Volume 2: Gamma-17, Chapter 2.5
The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me
Morning briefing was a rather bleary affair. Everyone was still adjusting to the planet's timeline, so we felt a weird kind of exhausting jetlag. Such was to be expected of course, so we'd be on pretty light-duty over the next couple days until we adjusted properly.
We all met up at Doctor Wit and Agent Kotlokk's suite; since they were the team leaders and would be holding morning briefings, they ended up with a room big enough to house the whole team.
Lucky bastards…
Everyone sat in a wide circle around a small conference table with a flat circular computer console that projected a hologram of Tentalltera and the perimeter the other teams had created for us. Sitting behind me with Doctor Runa, Doctor Tillia leaned forward and handed me a small coffee. Both being mammalian races, we were some of the few people in the room that could tolerate the heavy drink, while everyone else made do with their teas or juices.
"Thanks…" I mumbled, barely covering a yawn—earning a stifled laugh from her.
Introductions were fully made now, including everyone's role on the team. Obviously I was the Specialty Resource Agent and would always have Eve's scout-form with me—currently nestled under my chair, she had yet to wake this morning. Doctor Wit was research team lead and would be coordinating any Predazoan findings with the other teams and The Radiance. Doctor Runa was to investigate any local changes in the environment Gamma-17 might be causing. Doctor Zyno and Doctor Tillia would be working on trying to find ways to track or scan for the Predazoan and would run mobile lab work on any findings.
Agent Kotlokk was mission team lead, relaying any orders from The Radiance. Two more clandestine agents were on the team; Uinda and Frenk. Agent Unida was a flora-based alien, and even though she looked mostly humanoid, her skin was green, with blue vines spreading in and out of her skin where veins would be, with blue leaves sprouting at every joint, and her hair was like a large bouquet of dark flowers arranged in a short, neat style. Agent Frenk was basically an anthropomorphic dog, almost exactly like a golden retriever, but with opposable thumbs and all. Both would be working on maintaining our cover, intercepting local authorities, and mission reconnaissance.
Next, we had the four marines. Brujo the large rock alien—a scytharian, I'd learned from Runa the day before. Lugnore the big crustacean guy. Argenna, a dark green, female lizard alien, slender and pretty, with a plumage of yellow feathers around her head instead of hair. And Westler, another one of those beetle aliens like Commander Durgo, with a voice modulator and everything, but this one's horn was much smaller than the commander, and he was a lighter shade of blue. The marines of course would oversee primary security, intercepting any local threats and handling emergency team evacuations.
Lastly, we had the power armor soldiers, who had the easiest day-to-day jobs; they were to wait out on the sidelines in case Gamma-17 showed up, then they would activate their mobile power armor and attack her with their rail guns and their destabilizing acid rounds. Bento, another ape-wolfman, this one was a much lighter brown, and Darnia, a woman who looked every bit like a classic, epic fantasy orc, but with dark blue skin and black hair in a warrior braid.
Agent Kotlokk went into explanations on our established perimeter around the capital city, our communication channels, and our security safety nets while planet-side. Considering Entana was an Imperial core world, it wasn't like we were in enemy territory or anything, but it was vital our mission remain secret and we all stay uninvolved with local authorities. Per protocol, we'd need to remain in groups; even when off-duty we were ordered to remain in pairs—that was of course in case Gamma-17 ever realized we were hunting her and decided to get proactive against the mission team. It wasn't expected we should have any trouble with the locals, but while investigating various disappearance sites, it could bring unwanted attention to our group if we weren't careful—that was the job of the agents, to run reconnaissance and ensure our investigation went undiscovered. Also for safety protocols, we'd be doing hourly check-ins while in the field investigating, and we had a table of rotating codes to confirm it was us and not Gamma-17 imitating someone on the team.
Runa raised her hand for a question, "Apologies, isn't the concern Gamma-17 might assimilate a person and gain their knowledge and memories too? Won't she then learn any security codes we have?"
