The camp was secure through the night, and we all got plenty of uninterrupted rest while the soldiers took shifts guarding us. We broke down camp quickly and quietly, and within the hour we were back on the transport buses and on the road again, making our way into the active warzone.

  I suppose I was being foolish, but I was expecting us to go through some obvious barrier when we passed into the hot-zone, like the sky would change colors or there would be fire and lasers everywhere. But nothing really changed that I could see; the scenery was the same, although the cities we passed were much more damaged and deserted, and there were more abandoned vehicles on the road now too. Every so often we had to stop and move a few disabled vehicles over so we could pass, and we slowed down significantly as we weaved around some debris on the road too. All the while, the soldiers had their guns out, relaxed in their seats, but alert and ready for any danger.

  Conversations didn’t stop, and it seemed like everyone had something to say all around us, commenting on every little thing, making crude jokes that didn’t make sense half the time. It took me a while to realize, but I finally figured out it was the way soldiers talked when they knew danger lurked just around the corner. It was all shallow talk that could be interrupted at a moment’s notice and then picked up again once the danger or caution cleared.

  I’d been talking with Almana a lot lately, but that seemed to dimmish significantly now that we entered the active warzone; she was incredibly busy coordinating with her team, the other bus and even the interceptor vehicle out front, making dozens of decisions or relaying orders constantly with all the information that was provided. She got out of her seat quite a bit to go talk with her sergeant, and every once in a while we stopped the transports so she could have a brief meeting with her team members in the other vehicles.

  The resistance soldiers all seemed much more on edge than I’d seen them over the past couple days, but they did a great job of masking it, one moment raising their guns at any random noise, and then the next moment laughing it off like it was nothing.

  On the other side of things, our team seemed incredibly relaxed considering the danger we were apparently in. Captain Seash spent some time coordinating with our soldiers too, but nothing like what Almana was doing. I figured he was so relaxed since we had the technological advantage, at least somewhat from what the assimilated soldiers stole from core technology, or maybe it was all a mask, wanting to look calm and in control in front of the resistance soldiers since we were the specialty team or whatever.

  Of course, out of everyone on the bus, there was one person who wasn’t bothered in the least. Eve napped most of the time beside me, bored out of her mind now with everyone on edge. She complained I wasn’t very good company anymore either, saying I was too high-strung waiting for danger. She assured me repeatedly I wouldn’t be in any danger with her beside me, but I couldn’t shake the nerves of being a soldier in a war for the first time in my life and feeling woefully unprepared for it.

  Eventually she just gave up trying to alleviate my fears and told me to wake her up when I wanted to have fun again or get a handjob in the seat sometime, and then promptly feel asleep on my shoulder.

  I wasn’t convinced it was just boredom that put Eve to sleep, however. Even since she was sealed I noticed she seemed to be sleeping or napping more, and I could’ve sworn a couple times she even seemed a little sluggish compared to how quick and vibrant she normally was, but I honestly had no idea if that was all connected and I couldn’t even guess what would cause it. Maybe the inhibitor field screwed up her internal energy? I still had no idea how she worked, like, biologically; she didn’t need food or sleep really, and yet she had boundless energy—enough to keep her alive and active for a million years. Perhaps being bound cut her off from some Outsider magic in void space—something beyond our dimension? I didn’t have a clue, all I knew was something was different with Eve lately, and I had no idea how to even begin to quantify it.

  The first day in the warzone passed without incident, but our progress had been slowed significantly due to various debris on the freeway we had to work around, plus Almana made frequent stops to coordinate with her team, and I noticed it started to annoy our team leaders after a while, as though they thought she was being overly cautious.

  We made camp in the same way we did that night before, but this time they erected a few auto-turret towers to watch us from all corners on the camp. I could see why they waited until we were in hostile territory until they used them though; it seemed like quite the ordeal to set them up, and I knew in the morning we would be delayed further for our departure, and considering how desperate the commanders were to keep to our timeframe, I was almost surprised they even set them up now since we hadn’t seen any enemy soldiers.

  Same as on the bus, conversation in the camp was minimal and shallow, and I could tell even the researchers were on edge, our first night in the hot-zone. I wanted to admonish them for feeling nervous, after all we were in a greatly defensible position, we had dozens of soldiers guarding us with those auto-turrets, and we were of course by Eve, our most valuable and powerful asset that would be able to destroy anything that might confront us. And yet all the same I felt nervous too.

