Novel Full 422 422 Self Inflicted
[I thought I instructed you to interrogate them if they were sane and capable of reason?] Max asked.
[Subject Three was unreasonable. But the others became much more reasonable after the dissection. Subject One and Two are currently in holding since Subject Four provided all information that we required.]
[Acquire samples from a few more subjects around the planet and determine the origin of the mutation. I want to know if the humans or the Klem made it since your subjects don’t know anything.] Max ordered.
[On it, Commander. Now that I know what to look for, I can analyze them with drones from a distance. Dispatching now. Give me one hour to get answers.] Nico responded.
[Everyone, get ready to move out. There is some Klem activity on the scanners, but they either don’t know we are here or don’t care.
Their behavior in this world is very unusual, and standard procedures aren’t going to be helpful in preparing for them.] Max reminded the troops.
The Regiment started packing up and getting ready to move, cleaning up all traces of their presence here, except for the inevitable tire tracks and footprints that they had generated by congregating in one spot for the night.
They were going to have to detour off their direct route today. The valley that they had been following led to the ruins of a Mega City, formerly home to at least ten million humans but currently in a state of total destruction. Given their encounters so far, that meant that the Klem had a full invasion army there but had stopped both their advance and their continued growth for some unknown reason.
That was way more trouble than they wanted to take on, so Max was going to keep a hundred-kilometer distance from it, so he wouldn’t attract undue attention. There were a number of smaller, outlying ruins, but if they struck fast and kept moving, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Today they weren’t moving as fast, more interested in finding signs that might inform them of what happened here than hurrying toward any destination.
The first such sign came an hour into their march when the tail of a ruined airplane was found on the horizon. Not a shuttle, hovercar, military transport, or anything so fancy, it appeared to be an actual propellor-driven aircraft with a wingspan of around sixty meters.
[Scouts, tell me what you can about that location. Do not exit your Mecha. We haven’t scanned it for possible pathogens yet.] Max ordered.
A single Corvette Class Mecha headed out for the downed aircraft, locking its handheld rifle behind its back, so it had both hands free to move rubble and explore.
[Sir, it is a bomber. Four-engined, propellor driven. It looks to have been hastily retrofitted with fuel-burning engines, and the cockpit shows signs of advanced avionics having been removed and replaced with analog.
I suspect that the region was hit with an EMP during or just after the invasion, but this plane went down afterward, as the corpses have not been cannibalized by the Klem.
No signs of mutation on the remains of the occupants.] The pilot reported.
[Nico, send a drone for recovery of the remains and begin full bioweapon containment procedures. Once we know when they died, we can start building a timeline. Check for a paper log or diary as well. If they survived an EMP and were still fighting, they should have paperwork in hard copy.] Max ordered.
The Regiment continued along their path, and the signs of a primitive battle against the Klem became more and more frequent. Bodies of soldiers with projectile weapons, domesticated mounts instead of mechanized vehicles, and finally, a fully equipped bunker with its power cut.
Max personally deployed a small camera drone to explore, finding that the door was a magnetic lock, now demagnetized and easily pushed open by the drone. The inside was still fully stocked, with food, water, and beds for twenty people.
It sat in the ruins of what Max assumed was a farmstead by the remains of metallic implements that the Klem hadn’t eaten, though all signs of crops or even the farmhouse were long gone.
The beds had been used, though. The drone detected signs of human DNA on the sheets, so someone slept in them, then made the beds. There was no visible damage to the bunker itself, so Max assumed it was possible that the occupants waited until they thought it was safe and then left, never to return.
Of course, they could still be on their way back, but they hadn’t detected any signs of living humans on the continent, so they might have also been infected and forgot that they had somewhere to go back to.
[Sir, I have a time-lapse from one of the major cities on another continent that will interest you.] Admiral Drake reported, and Max’s Mecha dinged at him to report an incoming data file.
Max opened it and put it on a side screen, so he could keep his eyes open for threats.
At first, everything looked normal, but then Max realized that the residents were all doing random tasks over and over. They only did the things that they remembered how to do, either their job or some random hobby that was stuck in their memory when everything else disappeared.
The part that really showed how wrong the residents of the city were was highlighted about two minutes in when the time-lapse showed people randomly pulling and eating grass or jumping into the river to grab fish, eating them raw while they went about their daily tasks.
[Nico, ask your subject what she had for her last meal, what she does for work, and where she got the clothes she was wearing.] Max ordered.
A new voice came over the speaker, that of a young woman, possibly a teenage girl. [What do you mean? I made steamed vegetables and rice, the same as every other meal. I stay at home taking care of the kids, and the clothes are in the closet.]
The voice switched to Nico’s. [You have that for every meal? Do the kids go to school? When did you last change clothes with other ones from the closet?] Nico asked her questions one after another, and Max could hear the Subject stammer, looking for an answer.
[There used to be more dishes, but the spot where they come from is empty now. I don’t really know what a school is, but the kids go to a place from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. Then they come back, and I make them a meal.] The Subject reported.
[What did I ask you about yesterday?] Nico asked.
[You asked me things yesterday? No, that can’t be right. I wake up, get dressed, see the kids off, then wait for them to come back so I can make them a meal. I have never seen you before.] The Subject responded.
[Thank You.]
There was a pause as Nico presumably left the room before reporting. [Our sensors and the Illithid report that they can only retain new information for a few hours, so if they don’t continue a task regularly, they will forget how to do it and act on instinct when faced with new situations. From what I can tell, they live their lives on repeat, doing the exact same thing over and over.]
[Send another drone to the border and see what the response is.] Max ordered.
*Alien visitors, please note that you have entered from an indigenous protection quarantine area. Please exit the continent to orbit with all reasonable haste.*