Aleph’s Journey after 3050 AD.

  Aleph felt almost human in his state of shellshock. Not feeling emboldened enough when he came back that day, he didn’t go to see Arianne, no, in 3051 AD. He’d lost contact with the military.

  It was odd, he was practically homeless, he didn’t return to his father’s home, it was an odd place for a Vampire, truly he had nothing, he was led outside the facility, and they just…walked away…

  The other vampires, Saiyah, Anna, Juno the others would be prepped without him, he assumed. he had seen them heading back in the direction of the facility they’d initially prepared from…but they didn’t look his way… Didn’t meet with him…

  He had been called back that year prior, meeting with Magellan and Krul giving them the briefing in front of Delara but released out into the wild, he was simply allowed to walk out. And he did…

  this was abandonment. He knew it…. For his failures.

  Grief following this abandonment caused Aleph to wander for some time a week emptily, he was left to his own devices…. He had nothing to do with anyone or anything…...

  Thinking deeply, in silence, he eventually made his way into the vast openness of the city, stalking through.

  ---[…]---

  By then he was Unarmored having ditched the broken scraps back at the facility, Stalking through the streets of New Persia in nothing but the form-fitting undersuit. He earned many wary glances, undead and living alike.

  The disdain from the other more common vampires, the fearful wary looks from humans, as he walked past the co-habitat and industrial districts,

  no one spoke to him, he had no comfort of Saiyah, no challenge from Juno, no condemnation from Asaph who had perished, no wise input from Anna..

  Aleph pondered the futility of his existence, but thoughts of his purpose drew him to what made him make such a risky decision to escape that planet rather than focus heavily on assaulting the tower again.

  And thinking of the humans he rescued, he felt need to find them…he already wandered aimlessly enough, he had a destination now….

  He’d forgotten how long he had been aimlessly wandering, to some degree he could deduce where they would’ve been sent by where he hadn’t seen them

  This of course led him to the deep sector where humans lived where no human home bordered the dwelling of a vampire

  but humans lived in a tight knit community, further west of the main city of New Persia.

  Here is where he could see more unusual things, no human going to hammer a nail, run maintenance or the like, but humans wandering out near a curfew hours.

  Although he could still clearly see their habitation complexes, even in an area where they held more autonomy were still as dull as he could remember.

  No amount of freedom granted would make them break the habit of uniformity with their undead rulers, it appeared.

  Their homes were far more ornate albeit they had cloth mats outside their homes, welcome-mats, and windows, which was the oddest thing.

  He had never been to many vampire homes despite who he was due to his upbringing, but he knew vampires often had rudimentary, archaic interiors, akin to an.

  Abandoned castle, hyper-isolation they vetted against windows, some rarely had beds, opting to dully rest in something akin to a literal cushioned coffin for comfort and when entering dormancy.

  You’d think the vampires were kind, with much space and leeway humans were given if an area was dense enough with humans, but they didn’t. they hardly cared enough to enforce it in those sorts of areas, often, Humans would govern each other into the ruling by habit

  He could see that in this area, they stayed out longer, even past curfew, but each street had a stranger artificial light-pole that seemed to dim as time passed,

  indicating when they would adhere to an already in place curfew

  It did peak Aleph’s curiosity, so rather than search for those he saved from Fracturia, he took his time walking through. His eyes peeked into one home, seeing a table being set for dinner.

  He remembered how humans survived, the scarce moments of being outside, being away from duties and tasks assigned in the life of servitude kept them going, walking…

  Many turned to prayer, though only a few went to church and were devoted like those in the place where his human father raised him.

  There were few cars, not many having luxury, but as they passed him, he began to realize the path he was walking was far from the regions that dominated vampires; it was nearing nighttime, and here the lights were on.

  The denser the human populations were, the higher the leeway; some could even stand around during curfew, the sun was setting, even though the world was always in twilight or dim light.

  Now he was noticing many more humans, grey, bluish, tan, purplish apparel, skirts, shirts, and dresses, all sewn locally by themselves for each other…he pondered the lives of these people.

  ‘Why am I walking again? To see if it was worth it…those people I saved…they aren’t registered. I must ensure they’re okay…if not…I don’t know what I’ll do…’

  Aleph did feel his heart flash; he hadn’t felt that way about any torment given to humans, but those people he rescued from Fracturia.

  They had him considering going postal at the thought of them coming to harm, but he kept that hidden.

