Kaiju Uprising

[yaburu]

Chapter 15:
Godzilla ‘54

In 1954, the first kaiju of all time rose from the ocean depths and embarked on a rampage of destruction across the Japanese city of Tokyo. Hundreds died in his wake. Eventually, a powerful weapon known as the Oxygen Destroyer killed Godzilla by depriving him of air to breathe.

But Godzilla’s tail ends not there. He sank into the ocean depths as he died, and his body decomposed instantly. So fast was the decomposition, in fact, that his very soul was shot out of the body. He floated upward into space, where his spirit stayed, for years. 46 years to be precise.

In that time, the bodiless Godzilla learned to look down and view the Earth from space. He learned to visit it and travel across it in his non-corporeal form. And he found another of his kind, sleeping peacefully in the ocean as he once had.

Godzilla was content to let this beast sleep…until he discovered that the bones of his body had been taken from their resting place, and man, that same disgusting creature that had woken him from his own slumber, and then killed him in a most agonizing fashion, had done it. To further add insult, they were using his remains like a puppet to do their bidding. Godzilla could not let this stand!

He traveled back to the other of his kind that he’d found and woke it up. The new Godzilla rose up and attacked the same city his predecessor had nearly 50 years prior. Godzilla’s old body was sent to fight the new Godzilla off, just as he’d hoped. Godzilla forced his way back into his body and took it back over, joining the new Godzilla in a rampage that left the city decimated.

But inhabiting his old body took a great toll on Godzilla, and once he had to abandon it, he floated back into space to rest. But he wasn’t allowed to rest very long. The humans sent their machine against the new Godzilla again. The machine and Godzilla fought, and in the end, the new Godzilla lay hurt and vulnerable.

Godzilla saw his body about to be used to kill his successor, and used every ounce of strength he could muster to once again take it back over. He knew he couldn’t hold on very long, and had to act fast. He picked up the new Godzilla and flew out to sea, plunging in where he knew the depths would allow it to be left alone and recuperate.

He hoped that doing this would somehow allow him to pass on to the next world, but to no avail. He once again floated out into space, even weaker then he was before.

That was over 15 years ago. Godzilla has recovered his strength, but he sees no point in returning to Earth. The other Godzilla long ago recovered, and is sleeping in the sea. The mechanical parts of his body that made it possible to move were wrecked.

But opportunities can come in strange situations. The spirit of Godzilla had been floating in space just above Earth as always when he noticed something heading toward him, something alive, and large. It had a round, bulbous body, with one large eye in the middle. It had no limbs, instead long tentacles waved around its body.

The thing that was coming toward him was a Spirit Eater, a beast that devoured souls before they crossed over to the after life and fed on them, keeping them in constant misery. It was, in fact, Godzilla’s spirit that attracted this wretched creature.

It moved in to devour his soul, and Godzilla instinctively knew something wasn’t right. Whatever this beast was, it meant him harm. He rushed in and attacked the only way he knew how: by trying to take over the creature’s body.

The Spirit Eater didn’t expect this, and was taken off-guard. A struggle ensued, a battle of the minds, of wills. While both were strong, the outcome was inevitable. The Spirit Eater was fighting for a meal; Godzilla was fighting for his life.

Godzilla overwhelmed his enemy and crushed its mind, occupying its body permanently. With a new body at last, Godzilla quickly made his way toward Earth…and payback.

[yaburu]

Chapter 16:
GODzilla

“Arlon, is everything in place?” A somewhat anxious Dagahra asked.

“Yes master, everything is as you require it to be. The servants are finishing setting up the dinner table now.” Arlon replied.

“Good, then I should be on my way.”

Dagahra opened up the massive doors that lead from his chamber to the rest of Atlantis’ castle. Rather it was massive to the Atlantians, to him, it was merely a door.

His and Godzilla’s size made things like dinner and common accommodations rather tricky to pull off. The entire castle had to be built with Godzilla’s 100-meter frame in mind. Corridors in the castle were nearly endless. His throne was a spectacle to behold. And preparing dinner for him, and in this case Dagahra, took enormous cooperation and teamwork.

With so much running around happening, it wasn’t hard for Arlon to slip into the kitchen and sneak the two Ambrosia pieces into the kaiju’s goblets. Now, all that was left for his master’s victory was dinner itself.

Dinnertime arrived, and both Dagahra and Godzilla seated themselves at opposite ends of a 400-meter table. “I’m glad you requested this dinner tonight Dagahra.” Godzilla said as he sat down. “There are things I wish to discuss with you.”

