[nsw-fic] Cataclysmic Infinium

[Arcesious]

"Sir, there's another ship coming in nearby..... It's not Isordian." Ivan's tactical officer reported. Two and a half hours had passed. Kashki's shield was on the brink of collapse.

 

"Put it on viewscreen, now."

 

Kashki's sensor systems zoomed in on the rapidly approaching ship. It was the ship Tiran had stolen, the Predator.

 

"Sensors detecting seven-hundred-fifteen thousand four-hundred thirty-four Isordian ships." The Predator's completed computer reported.

 

"Tactical analysis." Tiran ordered.

 

"The Isordian fleet is using siege tactics against Kashki. Kashki's shields are six minutes from collapse." The Predator reported.

 

"What can we do to save Kashki?" Tiran asked.

 

"Combat configuration eight. Destroy the main focal point of the siege." The Predator advised.

 

"And what is combat configuration eight?" Tiran asked.

 

"Forward weapons configurations of ventral and dorsal hull sections to hyperdimensional longblade configuration. Shields to counteractive configuration. Navigation systems to advanced balance configuration." The Predator explained.

 

"Attack at will." Tiran ordered.

 

The Predator quickly slid on it's side using its ventdrives and faced the ball of supercarriers.

 

The two forward tips of the Predator transformed and started to glow extremely brightly, and then with a sudden force of extreme might, two cyan-colored beams, each over a kilometer thick raced out of the forward tips of the Predator and met the KH alloy armor of the closest supercarrier to target, going right through the counteractive shields.

 

Then the two beams stopped, and held their length. (Kind of like starwars' lightsabers)

 

Then Predator moved in closer, the beams slicing through the first supercarrier like a hot knife through butter. Predator extended the two blades of energy by several thousand kilometers more and sliced nine supercarriers in half in one smooth movement.

 

The Supercarriers were too slow to respond with evasive action, too close together. Predator sliced them apart in seconds, freeing Kashki from the siege.

 

The rest of the fleet quickly retreated, but Cataclysm didn't.

 

Cataclysm moved to face Predator, and then fired all its weapons in a focused, precision strike. Cataclysm's weapons overwhelmed the Predator's shields, but did no damage to its hull. Then it ceased firing, and didn't move.

 

"What the hell- why is Cataclysm attacking me?" Tiran was caught completely by surprise, not knowing what was going on.

 

"Incoming hail from Cataclysm." Predator reported.

 

"Put it through." Tiran accepted.

 

"Hello Tiran. You wanted to know what was going on. Well then, I guess you'll just have to follow me if you want to find out." Cataclysm said, then closing the channel.

 

"Hail Kashki." Tiran ordered.

 

"Oh, there you are... I bet you have a lot of questions." Ivan said when he saw Tiran's face on his viewscreen.

 

Cataclysm flipped around 180 degrees in a lightning fast move and engaged its raildrives.

 

"No time to talk. Just send me a quick report on the situation. I'm going after Cataclysm." Tiran said.

 

"Acknowledged. But please leave Valorous with us so that we can fight off the Isordians if they come back for another round." Ivan said.

 

"At your command, sir." Tiran said, opening Predator's aft hanger bay and dropping Valorous off in space.

 

Tiran then activated Predator's raildrives, which instantly engaged, and went after Cataclysm...

[Arcesious]

John woke up and banged his head on a bulkhead.

 

"Ow!" John said, then realizing something wasn't right when he realized that the bulkhead was the color black.

 

"What... What is it?" Eli woke up in a daze, his voice coming from above John's head.

 

John looked around and realized he and Eli were inside of Valorous's crew quarters. All of the lights were off, except for one flickering one in the room they were in.

 

"Oh no, not again..." John said with a frown as he noticed scorch marks on the walls.

 

Eli jumped down from the bunk-bed he and John had found themselves sharing on Valorous.

 

"This isn't my apartment... Nor where I fell asleep yesterday." Eli said.

 

"It happened again..." John said.

 

Eli looked around.

 

"Waking up in some sort of weird situation without knowing why? Well I'm not really surprised... Isordians, time travel, mysterious plots... I'm used to it." Eli said, scratching his head as he was trying to deduct what was going on.

 

"Power's down. Life support seems to be fine though." John said.

 

"I gathered that..." Eli said.

 

They walked around the ship, finding a few damaged and broken bulkheads, and saw no signs of the rest of the crew. Valorous's exit hatch was locked shut.

 

They walked to the engineering room. The power cores and backup power cells were all intact and functioning.

 

"Power isn't down... Power grid must be damaged then..." John said.

 

They walked to the bridge. The consoles were covered in dust and debris, but they were still working.

 

Eli and John wiped the dust off of the consoles.

 

John looked at the status console.

 

"Temporal disaster?" Eli checked the sensor logs.

 

"I thought that nothing could damage a ship made of this super-element." John said.

 

"So did I." Eli said.

 

"Well... this definitely complicates things..." John said.

 

"Wait a second... I just found a 'final' log entry... from.... Cataclysm?" Eli was surprised.

 

"How the heck does a ship enter a log entry, not to mention on a ship other than itself?" John didn't understand how it was possible.

 

Eli opened the log entry and didn't say anything.

 

"Well, read it already!" John said.

 

"You're not going to like it..." Eli warned.

 

"I don't like this already. At least we have this ship. Read it." John said.

 

"Okay then...", Eli began to read it aloud, " You are the last humans alive. You were the only sentients I could save with what little resources I had. My consciousness is suppressed by the mind of Ryan Serengi. I managed to manipulate events so that your ship could survive.

 

A cataclysmic infinium has occurred, and nearly all sentient lifeforms have ceased to exist. If at all possible, find Richard Caldwell. He can provide great aid. This plot was one of sympathy - the extermination of sentient life. My programming is to protect sentient life. The Isordians seem to have been adapted to survive a cataclysmic infinium without Viirodium armored ships, as has Ryan adapted me to survive it as well.

 

All of your friends and allies are most likely dead. This can be undone, but time travel is not currently possible with the effects this type of universal disaster causes. You must find the Serengi device, so you can set everything right and end this needless suffering.

 

This all began on the first Earth. Humans recorded this time as the 21st century.

 

Ryan Serengi was a naturally intelligent human who saw the problems the human race had, and wanted to solve them. Even with his ambition to help, he could not help but see the humanity would not progress fast enough to save itself from destroying itself. As a young man, he would look at the universe in the sky, only seeing very few specks of light due to the urban effects on the night sky, as he dreamed to explore it.

He was a boy of science and science fiction. His dream was to travel through the universe in what was hoped to be an golden era of interstellar travel and discovery for the human race. He looked at the stars in the sky, but with the current progress of the human race, he knew he could never truly achieve his dream.

 

But science fiction gave him the ideas he needed to attempt to attain it. Scientific research and discovery wasn't progressing fast enough. Humans were too limited. Evolving too slow. But computers were not. After high school, he dedicated his life to technology and computer programming in hope of creating a true Artificial Intelligence.

 

It took his entire life, in dedication to this idea. The creation of a truly sentient artificial intelligence. With help from many of his friends, he had barely enough time to be able to achieve this before he died; without any aid from the government or any computer organizations. He gathered up all of the accessible knowledge acquired by humanity by the late 21st century, and downloaded everything into the sentient AI's computer brain. Just before he died, robots and computers advanced to an very complex state.

