I bit down my frustrations and stowed my ego as best I could and worked at explaining myself and my actions before the Lord Generals. I still felt like it was all a crock of shit and ridiculously unfair they were trying to bla for everything, but I refused to throw a tantrum about it and instead tackled it all head-on—treated it like the most serious thing in the world then.
Thinking about it, I guess it kind of was.
The Lord Generals cleared of Doctor Hennor’s death stating the fact we were in void space unprotected made his demise pretty much inevitable, though they still said it was my fault Eve separated from the team then.
From there we moved onto the next stage of operations, and I was glad Durgo hadn’t trashed in his reports, saying everything was running smoothly then while we integrated with the Jessipie-90 crew.
The Lord Generals had no problem with how I tackled the drone forms, but no surprise they said I broke mission protocols by revealing the truth about the Predazoans being our primary target, and even though I defended my actions saying I kept most of the details hidden and even Durgo approved, it still counted against as a breech in operational paraters—wasn’t my place to make that call, as usual stepping out of my role. Whatever.
For the most part I was pleased Durgo’s reports showed in a surprisingly favorable light—a few snide remarks here and there that seed far from objective, but he seed rather fair in his assessnts to how the mission was progressing. Of course, if I ever thought Durgo had been harsh, the Lord Generals were beyond unfair and picked everything he said apart, making explain my every action and engagent with the Jessipie-90 crew, and with the way they responded to it seed like they didn’t see in any kind of favorable light.
Then we got to the point where Durgo’s reports ceased when we were planning to attack Gamma-20 in her tank-nest, and then of course he died before he could complete the report on the assault.
Right away the Lord Generals said we should’ve tried luring Gamma-20 away from the tanks to mitigate potential damage on such valuable cargo saying that was a massive breach in protocol and a team of specially trained clandestine agents should be able to devise a better strategy than our brute-force assault. Sa as always, there was no arguing with them, and I could see they wrote it down as another derit against .
“Now we’ve co to the point where Durgo’s reports end, so we’re going to need you to debrief us on everything that happened from your assault in the storage tanks to your eventual escape from the system.” Fextrenn confird.
There was a spot of good luck, my chance to tell my story firsthand without having to defend myself over other people’s reports—could even withhold so details to hopefully look better overall.
I told the Lord Generals about the assault in the storage tanker and how we got absolutely annihilated, losing two crewmbers from Jessipie-90 (Brunt and Toku), along with Bryx, Roote, and unbeknownst to us until much later Durgo.
“So, you t up with Durgo at the entrance of the storage tank after that last confrontation with Gamma-20, correct?” Fextrenn asked.
“Correct, he was waiting for us and then closed the door behind us so we could complete the purge protocol.” I confird.
Kei-Torruk leaned forward in his seat and steepled his hands together before his face mask, “And no one thought to rescan him to see if he’d been assimilated?”
A little of the fire died in my belly once more, seeing I’d walked into sothing else they were going to bla for, “Well, uh, no, it all happened so fast, we figured he recovered after getting thrown around by Gamma-20 and decided to just, like, et us at the exit to help with our escape.” I reasoned, fumbling along as best I could.
The assistants around the Lord Generals started typing away again as though once more catching doing sothing stupid that would count against .
Belmond shook his head slowly, “Standard operating procedure during an engagent with an enemy Predazoan, anyti soone’s missing or out of sight from the main team regardless for how long, they need to be quarantined until their identity can be properly confird.” He said.
I crossed my arms and leaned back in the cell, “Zyno used his scanner to confirm there was no sign of any Predazoan still on board the vessel; we were operating under the belief we’d cleared everyone’s identity.” I countered.
“Then you were deceived by the Predazoan camouflage, once again proving you vastly underestimate their capabilities.” Kei-Torruk confird, then leaned back in his chair, “Not a good look from the supposed Predazoan asset handler.”
It seed like I’d heard that quite a bit recently, but I wasn’t about to tell them that. Instead, I just ground my teeth together in frustration and waited for them to move on.
Once they barely cleared of the storage tank assault, saying I was once again mostly just incompetent and untrained rather than destructive and insubordinate, we moved on to when we finally got the warp reactor fixed—and it all blew up in our face and led to the warp gate fully collapsing into a void singularity.
