Chapter 9: The Silver Rain Part 1

“The Emphra?” Carlos asked. “No ... no, that can’t be.”

“Yeah, it has to be them,” Zalika replied as she stopped and looked at him. “Only they could do everything that happened just now. It’s the only explanation.”

“It is the Emphra,” Bekra explained with much trepidation. “The Emphra created so much destruction for all the clans that we had to unite to destroy them. It was the only way for us to stop them. The Emphra do not care. They only care for one thing ... to spread itself out and make more. We are nothing but food to it.”

“The Emphra is a silicon-based life form,” Kole explained. “I remember hearing some of the reports. Unlike the times we always called the Itreans aliens, the fact is that the Itreans originated from Earth long ago. The Emphra are a true alien life form.”

“Yes,” Bekra continued. “The Emphra came from a world over 10,000 light-years away. I just remember what my grandmother and our history had told us about them. At first, our clan thought it was some weapon unleashed from one of the clans. It wanted to spread. We realized, to our horror, that it was using our own buildings as warships. They would take the largest constructed objects and start putting weapons and engines on them. The Emphra would possess our people and start using them against us. Entire worlds would be lost as they would go from planet to planet. We would throw our fleets at them, but they just kept coming. We would lose a fleet just to learn that they had taken and consumed the crews only to turn them back at us.”

“My god...” Karine replied with a small amount of static. “And you think that is what we’re fighting now?”

“Yes. The Emphra don’t think like we do. They are alive, but their ‘consciousness,’ if that is what you would call it, isn’t like us. They know that they are alive, but at the same time, they don’t think in the same ideas. On their planet, they were the best predator...”

“Thee apex predator,” Zalika added.

Bekra did a short nod. “On their planet, the Emphra had to adapt to survive. It was capable of taking over other life forms, use their bodies to control and devour, and then make more of themselves.”

“Take over bodies...” Cruz replied with frustration. “They fucking took over the team and started using them to cut down our own!”

“That was the idea,” Kole said. “The Emphra adapt. That’s what they do. Much like us, we adapted to survive on our planet. Intelligence is what helped us. We became aware of our surroundings and adapted it to our needs. That’s why we have spaceships and go to other worlds.”

“They kept saying ‘food,’ though,” Karine commented. “Their vocabulary was very simple.”

“Have you ever heard of the Fermi Paradox?” Kole asked.

“No.”

“The idea is that it’s tough for us to find life out there,” Kole explained. “The statistics are there. There should be other forms of intelligent alien life out there, but there’s little out there to find. The galaxy is a very barren place. The catch is that the paradox is seemingly complex. What if there were other intelligent life forms out there? Would they even be like us? Us and the Itreans may be a very distinct type of life form out in space. Our own definitions of life may have to expand outward even to understand what life is to begin with. The Emphra are just an example of this. An entire race that only thinks about spreading itself.”

“The Emphra are a disease upon the galaxy,” Bekra said with a couple of clicks in her voice. “They wiped out 20% of all Itreans. Trillions of lives were lost as they used our own resources against us. We weren’t just fighting them but our own people. Friends, family, enemies, and allies ... the Emphra took you and made you theirs.”

“What about the ... the ... what we saw at the centripetal ring?” Carlos asked.

“I think it was making a nest. The Emphra have taken the ship and have devoured the crew. Depending on certain conditions and environments, the Emphra will stop and create a nest. It begins to break down the ... people and make what it wants. Wei and the team went right into it without even knowing it.”

“Excuse me,” Cruz got angry. “Wouldn’t it have been helpful to have told us sooner? Six people are now dead because you didn’t tell us about it,”

“Hey!” Zalika jumped in. “There was no way of knowing it was going to be them, you idiot. How was she supposed to know it was the Emphra?”

“I ... I have never seen them before in my entire life!” Bekra defended herself. “I only heard stories and know from my history. Most of the people that fought them are long dead, older veterans, killed off by Zilik’s disease ... to us, it is the past. Even the way that they operate is ... I never seen it like this.”