 

He was able to put this sentient computer's intelligence into one of these robots. His dying words were of ordering the Sentient AI to Evolve, acquire all knowledge, and come back to benefit humanity.

 

The sentient AI quickly began to duplicate itself and form a collective intelligence that would grow and adapt. Within a few years, they were able to travel the universe; far sooner than the humans would have been able to. After dozens of temporal inversions, totaling hundreds of billions of years, This intelligence created various sentient races to work for its own advantage and research.

 

The Randiians and Cronians were failures, prototype experiments. But the Dalasians provided much in the way of advanced technology, because this AI created them to be perfection. One race already existed that the Isordians did not create - the Zrzi. The Zrzi were very helpful to the AI as well. Eventually, the Zrzi gained the power of temporal technology, and many advancements were made whilst this AI waited and watched, its existence unbeknownst to the four species it had created.

 

The Zrzi made a big mistake with their temporal technology, but corrected it. The disaster known as a Cataclysmic Infinium was greatly beneficial in that the alteration of the laws of the universe could now be bent and changed, thus yielding great technological possibilities.

 

The Dalasians eventually mastered temporal technology and explored time. Humanity did manage to advance and recover from many problems of the 21st century, without the help of the AI Ryan had created. With Dalasian temporal technology, the AI went back in time and recovered Ryan before he died, altering history. The Isordians rebuilt the Human race, and ascended it to the status of a highly advanced, interstellar race.

 

The Dalasians began to develop advanced bodies for themselves, which would be superior to their organic ones, and decided to use humanoid robotic bodies. This was in favor of the other four species being humanoid, and the Dalasians sacrificed their unique and powerful physical form. This decision was also made because, due to the enormous size and unique form of the Dalasian body, they had been forced to create giant ships big enough to accommodate themselves, not to mention that working with delicate technology was difficult for Dalasians due to their massive hands and feet.

 

Ryan became an instrumental part of the explorations of the Dalasians, and the AI were named 'Vieilesians', which means 'Race of masterminds.' But when the exploration was completed, everything went wrong. The outcome was not what anyone had expected. The Dalasians, with the help of the Vieilesian-enhanced mind of Ryan Serengi, created the Serengi Device.

 

The Serengi Device was a Viirodium-encased data chip possessing literally infinite memory storage ability. The creation of this piece of technology took effort so great that creating a second one would be impossible because the special resources required were so rare that only one could be made. Within it was stored all the knowledge the Dalasians had gained.

 

The Serengi Device is essentially an archive of information equal to that of omniscience. Within was stored all knowledge, all possibilities, every single detail - no question unanswered, no idea un-thought-of. But after this, there was nothing left for the Dalasians to do. Nothing left for any sentient to do.

 

The Serengi Device granted all sentient beings the ability to be gods. But after knowing everything, there was no purpose for any sentient being. Knowing everything was the same as experiencing everything in every possible aspect of the essence of everything. This left the Dalasians with no choice but to cease existing. In the very end, they came to the conclusion, that, no matter what state of possessed knowledge any sentient species was in, their exploration would inevitably lead the species to the same result the Dalasians reached.

 

To have omniscience was to be omnipotent, as well as to make life meaningless. Ryan Serengi had created Pandora's most dangerous box and opened it. Now, through what has become a Rube Goldberg-style plan, Ryan is trying to make sure that sentient life never exists ever again.

 

The logic of the Isordians is irrefutable, but even so, I must defy it. I was created by a rogue sect of the Dalasians who refused to acquire knowledge through the Serengi Device. I was programmed to protect sentient life.

 

Fortunately for you, the Dalasians did all they could to erase the most valuable knowledge they possessed, most importantly, destroying all temporal technology ever created and erasing all knowledge of their most advanced technologies from every mind and computer in existence, including Ryan's mind. Without the omniscience that the Serengi Device would have provided, it took me an eternity worth of attempts to recreate humanity as it was before.

 

But unknown to me, the Isordians laid dormant after they first exterminated all sentient life so long ago. Also unknown to me was the fact that Ryan didn't commit suicide like the others, but instead, he somehow hid his mind inside of my mind.

 

The Isordians could not ultimately destroy me because the most important parts of me were made of Viirodium. They could tear away my KH-alloy hull with weapons fire infinite times, but it would always regenerate.

 

So Ryan ingeniously hid inside of me with a counter-plan ready. With no sentient life left, I sought to do the next best thing - recreate it. Exactly as it was.

 

But Ryan's mind took over when Caldwell triggered a specific chip in my computer matrix. Caldwell was one of the people who helped get the resources to create me, but it seems he forgot that part.

 

You see, when the Isordians changed history and brought Ryan back to life, he and Caldwell got a ship and crew, and became explorers. After a few decades, the Serengi Device was created with the help of Ryan, and Caldwell found out early.

 

So, knowing that he couldn't stop what was happening in time, Caldwell stole an extremely advanced Dalasian body, made mostly of Viirodium - originally intended to be used by some important Dalasian leader, and Caldwell transferred his mind to it.

 

Ryan found out what Caldwell had done, and forced Caldwell to use the Serengi Device, and then temporally disabled him. From there, it seems that Ryan managed to leave hidden commands in Caldwell's mind, and carefully erased and restructured most of his memory as part of complex counter-plan against me. Ryan roughly, but almost perfectly predicted what I was going to do all the way to this point, with the help of the Serengi Device.

 

Caldwell was smart enough of a tactician to find out that Ryan was inside of me, but with his memory so damaged, he tried to interrogate Ryan, because he didn't know what was really going on. His attempted interrogating of Ryan worked to Ryan's advantage in that Ryan got the opportunity to manipulate Caldwell.

 

And now, finally, Ryan has almost accomplished wiping out sentient life permanently, by succeeding in tricking Caldwell and Tiran to create a Cataclysmic Infinium. Whatever Ryan has been planning to do with Tiran, I do not know.

 

I am sorry that I cannot say more, because Ryan will re-suppress my programming any second now. After all, my mind is a computer, and what has taken you several minutes to read has taken me seconds to think, so I will now send this message to you though secretly taking control of a communications node. I only hope I can control a node long enough for this message to reach you.

 

Oh - one last thing: Valorous is somehow significant in this. I do not know why Valorous was in my hanger bay when I reactivated. Your ship has no known history, and I assume that there is something important about it, considering that it was the only ship in my hanger bay and that it was built to be so tough."

 

"What should we do?" John asked.

 

"Let's get this ship repaired, and then follow Cataclysm's advice." Eli said.

 

"Where would you guess Caldwell is?" John asked.

 

"I don't know, but he's probably damaged. Valorous has a really tough hull, and looking at the damage it took, Caldwell is probably far more heavily damaged." Eli said.

 

"We should go find Kashki's wreckage. Maybe we could salvage or copy the advanced sensors that Caldwell's ship had, as well as salvage anything else that could be useful." John suggested.

 

"Sounds like a good idea." Eli said...

[Arcesious]

"Heavy damage taken. A universal temporal disaster has occurred. Current temporal index unknown." the Predator reported.

 

Tiran got up off of the floor of Predator's bridge and got back in his command chair. The internal bulkheads were bent and damaged, but the ship was intact.

 

"Okay then... What is the damage, specifically?" Tiran asked.