“And I you, my lord.” Dagahra responded with a grin. “But first…we must toast.”

“As you wish.” Godzilla said.

Dagahra’s heart pounded in his chest. This was the moment of truth, all his plotting and planning was about to pay off. He just had to make sure he drank from his goblet at the same time as Godzilla, and the spell would transfer all of his powers to Dagahra!

“To Atlantis.” Godzilla said as he raised his cup.

“And to he who rules it.” Dagahra responded, his cup raised as well. Godzilla brought the cup to his mouth, and drank, Dagahra doing the same as soon as he did.

As soon as Godzilla put his cup down, his head started to swim. He tried shaking it off, but to no avail.

“It’s working!” Dagahra thought to himself. “Just one last piece of the puzzle…”

Dagahra raised his head to the sky, and began to chant. “Nala-Akra, komu etel-sti-day, onru lakra!”

As soon as the spell left his mouth, a bright white beam erupted from Godzilla’s chest as he screamed in agony. The beam bounced around the room a few times, vaporizing any unlucky servants it happened to come across, then slammed into Dagahra.

Once the light left Godzilla, he began to change. His legs and arms, his head and neck, his plates, tail, his entire body started to shrink, almost wither away. When it was done, he only stood a little over half the size he had before.

Meanwhile, Dagahra’s body changed as well once the beam entered him. He grew massive legs, his front flippers became powerful, clawed arms with spikes coming out of them, and long bony spikes grew out of his back. In addition, a long whip-like tail emerged from his backside. All in all, he looked far more fearsome then he ever had, and his very being crackled with raw energy.

“D….Dagahra!” Godzilla croaked, his voice having changed as well to a more raspy sound. “What have….you done?!”

“FOOL!” Dagahra laughed. “Can you not see betrayal when it stares you in your eyes?!”

Anger welled in Godzilla’s eyes as he charged at the new Dagahra. Dagahra just cackled and swatted away his enemy, then unleashed a blast at him that set his nervous system on fire.

“Oh my. It looks like you lost the ‘God’ part of Godzilla.” Dagahra taunted. “I suppose we’ll just have to call you Zilla from now on, won’t we?”

Dagahra’s laugh echoed throughout the halls of the palace and sent chills through every Atlantian that heard it. It was a laugh that ushered in a new era for Atlantis.

Grabbing the now-Zilla by his throat, Dagahra made his way through the corridors and burst out of the palace, issuing the same fiendish laugh as before. The Atlantians going about their daily business stopped where they were and gazed at the massive new form of Dagahra, and the other kaiju he held.

“Citizens of Atlantis!” Dagahra bellowed. “There has been a change of the guard. You’re beloved Godzilla has graciously stepped down from his position as God of Atlantis and handed the title to one far more qualified and deserving…me.”

Dagahra muscles bulged as he lifted Zilla up and released him, his limp body careening and slamming into a nearby building. Atlantians everywhere screamed and desperately ran to avoid the debris. Most didn’t make it.

“There are going to be some exciting changes in the coming days for Atlantis…well, exciting for me I suspect, the rest of you probably won’t much care for them.”

Zilla forced his aching body to stand back up and charged Dagahra once again. God or no God, he wasn’t going to let Dagahra simply claim the throne of Atlantis without a fight. He leapt in, jaws agape, but Dagahra caught him by the throat and slammed him down hard into the ground. Zilla’s skull exploded in pain, and he went limp.

Dagahra looked Zilla in his eyes, glazed over from the assault. “Pathetic little creature. I could kill you right now if I wished. But I’m not going to. I’m going to toss you out of Atlantis, let you exist up there, in Man’s world. And know this: while you’re up there, trying to avoid man and his guns and his constant attempt to kill you, I’ll be down here, enslaving the Atlantians you care for so much.”

With that, Dagahra dragged a half-conscious Zilla through the streets of Atlantis as a horrified populace watched on, then stopped when he reached a certain point.

“Open the gates!” he bellowed.

The gates he spoke of were the only exit in Atlantis big enough for a Kaiju to go through. They were, in fact specially made by order of Godzilla many years ago. When the men guarding the gate didn’t respond, Dagahra grew angry, and emitted a blast from his maw that destroyed the small building they were in, and them with it.

