“I don’t know if you can hear us. I don’t know if there is anything left to be said. You left us here to die, and we are doing exactly that. You abandoned us on a planet with no remaining infrastructure and expected the few of us that remained not to die. We hate you, we hate the UHR. If you come back to this world, it will be as enemies to the people you forgot.” – Transmission from Earth after the fall.

  “The man that hurt me tried over and over to get into that vault,” Evelyn said, breaking the silence that settled over the trio. “He brought me down here once. It hurt so much… this is where he started peeling my skin. I—I remember him asking why ‘our collective’ wouldn’t stop the pain. I didn’t understand what he meant… I just wanted to stop hurting.”

  “Evee, that man wasn’t human. If I’m right, he’s from a race of beings that have been kicking the AHF’s ass at every turn. Granted, it was only once, but it still sucked,” Thea replied, lowering her guard in response to the girl’s pain, “The fact that it referred to a collective probably meant it isn’t too familiar with humans or our biology.”

  “Oh, yeah… I guess I should’ve caught that. Honestly, I just tried to tell him whatever he wanted to hear. As long as the pain stopped, I didn’t care what he did or what he knew.”

  “What else did it ask?”

  “Why do you keep saying ‘it?’”

  “Because she doesn’t want to assign humanity to something she is going to kill,” Jenkins said, setting his drones to autopilot so he could pay better attention to the conversation. “Please try to answer her question.”

  “I don’t know… stuff like who I take orders from, my name, my function, anything really,” she said, fiddling with the makeshift dress to avoid making eye contact.

  “What did you say?”

  “I told him everything, that my orders come from the servers and that I was just a chef,” she whispered. “If I would have just stayed at work, maybe I could’ve escaped the invasion…”

  “Did the local AHF detachment even try to help?”

  “I always thought the AHF was a myth until I saw you,” she trailed off, as if listening to something only she could hear. “He’s coming…”

  Evelyn backed into the corner, staring wide-eyed at the stairwell as a man made of inky shadows slowly descended. Behind him were two Raak’Shee guards in dark gray armor, carrying the telltale double-sided ax so common among their kind.

  “Evelyn, my pet. Were we not good to you? You ran away from your masters,” the creature said, its voice a discordant harmony that made the hair on Thea’s neck stand up. Raising a hand to gesture to the guards, it continued, “You two, collect our property. We don’t care what happens to the soldiers.”

  The soldiers sealed their faceplates with a thought and took a step back in anticipation of the coming battle, “Alfson to all Turaspeir personnel. We need help or immediate extraction. I repeat, we need help or immediate extraction. We have multiple hostiles at the entrance to the vault.”

  “We want to thank you, human soldiers, for opening the door that has vexed us so. Now that we have access to your weapons and the ability to create more of you… the subjugation of humanity will begin, and blessed darkness shall reign,” it said, an evil grin spreading across an unseeing blank sphere of a face.

  The two Raak approached, moving with the air of people who thought they couldn’t lose. In their hands, the double-sided axes glowed bright red as heat flowed through the blades.

  “This is Monroe. We have control of the structure. Are West and Morningwood with you?”

  “Negative, they are in the vault securing objective bravo.”

  “Not true,” a familiar twang said as a barrier formed between the humans and their attackers. “The second objective is secure. We have four cases of the Serum ready for redeployment.”

  “Understood. Morningwood, can you re-seal the vault?”

  “I can try,” Alec said, swinging the portal closed and pulling its interface into himself.

  Across the room, the cocky Raak’Shee tested the barrier with the back of a hand. Instead of the normal glasslike effect of hardened Light, it sparked and cracked, weakening from just a touch.

  “Jack, we still need that extraction like… yesterday. These guys are breaking my shields.”

  “What?!” a familiar voice demanded. “That shouldn’t be possible. Are you gassed out?”

  Jenkins deployed several drones to help with the fight and provide much needed backup before dropping back to the locking panel. Without pause, a Vixen and two crawlers began attacking the Raak with fury, but unless they struck an unarmored part of the body, it rebuffed the attack with almost nothing to show for it.

  “Possible or not, Cap, it’s happening and I’m not gassed. Apparently Jenkins’s drones ain’t going to help much either,” Dave drew his sword and stepped into the line of fire. He wasn’t sure how to fight when his powers were useless, but more than willing to try.

  “Gate, get a lock on West’s location now. Alexander, bring up those defenses ASAP.”

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  The two Raak stepped in, trying to flank Dave and attack from either side. Bolstered by a sense of duty, the Aegis parried a series of blows and countering with a wild slash.

  An abnormal amount of resistance met his strike, only carving a mark in the enemy’s armor less than a quarter inch deep. When Dave stepped back to avoid the retaliatory parry, he got a good look at his weapon and was more than a little afraid.

  The saw-toothed cutting edge of the greatsword was damaged. A dark spot stained the rotating blade and required that he pump in more Light to make up for the loss.

  “What do you mean you can’t get a lock?” Griffin said, obviously too focused on the big picture to mute herself, “Fine, is there anything down there that MIGHT help?”

  Thea stepped in behind the creature, hands glowing a sickly green as she tried to find purchase. Out of habit, she grabbed its shoulder and shoved her power into it, only to find that it was like working through a strainer. If any Phantom energy reached the target, it was far too diluted to do any actual damage.

  “Ma’am, there is a Steel Cast shell of Officer Hargrave. I don’t know if you can use it, but if it has a tenth of his power, we can save them,” Jack said, sending his captain the location of the workshop and a video still of the room.

