“You’re absolutely sure?” Agent Kotlokk pressed.
Eyes unfocused as she kept her senses concentrated far away, Eve nodded, “Definitely. If we move now, we might even be able to catch her before she goes back underground.”
Before Eve even finished speaking, Kotlokk was on his communicator calling in the other teams. Doctor Wit too was working frantically, coordinating with The Radiance to get them to send us a drop ship with more soldiers.
Another cycle had passed with minimal activity on the investigation-side of things; no changes in anything planet-side. We’d spent the days rechecking sensors, doing planetary scans, going over disappearance sites, patrolling high-traffic hot-zones, but still nothing.
Until suddenly, after an enjoyable goodnight reward kiss with Eve, she sat upright as though she’d been struck by lightning, saying she sensed Gamma-17’s camouflage dropped—Eve had a lock on her location.
As for my relationship with Eve over the past cycle, there was a strange new awkwardness between us. I was resisting these new romantic feelings I was starting to have for her, and I could tell she sensed the change. But rather than try her luck and seduce during my confusion, she seed shyer than ever, blushing and turning away from —giggling for almost no reason at random tis. Once we’d been on-site, and when Eve crouched down I couldn’t help but just admire how sexy she was with her outrageous curves, letting my imagination run wild and free. Eve nearly had a fit of nervous giggles, her face bright red (sensing so of what I’d thought) and she had to excuse herself for a solid five minutes before she could get back to work. It felt like we were a couple of awkward teenagers that knew we liked each other but didn’t want to openly admit to anything at this point.
By now Eve had been planet-side for several cycles and everyone on the ground teams had gotten so used to her, they were all treating her like a normal person—everyone calling her Eve, asking her opinions and actively engaging with her. Even Doctor Runa who’d once been terrified of the Predazoan no longer had an issue working beside her. She seed to finally be accepted as a valuable mber of the mission team, rather than just so dangerous but vital asset.
We’d rushed to Kotlokk and Wit’s room in the middle of the night with the news of Eve’s discovery, and they’d co to trust her to the point they were ready to reallocate all our resources to follow her lead.
Doctor Wit turned to Kotlokk, “Command says they can send us a single drop ship, that’ll be 12 marines and eight more power armor soldiers.”
Kotlokk turned back to Eve, “Do you have precise coordinates? We can have the drop ship land right there to maintain the periter.”
Eve activated the holographic map on the tablet and zood in to a specific section of the capital—that GPS mind of hers working perfectly, “The Sturlington Stadium—an indoor stadium, large and secure, plenty of space for her to make a nest for herself. I can sense she’s already started consuming and assimilating a good amount of biomass; she probably only decided to risk dropping her camouflage to consu a significant number of people, she wouldn’t take the chance only to consu a single person here or there.”
“Any idea how many?” I asked.
Eve shook her head, “I can’t sense them, just Gamma-17, but I can feel she’s already consud…10—no, 12 people.”
Kotlokk and Wit exchanged a grim look, “Civilian casualties, we need to put a stop to this imdiately, no chance for containnt at this point.” Kotlokk confird.
Ignoring their worries, Eve walked out to the balcony, “I can try to slow her down, keep her contained, but you need to get that drop ship down as soon as possible.”
“How can you contain her from here?” I asked.
Eve ignored too, but as we all watched, several large black growths manifested off her arms and back, and once they were significant size, they seed to explode off her—or hatch more like. The forms she created were like nothing I’d seen before, like strange squid-bat gargoyles; there were a dozen of them, each about three feet tall, with large bat wings. They were all black, and their bodies looked like elongated squids with long upper arms, but instead of feet they just had a dozen short tentacles. The strange creatures took to the air and flew off surprisingly fast for the heart of the city. Eve turned back to us, “There, that’ll help distract Gamma-17, but they won’t stop her.”
“What were those things?” I pressed.
Eve returned to my side, looking up at with wide innocent eyes, “What, you don’t recognize your children, daddy?”
“What?”
Eve rolled her eyes and giggled, then leaned up to kiss my cheek, “I’m teasing, silly. Just simple drone-forms—good for infiltration and combat.”
I clutched at my heart, trying to recover from the heart attack I’d almost had, “Right, okay yeah…”
Before I could scold Eve for her wildly inappropriate timing with her jokes, Kotlokk’s communicator made a chiming sound, “Alright, command sent us a shuttle too, we’ve got a roof pick-up. We just need to collect our team’s marines and soldiers, then we can head right off to the stadium.”
