She's... a bit terrible at her job, isn't she xD
Anyways, I got bored so... random story for the first time the Collective used the device, hurray! xD
VOID OF THE STARS: ASHES TO ASHES
She was young and patriotic the day she was tossed from her universe, never to pair, never to have children and never to experience all that life had to offer. When she was young, she had envisioned sitting in that spire that lay at the center of Videt, peering out over the city as the Supreme Overlord of the Milky Way galaxy. But fate had other plans, and she would die away from her kind in this endless, alien void
This was the day the Universe as all sentient life had known it ended. This was the day the Collective deployed it's newest weapon against the Extra-Universal invaders by using slipspace.
Dark Energy flew overhead towards the landing extra-universals, their weaponry burning chunks out of the planet and their ground forces, hideous mutants of innumerable species, all infused with seemingly crude cybernetics, charged forwards towards the Collective lines. Thousands of them fell, but they just continued to stream forwards, over the disintergrating bodies of their fallen and onwards towards the defensive line of Synth Soldiers that had been guarding the supposedly minor world on the now-outer rim of Collective space.
But this was no ordinary minor world. This wasn't, in fact, a minor world, even though it was designed to look like that. Underneath the sewers of it's largest town lay a Collective research facility, where the final phase of Project: Severance was underway, and deep below the chaos a team of scientists worked tirelessly. The machine was a cylindrical shape, with a single prong rising into the air and three attached 'claws' that would spin around it as part of the inter-dimensional transmission system
"There's no more time" Spectre Overseer Corvus said, clad in black armour as he turned to the lead Argutus at the scene. Corvus was a relatively tall Triarian, standing at about 5'8 with larger than average eyes. The Spectre unit was also physically imposing... at least for a Triarii, compared to even an average human adult he would be considered weak and this showed in his form. On his wrist was strapped the 'Gauntlet', resembling a metallic wrist band with a small bulge ont he underside and a large pistol-like construct attached to the top, this weapon incorporated a Dark Energy Blade and the Hardlight Pistol used prominently by Triarii officers, and it was at the ready, aimed towards the door.
"Very well, we shall activate the slipspace drive" The Lead Argutus replied, tapping a few commands onto a terminal to his side and signalling to his team as his eyes began to glow a dull orange as he used Psionics to communicate with the various team members. As the banging in the hallways grew closer as the soldiers engaged in combat across the facility, the Argutus team worked fast to open the Trans-dimensional portal.
They had to deploy Project:Severance within the Secondary Universe, the one used by the Collective for travel. This would boost it's signal to cover most of the known universe, which meant all area's the extra-universal forces were entering from. If it was deployed in this universe, they would be able to transmit the signal across the Secondary universe, then temporarily collapse the boundries that kept the two universes apart, colliding them for a short 8 second period. These 8 seconds would be enough to completely eradicate the Extra-universal invaders, while the signal was (at least believed to be) harmless to MOST other races of the Primary Universe. A secondary effect of the device was to perform the opposite of it's boundry destroying capabilities on the boundries between the Secondary/Primary and the Tertiary (Where the Extra-universals came from) universe. Failure to do so would just result in a second invasion of Extra-universals, and the device would have to be recreated... there would be no way it could survive the amount of power that was going to be put through it, which would cause it to engage it's emergency self destruct in order to prevent it from releasing a secondary charge that could be disasterous to the boundries that kept the universes apart due to it's transdimensional systems cutting a massive gap through them in order to execute it's attack. If Triarian ships using their drive was like using a precision knife to cut through, then this was the equivilant of using a planet sized anti-matter charge to blast through.
At least, that was how Corvus understood it. He wasn't exactly a scientist, and this had been the extremely basic explaintation he had been given. The rest involved too much technobabble and there wasn't enough time for a proper presentation. Besides, he was a soldier first. He raised his hand to his head, hearing a voice inside his head, telling him that a Spectre unit was retreating and the upper levels had been breached
Suddenly the door slid open, splitting down the middle to allow the entrance of another black clad figure. Officer Posthuma. A younger Spectre, Corvus had known her for only a short while but she had proven extremely competent in Psionics and tactics. She had been organising the defence for the upper levels of the complex, and her arrival confirmed what she had sent him mere minutes earlier. The defensive line had fallen.
Corvus turned around to see the Argutus as they hammered away on the controls or used their Psionics to change the circuits in order to activate the Trans-Dimensional portal. Then turned back to the door as a banging on it alerted him to a new presence... and indeed, the door exploded seconds later in a shower of fire and debris, and in charged a half dozen mutated humans, firing their weapons on handedly. One of Corvus Synth Soldier escourts was hit immediately, but his Spectre issue body armour held firm and the Soldier opened fire back on them with a shot of dark energy. The shots came to rest in the skull of one of the humans, and he slowly floated into the air as the negative mass cancelled out gravity, dissipating from the head down. The swooshes of more dark energy shots, and the other 5 mutated humans were brought down quickly. But over there corpses stepped more and more, mutated Synth Soldiers, mutated humans, even mutants he didn't realise. His Synth Soldier escourt charged into the fray, hoping to draw the hostiles into CQC to prevent stray fire from damaging the device.
