I returned with Almana and her soldiers to the rest of our people and saw everyone was in surprisingly high spirits. Despite the fact we were led there at gunpoint, everything had been properly resolved to the point our soldiers and the resistance were all intermingling like nothing happened at all; people were talking, laughing, sharing stories—palling around really. It seemed soldiers got over their grievances rather easily and made friends even easier.

  The moment we were back in view, I saw Eve rush over to greet us.

  “Is everything okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Eve insisted, inspecting me as though she expected to find some physical damage.

  I waved her off quickly, “Evie, no, everything’s fine; same with you all, they just wanted to run a few tests to make sure I wasn’t assimilated or anything.”

  Eve pulled me away from Almana and her soldiers, putting herself between us, “Is that really all?” She pressed, glaring at Almana.

  Almana bowed respectfully, “We were suspicious of the only human in the Empire, but it seems like those suspicions were misplaced; we can move forward from here as one unit, working together to rid our planet of the separatist menace.”

  Eve didn’t look convinced, continuing to glare at Almana.

  ~Are you sure you’re okay?~ Eve continued through vibrations.

  I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see it, ~I’m fine, sweet-thing, really. More concerned with how your scanning went~

  Before I could get an answer, Almana peered around Eve to look at me, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a word with your captain to make sure everything is squared away.”

  The vyranes all bowed as they passed, leaving Eve and I alone on the red grassy field.

  Again, before I could respond, Eve threw her arms around me to give me a quick hug, “I missed you.”

  I chuckled and hugged her back, “Evie, I was only gone for like 30 minutes.”

  Eve pulled away then, looking up at me with those big, innocent blue eyes, “Did you miss me?”

  I rolled my eyes again, then leaned down to kiss her, “Obviously.”

  Eve trilled a cute little giggle then, and held onto my hands, swinging them a little, “So really, what was that all about?”

  I laughed again, “They thought I was the secret weapon—or the key to it, I guess. They wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to go all scorched Earth on their planet, leave something habitable for them after we clear out the separatists.”

  Eve laughed too, “Really? I imagine you were quite surprised when they grabbed you and not me.”

  I nodded along, “I’ll say. They didn’t believe I was actually a human—didn’t know what one was and thought it was all made up; thought Earth sounded like a fake place too.”

  Eve laughed again, “How marvelously ridiculous.”

  “Right?” I waved off towards the compound, “How about you? Was your scan and everything fine?”

  Eve flashed me a brilliant smile, “Naturally. I was cleared as 100% celicapoz.”

  “Even the best sensors in the Empire would say that too, right?”

  Eve’s smile grew, “Of course.”

  Behind Eve I could see the researchers making their way towards us—Kianna and Gorgam, followed behind by Hennor and Ryo.

  “What was that all about, why’d they pull you aside from the rest of the group?” Kianna asked.

  Eve turned around to stand beside me, wrapping her arms around my waist and leaning her head against my arm, “They thought Adam was some kind of secret bioweapon—didn’t think humans were real.”

  Gorgam’s big frog eyes grew wide, “Really?”

  I nodded along, “Yeah, they did some research and couldn’t find anything on Earth or humans, so they thought it was all some fabrication, thought I was the key piece to the whole mission.”

  Gorgam chuckled, “How ironic.”

  Kianna nodded along, “Yeah, we were a little worried when we saw you get pulled away, but when Eve was cleared no problem, we couldn’t even guess what all was going on in the back.”

  Hennor cocked his big, blue bulbous head to the side, “Did they ask you any questions about the mission?”

  “Yeah, Almana’s worried how things are going to end for their planet once we’re done; we’ve already admitted to her we’re the last resort and don’t plan to leave much of the capital behind in order to rid it of all separatists, so that has the vyranes all pretty nervous.” I explained.

  Gorgam turned to Eve, “And do we have any idea how things will turn out for them once our adversary has been destroyed?”

  Eve shrugged against me, “Depends on her and her network of puppets; when I destroy Beta-09, it’ll destabilize all the biomass she’s left behind, and depending on what kind of nest she’s built up for herself, it could honestly change the structure of the planet.”

  “Really, it could be that bad?” Kianna pressed.

  Eve shook her head, “I can’t tell you for sure now, I don’t know what all she’s done to the planet; I can’t sense her behind the capital repulser shielding, I’m rather blind at the moment.”

