“The Andy” Ellis muttered.
He raised a slender finger and pointed to an ancient building in front of me that registered as a communications office. Its rusted steel sign was tarnished and shot up, metal flailing in the wind. The structure was a desert saloon. Built upon the ruins of a collective head office, the glass was lighted up by a warm glow of electric lights.
“I'm going to go inside and talk, you to wait in there. I want you to meet someone.” Ellis muttered.
Brushing the dust off his coat Ellis walked forward and the automatic door sprung open.
Light pierced my vision as I heard a bustle of speech. A massive bar lay infront, wood and marble caking the floor as patrons sat about the canteen. Many eyes turned to look as we entered but stopped when they saw Ellis, a familiar face in the dust. I took off my hat, placing it on the counter as we waited.
A robot in a scorched bulletproof vest and helmet asked for our weapons. I placed my pistol on the metal table in front. The general placed two pistols, a long-bladed shimmering energy knife, and a grenade down. The creature nodded before moving to check the duffle bag but Ellis whispered something in its ear and the bags went unchecked. I stepped forward and entered the chamber.
The floor was relatively clean and the room dimly lit, faint blood splattered the service door, it seemed despite what looked to be years of scrubbing it still stuck to the grafted steel. A food service station and vending machines for ammo stood to the side of the room, their electronic screens flashing ancient advertisements and pixelated visuals. Many miners and grease-caked workers sat about the tables, food and drink pressed in their hands. As we stalked forward the bar everyone suddenly turned quiet. The service robots in front slicked back an insatiable curiosity flashed in their cold eyes. A robot moved forward. It was a scarred type two operation model. Limited responses, fastest serving time. The grey human-shaped mass of metal slithered forward. The bar continued in complete silence and this time Ellis strode forward and approached the table slamming his hand on the counter.
“Hello, Good Sir… What can I do for you today,” it asked.
“I'd like to see her” he replied.
The robot seemed stunned.
“.... My responses are limited, please rephrase your question”
“I would like to see the owner!” he shouted.
“.... My responses are limited, please rephrase your question”
Ellis slammed his palm into his face and stuttered a mumble of words. Ruining the effect he had on the crowd.
“Can I please see your manager?” he coughed
“Right away!” the robot replied
Ellis and I waited in the establishment. He motioned to a second robot who poured two drinks out of a glass pitcher. I ordered water and Tobago ordered some form of non-alcoholic drink. We sat at the bar for a few minutes waiting for a response.
A cry echoed from the closed iron blast doors behind the shop. The steel slunk open with a satisfying hiss. My heart raced as out stepped a single hooded figure. It's cloak was dark as night, almost seemingly fending off the electric light. The bar remained quiet. The figure reached out a pale hand, grabbed one of the bags, unzipped it, peered at its contents, and waved Ellis inside. I followed but was stopped in my tracks. Ellis turned and pointed to the chair saying he would only be a moment. I waited outside, the residents of the bar looked at me, some almost growling, others intently staring. I continued to stand, one, a scruffy-looking bearded bandit wearing a tattered hat approached me, his breath stunk of alcohol. The robot beside me pulled out a rugged sawed-off shotgun and the man yelped before he slinked back to his table, a whimper in his step.
I sat down at the counter and waited for him twiddling my thumbs on my lap. I could sense the eyes of the bar resting on my shoulders as I sat cloaked. A few seconds later the doors opened again and I walked inside hurrying past the serving bots and into a dimly lit room.
An aroma of smelting metal wafted to my lips as I squinted in the dim electric light. The chamber was massive, computers and various metal instruments lined the walls as wires protruded from the ceiling. A gigantic workstation cascaded with keyboards and levers sat infront. A blanket of arrays was laid upon the walls, hundreds of generators and screens were placed around the room.
Ellis backed into a corner as the hooded figure dumped the bags on an oaken table. I breathed in hurriedly as the figure then tossed back its hood to reveal an intricate plastic and metal face. Plastic reflected in the light as it stalked towards the first shelf. Staring forward I noticed it had facial features similar to a female and was visibly robotic, its skin a pale metallic grey and eyes a luminescent bright blue. It was around six feet tall and clanked as it walked, footsteps echoing across the room. Ignoring my presence the creatures' gloved hands moved at an extreme pace to open the duffle bags and stock shelves of weaponry in perfect order.
Ellis moved forward and it spoke.