  For all the military media I’d consumed, the video games and movies, even playing that War-Sim in the Holistia Nebula, nothing could’ve properly prepared me for the feeling of having my life on the line like this. Even working as a medic in the inner-city where I was stabbed once before by some crackhead having a breakdown, I’d never had my life so constantly in jeopardy like this.

  I mean yeah, I’d been in danger before with the Predazoans around us while Eve was fighting them, and while I might’ve been nervous then, I had Eve directly in front of me or armoring me the entire time. Now, everything was so open, there could be danger anywhere. I felt like I could float away at any time—fly right into enemy bullets or lasers or whatever.

  And as always, I started to forget about my new superpowered abilities; I had no idea if they’d save me at all, but for now, I was still so untested I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to use them once my life was in danger and fear might overtake me.

  I would just have to rely on Eve if I was ever overwhelmed, and since I trusted her completely and knew she would keep me safe, that was my best comfort for now in the face of uncertainty.

  ***

  As I expected, the next morning breaking down camp took twice as long as usual getting those massive auto-turret towers dismantled. We didn’t even need them overnight, and I heard Seash and Kotlokk cursing under their breath walking around the camp at the wasted time, but it was obviously better to have them up and not need them than the opposite. So what if we lost a couple hours here and there, it wasn’t like they had bombs in their necks to keep them compliant and efficient.

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  After a couple hours we were back on the transports, everyone in their seats, and it seemed like the mood had improved a little—like the edge softened somewhat. Jokes were more constant, and it seemed like conversations held out longer. Perhaps people were glad we made it through the first day without incident and thought that was how things would go from now on.

  But of course, my luck was never that good.

  Almana was alerted on her communicator thanks to the scouting interceptor vehicle that a company of separatist soldiers was making their way towards us.

  “Alright everyone, seems like enemy forces have finally noticed us and are making for our location. The interceptor estimates we’re about 20 minutes from engagement.” Almana announced, making her way to the front of the transport.

  Captain Seash looked like he wasn’t even remotely concerned, “Shall we continue to meet them, or would you like to hold up for a defensible position?” He asked mildly.

  I could see Almana was surprised Seash asked her how she wanted to engage, but she recovered quickly, “I figure we turn the transports at an angle to block the freeway and use them for cover and wait to intercept the enemy.”

  Seash nodded once, “Very well.”

  I wondered why Seash was okay with relegating the command position to Almana so easily. Of course, I remember before we even met up with the resistance soldiers he gave us that speech about fighting if they asked us to fight and running if they asked us to run; I guess he really wanted to follow their orders down to the letter, prove how cooperative we could be as a unit.

  Regardless who was calling the shots now, our team worked beside the resistance soldiers incredibly well and I could see they started filling in the holes of their strategy quite quickly, and they were all rather diplomatic about it too.

  We angled the transports so they blocked the freeway and then most of our soldiers got out front and deplored their repulser shield barriers to cover even more ground before the transports. Our power armor soldiers got right out in front with their heavy weapons and extra shielding, ready to be the first major line of defense. Our agents went over to the sides of the freeway and activated some optic camouflage device so it looked like they completely blended into the surrounding area, and then a couple of our marines got on the roofs of our transports with long range pulser rifles, ready to engage the enemy from a significant distance.

  All the while we set up our expert tactics, I could see the resistance soldiers awkwardly adapt to work around with us, fixing their strategy of just taking cover around the buses with some rudimentary deployed barriers. I could see then why Seash hadn’t steamrolled Almana’s command; aside from needing to prove ourselves trustworthy despite our team’s suspicious nature while we completely relied on the resistance to get us to the capital, it was clear he didn’t want to straight-up embarrass the resistance with our elite tactics and advanced weaponry, instead showing we could work perfectly alongside them—like we were all a valuable part of the combat strategy together.

  It was all to keep the peace and earn their trust, but I felt it would be a safe bet that during the next engagement Almana would probably ask Seash to take command, or at least joint-command.

  Not like I really understood these military politics or chain-of-command shit, I was always rebelling against authority, and I wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

  Eve and I, along with the researchers and several other soldiers to fill up the seats remained inside the transports with windows open and our guns out ready to engage with the enemy once they were in view. The transports gave us a great vantage point, giving us significant shielding while offering an elevated position during combat as well. It also was a great excuse for keeping us out of the front lines and as far away from the enemy as possible, reasoning no one would question.