Again, before I could respond, Eve stepped forward, “I think Adam should remain here with the researchers.”
Everyone turned to Eve with no small amount of surprise, “What the hell are you talking about? I’m combat trained.” I patted at the plasma pistol and proton sword attached to my tactical belt—the first ti I’d even worn them since coming to Entana.
Eve gave a flat look, “Running through a cycle’s worth of combat simulations and being equipped with sidearms is not enough to prepare you for a fight with a Predazoan; it’s too dangerous, Adam.”
I crossed my arms and glared at Eve, “After all the work we’ve put into this investigation, I’m not going to just sit off on the sidelines.”
“And you think you can do sothing to help? The marines will be little more than a distraction, and the power armor soldiers might have the destabilizing acid, but there’s little they can do to defend against Predazoan might.” She gestured to herself, “Only I offer us the chance at victory; there’s nothing you and your little weapons can do to help.”
“And as your handler I need to be there while you handle it.” I snapped.
A low growl started rumbling in Eve’s throat, but Doctor Wit stepped between us, “We absolutely don’t have ti to debate this, the shuttle will be arriving any minute.” He turned to Eve, “For the sake of protocol, we do need your handler on site.” He turned to , “But she’s right in the fact you will be no help in this fight; you’re to remain beyond the periter of the confrontation, understood?”
Neither of us happy with the outco, we both nodded our reluctant agreent.
Another chirp from Agent Kotlokk’s communicator, he looked down and his insectoid face turned serious, “Alright, the shuttle is on the roof.” He looked at Eve and then to , “It’s ti we finally confront Gamma-17.”
***
The marines and power armor soldiers were always prepared to deploy at a mont’s notice; we didn’t even need to knock on a single door, everyone was already out in the hallway ready to et us. The marines were in full tactical gear now, decked out head to toe in futuristic black body armor with the gold Imperial accents. It strangely looked like a mix between regular body armor you might see on a soldier back on earth, and a traditional samurai—all neat and folded together, very organized and minimalistic. There was also a subtle shimr I could see on their gear, probably so minor forcefield. The power armor the soldiers wore was much different, making them look like small black and gold Gundams; the armor was blocky and robotic, with a few accents that seed only for flair, like spiked wings at the shoulders and horns above the visor. The marines would be using sonic-concussion rounds which would supposedly disorient Gamma-17, while the power armor soldiers would be at the front line with their rail guns loaded with destabilizing acid.
Honestly, I was starting to feel a little underprepared, just in black tactical pants, the simple silk-plated sleeveless tactical vest, and my couple of sidearm weapons.
In the shuttle with Eve and , there was Agents Kotlokk, Uinda and Frenk, with Brujo, Lugnore, Argenna, Westler, Bento and Darnia. They each had their tablets up with so holographic orders being displayed; location, drop zone, risk factors, tactics and strategy. Each of the soldiers had their own little rituals to get prepared for the battle ahead, so rechecking their gear, one eating so nutrients bar, one seed to be praying, and a couple were going back and forth over the mission details.
I didn’t have anything to prepare, no strategy—no role in the upcoming assault. I hated to admit it, but I was feeling a little out of place.
Eve reached for my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, “I want you to know Adam your safety is my number one priority; I don’t care what happens to Gamma-17, I don’t care what happens to the soldiers, I don’t even care what happens to any citizens we find down there, I only care about you.” She looked into my eyes, her gaze deadly serious, “If your life is ever in danger, I will drop everything to ensure your safety.”
I sighed and shook my head, “Eve, I’ll be fine. I’ll stay out of the way just as planned.” I opened up the little case Wit gave before we left, “Here, it’s the specially designed earpiece for you; I know you’ll probably have to change form when you fight Gamma-17, so just place this inside whatever you use as an ear.” Eve took the little white ball and rolled it around in her hands, changing its shape as though it was made of putty. She put the piece in her ear and shoved it in deep with her finger. I put my own regular earpiece in and turned away from her, “Can you hear ?”
“Yes, loud and clear.” Eve confird in my earpiece—sounding far from happy.
I smiled in return, “See? I can stay far away and still act as your handler; I’ll be safe.”
Eve sighed and shook her head, “Your lack of fear is what has so worried; you saw what I was capable of when I just barely consud any biomass, yet we’re to confront another Predazoan who’s had more ti to prepare, could be so wildly unpredictable you can’t even imagine what all she’s capable of.”
