Eve noticed the enemy right away, but the first to fire upon them was one of our snipers on top of the transport.

  “Contact, all units prepare to engage!” Almana called out quickly.

  Naturally, our units had already engaged, and our snipers were all blasting away before she even finished speaking.

  I looked through my pulse-rifle and could just barely see them stalking up towards is. From what I saw, I suppose I was expecting something different; zombies shambling after us with decaying bodies, vacant stares and limbs all outstretched looking for brains, I’d been expecting something out of a horror movie. Instead, I saw an enemy force stalking tactically towards us, ducking behind cover when needed, using the abandoned cars and terrain to their advantage.

  They appeared to be moving and acting like trained soldiers, no sign they were actually assimilated until they started taking damage to their bodies and showed themselves completely unconcerned, moving past any and all injuries.

  No wonder it had been so difficult for the resistance, there was no way to tell they were assimilated from a glance. The collection of separatist soldiers was pretty random as well; at least half were vyranes wearing militia fatigues, with a scattering of vyrane resistance soldiers wearing the more sophisticated battle armor. The majority was certainly vyrane, but there were several Imperial soldiers wearing their traditional grey battle armor as well, walking and working alongside the vyranes around them. Their weaponry was also random, using anything available it seemed, whether it be the vastly outdated militia rail-guns, or even the advanced Imperial pulse-rifles.

  They seemed to be using regular military tactics while they approached us, taking advantage of the terrain while laying down suppressing fire to move certain groups forward, but it seemed unnatural the way they all moved as one unit, the way they looked like a school of fish or even a colony of ants advancing on some prey. For the most part, it was impossible to tell when a soldier was assimilated, but watching them move as a group I could tell they were all following the orders of a singular hivemind—acting as mindless puppets.

  The enemy force was about the same size as our own, and while we initially slowed their advance with our aggressive tactics, the assimilated soldiers continued forward regardless of injury and even used their fallen comrades as shielding to press forward. The closer they got to us, the easier it was for them to continue their momentum, finally making contact with our front lines, exchanging fire around a defensive position behind some large, downed hover-truck.

  It was then I was finally able to engage too, and I started shooting the enemy soldiers from my secure position on the bus. For the most part, the enemy ignored us on the bus, focusing on our front-line power armor soldiers—exactly what they were there for, leaving me free to pick off any open enemy.

  It was kind of strange, but even though this was the first time I’d been in live combat, it didn’t feel real at all. It almost seemed like a game, point and shoot at any enemy that popped up. I’d been worried I wouldn’t be able to handle the stress, but I honestly wasn’t even feeling remotely uneasy. I think it also helped I didn’t see these soldiers as real people—didn’t seem like I was killing anyone. Realistically, I wasn’t killing anyone; these soldiers were all dead, just being steered around as flesh puppets now. I blasted away at some vyrane militia soldier, takin off a chunk of the side of his head, and he didn’t even flinch, just kept on hammering after our front-line. That really made it seem unreal then as I saw a little black ooze drain out of his massive wound that would’ve been fatal for anyone else.

  I could see too when an assimilated soldier lost a limb, snaking black tentacles would snap out to replace it so they were still able to use their weapon and fight, holding together for as long as they could until they were completely disabled.

  The assimilated soldiers clearly didn’t feel pain, and they could fight through even the most severe injuries, but they weren’t immortal or indestructible; I could see when one took too much damage around their core, they would simply collapse as a useless pile of flesh as black ooze and melty tentacles drained from the holes in their body. It took more firepower than I would’ve thought to disable them, but with the way our soldiers focused their fire on one after another, they methodically ripped through the enemy forces surprisingly easily.

  Despite having an endless number of flesh puppets at her disposal, I didn’t think Beta-09 could contend with the expert tactics and advanced weaponry of the Empire. Maybe if she was able to completely match our technology things would’ve been way worse, but honestly I think our soldiers’ training gave us a significant edge over a force acting along a singular hivemind’s orders and perception. And who knows, maybe the fear was sharpening our senses, making us fight better than the mindless soldiers commanded by the Outsider god thousands of miles away safely shielded behind her repuslers fields in the capital.

  It seemed like we disabled roughly half the enemy force without any complications, when suddenly Seargent Gryme called out, “Contact right!”

  The assimilated soldiers clearly weren’t brainless—or I guess it would be better to say Beta-09 had clearly planned out her assault, trying to flank us and divide our attention. The next force that was approaching was about the same size as the one in front, and with the way the bus was angled we couldn’t really intercept them from inside. However, we still had our forces all around the bus, and we divided our attention appropriately to maintain our advantage.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I decided to try playing around with altering my perception now, to slow things down to see if it would help me with shooting; when I activated that strange speed-gland, everything around me slowed down significantly, allowing me all the time in the world to properly place my shots. I always had good aim back when I was shooting on Earth, but it was something completely different when firing a weapon on a chaotic battlefield. But when I activated the accelerated perception, all that chaos turned to order as the enemies seemed to become barely moving targets before my sight. I could line up my shots perfectly now, and while I couldn’t make the gun fire any faster, I could make every shot count perfectly, able to take advantage of every opportunity—any head or limb that popped out behind cover was an easy target for me now.