Dagahra them slammed Zilla to the ground again, and using raw power, forced the gate open, revealing the ocean. “Goodbye Zilla. Never return to this city again, it’s mine now, and will be for the rest of all time!”

Dagahra laughed manically as he heaved Zilla into the frigid waters and watched with pleasure as the cold snapped Zilla back to consciousness. He twisted around, confused, and then eventually started making his way upward. Dagahra didn’t care if he made it or not, it wasn’t his problem.

Using his strength again, Dagahra forced the gate closed, and then heated it with fire from his fingertips so it would melt together, closing Atlantis off from Zilla forever. The new God of Atlantis stood up proudly and started marching back to the palace, unmindful of the screaming people underneath him being crushed.

Actually, he wasn’t that unmindful, as he made sure to scrape the bloody carcasses off his feet before he entered the palace. As he did, Arlon was there to greet him.

“Master, congratulations! Everything went exactly as you planned it!” he exclaimed.

“Mmm, yes it did. I am now God of Atlantis, and the deposed Zilla is either floating dead in the ocean, or dragging his body onto land, where he’ll be hunted and killed by the humans. And as for you, my faithful Arlon, none of this would have been possible without you. You’re loyalty will be rewarded, here and now.”

“Master, your generosity humbles me.”

“As I said, you would go into Atlantian history books, and so you shall…as the first Atlantian killed by GODAGAHRA!!”

Godagahra raised his foot and slammed it down on Arlon before he even had a chance to scream for mercy.

“Besides, you were the only one who knew how I stole Godzilla’s powers from him. With you dead, there’s no chance anyone will be able to reverse the spell.” Godagahra said as he smiled. He headed over to Godzilla’s throne and seated himself in it.

“SERVENTS!!” He roared. Several terrified people crept into the room.

“I have a dead body on the bottom of my foot, clean it off!” He snarled.

All the servants quickly got cleaning tools and started working on Godagahra’s foot.

[yaburu]

Chapter 17:
Anguirus

Destiny Moons quickly excused herself from the meeting and punched in a speed dial on her cell phone as she hurried out the door from the room.

“What the HELL is going on down there?” she hissed as soon as someone picked up.

“We…we don’t know Ms. Moons,” came the reply from one of the technicians on the floor “from what we can read from Anguirus’ vital signs, we think he’s…waking up.”

“WAKING UP!?” she screamed. “Do NOT let him wake up, understand? Pump him full of every tranquilizer you have on hand, and see to it more is on the way!”

“Uh, uh…Ms. Moons, we’ve already increased the dosage, tripled it in fact, but it’s not working. We’re keeping him groggy, but he’s not going back to…OH MY GOD!! He’s opening his eyes!”

Destiny felt her heart drop dead straight into her gut as a feeling of cold fear came over her. She heard the receiver drop and the technician abandoned the phone, and then frantic shouts. Seconds later, then entire complex erupted in the blare of klaxons and alarms. The sound was utterly deafening, but even it wasn’t as loud as what came next. Above the ringing and screaming of alarms, Destiny heard clearly the barking honk of Anguirus.

She looked down the hall toward the conference room, and saw the door open and General Vickers, the President and Vice President all spill out. Each stood up and looked back in the room, toward Anguirus, and all three displayed what can only be described as the look of men who were as good as dead and knew it. A bright blue light slammed through the room and into the three men. Destiny watched in horror as the flesh was stripped from the men, and their charred and blackened skeletons crumpled to the ground once the beam stopped.

Destiny’s mind could hardly comprehend what she just saw. The President and Vice President had both just been killed right in front of her. Not to mention the various higher-ups who had attended the meeting, among them the Secretary of Defense.

Destiny stood motionless for a few seconds, tears welling up in her eyes as the magnitude of the situation started to sink in. But a second roar from Anguirus and a rumbling that reverberated throughout the complex snapped her out of her trance. And her mind screamed one phrase into her ears…

“GET….OUT”

Destiny turned and ran, as hard and as fast as her muscles would allow. She quickly discarded her high heels and gained much needed speed as she ran to the elevator. She wasn’t sure if it was safe to do that, but she didn’t care. The stairs were to far off now, and the complex was starting to shake more and more as Anguirus broke free of his restraints. Each roar escaping from his throat came with further clarity, as he was undoubtedly waking up more.

The elevator opened and she got in, pressing the button for the top floor, where the exit was. She’d gotten lucky; the elevator wasn’t on another floor. She hoped that it was a good omen.

