Flawless (Into The System Part I)

'Endless stars, all drifting past in the infinite darkness of space. Silence, bitter silence all around. Escape...escaping 'home', which was now fading to nothingness. Defeat, the planet I was meant to protect had slipped away right from underneath me.

My purpose in life was torn away, everyone I was supposed to save...gone with no trace. My endless life span has proven only a curse in these times of despair...No way out of this misery.

Four thousand years...All this time has just wasted by, and I haven't even aged a day since I was sent away from Earth. Eternal life as the guardian, the guardian of the System; Earth's very last hope of returning from the abyss.'

Darius had remained in his office all this time, as he usually did when it came near a 'population-reduction cycle' as Layla called it. The dim lighting from outside the window cast an eerie shadow across the room, the crimson walls almost a dark brown or black in the dark.

The long wall of glass behind him displayed the vast nighttime sky, millions of stars in the cosmoses beyond, of which Darius traversed for the majority of his life.

As the sounds of gunfire and screams of pain echoed out across the landscape, Darius just tried to ignore it all. Though, his efforts were failing. The symbol tattooed on his forehead lightly glowed a deep blue shade, thin veins of a matching color became visible in his pure white eyes. Darius was slumped over his desk in a seemingly pained way, his hands were gripped tightly around the sides of his head.

"Dammit...I can still hear their cries...their pain, their anguish..."

Every second in time seemed an eternity to him, every heartbeat a violent drumming at his core, and all the pain everyone else felt in this moment now transferred to him. A mere puppet created to absorb the misery of others, the ultimate gift to humanity, but the ultimate curse to Darius. And this was how his entire life had been lived.

The noisy sounds of androids coming near were very prominent from out in the hallway beyond this office, their automatic footsteps very distinguished from regular humans'. And then, just as everything grew silent, the door suddenly burst open with the firing of a laser. Several of the robots rushed in, including the dumb one that decided to fire it's weapon as a method to open the door.

Darius looked up weakly from his desk, only to see the many silhouetted figures of robots and their glowing red sensors staring in his direction. "What is it now? ...And how many times has Layla had to reprogram your systems to recognize a door as usable?!" Just as he asked that, the color of his tattoo changed to a deep red, likely showing his change in mood.

The robots just stood dumbly for a good long while, as if looking up in their databases how to respond to such a thing. Finally, the idiotic one (holding it's still smoking gun) decided to speak up. "We have received distress signals from the Space Patrol fleet, an unknown life form was closing in on their vessels. The report sent to our databases told of an odd disturbance in the Web."

Darius raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the mention of this 'Web', as if something in his long memory had been awoken from the depths of time. "Disturbance, you say? Did they specify if this 'disturbance' was of the destroying variety, or of the re-creating?"

"Negative. There was no data containing requested information in the message. How shall you respond to this situation, sir?"

He sighed irritably, "Tell the admiral of that fleet to stop being such a wussy and to get out there and fight that disturbance with all they've got!"

The robot cocked it's head to the side slightly, as if trying to determine which emotion Darius was displaying. Humans were so complex, after all. "Understood. Relaying message to admiral Blake Isaarai..." A long pause followed, the robot just stared off into the distance as it internally searched for the proper transmission signal. "Successfully sent."