"The codes will be split between operatives—that's why we need to go out in pairs." Doctor Wit confirmed, looking around at each of us, "Once you've an established partner or group for the day, your communicators will link up, and the codes will start rotating by the hour. If Gamma-17 assimilates one of us, we'll know when she keys in a broken code."
"And if she assimilates the entire group—gets the entire code?" Agent Frenk pressed.
"We'll have bigger problems at that point." Doctor Wit said grimly.
"For the most part, we're going to stay together and with our power armor corps in case we run into Gamma-17 during the investigation. We'll only separate into smaller groups as needed or a case-by-case basis. But for the most part, safety in numbers." Kotlokk nodded along.
From there, they planned out our primary goals for the next few days; mostly we'd just be getting used to our surroundings. We'd been briefed on Entana up on The Radiance, but it was a different thing to be down planet-side, and I was surprised to hear only a few on the team had ever even been to Entana before. For now, we'd be establishing our roles as tourists exploring and enjoying the city.
"Agent Adam." Doctor Wit said suddenly, causing me to look up, "While we're only establishing ourselves on Entana before fully diving into the investigation, it will still be expected for you to always keep Alpha-03 with you on the off-chance she discovers some trace of Gamma-17—at least during field work. While off-duty, it's okay to leave her in the hotel room with stealth-mode activated on her containment unit."
"Understood."
"Alright." Kotlokk clasped his four hands together, "Any questions before we head out?" He asked the room.
It was strange, feeling like I was on vacation but also taking all these serious safety precautions since our lives were actually in danger here. There was no telling if Gamma-17 knew there was a team hunting her on Entana now—no telling if she could sense Eve was here either. It was a job far beyond anything I'd ever done back on earth, and yet I didn't feel overwhelmed at all—fit right in so far. But of course, the bullets hadn't started flying yet, and even though I completed the combat simulations aboard The Radiance, I had no idea how I'd actually handle myself if we confronted Gamma-17 and she turned violent.
I remembered Eve's monstrous form when she killed all those humans, and I realized Gamma-17 would be every bit as dangerous. It might feel like a vacation for now, but there was a serious threat somewhere on the planet, and it was a rather dreadful feeling to realize the fun adventure might suddenly turn into a horror show.
***
We took the monorail on a tour through the capital city, and my earlier trepidation over the danger our team might face was pushed aside as the day absolutely felt like a vacation. I knew I needed to take it all seriously—and I did—but we really were just acting like a bunch of tourists. It was actually kind of hilarious.
Doctor Wit, the research lead for the team, had never been to Entana before, but acting as the chaperone of the group, found great pleasure in telling us fun facts of the places around us. The shark alien was quite large, but I always felt his wide glasses disarmed his appearance greatly, and here he was pouring over his tablet like a schoolboy excitedly telling us about the local history, it was almost hard to take him seriously.
Zyno and Tillia were no better; they seemed to be fighting for my attention, always wanting to sit next to me when we moved from one line to the next—I'd never felt so popular. Zyno had been to Entana before, so he was eager to hear my thoughts on the first Imperial world I'd ever visited—the first planet I'd been on besides earth. Tillia had other interests and was content to just flirt with me any chance she got—and I was more than eager to reciprocate. It was with a heavy heart I had to take Zyno aside and tell him we would catch up later, but I was really trying to get in good with Tillia now.
The marines, on the other hand, didn't seem to be having fun at all; the security for the group, even now they were on high alert. I wasn't sure how much it was needed since we hadn't started the investigation yet, but I think they were busy watching for local threats too, rather than anything related to the Predazoan. Our group almost seemed like we had too much security for being mere tourists, but they'd tried to adjust our numbers so we didn't look so skewed; there were the four researchers, myself, the three agents, and then the two power armor soldiers were being incognito with all their gear in those fancy mech backpacks, all being escorted by four security personnel—the marines in minimal tactical gear. 10 tourists with four guards, I had no idea if that would be normal in the Imperial core worlds, but considering our tourist disguises made us look like wealthy college students, I suppose that made more sense. Although, we didn't see anyone else with security teams around them, at least not so far, but maybe it was more believable since we were off-worlders?