“General… I haven’t seen you for some time, who is this?” she spoke her voice hazy.
“This is John Taylor…” he said
She scanned through the duffle bags and took a few alien devices from them. Plugging them into nearby surfaces. The robot which stood before me was visibly different. It moved strangely, talked more intricately and had an almost human appearance. Its actions were too fluid, too spontaneous.
“Allow me to introduce myself” I spoke suddenly, sticking an outstretched hand to the robot.
“I am Dr. Qwen Shaw,” she said
She took my hand and shook it. Her eye's gazed into mine, seemingly calculating and unyielding in perception. For a few brief moments, we stood in complete silence before Ellis walked forward and showed her a chart on a small tablet.
"Is this you?" She asked.
I scanned the sheet to see a swirl of alien numbers and lettering.
"Yes of course" I replied.
Shaw began to pace, walking across the room at an incredible speed. She took the tablet and swiped through, her eyes scanned. First, they lit up with wonder, pupils dilating in the electric light. Then her entire face lit up with excitement. She leapt to her feet and motioned me to a nearby chair that was rather uninviting in nature.
"This is incredible, I must check" Shaw responded, her voice staticy and unnerving.
The seat was surrounded by a hazy mess of wires and a neural net was gently placed on my head. With inhuman speed, she typed into the mess of panels and controls showing Ellis the flowing data on the screen. For a few minutes, we all sat in awkward silence, her eyes quickly scanning the device.
“The collective when they realize what they have done. They will come for him” she said.
“What do you see?” Ellis hobbled over and I tried to get up but was gently forced back into the chair.
“He has no injuries yet he also has a brain abnormality… he's even better than me. The same type of deformity yet the gene is three hundred times more dominant. He can retry without a paralyzation”
“What do you mean like you?” I shivered in my seat.
“I was paralyzed when I fell, I was like you, dropped. Yet I was of more significance. I had a brain deformation of a similar kind, however, mine was of a smaller scale. I escaped without an injury, I escaped with the only removal of my skin.
“What?” I breathed.
My expression changed to shock as she recounted her tale.
“Yeah, highly unlucky. My body decided to remove itself. It is safe to ascertain my internal organs and brain were splattered around the ground when I first came. Luckily for me, a group of robots had been watching me drop. It is very surprising they didn't use me for fertilizer, if they had not been Archius guard I would be dead. Yet this same gene which is dominant in me is dominant in you, and you don’t seem to have a scratch.
“What does it mean,” I said
“I mainly just means you will be able to retry, the initial scans seemed boring, and plainly uninteresting however the new and more in-depth scans revealed the deformation, it's a wonder if they even catch it.”
“Dr. Shaw here worked for the Collective, 13 years before she was charged with treason. Aiding the escape of three hostages.”
“The price I had to pay made my actions futile as they were hunted down and killed not three days after" She breathed
"It still was noble" Ellis replied.
She stood still for a moment, holding her breath.
"I will carry these scars until the end of time,” she said.
For a short while of time, the two spoke in hushed whispers as a series of experiments were conducted on me. A few times I heard various words exuding from the darkness. I recounted my tale to Shaw, telling her all I could muster.
“About the maze?... How did you exit?” she asked quickly her hands resting firmly on the keyboard. Fingers pressed against the plastic as she typed with fury.
“I pulled out the neural net from the back of my head” I replied mumbling
I grazed my hand across the back of my head, wondering if any scars would still be seen.
“Pulled out? That… that’s impossible the only way would be if you died in the maze” she stated
Shaw scanned the sheet again, this time meticulously going through every fine detail and segment. Her eyes raced across the page.
“Did you?” she looked at me puzzled
I waited for a moment unsure of what to say.
“Die in the maze? No, I simply realized I would not succeed” I hastily spoke.
“The mission was futile?” she questioned.
She pressed down on my shoulder while refitting the neural net.
“Yes the mission was futile” I shifted my eyes around the compartment and waited in silence.
For a moment no one spoke and the humm of electronics could be heard.
"This is incredible" She muttered. She scrambled towards the back wall taking more instruments and devices off the walls. Ellis stalked forward placing a hand on the console infront.
“How long until they find out?” He breathed.
“Due to the fact he removed the net… I would say approximately 1-3 hours, if not already.” Shaw began to photocopy the readings, placing them in a metal case on the desk.
Tobago paced across the room, his eyes deep in thought.