“I might be able to help on this,” Zalika explained. “According to what you told me about them, the Itreans have a long history of experience in fighting them. The Itreans combated the Emphra for twenty years. When the Emphra tries to spread to another Itrean vessel, the Itreans ships and crew will destroy their own equipment and vent some high-intensity plasma through their hulls to incinerate their own crew rather than be ... taken over by the Emphra. Ever wondered why we never met the Itreans face to face until they wanted to? Every time we tried to capture one of the Itrean warships, the Itreans, and their past experiences with the Emphra made sure that we never did.”

“Yes,” Bekra continued. “The War with the Emphra required all the clans to work together or become the Emphra. It took time, but we began to wipe out fleet after fleet. We learned and adapted to fighting them. Our bodies are more immune to resisting them, and our ships are adapted to withstanding them.

“The problem with us is that we have nothing to fight them,” Kole commented. “You guys have years of experience and all the methods to resist their spreading.”

“I remember now,” Carlos added. “I remember my wife mentioning about them once. I didn’t even think about the idea that it was Emphra that might be on this ship.”

“I don’t think anyone could have expected it to be them,” Kole concluded. “Bekra, this is not your fault. If anything, it’s the leaders, including even myself, to take the blame for not realizing it was them.”

“It is still my fault,” Bekra said. “I didn’t know it was them until I saw the ... body parts and the nest. Near the end of the war, we traveled through the galaxy, trying to get rid of them. Finally, we launched a massive attack on the world of their birth. The story was that another alien race settled on the world. We sometimes called them the ‘Frem’kar’ or the ‘Ka.’ They were nomadic. They would go from planet to planet, using up all the resources before moving to the next. They found a world ... within a month, the Emphra came out of the ground and took them for their own. They consumed them and their ships. The Emphra had the means to spread, and that was what they did. When we found the Emphra homeworld, we dropped so many weapons onto the surface that it was a wasteland. The bombardment lasted for months.”

“Shit,” Carlos exclaimed.

“We had to kill them all,” she said as she tapped a button on her projection screen. Accessing her own computer database, a series of images began to pop up. All the photos showed the grizzly horrors of the Emphra. One picture depicted pictures of a Yutilian that was possessed by the Emphra on some distant world. The same silver-like eyes could be seen from the male’s face. The shorter stature of the Yutilian combined with the freakish nature of the Emphra was appalling. The picture was little more than an anthro velociraptor with mercury pouring out of his eyes and fingertips. It was pointing a gun at wherever it was aiming at.

Another picture showed a large skyscraper building flying through space. Numerous railgun batteries, missile launchers, and other weapons perforated its frame. Engine thrusters were mounted everywhere as there was a sign of the silver substance all along the sides. Body parts, bones, and limbs lined the silver material.

“Holy fuck...” Karine replied. “It’s just like what Wei and the team saw ... what we all saw.”

A graphic picture was displayed that showed a nest or hub of the Emphra in some other world. Much like what they had been seen before, the Emphra had melted and mended the Itreans’ bodies into the room’s structure. Small tentacle-like limbs could be seen, much like the centripetal ring of the Columbus. Organs, guts, and bones protruded from the red and silver substance. One portion had a pair of eyes jostled and mixed together. It was integrated into the panel and circuitry of whatever the room was supposed to be.

“The Emphra converts biomatter into the circuitry,” Kole commented as he looked at the pictures. “It has some sort of acidic nature to it. It can possess and melt the bodies when it chooses. It can’t control the ships but has to find other ways to do it. It can use the hosts that it possesses to gain knowledge so it can find more ways to spread around...”

Another picture that Bekra flipped through showed the Emphra. What the marines were looking at was a recording of the puddle of the silver mercury-like material. Much like they had seen in the fight, it almost looked like pure mercury. The only slight difference was that the mercury seemed to have more shape and movement. The liquid was alive and moving like it knew where it was going.

