Nimrod

My Own Kind

"You're quite young for your position. Twenty, isn't it?" Zero asked.

"Twenty-one, well, almost. But do you prefer someone older? I'd gladly give up the position, you know?" Maca replied. He was easy-going as ever.

"Not at all, not at all. Young or old, as long as your skills are fit for the role, I'm fine with it. And your skills speak for themselves."

"You see, I came across your profiles earlier. You were able to transform into a Samanea at the tender age of eight. Graduated the military in two years at the age of ten. Assigned with your first mission at the age of eleven. Became Kapitan at the age of twelve, a Cadre at the age of sixteen, one of the six Generals at the age of eighteen. And you are our Supremo for almost three years now. I must admit, it's quite interesting."

"You know what's more interesting?" Rico grinned. "The classified data that was not on his profile."

"Oh, you mean to tell me, there's more to his achievements?"

"You sly fox!" Maca said to Rico. He's laughing with him along with the other heads.

"We're sorry Zero. Those data on my profile, are the 'official' ones."

"I see. So that means that there are 'unofficial' data that are only available to the department heads. Am I right?" Zero replied.

"That's quite right. You see, I was one of those few that were born on earth. I was to be transported here on the moon a few days after I was born. But the nims attacked our base and the ship that was supposed to bring me here was not able to launch. It was an accident that a prism happened to slip inside the prism slot on a suit beside me. A nim-armor wrapped me and I went on a rampage, or so they say. The nims took me with them as they thought I was one of them, and so did I."

"Manda, the late Supremo, saw the footage of the attack that happened to our base. He was curious about the nim that came out from one of our ships. We found no evidence that he was killed, so that led him to believe that the nim from the ship was Maca himself. From then on, Manda became obsessed with searching for him. True enough, we were able to find him after seven years." Rico continued.

"Does that means, you stayed a nim all those years?" Zero asked.

Maca nodded.

"Indeed. You see, inside a nim-armor, we are like any other nim. And we don't even need to eat or drink as the wood around us provides nourishment to our bodies. I did believe I was a nim all those years."

"You never transformed back to human?"

"During that span? Not once."

"But if that were the case, how were you able to go back to being human?"

"Zero, do you know why nims don't kill each other?"

"It's in their nature. Nims don't kill their kind."

"On the seventh year of wandering as a nim, our grove happened to came across Manda's team. The nims with me attacked them without hesitation. But even though I know that the nims don't kill their own, I found myself fighting them instead. Before I knew it, I wiped out the nims of my grove before falling out of the nim-armor for the first time. At that moment I understood, I am a human. And I fight for my own kind."