“If he pulled the neural net from the back of his head would they have not caught it on security footage? What about Matenience workers?” he asked.
I remained seated as they spoke, both pacing around the concrete floors.
“It possible and without a doubt bound to happen… if what I see is true, he needs to go off-planet or anywhere that the Collective can not reach” she replied
At that note I sat up, uncomfortable in the chair.
“What do we do?.. I can’t risk your lives?” I muttered.
Ellis turned and responded. He took a breath as he spoke, leaning against the wall.
“By taking you in and making you one of my own, I have already bound my services to you, you did not ask for my help those days ago… I know of one way we can ensure your survival. There is a possibility we can transport him to Archius. From there..”
Qwen pitched into the conversation finishing his sentence.
“We can have him transported to Kestle? From there he can be used as a bargaining chip, much like you.”
At this I was outraged, emotion fled to my eyes as I stood up, hands shaking.
“Bargaining chip?” I shouted.
Shaw placed a hand on my shoulder and attempted to comfort me back into the chair. I resisted throwing away her arm and walking towards the door.
The idea of becoming some sort of commodity to be bought and sold to the collective was not one which was in my favour.
They both paused for a few moments unaware of what to say.
“What will happen to me if I leave Archius? Is it even possible?” I questioned
“The entire purpose of a bargaining chip is you can be used to tempt the collective, a short-cut or messiah to the damned.
If we get you to Kestle we can expand and continue the study of futurity perhaps uncovering the secrets for ourselves or giving you to them in return for insurance.”
In a split second, I knew what I had to do. Grabbing a pistol from a nearby table with lightning-fast reflexes I startled them both and pointed the barrel at the general’s head. I knew in my heart I was never going to pull the trigger but a bluff was all I needed to survive.
The Doctor operated almost as fast as I had, an energy blade pressed against my throat a millisecond later. A quick action but too late to end the mortal standoff.
I stared into Ellis’s eyes, he stared back.
“Listen? What choice do you have? The collective will surely find you, by now I have no doubt a satellite has traced your location to this very spot. You have two choices. Die a collective slave, with no honour and your name forgotten in the blowing sands of time. Or you can sacrifice your life to save those of others, have proper and humanitarian treatment arranged by a government that cares about you, and be remembered as a hero.” Ellis spoke. His eyes were unquavered from mine, deep pits staring endlessly. I'm not sure what I saw that day be it compassion or fear. I let my finger sit loosely on the trigger as sweat dripped down my brow. My finger glided along the pistol's gilded edges, the hilt sifting in my hand.
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I weighed the options, the collective would surely find me, kill those who are my friends and make me spend the rest of my life in an ice cube constantly being preserved and awakened to perform a collage of tests while remaining a specimen, all freedom, humanity and dignity stripped from a rotting corpse. Yet there was always a possibility I could escape, find a way off the planet and ditch the general to speed across the galaxy. Far away from both the reach of Kestle and The Collective. How hard could it be? There would always be another planet, another city, another person, another place for me to hide. From there I chose my objective. Hands shaking I slowly recalled the gun, turning on safety and placing it on the wood table. Time seemed to slow as we spoke, my eyes glazed over and dead. Emotion seeping from my soul. Sweat glimmered down the side of my face, a tear dripping from my killer eyes.
I picked up a nearby washcloth to wipe my face as the two relaxed, lowering the tension in the room.
“So what's the plan?” I asked greasing back my hair with my hand.
The three of us hovered; like hawks around a set of wrinkled maps and computer diagrams. The holograms buzzed to life as the dust was scrapped off the musty panels. All were highly detailed layouts of the land and were quite beautiful to cast a glance upon. Some bore the fragrance and delicacy of many years while others had the look of fine laminated paper and lit-up screens. My finger traced our path, unwavering over the leagues of sand.
“The plan goes like this: fly cloaked for three days until you reach the forests where nature will camouflage any trails and limit any persons, you stop at Ionius-Major for resupply and console the Colonel. We continue hopefully with an armed escort to the militia base. From there hug the valley and canyons until you reach gate 5. A smuggler will extract you and a handful of officials'' She used a chewed pencil to guide us through the map.
“From Vernon 3, we will use you as a bargaining chip.”
Ellis muttered to himself as she spoke, twidling his fingers on a cord nearby.
“We?” I asked
Ellis smiled and asked her a question.
“It seems you will be joining us?”