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More than being an off-worlder, I was certainly the only human on Entana, but I was pleased to see no one was staring at me like some anomaly who didn't belong. Considering there were some hundreds of races that belonged to the Empire, I didn't imagine it was common for regular citizens to know them all—there was no way to know humanity hadn't joined the Empire yet, no way people even knew what humans were. Even when ordering food at restaurants, the scans just showed what was safe to eat; it never clarified it was for earthlings specifically, just okay for my mammalian makeup.
And so I felt comfortable on the alien world, not as some visitor who didn't belong collecting stares all around me; I was just some regular guy—a tourist in a small group of friends wealthy enough to hire on some small security team.
I checked in with Eve in her containment unit occasionally, but she seemed rather disinterested with everything around us thus far. Any time I deactivated the stealth-mode to look at her, I always just found her bright yellow eye staring at me rather accusingly. Even though the scout-form was just a little orb of tentacles with a single glowing eye, it conveyed her emotions quite well; she was irritated—she was angry, and she seemed to be blaming me for it all.
After several hours riding around the city, we decided to grab lunch just outside the governmental district of the capital city. Our group sat down together, but the agents left for a little recon to see what they could find of local rumors especially concerning the disappearances from the surrounding cities.
"Agent Adam, has Alpha-03 responded to anything while we've been traveling around?" Doctor Wit asked as we ate.
I waved him off quickly, "Just Adam." I gestured towards the containment unit beside me, "And call her Eve while you're at it."
Brujo snorted, "He named the fucking thing…" He muttered, but I decided to just ignore it—knew none of the marines much cared for having a Predazoan asset.
Doctor Wit ignored him too, "Right, Eve. Has she had any reactions?"
I shook my head, "Nothing I've noticed. Honestly, she's still pissed over her core being left behind and this little scout-form being stuck in a box. I don't really know how helpful she's going to be."
"Considering how little we can do on our own, any help she offers will be vital." Zyno offered to my left.
"Is it really impossible to track the Predazoans once they're fully camouflaged?" I asked.
Tillia to my right nodded, "Unfortunately. Remember, they consume and repurpose biomass and can even perfect the cellular structure of whatever they assimilate. With enough biomass, they can completely wrap themselves in the flesh of another person or creature; they would be indistinguishable from a real person, down to their cellular structure."
I held my hand up trying to think through the meaning of her fancy science words, "Let's take Evie for example; she consumed a lot of human biomass, so she could essentially wrap herself in human cells to the point she would be indistinguishable from another human—like me?"
"Precisely, and therefore any scans we take would just show whatever race or species the Predazoan is masquerading as." Doctor Wit added.
"What if the Predazoan is mixing a couple races—perfecting itself, trying to create a better lifeform by combining cells from different people, would we be able to detect that?" I asked, remembering how Zyno told me how different alien races can't really crossbreed.
Tillia shook her head, "Surely, they're perfecting themselves under the surface, but they'll always have an outer layer of camouflaging cells to fool our sensors—they know exactly what they need to do to keep us all in the dark."
"Our window of opportunity to discover them via our sensors arises if they ever shed their camouflage for whatever reason, maybe to shift into another race or creature. Otherwise, we're relying on finding them down here on foot, as daunting as that might seem—that's why we're so desperate Alph—I mean Eve might be able to help us locate the other Predazoans. You can imagine how difficult it will be to find one person among the millions of citizens here in the capital; if Gamma-17 never makes a mistake, it could be next to impossible." Doctor Wit explained.
"Then, how exactly did you lock on Eve back on earth?"
"As we told you before, when NX-947b was destroyed, our satellite sites scrambled to send out our long-range scanners to lock onto as many Predazoans as we could once they exited their warp channels through Imperial space—"
"Earth isn't in Imperial space, so how'd you know to look for a Predazoan there?" I pressed.
"That was actually a stroke of luck." Zyno chimed in, "Being earth is just beyond the outskirts of a frontier sector of the Empire, when a warp channel opened in the nearby system, we figured it had to be a Predazoan. And after pushing our sensors deeper into the underdeveloped system, we discovered an Alpha Predazoan crash landed on earth."
