I missed Eve more than anything, but I needed to be sure to thank her over and over again for my genetic modifications, especially the enhanced perception.

As the Predazoan drone forms shot after me like inky black missiles, I activated my enhanced perception to slow everything down and righted my aim with the carbine rifle. Unfortunately, the drones must’ve learned through their shared perception when I fought that last batch so when I fired a burst between them, the drone forms pushed their tentacles off each other, sending themselves flying out of the way of my shot.

“Everyone, get back behind the shield!” Bryx called out, and I could see they’d deployed two large repulser barriers.

The Jessipie-90 crew was panicking and obviously confused, but they scrambled to get behind cover. Once they were safely out of the way, Bryx took his spot at the side of the repulser shield and started shooting after the drones with his own carbine rifle, while Durgo, Roote and Willa unleashed suppressing fire to try and disorient or direct our enemy, hoping to give me or Bryx the opportunity to unleash a lethal shot—classic tactics I saw before back on Entana.

But these were just simple drone forms, not Gamma-20 herself, so I was sure we’d be able to prevail, so long as they didn’t get behind the barriers and endanger the rest of the crew.

After pushing off each other, the drones ended up almost at opposite ends of the cafeteria, and I realized using the rifle at that distance would give them too many opportunities to escape. As quickly as I could, I swung the rifle onto my back and pulled out both of my proton blades and rushed towards the closest drone on the ground a good 30 feet away.

I slashed after the strange black orb and was surprised it was able to deflect my blades with the claws at the ends of its tentacles. It swiped after me, but I was thankfully faster and was able to continue my momentum when it deflected me, so I spun around and brought my blades back towards it. The drone deflected me again, and again and again, but after about the fifth time it was able to deflect my blades I stopped and feinted it out, causing it to swipe against nothing, so I took the brief moment it was unbalanced to stab both of my blades into the center of the drone, then twisted my blades around to tear it in half, then I followed up with a few more strikes as it screeched at me until its flesh dissolved into the useless black ooze.

“Adam, back here!” I heard Bryx call out.

I turned to see the other two drones had already rounded on the others, with one bashing against the repulser shield uselessly, while the other was trying to sweep around it. My team was doing a good job of keeping it on the defensive though, firing after it constantly and erratically to prevent it from moving forward against the group, and despite their initial confusion, I saw Brunt and Toku joined in with the suppressing fire with their own weapons.

I ran after the closer drone that was fighting against the shield, hoping to catch it unawares, but thanks to those dozens of yellow eyes pointed in every direction, it saw me coming right away and leapt high into the air to get away from me.

I was about to follow up after it, but taking the opportunity while it was helpless in midair, it was blasted away by a precise shot from Bryx, and the destabilizing acid destroyed it rather quickly.

“Nice shot!” I called out.

“One left, stay focused.” Bryx shot back—a professional soldier through and through.

I turned my attention to the last drone to see it running wide circles around the repulser shield, keeping clear of all the suppressing plasma bolts firing after it. The little drone flipped and spun around as it ran, its tentacles looking like a clambering mess they moved so quickly, and yet there was a strange, graceful order to their movements.

I ran forward and jumped onto a nearby table, flanking the drone from an angle against all the suppressing fire. I was probably only 20 feet away now, but it was moving away from me as it tried to get around the barrier. Not wanting it to get too far from me, I took in a deep breath and flexed the strange speed-organelle as hard as I could, enhancing my perception so much it seemed like time was almost standing still.

Even with my enhanced speed, it seemed like I was slowed down too as I put down my proton blades and reequipped the heavy carbine rifle. Still holding my breath, I took my time aiming at the little drone, watching the way the tentacles were spinning, seeing where it was going to land next.

I lined my shot up perfectly and fired after it, then let out my breath in a huge puff as time started flowing normally again.

The drone jumped up, stretched its tentacles forward, then slammed right into my acid round—exactly as I anticipated.

We all watched as the last drone shrieked and then quickly burned away, and I heard everyone cheer as I collapsed on the table, lying there and catching my breath—feeling like I’d just had the most intense workout in my life.

The celebration didn’t last long as I heard the first few demands for answers, started with Gadow of course.

“Will you people tell me what the fuck is going on?” Gadow demanded.

“Did you know Yevok had those inside him, is that what Zyno’s test was for?” Fierra pressed.

“Oh my gods, Yevok!” I heard a woman scream—sounded like Wynana.

I looked up to see Wynana rush after Yevok’s corpse with the torso blown out, followed by quite a few members of the Jessipie-90 crew, while the others stayed behind to continue questioning my team.