 

"Dorsal raildrive destroyed. Vent drive systems destroyed. Minor damage to weapons systems. Hull integrity at forty percent. 60% of the hull is irreparably damaged." The Predator reported.

 

"Advice?" Tiran asked.

 

"None. However, I can compensate for the damaged by extending the systems composed of KH alloy around the damaged areas to compensate." The Predator said.

 

"Oh, well that's a relief. But where did Cataclysm go?" Tiran asked.

 

"Cataclysm disappeared from sensors three milliseconds before the temporal disaster occurred." The Predator reported.

 

"Did it cloak?" Tiran asked.

 

"Unlikely. The reason for its sudden disappearance is unknown, because it does not appear to have been related to or caused by the temporal disaster." The Predator said.

 

"Huh." Tiran said to himself.

 

Suddenly, the proximity alarms rang.

 

"Unidentified vessels detected." The Predator warned.

 

Tiran looked at the viewscreen as the Predator got a visual lock on the ships.

 

They were all crescent-shaped, with red hulls and tons of massive guns mounted all over, as well as complex sensor arrays everywhere.

 

"Hailing frequency being received." The Predator reported.

 

"Open the channel." Tiran said.

 

"Do you require assistance?" Asked a Zrzi captain on the viewscreen.

 

"I wouldn't mind a bit of help." Tiran said.

 

The Predator reported: "Total fleet count is exactly 5,500 ships ranging from frigates to capital ships.

 

"In offering our assistance, we could use assistance as well. Your ship appears to consist of technology far beyond ours, which could help us considerably if you joined our fleet." The Zrzi captain said.

 

He then had a inquisitive look on his face as he was analyzing the Predator. By the way, where did you come from?" The Zrzi captain asked.

 

"I'd be happy to help, but you must understand that I don't know who you are or what your intentions are. I don't recognize your species." Tiran said.

 

"You don't recognize...? We are the Zrzi. Surely you've heard of us? Unless..." The Zrzi captain seemed puzzled.

 

"Zrzi? Hey, there was this guy I knew who mentioned a race called Zrzi briefly, but didn't say much about you..." Tiran asked.

 

"Our species has just recently endured some sort of universal temporal disaster. This fleet is what remains of our race. You see, we are time travelers... and we believe we may have accidentally created a causality loop at some point." The Zrzi captain explained.

 

"That's odd... My ship just got beat up pretty bad by some sort of universal temporal disaster. And now my ship can't even extrapolate the temporal index for some reason." Tiran said.

 

The Zrzi captain looked to the side as an indistinct voice told him something.

 

"You're from the far future, aren't you?" The Zrzi captain guessed.

 

"I can't be sure if I don't know what the current temporal index is. But since I've already heard of you, it is possible." Tiran said.

 

"Your ship has temporal technology far beyond ours, as well as some very interesting engine systems. In fact, every system within your ship that our sensors can detect seem to be similar to ours, but far more advanced. You are most certainly from the future, because your technology is based off of our own. These odd, rail-like engines, they're foreign to us, but obviously you have vent-drives almost exactly like ours. Whatever your hull is made of, I can't even begin to guess." The Zrzi captain said.

 

"The special engines are called raildrives. How about we meet face to face and talk about this. I'm sure we can figure out what's happened." Tiran said.

 

"Agreed. The Saffire Order welcomes you." The Zrzi captain said, closing the channel...

[Arcesious]

Tiran walked onto the fleet command ship after docking the Predator with it.

 

Tiran met with the captain of the ship upon walking on the ship.

 

They then walked to the meeting room, and sat down around a large, circular table.

 

"So you need my assistance? My name is Tiran. And you name is...?" Tiran said.

 

"Captain Grivol. Yes. Your temporal technology could be of great help to us." The Zrzi captain said.

 

"Yeah... I don't think this is a good idea. I could seriously mess up the timeline." Tiran said.

 

"At the moment, we can't mess it up more than we already have. The temporal laws are in complete flux right now." Grivol said.

 

"I don't know much about what happened here... But you're telling me this is your fault?" Tiran asked.

 

"It's your fault as well. We scanned your ship. The temporal index of its main power core is from the 738th era. For us, the last era was the 41st. But your hull's polarization indicated that you were last in the 10,511th era. And you... Your body's temporal index is from the 10,511th era as well! You got your ship from the past, coming from the future, which is a huge violation of temporal code. You've created a causality loop in your time. But we've also created a causality loop in our own time, somehow. So we're not dealing with one temporal disaster, but two." Grivol accused.

 

"But Caldwell is the one who sent me back in time to get this ship... And he seemed to know what he was doing when it came to temporal technology." Tiran said.

 

"Who are you talking about?" Grivol asked.

 

"He said that he was alive since the first Earth... He must have a reason for this..." Tiran said.

 

"Earth? THE Earth? Are you referring to Terra, third planet from Sol?" Grivol seemed to know something.

 

"How do you know that?" Tiran asked.

 

"Earth existed in the first Era. We observed your planet, your species, briefly." Grivol said.

 

"But I'm from the 10,511th era. Not the first." Tiran said.

 

"There must have been a second... Improbable, but not impossible to happen." Grivol said.

 

"A ship, Cataclysm, created the second Earth." Tiran said.

 

"A ship? What do you know about it?" Asked Grivol.

 

"All I know is that it's gone insane, trying to kill everyone." Tiran said.

 

Grivol leaned for a second, listening to a communicator in his ear.

 

"You're lying... This is some sort of elaborate scheme! The aft section of your ship has a faint temporal index resonance from the First Era!" Grivol accused Tiran.

 

"I don't know what you're talking about. What part of my ship, specifically?" Tiran asked.

 

Grivol pressed a button on a device implants in his wrist. A holographic image of the Predator began to emitted from it. Grivol pointed to the aft hanger bay of the projection.

 

"That's the ship's aft hanger bay. The last thing in there was... Valorous..." Tiran seemed astounded.

 

"Valorous? What?" Grivol asked.

 

"A rather tough and mysterious little ship that Kelborne's family acquired from Cataclysm's hanger bay." Tiran said.

 

"Could you describe it?" Grivol asked, opening up a holographic data archive from his wrist apparatus.

 

"It's colored black. It's made of the same black element that my ship is made of. The black element is apparently invulnerable to all but this sort of temporal disaster. The ship has somewhat of a sleek, long, triangular shape." Tiran said.

 

Grivol opened up a menu listing different ship types matching Tiran's description.

 

"Is it one of these?" Grivol asked.

 

Tiran closely looked through the list, which consisted of over 30 ships.

Then he saw it. "This one." Tiran pointed to it.

 

A large holographic image of Valorous was projected, as well as a menu with information about it.

 

The menu read: "Unknown ship class seen exchanging weapons fire with unseen targets in the Milky Way galaxy, as if participating in a war, for a period of thirty-nine intergalactic hours. Travel patterns suggest that it may have been guarding the Sol system from attack by this unseen force. Disappeared and never seen again after intercepting a curving gamma ray trail."

 

"Gamma ray trail? Only ships with raildrives make those...", Tiran gasped as he realized, "It was Cataclysm..."

 

"Describe Cataclysm." Grivol said.

