บท 1: Prologue
The Commanders – Von Neuman Machines with an incredible rate of self-replication and self-improvement.
The ultimate creation of humanity, their servants during their golden age, their protectors during their fall, and their executioners in their final hour.
Through the generations of war, many commanders were created, the exact method, location, or factory remaining a closely guarded secret, and this scarcity was what made each generation so different, giving them different priorities, allowing a not so insignificant number of them to come to humanity's defense in their final war.
Nevertheless, in the end, this only prolonged the inevitable, as the Commanders who defended humanity were the ones most restricted by them, making but a handful of them capable of facing the enemy commanders in warfare.
(Unknown Universe, Unknown Galactic Time, Resistance HQ)
The room was full as the door was finally closed, leading to an eerie quiet before the man in the podium finally began to speak.
"Everyone here... good." - The general spoke before a hologram lit up in front of everybody.
"A hologram... we must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel." - A voice spoke from the side.
"Yeah, well at the rate things are going you likely won't even have to get used to it, so pipe down." - The general said as he threw a look at the man before he addressed the room.
"As you all can see, the hijacking of the implants in the latest skirmish with the machines has cost us a lot. We suspect it found a way through our firewalls long since before it followed us here, it merely was waiting for us to commit most of our forces to a single offensive before using it... not like it matter sat this point though. So, let's focus on what we can do now."
"With the loss of approximately 90% of our navy, we are now completely relying on, what those eggheads built based on those old archive caches would like us to call, 'allies' for any sort of defense while up there." - The general said with distaste while pointing upwards.
As he spoke, another officer spoke from the side.
"90% loss... taking into account the expected launch of the ARK within the coming cycle, doesn't that leave us with simply "TRISTAN", the BASTION-class dreadnought and its complement of corvettes and fighters... well approximately anyway?"
The general gave him, and the rest of the room, who looked at him with questioning eyes a hard look before confirming.
"Indeed, and to make matters worse, as you all know, the "BASTION" variant of the capital dreadnought class was designed as a defense class dreadnought. It holds very little in terms of offensive weaponry, opting instead for contingents of space and planetary troops, meant to reinforce strategic points across a planet that is deemed too valuable to be lost, while holding back any invading fleet. Not exactly a selling point in our upcoming operation." -
"But sir, weren't "BASTION" class also used in successful occupations as well... you know, before the war?"
"You're not wrong, but that was only against inferior enemy fleets, be it in number or quality. Against a comparable fleet, a defense class can only buy time, or try and win by attrition... and we can't afford that anymore... so, let us start this final briefing, for the ARK leaves in 2 days, and our attack begins in that same moment. Many died in the effort to obtain the commander's location without arousing suspicion. Our allies paid an especially heavy price."
The Hologram changed as the commander straightened up.
"This is our target, Xinthar Model Commander, no known designation to go by, either never has had it, there was no need for it, or it was lost with time. It's an early pre-war model based on the greatest weapon the Xinthar race could field at the time of their annihilation by humanity's commanders. Afterwards recreated into a commander body, as with most of the greatest weapons of the defeated races, though the Xinthar were particularly tech savvy, making this model particularly deadly. It has 3 primary weapons that we can observe, not including the reclaimer unit, which might take time on a structure, but it won't need a second on us, we do not have as much to reclaim as you might think. Unlike most commanders, it lacks an Uber cannon, but again, that main cannon might as well be one, even worse since our new energy shields won't do much if anything at all against it. As far as the AI itself is concerned... well, we are not sure. Records that remain contain little to nil about the specific programming of each commander, but we do know they are capable of individual thinking." - The general said as certain parts on the hologram were highlighted before details started to appear below them.
As he continued for a few more hours, the briefing slowly came to an end. Everybody left the room as the general stayed behind.
"Who would have thought that even the multiverse wasn't big enough to escape those bastards... no, we could escape further, the ARK will survive, hopefully long enough to find allies... hell, even some tyrants to lord over us... as long as we are alive... there is hope."
He switched the hologram as an expansive map of the current universe appeared. It slowly turned red section by section before a tiny section in the corner was highlighted with blue and white.
"The universe is always expanding, but the speed of that expansion is in constant change... and yet, now of all times, when we are at the end of our ropes, that expansion has decided to come to a crawl, barely a kilometer in the last 24 hours., and to make matters worse... it has been at this approximate speed for the last month."
The general cast a look towards the commander hologram before turning back to the map with a dark chuckle.
"We barely made some headway in terms of energy shielding, and those things have found a way to slow down the speed at which a universe expands.... hahaha... it's not even funny at this point."
The general rubbed his eyes with a tired sigh before a tremor shook the entire room.
He leaned on a nearby wall as he tried to maintain his balance among the tremors, looking out the window as a giant translucent dome slowly flickered out of existence.
[MAYDAY, MAYDAY, THIS IS "TRISTAN". WE ARE LOSING ALTITUDE. APPROACHING LOW-ORBIT. WE REQUIRE ASSISTANCE]
As numerous communications blared all over the HQ, the general turned his gaze to the descending behemoth, and with his enhanced vision, it was easy for him to see the enemy who was giving it a "helping" hand. Another dreadnought class, pushing with the full power of its engines in a 90° angle from above, plunging it into the experimental shield and even further below.
He connected to a channel before proceeding.
"This is general Henderson. How in hell did a ship that size get that close before we were even able to respond?" - He asked calmly.
[General sir. We are not entirely sure, but we detected similar readings to that of a universal jump mere moments before its arrival... right atop "TRISTAN" which was already descending to pick up the base's defense battalion sir, engaging its engines and ramming it into low orbit, overloading the shield together with it. The "TRISTAN's" upward engines barely slowed it down, but they cannot match the forward thrust of a battleship. They are still losing altitude sir, but the enemy dreadnought is merely a wreckage now, the defense installations made short work of it after they got a clearer shot due to its proximity.]
