“Boss, we have incoming. Azhurai are in full retreat and the Singularity has advanced to surround Tulverian central command. Scans indicate the Tulverian shielding array and bombardment circuits are viable. It’ll give them a foothold to hit us directly with capital ship equivalent weapons.” Sergeant Wormface says.

  “Someone grab Splendeur and drag his tail up here.” I order, waiting for the obvious joke to be made.

  Yet, not a single soldier takes the opportunity to quip about a young maiden needing an ugly toad to make her dreams come true. A stark reminder that I am alone. Hell, I’d take Savannah’s dirty ass over this complete isolation, she may have a habit of going too far too quickly with everyone, but that was better than nothing at all.

  “I can’t think that way, not right now. Not when I need to start negotiations!” I hiss. Punching the epoxy wall with a fist. Compacting a cubby around my fist effortlessly, to the point I can no longer feel resistance.

  [Response from the Holy Singularity, Defenders of Mankind]

  -Private Sable Yurten, General Richard Antonio Ziusudra is on approach to assess the validity of your claims.-

  -You are hereby ordered to stand down all forces and open the bunker in preparation to receive him.-

  “Oh holy shit.” I gasp. “Did not think they would actually get my message!”

  What I really mean, is that I was 100% certain that the bolt brain AI was going to allow us to negotiate! Judging by the sudden silence in the command post, no one else thought differently.

  “Boss, they’re coming for an inspection? What the hell?” Worm asks.

  “Was not expecting that…” Mutters a trooper, receiving nods from two others.

  Their words focus my mind, I am in command and need to act like it, show them this inspection is nothing we need to fear, when inviting a General is the third stupidest invitation we could conceive. Right below inviting the Field Marshal, shooting his stupid face, which is about a hundred miles below inviting a bioweapon inside our defenses. Good thing this General Zippoo isn’t one of those.

  “Yes, my plan has exceeded expectations. Worm, we need to open a dialogue with these guys.” I tap a com channel, adding Helen and Corporal to the conversation. “You two, we are preparing to greet General Richard Antonio Zapados, how do we accomplish that mission without getting fragged?”

  “Boss, it’s General Ziusudra, not General boots. We should prepare a decon room for them then a reception room for his party. Pretty sure Red had some kind of comfort room near the lab. After that’s set up I could cloak and approach the troopers, a bit shocking but it would give us a chance to talk before they started shooting.” Helen offers.

  “Sure, but how do we explain the armor and cloak? They have bioweapons, what if their sensors pick you up first? I doubt they’ll be willing to overlook an invisible trooper.”

  Silence for several moments. We are all stumped. Technomancy HQ is the single most valuable real estate on the planet, not because of the solarium rewards, but because it shows the Singularity’s dominance over its sworn rival. The perfect propaganda set. Trying to keep those troopers out is like trying to keep sand from getting into your flip flops. Impossible.

  “They’ll get in one way or another, even if they have to deploy every tunneling tank they have.” I opine, hoping my calling out is enough to ward against the tactic.

  Wishful thinking at its worst.

  Worm taps his armor, pantomiming a stroke of the chin. “Right. So we invite them in, give them full access to the base. We need to start hiding all the xeno shit.” He fires off a series of rapid orders through the collective mind before continuing. “Of the five tunnels we already collapsed depot lane, just the entrance mind you. Had to seal it up so fungal spores didn’t escape. We can hide the Tulverians in the unfinished tunnel, it’ll only take a few specialized doors and some carefully placed dirt piles to block sensor pings. Iguanas will have to lay low, and not open any of their bathrooms, otherwise General Z will see more than up their scaly skirts.” Wormface says.

  “Good good.” I say, visibly relaxing in the armor.

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  Allying with the Holy Singularity is the first step to infiltrating them, seeing exactly where my step siblings are and exactly how many humans they kidnapped from Earth. Several giant leaps to not being alone anymore.

  “Now we just need to convince them to get out of the first bath. Good luck with that. You should’ve see them, like pigs in shit- Oh! General Splendeur, how nice to see you.” Wormface says, quickly changing his tone when Splendeur, his shield iguana, Helen, Corporal, and Hades come sauntering up the passageway.

  “What is ze meaning of zis!” Snaps Splendeur, still dripping a blueish liquid across the epoxy floor.

  Deep down I weep for the loss of biomass. Every drip echoes with the cost of human blood lost, and could have been used to build a starship. Those blue puddles represent minutes of construction time. Okay, maybe just seconds, and maybe I’m being a bit of a drama queen but man is it annoying!