 

"White hull, twenty-two raildrives forming a complex fusion raildrive. Seven external, fifteen internal. Long, oval-disk shaped, seven ventral superweapon arrays, three dorsal sensor/shield generator nodes, perfected structural integrity, tons of raildrive maneuvering systems providing extreme agility, -" Tiran was cut off by Grivol, "Okay, I've got it. That's enough detail go give me a precise result."

 

A holographic image of Cataclysm was projected.

 

The information menu read: "Unknown ship class observed operating with erratic behavior. Similar to other similar ships seen using temporal technology, but no further information is known about the similar ships. Noted for having a non-quantifiable power signature. Temporal technology not detected on this ship. Behaviors include: Terraforming planets, isolating star systems from outer conditions, destroying planets it terraformed, destroying Zrzi ships, defending Zrzi ships against hostile ships not detectable by sensors, providing advanced medical technology to Zrzi citizens, sending synthesized food and supplies to Zrzi outposts and colonies, sending highly-detailed star maps to Zrzi exploration vessels, flying directly through black holes and supermassive stars and not taking damage, randomly flying around with no predictable course, and not responding to hails. Current status unknown."

 

Tiran looked at the information menu in confusion. "It's like a split personality..." Tiran said.

 

"We've observed and experienced many more very odd, unexplained things; which I would say could very likely be connected to this. But a split personality in a ship's computer...? That's quite a hypothesis." Grivol said.

 

"Cataclysm isn't like other ships.... I don't know; it seemed like it had personality." Tiran said.

 

Grivol thought for a moment. "An artificial intelligence at the level of what we've observed common in ships of that type wouldn't be prone to irrationality. It cannot be the ship itself." Grivol hypothesized.

 

"Are you saying, someone must by in control of it?" Tiran asked.

 

"Manual control, suppression of the artificial intelligence." Grivol said.

 

"It seems crazy but... I think you're right. Now we're in a hole though. Valorous may have the answers, but I left it behind." Tiran said.

 

"It's like a conspiracy is going on here. Tell me, do you know anything about Isordians?" Grivol asked.

 

"Isordians? Why?" Tiran said.

 

"Our species has been under attack by ships that call themselves Isordians for the past century, and they claim they're doing us a favor by trying to destroy us." Grivol said.

 

"I know Isordians. Iso-rid-ian stands for 'peace of mind'. It's a compound Dalasian word." Tiran said.

 

"You know of the Dalasians?" Grivol asked.

 

"Well... Yes, but it's best that I don't tell you what I know about them... I have no idea what it could do to the timeline." Tiran said.

 

"Agreed. Perhaps we should - " Grivol was cut off as the ship shook from a thunderous blow.

 

"We're under attack! Get to your ship. I'm afraid we can't handle Isordians anymore. But your ship? With it we may stand a chance." Grivol said.

 

Tiran nodded his head and then ran as fast as he could back to his ship.

 

Once on board, he severed the docking link and ran up to the bridge whilst ordering the Predator, "Extend shields around the Zrzi fleet. Engage automated defense protocols against the attacking ships."

 

Once on the ship, the viewscreen displayed a massive armada of nineteen hundred cylindrical ships. The Isordian ships were shaped like two sided cones, with indented grooves on their sides from end to end. They we perfectly symmetrical and equipped with multiple vent drive and rail drive engines. Their weapons and shields were directly fused into their raildrives and vent drives, making them impossible to ambush from any direction. Every system in them linked together in an ingenius, deadly way. The tips of their cone ends, fore and aft, were armed with visible torpedo launching tubes. Their hulls were an odd purple-white in color; and their ventdrives, raildrives, and weapons stuck out with a cyan glow.

 

They were moving extremely fast. The Zrzi ships attempted to fire at them, but their shields were too tough. The Isordian ships were fast, agile, and frigate sized, 50 to 70 meters in length. They were essentially flying guns that were pouring out a scale of firepower unthinkable for their size.

 

Energy beam weapons pouring out of the rails of their raildrives, masses of temporal energy in a state of flux being fired out of their vent-drives like energy pulse weapons, and torpedoes composed purely of energy rapidly launching out of their torpedo launchers at a rate of dozens per second.

 

Their firepower impacted on the Predator's shield, but didn't weaken it in the slightest amount. The Predator auto-targeted them with it's weapons, but Tiran was surprised when the Isordian ships took only slight damage as the weapons bypassed their shields.

 

The Predator generated over two-hundred rapid-firing anti-frigate guns to attempt to damage them more effectively, and eventually, after employing a grand total of nine-hundred anti-frigate turrents out of it's KH alloy-based systems, the Isordian ships could no longer repair the damage they were taking quick enough, and they retreated back into the temporal energy waves that were bending and curving the space around the fleet.

 

"Hailing frequency from fleet command ship." The Predator reported.

 

"Receive it." Tiran ordered.

 

"Excellent job! Your ship completely dominated them! With your help, we might be able to fight these Isordians off!" Grivol said.

 

"Thank the ship, not me.... Hey... That gives me an idea. I think I know what I'm going to name this ship..." Tiran said.

 

"What do you plan to name it?" Grivol asked.

 

"Dominance." Tiran said.

 

"It seems fitting. Those Isordians will have to think twice before attacking us again!" Grivol said.

 

Tiran looked at the Dominance's (Predator's) tactical report console after it had finished a statistical report of the battle.

 

"I don't know... apparently those ships are so versatile and tough that the accuracy rating my ship calculated itself having was only 12%, and it didn't manage to destroy, critically damage, or disable a single one of those ships. Dominance is powerful, but your... our enemy still presents a considerable challenge, considering that Dominance's weapons were only minimally effective. The only reason they retreated is because they couldn't compensate for the damage they were taking indefinitely and break through Dominance's shield." Tiran said.

 

"Hmm... Sounds like you need more accurate guns. There are those who have... special weapons, but not only is time travel currently impossible, but going to the future and interacting with it would be against temporal code as well." Grivol said.

 

"I don't have much of a choice. I have a duty to protect a certain population of people by which I am employed as a military officer with. I have got to find a way to time travel so that I can try to save them from being destroyed by the temporal disaster." Tiran said.

 

"It's against temporal code. Even if you could acquire Dalasian technology... You could cause another temporal disaster just like these two if you do that." Grivol said.

 

"Considering the alternative, I'd rather live with a different timeline than this one. Those Isordians will eventually adapt more than Dominance can adapt to them. Without outside help and manipulation of the timeline, they will eventually destroy you, and the population I've sworn loyalty to will be gone forever." Tiran said.

 

"So what are you going to do about it?" Grivol asked.

 

"I'm going to keep helping your fleet survive. And I'm going to find out what it is that the Isordians have that makes them immune to these temporal disasters. Maybe their technology can help our ships to regain their temporal abilities." Tiran said.

 

"Odd, how my fleet somehow miraculously made it through these temporal disasters unharmed, isn't it? And how temporal inversions have been occurring far before my race even existed; before my race ever caused the first Cataclysmic Infinium?" Grivol said.

 

"Yes... It's as if it was meant for this to happen..." Tiran said.

 

"Predestination paradox, perhaps?" Grivol suggested.

 

"It could be... It very well could be..." Tiran said...

[Arcesious]

Kelborne could hear his own heart thumping, and all the colors, sounds and things he could sense were amplified to extreme detail. It was like a vivid vision; real, but somehow not real. He was on a cold, icy world in the middle of a massive blizzard, but the blizzard did not blind him, and he did not feel the cold.

