It is during our darkest moments where we must focus to see the light.
Boots of soldiers smashing against the polished floors of cold metal. The insides of the dark interior of the Colossal were vibrant with troopers of different branding.
Amidst the swarming crowd of panicked arms, the Regents broke through to a secured room.
A room, engulfed in a dark aura with a singular platform that hovered at their presence lit up in a crimson glow.
The Regents walked into formation, seemingly programmed to do so. It went in a specific order.
The Deceiver.
Azalea.
Koto.
Alas, it was Arasmus.
In perfect synchronisation, they fell to their knees as they lowered their gaze. Their weapons fell to their shins as they bowed before nothing. The tense silence faded away as a holographic figure formed before them. A figure that was enlarged and towered over the Regents.
“Your Highness.” Azalea fearfully initiated as she lowered her gaze further. Her hands trembled as she kept herself at bay.
“I expected as much. Report.” The Emperor’s devilish voice echoed across the desolate room.
“The Supreme Leader deviated from the plan. He orchestrated a trap to destroy the leadership of the Allegiance but faltered. With him gone, the Obelisk cannot be activated without proper security.”
“Then you will use any means necessary to activate it. Perish your lives for it. Sacrifice the armada within your grasp aboard the great Colossal. Your success will mean victory over insurgence. I will finish their pathetic insurrection!”
The Emperor furiously commanded.
“As you command, your Highness.”
With the holographic figure slowly fading and the room growing evermore dark, Azalea rose to her feet as she loomed over Syron.
“Command the High Admiral to move over to point 23-102 just above the equator. The foray shall begin.”
At the height of the Emperor’s devious plans, the prologue of the end has begun. The forces of evil immobilised through the confusion and passive state of the heroes that cradled behind walls of steel. With complications spread across the blue planet, time was of an immediate essence, for every second determines the fate of the Universe.
~
Battalions of soldiers with the mark of goodwill, the emblem of Allegiance, assembled before the massive stretch of assembly lines of Fort Equator.
The troopers donned pristine white armour plating with a versatile grey tracksuit beneath. The platings covered the end of their limbs and vital areas of their body. Their helmets were that of a future assault shell technology variant with an energy face shield.
They stood at attention with fleets of flagships that hovered across the sky. The assembly waited for the arrival of the combatants from the warfare on Ellidaey.
Slowy, ships emerged from the clouds ahead of the platform. It was a singular light freighter that was followed by several flagships. It quickly landed to board off its passengers.
With each Head Operator surrounding the end of the capsule, they marched off the ramp and past the assembly line.
The security to ensure the safe transfer of the Supreme Leader was vital. It was an army that was able to protect such a convoy. A deliverance of great importance.
~
“Ajay arrived here with the other survivors of the siege. We’re closely monitoring his status but Violet was able to use his fingerprints and facial recognition to activate Cee-G. Kal’s down by the ward with him.”
Ryan’s voice overlayed Athena’s deathly stare at the live security of a holding chamber.
The holding chamber was on a platform with dark valleys that led to a somewhat bottomless pit. The main chamber was built to withstand blasts deemed to be devastating and hold highly dangerous subjects without fear of escape. Even with such assurance, she was fearful.
Her eyes locked on the open capsule with invisible eagerness.
“Orion’s abilities healed most of his wounds though the capsule kept him in a short comatose state. We will have to wait for him to wake up before we can begin interrogation with the dampeners.”
Her eyes narrowed further.
“Athena?”
Quickly, she turned to Ryan.
Ryan stood opposed to her direction. The other Head Operators were scattered across the room with a sense of sorrow.
“Do you need me to be there with you?”
“No…”
She paused for a moment as she looked back to the screen.
“Yes..” She muttered her words.
“While me and Athena are deriving information out of him, the rest should-“
“We should get to finding the Colossal and perhaps learn of their objectives. I’ve contacted Violet to join us for the search.” Destoria interrupted him with mere enthusiasm, though she seemed in a rush to rid herself from the room.
“It’s settled. I’ll be here to oversee everything and give everyone updates.” Ava deliberately wanted to stay atop.
With the meeting adjourned, Athena rushed out of the room in fearful avidity. The Head Operator meeting departed the personnel with Ryan rushing to follow Athena.
The two marched down the hallway as they approached the complex’s central elevator.
“Where’s uh…”
She frowned at his dragged pause.
“Neka?” She assumed.
“Yes. Him.”
Athena called for the elevator as she crossed her arms in response.
“He wanted to know more of Orion’s history. I told him about the pocket near the Earth’s core where Orion grew up for him to investigate.”
The doors retracted open. The two slowly walked in the glass cylinder as they went straight for the restricted floor. The elevator quickly descended through the cascade of levels that went on continuously without a sightful end.
“You were the only other person who went down there, right?” He leaned on the handrail.
“Yeah. Nothing there but weird fauna and a sanctuary. That and weird paintings that seemed out of place. Maybe Neka knows what they really are.”
The elevator grew quiet as it declined into darker floors. They were then surrounded by rubble as they descended deep into the earth’s ground.
The loud silence within ended as the elevator doors retracted open, revealing the deepest floor of the entire Fort. The two walked out as they were greeted with armed guards in the masses assembled. The level rivalled the size of the platform above, with towers mounted with ion turrets in a neatly arranged formation on the level. They quickly made their way to the security clearance.