I gestured to myself, “Once again, I had absolutely no hand in any of that—that was all way beyond my training, and like you all constantly tell , I shouldn’t be overstepping my role and responsibilities.” I insisted, almost daring them to bla for that shit.
The Lord Generals exchanged a brief glance, then Fextrenn nodded towards , “Agreed, you don’t have any engineering expertise, so you followed proper procedure by not inserting yourself into a situation that was beyond your capabilities.”
“A first for you.” Kei-Torruk grumbled.
I was about to snap back at him, but Belmond continued on first, “However, once it beca clear you weren’t going to be able to repair Jessipie-90 and escape the system with the cargo secured, did you look into any alternatives that would prevent the complete loss of the khrona crystal shipnt?”
I quirked up an eyebrow at that, “What the hell are you talking about? We had less than a cycle until the void singularity pulled the ship in; we used every available hour to prepare for our escape.” I waved his words off, “Besides, securing the cargo was the Jessipie-90 crew’s responsibility, so I’m sure they followed along with their protocols or whatever.”
Kei-Torruk glowered at , “Your responsibility also included securing the cargo, did you forget that?” He jabbed a large, chanical finger down on his desk, “Containing the Predazoan threat while securing the khrona crystal cargo. Lovely you forgot half of your mission paraters while failing at the other.” He snapped.
The assistants once again seed to have a field day writing down my next major screw up, and I honestly considered just taking a vow of silence at that point to prevent myself from saying anything else that was going to damn .
“Let’s move on to the day of your escape, our reports from Willa and Zyno were rather limited, but they confird you went back on Jessipie-90 to disengage the shielding so the ergency shuttle could escape, and from there you were confronted by Gamma-20 and sohow reunited with Alpha-03.” Fextrenn cocked her head to the side, honestly looking like she didn’t believe it, “Care to expand on what actually happened?”
I let out a weary sigh and dove right into it, hoping I actually followed along with their insane mission protocols for once.
I told them how Durgo confronted with a gun in the command center (didn’t tell them I actually thought he was working under their orders to assassinate so they’d be able to control Eve on their own), and how he revealed it was actually Gamma-20 in disguise all the way from our ti in the storage tank. I told them her plan was always to use a void singularity to hyper-compress the khrona crystals so she could properly assimilate them, how her supremacy drive led her to absorb the crystals and their energy rather than biomass. Next I told them about our fight and how close I got to actually killing the Predazoan until I ran out of ammo—they didn’t seem impressed with the almost though. Finally, I told them how Eve suddenly reappeared and killed Gamma-20 for , consuming her core and getting back safely to the ergency shuttle.
“You say she just…appeared before you?” Fextrenn inquired, once again sounding like she didn’t believe .
I still had no idea what Eve was planning, but I was sure it was smarter to not reveal her new trick of being able to teleport around with small warp gates—warp corridors she called them.
I just shrugged, “Yeah, no idea how she got back on the ship or even when. One second I was about to be killed by Gamma-20, and the next Eve was suddenly behind her and killed her like it was nothing.”
“Any idea how she returned to our dinsion and was able to board a ship with repulser shielding active?” Belmond asked, and even though he wanted to hide it, I could tell he was trying to figure out if they needed to be concerned over so new power Eve developed they couldn’t control—sothing that might prove dangerous to them.
I bit down on my smile, glad they were still scared of her power—but made sure to keep it all hidden.
I shook my head slowly, “Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t know if you talked to her before , but ever since her ti trapped in void space, she’s been…different.”
With the way the Lord Generals looked at each other, I could tell they’d already tried talking to Eve, and I would bet she said very little to them—much to their frustration.
Still, they didn’t say anything then and moved right along with the mission debriefing, “So, from there you were able to escape on the ergency shuttle, traveling out in deep space for nearly three cycles before you were able to send out a distress signal through a nearby relay beacon.” Fextrenn confird.
Kei-Torruk nodded once, “Astoundingly lucky you were able find a relay station within your comm range.” He said pointedly, but I didn’t take the bait.
I held my hands out in a presenting manner, “And then you all picked us up and arrested us. Nice.” I looked up at the Lord Generals, “Anything else you need from now, or is it ti to pass judgent on us over the destruction of an entire system that was obviously well beyond our control?”