“We demand answers!” Gadow continued, and I heard the rest of his crew mirror his words.

“Everyone, just calm down, we can’t answer your questions at this time, we can only tell you all we’re facing a dangerous threat, and you must listen to our instructions from now on.” I heard Durgo’s voice modulator hiss out, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at how predictably bad he was at dealing with people.

“Listen to you, after what all we just saw—without telling us anything? How could you ever expect us to just trust that!” Fierra demanded.

“Yeah, this was absolutely insane, none of this makes any sense.” Brunt said.

“Plus, I was promised answers; please, just tell us what’s going on.” Reim insisted.

Between the people freaking out over Yevok and the others demanding answers, everything turned into a roaring buzz to the point I couldn’t even tell who was saying what anymore.

“Everyone shut the hell up and I’ll explain everything!” I called out, getting up from the table and making my way over to the crowd.

A few people were crying over Yevok, but they turned to me same as everyone else, with Gadow standing at the front with a rather accusing stare.

“There’d better be a good explanation for—” Gadow started, but I waved him off quickly.

“Gadow, seriously, chill out—go sit down with the others.” I said.

Once everyone was calm and waiting with me at the center stage, I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Alright, so the creatures that came out of—”

Durgo took a quick step forward, “Adam, remember the mission protocols, you better not—”

Then Bryx stepped forward next, “Durgo, just shut the fuck up; the mission has obviously changed, and I say we trust Adam as he’s obviously the Predazoan expert here.” He insisted.

Durgo glared at the large wooly man, “And since when are you one to break procedure?”

Bryx gestured towards me, “Since I was on the Vyrane mission with Adam and saw him fight to save our entire company—same as he is now. Whatever we do from here, we’ll never survive without Adam’s skills and expertise, so I say we let him do whatever the hell he wants at this point—and back him up while he does it.”

Durgo clearly wasn’t happy control was usurped from him, but the rest of my team was clearly backing Bryx too, and I was incredibly glad and a little surprised I’d found myself such an ally coming from the evil Empire that had me and Eve bound. Perhaps it was thanks to the restructuring that turned the soldiers into expendable grunts Bryx was rebelling against the Lord Generals same as me, or perhaps he was just weighing the survival odds.

Either way, I’ll take it.

Durgo’s voice modulator grumbled a few warbling noises, “Fine, but don’t think I’ll omit this insubordination from my report to high-command.”

Bryx rolled his eyes, “Fuck your reports.” He said dismissively, then gestured for me to continue.

I nodded my thanks to Bryx, then turned back to the Jessipie-90 crew. I realized then I didn’t have to tell them the whole truth, might be good to help mitigate some of the repercussions too which would be good since Bryx was sticking his neck out for me.

“First the obvious, we’re not actually a mercenary team on a rescue contract, we’re a specialized military team that deploys for serious and unusual threats across the Empire.” I gestured to the black ooze on the floor, “These creatures are one of those threats.”

“And what exactly are they—the creatures?” Gadow demanded.

“We call them Predazoans, anomalous, ancient creatures that come from beyond deep space. They’re as rare as they are mysterious, but they’re dangerous above everything else, with the ability to shapeshift and disguise themselves, even infect people with these smaller drone forms.” I explained.

“Wait a minute, are you saying these little ones are just drones—they aren’t the main entity?” Reim pressed.

“No, there’s still a central form—a queen of sorts that creates these solider offspring, all sharing a hivemind like some psychic insectoid collective.” I said.

No surprise there chatter broke out amongst the crew as some started throwing random questions around.

“And how the hell did you find this one out here in deep space and what does it want with us?” Fiera asked, speaking above the others.

“We have sensors all across the Empire to detect any that enter Imperial space; they have a unique energy signature we can track, at least until they camouflage themselves, that’s why early detection is so important.” I explained.

Gadow crossed his arms and narrowed his gaze at me, “So you just so happened to find us and your Predazoan after an incredibly rare warp gate destabilization?”

I held my hands up peaceably, “We got fucked over by a warp gate collapsing too.” I gestured towards my team, “We had a much bigger team originally, with a much large vessel and a lot more weapons and gear, but unfortunately we’re all that’s left after our vessel was left behind in void space—we’re all that made it to the lifepod.”

“Still a wild coincidence you found us out here when no real rescue vessels did.” Fierra added.