“This is the Emphra without a host,” Bekra explained. “It is liquid in nature until it finds a host. Then it enters the body, and you become it.”

“Do ... do the people?” Ruby asked on the comms. “Can they fight back when the Emphra takes over?”

“No. It depends if it wants you to be alive and aware. It might melt portions of the brain, or it might keep you alive and aware when it forces you to kill others. My grandmother ... was a survivor of a possession. When she was much younger, she watched as...,” she paused as she almost didn’t want to explain it. “The Emphra rained in. She fought back, but it possessed her. It forced her to watch as her newborn ... It melted the baby in front of her eyes.”

“Oh, man...” Chuang replied.

“You can survive possession?” Kole asked.

“It is rare and under certain circumstances,” Bekra continued. “We learned that the Emphra are vulnerable to certain weapons. Nuclear explosions will kill them, and we did that in the beginning, but we learned that certain radiation would harm them. They can’t be killed with bullets from our rifles.”

“What about grenades?” Karine asked.

“It would only slow it down. The Emphra can survive in space unless it is subjected to heavy radiation in the process. It can live in almost any environment, handle the worst pressures, it was almost unstoppable.”

The picture showed numerous warships painted in red, purple, and green, depicting the clans’ colors. The united clan fleets were all firing at a single planet. It was the largest gathering of warships that could be ever seen. The world was little more than a piece of rock with craters. Nuclear explosions dotted the surface, producing dazzling colors of blue and orange. The distant sun of the planet could be seen. The world was little more than a pincushion and cinder as every munition was being delivered to it. So many explosions dotted the surface that the atmosphere was burned away.

Bekra seemed to quiet down as she flipped the last set of images. Each of the photos showed the aftermath of the bombing. Whatever was alive on the planet was long gone. Rock and debris were everywhere. There were no clouds and only the light from the sun to illuminate the surface. Itrean soldiers of all clans were dressed in armored suits before they systematically scoured the surface. However, one picture seemed to grab Zalika’s attention, and it drew her focus almost as if it was a magnet.

What might have been considered trivial by many was one that Zalika could not ignore. Depicted in the random assortment of images was that of a cave wall like drawing or etching. The walls were cracked under the heavy bombardment. Perhaps it was the only thing left standing after such a devastating assault. The etching on the wall was that of a vortex. It was simple yet elegant in design. Three eyes dotted the top center of the vortex-like picture. The eyes alone seemed eerie and daunting the longer she looked at it. It reminded her of something...

“What is that?” Zalika asked.

“What is what?” Bekra replied.

“That ... picture. The one that looks like a ... black hole or swirling thing on a wall?”

“This...” Bekra paused as she looked at it. “I don’t really ... wait. I think I remember them saying something once about a creature. There was some belief that the Emphra believed in a ... god. It was found etched on their warships sometimes. It was found again on their planet. We called it the...”

“The Devourer...” Kole interrupted. It caused Bekra to look at him with some wonder. How he knew it confounded her as the conversations of the marines drew her away from it.

“You are telling me that these things ... that they have a religion?” Carlos asked.

“Again, I don’t think it is,” Bekra tried to explain. “The Emphra are aware of their surroundings. To them, they see things differently than we do. If they see something that can make more of themselves, then they will do it. They see us, they want us, but the empathy is not there. To them, it is more of a symbol of what they want to be rather than worship.”

“A black hole...” Kole continued. “It would be the perfect symbology for a race that wants to consume.”

“We know so little about it. I don’t think they view it as a god as more of ... I don’t know.”

“It’s alright. You’re trying to explain something that even your people know so little as it is.”

“How do you know about the Devourer?” she asked him.

“Let’s just say that theology is a hobby of mine.”

“I don’t know,” Cruz reacted in a frustrated manner. “In the end, I think this is just utter bullshit.”

“What do you mean?” Bekra reacted.

