From this distance, the planet called Iratini by its inhabitants, was little more than a speck orbiting a late stage red dwarf. There was absolutely nothing special about the star itself or the planet and the sentient beings on it. The entity that now approached it was never bothered by emotions or feelings, that was for its victims. They felt all this whenever the Presence completed a Sweep.

Continuing its approach the Presence pondered on what its method should be this time; should it go slow or quick? Should it offer hope before snatching it away at the last moment? All very important questions for the Presence. In the end, every Sweep must follow protocol, the end was always the same. The Iratini were not space-faring so this sweep would be easy.

The Presence halted several million kilometers away from Iratini and spoke a single word with authority: BEGIN.

And so it did.

1.

It would start with some minor tremors. After the Presence's command, 9 small projectiles had launched from the massive bulk of the entity, traveling on circuitous orbits, all headed for Iratini. The projectiles traveled in groups of 3 and each group landed on one of the continents of Iratini, several thousand kilometers from each other. Upon landing, the projectiles quickly burrowed down into the ground and unleashed their deadly payload on reaching their target depth of 4000 kilometers. Four of the nine projectiles landed inside cities and yet went entirely unnoticed by the local inhabitants.

The payload started its work converting the local mass into more copies of itself. Once it reached a critical mass, it created more projectiles that shot deeper and went straight for the core of the planet.

While the tiny projectiles did their work, the entity launched an energy beam in the direction of the local star. The beam would hit the surface of the star in 7 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes and 4 seconds, timed exactly with when the projectiles unleashed their payload into the core.

On the entity, an energy barrier flickered out and a small ship was launched towards the planet. All preparations were completed and the Presence was notified and a timer counted down. The Presence took position and ordered up several screens to observe the sweep.

2.

Provan was on her way to treepod 9 for her regular visit with her offspring. Anoo was still a sapling, barely 3 months old, but growing strong like her father, Kenik, everyday. In another 2 months she would be ready to leave the nursery and move into their family yard to plant her first roots. As she reached the treepod, she felt the first tremor. Along the street, several others stopped and waited for the tremor to pass which it did after a few seconds. Everyone went back to what they were doing and Provan entered the treepod and took the vine to the 9th level where Anoo was situated.

After spending several hours with Anoo, Provan and Kenik were having a meal at the Solarium when a second tremor shook the place, far worse than the first one they felt. Several people lost balance and fell and the Solarium windows shattered all around them showering them with glass shards. Kenik held onto Provan's hand and ran towards the exit along with the others who seemed to be in full blown panic as glass fell everywhere and several people lay bleeding on the floor or under their tables.

The tremors stopped after a few seconds and Provan looked around at the chaos. The Solarium sat at the highest peak in Elakar and the city seemed to have suffered considerable damage from the tremor. Smoke was rising out of several areas and she could see rescue groves heading out to help the injured and the fallen.

Someone nearby screamed and Provan looked in their direction. It was an older gentleman who was pointing up at the sun and screaming. Provan followed their gaze and saw that there was a large dark spot now visible on the sun. This was bad, she looked at Kenik who was also looking up in shock. She shook him and looked at him, he seemed to understand her without any words being spoken, they both ran towards Treepod 9.

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As they neared Treepod 9, the world shook again, but it felt different this time. Provan and Kenik stopped and looked around in confusion, it definitely felt like a tremor but it also didn't. Nothing felt right, they started rushing towards treepod 9. Suddenly, a large treepod on their left shook violently and started rising out of the ground. The ensuing panic as several people ran away from it and crashed into Provan, pushing her to the ground. Kenik helped her up and stared at the treepod that now floated several feet above the ground. All the treepods and groves around them were shaking violently as they were ripped from the ground and into the air. It was an unbelievable sight.

Treepod 9 was now starting to uproot itself as well. Provan and Kenik ran towards it and clung to some roots climbing into the building that held their sweet child. They took the vine up the the 9th level amidst the panic inside the treepod, saw Anoo was wailing loudly and quickly went to comfort her. The treepod continued to shake as it lifted off the ground. Kenik went to a window and looked outside, his eyes wide with shock. Most of the city was now floating several dozen feet above the ground and continuing to rise. In the distance he could see other large groves and forests also rising up. Most shockingly, people on the ground seemed to be affected as well and were starting to float off along with the buildings.

An hour after the chaos began, everything that was in the city was now in the air, rising up towards the sky. Small animals, trees and even tiny plants and saplings seemed to be floating up. Below, the ground looked injured, as if it was breaking apart from the inside. As they continued to rise, the air got much thinner and they had to depend on their stored reserves to continue breathing. Anoo had access to breathing equipment that each treepod had so she was fine. Provan and Kenik were holding each other tightly as they looked outside at the disaster that used to be their home. Everything was destroyed in a few hours. As the atmosphere disappeared and their reserves ran out, they died holding onto each other alongside their child. Provan's last thought was, "how is this fair?".

3.

The gravity engine had been constructed around the core and started up on schedule. The mass around the core had been consumed to create the engine and project the initial field so that the planet did not immediately collapse in on itself, that would have been a disappointment. The second stage of the gravity engine had initiated, targeting all organic life on the planet and lifting them off the surface. The Presence watched as large tree shaped structures floated up into the atmosphere.The Solar projection field had also reported successful completion was was now ready to intiate.

The third phase was about to begin.

4.

As organic matter continued to rise into the atmosphere, the planet below was quickly consumed by the gravity engine leaving behind nothing but the core enclosed entirely by the engine. The core scanned everything in its vicinity and tagged every piece of organic matter, from the smallest to the largest. Once tagged, the gravity engine got to work again and started pushing all the organic matter into a single point in space. As more and more matter rushed to the designated spot, the large black area on the Sun glowed far brighter than its background. The Solar weapon had fired and would arrive in the next 2 minutes as the gravity engine continued its work.

All organic matter had finally been squashed into each other at the designated point in space in time for the Solar weapon to arrive exactly on it. A massive burst of radiation, energy and intense heat collided with the organic matter instantly killing anything unlucky to still be alive. As the beam completed its task, it collided with the entity and seemed to get absorbed into it. The sun seemed to have dimmed considerably.

The gravity engine got back to work as it formed a sphere of intense gravity around the now dead organic remains of what had once been a beautiful plant-based organic life. The sphere started compressing and it stopped when it had shrunk to a size of what the humans would have called a football. A small ship now approached the football sized remains of the Iratini and scooped it up, heading back the way it came to the entity. The gravity engine, its work now completed, moved towards the star at a blinding speed.

As the small ship docked back into the entity, it realigned itself and engaged its Dark Drive and disappeared. As the gravity engine reached the sun, it engaged its shielding and headed straight for the solar core and detonated once it arrived. The sun instantly went nova releasing a large burst of energy and obliterated the remaining 4 planets in the system. Not a shred of evidence was left behind which would suggest an intelligent species ever lived in this system or was wiped out by another intelligent species.

Sweep 7179284 was now complete.