I shrugged, “With how your communication systems got all fucked up, the only reason you had anyone come to your rescue is because our scanner detected Predazoan energy and brought us to the system, then our own warp gate destabilized and then we just floated towards you guys in the lifepod, and of course you know the rest.” I said offhandedly.

“So what all can these Predazoans do? Why are they such a big threat the Empire has sensors all over looking for them?” Zemman asked.

“Aside from being able to create nearly limitless offspring, the Predazoans have an insatiable hunger for rare resources to consume so they can expand their nests, hoping to take over entire planets. They mostly want to consume biological material, but we’ve recently discovered they might be after other materials as well.” I answered.

Lummy nearly smacked herself on the forehead when she realized what I was implying, “Oh shit, the khrona crystals.”

I nodded, then waved over at Gadow, “That’s what we were thinking and why I’ve been trying to suggest we investigate the storage tanks.”

Once more that chatter broke out in a dull roar, people voicing their concerns over safety, but more than that, people started worrying they might end up losing profits if the khrona crystals had been damaged in some way—a 20-year tour down the drain.

Gadow waved his hands out in a lowering gesture for silence, “People, please just calm down, no one jump to any conclusions.” He turned back to me, “Exactly how dangerous are these Predazoans? You seemed to be able to kill the drones without much trouble.”

I sighed and shook my head, “The main Predazoan is on a completely different level.” I held up a finger, “Let’s put it this way; we haven’t ruled out the possibility she’s the cause of the warp gates collapsing in this sector.”

“Holy fuck!”

“Seriously?”

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

It was Bryx’s turn to take center stage, the big man with the booming voice easily able to reign everyone in, “Everyone settle down! Remember we’re trained to fight them; you all just need to focus on repairing Jessipie-90 while we worry about security.”

“How can we ever feel secure in this ship when you’ve got some monster skulking around that can destabilize the fabric of space/time?” Reim pressed.

“The good news is after Zyno’s test we can confirm no one else has been infected or assimilated, no need to worry about a saboteur or anything like that. We’re all on the same page, all on the same team, all working together to safely escape the Derrion System.” I insisted.

I was pleased to see that actually worked, and quite a few people seemed relieved they didn’t have to worry about doubting their neighbor now.

“From this point on, as one unit, we need to decide how we should direct our focus.” Bryx said.

The Jessipie-90 crew didn’t seem sure how to start though.

“And what should we do about the Predazoan monster onboard, ignore it all and leave it to you?” Gadow asked.

I nodded along, “The good news is thanks to your crew discovering the Predazoan refusing to risk an attack on four or more people at once normally, we can assume she’s working with limited resources for now, so that keeps us somewhat safe while we work on a plan on confronting her once and for all.”

Lummy snorted a quick laugh, “‘Somewhat safe’…”

“I’ll also be working on a scanner that’ll be able to detect where the Predazoan is on the ship, although resources are limited so it might take a little while.” Zyno added.

I gestured to Zyno, “See? We know the crew’s safe for now, and in a few days we’ll be able to start sweeping the ship for the main danger. In the meantime, we work on trying to repair Jessipie-90’s systems, either the comms or warp reactor or shuttle G-drive or whatever the fuck we all decide.”

Of course, I wasn’t about to tell them how dangerous it would be to actually confront a Predazoan—honestly I wasn’t sure if we should, it might be safer to just hang around on this side of the ship and hope Gamma-20 would stay on her side out by the storage tanks. Then again, the mission was to contain the Predazoan target, so we couldn’t just ignore her simply because we didn’t have Eve here with us, and there was no telling how dangerous Gamma-20 would become if she was able to properly assimilate those khrona crystals. For all I knew she might be able to start destabilizing warp gates all over the Empire.

Gadow crossed his arms and eyed me evenly, “And what happens if you can’t contain the danger with your limited team, but we’ve got the warp reactor fixed? Do we head back to Imperial space even with the dangerous monster onboard?”

I tilted my head back and forth, “That might be a safer way to play it, depending on what we can discover about the Predazoan onboard once Zyno finishes his scanner. However, it would be incredibly risky to expose anyone else to her, like at some repair station or your company refinery or wherever. We could always reconnect with our base, maybe get a crew to meet us at some point and bring us more gear.” I shrugged, “Can’t say anything for certain now, we have to adapt to the situation as it unfolds.”

Fierra sighed, “Not much of an answer, but I suppose that’s the best we’re going to get for now.”

I smiled then, trying to look confident and hopeful, “That’s about right. Now, if anyone else has more questions feel free to ask, otherwise I say we set up some more ground rules and then get back to work on getting out of this system.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep