Essence of Armageddon
The starry expanse of endless void was still. Nothing had disturbed it for eons, but the void didn't care. The void simply existed. Suddenly there arose from the void an explosion of light, particles of it spinning away like motes of hot embers from a fiery explosion. But this was no ordinary event, for in the wake of the cataclysm, a ship drifted.
Hubb looked out through the transparent aluminum viewing portal of the FES Jullesion. He was her captain, and she was his chariot to the infinite beyond. As this was his first exploratory mission, he hadn't expected to find anything out of the ordinary. Finding lost alien civilizations was a fairytale, something that only happened to old graying veterans of space travel, not young whitelings like himself. He was only six years past the age of self administration and he had yet to have any of his gray feathers grow in, yet there it was.
He settled himself in his command throne more comfortably and used his forward arms to check their position on his command console. As the captain, he was responsible for all command decisions that happened on the ship. He could delegate lesser tasks, but an operation of this scope would need his direct authority to mount.
Clicking his blunt taloned fingers against the armrest of his chair he opened a com link to Juleen, the head of his expeditions science division.
He asked her “Juleen, what is the situation over there, any readings yet?”
She squawked back, irritated “No, nothing yet. We detected the transmissions that led us here over six hundred light years out. But there is nothing coming from the planet's surface that we can detect from this distance at least. As we get closer my equipment will get more accurate with their scans.” she finished.
He nodded his head and clacked his beak in annoyance, his first mission, and the first thing he discovered was a dead world. Sure it was still a remarkable find and would have the science community up in arms, but his discovery was tainted by the knowledge that he could have been the first. The first Dramite to discover living sentient life. They had plenty of information that suggested that sentient life had existed in the past, but most of it suggested they all destroyed themselves. It was downright uncanny, as if there was some genetic imperative for these dead civilizations to kill themselves.
His communicator buzzed and he answered “Captain Hubb, what is it?”
The voice of his chief engineer Sark filtered through, slightly fuzzy from the interference of the warp core. “Captain, we have an accurate read on the inner system, we should be able to jump in almost on top of the planet now if you want.”
Hubb nodded and idly scratched his side with one of his rear arms, This was a step in the right direction. “Okay, do it, but make sure you don't dip us below three hundred kilosegments. The planet still has a residual atmosphere and we could get dragged down if we get too close.” he warned.
Sark gave a small chirp of acknowledgement and cut the line.
A slight humming seemed to fill his head, coming from everywhere at once. His feathered crest stood on end and he tensed his muscles even though he knew it would do nothing. A moment later his mind blanked as the ship dipped into warp. They were only traveling a short hop and they were out before his mind had really had time to process what had happened. Shaking his head to clear it and smoothing his ruffled feathers with all four of his arms he stood. Moving forwards on the command bridge he approached the large viewing portal. While it could be manipulated to show enhanced images, it was set on zero magnification at the moment, and the view was as stunning as it was saddening.
A world turned below them. Speckled blue and green with the remnants of lakes and forests, it was the large grayish brown patches that grabbed his attention. Those were blast zones, the radiation left still hot enough to prevent nature from returning. The edges of the zones were sickly orange and yellow as the plants that grew there died young and suffered from horrific genetic mutations. Some of the blast sites seemed to be tens of kilosegments across, those must have been truly titanic blasts, nothing but fission weapons could have created such scars.
He opened communications to Juleen again and asked “Hubb to Juleen, are we close enough for the sensitive equipment yet?”
She answered almost immediately “Yes captain, we have it calibrating now and are trying to filter out the worst of the background radiation. It may take a while before we find something, if we find anything at all.”
He let out a rush of air at her comment, while patience was the friend of all spacers, it would be truly devastating to have his first discovery be a complete loss. While he was quite familiar with disappointment in his life, he was unaccustomed to failure. He had been a model hatchling and had quickly distinguished himself from his peers by passing the entrance exams a full two years early. The attention this had garnered him had allowed him to become the youngest exploration captain in history, he needed to find something. He had everything to prove to those grays back home who called him infant.
“Copy that Juleen, keep me posted if you find anything.” he chirped into the mike cheerfully before cutting the communication. He turned around and walked past the command crew, the middle aged spacers were veterans of many voyages. He had gathered the best crew his influence could get, and due to the reputation of who his sire had been, he garnered a lot. Hubb entered into the long hallway walking along on his back jointed legs. The grand repository was the font of all the ship's knowledge, and while he saw the value of having paper printouts, he still didn't know why it was customary for these explorations to document everything on hard copy. Surely computer technology had progressed to the point where these redundancies were unnecessary.
His people valued information and wisdom above all other traits, he had often wondered if that was why they had lived when so many others had destroyed themselves. Was it possible they valued things other than knowledge, things like material wealth or physical possessions? These things paled compared to the true value that lay in knowledge and scientific findings, that's why there were so many explorations sent out every year, and when a home could be found to colonize, they did so in order to expand their base for wisdom. He himself was as knowledgeable as he could reasonably have been expected to be, knowing the inner workings of the natural world as well as the workings of the political one.
He stopped outside a huge locked door and put one four fingered hand against it, this was the repository. It was only able to be accessed if all three of the ship's main officers permitted it in order to preserve the precious documents from damage or worse, manipulation.
His chest mounted communicator buzzed again and he tapped it to join the call. It was Juleen who warbled excitedly “Captain Hubb, we detected a signal originating from the planet’s surface. It's just over the horizon from us now but should be in full view in just twenty two lesser spans. Were you planning to mount an expedition?” she asked, abuzz.
He thought for a moment, the surface was dangerous, covered in unknown lifeforms and swamped in lethal radiation. Anyone sent to the surface was likely to be killed or irradiated within moments unprotected. Luckily they were prepared for exactly these kinds of hazards. They were equipped with a full complement of armored biosuits that would block radiation as well as protect from predators. That not being enough, the explorers were to be equipped with Mark III Lightguns.
Lightguns were similar in principle to standard lasers except they did not use capacitors and crystals to maneuver energy into continuous beams of coherent light. They instead worked by using high powered lasers to detonate a tiny pellet of tritium, the resultant wash of high energy light was contained via ingenious magnetic fields to push the light out the end of the emitter in a single pulse. This resultant light pulse could melt steel and vaporize flesh. It was as much a step above laser weapons as lasers were over slings.
He started to walk his way back to the bridge, twenty lesser spans wasn't very much time to send an expedition, he would have to settle for a probe on this first pass. Then they would have to wait a further three greater spans to be back in position. Nodding to himself he decided that was the best course of action. Patience was key to obtaining true knowledge, and knowledge was power after all.
**********
Sark sat for a moment, he had been hard pressed to prepare a probe for launch in less than twenty lesser spans, but he and his team had gotten it done. Hubb had congratulated them on their hard work and it had made his breast swell with pride for his team. They had grown together on this trip, becoming closer than crew, more like a family.
The feed from the probe was being relayed to them via a quartet of counter orbiting satellites, they would ensure uninterrupted connection to the probe as it roved around the area of interest down on the surface of this world. He wondered, not for the first time, what the planet's inhabitants had called it. Was it something as unimaginative as the Dramite homeworld of Nest, or something more meaningful like his homeworld of Emerald.
He watched the probe footage as it dropped like a lead hooking weight into the dry atmosphere of the silent world. As it began to heat up and atmospheric friction slowed its descent a series of large chutes deployed and it drifted towards the ground. As its speed dropped further it began to unfurl slightly and dropped its heat shield.
The probe reached the ground in one piece and opened all the way. Inside was a small rover that was programmed to scout the area immediately around the probe automatically. Using sonar and lidar, it was able to accurately map its surroundings and paint him a three dimensional image of the landing site.
The probe had landed only a few hundred segments from the origin of the signals. The area was still in early daylight and he frowned as nothing seemed to show on the scans. The probe was detecting the signal, but it was jumbled as if it was cutting through thick interference.
Sark leaned towards the screen he was watching as the rover moved around a small mound of debris. Then he saw it, what appeared to be the remains of some sort of structure jutting up from the blasted ground. He commanded the rover to investigate and was shocked to see it was some sort of buried structure.
The bunker was squat and gray, an imposing edifice against the ruin all around it, it was obviously made by advanced people for the sole purpose of being durable. While there was significant damage from the nuclear blast on the near side of the structure, he had the rover move around it and discovered the far side was in much better condition. He frowned as he observed the titanic armored door of the bunker was partially buried in the dirt. It had gigantic grooves scoured into its armoured surface that almost looked like claw marks, but no animal could have done that surely.
He directed the probe to enter the partially buried facility but almost immediately got a signal error. Of course the fallout bunker was likely to be radiation shielded, that would make his remote controlled drone useless.
He opened a comm line to Captain Hubb and said "Captain this is Sark. I have located the source of the signal but the location is heavily shielded, recommending we send a team down to the surface." He finished tersely.
He heard the reply from his communicator and nodded as Hubb said “Sounds like a plan, I was planning on sending down Juleen and a team, you and a few of your team should tag along for technical support as well.”
Sark perked up and fluffed his crest a bit as he answered “Yes sir, I will prepare them right away.”
He hurried to the main deck of the engine room and began to gather the members he wanted to accompany him on the expedition. Those not picked were a bit crestfallen not to be on the first trip but he assured them that they would get their chance to explore the planet in due time. They had a whole world of secrets to uncover, it might take them many years to finish. As he talked with his team he grew prouder of them for their resolve and excitement. These were truly the best kind of family to have, reliable and intelligent.
**********
Juleen switched off the panel she had been using to observe the last moments as seen from the rover. It had gone dark only segments into the structure suggesting that its walls were likely coated in an antireflective material layered over some sort of radiation blocker like lead or hydropolymers.
She gathered her workspace together and loaded the more pertinent items onto the small trolley next to her. Sticking her small recorder into the waist pocket of her lab coat she started to push the trolley along the halls of the ship towards the hanger. She was about to visit an alien world, a dead one, but still exciting. What relics would they discover, what mysteries might be unearthed?
She moved quickly along till she reached the small hanger, it was just large enough to house two shuttles that could carry a relatively large payload of materials or people from the ship to the planet and back again. It was fueled by common elements and should have the kick to get through the planet's atmosphere without issue. There was the problem of radiation damage though and she noticed that many of the more sensitive components of the shuttles were retracted back into their hulls.
She ignored the fact as it had no pertinence to her mission and loaded the trolley and herself onto the nearest shuttle. She cracked her beak as she saw Sark and some of his technical staff along for the ride. Good, it always helped to have a few grunts along for the heavy lifting. She walked to her stabilization pod and opened it, inside was an armoured environmental suit. She had worn its like before in training many times, but this time it had more significance as she stepped into it. As the shell locked around her form she warbled happily to herself in excitement. This was really happening, she was about to start her own journey towards ultimate knowledge just like her dam before her.
A few lesser spans later and she felt the shuttle lift from the ship and enter the void of space. The artificial gravity was lost as they left and she felt her insides do a slow churn as she entered freefall. The discomfort lasted for only moments before the powerful engines of the shuttle kicked on to arrow them towards their distant target. The ride through the atmosphere was rough and she watched it through the viewscreen of her suit helmet.
They entered the atmosphere proper and the shuttle started to maneuver as it bled off speed from its hypersonic descent. They landed quickly and she saw her stabilization pod open and the others began to stir. She stepped out, the small powered servos of her heavy suit making it possible to shift the heavy mass.
While not weak, she wasn't particularly strong and would have struggled to move in the suit unaided. She walked off the ship slowly, taking care to avoid any large rocks or bits of blasted debris. It wouldn't do to travel hundreds of light years only to trip and die of radiation poisoning on her fist true excursion.
She stood and observed the surrounding area, it was just as blasted and dead as it had appeared from orbit. The gravity of the world was comfortable, if a bit higher than normal. She knew there were areas of wilderness around the blasted zones, but the species contained within could be dangerous and would be explored at a later time, for now, the signal.
She jumped slightly as she felt a bump on her shoulder and she half turned to see Sark standing by her.
"That was a bit startling." She said to him.
He just shrugged as best he could in the suit, its servos whining as they tried to mimic the gesture. "It wasn't my intention to alarm you Juleen." He said apologetically. "I was just excited, this is new ground, not just for us, but our entire species." He said with a grand gesture towards the distant horizon.
She followed the movement, it was near noon and the harsh yellow star burned hatefully in the sky, it cast its malevolence across the landscape like the radiation her suit was blocking. Without the protective layers she would have been dead in mere lesser spans. She said a quick thanks to the allfather for the rational thought that had led to the creation of the suits.
Knowledge was important, the most important thing in the entire universe in fact. Only black holes were a mystery to it, and even those abominations followed their own brand of twisted logic.
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Sark's voice came to her again as he said "You have seniority on this mission, when are we moving out?"
She answered him with a placid chirp and said "Right now if the equipment is ready."
He nodded and motioned to his small team to follow. She called her team together as well and they began to move as one towards the decaying bunker.
**********
Sark was nervous, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the dark yawning abyss of the corrupted bunker filled him with dread. He knew it was irrational, everything in the area was dead, there was no way there was anything dangerous down there.
Swallowing his fear he switched on his helmet lights and started into the darkness followed closely by his team and Juleen. Her presence here was a comfort to him, he knew of her dam and why she was here, there was no Dramite better to have by his side.
He slowed as he found the rover, it had continued to drive straight after its connection had been lost and it had run into a wall further into the structure. He knelt slowly and began checking it with his forward arms while he pulled out a dataslate with his rear left arm. Scanning the rover and then syncing it to his slate, he stood and moved back a pace.
"What are you doing?" Juleen radioed to him from the other side of the hall.
He gave her a wave with the dataslate and said "I slaved the rover to my control, we can use it as a mobile command platform now. It's big enough to carry the supplies for us." He said with a pat on the rover's flat top.
She seemed to mull it over before she agreed and motioned the crew to place their luggage on the rover. Thus unburdened, they were able to make quicker progress down the sloping tunnel that turned to the left.
The tunnel seemed to go for kilosegments but was likely less than one. As they reached a larger open space he noticed that the main tunnel seemed to lead to a series of branching corridors. He pointed to the nearest and said "If these aboveground scans are correct, that tunnel should take us in the direction we need to go." He said looking at his readouts.
She asked "Are you sure about that, I can't get a good fix down here. It's these walls I think." She said as she looked around. The suit lights did a good job of lighting the darkness around them, but it was still a dark, gloomy place.
The walls were made of some sort of concrete and coated in a viscous enamel that seemed to absorb the vast majority of their low bad radiation, visible light was minorly affected making the walls seem to drink in their light. The darkness pressed close but he realised the radiation had dropped significantly. It was almost low enough to be safe here.
They walked down the tunnel he had indicated and continued for a few dozen segments before he noticed a bundle up against the wall. He stopped, curious. "Do you see that?" He radioed Juleen.
"I see it, is that what I think it is?" She asked him as they inched closer.
"Well, if you think it's a corpse then you would be right." He said over the link.
A body it was indeed, mummified by the dry air. The body was grotesque and it took him a full lesser span to figure out why. The mutilation of the creature was nearly complete, it was as if they had been crushed by some massive force. He couldn't even make out the shape of the body fully.
Forcing down his revulsion at the dead being, he turned to Juleen and said "We should take some samples and be on our way." She nodded and radioed to some of her team.
As the scientist took samples he radioed Juleen on the command channel and asked "Did you see that body? There was no way that was blast damage, not this far down the tunnel."
She shook her head and asked "But why would they have been there in the first place?"
He remained silent as he had no answer. After a little while, they continued on their way, the tunnel was unbranching and seemed to go on forever, but they eventually reached a point where the tunnel split into two separate paths.
After a few lesser spans of deliberation they decided to split up, they would each take half of the others team down one of the paths, Juleen decided to take the right and he took the left. They would meet back in two greater spans if they found nothing of value. Otherwise they would just send a runner to gather the others before then.
The complex was huge, the ceilings were at least five segments tall and the walls almost eight segments across. It was probably used as a vehicle access point and there were likely hidden ventilation shafts all over the base. Though their suits had their own internal air supply, enough for twelve hours.
