Intergalactic conquest with an AI

But just before Rex could carry out the "punishment" he had planned, Cleo suddenly froze. A sharp alert flashed across her HUD from a private emergency signal meant only for her eyes. In an instant, she stood up, serious and focused.

"Mmm? What's wrong?" Rex asked, blinking in surprise as the intimate moment between them dissolved like steam in the air.

Cleo grabbed a towel without answering at first, her expression unreadable again. "Let's get dressed. I'll explain everything in the bedroom."

She turned and walked out, leaving behind the warm mist of the jacuzzi. Something serious had clearly happened.

A few minutes later, Rex stepped into the bedroom as well, now wearing nothing but a plain bathrobe. His hair was still wet and dripping slightly.

He spotted Cleo sitting at the edge of the bed. One of the bot maids stood behind her, gently drying her long hair with mechanical precision. A second bot maid approached Rex and started to dry his hair as well.

"So?" Rex asked casually, but his tone held a trace of concern. He leaned closer, trying to sneak a glance at the floating holo-screen Cleo was holding.

Cleo expanded the screen with a flick of her fingers, her voice calm but tinged with tension. "The human outpost on the Necrotech world has been compromised."

Rex's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Compromised? That place is crawling with zombies. Weren't there some really strong mutated ones there too?"

"I don't know the full story yet," Cleo replied. "But the alert didn't come through regular channels. It came through the emergency distress line I had routed directly to the Kaelzar forward post on that planet. That means something very serious went wrong… and fast."

As she spoke, she began playing the footage she had received.

The first clips were from the security cameras positioned around the perimeter of the human outpost. The images showed squads of human soldiers, fully armored and heavily armed, holding their ground with ease.

They were repelling waves of regular zombies and even a few of the mutated ones without too much trouble. Their firepower and defensive barriers seemed more than enough.

Cleo fast-forwarded the feed. The footage now showed patrol units moving in and out of the outpost gates. They were hunting stray mutant zombies in the surrounding area before the creatures could gather and form more dangerous hordes. Everything looked normal, routine even.

But then, the screen flickered and changed. Now the footage came from a different angle, not from the external cameras, but from the helmet cam of one of the soldiers.

A label appeared:

[Field Footage – Soldier 593 / 2:30 a.m.]

The screen jolted and shook as the camera recorded the soldier running down a dim hallway, breath heavy, boots slamming against metal floors.

"Quickly! Block the door!" a soldier yelled while slamming a thick metal door behind him. He and three others had just taken shelter inside a storage room.

"You over there! Help me move this wardrobe! we can use it to block the door!" someone shouted out.

A struggling voice followed. "Ugh! It's too heavy! I can't lift it!"

"Then push, damn it! One, two—PUSH!"

Together, the soldiers shoved the large metal wardrobe until it slammed into place in front of the door. Their breathing was heavy and ragged, echoing inside their helmets.

"Uff… uff… that should be enough to stop the normal infected," one of them said between breaths.

But the second he finished his sentence, loud bangs echoed from the other side of the door; something was slamming against it with inhuman force.

The soldiers jumped in shock, immediately aiming their weapons at the entrance. The fear was thick in the air, almost suffocating. You could hear it in their voices, their fast breathing, and the trembling in the way they shouted commands.

Their helmets picked up everything... the distant roar of gunfire, the blood-curdling screams of their comrades, and the gut-wrenching sounds of infected tearing into flesh just outside the room.

The chaos outside felt like it was creeping in second by second.

Rex leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "This… doesn't look like a normal breach. That kind of panic, even among trained soldiers… Something else is out there, isn't there?"

Cleo nodded slowly, her gaze fixed on the screen. "This wasn't just an infected surge. Something more dangerous must have appeared. Something we haven't seen before."

[Field Footage – Soldier 593 / 3:26 a.m.]

The scene from the helmet cam continued. The room was dim, lit only by the flickering emergency lights. Shadows danced across the walls as the soldiers sat in silence, surrounded by the distant groans and scratching of the infected outside.

"Can you see anything out there?" asked Soldier 593, his voice tense and quiet. He looked over at another soldier crouched next to a narrow window, peeking through a crack between the metal boards.