Another quake rattled the elevator, and Destiny gripped the safety bars as raw, naked fear shot through her every vein. Anguirus’ roar reverberated in her ears. The thing was close now; he’d clearly broken free of his bonds and was probably obliterating everything in his path.

Destiny reflected for a moment on what that meant. It meant that the few friends she’d made here were probably dead now, crushed to death under the kaiju’s foot.

The shaking got more intense, and was constant now. Another roar from Anguirus, and judging from the distance, and the constant shaking, Destiny realized he was right on top of her. In fact, as soon as she came to this realization, the entire elevator seemed to lurch forth. Destiny was thrown to the ground. “This is it.” She said to herself.

The elevator continued to shake violently as Destiny began reviewing her life. She remembered her first memory of playing out in the snow with Tommy Arnidt, who later went on to be a drug dealer, when she was 3 ½. She remembered her father alleviating her fears of falling of her bicycle by promising to fall off it every time she did, so she wouldn’t feel the pain alone. And he made good on that promise as well, seven times over.

She remembered her mother giving her “the talk” when she was twelve. She remembered her first date at 14 with a crush, Jim Hardy. She remembered the day her sister died in a car accident, and how it was the first time she ever saw her father cry.

All these memories and more came flooding back to her, and she realized that it’d been over a month since she last talked to her parents, and she regretted that now. But it was to late. All she could do now was close her eyes…and wait for death.

But for all the shaking and rumbling, death didn’t come. She heard debris slamming into the elevator and saw dents in it, but it wasn’t getting crushed like she expected. Finally, the rumbling stopped, and was reduced to a jostling every few seconds. She still heard Anguirus roaring, he was just as close as he’d been the whole time. Curiosity finally got the better of Destiny, and she crawled over to the emergency hatch at the top of the elevator, which wasn’t difficult as it was on it’s side, and opened it up.

What she saw astounded her. She saw desert, she was above ground…far above she realized. The jostling continued, and Destiny looked around to see why. That’s when the realization came over her; she was on Anguirus himself! He must have dug out of the complex and picked up her elevator as he passed by! Destiny had to laugh in spite of herself at the ironic turn of events, and sat back down in the elevator. For the moment, she was safe, the elevator was snuggly lodged between several of the spikes on his carapace.

Destiny started to reflect on what could have happened, what went wrong? Why did the tranquilizers, which had kept Anguirus dormant for well over a decade, suddenly stop working?

The answer hit her like a bullet. Godzilla’s regeneration! Of course! It must not only heal cuts and wounds, but fight off the effects of drugs and poisons as well. And it was the last piece of the DNA puzzle they put into Anguirus. Once it settled into his genes, it must have started fighting off the effects of the tranquilizers.

Destiny sat back as she realized what that meant. Project Anguirus was doomed to fail from the start. Even if the tranks had continued working, Anguirus’ regeneration would have fought off the mind control implants. Billions upon billions of dollars in taxpayer money had just been wasted, the United States had no protector, and Anguirus was now far more powerful then he’d ever been. Destiny hoped that Anguirus would continue to be docile like he’d always been. He’d lived in Arizona peacefully for years, practically becoming the State mascot. He never bothered the humans, and they never bothered him.

But now, if he became violent and destructive like other kaiju, she wasn’t sure any weapon on Earth could stop him.

[yaburu]

Chapter 18:
Bigor

His eyes opened, and for the first time in countless millennia, he drew breath. The dinosaur stood up weakly, and very confused as to where it was and how it got there. He looked around, and discovered he was in a cavern filled with hot magma, which he instinctively knew was deadly.

And yet, something was drawing him to the magma. A hunger of some kind, but not like the hunger it’d known before. All he knew was he wanted to be closer to the magma. He headed to a point where the large piece of rock he was on dipped low, and moved his hand down, just above the molten rock.

The dinosaur kaiju sighed happily. He felt his hand being burnt, but he couldn’t stop himself, the heat felt so good! He felt an instinct to get closer, but fought it. This was magma, and just keeping his hand a foot or so away from it was burning him; he couldn’t dip his hand in it!

But the instinct was strong. It was like a mating instinct, only more intense, and more urgent. He could hold out no longer, and thrust his hand into the lava. He expected great pain, and while there was some, it was drowned out by the intense pleasure he received. And with every second he kept his hand in, he felt stronger. Finally, he removed his hand from the scorching heat and looked at it. Somehow the magma had solidified around his hand, as if the heat had been drained from it.