  But he had to get out of his thoughts, putting one foot in front of the other on the pavement, sensing stares…

  He didn’t struggle to maneuver the stairs. There were many, a man walking out the door of his home, clutched his chest, nearly in a heart attack, as he saw Aleph.

  Maybe if he saw any other Vampire, he would’ve just flinched, but a Shocktrooper stood

  out…. They were very rare, most humans could go years without seeing one, or their entire life, that was clear, Aleph was the only shocktrooper in this region of New Persia.

  Excluding the facility, of course, and that had him earning more and more stares.

  Stares from children kicking a ball and not going to chase it, staring in terror.

  Aleph, turning to those human children, stopped staring at the oddly colored red ball, with odd precision, kicking it up with his foot, and toward the boys.

  It harmlessly hit the boy’s shin…no reaction, just awe–Aleph started to turn to keep walking, but heard one of them strangely exclaim.

  “Thank you, Mister!” The boy’s voice was rattled seeing him…he had to look up even from across the street from more than fifteen feet away–

  Aleph was indeed well over the full 7’8 he grew into his form, having gained extra inches, he looked like a monster, and it wasn’t helping that he was entirely silent, stalking the streets like a prowling hunter.

  He passed by an open school, likely one Saiyah went to, but if he went farther, any others he saw wouldn’t be there, she was in the midst between the habitations of vampires and humans…

  ‘You’d think there would be a fence, but as if waiting for a man to make a mistake, the vampires leave their areas very open…’ Aleph thought...

  He brushed the thoughts off as considerations brought upon by his tainted upbringing, raised by a man rather than an undead…

  But what considerably still haunted him was how they got blood; humans didn’t need to go far to pay tax.

  . A tall, blackened concrete structure was around every five blocks. A location where humans would have blood taken, he never interrogated the methods of how they monitor everyone, but he imagined the place keeps track of DNA, although he never entered one of those places, and he knows no humans who can describe it to him.

  Pipes that dwarfed everyone, including his unnatural form like a monolith, stretched the city, the rumble and slosh of immense blood stretching throughout…–Aleph was disturbed.

  He was confused about how that much blood was held, but the pipes stopped. He rationalized in his walk that it was a short supply pumped where it needed to be…...

  So, he went where the very least he was told they would be…the refugees, there was a quarter of this place he knew, beside the industrial district was a more abandoned location–

  The remains of a defunct ammunition depot,

  It was used as a habitation district for humans unregistered, but even Aleph had to know there were so few of them that he’d only find the people he saved from Fracturia there.

  And he encountered them, he walked the pavement for hours, unnaturally slow, even though he could make the thirty-mile destination far quicker than he should be able to.

  Aleph didn’t rely on the map; he sniffed them out, and their wounds very clearly wouldn’t have been tended to.

  For better or worse, humans were rarely wounded or executed so close to night. There was no cross-contamination of scents.

  Aleph listened to the rumble of this city, it was like a hive, and as it darkened, it was like hearing a cacophony of insects in an airless jar struggle less and less until they died.

  Humans adhering to curfew, but what he saw made it clear they weren’t used to the kind of worlds Aleph lived in, the only world he’d been raised in and knew besides Fracturia.

  He saw fire, celebration, an organization, the people were holding prayer like back then…but when he arrived, he slowed his approach, it was as if they sensed up.

  He didn’t get a word in edgewise before he was crowded, the life in their eyes scrambled his mind, had him realizing he was sitting down by the time they offered him boiled water they scavenged…

  ---[…]---

  “Hello again!” The Preacher spoke, and he was surprised to see him; he wasn’t with his daughters; he was alone and wounded from the past still…

  “This is where they sent you all after they took you off the ship?” Aleph interrogated, visibly displeased… The place was indeed rundown, they cleaned up, but there was only so much

  They could do.

  He swallowed a growl and instead just opted to frown

  “Don’t worry. It’s much better conditions than before, we haven’t seen a single rodent, God has blessed, even if you only brought us to more captivity…” The Preacher seemed to joke.

  Aleph grimaced in expression, causing the Preacher to frown–

  Aleph didn’t have the heart to tell him a rodent wouldn’t survive under vampire occupation; it wouldn’t be sneaky enough.

  “I know a place…I’m sure you would all be happier to live in… there are so few of you that–.”

  They both went silent after a while. Aleph remembers all those who died….

