Leaving the others behind weighed on Barten. He didn’t want to. But just standing there watching over them wasn’t going to make the situation any better. Not that much could be done with so many of their numbers having been turned. Or possessed. Or whatever it was that the Aethwhatever did to his friends and comrades.

The base was a mess. Many of the windows were broken. And there were several fires going. Of the few people that he found, all were wearing the same hat as Jamieson. Protection against the enemy and their psychic assaults. How much did command know? They had been holed up for a few days. Had even worse attacks happened at the other bases?

His first stop by the armory was for naught. As that it was a smoking crater in the ground. It must have been the location of the explosion from before. A smart move from the taken. Next up was the hangers, which were in just as bad of shape. There was a roaring fire covering the sloped roof. Parts of which had already fallen in. And assuming that it was left to burn like that, there wouldn't be anything left of it by the time the blaze was put out.

Barten felt like something was off as he walked the base. But it wasn't until he counted the number of people that he figured it out. There was hardly anyone around. No wounded. Signs of battle yes. But no bodies or anyone prone. From either side. What did that mean?

There was also the fact that the hanger was on fire, and yet no one seemed to care about it. The very weapon of humanities hope was being destroyed. Were the davs resilient enough to survive the fire? Or did they just not have enough staff on hand to fight against it?

He shook his head to try and get rid of all of the thoughts that were bouncing around his mind. What Barten needed to do was concentrate on what he could do then and there. Fighting fires would be important, but saving those who were downed by the taken made more sense to him.

It didn’t take too long for him to find the medics and he was surprised by what he saw. It was the most busy part of the base and people were swarming all over the place. Several patients had been strapped onto beds and had some helmet covering their heads and faces.

One of the sergeants stopped forward when she noticed Barten. She belonged to Dane’s squad. “Private. What is your status?” Sergeant Morris asked.

“I’m fine I think. Uninjured. A little shocked by everything that happened. We need to help those back in the courtyard. There are many who were downed by the enemies’ psychic attacks.”

“Right. Barten was it? Sergeant Myles forwarded on your message. We have teams there now securing the survivors.” She looked at him a moment before she continued, “Do you want a break? Or something to do?”

“Something to do please. I woke up after the attack and the world has turned on its head. Anything to keep myself busy.”

“Right. Then go back to the courtyard and help the others. Take this stack of stretchers with you,” she said and pointed. Barten saluted and moved towards the stretchers. They looked pretty light and with his strength he should be able to handle the lot of them. Although it ended up being a little awkward he managed to make it work.

No sooner than he arrived at the courtyard were the stretchers taken from him. Yin was already there helping and Barten quickly joined in. They would load a soldier onto a stretcher one at a time. And then cart the wounded to the medic bay. Once there they would drop them off at the closest empty bed. Rinse and repeat until the last one everyone was secured.

By that point most of the fires were put out. The hanger had burned down almost completely and Barten stopped by to look at the devastation. At how the building had fallen in on itself. At how there was nothing left of the davs. Or at least none were still standing. He sighed and thought of the others. Those that were lost. Those that were wounded. And those that got away. A rumbling feeling that he couldn’t explain sat in his heart.

With everything being chaos, but not under control chaos, Barten felt that he was out of place. He found his way back to the bunk that he had on base and fell asleep. Or at least tried to. As no matter what sleep wouldn't come. If it did it was fitful and plagued by nightmares.

He dreamed of Smith and the others transforming into type 4s. And yet no one noticed as they mingled with them just the same as before. As if they weren’t taken by the enemies. Sometimes the taken would attack. Other times the soldiers would attack first. And every time the taken would ask why. With their gaping alien maws and still too human eyes. Pleading for an answer as they were shot to death with bullets and plasma.

Barten’s door opened and he was on the ground ready to tackle or bolt through the window depending on who it was. He blinked when the light switched on and found himself looking up at Sergeant Myles. His mind was still addled from the half sleep that he got. And it was only after a moment that Barten stood and snapped the sergeant a quick salute.

“You guys never bothered with that before,” Myles said and showed a wry expression. “So I don’t know why you bothered with it now.”

“Still half asleep,” Barten said. “Also this feels more official for some reason.” Instead of his usual camo outfit, Myles was instead in his dress uniform. With his hat under one arm, and several medals adorning his chest.

“I just got back from speaking with the top brass. It seems that events really didn’t go as planned or as hoped this time. And even more than that I’m surprised to find that you are even up. All of the others that were potentially exposed to type 4s are still unconscious. And then there’s you and Yin.”

“Ah. My Psychic Resistance is up to 17. At least it was,” Barten said and pulled up his status.

—

Psychic Resistance: 20 (new +3)

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

—

“Oh. It’s up to 20 now. And it was only after they all focused on me that I went down. When they were targeting everyone at once it wasn’t enough to hurt me.”

Myles looked at him for a moment. “I see. The researchers are probably going to be all over you in a bit. They want to know as much as possible about your upgraded chip and this system or whatever they called it. But that can wait for now. There is an even more important question.” Myles put his hat back on top of his head. “Private Barten, are you still willing to fight for the United World Reserves?”

“I thought that it was the International Army?”

