Before Almana could even make it up to Seash, there was a massive explosion outside, and even from my seat back on the bus I could see the interceptor out front had been completely engulfed in flames.

  “Contact front!” A marine shouted, followed by all the soldiers on the bus leaning out their windows to fire blindly ahead of them.

  There was a second explosion behind us, and I looked back to see the second transport was hit, though it was shielded better than the interceptor and survived the blast.

  “Contact rear!” Another soldier called out, splitting the attention of our soldiers.

  There was a third explosion then, this one hitting us square on the side of our shielding with some massive ball of burning blue plasma. It rattled the whole bus and sent people flying out of their seats, but we didn’t suffer any internal damage.

  “Contact all around us!”

  Eve looked at me, her eyes narrowed, looking at me as though she was annoyed, “I should hope you’ll listen to those human instincts of yours from now on; you should’ve known better than to allow these idiots to head into an obvious—”

  There was another explosion then, and we took the hit on the other side—my side, rather close to me, sending me sprawling into Eve. She caught me easily and turned it into a hug, stroking my hair gently.

  “Oh, there there, Adam, don’t worry I’m not mad at you, just a little disappointed is all.” She said mildly.

  “Eve, what the fuck that’s not what I’m—” I untangled myself from Eve and grabbed my gun and held it ready, “What the fuck do we do now?”

  “Everyone brace for impact, we’re going to try and form up with the other transport and dig into a defensive position.” Seash called out, and then the bus lurched backwards towards the wall of the tunnel and basically crashed together with the other transport at a weird angle, causing almost everyone to fall out of their seats.

  Eve collected me easily and stood me back up so I could see our power armor soldiers step off the bus quickly as they started deploying the repulser barriers around the buses, trying to establish some proper shielding right before another blue plasma explosion erupted against the side of our transport.

  As though everything wasn’t bad enough, the lights in the tunnel all started flickering wildly and then started shutting off one by one, until everything was dark except for the lights from the buses.

  Even before the lights went out, I couldn’t see where the enemy was, and now that it was so dark it was nearly impossible to tell what was going on. Our power armor soldiers got our barriers in place, so they started taking the hits instead of the buses themselves, but those mobile shields wouldn’t last forever. We needed to do something—we needed to move.

  More of our marines and the resistance soldiers started deploying off the buses, forming up in the strange defensive triangle we’d established with the transports and repulser barriers.

  I got out of our seat and Eve grabbed onto my hand was we made our way up towards the commanders.

  “I know we can’t see shit, get the emergency lighting out so we can change that!” Seash yelled into his communicator, then narrowed his eyes when he saw the two of us approach, “What the hell do you two want?”

  I gestured towards the marines fighting out front, but before I could even open my mouth to speak, Seash cut me off quick.

  “No, your job is to stay in the most defensive position possible—stay as far away from the front lines as you can.” He chanced a brief glance towards Almana beside us then looked back at me, “Without Eve’s expertise, there’s no way we can complete this mission when we make it to the capital, no chance we can risk you two engaging the enemy now.”

  “Without our help now who’s to say we’ll even make it to the capital?” I pressed.

  Seash looked like he was about to breathe fire at me, but before he could properly retort, the bus took another huge hit from some plasma blast.

  “However you want to play this, we can’t stay on these transports for much longer; the repusler shielding is much safer.” Almana insisted.

  Without waiting for a reply from our commanders, Eve pushed me forward and out of the bus, into the darkness surrounded by confused soldiers trying to set up lighting and turrets for the enemy we couldn’t see.

  “Can you sense the enemy at all now?” I asked Eve as she pushed me along behind the repusler shielding between the angled buses.

  “No, but I’ve altered my vision so I can see them clearly in the dark.”

  “Where are they—how many are there?” I pressed.

  “All around us—more than this rabble can handle.” Eve said dismissively.

  Aside from the plasma explosions, there was suppressive laser fire coming from the darkness too, steady and controlling, keeping us all pinned behind our shielding.

  “What the hell do we do?”

  Eve pulled me back around behind the bus behind the repulser shielding, away from all the plasma and laser fire, “We need to move; digging in like this is exactly what the enemy is hoping for.”

  “If we move, we’ll be totally vulnerable; at least here we can hold this defensive position for a while.” I reasoned.

