Intergalactic conquest with an AI

Rex nodded, meeting her gaze with unwavering sincerity.

"Yes. In his last moments, he asked me to protect you both, to make sure you had a chance to live. And I don't take promises lightly."

He glanced down, his hand resting on the edge of the bed.

"I know you might not understand why things happened the way they did. And I don't expect you to forgive me, not now. Maybe not ever. But I'll be here, as long as you need me."

Lyra reached out hesitantly, her fingers brushing the juice box on the tray. She looked up at Rex, a glimmer of understanding in her tearful eyes.

"Papa... would want us to be strong,"

she whispered, almost as if she were reminding herself as much as her sister.

Nyra's face softened, the anger being remplaced with something closer to exhaustion. She looked away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "

Fine, but that doesn't mean I trust you,"

she mumbled, her voice thick.

Rex smiled faintly, a small warmth breaking through his otherwise stoic demeanor.

"I wouldn't expect you to. Trust takes time. But I'm not going anywhere."

He stayed by their side in silence, letting them slowly nibble at the food, respecting their space while still offering his quiet presence. For now, words weren't necessary. They each had their own grief and their own pain, and they would take their own time to heal.

Once he was sure the girls had eaten every last bite, Rex grabbed the empty tray and started toward the door. Just as he was about to step out of the medical bay, he froze, swearing he'd heard someone say something.

He turned back, scanning their faces, but the girls were happily chatting away, their voices lively now that they had full stomachs for the first time in years.

"Must be losing it,"

Rex muttered, rubbing his temple.

"Great. I'm hearing things now."

He shook his head and left the medical bay, making his way down the sterile hallways toward the hangar. The moment he stepped inside, he spotted a flurry of activity: medics and cargo bots scurried around, tending to the enormously severed head of the zombie boss, its grotesque features somehow even uglier in person.

Rex approached an Aegis sentinel stationed nearby.

"Hey, where's Cleo?"

he asked, eyes scanning the chaos.

The sentinel turned its blank metal face toward him. "[Commander, she is inside the zombie's head.]"

"Inside?"

Rex blinked, then let out a low whistle.

"Of course she is."

He made his way toward the upper part of the zombie's head, right where the brain should be, and what he saw looked straight out of a horror flick banned in half the galaxy. The zombie's brain had been cracked open, leaving a gaping cavity that was oozing and glittering in ways he'd rather not describe.

And right in the middle of this nightmare scene was Cleo, sitting cross-legged as if she were meditating. Several thick cables were snaking around her, pulsing with light, keeping her suspended in the middle of the zombie's brain like some kind of twisted sci-fi goddess.

"So,"

Rex called up to her, smirking,

"found anything about the enemy we're dealing with? And, seriously, how do you put up with that smell?"

Cleo barely glanced his way, one eyebrow quirking. "Oh, you get used to it," she replied, deadpan.

"Besides, it's not like you smell like a field of roses yourself."

Rex snorted, covering his mouth as the rancid stench hit him full force, like a mix of rotten eggs and burnt hair.

"Fair point,"

he muttered, trying to keep his breakfast where it belonged.

"So... have you found anything useful in that oversized brain?"

Rex asked, eyeing the cables that slithered out of the zombie's skull like metallic worms. The sight made his skin crawl.

Cleo nodded, her face lit by the eerie glow from the cables.

"Yes, though it's not everything I hoped for. The brain didn't have enough data on the origin of the virus, 'Zone Zero,' but I did manage to extract intel on the other area bosses."

"There were twenty of them originally. Now, with this one taken out, we've got nineteen left to go."

Rex rubbed his chin, pretending to be deep in thought.

"So you're saying one of these nineteen zombie overlords might know something about where this virus came from?"

"Precisely. Or, at the very least, one of them should have a clue about the location of Zone Zero."

"And why exactly are you so interested in Zone Zero?"

Rex asked, giving Cleo a questioning look as she deactivated her helmet.

Without a word, Cleo summoned a series of floating screens and flicked them toward Rex.

"That's why,"

she said.

Rex squinted at the screens, watching in horror as footage played of a small meteor crashing into a bustling city. From the smoldering impact site, a thick, black ooze emerged, creeping out like it was alive, before slithering into the shadows and vanishing.