The assistant judges all typed away at their desks, probably summarizing the debriefing for now—writing how much of a screw-up I was.
The other Lord Generals seed to be getting ready to deliberate, but Fextrenn kept her focus on .
“We thank you for your testimony Adam. We’re going to break for the day now and deliberate, and then tomorrow we’ll reconvene with our final verdict.” She said almost dismissively.
Then, the red alien lieutenant stood up from his spot in the general seating and made his way over towards , radioing ahead for his soldiers to return so they could take back to jail.
I moved forward in my little cell and pressed my hands against the barrier, “Wait, at least tell what’s going on with everyone else. Where’s Eve—and Zyno and Willa? What are you doing with the Jessipie-90 crew?”
Belmond nodded along, not even looking at , “Zyno and Willa were debriefed and found to be innocent of all charges against them; they were put on a shuttle and returned to work on The Radiance a couple days ago.”
I quirked up an eyebrow, “Just like that?”
Belmond waved off, “Just like that. As for Alpha-03…” He chanced a quick look my way, then returned his attention to the screen on his desk, “We can discuss that later—after we pass judgnt on your charges.
“Now, for the Jessipie-90 crew, standard procedure for civilians who got involved in clandestine operations is to wipe their mories then escort them back to their ho systems.” Belmond confird.
My stomach plumted, “You did what? You wiped all their mories already?”
Fextrenn looked at almost like she was annoyed, “It was your decision to involve them in the mission and tell them about the Predazoans. Perhaps if you’d been more careful and didn’t break protocol we wouldn’t have had to resort to such asures.”
I slamd my fist against the barrier, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding ! How much of their mories did you wipe? Will they rember anything from our ti on the ship—will they rember who I am at all?”
Fextrenn shook her head, “We established the wipe from the mont the crew sent out their first distress beacon; they won’t rember you or anyone from the team, nor will they rember anything that happened on Jessipie-90 once Gamma-20 started wreaking havoc in the Derrion System.”
The friends I made, the mories, everything we fought for together—the friends they lost and why, the Lord Generals took that all away from them?
“What about their contract? They’ll be expected to explain what happened to their company—they had records and shit too to help with those explanations.” I insisted.
“All wiped. For the survivors it will seem like they survived a void singularity and escaped the Derrion System, but the trauma caused them to forget or repress what happened.” Kei-Torruk explained, then leaned forward to glower at , “And again, if you followed proper procedure, we wouldn’t need to go that far.”
I was at a complete loss for what to say then. The power armor soldiers ca and started leading away from the judge’s bench and back towards the hallways of The Judicator, and all the while it felt like my brain was lost in a fog.
All the people who died, those who sacrificed themselves for our sake, Gadow and Fierra fighting to keep everyone motivated and working together, Lummy and Saba, Zemman and Num—great friends I’d made along the way. And then of course Reim, a sweet woman and a close friend, prickly and distrusting at first, she ca to rely on completely and trusted implicitly after I saved her life. And now that trust was gone—that life was gone, and any hope Gadow had trying to salvage everyone’s careers with the company or as deep space miners was surely destroyed now as all that data would be lost and the surviving crew mbers returned without any idea what happened to their lost cargo.
I knew the Lord Generals were cruel with the way they had and Eve contained, bound within their system of impossible rules and control, but the soldiers and researchers always said it was to keep the Empire safe—to keep Imperial citizens safe. And yet they just destroyed the lives of innocent people like it was nothing—seed like it was to teach a lesson more than anything.
I hated them, really I did. I tried to play along before—worried over the consequences more than anything, but I was hoping if we behaved it would lead to our freedom. But now I knew there would be no freedom when the leaders of the mission used and abused anything and everything and everyone in their path, all for the sake of power and control.
I didn’t have anything I could do, and sure I had to be careful so they didn’t imprison or dissect now that I was considered sowhat of a Predazoan asset myself thanks to the genetic modifications, but there was no world where I was going to sit down and die—to roll over and submit to their totalitarian control.
But all I could do was hope Eve had a plan—sohow or soway in all that mystery and with whatever weirdness was going on with her, it would lead us to our freedom.
I just had to hang on as long as I could and try to prevent the Lord Generals from destroying any more lives along the way.
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