  “Don’t be so harsh to yourself, many of your sleep now back on that world... You’ll return, but remember, don’t let vengeance reign in your heart.” The Preacher spoke.

  Aleph shook his head. “I lost someone there…he was like a brother; he hated and well…tolerated me to some degree. But at least I thought of him as a brother.” Aleph gave a nod.

  “I wasn’t raised by vampires, but the bar’s so low for vampires well–.”

  Aleph shrugged his shoulders again, sighing briefly

  “He may as well by those low standards you mean? He showed what could be mistaken for brotherly love?” The Preacher questioned...

  Aleph paused but then quickly nodded, “Yeah…”

  “I miss him…I can only hope he isn’t suffering…his soul is safe.” Aleph is somber, remembering Asaph, his teeth grinding, he’s still in that moment watching his flesh melt away inside that armor…that prison. that cage…

  The Preacher spoke, “Your friend is asleep, with his body, which is the soul one in the same.”

  That breaks Aleph from the harrowing moment, and he turns confused by the Preacher.

  This only prompts the Preacher to speak more

  The Preacher stated, “The soul dies, the breath, the spirit of God returns, and with that death the soul sleeps until the Almighty returns...”

  Aleph seemed shaken by such a thing…but strangely he felt at peace…he failed Asaph…but…he didn’t fear Asaph was suffering, or a ghost, he considered it.

  Asaph was sleeping until the return of this God these people worshipped…maybe that was a good thing…for such a death... but then what did that make him?

  What did that make all Vampires? Aleph pondered on it…

  The preacher seemed to see Aleph struggling internally and quickly whipped another question to drag him from the dark recesses of his mind.

  The preacher gave a tentative nod. “I understand…So your father was normal?”

  “Normal?” Aleph scoffed, meaning he was a vampire…. –..”

  The preacher shook his head. “You share ancestry, both of our greatest of grandfathers are Noah and before that Adam, and the mother of our eldest fathers, Eve.” The Preacher spoke.

  An air of matter of fact...

  Aleph only somberly nodded.

  “So, you’re not returning?”

  “I’ve been displaced, thrown out….my failure lingers…I thought I regretted saving all of you, but…now…...–.” Aleph pauses overthinking what could’ve been done differently.

  The preacher lets him think for a long while.

  “I would’ve failed even if I hadn’t risked all their lives getting you out…so I only fractionally regret it,” Aleph admits,

  “But by God, you made it out, though you should never swear by anything using his name, you got us out…we would’ve died if it weren’t for you.”

  “Stay with us here, you lived, and scarcely some of your friends…Is that not evidence God has a path for you?”

  Aleph shrugged “I know a bit about your God you worship, I was there when you taught these people…..Being alive isn’t evidence he loves you, and neither is dying, that he hates you.”

  The preacher smiled at that “You’re absolutely right but it’s written, a man is appointed to die once. And it is also written that the living has hope...”

  Aleph shook his head..”Huh…” Aleph raised an eyebrow as if catching on to something,

  Something that felt real had him looking at his hands…. Like they were filled with blood

  “So, is there is a purpose for everything with this God, huh? Even me?”

  The preacher slowly nodded….” You should remain here with us…... To have a walk with God…”

  Aleph looked directly into the preachers' eyes.” Whatever purpose this God has with me, I doubt it’s for me to walk with him, but more so to utilize me.” Aleph seemed to ponder, “I saved you, his sheep…But he let me live even after that..”

  “Don’t ever hope to understand the mind of the God who made man from dirt.” He was chastised, his expression souring.

  Aleph nodded “I won't, but if I have any walk with this God, it’s firstly going to be doing more of what I did on Fracturia…”

  This both had them go silent, and neither spoke for a long while, just sharing a look toward each other.

  “There’s more of you there, isn’t there…” He questioned.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The preacher didn’t deny and slowly nodded.

  Aleph spoke, “I’m unsure if I can go back, but if it lines up, I”ll go back…and save them…”

  The Preacher shrugs and shakes his head…” So, what will you do now? If you aren’t heading back?”

  Aleph just bluntly said, “Well unless God shows a use for this accursed undead being I am...

  Aleph looked up; his eyes glazed for only a moment.

  ” Probably take my life– at least that’s what I would want to do, but it’s an irony to claim I have one to end, isn’t it?” Aleph smiled darkly at the Preacher

  The Preacher spoke, “Do you breathe?”