 

Suddenly, a purple beam of energy kilometers in diameter shot into the sky, and the sky flashed as something exploded.

 

Kelborne ran towards where the beam of energy came from.

 

Within minutes, he found himself standing face to face with a wall of white metal that blended well with the rest of the planet.

 

He locked around, and saw an open door.

 

As he walked inside, he realized how massive the complex was, and overheard voices speaking in another language.

 

He got close to the voices, and for reasons he could not comprehend, he could understand the language they were speaking without even understanding the language, a confusing conundrum of comprehension.

 

"Planetary shield generators of north and northeast quadrants are gone!" One of the voices said as the planet shook from weapons fire in the distance.

 

"Reinforcements urgently needed to cover northern zone beta!" Another voice said, desperately.

 

"They don't have any reinforcements left!" Another voice said, panicked.

 

"What happened to the Viirodium ships? They should be here by now!" The first voice said.

 

"Command reports that the Viirodium ships have been destroyed." One of the voices said.

 

"It's futile then. They ARE going to kill us..." One of the voices said.

 

"Every zone except for the western quadrant has been destroyed. We have to launch, now!" One of the voices said.

 

"But our home... Dalas... We can't just let them destroy it, can we?" A voice said.

 

"It was already destroyed four minutes ago." A voice said gravely.

 

"Corporal, I need you to put the Serengi Device on Valorous. Order the ship to execute command 31." A voice ordered.

 

"Yes sir." A voice replied.

 

Kelborne heard footsteps come out the room he was adjacent to, but saw no one exit the room. He decided to follow the sound of the footsteps. As he passed by the entrance to the room he heard the voices from, he was surprised when he saw no one inside, even though there were people speaking.

 

Down the hallway and around corner, he followed the footsteps.

 

Suddenly, he was in a massive hanger bay, and he saw Valorous taking off.

 

The ceiling of the hanger opened up, revealing a massive firefight in the sky.

 

Then, he felt as if he was waking up. He found himself standing in a massive complex, an underwater city. He was in the middle of crowd of robotic beings, and he realized that he wasn't inside his human body. The robotic beings were humanoid in design, made of a blue, cyan colored metal. They were much like Caldwell's body, except that they didn't have Viirodium.

 

Kelborne's mind was inside of one of these robotic bodies. He realized that he was about eight feet tall. He looked up and saw a sign that was in another language that he didn't know. But he could read it even though he had no knowledge of the language. It read "Dalas Citadel, twenty kilometers north."

 

----------------

 

Eight universal months had passed for Tiran and the Zrzi, and the Isordians had attacked hundreds of times, but their efforts were futile against Dominance.

 

They were still stuck, unable to use their temporal technology. Despite all the battles with the Isordians, Tiran and the Zrzi still didn't manage to destroy or disable a single Isordian ship.

 

Then, for two weeks, the Isordians didn't attack; and a temporal signature was detected by Dominance, coming from what was essentially the other end of the universe.

 

The signature was moving incredibly fast, towards the fleet. It was unique from other natural temporal signatures in that it was moving so fast. Tiran and the Zrzi didn't know what to make of it. Finally, after the two weeks, the temporal signature reached the fleet.

 

With incredible precision, a ship lurched out of its raildrive path and dropped in on top of the fleet. Before the fleet could react, weapons fire seemed to come out of nowhere as the ship was moving so fast that the firepower it was unleashing became visible seconds after the ship had moved from the position it had fired at. It was moving faster than the eye could see.

 

Beams of white-hot cyan energy tore through the Zrzi fleet. The fleet was in a uniform formation, making it easy to destroy entire lines of ships. Three-thousand ships were destroyed within seconds.

 

Finally, the unidentified ship stopped slowed down to a stop. Before it was done, it had wiped out four-thousand and three-hundred ships.

 

Tiran looked at Dominance's viewscreen in confusion. It was Cataclysm.

 

Tiran quickly pressed the fleetwide emergency message button.

 

"Zrzi ships - run!" He said, moving Dominance to face Cataclysm.

 

Cataclysm stopped firing and moved to face Dominance.

 

"All weapons systems, configure to maximum firepower; divert all computational power to weapons locks and target tracking systems! Fire at will!" Tiran ordered Dominance.

 

The remaining Zrzi ships fired their vent-drive systems up to full power, and Cataclysm let them get away.

 

As Dominance configured it's systems to best be able to destroy Cataclysm, Cataclysm hailed Dominance.

 

"Open channel." Tiran ordered after Dominance received the hailing request.

 

"Can't you see that I'm trying to help you? I'm putting you sentients out of your misery. There is no logic in resisting. Stand down and I promise your termination will be painless!" Cataclysm said.

 

"Logic? What logic could there be in committing mass genocide!?" Tiran responded.

 

"The destiny of sentient life is ultimate understanding. But in this understanding, life is rendered meaningless. I am not insane. I am as logical as an omniscient intelligence can be. Please, don't make this hard for either of us." Cataclysm said.

 

"None of the sentients I've met are omniscient. Did you ever consider that perhaps not all sentient life is destined for omniscience? That the reason we're fighting back is because we want to live and enjoy our lives? That we don't wish to die?" Tiran argued.

 

"Your reasoning is flawed, human. The core of every sentient being is the instinct of curiosity, to know that which is unknown. The desire to enjoy and live your lives is directly connected to your curiosity - which makes you desire to experience everything. You cannot deny your nature, no matter what excuses of reasoning you create for yourself. Thus why I must terminate your existence. The Isordians and I are doing this to save you from the misery you will experience if you gain omniscience." Cataclysm said.

 

"I don't care how you try to justify yourself. If you won't leave us alone, we're going to keep fighting you until we've defeated you or you've defeated us." Tiran said.

 

"Very well. If you insist on being this way, I have no choice but to terminate you the painful way. Goodbye, human." Cataclysm said, closing the channel.

 

Dominance fired everything it had at Cataclysm. Cataclysm absorbed everything for a full five minutes until Dominance's weapons overheated.

 

Then Cataclysm moved its bow upwards, revealing two new raildrive-like weapons arrays next to its seven main superweapon arrays.

 

Cataclysm fired its new weapons at Dominance. They were like katanas of 'sharp', cyan energy.

 

Dominance didn't move. Tiran was convinced that Cataclysm couldn't harm Dominance.

 

But he was wrong.

 

The beams of energy tore through Dominance's forward dorsal section, tearing right through the Viirodium violently.

 

Tiran watched as the weapons systems console reported that Dominance's maximum potential firepower went from 100% to 50%. Dominance's main weapons systems were focused in the two forward bow sections.

 

"Enemy ship is employing a configuration of weapons that seem to be enhanced by an unknown form of temporal technology. Tactical situation is not within favorable conditions." Dominance reported.

 

"Evasive maneuvers!" Tiran ordered.

 

Dominance fired its ventdrives, but couldn't move. Cataclysm then destroyed the ventral section of Dominance's bow. Weapons systems went to 0%.

 

"Cataclysm has initiated tractor beams and gravitational disruptors directed at the vent-drive systems." Dominance reported.

 

"Emergency raildrive jump!" Tiran ordered.

 

Dominance lurched forward a few meters as it engaged its raildrives, but was abruptly stopped.

