We moved beyond the garden and left the property of the church and headed towards some apartment complex. We kept low same as usual, following along in our tight line.
I had no idea how Almana was planning our route now, looking over her tablet to see a map of the surrounding area while she directed our travel. I wondered if she was just winging it at this point or if she was still following along with the reconnaissance data Ferro had provided.
We ducked into the apartment complex to get off the street again, moving along the hallways of some really long row of dome buildings that were all interconnected.
I think the strangest thing about moving through the city was seeing how empty it all was. There was still noise off in the distance, some lasers and explosions occasionally, and the orbital defenses several miles away, but for actual people living in Sesamna, there were none. I assumed by now they were all either dead or assimilated, while the lucky ones must’ve escaped to live as refugees in the surrounding stable cities. I remembered how Almana and her sister Melna talked about volunteering with some refugees, made me wonder how many there were that escaped and survived this mess.
Sesamna itself was a huge city, could definitely hold a hundred thousand easily, maybe even a million if the little vyranes crammed in together. But how many actually managed to escape? How many were able to flee the destruction before the entire city was overtaken?
What was even crazier was seeing how there were absolutely no signs of life anywhere, no remnants of the last few survivors who clung to the hope their city would be liberated, so they held firm and secured themselves somewhere to wait it all out. I’d expected maybe a residential area like the apartment complex would leave those signs behind, hell maybe even a body or two. But this wasn’t an enemy that would leave bodies undisturbed; all that biomass would be used, either consumed by the core, or assimilated and turned into puppet soldiers.
That more than anything made this ordeal so nightmarish; no chance to negotiate, no surrender, no way they could hunker down and survive. It was either flee or die—and even in death there wasn’t peace, being assimilated and all.
It was a horrifying thought, but I wondered how dead the assimilated people were; did they have any consciousness at all—was their soul trapped in those bodies? Or was it just dead flesh being puppeteered by the Predazoan menace?
Honestly, it would be a mercy to just be dead and gone from this nightmare, move on to the afterlife with their sky goddesses or whatever.
We made our way through the apartment complex and Gryme led us over to a collection of business properties, looking like more rounded domes in a large collection. There were property names on a few signs that were still standing, offices for sales and advertising it seemed.
There were a lot of buildings huddled up together here, so we moved in between them, sticking close to the walls as we moved.
We crossed a large main road next, moving towards another expansive downtown area with stores and restaurants, this one looking like a massive fire had razed it all to the ground. Since the buildings were all so damaged, we didn’t even need to go through doorways, just heading through huge holes in the walls, moving from one building to the next.
This downtown area lasted for several blocks, maybe a few miles even. Luckily, with all the destruction around it seemed like the area had long since been abandoned even by the assimilated soldiers, so we moved on thankfully unimpeded.
We could still hear sounds of fighting off in the distance, though it was scattered and random, and it made me wonder who was actually fighting—where were the lasers coming from? Was Ferro’s team constantly getting into skirmishes with the separatists while working their reconnaissance? Were other resistance teams making their way through Sesamna too? Were some Imperial forces making their way through, trying to keep the cities around the capital clear?
Actually, I knew for the other teams we brought with us from The Radiance, they were supposed to act as distractions, keeping near the capital to give us a better shot at getting through with enemy forces divided. I wondered then if anyone else from our mission was in the city now, doing all they could to keep the assimilated soldiers of the city active so we could sneak on through.
And then of course there were the other special forces teams the Empire gathered, those gold armor people, the aquatic team, even that stealth/camouflage team, I wondered how they fared thus far. Considering we actually knew what we were fighting and had a Predazoan on our team (even if Eve had to be careful not to show off too much of her power), we were still barely holding together, now well less than half left alive from our original number, and we hadn’t even gotten to the capital yet.
It was sad, but I wouldn’t even be surprised if all the other teams had been completely wiped out on their way to the capital, or maybe they got lucky and they were surviving, but couldn’t keep up with our pace in reaching this point. Or who knows, maybe they made it to their destination and were getting into the capital or nearby cities as we speak.