Shaw started packing a medium-sized backpack and suitcase, stuffing them with various technological materials. The fabric was torn and charred but seemed usable. Her robotic body silhouetted against the electric lights casting a sinister appearance.
“It may be the only chance for me to get off of this damn rock” she replied.
I had just begun to roll up the frayed piece of parchment known as our map when a sharp scream pierced the air outside. Hairs on end, I cast a glance to the door, my heart beating inside my chest.
"Take cover!" Ellis screeched. Spit flew from his mouth landing on the table infront.
Suddenly a shockwave hit the tavern. Pieces of wood and metal splintered from their places as the entire ground began to crumble. I was thrown off of my feet to collapse in a mesh of wires. Climbing out of the shattered rubble, I shook the dirt off my jacket. Smoke and ash caked my face as I heard explosions ring throughout.
Ellis grabbed my hand, his fingers cut and bleeding from the explosion. As soon as the air cleared a rifle was thrown into my hand. Shaw grabbed her bag, taking cover in what remained of the caved-in office. The roof was parted to reveal rebar and tarnished steel with shards of concrete shattered like glass across the floor. Sprinting across the room Shaw kicked open the metal door to reveal energy blasts and bullets whizzing through the hot air. Customers sat back pressed against the walls with weapons continually firing outside the nearby windows. Dust and smoke streamed through the air as I coughed, lungs filling with ash and tar. Ellis barked orders at the two service robots and they emerged assault rifles in hand. Taking a few seconds to cautiously slide a new magazine into my pistol we burst through the front door. Shaw bent the steel door like butter as she glanced into the sky, mechanical eyes scouring the fiery heavens above.
The mud-baked town of Arrakis had sprung to life. Anti-air cannons blasted into the open sky. Energy particles and bullets streamed through the streets and up into the clouds. I watched in horror A ray of fire came down from the heavens. Beams of light tore into the Maol melting the ground nearby into ash. Twenty mercenaries ran onto the streets, a few of them had gotten into an APC and were using a heavy energy distorter to pummel the sand-whipped clouds. Rifle in hand Shaw threw off her cloak to reveal a sleek machine body.
It seemed a mix of cybernetics and organics, twisted metal intertwined with plastic. Underneath she wore a green jumpsuit that had a section removed to reveal a generator exhaust port. I braced for impact from a stray shell as the mayor's soldiers ran onto the streets and soon all four anti-aircraft guns were firing east. The clouds burned red as smoke filled the already dirty air.
Suddenly, the entire world turned red. Heat bellowed and light flashed before my eyes. A scream pierced the smoke as the hot wind whipped across my face. The Orbiter itself opened fire. The citizens wept out in fear as their masters from afar lay waste to an entire block with one swipe. Soon I opened my eyes after a blinding particle blast, to look across the desert sands, look across the piles of bodies and the ashen corpses to see the hell which lay beyond the town's outer border. Tears stung my eyes as I lay in the rubble, Ellis and Shaw pulled me from the shattered rock. My feet now torn and bleeding I watched as hell rained down upon us all.
The anti-air guns fired in full effect, pounding the sky with potent whisps of smoke. Their gunners carried on with unrelenting fury as I squinted my eyes to see a ship on the horizon. A vessel that resembled a laterally inverted grey oval. It glinted in the sun as the clouds above circled the town. Flack covered the sky as fire rained through the ground, churning the streets to rubble. A shell streaked through the air planting itself in a nearby building and casting a pillar of smoke to rise into the heavens. Ellis pulled us to a wall at the edge of the town and we took cover, casting a glance into the docking bay in front. Mud splattered against the walls as the shelling continued, pounding the ground into sumbission.
“This is no plan to destroy all of the town's inhabitants or stop smugglers they have come for him” He wheezed.
We all stood silent, fear glazing over our eyes.
“Did you cloak your ship?” Shaw cried.
She shuffled further into the mud hiding from a group of soldiers running nearby.
“The mechanism broke three months ago" Ellis responded.
"Broke, how?" she screamed.
"A raider was taking fire at my ship with a burst rifle” Ellis explained.
He pulled out his pistol, hastily feeding bullets into the cylinder.
“There's your answer” Shaw cried.
Another bomb went off in the distance, this time it consuming half of the sky in its wake. I covered my mouth with a cloth and averted my gaze in hopes to shield myself from the inferno.
