Considering how massive The Judicator was, two hours was barely enough time to get from the combat simulators aboard The Radiance all the way to the command center at the upper-most levels of The Judicator. Still wearing our dark training fatigues, Eve and I rushed along several walkways and lifts to make it on time, and the closer we got, the more people we saw running towards the same destination.

  The Judicator’s command center wasn’t very different from The Radiance’s, except it was at least five times bigger and with an audience to match. There were dozens and dozens of rows of Imperial officers, all with those fancy black and gold coats, along with hundreds of clandestine agents spaced out all over the large auditorium. We looked around to see the researchers were relegated to the top few rows, and we were glad to see an open section with our friends—Zyno saving a seat beside him like always.

  We made our way through the crowd to head over and join with our friends.

  “Boy are we glad to see you guys.” Zyno said, sounding more than just relieved.

  I sat down next to him and gave him a little fist bump, “Yeah, things have been absolutely crazy for us lately.”

  Kianna next to Tillia and Eve beside me leaned forward, “We heard you got court martialed!”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “They didn’t announce anything else?”

  Tillia shook her head, “If they did it got lost in the mess of the restructuring.”

  “Seriously? You’d think they’d want to keep everyone informed what’s going on with the Predazoan handler and asset since the entire fucking mission relies on them.” I reasoned.

  Yun sitting beside Zyno leaned over him then, “Things have been so disorganized since high-command took over daily operations; all our research has completely halted while they’re bringing in their new teams.”

  “New teams?”

  I was surprised to see Doctor Gorgam on the other side of Tillia, he leaned forward to join in the conversation too, “You know how there were discussions on splitting up research and military operations? They’ve gone the complete opposite direction with that.”

  “How?”

  Gorgam shook his head slowly, “They’re dismantling all the satellite research stations, saying everything needs to be contained in-house to help prioritize keeping mission operations and research secret; they don’t want any more outside communication between stations after we were almost discovered in the Holistia Nebula.”

  Eve snorted a derisive laugh, “So, they were able to contain their secret after all? Lucky fools.”

  “Barely.” Zyno confirmed, “They blamed it all on pirates and some experimental biological weapon they recently stole from a deep space Imperial research station, all for some grand heist on Glorva Corp.”

  “How the fu—seriously? Was it that easy?” I asked, wondering why they were so harsh with me and Eve when they could just handwave that shit away with lies about pirates and bioweapons.

  All our researcher friends looked at me like I was rather dumb. Kianna shook her head slowly, “Adam, whatever the Imperial agents did to contain our secret, I can assure you it wasn’t easy.”

  “Haven’t you noticed how empty The Radiance has been lately? The agents have been working around the clock trying to establish their lies with the public and the media.” Tillia added.

  “That’s what they’re trained for, but it’s definitely no easy task.” Zyno said.

  I held my hands up in surrender, “Alright, alright, I get it, my bad.” I waved around me vaguely, “So how did the official grievance go? Obviously you aren’t allowed to leave for satellite research stations, but is anything changing for you lot around here?”

  Zyno shrugged, “A little restructuring and we’re getting more teams from the satellite stations. Some researchers are going to stay aboard The Judicator too; we’re splitting a little staff between stations since they’re taking over operations now, but the details are still getting worked out.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “And that’s all okay, after everything you’ve all suffered, to just keep working here like this?”

  Yun let out a quick sigh, “Despite all we endured out in the field, we did sign onto a clandestine research station, so we have to take the good with the bad.” She waved her hand around in a gathering gesture, “Plus, we renewed our contracts and received additional hazard pay; we’re locked in for the foreseeable future with no ability to transfer out, but they’re making us comfortable in the meantime.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; after all their complaints and grievances—after Doctor Densdor fucking died, they were all dropping it after a simple pay-raise.

  Of course, what did I expect? They were all proud employees of the Empire, either completely oblivious to their shady dealings or maybe even in support of it.

