Led into the vastly intricate network of hallways, corridors, and rooms within the colossal complex, the Happians lead Vertan and Lym towards a chamber cleared for an interim council to assess the situation at hand. Likewise across the winding complex, so too were the surviving Ulminhans taken into their respective interrogation rooms, their language having been picked up enough on the way for questionings to meaningfully take place.

  The cascade of interconnected buildings soon made Vertan feel dizzy just going through it. He has since completely lost track of his spatial senses, and felt himself to be at the complete mercy of the Happians now that he was in here. Even on the inside, he swore that he could feel the place subtly shift around him, and somehow he knew that even if he were to attempt to come out the way he had gone in, the same route would no longer be there. Multiple times, they would walk upwards vertically and sideways in relation to everyone else, making full use of multi-dimensional space. Even gravity has been bent and manipulated to their wills here.

  Everywhere, soldiers bustled about, carrying out whatever duties are demanded of them at the moment. At least, this was Vertan’s initial assumption; he quickly realized that perhaps everyone in general is a soldier in at least some capacity. No matter what role they fulfilled, they all wore some type of armor, carried with them some type of weapon, and stepped in line, all of the time. Somehow, as quick and casual as they seemed to be about it, the discipline remained impeccable; every single one of their steps were synchronized, and traffic flowed without ever bumping into one another as though all shared collective awareness. Perhaps they did.

  At least from what is visible to him, the Happians never seemed to cease from their functions for the war effort. There seemed to be no spaces in which they could lounge and rest, not even any chairs for them to sit. At least, not here, anyway.

  At last, they arrive before the entrance of the council’s chamber, and they are ushered in through the thick and imposing doors. Awaiting them is a board of numerous high-ranking individuals, all speaking in native Hapyan to each other at great speeds, augmented by means of biomechanical organs.

  The colonel leading the way beckons for them to stand in the center, as he ascends to his post amongst his peers above. The armed soldiers who had been escorting them from behind make their leave, and close the doors behind them.

  “For the purposes of ease of communication,” he begins. “We will speak in the foreigner’s tongue. I trust that given the relayed information available at hand that we should reach a level of fluency deemed substantial enough by now.”

  The chatter of the room had immediately quieted even before the man spoke, so as to allow him to assume his post.

  “We convene under unprecedented circumstances,” he continues. “Senior Sergeant Lym Alzie-Rugen stands before us alive, having returned several years after her court-ordered martyr-mission, one of such peril that her return was never expected. Moreover, she brings additional foreigners, one of which stands with her as an ally and companion. I hereby open the council for any opinions.”

  “Senior Sergeant Rugen has avoided and therefore dishonored the terms of her contract in continuing to live,” one of the senior officers comments, a woman with subtly striped skin. “A new mission must be assigned so that she can rightfully face and endure her intended punishment.”

  “Furthermore,” adds another voice. “She has brought to us numerous foreign actors in an unauthorized manner, carrying with it the risk that our position can be jeopardized and revealed to the enemy. This in itself is enough warrant for discipline.”

  “I strongly disagree,” another senior officer interjects, an older man with emblazoned facial hair. “She has already served her sentence, and as such it is unjust to require her to serve twice the amount or more than she should. It is unreasonable to believe that her survival is a premeditated and intentional action in this circumstance.”

  “Moreover,” adds yet another senior officer. “We should all agree that this case is too circumstantial. I have reason to believe that Rugen has Happia’s best interests in mind, and acted to the best of her abilities. Perhaps there is something invaluable that can be derived from this.”

  The chatter continues further shortly before the colonel raises his hand, and they all immediately stop.

  “We have yet to hear the case for Rugen,” he states, nodding towards her. “If you could, please.”

  “Thank you, Colonel,” Lym replies, bowing in response. Looking over to her, Vertan likewise copies the bow in acknowledgement to the man.

  “Indeed, I did not expect to survive my final mission,” states Lym. “I was transported across time and space to a distant planet. This world is of his, Vertan Zviedal.”

  She nods over to Vertan in acknowledgement of the statement. Vertan nods back in agreement.

  “And of your return?” one of the voices above them asks from a tailed individual.

  “My intention was always to return to Happia,” Lym continued. “The journey was challenging, but I was fortunate enough to have been given aid along the way.”

  “And what of this journey?” they ask again skeptically.

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  “I have come to have seen more than even I can believe,” Lym began. An inhale. “There are countless worlds out there who have no knowledge of this war, yet they unknowingly and unwillingly uphold it by those in power. I have seen their people and societies. I have seen their culture and politics. The enemy is finally something tangible. They are not too unlike us in most ways.”

  This statement takes the entire room aback. What else has she seen? Moreover, the most shocking thing to their prying eyes was that they could all tell she was speaking the genuine truth.

  Lym glances over to Vertan.

  “May the foreigner Vertan Zviedal speak his part?” she asks.

  Another moment of shared chatters before it once more grew quiet. The colonel nodded, and Vertan took a deep inhale of the strange air.

