Beyond Survival: Chapter 6

Colonel Alice sat with a straight back as the three men who are now the de facto leaders of the human race, or what’s left of it, stared back at her with serious expressions.

“Colonel. I understand that you would wish to take some time to relax, but we need to understand why your fleet is missing forty of the fifty aircraft and why you were two days late.”

Alice nodded her head at those words.

“I understand, sir. In fact, I would have requested an immediate meeting even if I had been told to relax. I’m afraid I carry grim news, Generals.”

Immediately, she noticed the three generals looking at each other worriedly before looking back at her, gesturing for her to speak up.

She took a deep breath and spoke words that shocked the three men to their cores.

“The Corruption is advancing at a much faster rate than anticipated and its effects have intensified heavily. We estimate that it will reach Nevada Base within one week at most.”

She was greeted with stunned silence as the three Generals did not even bother to hide their shocked expression before they slowly went back to stoic expressions, their emotions hidden behind their training as military men.

“I see. That explains the delay since you would have had to take a detour to avoid the Southern shores. But what about the missing crafts? Were they-?”

Alice nodded sullenly at General Carter’s words.

“Yes, sir. The armor layers were compromised due to a hasty repair job during our pitstop in Brazil. They were infected shortly after departure. We enacted The Corruption Contingency Pattern, and the infected planes broke off from the group voluntarily, heading to the Wasteland. While most of the planes that we lost were filled with cargo and essentials, unlike the ones that survived, which had people in them, we still lost a significant chunk of our people and a majority of our military hardware with those planes.”

General Carter glanced at General Issac, who closed his eyes in pain at those words. As the overseer of the Antarctic base, General Issac knew most of the people there due to their small numbers, making this loss even more impactful for the aging general.

“….I see. We understand. We are done here, Colonel. Normally, I would suggest you to get some rest, but-“

Alice gave a wry smile at the General before snapping into a salute.

“I know my duty, General.”

General Carter nodded his head gratefully before speaking again.

“I know that we are putting a lot of workload on you and the rest of our people, but time is of the essence. As we speak, the Hyperloop capsules from the Himalayan base are rapidly moving back and forth, transporting people from there to here for the final evacuation. We could use you and your unit’s help in managing these civilians and making sure they don’t do anything stupid while waiting for transit.”

“Understood, General.”

“Good. You are dismissed, Colonel, and good work.”

With that, Alice immediately left the room and headed straight for the designated room that she shared with five other soldiers of the same rank. Due to the space constraints, nobody but the Generals was allowed to have private rooms. Even then, the Generals mostly spent time with the various branches of their military, scientific, economic, and logistic complex to make use of those rooms, turning them into storage rooms for important documentation and conference rooms.

With a simple shower and a change of uniform, she headed straight to the lowest floor of the Bunker, where the incoming civilians from the Hyperloops would be dropped off.

She had just lost many of her friends during this journey to Nevada. She had lost her family right after landing, as their aging bodies were unable to handle such strain. Her fiance had long since died.

And yet, she could not grieve, not yet.

She was a soldier, and she had her duty to fulfill. There will be time later for her to mourn and break down in privacy when what is left of her race has been saved.

Until then, She would not be Alice Bennett, the cheerful college graduate who worked as a Florist in London.

She would be Colonel Alice Bennett, the soldier who climbed through the ranks with her own abilities and determination.

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Other side of the Gate (Planet Name yet to be updated)

Deep within the forests, at a distance far enough from the humans to be hidden yet close enough for their eyes and ears to pick up on them, the very same strange creatures that had first observed the Human race’s arrival in this world hid in the bushes and watched the Humans going about prepping their foothold.

Out of the group of three, one of the creatures that was slightly taller than her companions looked at the group made up of humans with a strange gaze.

“So, there are the creatures that broke into our woods?”

“Yes, Elder Elyndra. We have been observing these strange creatures for the past two weeks since they arrived. While they have been damaging the woods around them, the spirits did not sense any danger from them yet so we have been keeping a distance from them for now and wished for the Queen to tell us what to do.”

“You made a wise decision, Young Myrritha. These people, whoever they are, are definitely not a danger to us. At least, for now.”

The taller creature looked at the humans with her glowing eyes, alternating between the soldiers who were dressed in black camouflage-patterned Environmental suits with Military-grade Exo-rigs, the Scientists wearing pure white Environmental suits with Civilian-grade Exo-rigs, and the engineers and other crew who wore gray suits and similar Civilian-grade Exo-rigs.

“Those black ones reek of despair, rage, hatred, and determination. A potent mix. I can already see the spirits of the night being attracted to their emotions should they be reckless enough to approach these unknowns. The white ones, on the other hand, are full of curiosity, determination, and a strange mix of awe and fear. The grey ones also reek of determination, but their emotions are tinged with bitterness.”

The creature closed her eyes before opening them again, revealing that the glow was now gone as she turned back to her companions.

“While their emotions might say that they are here with nefarious purposes, their emotions are not directed towards the woods or us. In fact, I feel their emotions to be directed at something else entirely.”

“I suggest we head back to the Queen and report our findings. Perhaps, these people would be willing to listen to us and leave our woods without causing much damage. We do not need another war, especially after the Greenies.”

The other two creatures nodded their heads and followed the taller one as they headed out into the woods, once again leaving with extreme speeds, their movements being picked up by the Ornies up in the air and the motion trackers of the base but being marked as native Fauna and being dismissed for now since the humans had much more important concerns to deal with.

And yet, the AI within the Surveillance systems tagged the anomaly and updated the patrol routes of the Infiltrator drones to sweep through that area as stealthily as possible periodically, just in case.