Since we were up so late fooling around, we almost missed the morning briefing. We met up in some open conference room, with Seash, Bryx and Kotlokk telling us what all they learned of the resistance yesterday, and what the team needed to do while in the city. They were droning on so much I nearly fell asleep, and since we weren’t part of the investigation team at all—supposed to stay in our specific roles now, there really was no reason for us to even be at the meeting at this point.

  Mission command was working on getting in contact with the Vyrane resistance, trying to go through the militia for assistance, but they were getting stonewalled for some reason. Apparently the resistance was trying to work behind the scenes, moving through old government channels from before their capital was taken over. They were all deeply afraid of information leaks, worried if anyone in the resistance was assimilated by the enemy it would completely break down the structure they’d established for the regular citizens now—worried it would lead to the collapse of their entire civilization. Even though the central government and capital had been taken over by the separatists, the resistance was working all over the planet to keep daily life running for the vyranes. Such a big undertaking, you would think it wouldn’t be hard to get in contact with them, but apparently they were even more compartmentalized than our mission team was now, with the militia working as regular security at this point, a rather small arm connected to what all the vyranes were doing to keep their world from collapsing into chaos.

  We learned a bit more about how everything was structured on Vyrane, both during the siege and after. Apparently, once a planet joins in with the Empire, they couldn’t have a centralized military anymore; any armed forces were supposed to be grafted into the Imperial military, repurposed for intergalactic affairs. So this militia was basically comprised of local law enforcement kitted out with the remainders of their old weapons and whatever was available of frontier technology, which of course was why it was all so outdated and easily overwhelmed by the separatists who’d gotten their hands on core technology. It also explained why the militia was only acting defensively protecting their settlements, they simply wouldn’t have the numbers or resources available to actively combat the separatists.

  I also found it a little strange the main force protecting and maintaining the planet called itself the resistance; really, they were what remained of their local governments working to try and hold civilization together. Seemed more like they were the remainders rather than some resistance. But they called themselves such because they didn’t actually know what was going on with their central government in the capital—didn’t have any idea it was a Predazoan who took over with outrageous Outsider magic. Of course they knew dead bodies could be reanimated and everything, but they didn’t know if their government had any part to play in the crazy apocalyptic situation—couldn’t be sure they hadn’t made some deal with a devil that ended up biting them all in the ass.

  And so, they were the resistance, fighting against what they perceived as some hostile government takeover, using wild technology they couldn’t even begin to understand.

  After we were bombarded with all that new information, command started issuing out orders for what all we’d need to be doing while in Wesseran. Quite a few of the soldiers were to remain at the disposal of the local militia, helping them out with patrols and peacekeeping, all in the effort to show ourselves as helpful, hopefully getting us a meeting with some resistance leadership. The agents and other soldiers would be working through the streets, trying to gather intel on the resistance, learning what they could of its structure and how we could go about inserting ourselves into their fold. The researchers would be assisting the other teams, not actively working on Predazoan research, but doing what they could to learn of any gaps in technology between the resistance and the separatists—anything they could use to help both us and the resistance towards the goal of getting into the capital.

  And then there was Eve and I, both supposed to stay quiet and out of the way. Specifically, they didn’t want us to get into any trouble, didn’t want us to be any part of the investigation. Considering Beta-09 already clocked us from orbit, command was insistent we needed to do everything we could now to stay off the radar, and if that meant we were supposed to just wait around for everyone else to do all the work, so be it.

  Same as before, Lobae and Vinnago were to be there for us if we needed an escort, but since they had their own work to do, we were expected to behave if they weren’t immediately available.

  Things were still rather awkward between us after we told them off, but I wasn’t about to relent or apologize anytime soon; they seemed properly admonished before, but now I believe they resolved themselves to whatever work they needed to do, so I doubted they would be the ones to apologize either. Well, whatever, not like I was out here trying to make friends, and I definitely wasn’t in the market for friends like them.

  The meeting ended with everyone rushing off with their various tasks, with Eve and I sitting around with nothing to do really. We decided to just head back to the room for now and grab ourselves a nap.

  If this was how the mission was going to be, I had to admit it didn’t seem like any grand adventure; rather than living some exciting life out in frontier space, it was all surprisingly boring.

  ***

  A couple days passed with no progress in meeting the resistance leaders, so command was getting rather frustrated as it was screwing up our timeline. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t actually contact anyone in a leadership position. They met with a few resistance members occasionally, but no one with actual authority—and no way to connect us with their leaders since they were all so secretive and protective. Our team went to meetings that were really just rallies for support trying to gather donations, met up with the militia leaders who insisted they couldn’t connect them with the resistance, even tried spying and following some regular resistance members, but nothing anyone could do to connect with the man called Berron who was supposed to take us to the capital.