  Aleph looked aside. “You know I don’t need to…”

  “But you still do, by God’s mercy, you have the breath of life, you survived that battle as I spoke before…”

  “I shouldn’t have…I should’ve died there, there would’ve been no shame in–.”

  “No warrior escapes by his great strength…” The Preacher cut him off sharply, said….

  “Your nature is evil, you drink blood, but you figured a way to bypass a need for blood, you seem to have a sadness….of your human and vampiric nature…but they are one in the same.”

  The preacher finished, and for many more minutes, Aleph didn’t speak he seemed to be stunned

  The preacher himself looked as if he feared being presumptuous but still spoke so boldly to the tall vampire.

  “I pray God has a better purpose for you, that you may be good and not just have use to be evil for war but….If you go back..–“ The Preacher seemed to just stop speaking…

  But that still– it had Aleph thinking, considering…how far he’d come... his ability…That fire that lit him up to not give up in that final fight wasn’t from himself, he wanted to give up...

  Aleph clenched his fist…. In that moment, he found a solid resolve.

  “Back on that world…those people, they are trying to make gods…. why?”

  The preacher grew tense. “The machines are tainted…. It may not have shown it, but do you know what sort of god they believe mankind to be?”

  Aleph’s head peaked; he knew they worshipped, but even with recollection of more than what he thought he saw in the hivemind, he was unsure.

  The Preacher revealed “The twisted machine believes man to be.”

  “The God of War.”

  -

  […..]

  Aleph spent much time with them, and from then on, he stayed, and with the time there for several months, he didn’t seem to leave…It was lucky he did stay….

  Strangely, a vampire did arrive on the outskirts, before the Preacher or any other could prostrate themselves. Aleph stood tall, at their forefront, his mere appearance making vampires coming by shrink…...

  They looked to be the same as those who had ended his human father...

  In that moment, he finally felt it; the defensiveness of these people led something in him to twist.

  ‘Bastards.’ He recollected…he never felt anything when his human-father died..until now, it dawned on him the evil done, the lack of need and the execution still carried out…...

  He then went out to his old home, it was a mighty long travel as he told them goodbye, but told the preacher in time, if this place became unbearable, to meet him at his old home…

  Aleph had not known that later, Saiyah would leave the base in search of him…abandoning her post…And the near non-existent trail led her to being caught up…by the elder shocktroopers.

  Around this time, they had arrived.

  -

  Aleph was sharply walking, making his way, and in the distance, he showed his home…the plains that dressed his home, the same, and the house well kept.

  But outside of it was standing a figure, he didn’t get to enter…he knew something was up, they wore armor of a shocktrooper, but the configuration was much like Delaras except–…Older…

  They spoke three words.

  “Come With Me.” They were unhelmeted, and their face were those of a man ready to kill someone, hesitant to follow a command. Aleph felt uneasy…but something tugged him to listen.

  Surprisingly, the figure.

  -

  Aleph was led along on the path of his home, beyond the city, all the surrounding districts were a strange, isolated community, and ahead of that a grand wall; he always and they always presumed it a military base, even his father, unwalled, unlike the other city, unwalled.

  This walled city had a massive gate, and it was approached by the shocktrooper, dragging him seemingly to get it to open with a wave to the wall.

  As the gate opened, he saw something vexing…a city not unlike some of the scarce viewings he saw of the dark ages back on earth…unlike the earth cities, but strangely, he saw one thing.

  It was near nighttime; it was dark, yet there were streetlights…lights everywhere, not the scarce ones to avoid humans getting lost every block or so.

  And stranger than that, humans…and tall figures, shocktroopers, walked throughout this city.

  The humans busied themselves with much more luxury, there wasn’t a child getting limited joy before curfew from a rubber red ball…

  There were children chasing each other in this dead night with toy guns…the humans here had a different schedule, it appeared… This was so far from the

  main city, but only hundreds of miles from where he lived in the plains, in a place that resembled a village of the industrial era with concrete planks and a local generator.

  Though the vampires, most of whom were shocktroopers, but some of the other castes walked through, the shocktroopers towered overall.

  There were humans here, they didn’t seem to move with purpose to a curfew, they lingered…they waited…

  ‘There are humans here!? But they look…happy? No, that wasn’t it, the bar for the quality of living for humans in the parts of New Persia he knew about was so low, their looks of indifference were like joy.’ Aleph collected in his head.