Of course, if they actually made it to the capital there was no way they would ever survive; there was no chance they would be able to do anything against Predazoan power.
It took us almost a full hour, but we made it through the destroyed downtown area and hooked back onto the main road, and Gryme directed us towards a large, gated park. At first I couldn’t tell what kind of place he was leading us into, but once we got through the main gate it seemed pretty obvious it was a Vyrane zoo.
Unfortunately, the habitats were all empty, no animals anywhere I could see. The Vyrane zoo seemed a little fancier than what we had on Earth, with moving walkways and digital displays before expansive, forcefield contained habitats that looked like mini ecosystems—like little spaces that had been terraformed to house whatever exotic animal might’ve lived there.
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Same as everywhere, the zoo was badly damaged from previous fire and explosions, and I had to admit it saddened me quite a lot to think how all the animals must’ve died as collateral in the war.
~You’re sad about the animals, aren’t you?~ Eve asked through the inner-ear vibrations.
I sighed, ~Boy, do you know me~
Eve grabbed my hand and held it as we moved through the zoo, ~Yes, and I love you for it~
I looked over at her ~You don’t think it’s silly, all this death and destruction, all the people who’ve died, and yet I mourn the zoo and all its animals?~
Eve shook her head, ~As I’ve told you time and again, I view lower lifeforms as the same; be they animal or person, they’re all beneath me—beneath us. And in a way, the deaths of these animals could be seen as even more tragic; they had no part in this war, no understanding of what was happening around them. Death came for them and they wouldn’t even understand why~
~Same could be said for children who got involved in this mess—any innocents really~ I countered.
Eve nodded, ~Right, and you feel for all of them in your heart, and I really do love you for it. I’ve told you I don’t see things the way you do, but I never said I would stop trying; I want to be with you and your human heart, and if I can learn to see things through your human eyes, well, all the better~
I appreciated Eve trying to comfort me, though I had no hope I would be able to make her see things from a more human perspective—not now, not anymore. Instead, I would just try to hold the line, keep her from giving in to her Predazoan instincts and her view of being superior to all other life—of seeing life as disposable to serve her purpose.
I loved Eve, really I did, but I’d already accepted the fact I was in love with a monster. Now, I just needed to make sure she wouldn’t become a worse monster, or that I wouldn’t become a monster with her.
We continued through the zoo, getting to the far side where some brick walls held the property line. We moved over to some dumpster looking thing and climbed up and over the wall, then held there on the red grass until everyone was safely over.
Once we were all together, we moved back onto the main road at a steady pace, and off in the distance I could see the residential area coming up, a large expanse of dome houses in a collection of subdivisions.
The ghost of life was all around us once more, houses that had either been hastily abandoned or badly damaged, red lawns and trees that were either overgrown or dead. I could even see the dome homes had garages to house their cars, and some had survived the destruction while inside.
There was a part of me that was so wildly curious to see how these aliens lived, wanting to head into the homes and look around to gain insight on the lives of vyranes. But I knew what happened to those lives, how they’d been destroyed, and now wasn’t the time to fuck around when there were still living people we could help.
Instead, we just continued down the road of the alien suburbs, moving as shadows through a ghost town, making our way towards the academy to coordinate with Ferro and his people, hopefully getting us access to the capital so we could end this nightmare once and for all.
***
We spent another couple hours going through the residential districts, and only one other time did we have a close call with some assimilated soldiers we saw standing around in a house. Luckily, they hadn’t noticed us, appearing like they were in stasis or something, waiting for orders or direction or however Beta-09 controlled her puppets. Either way, we avoided detection and took the long way around to not disturb them and get into some skirmish.
Brightengale Private Academy was clearly in one of the wealthier residential districts high on a hilly landscape, a pristine gated community with golden domes larger than any I’d seen before, with accents and balconies that didn’t even seem to fit on Vyrane.