  Honestly, I wondered if maybe there weren’t any resistance leaders in the city at all; for all we knew, the resistance leaders were directing their crews from the other side of the planet, safe in underground bunkers or something.

  For our part, Eve and I remained out of the way, spending most of our time hanging around the hotel. But we weren’t so whipped we weren’t above heading out into the city and exploring a little. We never said anything to our supposed escorts, but since we were behaving ourselves, no one said anything about it anyways.

  We were in such a weird limbo situation, stuck on an alien planet just behind hostile lines, safe for now, but no way to move forward with our objective. Sure, we could head towards the capital, but without the resistance’s secret way to get through the repulser shielding, even Eve with all her power wouldn’t be able to break through.

  On the fourth day in Wesseran, the morning briefing started with surprising news.

  “We finally received a message from Berron.” Captain Seash confirmed.

  The soldiers around us seemed relieved, but judging by Seash’s frustrated demeaner, the message wasn’t good.

  The captain shook his head slowly, “He’s denied our request to meet, says without his contact to verify our identity, he can’t risk letting us in on the resistance’s inner workings.”

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  “What the hell does that mean for us?” A marine asked as chatter broke out amongst the soldiers.

  “It means we’ll need to find a way to prove ourselves allies, to show we aren’t any part of the separatist movement. For now, we’ll be working in the city alongside the militia, to act as friends of the vyranes while we keep pressing Berron for a meeting.” Kotlokk added.

  “What about asking Admiral Chyukk for some assistance, maybe some of their other soldiers have contact with the resistance?” Doctor Gorgam inquired.

  Seash sighed, “Unfortunately, high-command doesn’t want us to involve anymore Imperial soldiers; after our exposure with the first crew, they don’t want to risk bringing in anyone else on the team who doesn’t know about the Predazoans. They say there’s already significant suspicion for our team since all the Imperial soldiers supposedly died in the crash to the point regular Imperial Command started more background checks into our qualifications. We’re left to wonder if that’s why the resistance is so reticent to meet us now too.”

  Eve beside be laughed rather loudly, causing everyone in the room to look her way.

  “Something funny about our current situation?” Lieutenant Bryx asked, bristling with restrained frustration.

  Eve waved it off as her laughter died away, “Sorry, but there’s a phrase back on Earth, something about shooting yourself in the foot. I believe that readily applies here.”

  Seash smiled, but it was rather unpleasant, “Lovely you find our difficulties so amusing, I’m sure you and Adam are both incredibly satisfied with how things have turned out.”

  I threw my hands out before me in an erratic gesture, “I didn’t even say anything!”

  “For now, we’ll continue working as we have, but if we can’t make any progress with the resistance before the cycle finishes out, high-command says we might need to reevaluate mission parameters.” Kotlokk confirmed.

  “You have your orders; everyone, dismissed.” Seash said curtly.

  Same as always, Eve and I left rather aimlessly once the meeting was adjourned. It was nice spending so much time with Eve, but it wasn’t like we could actually do what we wanted while waiting around. We fooled around every night, but with the inhibitor field active there was still that distance between us. We were forced to wear battle armor every day, so we certainly weren’t very comfortable while hanging around. And the food options in town were all rather limited, so we ended up eating our soldier rations half the time anyways. As for entertainment, aside from goofing around with Eve, there wasn’t much we could actually do; we watched TV in the hotel room, did a little shopping in the city, even went to the movies once—although we got weird looks from the other patrons all the while.

  It was even worse than our time on Entana; back then, the work was rather tedious, but we stayed in a futuristic dream city that kept us all insanely comfortable, and at least we were working for some goal all the while. Plus, we could dress how we wanted, had a lot more food options, and we even got the occasional days off to enjoy the city itself.

  Sure, for Eve and myself, all our days now were like days off, but Vyrane was at war, with quite a few businesses shut down around us as people moved farther away from the conflict. It was like we were living in half a ghost town, while the other half was living in complete denial. Left us in a weird spot where no one was comfortable at all, and there was just nothing to do during the day.

  “Why don’t we head back into town? Better to just wander aimlessly outside, rather than sit around here waiting around for nothing.” I offered.

  Eve shrugged, “Very well, if you wish. I wouldn’t mind lounging around with you all day again, but I can tell you’re getting a little stir crazy.” She confirmed.