  He lived this close all his life to all the Shocktroopers? Is this where Saiyah and Asaph lived? It confused him…what did they view humans as any other vampire did? –

  ‘They never did…they viewed them as to be drained of blood…yet all 144,000 were receptive to accepting those humans…... that would’ve been impossible if I was leading vis-stasi…’ Aleph realized.

  The moment he was given by this shocktrooper to gawk at the city ended, he was shoved forward.

  Aleph questioned the shocktrooper moving him along, “What is this place? Humans can just…this is like my home, a little bit from here where you picked me up in…the..dry..plains.”

  The shocktrooper answered, “Is that what that place I ambushed you is? Your home? You are the one who lived among humans. Saiyah and her parents weren’t kidding.”

  “Saiyah!?” Aleph questioned, but the other shocktrooper shoved him along.

  “That place is a small village exclusive to mostly humans, which is why it is exempt from policies. I guess they taught you nothing?” That Vampire spoke, and Aleph nodded.

  “I guess that’s why you were all sent on some military operation, that’s why I’ve brought you.” As he walked Aleph along, hands at his sides.

  Aleph was looking at this city, and he measured that the primary city he lived in on New Persia, this place had to be two times big, so much life….and Aleph noted the lack of blood banks, but blood still flowed, strange pipes went around buildings.

  His eyes stretched left to the oddest thing

  a Café….

  Aleph nodded. “A café?”

  “A cafe?” Yes, that’s what that odd human invention is. The figure escorting him spoke, Aleph looking at the figures inside as he walked.

  He saw the most horrific things, humans smiling unrestrained in their own free time outside of their homes, not as if such a thing was banned.

  But humans were hardly ever ecstatic when outside the faux safety of their habitations as far as he knew, save for his father and those of the village he was raised in…

  Aleph moved through this city, but he kept note, the Shocktroopers and vampires didn’t regard the humans; this wasn’t some sort of equal Utopia, they seemed to simply see the humans less like cattle, more like servants.

  Aleph found his eyes on humans working in the city, maintaining it, and he kept an eye on the distribution, drawing two and two together rapidly.

  That other vampire was good at guessing, it seemed, almost reading Aleph’s mind. “The humans maintain infrastructure, as you should’ve been taught from a young age the Empire doesn’t support our caste neither are they friendly to it.” The Shocktrooper spoke, and Aleph raised an eyebrow, wondering why Vampire Logisticians wouldn’t be helping.

  He learned soon enough….

  -

  Aleph was now facing multiple individuals inside the sterile, cold steel room, interrogating him. He was brought to a large place; it was like a conference room, a central steel table center, but it was more of an office.

  He noted the robust utilitarian style of the city, the actual presence of color like night and day, were all shocktroopers like this? They seemed so…human?

  But that didn’t matter, he answered questions.

  He quickly learned many things…Delara was far more important than he imagined,

  Her presence in the training facility and reluctance to have him apart from it wasn’t just protective, she was committing injustice.

  Aleph explained…and seemed to discover many things, the hierarchy of the Shocktroopers.

  -

  --[…]—

  Aleph had time to ponder…

  Their lack of ammunition wasn’t an accident; they had no official commendation from the Shocktroopers. These were separate entities; they were a part of the Empire…but Delara was important.

  The slaughtering of her generation was orchestrated by the Empire, long ago, for a crime of the generation that interrogated him.

  Delara had a sister who had since rejected the Empire, yet she and that generation still worked under it.

  There was a war, a conflict on what to do with humans not inducted into the empire, the Shocktroopers nearly broke the Empire, Aleph learned the Empire is across Triangulum, and yet a mere single generation of shocktroopers almost capitulated it…

  But that only clarified that Aleph and all the shocktroopers he was sent to were sent without consideration of the shocktroopers who should be overseeing them.

  ––[…]––

  New Persia Magellans' second nest 3051AD

  Saiyah was perched on the ceiling, fully hidden, and she saw Delara and a representative of this generation of shocktroopers on New Persia here.

  A woman named Atossa seemed to meet with Magellan and Krul, looking at a screen. “You brought me here to speak of Fracturia, and now? – “Like sands of the sea, she drags and swipes holographic fragments on the display table.