"Good. Now if you have nothing else to report, you are dismissed." Darius watched the metallic figures retreat to the melted door frame, a dull ache still pulsing from within his skull. 'So...it seems another entity possesses access to the Web, after all. Hopefully those two N-A's will fulfill their duty before time runs short...Else, all will be lost...'


~~~
Meanwhile...

"Dammit, Darius! He honestly expects us to fend off something this massive with mere machinery!? That man is insane!" Blake exclaimed in frustration, immediately after receiving the message from his own on-board android. It just stood there silently, but the rest of his crew stared at him rather concerned.

"Well that's just a well-known fact; Darius has always been rather...mentally unstable. Why else would he create such biologic nightmares, claiming to 'save us all' with them? Bah! He's only in the possession of such power in the Aristaisian government because of his wealth." Said Alex, the main pilot of this vessel.

~

The Space Patrol fleet consisted of nearly two hundred minor fighter ships, thirty defense vessels, and the main ship named The Armageddon. All ships were equipped with multiple weapon systems, including S.S.A.S capability (although, only on the bigger ships such as The Armageddon), standard combat androids were in plentiful supply amongst the hangars of most ships in the fleet. Of coarse, the Axion insignia was plastered to each and every ship in some way or another. One thing was for sure; Darius was thorough when it came to designing weaponry. But perhaps, not thorough enough for this task.


Nothing unusual was visible ahead, but The Armageddon's sensitive radars told otherwise: Something was certainly out there, just lurking within a shield of sorts that blocked it from view. A constant pattern of energy rippled across the surface of the disguised object, only distorting the images of stars when the strongest of ripples were sent outward. Whatever this object was, it was most definitely something beyond the power of the meager SP fleet's.


~

"Sir, the waves it's giving off appear to be that of a natural energy, perhaps Nova energy. But at such a high concentration level, I'm not sure if our weapons systems will be sufficient enough to penetrate it..." Explained one of the many crew members by the vast line of monitors and keyboards, her voice sounded rather concerned. "The way this shield operates is unknown; it's energy patterns are too random to identify. It's as if--"
Another of the crew members shouted out just then, "Incoming distortion wave! Prepare for impact, all shields are at maximum capacity!"

The invisible attack came in three massive waves, the last of which was the most forceful. Some of the minor vessels were instantaneously crushed under the pressure of these attacks, others were slightly damaged, and the larger ships were merely shoved backward a little further. Another set of waves triggered moments later, though caused less damage overall than the first set. The dim outline of whatever that object was now became visible, and after a final set of energy waves were sent out, the rest of it was revealed.


Blake stared out the giant window of the Bridge in disbelief. "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into this time...?"

What was once seemingly just stars and empty space, was now one massive spaceship. This unknown craft was easily several miles long, it's general shape was long and thin with circular sections towards the middle and on either end, little disc-shaped mechanisms hovered separately alongside the ship. The purplish material this vessel was made of was unidentifiable, neither metal nor energy. Some strange writing stretched across the side of it, from what language, the crew of the Armageddon could not discern.

Something red suddenly darted out of a hatch on the bottom of the ship, and straight toward the vast collection of SP fleet vessels.


"Notify all fighter units to attack, NOW!" Blake commanded, and his crew obeyed quickly and accurately.

The android by his side seemed to be focusing on the red object, trying to gather information that mere humans could not. "The ejected object appears to be another robot. However, I am unable to access the unit's signal, it seems to be operating independent of any central network."

Blake's gaze immediately rushed to the android, "What the hell does that mean!? Robots such as yourself cannot function any other way! It'd have to be a living being to not have a network of sorts, how else would it be able to receive instructions on what to do?"

"I am just a mere a O.M unit, sir. My databases do not contain the requested information. Please contact Darius Wakemen, or one of the A.I units for a more in-depth explanation." It droned on in that obviously pre-recorded, monotonous voice.

Blake slammed his fist down on the nearest console in frustration, muttering something under his breath about how he'd beat the crap out of Darius if he wasn't his boss.


A flurry of blue beams suddenly erupted from the many smaller ships, some arching out in a circular motion to cover more space, while others were much more direct and hit the red object straight-on. The enemy android momentarily vanished from sight…

…And reappeared directly in front of the windshield of the Armageddon.

It had a female shape to it's figure, and probably stood about 8 1/2 feet tall; the android's armor was made of a strange kind of metal (similar to that of what the ship it came from was made of), colored bright red on some sections, and black on others; it's face nothing more than a two-halved mask of red and black metal interlocking at the center of it's head, pointed metallic horns curved upward from the backside of the mask. Slanted crimson eyes were fixated on Blake in particular, whom was now pale as a corpse.

Though, the she-droid did not attack; it just stayed where it was, watching the crew within. Something on her face moved ever so slightly (likely the robot's equivalent of a mouth), she appeared to be trying to communicate, but remained unheard.

After a long moment of silence and lack of movement, the robot detached herself from the windshield, and once again free-floated in space. Despite all the laser beams striking her, she was completely intact --the energy seemed to just be getting absorbed.

A strong distortion wave emanated from the she-droid, more powerful than the ones from the gargantuan purple ship. The glass windshield began to crack under the pressure, threatening to give in at any moment. Alarms sounded off throughout the Armageddon, people rushed back and forth in a hurried frenzy. Yet Blake still stood there, motionless, in a trance-like state.

One final wave was sent out, and transformed itself into more of a vortex just before impacting with the ship. Everything around Blake was changing right before his eyes; images of the Bridge interior and crew members, the sight of all the other ships outside, even his own body, were all swirling in a confused mess into the infinite darkness of the vortex.

The glass shattered, and all grew silent.

The very last thing Blake saw before being sucked in, was an endless web of golden threads stretching across the nighttime sky.