  “And at ten times the cost,” she muttered, voice trailing off as high above the battlefield, the base of her neck glowed with the indigo Light of her corps.

  It was time to do her duty.

  ~~**~~

  In the upper levels of the mountain complex, Unranked Officer Benjamin Hargrave’s eyes opened. Unlike their normal green, they shined brilliant indigo as the shell came to life under the power of a person incapable of using it to its fullest potential.

  Fighting against firewalls stronger than she’d ever experienced, Captain Griffin desperately searched for anything that could save her soldiers.

  A miniature dwarf star roiled inside the body, coming to life only when called to action. As disconcerting as it was to see her chest open to the elements, she knew how to stave off the psychosis of controlling something too… human.

  As systems continued to boot up, an unexpected module turned green in her interface.

  “Monroe, how many are down there?” she asked in the metallic false voice used by Possessors.

  This wasn’t her specialty. She was a pilot. The insanity of even considering this was beyond her wildest imagination.

  And she didn’t care.

  “I have four members of Spier squad and one civilian.”

  “Who is the most resilient?”

  “The best chances of survival are West and Alfson working in tandem.”

  “Understood.”

  [Gate module: Engaged]

  ~~**~~

  “Monroe, please tell me someone is doing something to help us?” Alec cried, firing a constant stream of rounds into the enemy.

  “Help is on the way. Lock on to the following targets and don’t die,” he said, highlighting the few weak points in the armor that he could identify.

  So far, the four soldiers had killed one of the two armored monsters, but it was far from enough. They’d spent more Light against one enemy than during the entire mission. Fortunately, they weren’t under as much pressure now that one attacker was dead, but Dave’s constant dodging was taking a toll.

  The Aegis had nearly lost his life several times already, and it was only because of swift action on Thea’s part that he was still standing and in the fight. Luckily for her, most of his injuries hadn’t been too severe, especially since she was still weak from bringing Evelyn back from the brink of death.

  On the stairs, the ink-black creature watched in macabre delight like a Roman Emperor at the Colosseum as gladiators fought for their lives a mere twenty feet away. Its inhuman smile served as a constant reminder that if it joined the battle, they were dead.

  Beside Alec, the air shattered. Individual shards growing and merging as they pulled together in a heartbeat. Before he could process what was happening, the deconstructed body of Unranked Officer Hargrave stood in the room.

  “Soldier, is that door sealed?” The captain asked, dragging a foot as the body fought against her possession.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” the young Dragoon replied.

  “Good. Jenkins, get the civilian and a case of Serum.”

  Moving quickly, Jenkins dragged the hysterical woman over to the impromptu drone.

  “Ready.” He said, taking the metallic hand she offered while swaying slightly.

  “Hold on.”

  The world shattered, rebuilding itself a heartbeat later on the bridge of the company ship. Letting go of the Officer, he immediately noticed the body of his commander beginning to convulse from the strain. Before he could look back at her drone, it shattered into Light once more.

  “Monroe, Hayward, and Walker, the bridge has a lock on you and will Gate you out. When it opens, do not wait, move.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  ~~**~~

  Back in the stairwell, Hargrave’s body solidified once more. Its imposing figure was somewhat lessened by the unfortunate fact that one arm was obviously dead.

  The drone stumbled toward the Dragoon as the captain prepared for another blast of pain.

  “Morningwood, grab two more cases of Serum, all three if you can manage.”

  Not bothering with a verbal response, Alec set his turrets to auto, hoping to provide a few more seconds of cover. Firmly gripping all three remaining cases, he closed the gap to his captain.

  The drone’s remaining hand sparked as it moved, slowly closing on Alec’s shoulder, and activating the Gate. Once again, the world shattered into nothingness.

  When they reformed on the ship, the first thing Alec saw was the crowd of soldiers surrounding the prone form of Captain Griffin. Running toward her, he found himself without the mind or will to make a quip.

  “She is killing herself for them,” Jack breathed, still trying to process what was happening.

  Alec stared into his commander’s face as blood dripped from her nose and eyes under the strain of controlling the body of a god.

  “Worry about me later,” she said, the drone body once again shattering into nothingness.

  ~~**~~

  Dave’s armor was in bad shape; dented in multiple places, outright missing in others. It was clear he couldn’t hold out much longer.

  Unfortunately, Thea was in much the same situation. During the fight, she’d taken several hits to protect the Aegis from attacks that would have otherwise killed him. She’d partially healed herself from time to time, but pain still radiated through her tired muscles.

  Thea was exhausted. Not only was her body ready to give out, but her ability to craft Light was also far past the point where it was safe to continue.

  “Soldiers, I can’t move this thing anymore. You’re going to have to break contact and grab me.” Griffin said, the nearly ruined body of the Unranked Officer kneeling on the ground with nothing left to give.

  Knowing the risk, Thea distracted the armored Raak’Shee and shoved Dave toward the center of the room. Barely able to maintain his balance, the Aegis practically fell onto Griffin’s drone as his armor finally locked up from the excessive damage.

  Dodging a wide swing, Thea dove for the center of the room and wrapped her fingers around a limp arm. Behind her, the creature roared in frustration, charging in with its weapon raised. On the stairs, the faceless figure made of darkness looked concerned that its prey would escape.

  The ax came down in an arc that would easily cleave through her armor.

  She closed her eyes in anticipation of the pain.

  And the world shattered.