The soldier slowly turned his head and replied, "They're still out there. Thousands of them. Just standing there, surrounding the outpost. It doesn't look like they're going anywhere… not for a long time."

With a sigh, he dropped to the floor and hugged his rifle close to his chest, as if it were the only thing keeping him sane.

"Damn it..." muttered another soldier, perched on the edge of a bunk bed. He glanced nervously toward the others. "What about that thing? That creature we saw earlier... did anyone get a better look at it?"

The soldier who had just checked the window tensed. He didn't speak right away. Then, slowly, he shook his head.

"No. And I don't want to," he said, his voice trembling. "Whatever it was… it wasn't normal. It wasn't infected like the others."

The fear was thick in his voice, and the way his body slightly shook made it clear... he wasn't exaggerating.

Another voice broke the silence. "Rookie, any update on comms?" one of the older soldiers asked, looking at 593.

Soldier 593 gave a tired shake of his head. "Still no signal. I already tried the emergency frequencies and the backups… nothing. It's dead. I think the antenna might've been taken out."

"You think that... thing did it?" asked the soldier closest to the blocked door. He was standing with his back to the others, watching the door like it might burst open at any second.

There was a pause. Then the same soldier continued in a low voice, "...Before tonight, I would've said you're crazy for thinking something like that. Infected are supposed to be brainless, just dumb beasts. But now?"

He turned halfway toward them, his face pale. "After what we saw out there… I'm starting to think it's possible." Silence hung heavy in the air again.

"So what now?" asked the soldier on the bunk bed, breaking the uneasy stillness. "Do we just sit here and wait to die? Or maybe jump out the window and let the zombies tear us apart? At least it'd be over fast."

His voice was bitter, hopeless. The words stung even more because nobody wanted to admit he might be right.

"Oh, shut the hell up already!" snapped the soldier by the window. He hissed the words under his breath. "If you've got nothing useful to say, then keep your damn mouth shut!"

The man on the bed just shrugged with a tired, bitter smile. "Hey, I'm just being honest. Let's not pretend we're getting out of this clean. I've got one bullet left in my sidearm… and this." He reached into his vest and pulled out a frag grenade. "Found it on a dead soldier outside before I ran back in."

He held it up casually, as if showing off a toy but everyone's eyes were drawn to it immediately.

A heavy silence fell over the room again. They were running out of time, options, and hope.

The only sounds were their breathing, the creaking of the metal walls, and the faint, continuous scratching and banging on the door. Like something was waiting… watching… and getting closer.

[Field Footage – Soldier 593 / 5:50 a.m.]

"Hey, guys… come look at this!" the soldier who had been sitting near the window was now standing again with his eyes wide as he pressed his face to the narrow gap between the metal boards. His voice, though low, carried urgency.

The others, startled by the sudden change in his tone, quickly got up from their spots on the floor and the bunks. One by one, they crowded around the window.

"No freaking way…" Soldier 593 muttered, squinting through the gap. "There's… there's only three, maybe four infected out there…"

The area outside, once a sea of undead bodies, now looked eerily empty. The moaning crowd had vanished, leaving just a few shambling figures dragging their limbs through the dust and smoke.

"This is it! This is our chance!" said the soldier holding the grenade, hope lighting up his face for the first time in hours. "We should make a run for the Kaelzar outpost while we still can!"

But another soldier quickly shut that idea down.

"Are you insane?" he snapped. "We're on the third floor. Even if you don't break your legs jumping down, the Kaelzar outpost is ten kilometers from here! through open, infected territory!"

The grenade-holder turned to him, frustration bubbling to the surface. "Then what do you suggest we do? Sit here like canned meat and wait to die? The sun rises at 7:00 a.m., and it's already past 5:00. If we don't escape now, we won't be able to move at all!"

He holstered his handgun with a shaking hand and marched toward the window, determination burning in his eyes. "And what if that creature comes back? Or worse… what if it never left?"

His voice cracked with desperation. "I want to live, damn it! I'm not staying in here just to end up as dinner for something we don't even understand!"