The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.21

The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.21

“How do I look?” Eve asked, spinning around in a cute flourish to show off her marine battle armor.
“Unbelievably sexy as always.” I answered easily, hugging Eve around her waist as she wrapped her arms around my neck, “Seriously, how do you do it? No matter what you’re wearing, you’re beyond beautiful.”
Eve of course looked amazing in the black armor, and while for most women their curves would be hidden by the armor, Eve’s body was so outrageous nothing could hide her wildly enticing figure.
Eve smiled up at me, “And your favorite outfit of mine?”
“Duh, I prefer you without
any
outfit on.”
Eve’s smile turned playful, “Ooohh, good answer.” She leaned up to give me a tender kiss.
We were waiting around in the shuttle bay for the last of our supplies to be loaded on the dropship. We’d arrived in the Vyrane system a couple hours ago and had one last mission briefing while
The Judicator
and
The Radiance
were getting set in a distant orbit away from all the action.
We were getting geared up and ready to join with the Imperial Command Station in Vyrane’s orbit, just hours away from starting the mission now. We were dressed in the standard clandestine marine armor, all black with some gold trimming, looking like a mix of regular military fatigues and space-samurai armor. I had my standard sidearm plasma pistol and proton sword, but this time I was also given a pulse-rifle, an assault weapon that discharged blue electrified laser bolts; there weren’t any clips or magazines to worry about, just heat-sinks that would need to cooldown if I fired my gun too much without a break. Our team would also be equipped with the specialty destabilizing acid rounds to use against the enemy Predazoan, but those would all be kept hidden from the standard Imperial soldiers and any members of the Vyrane resistance that might join us.
Aside from the weapons and armor, we also had futuristic backpacks that held plenty of survival and field supplies. We’d be roughing it for most of the mission, needing to camp outside and even securing positions in hot-zones for the night.
“Looks like they’re just about ready for us.” Kianna confirmed beside us, the space armor doing its job of hiding most of her curves quite well.
The dropship wasn’t our normal stealth vessel, nor was it like the civilian craft we took to the Holistia Nebula. Instead, it seemed like a standard military dropship, looking like a grey and blue mix between a bus and a submarine.
We got in line together behind the soldiers as the deck officer was checking us off, trying to rush through the hectic activity as all our dropships would be departing together—the other teams and their vessels leaving with us so we would arrive at the Imperial Command Station together.
The officer confirmed us all in rapid succession and directed us to take our seats; we sat down together, surrounded by hardened soldiers and marines on all sides.
We hadn’t exactly made any friends with the soldiers yet, and considering how our training was all separate, I imagined we seemed like strangers to them so far, just appearing for random briefings here and there. It seemed odd the mission’s success relied on Eve’s actions in the capital, and the soldiers’ job was just to escort us there, and yet we hardly knew each other at all.
The Lord Generals’ restructuring was more disorganized than anything, and yeah we got interrupted in the middle of it and were rushing to intercept a planetary emergency, but I don’t think those were valid excuses for all the piss-poor planning.
“Oh, hey guys, cool if we sit there?” Agent Lobae said, arriving with Agent Vinnago right behind her, both wearing the special space armor.
I gestured beside me, “Knock yourself out.” I offered, and they took their seats quickly.
There was no time for pleasantries as the rest of the soldiers filed in, being pushed along by the frantic deck officer trying to keep the schedule. People were getting anxious, wanting to hurry up and get moving, and the officer’s attitude wasn’t helping anything.
Eve leaned her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes, “I don’t know if it’s because we were rushing to come to the planet’s aid, but it seems like so far everything’s been so wildly disorganized, I’ll be surprised if we can get through without significant difficulties.”
I rested my head against hers, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Makes you wonder if all the missions will be like this from now on.” Eve said.
“What do you mean?”
Eve shrugged one shoulder, “Well, the escaped Predazoans have had over a year to consume biomass all while they’re striving for perfection; pretty soon some of them might achieve it, and if that happens we might see several planets get consumed—entire systems maybe.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. I was just thinking the mission was a mess thanks to all the restructuring, but if we had to scramble from one mission to the next—one planetary emergency after the other, how the fuck we were ever going to catch our breath to properly prepare? And every time we’d be relying on Eve—the only person who’d be able to contain or kill another Predazoan; what if there were multiple planetary emergencies at once? How the hell would the Empire ever expect to contain all that chaos with just Eve by herself?
~What are you thinking?~
Eve asked into the vibrating ear-bone. It was wild how clear it sounded, and yet all anyone else could hear would be really quiet humming. We’d been practicing as much as we could, and while it was still kind of difficult for me, I could communicate in short phrases now.
~What happens when multiple Predazoans attack?~
I said stiffly, my words and hums always stilted a little.
~With just us to deal with it? Well, they’ll have to pick and choose where to send us, and who to leave defenseless against Predazoan fury~
She reasoned, sounding perfectly elegant, having no difficulty communicating through the ear-bone at all.