“Whatever we do, We can not let Taylor fall into their hands. Get him to my ship, I advise you to move as well. Your computer may have salvageable parts.” he said.
I raised myself to my feet, shaking off the layers of dust.
“Can we fight?” I asked
“We can try, but with the orbiter itself we will be simply delaying the inevitable” She replied.
Ellis leapt to his feet and whipped out his pistol taking cover behind a burned-out vehicle further down the road.
I ran as well, my feet carrying me through the blood-splattered waste. My heart pumped to insanity as my mind raced.
Shaw threw herself next to a concrete barrier, taking cover from a concussion blast. She held a heavy-grade electricity gun which normally would have been an encampment weapon like it was a simple wooden rifle. A sign of bio-enhanced strength.
The bandits continued to open fire, yet this time the craft was getting closer. Ellis used the butt of his gun to smash open the window of a nearby land craft ordering us to get inside. Shaw placed the heavy gun on top of the vehicle clicking it into place and I jumped on top as well, a mixture of mud and blood staining my shoes and the ground below. The craft was a simple car paint chipped and scarred from years in the working sands.
Ellis banged his fist against the dashboard causing a series of wires to prod out.
“You live here, wouldn’t you have a vehicle?” I asked, almost screaming as Ellis hot-wired the craft.
“My ship is at the port… This is faster” He muttered as he worked, hands squirming in the darkness.
The craft sputtered to life, engine humming over the gunfire. Ellis hit the accelerator with all of his might, rocking both of us forward and causing me to hit my head against the glass.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dust spewed into the clouds as the vessel touched down against the swirling sands.
The three drove head-on, in the distance, the T-52 squad had just reached the barrier of the small town. The robots themselves now had the back door open, vapours hissed into the open air. Holding onto the side of their craft they clutched onto the metal as the craft moved forward preparing to jump onto the streets and seek out their prey. Fingers dug into the steel bending its ship. The ship rammed through the barrage of bullets that streamed towards it, the commanding robot was however still inside the craft along with a pilot, his wired hand clasped an iron-clad transmitter. The vessel jutted as a particle cannon hit it with a direct blast. The commander screamed into the microphone, beside him the robot driver clutched the controls in fright, swirling his whole body to avoid the town's potent blasts.
“This is T-52-3… Orbiter we need aerial strike 555 6173 1972 over” it spoke metallically, bearing no hint of emotion.
Bullets whipped against the reinforced glass as it began to crack, the windshield shattering against the weight of the shells.
A human voice replied.
“Roger that Synth, We are firing on those coordinates now, remember do not kill the target we need him back alive in perfect condition… wait, pause on all shelling… we have…. we have incoming” Fear struck into the operator's voice. A fear so potent it made him whimper. The robot cast a confused glance at the microphone before crushing it in anger between his metal fingers.
As war raged on the surface, the space station which circled the planet Maol stalked its deathly prey.
The secondary light guns of the orbiter space-port stopped firing their pellet of measly explosives. A sight that surprised all on the ground and caused one of the anti-air cannons to fire upon the T-52 squad-craft and lay a hit, striking the ship dead center and sending it to spiral out of control and crashland in the outskirts of the town. Smoke fumed from the wrecked hull as the robots and commander emerged from the shattered rubble guns blazing.
Then the unspeakable happened, something which would haunt those upon the ground until the day they die. The orbiter itself lit up with a blue pulse of energy and for the first time in over 10 years since the great slaughter of Kestle itself, the command station started firing at full force clearing the cobwebs from its ancient military ranks. Space distorted and sizzled as a great cloud of energy pulsed through the heavens. Metal creaked and churned as guns sprang to life. A sight which was one to be written into tales of yore, its mighty guns pounded through the solar system, deafening the ears of many. The entire planet shook as it let lose the largest rounds of ammunition to ever grace known life. Commands had spread like wildfire through the floating city of iron as alarms blared through the marble halls.
Suddenly through all of the beacons, substations, and the endless stream of space traffic which lead to the Collective homeworld, a black hole opened in the void of space. The cut in space-time was only open for a split second but it was still enough to cause every single ship, including the orbiter to do a mandatory course correction. The entire system juddered and shook as the sun crumbled for a moment, leaving the inhabitants to gape in horror at their fate. Then just as they closed their eyes, set back to feel the full force of unyielding doom the black hole disappeared into thin air and there stood a vessel.