Myles smiled. “They rebranded again. Wanted something that would draw in all of the outliers who still resisted the need of one force dedicated to outside threats. One that was free of borders and old world squabbles and grievances.”

Barten shook his head. And then he stood at attention. Saluted Sergeant Myles and said, “I will continue to fight against our enemies.”

“Even if they are your friends?” Myles voice had a somber tone to it.

“Even if the enemies were once your comrades in arms?”

“Is there no way to save them?” Barten asked.

“We don’t know.” Myles adjusted the position of his hat. Placing it more securely under his arm.

“It’s possible. But it’s also possible that they are dead to us. And that the Goliaths are wearing their corpses.”

Barten found that his hands were tightly clenched. Hard enough that his fingers were starting to hurt. He had to force himself to slowly release them. “Then I’ll see to it that they get the rest that they deserve. Like how they would have done for me.” The breath that he took in was ragged breath. And he slowly let it out to calm himself. When he looked to Myles again Barten could see that the sergeant’s emotions mirrored his own.

“We’ll get them back. One way or another,” Myles said. “We managed to get a number of them as they retreated. So we have options available to us.”

“What about the davs? The hanger and all of them have been destroyed.”

A glint appeared in Myles eyes. “It was noticed early on that the objects, the Goliaths, learned from each interaction with our forces. It was confirmed when we tried the same tactics against one base, and then another a few days later. They already had countermeasures in place for such an assault. We think that there might be some powerful AI watching and communicating amongst all of the objects. So we mustered and waited for every base to be ready. To all attack objects at the same time. Just like the Goliaths, we humans know how to communicate. As soon as the first one was discovered we had reports about the type 4s trying to take over humans.”

Barten felt a weight release from his chest. “So you knew that some might have been turned?”

“Even before we sent the pickup. Which is why we put protections in place even then. Taking the guns and keeping everyone who could have been compromised in one place.”

“What about when Commander Gale appeared?”

“Some of the other bases had luck in drawing out the enemy by presenting a protected target. They seemed to attack with psychic powers first before force. So it was an attempt to trick them into attack. We don’t know if they can still communicate with one another or not. Or if this batch of them was more cautious.”

Barten laughed. “I did notice her wearing the same hat as Jamieson.”

“That was something that R and D came through on. It blocks out all types of psychic attacks or intrusion. Though a number of soldiers who have had enough exposure to such a type of attack have started to get the PRe stat. Like yourself.”

Being in New Eden when it was attacked was one of the worst times of Barten’s life. Everything and everyone he knew had been upturned due to a single event. And yet, years later, he was still standing because of what he had experienced so many years ago. Didn’t life take strange routes at times? “What is our next goal then?” He needed something to work towards. Something to believe in.

“Well,” Myles said with a smile. “We’ll get you trained up on one of the winged davs. And then we’ll go and take back what was lost. For now we’ll be putting you into a new squad. But that will have to be created after everyone wakes up.”

“Wait, we still have davs?”

“Ah, I didn’t get it before. But part of the preparations was removing all nonessential staff and weapons from Alpha Base.” Myles stepped forward and patted Barten on the shoulder. “So all the davs are still safe. We just need to find enough pilots.”

Barten felt both relief and excitement at the same time. They weren’t out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. In addition they still had the tools needed to try and move forward. He hoped that everyone would recover. And though he didn’t like the idea of a new team, it was necessary for fighting back against the Goliaths.

“Once we have the numbers again we will be making an assault. Given that this base is all but trashed we’ll need to go to Charlie Base to the south. It’s a bit of a hike. But it’s better than trying to fight out what remains here of Alpha Base.”

“I’m ready to go whenever,” Barten said and looked about his room. “I could probably be packed in a 10, no. 5 minutes or so.”

Myles laughed. “There is still some time left. We don’t even have a squad for you yet. It all depends on who wakes up.”

Barten stopped in place. “Will they all wake up?”

“I don’t have the answer for that. I really wish that I did. But it all depends on how much damage they took, how resistant they were to it.”

“Jamieson probably still had points in Psychic Sensitivity didn’t he?” Barten felt his heart drop when he voiced the thought. Jamieson was still alive when he was moved out of the courtyard. Being still alive meant that there was still a chance.

“Only time, and Jamieson, will be able to tell you that. It’s possible he’s up now. Just as fully possible it’ll take a lot longer,” Myles said. Barten was glad that he didn’t say what they both were thinking. That Jamieson might not ever wake.

In the end Myles told Barten to stand by for a time. And as much as Barten didn’t like it he had no choice in the matter. So he moved around the base doing what he could. The g force area had been destroyed. As had the VR device for dexterity training. While the Agility assault course remained all it took was one attempt on that and that was enough. Lifting weights wasn’t the same without Jamieson. And he found it hard to fall into a deep meditation required to raise his perception.

As Barten was trying to find something to deal with his boredom, or some way to be useful he had heard some good news. Some of the soldiers were starting to wake up! He rushed to the recovery room and was immediately greeted. “Oh hey Barten!” Dane said as he propped himself up in bed. “You are never going to believe the dream that I had. Young, Smith and the others went crazy. And not in a good way. Just straight out mad. And then everyone was falling down. Myself too. But for some reason it feels really real to me, you know?”

Barten shared a look with Yin who was standing next to Dane and then sighed.