  With my shots lined up perfectly, I was able to rip into any assimilated soldier with ease, tearing apart their core and destabilizing them. It would seem my new superpowers were beneficial in ways I wouldn’t have even thought of before.

  “Good job darling, you’re a natural.” Eve praised me brightly, sounding like we were just playing a game or something.

  I looked over to see Eve working as a flawless marksman, doing even better than me at lining up her shots. Of course that shouldn’t have come at a surprise at all; she was faster than me, had better reflexes, and had that supercomputer brain of hers which would allow her to make crazy planned out maneuvers I’d never even be able to replicate. As always, it looked funny seeing Eve the impossibly powerful Predazoan using a gun, and same as always with that, she was probably the best marksman in the Empire.

  “Not so bad after all.” I confirmed, having a rather mild conversation with her despite being in the middle of a battle.

  Eve nodded along, popping off a chain of shots to disable two enemy soldiers in a row with ease, “So long as we have time to plan and prepare, we shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the puppet soldiers; we have more sophisticated tactics and gear after all.”

  “Problem arises when we can’t plan or prepare—if these assimilated soldiers get the drop on us at some point.” I countered.

  Eve looked at me with obvious concern in her eyes—still firing her gun and hitting her targets without looking at them, “Adam, it won’t be a problem for you at all; I told you I would keep you safe.”

  I shrugged, “I know, I trust you. I’m not feeling anxious or anything now; I feel pretty good actually.”

  Eve looked like she didn’t really believe me, like she was still worried I was scared to death over everything, “Just know you can talk to me whenever you want, even in the middle of a battle, and I can take you away from it all to alleviate your concerns or fears. If you should ever feel overwhelmed, just say so and I’ll make it right.”

  Eve always treated me with kiddy gloves—always worried for my safety while we’d become entangled in the Predazoan containment mission, but it seemed like that overprotectiveness had ramped up ever since we started in on this mission—ever since I got the failsafe implanted in me really. I knew I had a lot of turbulent emotions, I had my worries and anxieties, and of course I had my history with my mental breakdown and PTSD, and yet still none of that seemed like the real reason for why Eve treated me like I was made of glass. She either knew something I didn’t with the nature of the Predazoans—well, obviously she knew tons I didn’t when it came to that, but like something specific and dangerous she wouldn’t be willing to reveal or expose me to yet. Or, it was that feeling of possessiveness she had rearing up again, wanting to literally possess me—contain me within some safe biomass net, to assimilate me into her in some way.

  Either way, while I appreciated she wanted to care for me, as a man I didn’t want to be totally babied like this all the time; a little bit of danger was fun. I was a paramedic in Detroit after all, so it wasn’t like I was a stranger to those stressful situations, and yet sometimes Eve seemed to forget all that—or chose to ignore it.

  “I’m fine sweet-thing.” I said as I blasted the head off an assimilated soldier, “Really, you don’t need to worry about me so much.”

  Eve looked like she completely disagreed with me, but wasn’t about to argue further, “If you say so.” She said dismissively.

  I sighed and continued on without arguing too, “How’s your camouflage holding up? Does it seem like any of the soldiers are focusing on you or anything?”

  Eve waved my words off, unconcerned, “It’s fine of course, this little assault would’ve happened without us present.” She confirmed.

  There was a huge explosion out towards the right where the assimilated soldiers had tried flanking us. I peered out of the bus window to see our clandestine agents had outflanked the flankers, coming around behind them with some heavy explosive weapons, tearing into their ranks easily.

  The original force that attacked us was just about destroyed now with only a few stragglers left, fighting to the end with no thought of retreat, and after the agents’ tactics, we were just about done with the secondary force as well.

  “This is it, one last push everyone!” Almana announced, sounding wildly excited and victorious—all traces of fear gone as we easily destroyed the abominable enemy that’d been haunting their planet for so long.

  After a few moments, the front enemy force had been completely wiped out, leaving nothing for Eve and I to do at this point, just waiting for our allies to mop up the rest.

  I could admit I was a little nervous at the thought of being in a real war with some mindless zombie soldiers that didn’t know fear or pain, but our team and the resistance handled them with surprising ease.

  With our advanced tactics and weaponry, we were able to completely eradicate our enemy with a methodical, professional kind of efficiency. The battle only lasted a few furious minutes, with lasers and smoke filling the view all around us. The enemy had been acting more like people than I’d expected, wearing the mask of real soldiers quite well, but with the way they moved as a unit and continued fighting past all pain, it was obvious they’d been assimilated.

  After the last enemy soldier had been destroyed by a massive volley of lasers from all our available soldiers, a victorious shout erupted from the resistance soldiers, and our team joined in right after.

  The vyranes seemed overjoyed with how well we worked together; I could see all around me so many fears had been alleviated, doubts had been erased. I didn’t think it would be a stretch to say this was the most successful fight the resistance soldiers had ever been in. And as all our troops did a headcount, it was confirmed we hadn’t lost a single soldier in the skirmish.

  It was brief, but there was a celebratory atmosphere as we started repacking our supplies and breaking down our shielding and mounted weaponry. It was our first battle with the assimilated separatist soldiers, and we won by a very large margin.

  Of course it was just the first fight of many, and we still had a long way to go and a long road to travel until we made it to the capital.