There were 6 planets, thirty-one space stations, 263 freight vessels, 761 civilian vessels, and 352 military vessels in the Collectives solar system. All stood in complete awe. All shivered in fear at the might of the interloper. Twelve scoutships, battle-hardened vessels drifted forward as a supernova class ship, a destroyer of 10,000 beings, thrust to the position of the enemy vessel. A captain pressed against his silver helm, motioning for his second in command to open communication channels. Thousands of messages across hundreds of methods flurries through the air yet no reply came. The ship in front swirled and began to thrust forward, yet upon further magnification, the true horror was revealed. It was not metal that lined its hull but organic material. Swirling, itching, oozing flesh dripping about in the expanse of space to form a craft. As a Collective admiral barked orders at him the entity drifted forward slowly building up speed. Orders flew through the air and a collective scoutship tried to disable the craft with a single blast of its potent ion weapons. Pilot grimacing through his thick black visor, he clenched the controls and let loose a roar from the frontal cannons. The charged blast streaked across the air to seemingly disappear into thin air at the enemy's touch. The Pilot sat up, flipping up his visor to reveal green eyes steeped in wonder. Witnessing this altercation, an Admiral straightened his collar and screamed at a nearby Commander, spit flew from his mouth as the scoutships began to assume attack formation. A swarming hive orbiting their ferocious prey.
All of the vessels in the area opened fire in sync. Heat and a tremendous display of power tore through the air, as like birds of prey they ripped into their placid enemy. The ship in front conducted evasive maneuvers dodging the blasts with expert skill and mastery. However, most did hit, supercharged particles ripping off chunks at times as their energy pulses cut off huge amounts of its blackened flesh. To their surprise, despite countless chunks of flesh floating into the vast expanse, the ship continued to hurdle into the hoard of civilians and space-dwellers. The Admiral cursed as it seemingly brushed off every attack its destination none other than planet Maol. Now proceeding seemingly undeterred through Collective space a battlehind ship streaked into position to ram its enemy head-on. The craft's overlapping steel formed a seemingly indestructible front barrier that was a potent weapon in the horrors of space.
The heavily armed gunship went full thrust and prepared to thow itself at the horrific foe. Engines roared as flames licked the cold expanse yet when the craft first touched the skin of the vessel the black ooze latched itself onto the metal hull of its attacker. Cries of panic and fear flew through the air. The Battlehind crew reversed thrust, desperate to escape their fate yet It was too late, the mulch twisting ooze crept over the metal surface stretching out and sifting over the entire hull. The Pilot, a hardened veteran pumped the craft to full power and opened fire on all guns. The metal creaked and groaned as the ooze put pressure, slowly bending the steel into submission. The craft juttered and creaked before a small explosion sounded in the thrusters. The engines were dead.
All that could be heard on the military radio was static and the harrowing screams of the damned who were trapped inside. Horrible screams, shrieks of agonizing death sent shivers down the Admirals.
Anger striking across his sweat-glazed brow, the soldier let loose a cry from his lips and shrieked out a swift order. Gravity shifted as the supernova then opened fire unleashing its full unrelenting fury upon its enemy. This time it showed no mercy lacerating huge chunks of the beast. Space turned red and burned with the light of a thousand explosions. Anger and hate bellowed from the craft of war yet once more their enemy pressed on caring nothing for the chunks of flesh lacerated behind. The orbiter itself then opened fire, hundreds of barrage cannons and ion weapons firing at the same time, the full force concentrated on the center of the beast.
The blackened creature’s skin tore apart and apart and apart. It was beautifully terrifying, the sight of the most powerful navy in the known galaxy unable to destroy a single mass of organics, normally these potent guns would destroy battleships, decimate crews and reduce the hopes and dreams of thousands if not millions to ashes, these were guns known as city killers, and devastators, having reduced civilizations and entire grand armadas to nothing but swirling mixtures of scarred bones. This was the gun that had crippled the Kestle flagship in a single strike, this was the bullet that had obliterated entire nations.
Soon it was no match for the full force of the navy. The space-stations potent liberators ripped through the center and in the heat of fury the monster peeled back its skin to reveal a single magnificent metal ship. It was the reciprocal of its forebearer, something of immense skill and beauty. Beautiful hull glimmering like diamonds in the rays of the sun, the bronze ship hovered still for a single moment to soon speed forward basking in the radiance of the grand armada which blocked its path. It glided almost serenely across the expanse, drifting and swaying with the void of space. Then the homeworld of the Collective itself shot out a fiery beam of energy and hit the ship full force. The entire sun shifted by a millimetre as blinding light streaked through all. The Admiral clutched his chair for support as his crew was tossed from their stations by the mere shockwave of the blast.
