We were woken up early the next morning by some horrible chiming alarm, and at first I thought it meant we were under attack, but when I saw no one else around us move with a purpose, I figured it must’ve just been some awful wake-up call.

  We were back to wearing our battle armor now, following along with mission protocols for combat preparedness. The armor wasn’t that uncomfortable since it was all so futuristic, and it cushioned our bodies rather securely, but the fact we were bound at all was what made it so uncomfortable—claustrophobic even. I was sure once the mission was over and we were back aboard The Radiance, I would want to just be naked for several cycles. When I told Eve this, she just giggled and told me not to threaten her with a good time.

  Since we were moving around with such a big company, I was hoping we’d have some great, community breakfast, but since we were all different races with vastly different biology to the point we’d never be able to accommodate everyone, we all ate our plain protein rations separately and continued taking our various hydration supplements. The food alone made the mission that much worse compared to everything else; at this point, I even missed the food synthesizers and didn’t even care about the strange artificial aftertaste.

  The morning briefing was held by Captain Seash and Kotlokk, though there wasn’t much to it and they asked Almana about our route for the day. Apparently the Fryle Freeway as a super long stretch of road that ran through dozens of cities on the way to the capital like our interstate highways back on Earth. In order to maintain a steady pace we wouldn’t be stopping through most of the cities along the way and instead would simply camp out most nights on the side of the road.

  For now, the plan was to take the transports as long as we could. They ran on some futuristic power cells which meant we didn’t need to worry about stopping for fuel. However, since they only hovered a foot off the ground and couldn’t fly around like other Imperial vehicles we’d be limited to traveling on traversable terrain, and if we came across any significant obstacles or barricades along the highway we’d have to abandon the buses and continue on foot.

  From previous reports on road conditions, it was believed we should be able to travel at least 80% of the way with our transports before we’d need to start marching, which meant our timeline until we made it to Sesamna was projected to be eight days if we didn’t run into any opposition. Taking into account a couple skirmishes once we made it deeper into the hot-zone, they added a few days to give us a total projected timeframe of 11 days.

  Honestly, I had no idea why they were so obsessed with these projected timeframes; nothing ever worked exactly like we planned. Was it for the sake of some detailed efficiency audit, or some quality control improvement process? I knew politics was all bogged down in bureaucracy back on Earth, but the way the Empire handled it was downright ridiculous.

  My projection? I would bet it would take us at least twice as long to make it to Sesamna, especially looking at our track record thus far. Hell, best case scenario, I would say 15 days.

  Forgetting all the crazy math and mission projections, it was confirmed we’d officially be entering into the hot-zone after one day of travel on the freeway. From there, we’d all need to stay geared up and ready with mounted gunmen and spotters riding on top of our transports. The enemy soldiers were numerous and unpredictable, so there was no telling when we might walk into an ambush.

  I asked Eve if she thought she was totally camouflaged now, wondering if Beta-09 would be able to sense us coming so she could send her flesh puppets directly after us, but she assured me her cover was perfect, so there would be no way another Predazoan could sense her exact location. To Beta-09’s senses, she would only be able to tell there was another Predazoan on her side of the planet but shouldn’t be able to narrow it down any more than that.

  Once the mission briefing finished, we collected our gear and headed back to the transports, scoring some extra road supplies from the outpost including additional rations, some extra weapons, a few more soldiers, and some interceptor vehicle that would be taking point in front of the bulky buses, looking like a sleek muscle hover-car kitted out with black shielding on the sides and some pulser chain-gun on top.

  We glided away from the outpost, seeing the last safe and secure base we’d be able to hold up in for quite some time slowly disappear behind us as we headed back towards the road.

  ***

  It didn’t take long to make it out of the city, and after going through a couple of checkpoints, we made it onto the Fryle Freeway. I’d compared it before to some Earth interstate, but honestly this was much more impressive. It was probably twice as wide as the largest highways back on Earth, with two sides for the different directions of traffic flow, plus some wide middle lane for either walking traffic or maybe emergency vehicles, I wasn’t really sure which. There were also quite a few sections where the road doubled up with multiple layers, with entrance or exit ramps turning into main roadways for miles before they actually split off from the freeway. Sometimes the extra layers were above the main freeway, other times it led to tunnels underneath, and sometimes it was both at the same time.