  I tried to keep my face neutral, acting like I was happy they reached a good outcome, but it was then I realized how alone me and Eve were—us against the entire Tritentarian Empire. I gave Eve’s hand a little squeeze, and even though her extra-sense was diminished so she couldn’t read my thoughts, she knew me well enough to know what I was feeling. She leaned closer against me, a bastion of strength and comfort before this horrible new revelation.

  Had I chosen my friends poorly, more allies of the evil Empire? Or was I oversensitive and overreacting since we’d been so utterly defeated and contained by our new Imperial masters? It was something I’d have to discuss with Eve later.

  I suddenly realized there was a lot Eve and I needed to talk about.

  There was a chiming sound from the front of the room, and I could see that rigid red alien lieutenant who escorted us everywhere during our court martial in the center trying to reign everything in.

  “We’ll now begin the emergency war-council, with our Lord Generals Kei-Torruk, Belmond, and Fextrenn holding command.” He announced and turned to bow as the Lord Generals took their seats.

  The three Lord Generals at the front stood apart from everyone else in the general assembly, sitting atop small thrones it looked like. I always thought the Empire was more democratic since I was told before there were elections and councils established to pass the laws, but seeing the upper-levels of command now seemed like they followed along with old totalitarian ceremonies of status and nobility—lording their positions over lowborn commoners or something.

  So much for being enlightened and futuristic.

  Lord General Fextrenn held up her hand to put a stop to all the random chatter, “I understand this interruption is wildly inconvenient as it completely disrupts the restructuring of mission operations, but unfortunately with this planetary emergency, we can’t afford any delays in our response.”

  Lord General Belmond activated his console to display the hologram for some red and grey planet, “This is Vyrane, a frontier planet that only joined the Empire just over four centuries ago; they’re still rather homogenous without significant technological advancements as they haven’t had time to fully assimilate in with daily life in the Empire. We’re looking at roughly the 5th or 6th generation of vyranes with no first-hand experience living in the time before the Empire; we believe such a world was a prime target for a Predazoan.” He explained.

  Lord General Kei-Torruk changed the display to zoom in more to show a couple Imperial spaceships and stations in the nearby orbit, “The trouble began approximately a year ago when a localized civil war started in a few small settlements around the capital. As happens with newly enlightened planets, traditionalist extremists are frequently born from the first few generations with no experience in life before their time with the Empire. We dismissed this as an internal matter while the Imperial military sent a few stations to orbit and watch the situation as it unfolded.”

  Kei-Torruk pressed his console to show more stations around the planet, with what appeared to be space battles between ships and the planet itself, “Unfortunately, the number of extremists only grew with no sign of slowing down to the point the Empire needed to get directly involved. About 10 cycles ago, we started sending troops down planet-side in an attempt to contain and control the situation, but the forces our troops faced were overwhelming, and every loss on our side meant a significant gain in technology for them; they stripped us of weapons and equipment and repurposed it beyond anything the vyranes should be capable of.”

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  Once more Kei-Torruk advanced the timeline on the hologram, showing the planet now had significant shielding over several settlements, with hundreds of ships and stations launched to combat any Imperial vessels in their orbit, “They’ve advanced to completely match our core technology now, to the point they control the space around their capital so we can’t drop troops anywhere near it.”

  There was scattered mummering through the audience around us, and I even heard Zyno talking to Yun about how there was no way a frontier world should be able to match core technology in under a year.

  “What’s more is the number of enemy combatants continues to grow with no sign of stopping.” Belmond said over the chatter, “Either we’ve found the most successful extremist recruitment in Imperial history, or something more sinister is causing their ranks to swell.”

  Fextrenn activated another hologram to show satellite footage of an Imperial dropship, “This recent footage finally confirmed for us a Predazoan is most likely involved.”

  The footage of the dropship team sped up to show a timelapse over several days, with the soldiers posted around creating their perimeter. Then suddenly a second force engaged them and swept through the soldiers almost easily, fighting without concern for their own safety it seemed. After the battle was over, the enemy combatants leaned over the dead Imperial soldiers, and in a few moments the dead soldiers stood back up and followed along with the extremists, everyone moving together like a swarm then.