  Quickly, it revealed an attack on the planet of Cyrus, not far from New Persia, the capital of which has perched this enclave here, is under attack…I can spare nothing to you, to help you retake this Fracturia…”

  “It doesn’t matter, everyone stationed on your father’s world there already has the experimental SET I’ve prepped for this generation of shocktroopers here when they returned…if they had not died.”

  And Saiyah listened in.

  Atossa looked at Delara.

  “Your older sister is involved in strenuous combat also, the war only intensifies, this attack on Cyrus, though, is clear, they were aiming for New Persia.”

  “Likely a retaliatory strike for the assault sent to Fracturia…even with so many sacrifices, we inflicted more damage than overall was actually lost…I lost a few cousins there but…” Atossa was helmetless, black hair long down her back, but she wore her armor much like Delara.

  Atossa’s armor was strange, not old like Delara’s; it was much like what they wore on Fracturia, but refined, like there was more maneuverability…and it was called SET?

  Saiyah listened more.

  “I’ll be taking every shocktrooper stationed here, striking at Cyrus, luring them into thinking they hit the target world.”

  “The reinforcements of more than half a million-veteran ace shocktroopers from their nest on New Persia are more than enough to convince the machine for a dozen or so years.” Krul states

  Magellan impressed at Krul’s robotic assessment, seems to smile but nod, “Only a few years, though.” She adds in what is going to end up accurate assessment

  Krul looked to Magellan, “Whilst they attack them, their forces in these sectors are diverted, that gives me time to prepare. With the vallschrimjagers, we can try on Fracturia?”

  “With what fleet?”

  Saiyah heard them discuss much more…

  The war against the Mechra spanned all the Triangulum galaxy, and they were storming in. Magellan gave a horrid projection of how the machines were at this point and stage in the invasion of the galaxy, likely prepping multiple projects like Fracturia on worlds they had been victorious on.

  But none of them appear to have any alien artifacts that Vito spoke of can bring it as close as Fracturia sounded to this ritual event.

  Magellan projected by this point in time each individual vampire needed to up their ratio of peer-to-peer kills on the machines.

  Saiyah continued to listen further…shaken by this...

  __[…]___

  Aleph wasn’t in a prison cell, but he may as well have been in one, though no relief came safe for the realization he gained the vampiric perception of time.

  Having been alive so long and having faced death days in this room were like seconds.

  Until four appeared.

  “I see you’ve met most of our parents, friends…even after you’ve gotten their children killed…they should’ve killed you.” Juno waltzed in brazenly saying….

  The room Aleph was kept in was a meeting room…

  “I heard through eavesdropping you told them what those machines are attempting…an ascension? I guess that explained all the cultish thing…too bad you were too much of a–!”

  “Aleph.” Saiyah croaked weakly,

  Juno bit her tongue, commencing the rolling of her eyes,

  Saiyah was at the doorway and walked in further, a sharp inhale as she had monopoly of Aleph... Outside of his interrogations.

  “Saiyah…” he was fully seeing her again this time, but it was a shame he hadn’t spoken to her much at all since they returned, if at all...

  But was surprised to feel something strange, she seemed to awkwardly race over and wrap arms around him... He failed to register it as a hug for a moment.

  “We were facing odds that would’ve destroyed anyone…. I fought them first-hand; they had weapons made to kill us, and we were caught out in the open.” Saiyah defended

  Juno retorting, “And he drugs us to an open field.”

  “I was not incapable of hearing even in the state I was in,” Saiyah spoke fiercely, raising a finger, but Aleph raised his hand, stopping them both.

  “I failed you, and now we have too few to work with…We have to go back…the machines…But I have things to do here?” Aleph spoke.

  “We were doomed from the start.” Anna started walking in.

  “Jealousy is unbecoming, Juno. The reality is Aleph got us out, the entire planet came on us, if we had fought in the city, we wouldn’t have escaped, we were lucky only that sector of the continent was facing us,” Anna spoke matter-of-factly…

  Her arms crossed in strange, odd fatigue

  Juno rolled her eyes at them…

  “So, what seventy out of one-hundred-forty-four thousand…too many of us died…” Juno spoke almost somberly now…

  “It doesn’t change that too many of us died…and so what if they achieve this? The war will go on as it always has, as our fathers and older siblings fought in it.

  Aleph shook his head. “My ability allows me to read the minds of machines, they’re attempting to initiate a localized genesis event, based on the proposal of the creation of the universe by man.”

