized the Lord Generals were bluffing all along and would never kill the Predazoan asset, but I had to watch in horror—in slow-motion as he activated the failsafe bomb in Eve’s core.

The world around me froze then—the slaughter paused as a few more bodies fell away from Eve, and she looked at me and focused—her eyes showing realization and reason once again.

One final time.

“Adam…I’m sorry…” She whispered, and then I heard a strangely muffled explosion, and I saw Eve’s torso expand and then rapidly contract.

I rushed towards Eve, moving as fast as my enhanced speed could take me, but it was already too late; I watched Eve’s skin slowly darken, harden, and then crumble away.

Before I could even touch her outstretched fingertips, my wonderful, beautiful, perfect Predazoan soulmate turned to ash—taken away from me before we could even start our forever.