  Before when they said we’d be passing by a few cities along the way, I had the picture in my head we’d pass by some small town every hundred miles or so, but clearly they downplayed it when they said a few cities. There was a new Vyrane settlement every dozen miles or so, some large expansive cities, others smaller towns, and occasionally we passed by random industrial parks or shopping centers. Vyrane was every bit as populated as Earth with just as many settlements along the freeway—maybe even more so.

  However, I could see they were all still several miles off in the distance, some surrounding the freeway, but most of the time the freeway turned into main roads that led to the cities. Even just passing by, it was obvious the war had taken its toll on the settlements even though we were still in outside the hot-zone, either as their populations moved away and left the cities in a state of disrepair, or due to some other kind of active damage against the city and its buildings—perhaps just riots or local unrest, maybe nothing to even do with the separatists out here.

  While we traveled along the freeway, it was all pretty clear around us, no other cars except the occasional disabled vehicle, sometimes upturned in a ditch nearby, other times it had obviously been on fire or in some kind of bad wreck, and then other times it looked like the vehicles were just hastily abandoned, with the doors still open and everything. Clearly, those people had ditched their cars in a hurry, but I had to wonder what their reasoning would’ve been to so desperately leave their vehicles behind.

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  “What exactly is going on with the cities in the warm-zones? Are they still safe, still habitable?” I asked Alaman, sitting in front of us as always.

  Almana turned back to face us, “Depends on the city, but for the most part none of them are really safe. It’s considered the warm-zone because even though it isn’t in the heart of any active combat zones with enemy encampments, there’s still been some separatist involvement at some point.”

  I quirked an eyebrow up, “But the separatists don’t stay? Then, what, they just attack the settlement and leave?”

  Almana shrugged, “Sometimes. Other times the city is basically abandoned before it gets attacked, that’s pretty common for the smaller towns surrounding the large cities. We’ll be passing by a lot of abandoned settlements, places it’s not even worth for the resistance to hold up.” She explained.

  “You don’t try to protect or liberate every city? Establish a base or outpost everywhere you can?”

  Almana shook her head, “Everywhere we can, sure. But Adam, we’re trying to protect an entire planet while keeping our government running, all through back-channels or local municipals. We have very, very limited resources, and considering how thin we’ve been stretched, we have to make the hard decision on where we can establish our strongholds—where we can make our stand.”

  Of course they couldn’t protect everyone, I was foolish to even bring that up. And that was obviously one reason why the separatists and their assimilated soldiers were so terrifying; the resistance was fighting against an enemy that didn’t seem to care about resources—didn’t need them, and all the while their numbers and forces only continued to grow. And on the other side of things the resistance was losing people and soldiers every day, and while I knew they were getting food and supplies from the Empire, they surely weren’t getting drops every day—and even if they were, was it enough to help an entire planet under siege?

  “Obviously you’re all doing everything you can, I guess it’s just hard to grasp the logistics, and I know it’s got to suck for whoever makes the decision when to defend and when to retreat.” I said.

  Almana nodded, “Yeah, I don’t envy anyone making those calls.” She agreed.

  I turned away from the window to look at Almana who wore a pensive expression on her face, “And who does make those decisions? Your surviving politicians, or the resistance leaders?”

  Almana shrugged, “A little of both.”

  I gestured to her, “Then as a lieutenant, your authority is more focused on mission operations—the military side of things?”

  She nodded again, “That’s about it; I have my team I command and the settlements I’m protecting and the supplies I secure, but we’re also given orders to undertake our own missions, and once I’m in the field I’m totally in charge.”

  “That seems like a lot of responsibility, and while I’m not so good at gauging vyrane age yet, you seem pretty young—not much older than your high schooler sister. How did you end up in that kind of position?” I asked.