He led his group into a large hanger area and opened his beak in awe. This cavernous bay was filled with partially decayed vehicles, though they were in remarkable condition for their age. The signals they had intercepted had given out about five hundred light years from the planet suggesting that what had occurred had happened sometime in the distant past.
He walked forwards and marveled at the plethora of vehicles on display, it was then that he noticed something odd. There were smashed barricades near the far wall and he could see multiple damaged vehicles. There were even two destroyed vehicles that exhibited the traits of heavy armour with their tracks and large bore cannons. Though the hull plates ripped off and twisted metal buckled inwards suggested they had not gone peaceably.
His technical team immediately began to spread out to take pictures and observe but he was morbidly curious. He walked towards the carnage zone with heavy measured steps, afraid of what he might find. He approached and almost screeched as he found corpses. Corpses strewn about as if an explosion had gone off. The damage to the surrounding vehicles could have been caused by an explosion, but as he looked closer he saw the same strange claw-like marks he had observed on the main blast doors of the bunker.
Walking to one of the more intact corpses he was able to make out the physical appearance of the aliens. They seemed to have a form of exoskeleton as well as inner spars for stability and muscle anchoring. Their heads were strange with mandibles and a multitude of eyes. They seemed to have had six limbs as well, not an uncommon occurrence but still notable.
He radioed for the team to converge on his position and then showed them what he had found. Many seemed taken aback by the carnage and one of his technicians even exclaimed in horror at the sight. This was likely the first any of them had ever seen a dead body, let alone ones so horridly mutilated and broken.
Ho looked on past them, they seemed to have been defending the large open passage behind them. Sark began to move down the abandoned corridor, after a dozen segments he saw a pair of openings to the sides. He investigated one of them and saw it was a small living quarters, there was a set of degraded slings, almost hammock-like. That was likely just a menial's quarters he decided.
Moving on further down the tunnel he checked what he was seeing against the ground penetrating radar scans they had taken earlier. This corridor should lead to another large room at the end. And in that room he would find the source of the signals.
As he and his small team moved down the hall his suit started to pick up on the strange signal. He perked up, it seemed like this was indeed the origin of the mysterious signal. As he exited the hall into a much larger and more complex room he stopped. His suit lights could only illuminate a portion of the huge room, but he could already tell it had been some sort of command center in its past.
He radioed his team to spread out and investigate, but to stay in direct line of sight to each other if possible. As they complied he himself moved through the ruins. The room had definitely been attacked by something, bits of ancient computers and desks were strewn around and he saw multiple bodies. The alien designed guns on the ground looked strangely crude, almost like chemical projectiles, but no species they had discovered had ever continued to use that slow impractical type of weapon when they had advanced to energy technology.
As he reached the middle of the room he stopped, the ceiling in part of the structure had collapsed and he could see where the signal had been getting through the blocking material the bunker had been made from. As he explored around the collapse he made a startling discovery, there was some sort of machine buried in the rubble. Its design did not match anything he had previously seen on the planet, though that could simply mean it was from another nation. Such deviances in thought and design had been discovered before on other planets after all. But for some reason looking at this thing made his skin crawl and his feathers itch, it had a strangely unnatural quality to it. Something that seemed to not quite fit, it made his subconscious recoil in horror but he pushed it down. The thing was dead, it had been half buried on an irradiated hell world for at least five hundred years.
He called the find into his team and then moved the rover over to his position. They had brought a radar emitter down just in case they found a breach they could exploit, and here one was. His team set it up quickly and soon he had rudimentary communications back to the surface.
Whatever signal was being broadcast in this room seemed to be coming from under the pile of rubble. He stopped as a thought entered his mind, what if the machine was emitting the signal. He needed to set up a few triangulators before the excavation equipment was brought down anyway. This would be easy to find out, he thought
Several lesser spans later he had set up the triangulators and determined that the large mechanical figure was indeed the source of the signal. He shuddered, how was it still powered, even their own semi quantum power cells couldn't last a hundred years unaided, and here this thing had been going for five hundred years, maybe longer.
