Survival and rescue.

(Just want to let you know I changed my mind, Lucie is gonna be Adam's friend but not his wife/concubine. His wife will be human.)

(If you dislike it, comment here so I know.)

While the Emperor fought for his life and met the alien named Lucie, the leadership of the Azburgian Interstellar Empire also fought for their own survival.

Not only against the external pressure provided by the Hive mind attacking all over their borders, but also the people's concerns.

It has been a few weeks since the Emperor went missing, and although they knew he was alive, they couldn't pinpoint his position as the position marker, as well as the communication module, have been damaged, most likely in combat or the initial crash.

They sent troops down to the planet, but their enemy didn't allow them to stick around for long periods of time, as they constantly launched assaults against the Empire's territories.

Although many loyal nobles agreed with Adams's choices and acknowledged that what he did was for the greater good of mankind, many did not, and these nobles despised Adam with all their hearts for limiting their power and influence.

Now that they had a chance, they slowed down all attempts to rescue his majesty, in an attempt to regain their lost power and influence.

Hence why despite almost a month of effort, they could not find his majesty.

Not only that, but the people have caught wind of rumors that his majesty has gone missing, and they demanded answers, which the temporary rulers were forced to provide.

The people grew restless once they learned that his majesty has gone missing, and many fundraisers and other plans for gathering funds were made.

They gave this money to trustworthy people within the government in order to speed up the search.

Unfortunately, their work did not result in any good news, which made them only more restless.

The only good news was that the Empire's Imperial navy was doing admirably well at holding the Hive-mind off of their necks, buying them valuable time.

During such a crucial time, the nobles personal ships also had to join in with the Empire's fleet in order to ensure their own survival, hence why they managed to hold on for this long.

Still, time was ticking as they re-assigned all of the resources they could to the war effort, which caused the economy of the Empire to begin steadily declining, but it bought them time, and they needed it.

Their enemy was stronger, but not overwhelmingly so, they had a chance.

But they needed their Emperor to completely unite the populace, as the words of nobles and royals were not enough to completely sway them since they harbored a deep mistrust with them.

Many even speculated that the nobles intentionally did not protect his majesty's ship properly, leading to his possible death, which caused a lot of unrest.

While all of this drama was going on within the confines of the Empire, the lost Emperor could be seen confidently walking through the jungle. He gazed at the surrounding jungle, straining his ears, he listened to any strange noises typically made by the hive-infected creatures.

His female companion walked by his side, her smaller frame allowed her to move swiftly through the trees, and her superior senses were more sensitive to the environment.

They were currently scouting for supplies, as Lucie said there is a hunter cabin nearby.

By nearby, she meant ten kilometers away, which would take the normal human roughly two hours of walking.

However, thanks to Adam's suit and Lucie's athletic body, they got there in under an hour.

During the walk to the cabin, as they couldn't risk running and making noise, the two walked in silence, as they could not afford to distract themselves.

Not that they don't talk to one another at all.

With no other intelligent creatures around them and both of them coming from social species, a friendship was bound to blossom despite the rough beginning.

It has been weeks since then after all, and although Lucie couldn't help but be conscious of Adam's strength, she did not find it as unbearably scary as before.

This made sense when looked at from an outsider's perspective, it is the nature of life to seek protection, and her instincts were screaming at her to find someone strong to protect her.

Lucie trusted Adam thanks to his intellect and strength.

She also speculated to herself about his appearance.

Since he even slept in his armor, she couldn't help but wonder about his appearance in her spare time.

Could he be covered in an exoskeleton? Perhaps he's like a slime and the armor is humanoid only for cosmetic purposes? She speculated for hours since she felt too awkward to pry into his past when he respected hers and didn't talk about that day.

Other than that, she saw no fault with him, at least in their short time together.

He is strong, confident, reasonable, empathetic, understanding, and has plenty of other good personality traits that accompany these.

Of course, his fury is to be feared, she felt that firsthand, but she only considered this a good point, a man who is dangerous but can control himself is better than a harmless weakling in her eyes.

Especially in their current predicament.

He has to be after all. He is the leader of mankind, how could someone unworthy of such a title lead a species as great as humanity?

Lucie did not know of Adam's true position, since she never asked and Adam just wanted to have a casual conversation with someone, hence he never mentioned it.

They finally wondered upon the cabin, which was a medium-sized wooden structure for hunters but also served as a landmark for people who got lost in the woods.

Squirming could be heard from within, as a couple of creatures stood on guard within the building.

After living in this place for a while, Adam realized that these creatures aren't anything like zombies, no, they are much worse.

They are really smart, but only at specific times.

Adam concluded that the Hive mind can't directly control all of the people it infects, hence it leaves them with a protocol to follow, like little worker ants.