  “There were concerns they’d been recruiting our soldiers somehow, as there’d been reports of other Imperial races joining in with the hostile vyrane forces, but this was the first we were able to confirm the soldiers only joined in with the enemy after they’d been killed.” Kei-Torruk clarified.

  Members of the assembly around us started activating their tablets, looking over various reports on the conflict on Vyrane, seeing what all explanations were publicly offered now; I saw a few articles that talked about bio-terrorism, but nothing related to the Predazoans or anything even remotely like them.

  I leaned over to Zyno, “Are there, like, actual zombie viruses or mind-control devices that exist across the Empire?” I asked, feeling a little foolish I was talking about what would be considered fiction back on Earth.

  Zyno nodded once, “Different from what you’re thinking of with those movies from Earth, but there are ways to totally control local populations even against their wills. The thing is that kind of technology is almost impossible to hide; it takes massive manufacturing stations to create those kinds of bioweapons, or entire planets worth of powerplants to run and manage mind-manipulating systems. For something to be so quick and discrete, I’ve never heard of anything like that before—certainly nothing that completely reanimates dead bodies with no visible equipment nearby.”

  “So a Predazoan is likely the only explanation?”

  Zyno shrugged, “That or something new and equally as terrifying.”

  “Once we intercepted the footage we sent our scanners out into the system, but unfortunately due to the shielding around the capital, we haven’t actually been able to confirm the presence of a Predazoan.” Belmond confirmed.

  “However, considering the way the local population and even our soldiers have been assimilated into this new force, and with the incredible advancement in technology, we don’t think there’s any other explanation.” Kei-Torruk added.

  I turned to Eve, “What do you think?”

  Eve nodded, gesturing to the satellite footage that was playing on loop, “The way the hostile forces swept through the Imperial soldiers, and then the way they continued on together, that formation was so obviously hivemind controlled, I don’t see how it could be anything else.” She shrugged, “There really is no other reasonable explanation, and what’s that theory back on Earth? Occam’s razor.” She said simply.

  Instead of thinking the fledgling frontier world suddenly had a technological jump to match Imperial core technology and had more advanced mind-control techniques compared to anywhere else in the universe, it was simply obvious at that point it was a Predazoan at the center of it all.

  More holograms appeared before us, showing articles and timelines, displaying battlefield zones and plans, “Initially the civil war started outside the capital, but it was very quickly overtaken as their technology improved. Since then, they’ve gotten the capital completely locked down in powerful repulser fields that block us out completely from even seeing inside with satellite imagery. We’re completely in the dark on anything going on in the capital, so all our intel is coming from the surrounding settlements.” Fextrenn said.

  “They’re calling themselves the Vyrane System Separatists, stating their plan’s to completely remove themselves from the Empire and calling all vyranes to join them. We believe this is just a clever tactic from the Predazoan to try and increase her forces, maybe help her consume more biomass. Either way, the Predazoan seems to be masking her assimilation of Vyrane behind this fake political revolution.” Kei-Torruk confirmed.

  “How’s the local population reacting?” Commander Durgo asked, sitting in the front row of the general assembly—relegated to a seat as a regular audience member with the rest of us.

  Belmond activated another hologram to display an image of a couple vyranes; they were short humanoids with grey skin and mammalian features. They had bright red hair and black horns on the sides of their head, with the male’s pointing straight up and the female’s curving around forward like a ram. There was a flag between them, red with a black-horned comet and a gold star in the middle. “Since their central government is now completely controlled by the separatists, a resistance has formed to try and halt their spread and influence, while also working to keep the general population safe. They’ve been fighting together with Imperial forces on the front lines in combating the separatist threat.” He said.