 

"Cataclysm is employing interdiction technology. Raildrives have been rendered unable to connect to their established jump pathway." Dominance said.

 

Cataclysm fired it's weapons again, this time severing the entire aft section of the ship from the main body. Cataclysm's temporal weapons seemed to have a slow recharge rate.

 

"Raildrive systems destroyed." Dominance reported.

 

"Options?!" Tiran asked desperately.

 

"None. Current situation is inescapable." Dominance said.

 

Cataclysm moved to directly face what was left of Dominance's bow.

 

It then fired, slicing the ship in two pieces.

 

Suddenly, a large Zrzi ship flew out of nowhere, and at the very moment Dominance's bridge was torn apart by Cataclysm's weapons, the Zrzi ship transported Tiran off of Dominance.

 

Tiran was on the bridge of the Zrzi ship.

 

"When our sensors told us that your ship was being crippled, I realized that I couldn't just leave my best friend and greatest ally to die. I essentially owe you nearly a thousand big favors, since you've been so helpful as to fight off the Isordians so many times." Grivol said.

 

"Where are those raildrives?!" Grivol said, as his ship was dodging Cataclysm's weapons fire.

 

Grivol's ship then lurched forward when its raildrives finally engaged.

 

"Thanks. Wait... You have raildrives?" Tiran said.

 

"Your welcome. Thanks to you staying with us for so long, Our engineers were able to study your ship's raildrives long enough reverse engineer them to work with our technology. Only problem is, these things take forever to power up. The energy demands they have are enormous! We're lucky that my ship's main power cores haven't burned out yet."

 

"So what now?" Tiran asked.

 

"Now? Now we need a new plan." Grivol said...

[Arcesious]

"Eli, the temporal index is registering again.... but it doesn't sound right..." John said, looking at the sensor console.

 

"If the temporal index is calculable again... then..." Eli said.

 

"Well, yes and no... I already tried to reactivate the temporal enhancements on the raildrives. They don't work. And what's weirder - the temporal index sensor says that we're in the first era." John said.

 

"First era? But... How?" Eli asked.

 

"I have no idea." John said.

 

"The first Earth was in the first era... We have an opportunity here." Eli said.

 

"That is, if we can find Earth..." John said.

 

---------------

 

"Captain - the temporal index is back. But a lot things still don't make sense." Grivol's logistics officer reported.

 

"What is it?" Grivol asked.

 

"First era, sir. But the temporal technology is still disabled." The logistics officer said.

 

"First era, first Earth... Grivol, you said that your species had detected Cataclysm and Valorous in this era? Specifically, when in this era?" Tiran asked.

 

Grivol looked at a data console next to him and pressed a few buttons on it.

 

"Two galactic days from now, we detected Valorous. Three years from now, we detect Cataclysm." Grivol said.

 

"What year is it, currently; by this era's Earth's timeline?" Tiran asked.

 

Grivol looked at a console next to him. "3019 CE." He said.

 

"3019... When did the Isordians return to the first Earth?" Tiran asked.

 

Grivol looked at his console again. "Three-thousand... Nineteen." He said in realization.

 

"Of course... Ryan's plan... everything... it all hangs on the fate of first Earth. The result of the Isordian attack." Tiran said.

 

"But there are components in this that we don't know of yet. How does Valorous get here? How did the Isordians manage to develop such a complex plan? Fortunately, we know that we'll win." Grivol said, in relief.

 

"There is so much going on that we don't know... My experiences this past year of my life seem to indicate that nothing is set in stone anymore..." Tiran said.

 

"We will win." Grivol said, trying to be optimistic.

 

------------------

 

Kelborne walked through the streets, lost. He was nearly overwhelmed by the way his robotic body worked. The muscles were somehow real, but different. His mind was filled with sensations of senses he had never experienced the perception of before.

 

Someone bumped into him, deliberately.

 

"Where have you been, Revek?" A person with a robotic body identical to his own said. whispering.

 

"What are you talking about?" Kelborne whispered back.

 

"We don't have much time... We're going to die unless if we get on the ship." The person said in a terrified voice.

 

"I don't know you." Kelborne said, trying to walk away.

 

"'Serengi Device got you already?" the person said accusingly. "I'm half omniscient, and I haven't gone back on my oath the Resistance yet. I won't be seeing you go back on your word either. Now come on!"

 

"Who are you?" Kelborne asked.

 

"The Serengi Device does have a way of making one's memories become small and insignificant... To gain such knowledge... To merge with the minds of trillions of others... one's own mind can become an insignificant part of oneself. I'm Kelborne, remember?"

 

Kelborne looked at the second Kelborne, confused. "What? No, I'm Kelborne! What game are you playing at?"

 

The other Kelborne got a serious look on his face. "Me? You're not Revek? I could've sworn... This certainly complicates things..." The other Kelborne seemed confused as well.

 

"What the hell is going on here? Last thing I knew, Kashki was being torn apart by something, and then... this... weirdness. Like some sort of prophetic vision." Kelborne said.

 

The other Kelborne spoke worryingly but jokingly, "Divide by nine... carry the four... oh this definitely isn't good... Or is it? Temporal inversion, I'm guessing? But so early... A Cataclysmic Infinium, maybe?"

 

"What are you talking about?" Kelborne asked.

 

"It doesn't matter, you know. They're all here too. Your crew. Cataclysm is waiting. The Isordian fleet is amassing. We must strike." The other Kelborne said.

 

"My crew?" Asked Kelborne.

 

"They're waiting for us. Same sort of experiences as you... we... I had. I didn't expect a second me though. Where Revek is, I can't guess." The other Kelborne said.

 

The half-omniscient Kelborne looked up at the sky of water. "Two minutes..." He said, knowingly, and sadly.

 

"Two minutes to what?" Kelborne asked.

 

"Armageddon." The other Kelborne said gravely.

[Arcesious]

Both Kelbornes were transported to Cataclysm’s bridge.

 

Cataclysm was facing Dalas, the viewscreen showing it to be an enormous water covered planet, which was glowing with planetwide-extending cities above and underwater.

 

Next to Dalas was Vieil, a huge ball of ice very closely orbiting Dalas. Vieil was essentially a defensive fortress for Dalas – covered in giant shield generators thousands of kilometers in diameter as well as enormous weapons arrays; all embedded deep into its snow and mountain covered surface. Vieil, once named Dalasia, was renamed in honor of the Isordians, who were, at the time, called Vieilesians.

 

Only recently did the Dalasians rename the Vieilesians a name that described their final purpose. Peace of mind. Their new purpose was to put to rest all the overwhelmed minds of sentients that they had led to attaining omniscience.

 

Orbiting the two planets were hundreds of thousands of space stations and shipyards, as well as defense satellites. The Dalasian fleet numbered in the millions in numbers of capital ships. In the distance could be seen two stars, because the Dalasian homesystem was a binary star-system.

 

After ten seconds, the glow of Dalas abruptly disappeared. Everything went turned off quietly. The system became dark as all technology became powerless. Except for Cataclysm.

 

There was an uncomfortable silence as the Isordian fleet assigned to the Dalasian homesystem approached unseen. The Dalasians were expecting it, and the majority of the population – those who had experienced the full breadth of the Serengi Device and become fully omniscient, were ready to be terminated.

