After we decompressed a little from our success, we made our way back towards the transports. It was crazy, we only had to clear a few hundred feet to make it to where the assimilated soldiers were while they were shooting at us, but it had seemed like huge chasm at the time, and with the amount of casualties we suffered, it probably seemed even larger to the regular soldiers who didn’t have enhanced speed.

  It looked like we’d lost almost 20 of our own soldiers, mostly vyrane, but a few of our team members as well.

  Before we even made it all the way back over, Seash was rushing towards us beside Kotlokk, with Almana hot on their tails.

  “What the fuck did you do?” Seash demanded.

  I rolled my eyes, “You’re welcome, bitch.”

  Seash slashed a hand through the air, “You think this is a game? You disobeyed my direct orders and put the entire mission in jeopardy! Plus, you destroyed our largest repulser barrier, greatly diminishing our defensive capabilities.”

  Eve held her chin up high, showing herself proud and superior, “We’re fighting an enemy that doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, and doesn’t stop until they’ve destroyed everything in their path; if I hadn’t intervened, we would’ve eventually died after they wore out all our barriers.”

  Seash grumbled and growled, but he didn’t have a good rebuttal for Eve’s claim, so he just stalked off to check on the situation.

  Almana gestured to the now broken repulser shield, “Seriously though, what did you do? It was exactly what we needed to interrupt the enemy’s assault and turn things around for us.”

  Eve waved it off, “I just reversed the polarity of the repulser field and maximized its output.” She shrugged, “Part of my specialty, I can turn pretty much anything into a weapon, even a shield or barrier.” She said breezily.

  Kotlokk tilted his head to the side, “Still, while you’re absolutely right we wouldn’t have survived if we didn’t turn things around, Seash is correct the mission can’t succeed without you so you shouldn’t put yourself at risk; you should learn to delegate better, Eve.” He insisted.

  Once upon a time I’d considered Kotlokk a friend, and even though that ship has long since sailed, I was glad he wasn’t hassling us.

  Eve rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

  Kotlokk just chuckled, clicking his insectoid mandibles, then continued on after Seash.

  Almana stayed with us, still looking starstruck over the whole thing, “And the way you guys moved, I couldn’t believe it; I had no idea you had traditional sword training, and you were all so fast it was hard to keep up—I didn’t even know regular people could move like that.”

  I shrugged, wanting to move past the subject as quickly as I could, “We’ve had some minor genetic modifications to enhance our reflexes, makes us move faster and much more precisely.”

  “Sounds like a modification I should look into for myself.” Almana added.

  I waved it off, “Yeah it’s super badass, but the problem is people start treating you like a hero, following you around and asking you to save the day. Gets rather tiresome being so awesome.”

  Almana rolled her eyes, “My, what a burden.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, it’s a tough life.”

  Almana giggled, patted me on the arm, then continued on after the other commanders.

  Eve leaned her head against my arm as I let out a weary sigh, glad we didn’t suffer the third degree like I was dreading.

  “How are you holding up, sweet-thing? Does being active and fighting or using powers or whatever drain more of your remaining void energy?” I asked.

  Eve sighed too, “Imagine an engine that has enough fuel to last a thousand years, but when you activate it, you burn away a few extra seconds.”

  “That doesn’t seem like much at all with that comparison.”

  Eve nodded, “Exactly, this kind of activity is nothing to me.”

  I had to think about that one for a few moments, and then another creeping doubt entered my mind, “What about when it’s a lot more activity, like what would be required to fight another Predazoan?”

  “That would certainly burn a lot more.”

  “Enough to be concerned?” I asked.

  Eve looked up into my eyes, “Maybe, but the rewards afterwards will be well worth it.”

  “Meaning?”

  Eve stepped in front of me so she could fully look at me then, “If I consume another Predazoan, not only will I assimilate their biomass core into myself, but I’ll absorb their void energy as well.”

  My eyebrows shot up, “So you can refuel your void energy reserves by consuming another Predazoan?”

  Eve nodded once, “Precisely.”

  Well, not like that changed anything for us, we were on the way to kill Beta-09 all the same. Still, if it helped alleviate Eve’s suffering, I was all the gladder for it. Seemed like we had another reason to kill the next Predazoan, and depending how long we remained contained, it might turn into a new trend for us.

  ***

  There was no time to celebrate our victory, we had to move with a purpose and get out of this tunnel yesterday. We still had over a dozen miles to go, and we had to go completely on foot now.

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  We did a head count and discovered we lost 18 soldiers in the skirmish; most of them had been vyrane, but we lost a few marines too, and one of our power armor soldiers had to abandon his power armor as it was too badly damaged during the skirmish.

  We stripped the buses of all the gear we could carry, but it was time to start traveling light, so we left everything behind but the main essentials.

  After a very, very brief ceremony where we honored the dead and set fire to their bodies so they wouldn’t come back assimilated, we formed up in one long line marching in pairs, with some mobile turrets out at the front and back of the line.

  It was still dark in the tunnel with all the lights disabled, so everyone activated their mounted lights, although that wasn’t nearly enough for us to see well in the massive tunnel, so they deployed some strange emergency beacon lights that floated around us like strange glowing balloons, plus the lights from the mobile turrets.

  Even with everything we had activated, it was still so dark everywhere you looked. Sure, you could see 50 feet in front of you—maybe a hundred feet. But beyond that it was pitch black, and the tunnel went on for miles.

  Seash planted Eve and me right in the middle of the line, with the power armor soldiers around us, ready to shield and protect us—felt like babysitting honestly. The researchers stayed with us too, holding their guns like they barely knew what to do with them, even with all the days of practice shooting from the safety of the buses. Kianna looked pitiful, scared and injured, looking like she wanted to hold Eve’s or my hand for comfort. I really don’t think I ever saw her this scared, even when dealing with Gamma-12, and I started to suspect she was afraid of the dark more than anything.