If that was the case, there would be way more than just 3,000 deaths to worry about, and I would hope the Lord Generals wouldn’t try to blame us when we couldn’t be in two places at once, fighting two Predazoans at once—especially now that Eve couldn’t create any extra forms.
Captain Seash and Lieutenant Bryx were the last to enter the shuttle, and the doors closed behind them as they walked down the row of soldiers.
“Alright people, this is where it really counts; we’re going to be entering an active warzone disguised as the Radiant Clandestine Special Forces Team with a focus on stealth extractions and siege infiltration. Most of you have been involved in several deployment tours and have plenty of battlefield experience but remember one of our main objectives from here on out is keeping the identity of the Predazoans secret. That includes our fellow soldiers, members of the Vyrane resistance, and any civilians we come across. Starting now, we act like a special forces team, and until we make it to the capital, we don’t even know what a Predzoan is, alright? Stick to your roles, follow the strategy, and obey your orders.” Captain Seash said, then banged on the door to the cockpit, “Ready to fly.” He called out.
“Affirmative, disembarking now.” The pilot called overhead.
A moment later I felt that subtle hum, and our vessel was in the air and then out into space. I tried looking out the viewport to see
The Radiance
and
The Judicator
docked together, but we moved so fast we were already too far away for me to see anything.
I wondered then if I could activate my speed while just sitting around so I could see more details as they flew by me, so I clenched the weird speed-organelle in my chest so everything seemed to slow down around me. I looked out the viewport and sure enough, I could see the stars trail by with strangely glowing tails as our vessel seemed to be moving slower with my altered perception. But since everything was so empty out in the dark vacuum, there wasn’t much else to see, so I released my speed and everything returned back to normal.
Eve chuckled beside me, “Having a little fun?”
I laughed too, “I dunno, just wanted to see what it would look like out in space with everything slowed down.”
“Probably not as exciting as you were hoping.” Eve said.
“You’re probably right.”
It didn’t take long for us to arrive in Vyrane’s orbit, and looking out the viewport now I could see dozens of spaceships and stations fighting planetary defenses and lower atmosphere vessels, a wild laser lightshow of shields flashing constantly; seemed like it was quite the stalemate, and who knew how long it had been going on—or how much longer it would last.
“Approaching the Imperial Command Station.” The pilot announced.
I looked out to see the Imperial Command Station was farther back in the orbit, a safe distance away from the siege stations. It honestly looked like one of those old spinning top toys, or an upside-down pyramid. It was a flat kind of grey with thousands of blue lights and lines scattered all over, finally a non-stealth Imperial vessel I could actually see from far away.
“Sending authorization codes.” The pilot announced, then paused for a couple seconds, “Codes accepted, docking with the Imperial Command Station now.”
We swept around towards the bottom of the station, and I could see a forcefield airlock waiting to accept us. In no time at all we landed inside the hanger bay, and just a few moments later I saw another of our dropships touch down beside us.
“Alright people, we’re going to meet with Admiral Chyukk and his command council right away, and once we have our escort we should be dropping down planet-side as soon as possible.” Captain Seash said briskly, already up and moving towards the open shuttle door.
“And don’t forget we’re still on Imperial time for now, so if we’re delayed and need to wait, don’t adjust your watches yet; we won’t switch to planet-time until we deploy.” Lieutenant Bryx added, his voice a deep echo that sounded somehow prehistoric—fitting for the wooly mammoth man.
Vyrane would be the first planet I’d visit that had a shorter cycle than Earth’s; they had 20-hour days split into 12 hours of daytime and 8 hours of night, and their years were only 260 Earth days. After getting so used to the longer Imperial days, I wasn’t sure if it would be a weird new adjustment to have shorter days, making me feel rushed to get everything done in time.
Well, not like there was much Eve and I needed to do since we would just be following along with the infiltration team until we made it to the capital.
Our team filed out behind our captain, leading the other dropship teams behind us. Eve and I hung around the back with the researchers, more than eager to fulfil our roles acting as support people, staying quiet and out of the way of everyone in charge—ready to show ourselves compliant to our new masters in the hopes they would loosen our collars in time.
From the back I could see Captain Seash talking with some deck officer who was speaking animatedly while escorting us out of the shuttle bay. Looking around, I could see the difference in standard military operations compared to the clandestine work aboard
The Radiance.
First, everything looked rather basic on the Command Station, flat grey and utilitarian. Even the other soldier uniforms were a dull grey with silver trim, really setting us apart with our sleek black and gold trimmed armor.
As we walked through the halls, I saw everyone we passed stop in their duties to gawk at us, some looking on with envy, others with awe. I actually saw a few people get out camera devices, little pen-shaped things that flashed and then projected the holograms in front of them; if they were ever caught by their superiors, they were immediately admonished.
We got onto a central moving walkway that seemed to be for transporting large assemblies of troops at a time, and we sped along through the Command Station. Looking around now I could see even more differences between here and
The Radiance
; everything on
The Radiance
seemed brand new, like we had unlimited funding, with fancy chrome and black hallways that were so spacious you never felt cramped. Here, the flat grey halls were clearly worn with decades of use, cleaned and meticulously managed, but old all the same, and it was anything but roomy as they properly utilized every square inch of available space.