  “So?” Saiyah asked, confused. “I thought you said they wanted some sort of übermensch, some old dark-age term?” She clarified her question.

  Aleph shook his head. “This Genesis event is a big bang, at best, it could probably wipe out much of this galaxy if I’m dramatic…”

  Juno’s head rose. “And how the hell would you know that?”

  Aleph raised an eyebrow. “The energy they’re planning to release, and it is connected to that ship above the planet, Vito told those higher in command about it.” He shook his head.

  “Then what’s the worst?” Juno asked skeptically.

  Aleph spoke simply, “It’ll work…not in the way the humans want it…but in the way the machines want. A ‘god’ of war in the image of a machine. Worst case, they create something unstoppable, and the war continues, and we are wiped out eventually...” Aleph stated simply

  They went silent

  “I already told the elders of this little shocktrooper ‘enclave’…but none of them are going to be able to deploy, the Mechra appear to be arriving elsewhere…”

  Juno's eyes went wide. “What? They never said they were deploying.

  Anna nodded. “The fleet that picked us up, the shocktroopers told me.”

  “It was all that was left in this sector alone, the war is only getting worse…too many machines, not enough vampires.”

  “It seems they’ll be going around Fracturia without us… as well.”

  Juno and Anna spoke, but Aleph was confused.

  “I thought I was replaced.”

  “A world nearby was attacked… All the elders have gone there, striking them, to buy us time….but for nothing likely...” Anna informed.

  “That was all the chatter I could break into,” Anna admitted.

  Saiyah shrugging

  “How the hell did you manage that?” Juno and Aleph questioned in Unison toward Anna

  Saiyah seemed to innocently shrug despite not being the one questioned.

  “Things must be doomed then…...” Aleph clenched his fist.

  He was for a moment feeling determination rise but deflated…. Asaph, all those shocktroopers that died rallying behind him.

  Saiyah looked toward Aleph and clenched her fists…. “Asaph would’ve had the resolve to go back if you had died.” She spoke nothing in Aleph.

  And he flinched at that… “What? For what? Asaph wouldn’t have lost, he wouldn’t have gotten so many of us killed like–“

  Saiyah cut him off. “Asaph would’ve gone back and torn through entire formations…Even if you are some sort of failure.” Saiyah seemed to change tune, and Anna and Juno seemed surprised.

  Saiyah had a tone she had with him back in training, of cold harshness… “It can be rectified through vengeance…”

  Aleph pondered., but there was a time for everything…A time to kill….Aleph felt a consideration in this moment, that hopefully it was that time.

  He clenched his fist..Vengeance…. This was something strong within him, this grief over the losses, had him forgetting the enemy… ...Dismissing them…

  Aleph clenched his fist. “God willing, if you can make it back and live, their deaths won’t be in vain.” Saiyah didn’t smile; she just stared, and the room was silent between the four.

  “Then let’s grab the others…” Anna answered, “I think vengeance is what Asaph and I had in common...” She laughed out somberly.

  __[…]___

  Aleph took five swift breaths.

  ‘Asaph could’ve done this’ were forefront thoughts…

  , or likely that if he never died it would be easier to get this done…but he had to try, the movements in this shocktrooper enclave city on New Persia, led those far older to abandon it, the streets were empty, but most of the seventy who remained, save for Juno, Saiyah and Anna who were behind him were in a square.

  They seemed to be grieving in their own way, the square seemed clear of humans, as if there was a silent acknowledgement from them, Aleph was uneased as he led the three with him there….

  “This isn’t going to work.” Aleph rationalized as he stepped up and made the approach, and there he saw them, their eyes turned to him, disdain, hate, they wore the undersuits to their armor and clothes over it…as if they would be uncomfortable without it…

  “We have to go back to Fracturia.” He spoke simply, and they all seemed to ignore him,

  Saiyah came up beside him, balled her fists, and went to speak, but Juno placed a hand on her shoulder.

  Aleph looked to them, and it was killing his resolve; he was seeing their deaths, the deaths of the others, the pure raw pain that rolled over, how many he’d lost….

  ‘We have an objective…we know what we are there for…I know what I have to do, I won't lose anyone this time.’ A strange resolve not of his own came to his mind as he clenched his fist.