  This would be the first time I used my pulse-rifle in combat—hell, the first time I was in actual combat. I’d trained plenty in the simulators, and even before that I was always a good shot with a gun back on Earth—another of my random, rare talents along with my endless hobbies. Growing up on a farm, of course I spent plenty of time hunting with my grandfather. I took to it quickly and Gramps had always been impressed with my aim and skill, so I ended up in a couple shooting competitions when I was a kid, but as always my interest wavered and I left the competitions in favor of other random pursuits at the time; I think it was building a go-kart so I could race around some local track, which I never got very good at.

  Still, the skill at shooting persisted, and some of my Imperial instructors were actually impressed with how quickly I picked up the futuristic guns.

  The pulse-rifle was different from anything I’d ever shot before, obviously. It was sleek, silver and black, the peak of efficiency. It had some blue highlights showing the current charge, and like with most plasma or pulse weapons, you didn’t need to worry about ammo, instead needing to be careful about overheating instead. The pulse-rifle fired in bursts, and you could fire for a decent amount of time before you needed to open the heat-sink to let the gun cool down. If you spaced your shots out evenly, you never needed to worry about letting the heat-sink cool off, and instead you could just keep slow and steady pressure on the enemy. Of course, if you got way too aggressive and you overcharged the heat-sink, you would need to discharge it and replace it with a spare so you wouldn’t have to wait several minutes for it to reset.

  It actually seemed way more complicated than just needing to load up and reload some bullets, but with training, soldiers could fire the pulse-rifle indefinitely with perfect timing to prevent overheating.

  In the seat beside me was Eve with her own pulse-rifle, looking funny as always with a gun that was so much weaker than her outrageous Predazoan abilities. Seriously, she told me before she could punch a sun and turn it into a blackhole, and yet here she was holding a fucking rifle.

  Eve glanced over at me and rolled her eyes, “What?”

  I chuckled and shook my head, “I dunno, just always funny seeing you with a gun.”

  She shook her head too, “Yeah yeah, laugh at your Eve and how silly she looks.” She nodded out to the soldiers and our commanders in front of the buses, “Blame it on those who would limit my powers and abilities.”

  I let out a quick sigh, “It really is outrageous to think how easily you could end this engagement if you weren’t being constrained like this.”

  “More than that, think how quickly I could end this entire mission if I wasn’t bound at all.” Eve added.

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “You really think you’d find a way through the repulser shielding around the capital?”

  Eve shrugged, “I’d figure it out, I’m sure.”

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t say anything. I was sure she could really, but even if she couldn’t, Eve’s ego would never allow her to fully admit her limitations. She hated if I mentioned her being weaker, always insisting she was just contained—limited for now.

  My little Evie, the dangerous Outsider god, concerned over such silly semantics.

  Almana was out front behind the repulser barriers with Captain Seash and Lieutenant Bryx, all in a constant loop of communication with the interceptor vehicle, counting down the minutes until we engaged with the approaching enemy soldiers.

  The calm before the storm—waiting for the danger, it was almost worse than the danger itself. I gripped my rifle tightly, checking and double-checking the scope, making sure the pulser was charged and the heat-sink would be working properly—going over everything I could repeatedly while my brain got all bundled up in nerves.

  “Darling.” Eve said suddenly, almost surprising me when the silence broke.

  “Yeah?”

  Eve gave me a kind, reassuring smile, “Relax. No matter what happens, I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

  I smiled awkwardly, “I know, it’s just—”

  “Do you trust me?” Eve interrupted.

  My smile turned into a smirk, “You know I do.”

  “Then trust there is nothing in this universe that will ever harm you.”

  Eve reached over then, holding my hand, stroking the back of my hand with her thumb. With the battle armor gloves, obviously I couldn’t feel her touch, and even beyond that, I wouldn’t be able to feel her with that stupid inhibitor field. And yet I still found comfort in the simple gesture, and even though it wasn’t so simple that I could simply turn off my fears and anxieties, I knew Eve would keep me safe.

  “I love you, Adam.” She said simply.

  “I love you too Evie, always.”

  Eve’s smile turned bright, but then it fell away slowly, and she looked back out the window through her rifle scope.

  “Here they come darling.”