The dinosaur kaiju shook his hand and the volcanic rock fell off. He looked at the skin on the hand, and just as he suspected, it was burnt. But then, much to his amazement, it repaired itself before his very eyes, and within a few seconds, his hand was as good as new.

It was only at this point that the dino noticed how different his body looked now. His arms, skin color, legs, everything was different. He had large crests on his forearms that were saw-toothed. Then he realized something else: he was doing just that, realizing things. He’d never done that before. While he didn’t remember much of his life before now, he did know he wasn’t this…aware of everything going on around him.

The kaiju looked once again into the river of lava before him. He remembered how good it felt just to have his hand in there. Once again, he felt a yearning to touch the heat. But this time, he wanted to be fully immersed in the lava. Slowly, he slipped one foot into the magma. Like before, there was pain, but far more pleasure. His other foot entered, then his legs as he waded in deeper. Soon his entire body was covered by the molten rock, with only his long neck above the surface as he traveled through the river.

He continued like this, with every passing moment giving him more energy and vigor. The dino kaiju continued making his way through the caverns, stumbling around the pitch-blackness that encompassed him once he left the magma-lit caves. Days passed. Then weeks, then months, and even years. He never had to stop for food, and rarely slept, so his progress was almost continuous. Eventually, he discovered a narrow passage that, unlike every other part of the cave thus far, was soft.

The kaiju scratched at the top, and some of it came down on him. It was dirt. Without hesitation, he clawed at the dirt, digging his way upward. More hours passed, and then a few more days. But before long, the beast’s hand broke free and felt fresh air for the first time in millions of years. Excited, he reached upward and broke through with his other hand as well, then his long neck. What he saw and heard astounded him.

This was nothing like the world he remembered! Gone were the lush, green trees and foliage he’d been accustomed to. In their place were strange, grayish structures. Nor did he hear the cries of others of his kind. All he heard were loud honking noises and panicked screams all around him. The authors of these annoying noises were scattering away from him as fast as their legs would allow.

The creature pulled himself completely out of the ground, causing one of the gray structures to collapse and fall on him as he did so. He roared in surprise and shook it off, noticing that several of the small creatures fell off of him when he did. He looked down at one of them that had hit the ground; it wasn’t moving, aparantly dead. He looked at another squirming around. His face moved closer for a better look. The small creature seemed very afraid of him.

The kaiju reared back up to his full height, more rubble falling off of him. He looked down and saw that a piece of it had fallen on the little thing he was looking at and crushed it. The kaiju snorted and looked around some more, and noticed two more of the tiny creatures nearby. Wishing to observe them, he got down on all fours and moved his face to within a few feet of them. One was trapped under more rubble and the other, a smaller one; an offspring no doubt was trying in vain to move it. The offspring was letting out wails and cries that were upsetting to the kaiju.

Wanting to try out an idea, or what passed for an idea to the limited intellect of the beast, he reached out with his hand and, with surprising precision, moved the piece of rubble off the parent creature. The kaiju then watched to see the result. The offspring, who was only about half the size of the adult, helped it to safety, getting her away from the creature and the wreckage of the building, the entire time watching the kaiju, and the kaiju watching them.

He looked around, and saw no more of the things at all, and wondered where they were. Then he had another idea. He smashed another of the gray structures and watched as it crumbled, and then sifted through the remains to find more of the little things, but he found none this time. He tried another structure, and then a few more, but none of them had the creatures in it.

Dissapointed, the beast started to wander off, but stopped when he heard an odd sound heading toward him. Looking into the sky, he saw several small insect-like things coming at him. The kaiju stood for a moment, watching the strange creatures. But then, they tossed many small objects at him. He had no time to wonder what they were before they hit him. The kaiju roared and stepped back as they objects slammed into him.

Anger welled up inside him, and he opened his maw to roar at the things. Much to his surprise, a red light shot out and caused two of the insect-things to explode.

The kaiju quickly closed his mouth and stood motionless for a moment. The other insect-things scattered away from him wildly. It felt no pain, so whatever that light was, it didn’t hurt him. He decided to take this chance to leave the scene and try to figure out what was going on. So as the insects were re-grouping, the kaiju headed into a body of water nearby, and quickly got out of sight.

[yaburu]

Chapter 19:
Nuvi

It’d been many years since Vore-noon’s bold proposal to convert the entire Nuvian populace to energy. In that time, he’d made numerous presentations and speeches to several Nuvian higher-ups. He convinced them of the vailidity of his proposal, that it wasn’t beyond their technological grasp.