  I knew it was more than that, but Eve wasn’t about to go admitting to everyone her regular senses were dulled thanks to the inhibitor field; neither of us wanted it to be widely known how greatly Eve’s powers and senses had been limited, we didn’t even want the Lord Generals to know how successfully they’d contained her.

  “That’s kind of how I left it with Almana, told her we’d have to assess the situation once we were on site to see what kind of weaponry we’d need.” I added.

  The researchers looked back towards our commanders, seeing Almana and Seash talking like everything was totally fine between our teams now—the last doubts and suspicions squashed.

  “Well, now we just have to make it there.” Gorgam said, not sounding thrilled about it at all.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  I looked off to see a couple groups of soldiers making their way back towards the road, back to our transport—Imperial and vyrane soldiers all mixed together.

  It seemed like the mission was really on the way now, so from here, we just needed to push forward and make our way to the capital.

  From here, the fighting would soon begin.

  ***

  The mood in the transport changed drastically once we were back on the road together; it didn’t feel like we were being guarded from the front and back by the resistance people now, instead it seemed like we were all one unit, with people switching around their seats to be with new friend groups, all rowdy and eager for action like any group of soldiers. I wasn’t sure if it was part of blending in for our soldiers, but they had the vyranes so at ease now it seemed like they’d all been friends for years.

  Since she was part of our escort, Almana was back in the seat right in front of us, and now that the mood allowed it, she showed herself quite friendly.

  Eve was still pretty icy towards her since she separated us back at the outpost, but it didn’t seem to bother Almana at all as she pelted me with questions about Earth and the humans.

  “So really, you named your planet after dirt?” Almana pressed, sitting up in her seat so she could look back at me.

  I rolled my eyes, “You make it sound like I personally named our planet dirt, when really it’s probably been called that since humans discovered what planets are—thousands of years ago.”

  Almana smiled, “Well still, even if not you personally, it seems so funny the humans couldn’t think of a better name than a fancy word for dirt.”

  I waved her off quickly, “Then where does the name Vyrane come from, hm? Surely that must be a great story if you think Earth is so dumb.”

  Almana smiled at my irritation, “Vyrane was the firstborn of our sky-goddesses, head of the pantheon of one of our oldest religions. Even if you’re not a religious person, the old mythology has inspired stories and art, influenced culture and even shaped the growth of our world. I would say it’s a wonderful name for our planet.”

  I cocked my head to the side then, “Yeah, we kind of did that with the other planets in our system, named them after old Roman gods.”

  “But not your own planet, you left the good names for everything else?” Almana pressed.

  I sighed, “Yeah, okay, you make a good point.”

  Eve continued to glare at Almana, having a soft spot for Earth, she didn’t appreciate Almana’s flippant attitude, “Earth is a beautiful, wonderful planet, rich with growth and life; the name Earth fits perfectly for the bountiful nature that grows from the soil.” She nearly hissed.

  Almana quirked up an eyebrow, “And how much could you know about Earth? As a pre-contact planet, it’s not like you could ever visit it.”

  Of course, Almana was right, it would be against Imperial regulations for anyone to visit Earth—even I wouldn’t be allowed back for a trip now.

  Eve ran a hand through her tentacles in a clearly flippant gesture, “Obviously I’ve done plenty of research on the home world of my lover.” She leaned in closer against me so some of her tentacles held onto my neck and arm, “And someday I plan to visit it again with Adam once the planet is uplifted and joins in with the Empire.” Eve explained easily.

  Almana accepted Eve’s answer without question, but turned back to me, her expression growing thoughtful, “Do you miss your home planet? It must be strange living such a different life out in the Empire now—lonely even, as the only human.”

  I shrugged, “I miss some things about Earth, but part of the reason I stayed out in the Empire was due to not having many ties back home—no family really.” I said, using my same old backstory.

  Of course, a pang of guilt ran through me, thinking of the grandparents I’d left behind.

  Almana cocked her head to the side, “What kinds of things do you miss about Earth?”

  I honestly went in waves of missing Earth or being glad I was gone, but now more than ever while we were bound by the evil Empire, I missed having a simple life back home.

  “Life was slow and simple back on Earth. Sure, we had our problems, but now that I’m out in the Empire they all seem so small in comparison. Humans created so many wonderful things too, we have so much creativity—more than anything I’ve seen out here in the Empire so far.” I confirmed.

  Almana’s eyebrows shot up, “Really?”