They are still smart, but not as smart, which makes them easy to kill if taken by surprise.

"Wait here," he whispered to his companion with urgency.

Lucie simply nodded and did not question the order, after living with Adam for the past few weeks, she trusts his judgment as much as her own.

Adam then proceeded to creep up to the building and opened the door with force, but made sure not to smack it into the wall.

Two hived Deats were inside the cabin, one male and one female, and after a few seconds, they were no longer standing, their bodies riddled with bullet holes, looking like Swiss cheese.

Adam's weapon transformed into a flamethrower in real time, its various parts shifting to accommodate the Emperor's will.

he burned the remains of their flesh so they couldn't attack them anymore, and threw them inside a closed room.

"Come in quickly!" Adam whispered, but despite how quiet he was, Lucie easily heard him and rushed inside.

"We have to take everything here quickly before the whole place burns down, additionally, the Hive definitely knows we are here and is coming for us!" Adam ordered and got to work.

He grabbed multiple bags worth of can food and stored them in bags they found within the same building.

Lucie also filled a couple of bags, as she, unfortunately, couldn't carry a lot of weight.

She also found a bunch of... embarrassing items, which explained what the two used to be deats were doing here before everything went crazy.

Her face reddened like a tomato before she quickly recovered and ignored such... items.

Adam did not really care what he put inside the bags, and neither did Lucie, they simply took all long-lived food and anything they could drink.

Even alcohol could be potentially useful, as it is flammable.

After a few minutes, Adam held four large bags of food in his arms while Lucie carried one on her back and held one in her arms.

Lucie suddenly paused and her ears twitched, Adam knew what this meant.

"Something is coming."

enemies were nearby, and both of them began slowly sneaking away.

Since Lucie's ears were very sensitive, they could get away before the enemy spotted them, but the issue was when another infected Deat heard them.

This is why they did not run, as that would make much noise.

They slowly walked away while the squirming approached the cabin, and proceeded to walk after them.

It was probably directly controlled, hence why it could track them.

They did their best to avoid it, but it somehow kept following them, quickly catching up with them after a short cat-and-mouse game.

Adam even resorted to smashing massive trees to slightly delay the thing, abandoning their newly acquired loot, making obstacles, and doing his best to hide any tracks with Lucie's help, but it did not even slow it down a little bit.

"I can hear more of them now! They're all around us!" Lucie whispered, she seemed calm on the surface, but her jittery tail betrayed her true feelings.

She was scared, and rightfully so.

"..." Adam simply stood silently, it seems they cannot run away, so they will have to fight.

He was hoping they could avoid this since all of the hive creatures will be coming to them now.

"Is there a clearing nearby?"

"Yeah, there is, half a kilometer that way." She pointed north. "There should be a couple of kilometers wide clearing," Lucie said a bit more confidently after seeing Adam take action.

"Let's go there, we can't run, so we will fight."

"Eh? But we stand no chance! who knows how many are going to be coming for us!"

"So what do you suggest we do? Curl up in a ball and die? I still have things to live for."

'I still have an Empire to lead.'

Adam rushed resolutely through the forest, Lucie barely kept up with him thanks to the trees Adam had to crash through.

Adam no longer cared about how loud he was since the enemy knew their position anyways.

As the duo reached the large clearing, the forest around them started to shift.

Adam and Lucie couldn't see this, but trees in the distance suddenly bent, as if something pulled them down, and soon after, many small flesh things went flying through the air at them.

They are using the massive jungle trees as catapults.

Adam steadied his weapon with the assistance of his advanced AI, which shifted and transformed into a large, high-tech machine gun.

Without any warning, a storm of bullets unleashed themselves at the flying enemies which included birds as well, new bullets were being constantly generated by a hyper-efficient 3D printer within the weapon.

The explosive sound of raw human weaponry unleashing its full might could be heard for thousands of meters, but no living creatures remained in the area to hear it besides the Hive.

Soon enough, Adam was overwhelmed by a large number of projectile enemies coming at him.

Any enemies which passed by his bullet storm were luckily quickly taken care of by Lucie, as Adam continued showing this planet how Humanity ruled a planet as ruthless as Earth.

Soon enough, the first enemies made their way to the clearing.

Their forms were disturbed, like someone copied gods work and did a really bad job, in the most horrific way imaginable.

Mouths, eyes, and other body parts attached where they clearly had no business being.

They moved clumsily as if they were not used to their own body, and soon behind them, massive, five meters tall mountains of flesh were gathered.

Adam pointed his fire at them, as Lucie kept shooting at the small flying ones.

Trees collapsed as lead clashed with wood, violently splintering it and sending the wood flying back at dangerous speeds.