And so it came to be that the machine was commisioned, and Koh, the leader of Nuvi Prime, declared that the public be made aware of the situation. They’d be told everything, from how long the sun had to go, to what was planned and what would be needed of them.

As expected, they panicked, and riots ensued. Koh had anticipated this, and Nuvian security had been well prepared and equipped for the situation. Damage from the riots was low, considering what the projections were, and within a few weeks, the population returned to a certain degree of normalcy. Construction of the conversion machine continued, with the progress being made public to give the people a sense that something was being done about the problem, and that things were going to be okay.

Within only a few years of Nuvi Prime’s sun’s scheduled snuffing out, the machine was deemed complete. Only one issue remained, one that had yet to be resolved concretely during the entire process, from conception to construction.

“Vore-noon” Koh began as they both sat down for the meeting he’d called between the two “Have you figured out a solution to the consciousness problem yet?”

Vore-noon sighed heavily. When he first presented this idea to the Nuvian High Coucil some 60 years ago, he told them back then that once the population was coverted, a mass conciousness would in all likelyhood take place. Each mind would act as one, and the body of energy would travel wherever the people willed it to. But Koh wanted to be sure, and ever few years or so, would call him into a meeting, and ask him the same question he was asking him now. And for 60 years, Vore-noon gave the same answer.

At least this was the last time he’d have to answer it. “The answer is the same Koh.” He said in his nasily voice. “I’ve been researching the matter quite a bit lately, and I’m rather sure that a mass consciousness will occur.”

“Vore-noon I don’t need you to be ‘rather sure,’ I need you to be absolutely positive, understand?”

“Well sir, I’m sorry to say that in a situation such as this, ‘absolutely positive’ is an immposibility. This is unexplored terrain we’re in here. I mean, I’ve gone over the specifics and all a thousand time over, but for all my studying and calculating, this entire endevour is still just a theory, and will remain so until we go through with it.”

Kor sat back in his chair and sighed, frustrated. He didn’t like the unknown. He detested intangibles, especially when on the subject if every Nuvian life on the entire planet. But this was simply a situation he was going to have to accept. There was nothing he could do, his hands were tied.

Kor looked outside the window at the massive machine they’d built. Standing over 35 meters tall and 20 meters long, it was a marvel of Nuvian willpower. Under normal circumstances, such a machine would have taken well over a hundred years to build, and that’s assuming they had all the parts and resources they needed. Nuvi Prime was a gorgeous planet, but it lacked the natural resources of other worlds, making the few they had as precious as life itself.

Nuvians usually took a more laid back approach to building structures. Their exceptionally long life span; usually between 200 to 250 years, allowed them to take their time with things. Patience was not only a virtue, it was a standard.

The machine had been completed in mearly 60 years, thanks largely to Nuvians who donated their time and money to the project. It seemed the population realized that their petty concerns no longer mattered, if they wanted to continue living, they needed to pitch in. And pitch in they did.

“Kor, are we finished here?” Vore-noon’s voice snapped the Nuvian leader back to reality.

“Oh, uh, uh yes, of course, we’re done.”

Vore-noon gave Kor a nod, sat up, and patted his gut, the traditional goodbye gesture of Nuvians. Kor stood and patted his gut as well, and Vore-noon left the room.

He’d succeded in pacifying Kor for now, but there was still something in the back of his head that nagged at him. But he had to simply dismiss it as his hatred of unknown factors just messing with him. Like it or not, this was the only way now, there was no other option for the Nuvian race to save itself.

With the machine completed, Kor made the announcement to the population, and laid out the plans.

“Citizens of Nuvi Prime,” Kor began, his words being broadcast across the planet “On this day, I am very pleased to announce that the great Nuvian machine, dubbed ‘salvation’ has been deemed complete. Starting in two weeks, every Nuvian will step into this machine in groups of five hundred, and be converted into energy, joining a massive ball of energy that will orbit Nuvi Prime until the time comes when every one of us has been converted.

Once you have become part of the ball, you will become part of a mass conciousness that will seek out a new world for us to settle on. Once it has found that world, all of us will regain our flesh-and-blood forms. Sadly, this will very much be like starting our race over, and we’ll have to re-discover many of the technologies we once had, but this is a small price to pay for the survival of our race.