They were set upon by the hopeless numbers, but their Dark Energy blades appeared from their gauntlets and they began to scythe through the mutants, slicing them in half and sending the two pieces hovering into the air before dissolving into blackness and then nothingness
Finally, there was a loud tearing noise as the portal cracked open, a swirling morass. It was a swirling puddle of black, absorbing all the light that came towards it in a similar manner to a black hole. The device began to move towards it, but the mutant forces of the extra-universals saw this happening, and a group of them charged forwards towards it, aiming to smash it apart. Corvus rolled into their path and his eyes began to glow a brilliant orange, and suddenly the four mutants burst into flames as their molecules gained more energy and retreated, yelling wildly as their skin peeled off. The device finally slipped through the portal and into slipspace and as it was the Synth Soldiers were overwhelmed and killed at last by their mutated brethren, and the three Argutus hovered down from the platform, using their mastery of Psionics to create a sort of gravity well, pulling the horde of angry mutants into the air
"Spectres! To the Emergency Teleportation device, we'll cover you." The Lead Scientist shouted as the mutants were pulled into the center and crushed by the gravity as their allies weight was added to them, agonised screams rising from the ball of bodies as they were brutally murdered. Corvus did not need to be told twice, turning and dashing to the Emergency Teleportation device
"Posthuma, over here!" He yelled, and the young Spectre unit turned to run towards him... but there was a blast from the side as a massive brute of an alien, a mutant of some species they had never encountered before, rammed into her. She screamed and was thrown straight through the closing trans-dimensional portal, and it snapped shut behind her.
By now, more mutants had poured into the room, and the Argutus could no longer maintain the gravity well due to the sheer energy required, letting the ball fall to the floor as blood flowed from it. One was hit through the shoulder by a laser shot, and he collapsed down to the floor as his concentration was broke, being set upon by a mutant who tore him limb from limb before he could even respond. The remaining two Triarii turned and made a mad dash for the portal, suddenly accelerating to several dozen MPH before stopping short and climbing into the Emergency Teleporter.
Corvus dashed from the teleporter, heading towards the Trans-Dimensional teleportation device in order to open the portal again, but in a shower of dark energy, disintergrating alloys and wires it exploded and Corvus felt himself flung back, before being stopped by the Psionics of the lead Argutus and quickly pulled into the teleporter. The other Argutus pressed one of the three buttons, and a protective blast shield closed between them and the horde, just in time to crush one of the mutants, it's cry of agony and rage rising through the air as it was crushed by the sudden weight of the door. The teleporter activated and Corvus watched the horde, helplessly.
Corvus watched the command terminal from within the Space Ship 'Tyranny' with horror. Storms erupted across the universe, reports of a crew sent into the secondary universe reported that nearly all of it was consumed by these deadly storms. He watched the playback of one, a deadly cloud of blue and white energy, dancing around and completely annihilating anything that tried to pass through, like an energy blade to butter. And Posthuma would have been trapped somewhere in that. She was completely destroyed, as were their extra-galactic holdings. Navigation to the extra-galactic regions? Now completely implausible. He was unable to talk, completely dumbstruck. They had failed.
Inside the strange void that was the Secondary Universe, Posthuma floated slowly beside the device. Her sealed Spectre suit allowed her to survive in the vaccum, and she held tightly onto the device, sobbing weakly. There was a reason all ships had been ordered to exit the secondary universe. The words flashed up on the device, detailing it's activation.
10. 9. 8. All the things she'd missed... She was only 31 cycles, the end was untimely
7. 6. 5. What if she disengaged the device, she could still do it easily, all she had to do was remove it's power source
4.3.2. But if she did, all of the universe might well be doomed... but if she didn't... then this would be the end.
1. Farewell
The device let out it's lash of energy and a bright light burst from it, consuming all she saw as she closed her eyes tightly, letting out a final cry... Or rather letting out what she thought was a final cry. It took her a few moments to realise that she was alive. She opened her eyes slowly, and peered around the void... but there were chunks of rock floating here, this wasn't the secondary universe. She could see surrounding her a nebular like void, beautiful and yet her electronics were unfazed. She slowly pushed herself forwards and down towards one of the rocks, landing upon it and peering around.
Was this the universe of the invaders? Another universe? But the device was supposed to strengthen the barriers, this made no sense, this was implausible... It meant one thing, the device had failed... She heard a sort of chanting behind her, and paused. She froze up in fear, the emotions of the situation consuming her, before she felt something touch her shoulder.