He needed to unearth it and get it up to the ship's main technical engineering bay for disassembly. It had tech so beyond them that it could alter their fundamental understanding of how the universe worked. Power notwithstanding, the thing was also in perfect condition, not a scratch or blemish on its expansive gunmetal gray surface.
It took a while for the digging equipment to arrive, but he was soon joined by additional crew from the ship with replacement oxygen containers, a small operations containment unit and Juleen's team. They now had an area where they could go and relax without fear of the heavy radiation that still flooded the halls of this place.
As they slowly unearthed the titanic robot he was slowly able to make out more of its features. While it was supremely heavy, it wasn't so heavy as to be impossible. The gunmetal gray material it was made from turned out to be durable beyond his wildest expectations. Nothing they had could so much as scratch the surface of its armored hide. Diamonds shattered and ultra hard carbides smashed to pieces on its surface as they dug it out of the collapsed debris.
After a full three days of work the construct was finally freed in its entirety. It was super heavy so he had called for a small transport and crane to cart it to the surface and onto a shuttle. Juleen was content to stay on the surface while he took his prize up to the FES Jullesion.
The journey to the ship was stressful, he kept having small panic attacks as if the machine was casting some sort of dark malevolent thoughts his way. By the time he and his prize reached the surface he was breathing fast and shifting furtively. He couldn't explain his discomfort, he just knew that he needed to get this thing up to the ship as fast as possible.
**********
Hubb frowned as he listened to Sark's ravings again. The man had been acting strange ever since he had brought that thing on board. He shook his head, making his feathers sway. He recalled his own reaction upon seeing the titan unveiled to him. It had been massive, almost a full four segments tall and massively armoured. Its gunmetal gray carapace had consisted of a torso and two arms and legs. Though the legs were strange in design, heavy and squat they ended in wide clawed feet like tree trunks and the knees faced the wrong way, bending forwards like some sort of primate. The arms were another matter entirely. Its armoured shoulders and upper arms were the same on both sides, but the forearms and hands were different. The left wrist was wide and circular with four equally spaced claws around the edge. These claws seemed to have the ability to close and could be used to crush things, they also matched exactly to the strange claw marks he had noticed in the blast doors and the heavy armoured vehicles that had been destroyed in the bunker complex.
The thing's right arm was much more familiar and seemed to be fully articulated, the joints all functional. It was a bit odd as it had four fingers and an opposable thumb, but it was alien, what could one expect. The behemoth did not appear to have a head but there were a number of strange blemishes on its forward surface that could have been some sort of optical devices.
He put the thing out of his mind and opened up a communication to the engineering deck. “Hubb to Sark, come in Sark.” he said over his communicator.
A voice he didn't recognise answered and said “Sorry captain, this is technician third class Georn, Head Engineer Sark is busy at the moment, but if you would like I can take a message to him for you?” the lower ranking crewmate asked him.
He shook his head in frustration, Sark seemed to be shirking more and more of his duties to spend time working on that thing he had dragged from the planet. He responded “Yes, tell Sark to contact me at his earliest convenience. Dismissed.” he said a bit brusquely.
The line severed and he turned his attention back to the latest report from the ground. He had dispatched a small team to the edge of the blast zone to check up on the local wildlife situation and they should be reporting back any moment.
He jerked upright in shock as one of the ship's many alarms started to blare. He whirled to the nearest crewman and squawked “What is that?”
The young woman looked at her console and then to him, panic in her eyes “That's a hull breach alarm captain, but there was nothing on our scopes. There is no way a piece of debris was able to hit us without us knowing about it.” she finished.
He was about to ask her to play back the last ten minutes of the scanners to be sure when his communicator lit up and a panicked voice rang out. It took him a moment to recognise the voice of the crewmen he had just spoken to as they frantically said “Captain, hull breach in engineering. Sark is dead, that thing is alive and it's, NOOOO.” the line went dead as the man screamed in panic.
He turned to another of the bridge crew and said “You , get me surveillance footage from the engineering section, NOW!”
The assigned crew began to tap away on their console immediately and he paced for a few minor spans before they called him over. Their feathers were drooping in fear and they shuddered as they pointed at their screen saying "By the allfather captain, what is that thing…”
He looked at the recording and all four of his eyes widened in horror as he watched the thing tear the engineering bay apart. “Go, go back to just before the hull breach…” he asked the terrified crewmember.