We will be unable to take any possesions with us, so I urge you all to abandon your material goods. This is going to be a monumental undertaking, and the help of every Nuvian is required. Social status no longer matters, wealth no longer matters, the only thing that matters now is helping your fellow Nuvians! Offer your homes to them if they need a warm place to stay. Merchants, I urge you to offer your wares to those in need of clothing and food.

The coming weeks will be challenging, but I am confident that we will rise to the occasion. The Nuvian race has faced challenges before, and come out of them stronger then they were. I believe this will be another example of our resiliance. Thank you all.”

The screen in front of Kor went black, indicating that his broadcast had ended. He sat back in his chair as various people scattered around, getting the equipment out of the room.

Two weeks came and went, and the first five hundred volunteers were shipped to the location of the Salvation. Kor watched anxiously as they entered the apparatus. Vore-noon barked out orders to the technicians as it hummed to life, and several minutes later, hundreds of bright balls floated out of the top of the machine and up towards the heavens. The crowd watching let out a thunderous cheer, the machine worked! Kor himself couldn’t help but smile and clap his hands. He looked over at Vore-noon, who was positively beeming with pride. All around him, he saw smiling faces, except on one man: Kree.

The entire time they’d been working on the Salvation, Kree had continued to advocate invading another planet. His opposition to the Salvation plan, combined with his campagning to invade another world, had sent his career into a tailspin. He held nowhere near the stroke he used to.

The energy conversion machine continued working non-stop, converting 500 people every 30 minutes or so, around the clock. At that rate, Kor was told, the entire population would be done in under a year or so.

There were some snags, a few breakdowns that pushed the completion date back by a day or week every so often. But all in all, things went along very smoothly. The day finally came when the final group of Nuvians, 368 in all, were ready to go. Among them was Kor, who had insisted on being part of the last group, Vore-noon, who also wanted to be among the last to go in case any major problems arose. Also among the last to go was Kree, and several of his aids.

The group all stepped into the Salvation, marveling at the grandness of it all. They headed down a long corridor, filled with gauges and consoles, all parts of a greater whole. Eventually, they headed inside the conversion room itself. The room was white with small, triangular black panals all around it. Vore-noon and a few technicians worked at consoles, getting the process ready and setting it on a timer. With that done, Vore-noon and five other men all stepped into the room, and waited. It was only set for three minutes, but it was the longest three of all their lives.

Finally, the timer ran out, and the machine hummed to life. The black triangles brightened up, and the room became warm. “The machine is just reading our bio-signs now.” Vore-noon reassured everyone. Within a few minutes, the group started to go blind.

“That’s normal as well. The eyes are usually first to be converted. Our brains are next.”

Indeed, only moments after everyone in the room had lost their sight, their brains were quickly converted to energy. Every body in the room collapsed with a thud, effectively dead. But they only stayed on the ground for a few moments, as their organs, and then flesh, and then skeletons were all converted to energy.

As with every instance before, spheres of energy were released into the sky, where they joined the main body. Once they were in, Kor could feel the mind of every Nuvian, all working as one. He felt his own mind joining this conciousness, as well as Vore-noons. It was going just as they’d planned…except for one mind. Kree.

Kree was fighting, with every bit of willpower he had. He didn’t want to join the mass conciousness; he wanted to BE the conciousness! And he was starting to gain strength. He was overpowering other minds in the energy sphere and forcing them to his mindset. Kor himself felt his mind starting to change! All around him, he felt panic from the conciousness. Like a virus, Kree’s will was spreding, and spreding fast.

Kor reached out to Vore-noon in hopes of finding a way to stop Kree, but was horrified to find that it was to late, Vore-noon now thought like Kree.

Before long, over half the spere had been changed. And it took only a scant few minutes before the rest was under Kree’s control. Kor was last to go, and Kree meant to have it that way, he wanted Kor to watch as his entire plan fell apart.

With the entire sphere now under Kree’s control, he quickly set off to find a suitable world to conquer. As his body was now energy, he was able to travel at light speed. Finding a world wouldn’t be very difficult, and conquring it and wiping out its inhabitants would be easy as well…and fun.

[yaburu]

Chapter 20
Armada P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

He didn’t know how long he’d been out.