"They jumped to another universe, and then jumped back in this one. It's an extremely wasteful maneuver, resource wise, and one very likely to fail due to the constant change of environmental variables. It's quite possible they didn't just send one dreadnought; this is just the one that made it through. It didn't do much damage, but I guess it was only meant to separate the dreadnought from the rest of the fleet."
As the general looked up, he saw multiple objects break through the orbit and crash into the ground... but they didn't stop, drilling further underground and disappearing from sight, leaving behind massive craters and tunnels at their centers.
[WARNING!!! DETECTED BREACH OF THE MANTLE!!! ALL FORCES PROCCED TO DELAY TACTICS!!! PREPARE FOR EVACUATION!!!]
"Somehow, I don't believe they are going to stop at the mantle and try and build their forces here. It's clear they want us dead, and this planet and its resources are an acceptable casualty."
The general turned to look at the BASTION-class dreadnought once more before speaking to his troops.
"We won't be able to hold. Get me to the "TRISTAN" ... and launch the ARK."
[Sir, with all due respect we have not reached the required energy levels for a safe jump, not to mention our probes are scheduled to return tomorrow...]
"Disregard safety parameters, we will not last the coming hours, let alone the day. Jumping to any of the probed locations will merely delay the inevitable until the probes return right into the grasp of that machine. It's a shot in the dark, but you will have to choose a random location, in which case it will take them much more time to find you disregarding blind luck... or, proceed to make a blind jump. DO NOT... ask for my orders... cut all communication, switch to manual control of the ship and then launch. You are now in charge of all the souls within the ARK captain. Henderson out."
[Copy that sir, ARK out.]
As he blinked, Henderson found himself teleported to the bridge of the "TRISTAN".
"Any word from our allies?"
[No help to be expected within an acceptable timeframe. Designation "PRIMUS" has taken to the field, but the sheer number discrepancy has them crawling towards us... BE ADVISED!!! MASSIVE ENERGY SIGNATURE BUILDUP FROM THE ARK. ITS ABOUT TO JUMP!!!]
As the comms blared, an officer spoke from the side.
"Sir, a jump within the atmosphere will release a massive shockwave. Projections are all over the place, from us drifting for miles to the planet integrity being severely compromised."
The general thought for a moment before giving his orders.
"... ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR JUMP."
The officers looked around as some of them threw a look at the ongoing battle below them. They were sentencing what was left of their forces to certain death... though all of them knew, staying would change absolutely nothing.
A few moments passed as an officer reported.
"Sir, we are ready to jump."
"Wait for the ARK, then jump at the following coordinates before the shockwave hits`." - Henderson said as he sent the coordinates to the officer.
"Sir... this..." - The officer hesitated as he read the coordinates.
"There is no place left for us to run. The ARK is still hidden, and the simultaneous jump will scramble the readings. With a little luck, it will look as if the generator self-destructed under the HQ as we jumped, hopefully buying some time for the survivors of the ARK."
The ground cracked as a massive shockwave was generated from under it.
"Environment pressurized, bulkheads sealed, damaged areas sealed, "TRISTAN" jumping."
With a thunderous crack, the shockwaves crashed with one another, and the planet was torn apart.
--------------------------
(Meanwhile, on a heavily industrialized planet)
The sound of machines working in unison never stopped, working together in perfect sync, as a lone machine suddenly stopped in its tracks.
[STATUS UPDATE]
[ENEMY BASE OF OPERATIONS HAS BEEN RENDERED INOPERABLE.]
[CALCULATING TRAJECTORY... EXPECTED ENEMY PRESENCE IN ORBIT... RECALCULATING... EXPECTED ENEMY PRESENCE IN LOW ORBIT]
The commander tilted its humongous body slightly up, almost as if looking at the sky.
The enemy had deduced the location of his primary body, though not that it mattered much. As long as a single nanobot was operational, so was he... but that didn't mean he was arrogant. Rapid expansion in an effort to effectively choke his enemy had left him spread rather thin in resources, such that most of his contingencies were yet to be in an implementable state... but a commander was nothing if not prepared.
He already had a contingency in the event that something happened, and he was unable to continue the war himself, something that would more than likely break their alliance with the new little toys they had fashioned themselves.
As his quadrupled form trotted forward, he passed numerous defense layers as he stopped in front of a hanging figure, smaller than himself but not by much.
[YOUR UNITS' USEFULNESS HAS COME TO AN END...]
The bipedal robot merely cast a look towards the towering commander.
The commander waited, but albeit this unit, although inferior and clearly affected by emotions, just like their creators, didn't speak. It was a well-trained one as it appears. Many creators had lashed out with words fueled by rage in that same position, giving the commander invaluable information that sometimes not even torture could extract.
The titanic body leaned a bit forward as its arm was leveled with the bipedal robot.
An excruciating scream followed as he was reclaimed slowly, piece by piece until there was nothing left of him.
[DATA COLLECTED; RESOURCE RECLAIMED]
Turning around, the commander gave one last order before he exited the room.
[EXECUTING CONTINGENCY PROTOCOL #3. PROTOTYPE MODEL PLANETARY SIEGE ENGINE, DESIGNATION "UNICRON", POWERING UP.]
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VeilD
VeilD Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this prologue, decided to start this as a hobby to pass my free time... hopefully, I don't suck too bad at this.
If you have any ideas for the story based on what you read, any twists, certain characters, or anything at all you might think is a good addition, do leave a comment.
I can't promise I will add it, but it might just give me inspiration.
Thank you, have a great rest of the day/night.
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