  “Exactly and considering we’re fighting an enemy that doesn’t need sleep or nourishment, they can wait out that long while forever. They’re planning on us holding this position until we exhaust ourselves completely, then they’ll roll over us like nothing.” Eve explained.

  “So what, we move through the dark tunnel where they can pick us off easily? That doesn’t sound much better.”

  Eve shook her head, “Adam, people are going to die here—a lot of people. We need to use that to our advantage, rather than dig in and all die together pointlessly.” She clarified.

  Same as always, Eve was looking at the lives around us as completely inconsequential; it didn’t matter to her how many soldiers died along the way, so long as the two of us made it out of the tunnel.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  However, despite the fact they were Imperial soldiers, I couldn’t just let the people around me die as though their lives meant nothing at all; my human heart still considered life sacred, so I couldn’t accept their lives as meaningless.

  Unfortunately, Eve was right—as usual, and there would be no avoiding casualties now.

  There was another massive plasma explosion on the second bus, ripping through the shielding and destroying its back half. I watched as the remaining soldiers on the bus rushed out, carrying a couple wounded people along with them, aimlessly looking for a safe place to put them down.

  Along with them I saw the researchers make their way out, looking terrified and frantic, no longer with a secure location to hide, now in the middle of all the chaos.

  Kianna looked over and saw me and Eve and made her way toward us as fast as her little legs could carry her.

  “What the hell are we doing out here?” She asked desperately, an injury on her forehead leaving a trail of blood over her eye and cheek.

  Eve shrugged, very obviously unconcerned, “Staying out of the way, apparently.”

  Kianna looked horrified, then turned to me, “Can’t you guys do anything? We’re totally trapped here!”

  “The enemy can just bide their time and wait for our shields to wear down, then run us all over if we don’t make a move.” Gorgam added.

  I sighed and turned to Eve, “Evie, seriously, we need to do something—”

  “Why? Why should we?” Eve threw her hands up in a frustrated gesture, “Why should we care what happens to any of them? Might as well follow along with their asinine orders and let it be the death of them.” She said flippantly, more than done with playing or pretending to be nice at all now.

  Kianna stepped forward, grabbing onto my forearm, “Please, Adam, I don’t want to die like this.”

  Faster than I could blink, Eve snatched Kianna’s hand off me, pushing her away from me roughly, “Do not be so familiar with my Adam.”

  Kianna looked as scared as she was when Gamma-12 attacked us—maybe even more scared, eyes wide with fright when Eve pushed her off. I had been on the fence for a while about Kianna and some of the researchers, but even if we couldn’t fully trust them, they were terrified and didn’t deserve to be in this situation. And really, Kianna had shown herself to be a true friend to us, and we probably could count her as one of our few allies now.

  I grabbed Eve’s hand and held it up, “Eve, stop it. We need to do something.” I said sternly.

  Eve’s eyes grew wide, and I could see she was quite surprised I stood up to her. Made me wonder if I’d already lost myself along the way—lost the resistant, bold man I’d always been back on Earth, and instead just turned into someone who followed around in Eve’s orbit. Well, it was high-time for me to stand up again, to be myself—to show myself stubborn and stupid and human.

  Eve narrowed her eyes on me; she was beyond irritated, and I half expected her to hit me, but instead she just sighed and smiled that girly smile of hers.

  “You’re such a pain in the ass, darling.”

  I smiled too, “And you love me for it.” I gestured towards the soldiers and the shielding, “Any idea what we can do?”

  Eve waved me off dismissively, then turned and made her way to the front lines, “Yes yes, give me a moment.”

  I left the researchers behind and followed after Eve, making sure I was safely behind cover or shielding wherever I moved. Eve of course was entirely unconcerned, standing in the middle of the battlefield as though it were a field of flowers.

  Eve made her way over to the largest repulser barrier at the front of the line and opened up the control panel.

  “What the hell are you doing?” The soldier beside it asked.

  “Saving your sorry asses.” Eve said flippantly.

  I had no idea what she was doing, but after a few moments the repulser barrier lit up a brilliant white light, as though it had been supercharged or something, and every laser that shot for the barrier was repelled back the way it came with some multiplied force. The reversed barrier created enough light so we could finally see all the assimilated soldiers around us—dozens of them. And in the moment the lasers were shot back against them, it disrupted their assault and gave us a small window of reprieve.