  Most of the holograms disappeared to display an overview of the planet, showing large sections highlighted in different colors, “The separatists hold influence over roughly 30% of the planet’s surface, but over 60% of its the orbit, with the center of their operations in the capital and surrounding areas.” Kei-Torruk said, then a few more highlighted lines around that main occupied zone flashed, “They have us locked out pretty well now, but their progress has slowed significantly as the resistance moved away to protect their settlements, which has slowed the Predazoan’s ability to increase her forces.”

  “The more we engage them, the more they grow, so the Empire has shifted tactics to try and maintain a perimeter, rather than actively fight them.” Fextrenn clarified.

  “Which of course brings us to our part in the war.” Kei-Torruk said, and a few more holograms displayed to show images of dropships landing outside the hot-zones, “Since the Empire has come to the conclusion actively engaging the enemy on the front lines is only working against us, the new plan is to utilize small special force infiltration teams to get in behind enemy lines and attempt to end the conflict at the center of the enemy stronghold.” He explained.

  “We’ve intercepted those orders and plan on adding a few of our own infiltration teams into the upcoming operation.” Belmond added.

  “What’s the timeline for the operation?” Captain Seash asked—another old commander joined in with the general assembly.

  “12 days.” Fextrenn confirmed.

  The chatter went beyond mummering now as people doubted there was any way we could get ourselves ready in time, both to establish a proper strategy and to insert ourselves into the war-effort.

  Kei-Torruk held his hand up for silence, “We’re short on time, but not on resources; we’ve already established four special clandestine teams with official qualifications and authorization that’ll be joining the war-effort. Now we just need those teams to prepare and strategize so they’re ready to drop planet-side.”

  “Four?” Someone in the audience repeated.

  Fextrenn nodded, “Three teams will be decoys to help establish our cover while offering any support they can, while the fourth and main team will have the Predazoan asset and handler on board for when they confront the enemy in the capital.”

  Of course we had no say in the matter, chained and enslaved as we were, but it was so nice how they talked about us as though we were nothing more than a weapon to be used against the enemy; might as well have said the main team was carrying the nukes to bring into the capital, it was basically the same thing.

  “Most of our soldiers spent plenty of time in the Imperial army before transferring to clandestine affairs; your old training and experience will surely help you blend in without difficulties. However, the major difference in this campaign is how absolutely vital it is we keep the existence of the Predazoans secret; that goes for whatever enemy we find in the capital, as well as the identity of Alpha-03 on the infiltration team. That will be priority number one above all else.” Kei-Torruk confirmed.

  “We understand we’re operating under drastic time constraints now, but that was always a possibility when trying to contain the Predazoans; keeping their existence secret from the general public has always been one of the main goals of this mission, so we simply can’t afford to waste any time with our response to significant threats. Yes, it’s unfortunate we’re interrupting the restructuring and the retraining a lot of you have been undergoing, but this planetary emergency takes priority.” Fextrenn said.

  “The Radiance will stay docked on The Judicator for now, and in a couple days we’ll open a warp channel together and head through void space to travel to the Vyrane system. Our goal is to have our strategies in place and our teams on the Imperial Command Station within 12 days to get them established and ready to drop with all the other special force teams.” Belmond added.

  Kei-Torruk nodded once, “Everyone will receive their instructions within the next few hours, and we all expect you to be ready by the time we make it to their system.”

  Fextrenn deactivated the holograms so they all blinked out of existence, “If you have any further questions please seek out your commanding officer. From here, we’ll go ahead and dismiss.” She said curtly, no chance for an open forum here.

  Talk quickly broke out amongst the audience then as the Lord Generals made their exit, everyone making guesses on how the Predazoan was able to take over a planet for almost a year before we were alerted; some people wondered if it could be a mistake and we were getting involved with something that didn’t actually involve a Predazoan, while others wondered how we’d ever be able to find the other Predazoans if our sensors were so limited.

  I stood up with Eve and turned to look at her, “So what are you thinking?”

  Eve just shrugged, ignoring everyone around us as she leaned forward to wrap her arms around my neck, standing up on her tiptoes to give me a gentle kiss, “I’m thinking I could use a nice relaxing bath after all this.” She smiled coyly, “And I think you should join me.”