The footage was repeated in different settings, each showing the same eerie sequence: the meteor lands, the black sludge seeps out, and then it burrows itself deep into the planet's surface, no matter the terrain, as if it were hunting for something.

"T-this stuff… it's alive?"

Rex stammered, his face twisting with disgust as he watched the ooze disappear into the ground again.

"That,"

Cleo said, her voice steely,

"is the reason my people have a strict policy: once we've extracted all resources from a planet, we glass it from orbit. Our race is immune to the virus, but we still don't know what it truly is. Whatever its purpose, we know it's a threat best left buried."

"Good call,"

Rex muttered, looking back at the footage with a shudder.

"In that case, maybe we should consider the same approach. I'm not about to be the guy who lets an alien goo monster loose in the universe. So, which one of these zombie bosses is next on our list?"

With a flick of her wrist, Cleo summoned a holographic map of the region, zooming in on an area where the massive assembly factory was under construction.

"Right here. The Void Specter,"

she said, tapping the map.

"This one and our dearly departed friend here used to clash all the time over control of this sector."

She zoomed further, highlighting an area near an old train station.

"Hmm,"

Rex murmured, tracing the map with his finger.

"So, if it's been holding ground around the train station, it's probably holed up somewhere in the tunnels below."

"Exactly. I've already sent a squad of twenty Aegis units to scout the subway system,"

Cleo said, pulling up live feeds on several screens. The displays showed the POVs of the Aegis sentinels moving through pitch-black tunnels, their lights cutting through the darkness.

Rex watched as the sentinels crept along the damp, crumbling tracks, the shadows around them shifting and flickering

. "Well, here's hoping they find our friend down there. And if they don't, maybe I'll get lucky and someone else will have to crawl into a zombie brain next time."

Cleo smirked.

"Keep dreaming, Rex. This job isn't for the faint of heart."

Rex gasped, putting on his best offended face

. "Are you calling me a delicate little princess who can't handle a big ol' zombie brain?"

He fluttered his eyelashes in exaggerated disbelief.

Cleo raised an eyebrow, her tone dripping with mock sympathy.

"Well, I didn't want to bruise your ego, but yes, Rex, you are a little princess."

"What!? I am not—"

Rex started to protest, but Cleo cut him off.

"Hold on. Something's happening with the Aegis Sentinels."

She quickly expanded the screens showing the live feeds from the squad moving through the subway tunnels.

The sentinels had shifted into a tight circle formation, their lights sweeping over the shadows. Dark shapes darted around them, creatures with elongated limbs and hollow torsos filled with a sickly, venomous fluid.

These things were smaller and faster than the usual drone zombies, their movements jerky and erratic as they crept along the walls and ceiling, claws scraping against metal.

Rex leaned closer to the screen, his brow furrowing.

"What the hell are those things? They look annoying as hell."

"According to the data I pulled, they're called 'Swarmers', level 2 infecteds that specialize in ambush tactics and are usually only active at night,"

Cleo explained, pulling up a holographic image of one of the creatures. The thing looked like it had crawled straight out of a nightmare, its hollow chest cavity dripping with venom that glowed faintly in the darkness.

"Damn, they're ugly. How'd the twins survive out here with monsters like that roaming around?"

Rex muttered, his face momentarily darkening as he remembered the last, sad smile of the twins' father before he... well, before he met his end.

Cleo noticed the shift in Rex's expression but decided this wasn't the time to bring it up.

Meanwhile, the Aegis Sentinels were struggling. The Swarmers moved too fast, slipping past plasma fire with ease. Every few seconds, one of them would lunge forward, clawing at the sentinels' armor.

Although the venom was useless against the Aegis units, the Swarmers' claws were razor-sharp, capable of slicing through armor once the energy shields depleted under the constant assault.

Cleo frowned, focusing on the screens.

"Rex, these things are faster than the Aegis units can track. If they break through that formation, we're looking at serious losses."

As if on cue, two of the screens flickered and went dark.

"Look here,"

Cleo said, zooming in on the last remaining feed just as it began to glitch. The sentinel's camera shook as the view tilted, then froze, catching a final, chilling image before the signal cut out entirely.

On the screen, for a split second, they glimpsed something looming in the shadows behind the Swarmers. A figure much larger than the others, with rows of serrated teeth that seemed to gleam in the dim light, its eyes glowing a deep, unsettling red. It was as if the darkness itself had come alive, coiling and breathing with silent menace.