  Eve pulled out her proton sword, then grabbed the nearby soldier’s proton sword and activated them together—fucking dual-wielding once again.

  “Now, while we have a moment, rush them!” Eve announced, and without waiting for anyone else, shot off after the enemy with almost unnatural speed (proving Eve did understand the meaning of restraint).

  I had no idea how long we would have with the light of the reversed repulser barrier, and I don’t think anyone else did either, so altogether everyone rushed after the enemy soldiers; no cover, no shielding, running headfirst into laser fire, it was the last stand of desperate men.

  I activated my own proton sword and rushed into the fray as well, activating my speed so I was able to dodge around a hail of laser fire, moving around a few dropped soldiers, and then clashing with the force of dead puppet soldiers.

  I’d shot plenty of assimilated soldiers on the way here, all from the safety of our bus, but out here in the thick of it, using my enhanced speed with my proton sword, I felt something I couldn’t really explain. It wasn’t simple adrenaline, but I didn’t think it was bloodlust either. I felt like a soldier as I cut my enemy down—felt like a hero maybe. I felt like I’d been transported back to gladiator times, striking down my enemy amidst blood and sand. It wasn’t that I wanted to kill, but I was fulfilling a purpose I never knew I had—some caveman instinct to bash my enemy with a club or something.

  Using my enhanced speed, it was easy to weave through the assimilated soldiers, moving around their guns and cutting them down with the proton sword. It felt light in my hands and cut like a dream, and while I’d trained somewhat with the simulators how to use it, all I really had to do was slash left and right, and my foes would drop before me.

  Everything was chaos around me, but with my enhanced speed and perception I could take in the details surprisingly easily. Our soldiers clashed with Beta-09’s puppets, having a better time using swords rather than guns up close. It seemed like the assimilated soldiers didn’t know how to respond, didn’t have the right gear for such close ranged combat. I could see quite a few of our soldiers died on the way to meet them, leaving a trail of corpses on the path to the confrontation, but once they made it over things were quickly turning in our favor.

  And then off in the distance I could see Eve, dancing around with her two proton swords, looking like it was all so easy for her. She would move through the enemy soldiers without stopping, only chucks of dead flesh falling behind her, splashed with blood and gore and not caring for the carnage she wrought—enjoying it actually.

  It didn’t take long to overwhelm the ambush, and in no time at all we’d completely cleared the area of enemy soldiers.

  I made my way over to Eve, stepping through a mire of black ooze and tentacles.

  “How are you doing, sweet-thing?” I asked mildly.

  Eve turned to me, fixing me with a flat glare, still clearly annoyed, “Fine, of course.” She gestured to herself, “The one good thing about the inhibitor field is how it keeps all the gore off me.”

  I shook my head, “Don’t even joke like that.”

  Eve half-smiled then, more amused at my response than anything, “And how are you darling? Did you have fun with your new powers?”

  I smirked, “I’m surprised you didn’t want me to stay out of it with the way you baby me all the time.”

  Eve waved it off, “They didn’t have anything that would’ve been lethal to you with your enhanced durability.” She crossed her arms and eyed me down, “Instead, maybe it would’ve been good for you to get a little hurt, teach you a fucking lesson that would actually stick for once.”

  I smiled at that, “There’s those nice things you say.”

  Eve gave me a genuine smile than and walked over to give me a hug, “I’m sorry darling, I’m sure I’ve been insufferable lately.”

  Considering how Eve was suffering I really didn’t have a leg to stand on. Honestly, I should be doing everything I could to alleviate her burdens, rather than add to them and get her all roped up in a mess like this.

  “Do you know how many assimilated soldiers attacked us?” I asked.

  Eve shrugged as she molded into me as much as she could while wearing the bulky battle armor, “Seems like anywhere from 40-60, but again with my sense dulled I couldn’t give you an exact number.”

  I let out a weary sigh, “Well, at least it’s all over with, now we can finally get out of this fucking tunnel.”

  Eve trilled a little giggle, leaning back so she could look at me, eyes dancing with amusement, “Oh my sweet silly boy, you’re always so funny.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Eve rolled her eyes, then gestured to the dead soldiers around us, “Duh, Adam, that was just the welcoming party.” She nodded off towards the tunnel—towards the darkness, “We still have a long way to go before we’re free and clear.”