I quirked up an eyebrow, “Are you worried about fighting her?” The most update n0vels are published on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
At that, Eve actually giggled, “No darling, I could destroy her without the assistance of any of these soldiers, I assure you.” She turned serious once again, “It’s you I’m worried about.”
I pulled Eve forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Just stay focused and do your job, and I’ll do mine.”
The agents and soldiers watched my interaction with Eve while trying to act like they weren’t. This would be the first ti they’d be in combat with Eve, and I could tell they were a little nervous about it. But I also knew they’d co to be much more relaxed around Eve lately, seeing her more as a person now. They also seed to trust how I could command her, and even now as I cald her down with a kiss on the forehead I could see a few of them relax, believing I had a handle on Eve and would keep her focused.
But I knew what was in the back of their minds sa as it was in mine; if Eve was going to fight, she would need to transform again, and we’d see the dreaded Predazoan in all her fury once more. It would be a hard thing to disconnect the gentle Eve from the monster, and I could imagine it would reignite more than a few fears and concerns amongst the military side of the mission.
As fast as the shuttle flew, we were over the covered stadium in re monts; the building looked like a mix between a multilayer cake and a spiraling shell, all silver and blue in color, with the lighting system around it deactivated for now. The drop ship had already landed, and I could see so soldiers on the ground guarding the entrances to the deserted stadium. We circled around in the sky a couple tis waiting for the other periter team shuttles to join us; it was the middle of the night, and all the ships were in stealth mode, making us invisible in the sky. Once we were all in formation, we set to land spaced out around the three entrances, the command team taking the main entrance, while our shuttle and the periter teams split up between the other two side entrances.
We all marched out with diligent focus, filing into the stadium while the agents remained guarding the entryways to keep out any random civilians—their job as always would be for stealth and cover.
Eve remained beside while I was at the end of the line with marines and power armor soldiers up front, and after following down a few twisting hallways, we arrived onto the stadium field.
Similar to an earth stadium, the field was surrounded by seating in every direction. The field itself was all blue grass and one big circle with white markings around for whatever alien sport was to be played. The field was maybe twice the size of a football field but rounded in on itself. There were also a couple floating platforms around drifting through the air lazily, for speciation or the sport itself, I wasn’t sure.
Once we were on the field, we could finally see what all Gamma-17 had planned; in the very center of the field were three large red vehicles that were probably the equivalent of a city bus. One of the buses was completely cracked open as though it’d been the shell of so nut, with all manner of alien gore splashed all over. Around the other two buses there were black tentacles wrapped all over, as though to keep everyone trapped inside. Even from across the field, I could hear faint screaming coming from the buses.
So that was the plan; undo the camouflage to consu three busloads of people, then Gamma-17 would probably disappear again. Good thing Eve locked on her trail in ti.
I could see across the stadium field the other teams were all in place, we had Gamma-17 and her hostage buses surrounded.
Eve suddenly turned to , “Adam, go into the stands and stay put; don’t leave your seat until I co for you, okay?” She urged.
I was about to respond when suddenly an ear-splitting shriek ripped through the air, causing to buckle to my knees. Around , I could the marines and soldiers were all fine, probably their headgear protecting them.
Without waiting for to recover, Eve picked up with her tentacles and placed into the lower level of stadium seating a good hundred feet away. Her tentacles were gentle as they placed down, and honestly I felt rather insulted by the whole thing—like I was a child being put in the corner.
“I’m sorry, we can talk about it later, just please stay put for now, okay?” Eve’s voice echoed in my headset.
“Alright, you be careful too, alright?”
The shriek finally died down, and I could see a form begin to rise in front of one of the red buses. The form was mostly humanoid, pure black with several layers of plating over its entire naked body that was only vaguely feminine. She had four long arms, with a tail like a snake, and she was lifted into the air on a dozen black tentacles from her back. She seed to be holding sothing, and at first I was worried it was a person, but I took out my digital scope to zoom in on the Predazoan and saw she was holding one of Eve’s drone-forms. She ripped it in four pieces and tossed it aside as it turned into black ooze. She stood up tall and defiant and swept her glowing yellow gaze across the field, zeroing in on Eve right away.
“Contact; engage!” One of the commanding soldiers shouted, and imdiately the soldiers took their trained positions and started firing with practiced precision.
After several cycles of investigating, the assault on Gamma-17 had finally begun.
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