  A little behind the researchers was Lobae and Vinnago who we hadn’t talked to in days—hadn’t seen much of either since they were on the other bus when we traveled. They offered us brief hellos, but it was clear we all knew whatever bond we once shared had been completely severed, and now it was just up to the agents to protect the assets—follow their precious Empire’s orders, same as always.

  It was better this way, rather than even try to pretend, a clean break was best.

  Seash seemed to cool down but still he ordered us to stay out of the fighting, to only act defensively should we encounter another enemy force. As always, he was worried about keeping the Predazoans secret, so after it was clear our secret was safe, he seemed to let it all go and focus his efforts on getting us all out of the tunnel.

  Of course, while our secret was obviously safe, our actions clearly sparked Almana’s curiosity and interest to the point she started bombarding us with questions about our training and abilities, wanting to know how often we fought on the front lines despite our specialty of being heavy weapons experts that would usually end the conflicts without getting directly involved.

  Before, I’d been concerned Almana would question why we might avoid combat or stay well and clear of any danger, thinking it strange soldiers would be so averse to fighting. Instead, we broke protocol and ended up fighting, and now we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

  Most of the resistance soldiers seemed rather starstruck around our team, seeing our advanced tactics and weaponry almost like some celebrity status, but we’d thankfully avoided getting tangled all up in that mess—until now with Almana. We traded one annoyance for the other, and honestly I wasn’t sure which would be better, looking like cowards who avoided fighting despite being in some elite military squad, or now looking like heroes despite supposedly working on the back lines.

  Of course, Almana couldn’t gush for long considering what all we were still dealing with, and her attention was pulled away frequently by other members of the team while we traveled through the dark.

  Progress was slow and careful, and occasionally, a small team of assimilated soldiers would pop out of the dark and attack us. We had to respond quickly and furiously, focusing on destabilizing the dead puppets as quickly as possible. We threw down our barriers and shielding, but sometimes it wasn’t enough, and we ended up losing a few more people in the dark, including one of our clandestine agents.

  Our sensors were completely useless now, unable to detect the enemies in the tunnel. Eve said it was because the puppets had shifted their biology to resemble cold corpses, with no heat or heartbeat for anyone to detect. Even their movements were impossible to pick up until they started attacking us, working as shadows in the dark.

  No one could figure out how exactly these assimilated soldiers were so stealthy compared to all the others we’d fought on the way here, but I wasn’t about to question what all the Outsider magic could accomplish; at this point there was very little left that could surprise me—I mean I would be surprised when something new and crazy happened that I could never even imagine, but I wouldn’t be surprised the Predazoans were able to surprise me.

  Eve seemed to be doing a little better now while we were traveling on foot, which made me wonder if hibernating too much had been bad for her, or if a little bit of action helped revitalize her—or if she was just really good at masking her pain now that we had to keep moving. I kept her close and watched her like a hawk for any signs of fatigue, but that only seemed to irritate her as she assured me she would have more than enough energy to destroy a dozen solar systems, let alone walk down a dark tunnel.

  I hated this new distance with Eve and the fact she was clearly hiding something from me—hiding her pain and how she planned to deal with it. It felt like we were more at odds than ever before, and yet we still yearned for each other so desperately, more than anything just wanting to be free to be with each other—to touch and feel every inch of bare flesh without the inhibitor field between us. We were both beyond frustrated, but so far there was no end in sight, so we’d just have to continue to suffer together.

  We traveled on foot in the dark tunnel for a couple hours, having fought a dozen little ambushes and losing just under two dozen of our soldiers when we finally made it to the tunnel’s exit ramp, with just a tiny scattered sunbeam illuminating our way out.

  “Something’s wrong.” Eve said suddenly, standing up stiff like a wolf on high alert.

  “What is it?” Almana asked, always ready to listen to Eve’s instincts or advice now after she proved herself right every time.

  Eve pointed towards the sunlight ahead of us, “That’s not enough sun shining through for how open the exit ramps are.”

  Looking off in the distance, we were still quite a ways away from the exit, but I could definitely see what Eve was talking about; it was just a few scattered beams of sunlight, peaking through, nowhere near enough for the large hole that allowed several vehicles to pass through at once.

  Something was blocking our way out.

  “Shit.” Almana muttered, then rushed off to the front of the line towards the commanders.

  ~What are you thinking?~ I asked Eve through the inner-ear vibrations.

  ~Another trap, either in response to us surviving the first assault, or this has been the plan all along~ She reasoned.

  ~Slowly whittle away at our defenses, then when we’re most vulnerable, they come to finish us off~

  Eve nodded once, “Exactly.” She said aloud.

  Kianna looked between us, “Exactly what?”

  I looked back at her, “We’re thinking it’s another trap.”

  Kianna’s eyes grew wide, “Not again.”

  And now we didn’t even have the buses to bunker down between. We had our mobile repulser barriers, but they wouldn’t be enough to cover our entire company. Best case scenario we could deploy our encampment shield walls we used at night, but all that shit took a long time to set up—almost an hour even if we rushed it.

  “Maybe we can blast our way outside? There’s still some sun peaking out, so at least it’s not totally sealed.” Gorgam offered.

  Eve shook her head slowly, “Whatever we do, we need to make the decision fast.”

  “Why, what’s going on?” Kianna asked, looking like a bundle of nerves.

  Eve continued to shake her head, “I can smell it on the air, the stench of decay and death all around us.”

  I looked behind us, then forward—nothing but darkness all around.

  “You mean…?” I let the question drop.

  Eve turned to me and nodded once, her expression grave, “They are coming.”