The academy itself had large dorms inside the immaculately maintained white walls, most of which were crumbling or destroyed now, but I could still see how ostentatious they’d been before the fall. We skipped over the dorms and went to the main campus building; half of it had been destroyed by some cluster of large blasts, but the remaining part of the building was still rather large, so we’d easily be able to hide inside.
The sun was only just beginning to sink in the sky, painting the world in those beautiful, vibrant watercolors. I remembered our commanders said we needed to get to the academy before dark to secure the location, and it seemed like we just made it in time to work in the remaining daylight.
When we made it inside the academy, our team started splitting up to get the work done as quickly as possible; the main unit started setting up our encampment for the night in the library, while smaller teams were putting down sensors, turrets, and even tripwires and explosives all around the academy.
The library was surprisingly untouched by all the destruction, and we were able to set up a really great encampment that would both be well hidden amongst the bookshelves while also giving us an excellent defensive position with plenty of cover.
As the smaller teams started returning from their duties around the rest of the academy, Gryme scanned every person even though they’d all left in groups; there would be no taking chances at this point.
All told, we were down to a skeleton crew from all the casualties we’d suffered thus far. We started out with 12 marines, we only had five left; six power armor soldiers, now we only had two; six clandestine agents, now we had four left including Kotlokk, Vinnago and Lobae, and then all four of our researchers had been able to survive the journey, always staying as far away from danger as possible. As for resistance soldiers, we started out with four dozen, now we only had 17 soldiers left.
There was no celebration tonight, no friendly games or fights, no crazed laughter shared between soldiers. No, it was quiet all around the camp, everyone either afraid or in mourning over everything we’d lost.
Eve went to sleep right away, same as usual, getting into her sleep pod and looking like a corpse only a few moments later, in stasis to maintain her void energy.
I wasn’t about to disturb her knowing how she suffered, on top of that I knew she needed to be in the best condition she could manage since the confrontation with Beta-09 would be soon, and even though Eve insisted she would be stronger than a Beta generation Predazoan, I was still concerned.
And yet I was so unsettled now, so restless. I wanted to both crawl into a hole so Beta-09 would never find me, while also wanting to rush her with my proton blade to unleash all my frustrations and anger against her in a confrontation I could never win.
I suppose the waiting was the worst part, waiting for the violence, waiting to see whether we would live or die. It was horrible, and only my incredible self-control kept me from rousing Eve to seek her comfort.
“Alright everyone, we’ve made contact with Ferro’s team, so they’ll be here at first light to meet with us. Providing everything goes well, they should be escorting us into the sewer system to get us into the capital tomorrow.” Seash announced, his tone calm and quiet, not disturbing the peace amongst the soldiers.
“Everyone get plenty of rest, it’s going to be an early day tomorrow, hopefully one of the last days before the mission’s over.” Bryx added.
I left Eve in her sleep pod and went over to sit around one of the heat cubes that had been deployed, settling into a chair and finishing up my protein bar. There were a couple soldiers across from me, staring into the dimly glowing cube same as me, not really seeing anything, staring off into nothing.
Almana walked up behind me, her tablet out, looking a little frustrated, “Hey, I’ve gotta go doublecheck a sensor in the academy before we all turn in for the night. Want to escort me?”
I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, “Want me to go grab Eve too?”
Almana waved me off quickly, “No no, let her sleep. It should be fine just the two of us.” She locked the tablet on her belt, then looked up at me expectantly, “Ready?”
To be honest, I really did want some companionship now rather than brood over dark thoughts, and since none of the sensors showed any sign of movement anywhere in the academy, I was sure nothing bad would happen.
I slapped my knees and popped up next to the short vyrane lieutenant, “Yeah sure, let’s hit it.”
Sci-fi ? Telepathy ? Psychics
The technocracy will fall. And my powers started it all. Oops.
- Straight & queer romances. (No harem.)
- Seven-book interconnected series.
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