The last thing Karo remembered was the massive arm of Armada hovering above him and Shrika ominously, telling her he loved her, and kissing her. After that, nothing. Karo slowly opened his eyes and wiggled his fingers and toes. Good, he wasn’t blind or paralized. He slowly sat up, making sure he had no severe pains anywhere that would tip him off to major injuries. A lot of aches and pains, but nothing major. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was, he’d fallen 50 meters, and not sustained major injuries. When Karo looked around, he understood why. He’d fallen into a huge stack of empty boxes that were filled with cushoning agents. The boxes had reduced the impact by quite a bit.

It was then that he thought of Shrika. Was she as lucky? Karo began frantically searching for her, calling her name as she searched. Finally, after several minutes, he heard her call back to him. Karo followed the sound of her voice, and saw her bloodied arm sticking out from some debris.

Karo ran over and dug her out as quickly as he could. Shrika looked like she hadn’t been as lucky as Karo had.

“Shrika? Shrika? Are you okay?” Karo asked.

“M…my arm’s broken, I think.” She replied.

Karo pulled her out from the wreckage, careful not to further injure her arm, and looked her over. He was amazed she was even alive. She had multiple cuts adorning her body, as well as a host of contusions. A piece of metal had embeded itself in her leg, not deeply, but enough to bleed. Karo found a stray piece of cloth and used it to tie around the wound after he removed the object, stopping the bleeding.

Both looked up at the huge hole in the complex roof that Armada had doubtlessly smashed through and shuddered.

“Karo…what have we done?” Shrika said.

Karo was silent for a moment, not wanting to voice his true fears, that they’d unwittingly unleashed death itself for countless worlds, their own included. “We should try and find the others, maybe they escaped. We also have to try and find the ship so we can get out of here.”

Karo let Shrika lean on him for support, and they began looking for a way back up to the entrance they came in. It only took a few minutes to find a ladder that lead all the way back to the entrance, but he knew Shrika would have difficulty climbing fifty meters. Karo thought for a moment, then started sifting around through the debris, eventually finding a loose piece of wiring. It was strong enough to hold Shrika, and long enough for him to use it to tie her to him.

With Shrika secured, Karo started making the long, arduous climb to the top of the ladder. It was at this point that Karo was very thankful of two things: One being that he was in really good shape from years of exercise, and two, that Shrika was on the more petite side. Still, even with those two factors on his side, it was going to be a long climb.

It didn’t take long before Shrika broke the silence. “Karo,” she bagan “Do you think the others made it?”

“It’s possible.” Karo answered “I’m sure they were woke up by the alarms, or by Armada himself. I doubt once they realized what was going on, they stuck around very long.”

“Do you think they took the ship and left?”

Karo thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think so, they would have attempted a search and rescue before they left.”

“Yeah, but there’s no telling how long we were out. They may have already looked for us and left.”

“Maybe.” Karo said “Or maybe they’re still looking. We can’t assume until we’ve found them and know for sure.”

The rest of the climb was relatively silent, and by the time they made it to the top, Karo felt like his arms were going to fall off. Sweat adorned his entire upper body and dripped freely off his brow. He untied Shrika from him and she got up, favoring her arm. They both looked over to the entrance they’d gone through, and noticed it appeared to have been hit with laser blasts. Several holes were punched into the metal, and doorway itself had been destroyed. There were still several holes big enough for the two to fit through however, and they easily made it to the next room.

It was there that they made the terrible discovery. Scattered all over the floor were the charred bodies of the rest of the crew. “Now we know why those lasers were fired.” Shrika said quietly.

“Come on, let’s get to the ship.” Karo said, trying to hide the sadness in his voice.

The two made their way back up the stairs that lead them to the underground complex in the first place and emerged from the disguised hill. Making good time, they quickly made their way back to the ship, which thankfully was still intact. Karo’s first priority once they made it inside was to get a med-kit and treat Shrika’s many wounds. Karo had level 2 medical clearance, making him well qualified to clean and treat the wounds and adminsiter pain medicines to Shrika, as well as set her broken arm and put it in a sling until she could get proper medical treatment.

“Okay, all your cuts have been cleaned and dressed, your arm is in a sling, and the pain meds should be starting to work now.” Karo said reasuringly.

“Well, I guess they’re taking a bit longer, because I’m still not feeling…oh wait, there we go.” Shrika’s voice trailed off and her eyes clouded over. “Karo, what the heck did you give me?”

“Strongest pain med I had, and something to help you sleep. You need rest, so go ahead and lay down, I’ll start up the ship and get us out of here.”

Shrika wanted to object, but she was just to damned tired. She layed on the cot she’d been sitting on, closed her eyes, and sank into blissful, drug-induced sleep.