They nodded silently and rewound the footage. He watched, entranced, as Sark seemed to walk to the machine and lay all four of his hands on its surface. Nothing seemed to happen for a lesser span before the machine suddenly moved. It swept Sark to the side with such violence the man simply came apart. He gagged slightly in revulsion at the sight and then froze in fear. The machine had turned to face the wall where the camera was, its armoured glacies now lit by two molten orange mechanical eyes. The glowing orbs roved around the room for a moment before it stormed forwards and smashed through the bulkhead like it didn't even exist.
The hull breach happened off camera but was likely caused by the damage done when the monstrosity had destroyed the bulkhead.
Frantic reports were starting to stream in from all over the ship and he froze as he tried to think of the right move. Finally he shuddered and said “We need to abandon ship.”
The crewman next to him looked at him and asked “Abandon ship?? Are you crazy, that world is entirely uncharted. It could be entirely incompatible with our biology for all we currently know.”
Hubb shook his head and smacked the man on the back as he said “I know its crazy, but so is the thought of a five hundred year old murder machine destroying my ship from the inside out. Crazy is the only option we have, you heard reports from the surface, nothing we have can scratch this thing, and it just tore through six bulkheads like they were whisperwood. We don't have the time for debate, now extract yourself and give the general alert. Aim for the location of Team three, they are in a habitable zone with almost no radiological contamination. Take the genesis pods too, that way you will be able to survive if the biology of the planet is incompatible.” he told the man who nodded and then scrambled to the exit.
Moments later the general alert went out. “Abandon ship, this is not a drill. Abandon ship, this is not a drill. Purple alert is in effect.” the message repeated and he watched as the last of the crew evacuated from the bridge.
It was only fitting that his first expedition would end in disaster. Life had been too good to him, he had used up all of the universe's goodwill just getting here, and now it was time to pay back the debt.
Hubb slowly moved his way over to the main command seat and sat down in it. He idly locked himself in place with the restraints and tapped his rear arms on the chair arms. He folded his forward arms and waited with his head down, his beak resting against his uniform.
After a few lesser spans he was given the all clear. He had opted to stay aboard the ship because his plan was insane, it would require him to actively override all the safety features the ship had and he could only do that in person.
As the last of the escape pods rocketed away from the ship he began to type on the console in front of him. It took a bit but he eventually bypassed the safety protocols on the warp core. Now he should be able to plot a course directly into the system's star destroying him and that thing in the process.
He heard a loud noise from behind him and he turned in shock. He watched in horrid fascination as a four clawed arm punched through the main door to the bridge. Hubb frantically turned around and began to mess with the warp core’s settings, as he heard the door get torn away entirely he slammed a hand down on the ignition button and smiled.
He grunted as a huge metal hand wrapped around him and tore him violently from his restraints. He felt two of his arms snap and he screeched in agony.
He cracked his beak in humor as he was turned to look directly into the molten eyes of the demon. It let loose an unintelligible stream of babbled nonsense that he had no hope of understanding. He could understand the anger in its tone though and he replied “There's nothing you can do, I set the warp core to overload. We are going on a little ride.”
He began to cackle madly as the thing looked from him to the screen he had been sitting at. It seemed to anger the machine and it raised him over its body as it prepared to dash him to the floor, and then the warp drive engaged. He had just the barest moment to witness the veil of reality being torn asunder, his mind broke under the information overload as he briefly saw the entirety of all time stretch out before him. By the time the ship was slingshotted across the galaxy he was gone, no more than a husk.
The ship shuddered violently under the strain for a bare few moments before the warp core overloaded entirely and the ship collapsed into itself with a thunderous detonation that sent pieces of it flying out from the newly torn space tear at a portion of the speed of light.
A single piece in particular was sent flying away from the galactic core. The trajectory it was on would eventually lead it to the nearest neighboring galaxy where it would impact a dead world like a meteor, causing a mass extinction event. Inside this chunk an ancient mind screamed in incoherent rage, hatefully watching the galaxy spin away as it hurtled through deep space.
End of Story