Ancient trees collapsed in mere moments, their bark stained with unnaturally thick blood.

The hive forces were getting ruthlessly slaughtered until a shocking sight appeared.

Human power armors. three of them. They moved smoothly unlike their biological counterparts.

Adam immediately ordered them to stand down.

"Kneel before the Emperor."

But they did no such thing.

'Are not even artificial intelligence safe? Or did they get disabled somehow?'

As Adam thought this, the large form of a Power Armor rushed forth, attempting to overwhelm him with brute force.

A foolish decision.

Adam abandoned the machine gun and transformed it into a massive mace.

The first Armor that charged at him transformed the weapon at its waist into a shield in an attempt to defend itself, but Adam used his superior strength to rip the shield out of its hands leaving its head exposed, which was promptly hit in the chin by the heavy mace, sending it flying several meters into the air before crashing back down into the ground.

The other two observed the interaction, as if learning the Armor's strengths and weaknesses, and proceeded to rush forth at the Emperor together.

Both of them held maces like the Emperor, it seems they realized how effective they are against the Armor.

But the Emperor's Power Armor is obviously on another level compared to these commoners.

Adam grabbed the forearm of one of the Armors and threw its body in the way of the other.

This is reality after all, friendly fire is enabled.

Adam gave them no time to recover, and before the two could even partially recover their bearings, Adam grabbed their heads and drove them into the ground, knocking up a dust storm so thick that only the yellow-glowing eyes of his power armor pierced it.

'So the AI was disabled, not infected, that's good news.'

The three greatest threats were dealt with, but that did not lighten the situation in the slightest.

The flood of the hive has not let up at all, and the largest creatures were still keeping back, and that doesn't even include the monstrosities that could pull down gigantic trees many times over without trouble.

'Shit. what should I do...'

Adam was desperate until he had an incredibly dangerous Idea.

Equiping his flamethrower and pointing it at the forest, he could somehow feel the realization and the following desperation of the Hivemind.

The large monsters rushed forth, as trees in the distance were toppled by some unknown monster in its hurry.

But it was too late, as Adam utilized his chemically enhanced flamethrower, which spewed out fire significantly more potent fire than average, to burn the thick jungle to the ground, dealing irreversible damage to this planet's biosphere in the process, but at this point, it really didn't matter anymore.

Even the fire-resistant vegetation was burned with incredible speed, as the fire spread with a horrifying speed.

"Lucie! Jump on my shoulder now!"

"Coming Adam!"

After she jumped on his shoulder, the fire had already spread to all surrounding vegetation, and thick smoke floated to the sky.

*COUGH*

The main reason Adam didn't initially do this is Lucie, she can't breathe in such extreme conditions.

But the hive did not stop.

Using the corpses of its puppets, it built bridges toward them, slowly paving the way to them using what were once thinking, feeling creatures.

"You want me? Come and take me!"

Adam abandoned the concept of retreat the moment he stepped into this clearing.

He would die here, or he would kill all of the forces the Hive could mobilize against him.

He rushed to the enemy, and ripped them into pieces, using his flamethrower to ensure they do not come back, showering them in bullets, Adam utilized everything he could.

He grabbed the burning trunks of trees and swung them around the field like a baseball bat, throwing tens of creatures into burning hellfire in one smooth motion.

Even the largest of them, which were ten meters tall and completely covered with ripping muscles, were thrown around like ragdolls.

Such an impressive show of force was only possible thanks to the intricate human body utilizing adrenaline and hysterical strength, working together with the Power Armor.

Eventually, nothing remained as far as they could see, no creatures, no jungle, nothing.

only thick ash and soot remained of the once vibrant jungle that surrounded them.

Just Adam, his mace, a thick tree trunk in hand, and a half-conscious Lucie holding onto his shoulder survived.

"Is it over...?" Lucie asked with an extremely tired voice, it's a miracle she still had enough strength to speak, she did just spend the last twenty minutes fighting for her life in thick smoke.

It's even more of a miracle she kept conscious through it all.

"Yes-" The moment Lucie heard "yes", she completely collapsed as her tired mind could no longer function.

She deserved to sleep after all of this, and no one could stop her.

Adam caught her before she fell to the ground, who knows if there are more of the cursed things waiting underground to ambush them?

He couldn't help but sigh, most of the poor girl's people are dead, and she has no one left in this world, and now he will have to leave her too.

He has his duty as an Emperor to fulfill, and help should be here any moment now.

The fire had more reasons than just slowing down the enemy, it also served as a massive beacon, showing his location.

Just as expected, not even a minute after a large flotilla appeared.

Adam finally relaxed, it was time to go back to Earth.

He desperately needed a shower.