  I sighed as we headed outside, waiting for the hover-car to pick us up, “I dunno, it just feels weird hanging around in the room, can’t really get comfortable now, always having to put on fucking space armor if we go out anywhere.”

  Eve gestured to herself, “We’re wearing it now, aren’t we?”

  I shrugged, “Rather just keep it on than change in and out of it anytime we leave the room. I wish we could wear something different—something casual, that alone would make this all so much more tolerable.” I patted the sidearm at my hip, “Plus, walking around with guns is definitely earning us weird looks from all the civilians.”

  “Everything about us is garnering those strange looks; the fact we’re not vyranes, wearing this battle armor, walking around with guns. I’m sure the locals have no idea what to make of it; some are intimidated, others curious, and of course for those trying to get on with their lives, we’re like a giant reminder of how their lives have been forever changed by this war. I imagine not one of them is comfortable around us, even if they try to put on a friendly face.”

  The hover-car we ordered arrived then, so Eve and I got in together, sitting on opposite sides of the back seat. I noticed we’d been less affectionate with each other lately, ever since we had to wear the stupid armor; there was such a distance between us now, there was almost no point in trying to hold hands or lean against each other. Of course, once we were back in the hotel room and the armor was all removed, we were free to be fully affectionate with each other once again.

  Once we were settled in the car on our way to downtown, I turned to Eve, “So really, what do you think we should do now?”

  Eve quirked up a thin eyebrow on her celicapoz face, “What do you think we should do?”

  I shrugged, “Evie, I have no idea what to do—I’m not some trained agent that’s used to dealing with all this shit.” I gestured to her, “You’re the one with the supercomputer brain.”

  Eve trilled a little giggle at that, “I suppose that’s fair.” She paused then, looking out the window as she thought it over, “We really have fucked ourselves over by killing those Imperial soldiers. Despite what command might say, I doubt we’ll be able to reconnect with that Berron person. I mean really, just think how it would look from his perspective; he’s supposedly going to meet with this new special team that wants to infiltrate the capital to help end their war, all under the premise his contact from the Imperial military will make the introductions. We have no idea how long Berron and Reyn could’ve been corresponding, for all we know they might’ve even become friends. Then our team arrives and suffers an oh so tragic accident where the entire Imperial soldier crew is destroyed, but not our team. That would seem suspicious to anyone honestly.” She reasoned.

  I nodded along, “You don’t think Berron will meet with us at all?”

  Eve shrugged, “I doubt it, don’t see why he should ever take the risk, it’s not like we’ve shown ourselves capable or anything—doesn’t seem like we’d be the answer to his prayers. Seriously, we could barely even make it to the planet in one piece, yet we’re saying we should be able to infiltrate their capital and end the whole war? Doesn’t inspire much confidence.”

  “Well that’s why command wants us to work alongside the militia, make ourselves look useful.”

  “And how useful can we really be? We’re outside the warzone in a relatively safe city. What, help them with some food drives and suddenly the leaders of the resistance will be dying to meet us?” Eve pressed.

  I laughed at that, “I dunno, maybe.”

  Eve smiled, but then shook her head slowly, “No Adam, it’s not likely at all. If Berron were smart, he’d leave Wesseran altogether—get as far away from our suspicious team as possible.”

  “Then we’re back to the original question; what do you think we should do about it?” I asked again.

  As though she forgot to think on her answer last time, Eve was silent again as she pondered my question.

  “Start fresh I guess; find someone else in the resistance, a brand-new connection, and work with them—get them or their leaders to help us infiltrate the capital.” She finally answered.

  “How the hell would we do that?”

  Eve shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine, darling. As you said, we’re not trained agents used to dealing with these things. Maybe working with the militia will work, or maybe they should keep connecting with the grunts of the resistance, work in good with them so they could eventually meet up with their superiors.”

  “I guess that’s all we can really do for now. Trouble is, how long will that take?” I inquired.

  Eve shook her head slowly, “Can’t help you there either, darling, sorry.”

  We continued on towards downtown in the automated hover-car, left wondering how long we would be following this aimless pattern. I really had no idea what to do, but from what Eve said, that sounded like the best course of action. Trouble was, how could we actually follow that course?

  Well, it wasn’t like it was my job at all, I was just supposed to be the secret weapon handler, waiting around until the time we could be useful. But with as boring as everything had been lately, I honestly wasn’t sure Eve and I shouldn’t start looking for resistance people on our own.

  Sure, we were supposed to stay within our own roles but considering how fucked the mission was since the moment we arrived planet-side, I didn’t think it would matter much if we started misbehaving, at least a little.

  And if I could prevent more random murders along the way, well, all the better for it.