  “Thank you,” he began. “Once again, my name is Vertan Zviedal. I hail from a world called Ulminh. The enemy she speaks of calls themselves the Coalition of Free Stars, or more commonly as simply the Coalition. Once as an aspiring young man, I served in their war effort under the impression that I fought for a great, noble, and prestigious cause, only to find that I had been fighting your people during the entirety of my service. We were all tricked and led into the slaughter.”

  Another moment of debating chatter.

  “How can we verify this story of yours?” the senior officer with the stripes asks, still finding herself hostile towards them.

  “I know one of you all, because I have killed him,” Vertan answers. He gulps. “His name was Aru, younger brother to Lym. I fought him over Gateworld Thoma, the Coalition’s most heavily defended military base. The planet consisted of twelve bases harboring twelve pillars each with sixteen anchors, linking up to their respective twelve gateways in orbit. There were six bases each in the northern and southern hemispheres of the planet. I was there.”

  Yet another shock rushes through the council. This is undeniably true, then. Lym Alzie-Rugen did have a younger brother named Aru Alzie-Rugen, also condemned to the same mission. Moreover, the details were too specific to pass up. The amount of bases, anchors, and gateways, even if different in terminology to them, are exactly as they knew them to be in planning for the operation. The manner in which he described their function and positions was also entirely correct.

  “I sincerely apologize,” Vertan quickly adds, his heart beating. “I didn’t know what I was getting into back then, and I was forced into silence for years after. I could only have the opportunity to speak before you now because of my encounter with Lym.”

  These comments sent ever more thoughts racing through the Happians’ minds. So these two, somehow by sheer coincidence, were present over the same planet on opposite sides, and through an indescribably improbable series of chances, they met once more on the same planet afterwards. This could be dismissed for being so unbelievable altogether, the chances of that happening are slim to none.

  Yet, here these two stood before them, undeniable evidence that no matter how close to zero percent the chance was, the chance was nonetheless above zero. They too knew Vertan was telling the truth, with no reason to fabricate any falsehood. Their senses would have already picked it up had he otherwise lied.

  The information was processed as quickly as Vertan said these words. The colonel nodded to Vertan in acknowledgement.

  “We understand that you are genuine,” he states. “Please continue. What information can you provide us with what you see of the Coalition? This war has been prolonged for so long because of both sides’ continued ability to elude the other in terms of intelligence gathering. Our true location remains obscured to the enemy as we keep them preoccupied on faraway fronts, limiting our abilities to meaningfully spy upon such an overwhelming foe.”

  Vertan and Lym look towards each other for a moment. Lym gives an approving nod, and Vertan nods back in acknowledgement.

  “You may find this hard to believe,” Vertan began. “Your enemy, the Coalition, is on the brink of collapse.”

  This stirred a great commotion of shock, in spite of the Happians’ usual iron discipline.

  The Coalition, on the brink of collapse? This cosmic enemy that they have fought for countless eternities across swathes of space and time? That Coalition? It was nearly unthinkable hearing this from someone who has actually seen it firsthand. The genuine hope of this conflict being put to an end for good, no matter how fleeting, was nearly inconceivable. This began to question even their sense of identity. What would it mean for the Happians to actually finally envision a perceivable future without war? Without suffering? After countless generations knowing nothing but it, would this even be something surmountable?

  “They have been on the decline for a long time,” Vertan continues. “However, with the advent of this conflict for them, this has accelerated their rate of decay. They have devoted all of their resources to remain afloat, so that just maybe, they can crawl out alive out of their prolonged mess. Their citizens suffer as a result. They know they don’t have much time left before either you overwhelm them, or the masses of their own do.”

  “If they know this,” the officer with the emblazoned hair began. “Then we can expect that they will either rush and become desperate, or have planned for it accordingly. Would you agree with this?”

  “In a sense, both,” Vertan answers. “There is a caveat that I intend to inform you all of. They have spent an extraordinary amount of time dedicated to research, replication, and refinement of your biology. Your blood. Your genome. They’ve scraped together whatever scraps they can find across every battlefield for their developments so that they can weaponize your own power against you. It’s what I was tasked with doing during my time serving them.”

  “Once they complete this process, there will be no stopping them,” adds Lym. “Their continued research will likely bring them to become stronger than we can ever be, let alone the fact that there are more of them than there are of us. They will stop at nothing to make sure their power is secured and no competition is left standing in the way.”

  The Happians suddenly felt vindicated, after their instincts had gone unverified for so long. Of course. It made even more sense under this context now that there have been multiple times in fighting the enemy that they sensed their own kind trapped within pieces of their technology, bastardized beyond meaning. So this was true. They are being weaponized and used against themselves.

  The information being gathered from this council continued to be constantly logged and sent its way through the entire system of Happia, as did the rest of the Ulminhans’ numerous and similarly held intelligence interrogations. It wasn’t long before every Happian on the planet or offworld soon began becoming aware of this unprecedented circumstance.

  Both sides have been locked in an existential conflict, and now, they know they’re both running out of time.

  It is now a race to extinguish the other first.