Up on the walls I saw the lettering TECS-117070 every so often, and at first I couldn’t tell what it meant, but then I realized that must’ve been the station’s name or designation. So, the standard Command Station didn’t even have a real name, not like
The Radiance
or
The Judicator
? Must’ve meant they were mass produced, and the 117070 might’ve been the make or model number.
I leaned over to Eve beside me, holding onto my arm as subtlety as she could, “What do you think TECS-117070 stands for?”
“Tritentarian Empire Command Station, 117070.” Eve answered automatically.
I rolled my eyes, “Oh, duh, I’m an idiot. No wonder everyone just calls it the Command Station.”
Eve squeezed my hand lightly, “Don’t insult my favorite boy.” She said mildly, sounding like her mind was wandering elsewhere.
“Hey, you okay?”
Eve nodded, “I’ll be better once we’re planet-side. With my senses dulled I feel kind of
untethered
, floating around out in space in this older military station; it doesn’t feel as secure as
The Radiance
or
The Judicator
for some reason.” She said.
“You think it has anything to do with the planet-side Predazoan?”
Eve shrugged, “Doubtful, I can’t sense her at all from up here.”
“Still think there’s for sure a Predazoan involved?” I asked.
Eve looked up at me and smiled, “It would certainly be funny if it turned out there wasn’t.”
Our teams finally made it to the central command center and were led inside by our escort. It was strange how different it was compared to the fancier centers aboard
The Radiance
and
The Judicator
; it looked like some huge NASA auditorium with some central projector that reminded me of a planetarium. Inside I could see a couple other special forces teams seated together in the auditorium, some wearing gold armor looking like cyber-knights, while others wore sleek silver uniforms that resembled ours. There was another team dressed all in blue unforms that looked like a mix of body armor and a wet suit—a sea infiltration team I would guess. And lastly there was a smaller team that was dressed in vague green that appeared to have some optic camouflage active, so it was hard to see what they actually looked like.
“Please, take your seats, we’re just about to begin.” A skinny black alien man said, looking like a burnt stick bug.
Once our teams were settled, the aliens in the center started without further delay. A large red alien man with four arms and four eyes and long white dreadlocks stood up to take center stage, “My name is Admiral Chyukk, the officer in charge of the planetary defense of Vyrane. As you all know from the preliminary debriefings, our standard Imperial forces have been completely locked out from the capital; we’ve been fighting against rapidly increasing enemy forces with advancing technology and seemingly endless resources that somehow aren’t affected by normal siege tactics. Locked in this planetary stalemate, we’ve requested the aid of special operations teams to break through the blockades and infiltrate the enemy stronghold directly.” He paused and looked around the auditorium, “You’re all here because you are the best, of the best, of the best.” He declared grandly.
I snorted out a quick laugh but covered it up quick.
“
What
?” Eve hissed.
I waved her off quickly, “Sorry, it just reminded me of the scene in Men in Black when Will Smith was taking the exam, and that random soldier stood up and said pretty much exactly that.”
Eve sighed and shook her head, “Oh darling, what am I going to do with you?”
“Love me forever.” I said brightly.
Despite her scolding, Eve grabbed my hand and held onto it like it was some grand treasure, amusement dancing in her glowing yellow eyes.
Admiral Chyukk continued on with his speech, relaying information we already knew since our clandestine intel was totally up to date.
In fact, we probably had
more
intel than poor Admiral Chyukk.
He and his command council members went over the timeline once more, explaining the details on enemy encampments, technological advancements and available weaponry. They were all completely in the dark, offering random speculation as to how or why the separatists were suddenly so successful; some blamed pirates, others blamed Imperial traitors using stolen technology, and one crazy man blamed some scientist superweapon that had somehow gone rogue—what a wild accusation.
“We still have no idea what technology the enemy’s using to reanimate dead bodies, no available data or weaponry we’ve ever seen before, but we were able to bring a dead enemy combatant to show you what we’re dealing with.” The stick bug man said, pushing a hover-cart with black repulser shielding over it.
The alien officer deactivated the repulser shield, revealing a mangled dead vyrane who was cut open and filled with half-melted black tentacles and ooze.
Most people in the audience leaned forward in their seats to get a better look, while Eve stiffened immediately, and even though we were a hundred feet away from the dead body, I could see she clearly recognized something.
“It’s really a Predazoan? Do you know who it is?” I asked.
Eve nodded slowly once, and I could see a hundred calculations were running through her mind now.
“Yes, to another Predazoan, assimilated biomass has a distinct smell and sense unique to us all.” She gestured down to the dead body, “That’s clearly the work of Beta-09.” She confirmed.
My eyebrows shot up, “A Beta generation Predazoan, you’re sure?”
Eve turned to me, her expression serious, “Completely.”
So there it was, our first mission hunting down a Beta generation Predazoan, more dangerous and powerful than anything we’ve faced so far, all while Eve’s powers were trapped behind a fucking inhibitor field.
I smiled, but it was without humor, “Well, this should be fun.”

Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.21