  “General, the Singularity main army is approaching and we intend to rejoin the main army, potentially surrendering this facility to them. I’ve been out of contact for a prolonged period and after Azhurai infiltrators tried to infiltrate their ranks I can’t say if they will pin medals on our chests, or try to exterminate each and every one of us. Especially considering our deal has not been sanctioned by Singularity High Command.” I say, adding the last bit as an afterthought.

  Splendeur’s tongues waggle unpleasantly, like overlong banana whips.

  “Oh I see. Do you intend on gunning me down in ze streets?” He asks, hand wandering towards what must pass for a banana hammock on Tulveria.

  Their general lack of clothing makes identifying any sort of fashion a tenuous prospect.

  “No. You are a valuable prisoner of war. One who has agreed to work with me… and only me.” I say, emphasising the point.

  A second eyelid retracts, displaying crystal sharp eyes. Those peepers look me up and down, then back at the cloaked Predator now called Hades.

  “You have already worked many odd miracles. We entered this bunker with ten men, only for you to gain strength as you cleared it. I would expect a knife in ze tail were it not for your slaughter in tunnel four. Tell me true. Do you have za ship?” He asks.

  I want to lie, to blow off any concern and move on to the main problem. But I’ve never been a fan of deceit.

  “No…”

  His tail slumps, falling idle against the epoxy floor.

  “What we have is under construction, about a third of the way complete and we are developing a contingency plan to acquire additional ships. Flying off this rock will be complicated, especially with a -nameless- ship in orbit. Not many factions surrender willing, and fewer still get to land and withdraw their remaining troops, usually with the aid of an ally or two. But no one has ever tried to desert from Syrak.” I shake my head, “If the -nameless- want to stop us, well, you saw them wind back time, next to that we got nothing.”

  Splendeur nods sagely. Then opens a third eyelid right in the middle of his forehead. The eye begins weeping blood from both edges like a cursed crucifix. Two drops running down his face, red creeks of iron.

  “We Tulverians have a highly refined sense of smell, had you lied, I would’ve known. Promise me zis. You will keep your word. Zen and only zen will I play along with your games.”

  I shrug to conceal a shudder. “I swear to you, for a second time General, that I have every intention of escaping this world and returning you home. Before I return home.”

  Quick as it appeared, the eye disappears, concealed under an off colored scale I once mistook as decoration.

  “Zen, what is ze plan?”

  “You and the Tulverians pretend to be our prisoners. We’ll disarm you and confine you to the unfinished tunnel. Hopefully this General Z doesn’t notice you. Or at least doesn’t interrogate you about Tulverian access codes. If he does the best we could try and shoot for is a transfer back to your native bunker-”

  “-Oh! What a dream! A phantasm of joy! To reclaim my lost command!” Interrupts Splendeur.

  “Uh, yeah, they’ll want access.”

  Splendeur smiles broadly, “All have ze access, but only you Private Sable Yurten, may have my permission to enter.”

  His meaning throws me for a loop, until I recall all Tulverian orders have been verbal, they do not use keypads but auditory vocalizations as their keypads and passwords. I should have known.

  “We can’t enter the bunker without you can we?”

  “No, you cannot. Not unless you enjoy pitfalls, pungi sticks, and flammable nerve gases.” Says Splendeur, turning and heading back to the bath.

  Part of me wants to shoot him in the back, for holding out on me but the logical part wins and orders Hades to leave him alone, instead of breaking his legs and pulling on his tail each time he attempts to crawl away.

  Whoa, did that come from me? I think, glaring at Hades the fluffy.

  Or did that come from the cat? Seems more like a mental leak that traveled through our minds, something I’ll have to resolve with Hygieia.

  “Touche General Splendeur. Let us pray I am half the negotiator you are.” I say.

  Final orders are given, Helen and corporal depart while we entrench ourselves deeper. Soon I will meet my kidnappers. Those who left me on this world to die for their Singularity, after selling me a false deal. Maybe it’s time to track down information on Jim. A request I send to the Novan AI.

  42 / 80 Biomass (+20 ish Tulverian casualties in biomass (collected while Athena slept then recycled into baths which had a negative cost associated with biomass)

  734 / 2000 Courier Ship Progress

  40 / 80 Powered Armors (Athena slept 8+ hours and most infantry armor was physically intact so easily repaired.)

  25 / 65 Mechanized Units (Welcome to Cooking with Juggernauts)

  1 / 1 Protochronian Artefacts (Alaea’s warp engine)

  12 Nanofactories

  1 MacroFactory (Foundry) Novan Primary Fabricator

  10 / 100 Project ‘ODIN’