“Sir. Ma’am.” A trooper saluted to the Head Operator’s presence.
“At ease, Warden. Any readings on the prisoner?” Ryan asked as he toggled his face shield.
“His blood pressure and heart rate is picking up. We suspect he will awake shortly.”
It was enough to push Athena to enter the chamber. Ryan soon followed as they walked down a hovering platform.
The platform entered a dome that conveniently opened the entrance for their arrival. It quickly closed as they hovered in. Inside, they stood by a console as they went deeper into the ground.
Eventually, they halted down just in front of a circular disc that was encaved in a shield dome. The cage.
Beneath them was nothing but a dark abyss. Only the disc was present before them. With it, the Supreme Leader.
The Capsule had already been pried open. The bed remained untouched as a figure stood admiring the endless darkness before him. Orion had already woken up. He was facing away from them as the Head Operators’ platform went closer, halting just before the disc.
“I suggest you be cooperative, old friend.” Ryan called out to him.
“Hm.” A response was given.
“Why did your aura change to purple?” Athena asked a rather irrelevant question to the context of this interrogation. Perhaps she thought it would be best to break the tension.
Orion couldn’t help himself but turn after hearing such a peculiar question. He revealed his face. A slightly older appearance with stubble and a scar over his right eye. Though not blind by any means, his face attained multiple scars with dark circles and a pulsating purple glow in his pupils.
“Years passed with many implications of devastation from me…and that is what you want to know?” He frowned. His eyes squinted as he looked directly at his former student.
“Answer the question.” She became stern with her demand.
He gave a slight pause. He thought she was genuinely curious. Being in no situation to control the conversation, he happily obliged to answer.
He strolled to where they were as he looked to them from behind the dome.
“Over my years training to be…this.” He calmly proclaimed.
“Death and suffering tarnished my aura. From pure white to this desolate purple.”
Athena looked at Ryan before asking yet another question.
“Why this?” With the aforementioned question, she was able to know he could be truthful with his response.
“Care to be specific?” Orion tucked his arms behind his waist.
“Why the act of vengeance. The Front. The mass slaughter. The torture. Everything! Why!” Her voice raised at the height of her question.
Vaguely, he gave a sinister smile under his acute response.
“You know why.”
She grinned at his response.
“You know that we would never abandon you willingly. You know that we would do whatever it takes to get you out of that prison. You know that we believe your stand against-“
“I thought as you do. I really did.” He continued. He interrupted her as he strolled further to gaze upon the darkness once again.
“Days become weeks. Weeks become months and eventually I lost track inside. Even so, I held hope that you put me there willingly only to snuff the corrupt savages that orchestrated my supposed treason. I had faith.”
He slowly panned his head over to the two yet again.
“A faith that was destroyed when I found out that the evidence I gathered that could have justified my actions were destroyed by you…willingly.”
“We had no choice. We had to prove our loyalty to the high command!” Ryan intervened.
“You chose to keep your status over doing what’s right! You signed the hand that destroyed me! You are no better than the corrupt savages that tarnished the Allegiance from the beginning.” Orion marched to the centre of the disc as he stared down Ryan. His arms flared out as he was fuming.
“That thought…That…” He began chuckling out of anger and amusement.
“I had to accept that for what it is and it nearly killed me. I nearly did…You have no idea how devastating it is to be trapped within four walls with nothing but anguish.”
The chamber went into a period of silence after the truth had scattered itself. The two simply looked at Orion’s admiration to the oblivion before initiating again.
“What is the Emperor’s plan?” Ryan asked, inevitably diving to the matter at hand.
“The same as mine. To destroy the Allegiance.” He went to his capsule, sitting on the floor as he leaned his back towards it.
“I need specifics, Orion.”
“What you need is salvation Ryan Lou! Have I not made it clear to you?” He rested his hand on his knees. “Your fate is sealed. Nothing will change that.”
“We’ll give him some time.” Athena redirected the platform back to the surface. The two eventually left the chamber, leaving Orion to his solitude.
Orion looked to the security camera that was below the surface platform above him.
“Something far worse will finish what I started.”
He said so calmly. In his mind, he expected damnation. Damnation for himself.
For his former friends.
For the planet he once called home.
All of this. The day he became a King to the day he, for a moment, died was all for this.
To revert the dominion of power to him.
Only him.
The Emperor.
~
The skies were engulfed in impending darkness that surrounded the Colossal.
San Juan Teotihuacán never looked so deprived of the golden glow of the sun. Its forest was dark under the aura of evil as the Colossal drew itself near to the Pyramid of the Sun.
With the final destination found, the massive starship ejected its forces. Dominion infantry ravaged the tropical floors that surrounded pyramid perimeters as Troopers immobilised to set up a defensive barrier that would protect the front.
Tanks of extraterrestrial design with the tyrannous size of hills sank its tracks onto the ground. Starfighters began circling the entire town as it descended destruction onto its populace to clear the area for fronts of defences.
The Dominion began setting itself in with the Regents making their way into the heart of the Pyramid. The endeavour quickly ended as they mapped their way to the core of the mesopotamian structure.
At the heart of the entire pyramid stood a chrome obelisk. The skeleton of its entire design.
“The Invasion shall commence.” Arasmus voiced out.
The alienated structure hummed a rhythmic chorus with the Regents surrounding its glorious construct.
Azalea simply sighed. Alas, the height of their mission has arrived.
“Indeed, it shall.”
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