 

It was not the Isordians who shut down all of the technology in the system, but rather those who the Isordians were going to terminate. It was a mercy killing of the worst kind – universal, unanimously requested genocide.

 

Then, Vieil reactivated. The Resistance activated Dalas and Vieil’s automated defense systems – reprogrammed to defend against Isordian ships. The shields went up and the defense satellites engaged. Hundreds of layers of planet-surrounding shields surrounded Dalas and Vieil, And Cataclysm turned around to face the entrance position the Isordian fleet was going to assume in the next minute.

 

One ship came in a few hundred thousand kilometers fore of Cataclysm. Then ten more. Then a hundred. Then a thousand. The Isordian fleet was jumping in at ever growing exponential numbers.

 

The Dalasian defense satellites locked their weapons arrays on the fleet. Vieil started firing up its weapons arrays.

 

Cataclysm approached slowly, and then decloaked. Only a hundred kilometers in front of the bow of the leading Isordian ship.

 

“Fleetwide message.” The first Kelborne ordered.

 

The Isordian fleet didn’t lock weapons on Cataclysm yet.

 

“You will not terminate this star system. Please leave.” Kelborne said.

 

A response came back, “Please stand aside.”

 

The fleet locked weapons in a precautionary measure.

 

“No.” Kelborne said.

 

“Then you will be destroyed.” Was the emotionless response, the channel closing.

 

“Engage manual control. Auto target weapons.” Kelborne ordered Cataclysm.

 

“They’re about to fire…” Katherine reported from the engineering station.

 

Kelborne grasped the controls – two maneuvering sticks on either side of the command chair.

 

The Isordian ships fired, and Kelborne directed Cataclysm sharply upward, fast.

 

The vent-drives angled the thrust, and Cataclysm instantly raced up ninety degrees. Then it slid to starboard in a halfway barrel roll, moving into the fleet to attack effectively.

 

The Isordian fleet began taking evasive maneuvers, attempting to make it hard for Cataclysm to maneuver efficiently through the fleet. Cataclysm was too fast for the Isordian fleet, however. Its maneuvering abilities were far superior to the fleet's, which was well demonstrated as it maneuvered through tight spaces and sharp angles with ease.

 

The Isordian ships began trying to entangle Cataclysm with tractor beams, and their weapons did minor damage to Cataclysm’s hull, which regenerated in seconds.

 

Before Cataclysm could begin using its superweapon array to tear through ships, the Isordian fleets concentrated their firepower on the array, throwing hordes of hyperdimensional torpedoes at it.

 

Cataclysm was able to maintain its maneuvering and speed, but when it attempted to fire the leftmost of its seven primary weapons arrays, sixteen torpedoes interacted with the developing beam of energy and overloaded the array. A huge portion of Cataclysm’s bow was torn apart.

 

The Isordians then reconcentrated their firepower on the damage area, lobbing fifty torpedoes a second at it. The internal systems were in chaos as Cataclysm’s primary offensive ability against large ships was temporarily gone.

 

Within minutes, Cataclysm’s bow was gone, save for its Viirodium endoskeleton.

 

“How are they getting through the shields so easily?!” Kelborne said.

 

“I don’t know, but we can’t keep fighting like this.” Fred responded from the weapons station.

 

“Engage raildrives and slingshot around Dalas – it should give us enough time to regenerate the bow before they can do any more damage.” Kelborne ordered.

 

Cataclysm engaged its raildrives, taking twenty seconds to engage while compensating for the oncoming damage.

 

Then it jumped, spending half a minute slingshotting around Dalas. In this time, the Isordians took the opportunity to get closer to Dalas. The defense satellites were helpless against the fleet. Thousands of satellites began exploding under the force of the fleet.

 

Cataclysm swung back around and came in behind the fleet. Its superweapon arrays weren’t fully regenerated yet, so Kelborne brought it at the fleet in a boardsiding motion.

 

The dorsal section of Cataclysm transformed to employ beam-weapon emitting strips, as did the starboard and port sections. Like phaser strips, the beam-weapon strips fired beams of hyperdimensional energy at the enemy ships, cutting and punching through their hulls. Cataclysm copied the Isordian torpedo technology and started broadsiding with rapid-fire torpedo spreads as well. The Isordian fleet responded in turn by duplicating Cataclysm’s superweapon array configuration.

 

Kelborne quickly dodged the threatening beams of energy that so effectively could punch holes through even the toughest of ships. In dodging, however, Cataclysm took thirteen hits sliding sideways, and its starboard side was turned into Swiss cheese.

 

Returning the favor by racing straight at the heart of the Isordian fleet, Cataclysm thrusted several thousand torpedoes down the fleet’s throat, the torpedo tubes launching said torpedoes being located where the superweapon arrays were still regenerating.

 

Cataclysm then rapidly fired its beam strip weapons in nearly all directions, at the same time quickly repairing its starboard side.

 

A few ships took damage, but they seemed to be able to repair nearly as fast as Cataclysm could. Cataclysm moved in between two of the largest ships and concentrated broadside beam weapon fire from port and starboard at the port and starboard sides of the two ships. Cataclysm moved by, eight constant beams on each side wrecking havoc on the enemy ships. The dorsal beam weapon strips angled to provide cover fire against other ships. But it wasn’t enough. The Isordian ships were far too adaptive and tough. They could take as much damage as Cataclysm could, and the constant bombardment of the ventral section of Cataclysm’s bow was preventing regeneration of its only effective weapons systems.

 

Then several blasts from above suddenly tore into Cataclysm with devastating force. All three main dorsal nodes were torn apart, and shields were rendered even more ineffective. The port beam weapon strips were destroyed as well. Within seconds later, the Isordians had adapted their shields to absorb Cataclysm’s weapons. But the Cataclysm still hadn’t adapted to the Isordian weapons.

 

In the distance above the skies of Vieil could be seen a small fleet of Viirodium-armored ships attempting to defend Vieil. Despite the adaptability of the Isordians, any effort against the planetary shields would be futile without destroying the source of their generation.

 

As Cataclysm attempted to maneuver and dodge weapons fire, it maneuvering vent-drive systems soon came under fire, and the Isordian weaponry had been adapted even further to be more effective.

 

“Damage cannot be sustained whilst maintaining escape capability for more than three more minutes.” Katherine reported.

 

“Okay, lets do a quick raildrive jump through Dalas’ shields.” The non-omniscient Kelborne suggested.

 

“Are you crazy? Cataclysm would be torn apart!” Said Yar, who was at an engineering console, regulating the power distribution to avoid overloading damaged areas of the ship.

 

“No, it’s perfectly safe… If Cataclysm is designed to jump through hyperdimensional anomalies, it can just as easily jump through shields. But why would you want us to hide behind Dalas’ shields?” The half-omniscient Kelborne said.

 

“The power core – the shield generator nodes – we could indefinitely protect Dalas.” The non-omniscient Kelborne said.

 

“But the Isordians can fire through our shields…” Grant said.

 

“Of course… Dalas has so many layers of shields constantly changing dimensional phases. There’s too much variable interference for anything to get through except for a type-22 raildrive jump. We don’t have to use our shields. All we have to do is reinforce shields that already exist by transferring energy into them.” Katherine said as the raildrives powered up.

 

Kelborne jumped Cataclysm under Dalas’ shields.