  Almana shrugged, “I suppose it must seem strange for a 40-year-old to be an officer in the resistance, but desperate times call us all to step up and share the responsibility.”

  My eyebrows shot up, “Oh shit, I didn’t think you’d be older than me.”

  Almana cocked her head to the side, “Really? I figured we’d be around the same age.”

  “No, I’m only 32—or I guess 33 now, hard to keep track of time out in space.” I said.

  Almana looked really surprised then, “Wait, then you’re just barely older than Melna. How did you get promoted in the military so young?”

  Now nothing was making sense, but before I could respond, Eve trilled a little giggle beside me. “Darling, remember their planet’s orbit is much shorter than Earth’s, so their years are counted differently.” She turned to Almana, “Adam is 33 in Earth years, but would be 55 in Vyrane years.” Then she turned to me, “Almana would be 24 in Earth years.”

  Suddenly, everything made a lot more sense, and both Almana and I laughed over the misunderstanding.

  “Alright, that’s pretty much what I would’ve guessed.” I said.

  Almana smiled, “Yeah, despite having been part of the Empire for several centuries now, we still gauge everything in Vyrane time—hard to break that habit.” She gestured to me, “Though I’m surprised you’re that much older than me, you seem quite youthful yourself.”

  “So then how old is Melna?” I asked.

  “28. Vyranes are considered adults when they turn 30.” She clarified.

  “Wow, that’s wild, 18 is an adult on Earth.”

  Almana seemed quite skeptical, “18, really? That’s still a child here; hardly seems like enough time to properly grow up.”

  Before we could be further confused, Eve huffed out a quick sigh, “18 on Earth is equal to 30 on Vyrane, understand?”

  Almana almost seemed a little embarrassed then, like she was getting scolded by a strict teacher. It made her look even younger then, and quite cute honestly.

  “Right, I understand.” She said dismissively, though refused to look at Eve.

  “So again, how does someone so young end up a lieutenant in the resistance?” I inquired.

  Almana turned back to me, crossing her arms on the back of the seat and resting her chin on them, “Like I said, there was a need and I stepped up. When we lost the capital, I joined in with the war effort right away. My day job is involved in orbital security, so while I never had any military experience, I’ve had plenty of scenario training, and I was part of a War-Sim team back in high school.”

  “Oh no shit, we won a War-Sim tournament when we were on vacation a while back.” I said with a laugh.

  Almana smiled brightly, “I’m not surprised, a bunch of soldiers playing at war against civilians.” Her expression turned serious, then contemplative, “Really, no one was ready for what happened to Vyrane, but we all had to step up and take part in liberating our planet. I spent some time assisting refugees fleeing their homes in the cities surrounding the capital, been in dozens of engagements with the separatists now, seen what happens when a person gets assimilated.” She shrugged, “Eventually, I proved myself a good soldier and was given my own command, some who fought alongside me around the capital, others are refuges that enlisted and wanted to work with us after we freed them. It took me a while to get used to commanding these wonderful people, but with such a good team being their leader is quite easy—it’s a privilege.”

  I could see Almana the leader in the way she spoke then, so young to have such responsibility, but she clearly earned it, and I could see how her soldiers all respected her. Honestly, I bet there was more to the story she wasn’t telling, but she was clearly humble and didn’t want to brag about her accolades. From the veterans I knew back home, some would swap war stories with their veteran brothers, but for the most part those weren’t stories you shared with outsiders—with civilians.

  Even out here in Imperial frontier space, it seemed like things were all rather similar.

  I had to say, I was still worried about the resistance lieutenant being our escort, but I could understand why she was so insistent now; she knew our mission all relied on Eve getting into the capital with her supposed doomsday weapons, so she probably took it upon herself to make sure we were protected. If that was the case, maybe she would understand why we wouldn’t be fighting on the front lines.

  Still, if Almana was the hero she appeared to be, I figured it would be difficult for her to stay back when the lasers started flying.

  I guess only time would tell how the lieutenant would react, and as we drove along the freeway passing by abandoned cars and cities, moving ever closer to the active warzone, that time wouldn’t be far off at all now.