Oblivion: Fractured Empire: A Post-apocalyptic Military Novel (Hybrid Genesis Book 2) by E. L. Strife & Elysia Lumen Strife

Author:E. L. Strife & Elysia Lumen Strife [Strife, E. L. & Strife, Elysia Lumen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Scorpion

23: Marci

GNOUS TWISTS my arm and snarls when I look back at Boettig. My old friend follows us with a gun pointed at my back. The man I know would never shoot someone like this. His eyes shimmer with familiar pain. He’s in there like we all were. He just can’t stop himself.

Genesis commands him.

I can’t break through to him without accessing his cybernetics or being able to stop Genesis at its source. For now, Boettig is the Astrals’ puppet. One of many.

This system has to be destroyed.

Gnous escorts me outside the security department and to a private room. He shoves me inside and locks the door. Two sets of footsteps march off down the hall, turning right. It’s not the direction we came from.

When I turn to face my new prison, I’m stunned. The room is painted ivory, with long red curtains framing the tall windows that overlook the city below. Not the High City, but the sub city and the red outliers beyond.

A young man enters from a side door guarded by a bio lock. It scans his skin. Only he can enter and leave that way. He is small and thin yet carries a tray with an assortment of teacups and plates. “Refreshments, Commander?”

“Excuse me?”

“Refreshments?” he asks again. The young man with short-cropped brown hair places the tray on the table beside me and bows. He wears Alluvial protective skins and an assistive breather that frames his wide mouth. His dark eyes are uncommon of Alluvials and more of Tellurians. He avoids my gaze as if I will burn him for looking at me.

“Why?”

“It was the order of my master that I be at your service should you ever arrive.”

“How long have you been waiting?”

“Three years, seven months, and five days.”

“Who is your master?”

“Rys Jaerstin. But I have not seen him in nearly three years.”

“You were not reassigned?”

“I serve until I die, or he does.”

So his body was never found. Yet he hasn’t returned? Why wouldn’t he if he was alive?

The young man pours a steaming cup of tea. I don’t trust it. I trust nothing that belongs to Astrals, especially Rys. If he is alive, I figure he’s watching me in here.

I circle the office. A Victorian-style sofa in black velvet sits before a gilded fireplace. Above it is a painting of a woman who died in EsoTerra years ago. The woman who cared for and raised Rys. Someone hacked her system and shut down her shield remotely.

Perhaps Rys blames me. I could do that even if I didn’t.

“I haven’t had many visitors since EsoTerra fell,” he says quietly, setting the tea beside me. I’m surprised he’s so open. I continue my patrol of the space, still finding no evidence of cameras or technology. It’s as if Rys never had any in this space. It’s a blip of a long past era, frozen in time here, in Eros.

“It was very busy then. But it was decided that the leader’s room would remain serviceable until Rys was found.

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