Supernovas or other heavy-class freighters would have been reduced to mere atoms when exposed to that kind of raw power. Heat and energy flaked through the air, blanketing all in the soft glow of radiation. Instead, the ship broke again. The outer vessel took the full blow shattering into a thousand pieces and a smaller craft was soon ejected. Ray of energy streaking through the stars, the blast hit the outer vessel deflecting in full to the planet Maol. If not for the shield that protected the Garbage planet, the entire surface would have burned in a fiery hell. Instead, its shield sizzled and died, fully replenished but saving the entire planet from harm.
The Admiral mouthed as he stared in wonder at his enemy.
Now all that was left was escape. A screech could be heard echoing across space as the bay doors of the supernova churned open and a torrential wave of fighters poured out. Thousands of fighter craft in a hive-like cloud of metal swarmed the intruder laying waste to the vessel. Inside the blackened craft the pilot had a smile dancing upon its twisted lips. Cutting throttle at the enormous speed it fell back and fired a burst into the scoutships leaving two to spiral into flames. Then faster than lightening itself, the ship sped forward, outmaneuvering the Collective Ace's and laying waste to craft after craft. Sharpnel filled the air as the Collective officials watched in horror, helpless as the dogfight commenced. Three Battlehinds swarmed the ship's rear, pumping waves of energy into the vessel's hull. The craft did a full turn, defying the laws of physics and executing all three with a single swipe. Two scoutships nailed their enemy on the side with heavy weapons. The ship sputtered and churned for a moment before streaking upwards gaining momentum and releasing a bomb upon the largest part of the swarm. The world became a smear of red as chaos was unleashed.
A stargazer interceptor hurried forward, streaking towards the ship with guns blazing, yet the craft in front activated a jump, going lightspeed through its enemy and reducing it to smouldering rubble. Swerving around one more time it set a trajectory for Maol. Fearing more casualties the Admiral called off the attack and the hive retreated slinking back into the Supernova's metallic hulls. However as pulse weapons patterned the vessel's hull, slowly bending it into submission, a single interceptor streaked forward. The Collective Ace of Aces, the greatest pilot in the entire fleet. A cold cruel snarl sat upon his lips as the soldier slid a gloved hand into the control slot. In a ship darker than the night it sped towards its enemy. The Sent, swerved the first attack, using superior technology to shrug off the enemy's first missile strike. The Ace retaliated in full, his entire body slammed against the cockpit as he jerked the craft left and followed in pursuit.
The Sent darted backwards, but the Ace followed in a maneuver that could have killed both. The two were locked in mortal peril for some time, swirling and dashing through the heavens. Each one retaliated perfectly to the other's attack, each pilot dancing in the stars. The Sent fired a slew of projectiles from its ship's hull. They smeared across the air to pepper the interceptor's wing. Shards of metal spewed from the craft as the pilot buckled forward. A barrage from the Orbitor continued to be in effect, peppering the void with explosions. Steadying his breath the Ace, studied the world around him, fingers clicking with the beat of the Orbiter's spray, he dodged his own army's bullets and flew directly above the Sent. Then in a move that showed no hint of remorse, he swung his ship forward, preying down upon the sent and piercing into the bronze hull. Metal tore and shredded as the sent moved sideways just in time to take a direct hit from the Orbiters bombardment. An explosion riddled the air as the Interceptor flew backwards, its engine crippled by the shockwave. The Pilot pulled off his black helmet and watched with green eyes as the Sent pushed through.
Trailing a mix of smoke and tarnished metal behind it, the enemy ship had been completely destroyed. The crumbling rubble steered towards New Arackis. A course from which it was sure never to return. Meanwhile, an Epsilon class ship sped forward and went to land on the surface of the planet. Roughly the size of two Earth aircraft carriers it settled on the desert sands to execute or find whatever corroded mutilated scrap remained of the mysterious craft.
In the meantime, the entire solar system, a population of some thirteen billion, looked up into the sky or across frosted window panes into an abyss of stars. Fear, love, and hate dominate their watchful eyes.