  It was dusk and the lamp-posts in the square flickered…

  Aleph speaking out, “We are heading back to Fracturia! Rally up! Grab your things!” He declared strongly with a clenched fist raised level with his chest

  Aleph couldn’t figure out if it was him having more gusto or resolve, but they seemed to enter some sort of attention…..

  “Our objective?” One of them spoke, but it was clear this was loud enough for most others to hear, and they all paid close attention.

  Aleph spoke “Vengeance.”

  Aleph realized he couldn’t convince the Shocktroopers, but what was sung in their hearts at that singular word could, because it was driving him too.

  They stood up after that.

  […….]

  And so they marched out of the city, and back to where they’d all been changed, that facility to train, but at the entrance, they didn’t meet a closed gate they met an open gate, and what was a small army prepping.

  “Kommandant Krul.” Aleph was the lead of all, and he felt his heart faintly beat once again, resounding resolve, “We are returning to Fracturia, we’ll be commandeering the armory.” Aleph spoke matter-of-factly

  “There’s only seventy of you left, barely anyone, it’d be suicide.”

  “I never said what it was for.” Aleph cut in…

  Aleph looked them over, seeing the battle-torn figures that had been with them on the day of extraction…”If there were even just one of us, our odds would be better.” Aleph sighted.

  Aleph could see they were clearly doing the same thing, because even those vampires behind Krul, who were quite tall, nearing the height of shocktroopers behind Krul, had an awkward glare.

  “You are taking them with you to Fracturia…”

  One of the tall figures, the vallschrim, walked up beside Krul…” They could come with us…”

  Aleph shook his head. “If you’re going there, we are coming with you.”

  Krul spoke, “You had immense advantage, and greater numbers, and couldn’t do it.” Krul spoke.

  The shocktroopers behind Aleph shot glares, bared teeth, but Aleph responded simply with a blank expression.

  “We had no objective, little supply, we had nothing but our hands and carved through what may have been an innumerable number of machines.”

  Aleph smirked, remembering the sly expression Asaph would give Krul, this had Krul’s face upturning with a look of disdain, but…a hint of…respect?

  “There were ruins on that world of the countless vampires defending, who had full intel, and planetwide numbers, logistics, and supply, an entire fleet. What was their excuse compared to our greater success? Who found the key point to strike?”

  Krul grimaced.

  “You’re willful like the older shocktrooper castes,” Krul stared blankly.

  Aleph raised a brow.

  “Those who keep this Empire hold back this empire from sliding into the brink of annihilation,” Krul spoke, only reminded of Delara and figures like Yervandal, a good sign.

  “We’ll only have one ship…we’ll be utilizing what I predict to be an eventual naval attack on that planet in several years,” Krul spoke.

  Aleph gave a nod. “Plenty of time to train your escort.” Aleph nodded to those behind Krul, and the lead Vallschrim, John, tilted his head downwards, glaring at Aleph.

  Krul laughed, “If you can train that ability to get us on the surface without being slagged, consider this a joint operation. Maybe it would’ve been better off letting you all know the autonomy your caste has in the first place.” Krul stuck out his hand

  Aleph shook his “No, because I think you’re training worked best Kommandant.” Aleph shook his hand, and those words caused the strangest thing Krul smiled widely; it was like color came to his face.

  “Really now?” Krul spoke.

  [….]

  Krul, and Aleph utilized the facility, the Empire so busied they were the open gap, and Aleph was quick to realize it Krul and his legion had been left behind too. through time, they heard reports of the mechra making advances all over the Galaxy.

  It was clear to Aleph that the machine hive mind was working fast to put the Vampires on one major galactic defensive. Fracturia was too important, but in the vastness of space, holding the bounds of a planet was next to impossible.

  But drawing away forces wasn’t, there were more Mechra than there were vampires, even with thousands of years to grow in number, and from how Krul had viewed the situation occasionally with Magellan, things only seemed to worsen.

  Aleph knew what he needed to train, some way to strengthen his ability, so he began to practice it more and more, not just on devices, not just the internal systems, but the entire facility itself...

  But he wasn’t foolish enough to think he could whisk away an entire fleet, this was a suicide mission. They were going to assault with Krul’s wild and insane estimation around the same time the Vampires would be making a counterattack...

  They’d swing by in their ship, and hit the surface if they had to, anyone left barreling out...

  They had to do this, to break the ground, to break the tower, to break Fracturia…

  To Attain Vengeance.

  If God allowed it, they needed to simply–

  Win.