“Emphra? Seriously, you think I’m going to buy into all this crap?”

“I ... don’t know. It is the only best answer I can give you.”

“Bullshit. Six people are dead now because of this thing. This thing or creature has taken over the crew. You come in and start preaching about some alien creature that has come from the dead ... that’s been wiped out, and yet here we are fighting it.”

“The galaxy is enormous, Cruz,” Kole countered. “How do you expect an entire race of beings to be completely annihilated when you have plenty of places to go or hide?”

“That isn’t what I mean, Staff Sergeant. I mean, all of this story could be a fabrication. Photos can be faked, stories could be written, and all of them can be lies. How do we know that this isn’t some weapon that the other clans unleashed on us?”

“This isn’t a weapon!” Zalika argued. “You can’t control it. Where it goes, it will eat.”

“I don’t think so. How do we know that Bekra or the T’rintar clan are not running some experiment? The scout ship was here before us and has been monitoring us from the very start. Bekra is an Aksren herself ... among a race that wants us dead or out of the way.”

“Cruz...” Adrian tried to quiet him down.

“No! I’m done with this crap. I’m trapped here behind closed doors with an enemy hell-bent on taking me down. You know what? I’m going to tell you what I think of you and your people.”

“Cruz!” Kole tried to interrupt him, but the man finally just cut loose on the comms. His voice expressed pure anger.

“You come in and take a colony from us and expect us to be alright? We give Earth to you and expect us to be happy with it? For what? Fucking protection! The only reason why we’re in this shit right now is that our military can’t do more than it is. Now you expect our people to do what? Go and start...”

“That’s enough!” Kole boomed his voice at him.

“I can trust Bekra with my life,” Zalika said. “I know her. She’s been loyal and honest ever since she served with us. She has a service record of honor and distinction among the T’rintar clan. The Aksren of the T’rintar clan will fight against the Aksren clan to the end of days if need be. She wouldn’t hesitate to give her life for me, for you, or anybody in this situation. Dammit, Cruz!”

“Psh...” Cruz reacted. “That why you’re banging her?”

“Cruz, I said that’s enough!” Kole exclaimed again.

“Or what, Staff Sergeant? Adrian and I are as good as dead because some supposed entity has returned. If I’m going to die, then I can tell you what I think. I’ve said it, so fuck you!”

“The drill sergeants would have had your ass out to dry for the insubordination,” Chuang jumped in. “You call yourself a marine?”

“Dah ... Fucking rookie.”

The words seemed to make a mark on Cruz. After the final spat, he actually quieted down after that. Bekra almost had a tear run down her face as if somebody had slapped her. Kole knew that even with Cruz’s insubordination, there wasn’t much that he could do in his situation. The goal was to try to get everyone out. The fact remained that everyone was behind closed doors and bulkheads with a horrifying entity that was unleashed. Sooner or later, the Emphra were bearing down.

“Zalika, any luck with the repairs?” Kole asked, trying to regain control of the conversation.

“It’s done,” Zalika replied with a sigh. “I did as much as I could, but ... I don’t know how much power is going to get through.”

“Good. Karine, can you still try to establish communication with the Paul Jones?”

“Darshit has been trying, but we’re not getting through,” Karine replied.

“Doubt we’re going to get through anywhere other than the airlock hatch,” Carlos added. “It’s just too heavily shielded from getting a message through.”

“Damn. Cruz, I’m going to go ahead and ask if you can transmit...”

Kole’s voice was interrupted by the sound of a distant explosion. The blast was so loud that it jolted Chuang, Bekra, and Kole’s position. Everyone had quieted down and was focused on where it had happened.

“What was that?” Chuang asked.

“Checking,” Carlos responded as he looked at the digital screen of his wrist computer. “Ugh ... I can’t tell, but that felt like a breach somewhere.”

“It was directly in front of me,” Karine commented. “I would say it was dead center going to the ship’s stern.”