Tillia nudged into my shoulder, "Which was all wildly illegal, by the way."
"And since it was the only Alpha you had a lock on, you went to earth right away to follow her?"
Doctor Wit nodded, "Correct, and since Eve hadn't established camouflage yet, we were easily able to spy on her from orbit. But by the time we were ready to intercept her, you already made contact—and she kept you alive, so then we decided to watch, wait, and study your interactions."
"Then what all happened to the other Predazoans you couldn't study directly—the other half you were able to ping?"
"Long range sensors are pretty limited; we know the planet or at least the solar system they arrived in, but once the Predazoans started establishing their camouflage, they became like ghosts to us." Zyno confirmed.
"Moving forward, we'll just be following the trails left behind where the Predazoans were pinged last, hoping they haven't warped away?"
"It's actually quite unlikely they'd be able to open a warp channel again to leave their new host system; it seemed a collective effort between the Predazoans right after they destroyed NX-947b—and we still have absolutely no idea how they did it without a warp-engine." Tillia added.
Sounded like we'd just be chasing phantoms with a mere shred of hope the Predazoans hadn't moved on from what last we knew—no wonder they were all so desperate for any help Eve could offer, it wasn't like they could do much else. I was about to embellish how important I was to the mission when our agents returned from their reconnaissance.
"Not much word around the capital on the surrounding disappearances. They blamed slavers making a pass through and don't seem overly concerned about some pattern forming, thinking it was just a quick spree that should be just about finished." Kotlokk said as he sat down and started looking over the menu.
I turned to whisper in Tillia's ear, "There's slavery in the Empire?"
She shook her head, "Illegal, but it doesn't stop pirates from kidnapping poor young men and women and selling them off to frontier or outskirt worlds that don't have enough Imperial regulations or security."
"There're pirates too?"
Tillia giggled quietly at my enthusiasm, "I know we seem like some magical, hyper-advanced Empire beyond anything you could've imagined back on earth, but you'll be surprised to find how many basic problems still plague us all; no matter how far we advance, the nature of greed and evil never changes."
This coming from someone who belonged to the team that created the universe's deadliest lifeform, and then allowed it to escape, I wasn't sure what all I should take from her admission.
There wasn't much more for Kotlokk and his agents to report, so we continued eating while they talked. Since the disappearances were being brushed aside by the local authorities, that meant we'd probably be able to investigate the disappearance sites without any pushback. Unfortunately, it also meant all our intelligence gathering would have to start completely from the ground up—no local information to piggyback off.
No one was really surprised by this development; apparently it was well-known for most Imperial worlds to try to maintain a façade of perfection for everyone else in the Empire, so it would be rather common for local authorities and governments to keep all disturbances from ever attracting too much attention.
Which of course would be fine with us considering how secretive our entire mission was—although it wouldn't help with the investigation itself.
We finished lunch and resumed our tour of the capital. It was wild seeing so many similarities with earth—obviously Entana was far and away beyond earth technologically, and there was every manner of alien beyond imagination walking around. There were restaurants and cafes, shopping centers and business districts. There were apartments in the heart of the city, but I learned outside the hustle and bustle I'd be able to find neighborhoods of houses—alien suburbs even. Even the people walking around, most belonging to alien races I couldn't even begin to guess, they were every bit as ordinary as humans—rushing off to work, families and friends spending time together, and there were quite a few people I could tell were on dates. It was again refreshing to see such normalcy—to find myself amidst the ordinary on this alien world. It also reinforced how many lives were at risk with Gamma-17 on the loose.
We made the return trip to the hotel after a quick evening dinner, wanting to have another easy day while we adjusted to Entana's planetary cycle. I had another sad parting with Tillia, and I could see her lingering like she didn't want to go just yet. I had to admit, I was growing increasingly fond of her, and I couldn't wait until we could get a day completely to ourselves.
I returned with Zyno to our room, and after a brief conversation of all I'd missed from him that day while spending more time with Tillia, we both found ourselves surprisingly exhausted, and we bot