  I nodded, “Oh yeah. From what I’ve seen, a lot of races or civilizations out in the Empire have specialties, one great work they’ve perfected over the years. But for humans, we dabble in a little bit of everything; we have our arts, our sports, our sciences, thousands of genres of music, our food and cooking, and media and entertainment like you wouldn’t believe.” I looked around at all the aliens around me, all so different, then I turned back to Almana, “I’ve been told I pick skills up surprisingly quickly, and I think it’s because I’m a human; I might not be a master at any one of them, but I can do a little bit of everything.”

  “Jack of all trades, master of none is the human expression.” Eve added.

  “Would you say diversity is your strength?” Almana asked.

  I laughed and shook my head, “That’s a really lame way of putting it, but I guess it makes sense in this context.”

  “So are you a good example for humanity? Do you dabble in a little bit of everything?” She asked.

  Eve laughed then, “Oh boy does he ever.”

  I pulled on one of Eve’s tentacles playfully to stop her laughter at my expense, but nodded in confirmation, “Yeah, I really do. I have a hundred hobbies and a thousand interests, jumping from one to the next faster than I can even keep track.” I shrugged, “Honestly, joining in with the Empire rather than going back to Earth was probably just a snap decision of what was holding my interest at the time, leading to a new world of endless discoveries for me to explore.”

  Almana seemed greatly amused by my responses, probably finding my simple human answers entertaining, “And now you find yourself on a clandestine special forces team; I daresay your life would make for quite an interesting story.”

  I waved her off quickly, wanting to move away from scrutinizing that story too much, “Enough about me and Earth, what about you? A lieutenant of your planet’s resistance; that sounds like an even more exciting story.”

  Before Almana could respond, a soldier walked down the aisle and leaned over to her, “Lieutenant, we’ve arrived in Drevor.” He told her.

  I looked out the window to see we were entering another major city, but right away I could see Drevor wasn’t doing as well as Wesseran. The architecture was the same with all those dome buildings and hover-cars, but the city itself had clearly taken some damage during the war.

  We were in a warm-zone just on the outskirts of the central warzone, so it didn’t look like there was any major recent damage, but everywhere I looked there were small signs of laser fire and old explosions. The soldiers on the ground were mostly dressed in the resistance armor, with only the checkpoint soldiers wearing the militia fatigues. As for civilians, there were still quite a few around on the streets and sidewalks, but there were no where near as many in Wesseran, and they were clearly doing significantly worse.

  Those would be the ones that refused to leave their homes, the ones that wouldn’t migrate to the other cities; the ones who were left would stay and risk dying in their homes, living on borrowed hope, praying the resistance could protect them.

  Almana turned back to us, “I’ll meet up with you guys later, for now we’ll have to figure out which outpost the local resistance team will have us stay at for the night.”

  I nodded, but Almana left with her people before I could respond.

  I looked over at Eve to see her looking out at all the destruction, the chaos we were entering.

  “What are you thinking, sweet-thing?” I asked.

  Eve’s face scrunched up in a thoughtful frown, “I don’t care for this Almana, and I don’t like I can’t sense what she’s thinking.”

  I rolled my eyes, “I meant about the warzone we’re entering?”

  Eve turned back to me, as though surprised I was asking about something so inconsequential, “Nothing really, shouldn’t be too dangerous since we’re still outside the active combat areas. No reason to get comfortable though, we’ll be shipping out right away tomorrow as they’ve said.”

  I nodded, “And then we’ll be heading into the actual hot-zone.”

  Eve smirked, “Nervous, darling? You should know I’ll protect you no matter what.”

  I wasn’t nervous over my own safety not now—not yet. Even though I hadn’t tested my new powers, I still felt like I was less vulnerable even now. But there was a hundred other things to worry about instead; all the lives we were responsible for, maintaining our fa?ade in front of the resistance, staying out of any conflicts despite the fact we were being escorted by the fucking lieutenant of the resistance team, and then of course what would happen with the Empire when the mission was finished—how the Lord Generals would respond to our work.

  Nervous? No, but I had this low level of anxiety that hadn’t left me since the court martial—maybe even before that. It felt like I was always just running around half-cocked, flying by the seat of my pants—and fucked everything up along the way.

  We were fighting with real consequences now, with people dying around us—a planet’s future hanging in the balance of what all we could do to fix it.

  And I was just some dumb human from a planet called dirt.

  Nervous? No, I was terrified.