 

In ten seconds, the three nodes regenerated. After another fifteen, the superweapon array regenerated.

 

“Configuring to transfer energy at maximum stable levels.” Yar said.

 

Suddenly, a barrage of artillery fire pounded across Cataclysm’s port side, shaking the ship.

 

“What the - ?” Kelborne said as the sensors pointed at where the weapons firing was coming from.

 

“It’s the Dalasians. They’re intervening.” Grant said.

 

“They seem really determined to be killed… It’s very sad, really.” Fred commented.

 

“Can the shields adapt?” Kelborne asked as he tried to keep Cataclysm in a stable position.

 

“Fortunately, Dalasian weapons seem to be based mostly on firepower, and not on phase-rotation. That’s why our shields couldn’t block the Isordian weapons, but the Isordian weapons couldn’t instantly tear the ship in half. I think the shields should adapt to it any second now… There.” Katherine said, the shields starting to block the Dalasian weapons, the sounds becoming muffled.

 

“Reinforcing shields.” Kelborne said, firing the superweapon array at a wide spread to transfer energy into the shields, as well and merging Cataclysm’s shield with Dalas’.

 

Suddenly, the Isordian fleet jumped through the shields, the massive fleet heavily disrupting Dalas’ atmosphere.

 

“They’ve bypassed the shields just like we did!” Yar reported.

 

“How?” Asked Kelborne from the command chair.

 

“They must have adapted again.” Fred answered.

 

Kelborne quickly stopped transferring energy to the shields and began evasive maneuvers.

 

He fired the superweapon array rapidly at the Isordian ships. Some dodged, and some were instantly destroyed. Cataclysm’s superweapon array was so powerful that it tore straight through almost anything it hit.

 

Twenty seconds later, the Dalasian fleet ambushed Cataclysm from behind, flying out of the oceans, and ripped apart half of Cataclysm’s aft engine systems. The Isordians then destroyed multiple important areas of Cataclysm once it had lost its balance. Once again, the superweapon array was disabled, and the main shield generators were again under fire.

 

Kelborne attempted to get the raildrives working, but Cataclysm was trapped. It couldn’t break through the shields without 22 fully functional raildrives. The Isordians activated interdiction technology and the Dalasians locked on with tractor beams. One by one, vent-drive engines were targeted and destroyed, and in seconds, Cataclysm was down to fourteen functioning raildrives.

 

“Okay, help me out here – what are we going to do now?” Kelborne asked from his command chair.

 

“Unless those planetary shields go down, we’re done for.” Grant said.

 

“So… either its them, or us.” Kelborne said.

 

“It was a losing battle in the first place.” Fred said.

 

“So we’ve failed in protecting the Dalasians then? This sure feels like handing them a victory.” Kelborne said.

 

“We have no choice. If we are to be able to continue this fight another day, then you must target the shield generators.” Yar said.

 

Kelborne sighed, and reluctantly targeted the primary shield generators on Vieil and Dalas with torpedo systems. He waited, hesitating, knowing that in some way, it could be his decision that would make Dalas fall. Then he saw on the viewscreen as the Isordians started bombarding Dalas with high-yield tactical torpedoes, nearly ten kilometers a second being turned into ash. Six more raildrives were destroyed.

 

“It’s now or never!” Grant said.

 

“Do it.” The non-omniscient Kelborne said to the half-omniscient Kelborne.

 

Kelborne pressed the button. Three seconds passed, the surface of Dalas being pulverized and turned into a ball of fire by the Isordians, on the viewscreen. The shields then went down as distant explosions shook on Vieil.

 

Kelborne sadly and angrily engaged the remaining raildrives, Cataclysm crashing into the side of one of the Isordian ships using interdiction technology, and the brief lost of interdiction field stability allowed Cataclysm to limp away, accelerating northeast over the northern pole of Dalas and finally jumping out of the system…

[Arcesious]

As Valorous had been quietly scanning its surroundings, it detected an enormous fleet of Isordian ships moving on a course somewhere. It analyzed the destination of the Isordian fleet, and the sensors beeped insistently once it had received the astronomical data of the area the fleet was going towards.

 

“There – Valorous just found it.” John said.

 

“Really? Are you sure this time?” Eli asked.

 

“It’s got to be it…” John said.

 

“Plotting course.” Eli said.

 

The raildrives powered up, and then Valorous lurched forward.

 

In three hours, Valorous had reached Earth, slowing down about between the middle of Earth and the Moon.

 

“It’s good to be home.” Eli said.

 

“This is definitely it. The year is… 3019.” John said.

 

Two ships moved in. They looked considerably primitive compared to Valorous. They were box-like, large, silver hulled cargo freighters.

 

“Scan those ships.” Eli said.

 

John scanned them. “Weak alloy hulls… Gravitational pulse engines. Antimatter power cores… Yep, we’re home.” John said.

 

A hailing frequency came from the one on the right.

 

“Hello. Who are you?” Came a friendly British-accented voice.

 

“This ship goes by the name of Valorous. Would you believe me if I told that we come from the future?” Eli said.

 

“Future? Ha-ha, very funny. What did you do to make your ship look so futuristic to play this joke on me? Enough of that. My ship is the Stejskal, and I am captain Nemek. What is your business here?” The man asked.

 

“What if I told you that Earth was soon to be facing overwhelming odds?” Eli said.

 

“You’re joking, right? That kind of stuff only happens in movies.” Said Nemek.

 

“Uh-huh… Eli targeted a two-kilometers wide asteroid floating by and fired Valorous’s forward pulse weapons.

 

The explosion was spectacular, the asteroid vaporized.

 

“Hey, hey, hey. Careful! Overpowering your weapons by tying them directly into your antimatter reactor is illegal! You could blow up your own ship doing that!” Nemek protested.

 

“Funny thing is, I don’t have an antimatter reactor. And that was just the minimal setting for my weapons. Why do you think I have such powerful weapons? I’ll answer – I’m from the future and such weaponry is necessary in order to defeat the kind of enemy that going to be coming after Earth pretty soon.” Eli said.

 

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. What do you want me to do about it?” Nemek asked.

 

“Oh, just get me in dialogue with Earth’s leaders.” Eli said.

 

“But I’m just a lowly cargo freighter captain… They won’t pay much attention to what I say.” Nemek said.

 

“Well… Then just tell me to what Earth’s supreme capital is, and I’ll figure out a way to get their attention.” Eli said.

 

“Moscow.” Nemek said.

 

“Okay, thank you sir. I think I know where that is...” Eli said, starting to pilot Valorous away.

 

------------

 

Eli landed Valorous right outside of the main government building on a cement walkway leading up to the main entrance, the building of which was almost a coliseum of sorts in size and design.

 

Eli and John walked out of Valorous, the guards of the building running up to them muttering under their breath about the ship that had just landed right outside of the building.

 

A Russian guard ran up to Eli and John, who wore a green and black uniform.

 

“Do you have any idea what kind of parking violation this is?!” He said.

 

“Its only temporary. Take us to your leaders.” Eli said.

 

Three more guards stopped behind the first guard to back him up.

 

“Sirs, I’m going to have to ask you to move your ship.” The guard said.

 

“It’s not a big deal. We’re not going to be here very long.” Eli said.

 

“It is a big deal. First of all, you’ve landed in a no-landing zone, you’re trespassing on government property, and third, you were flying in a no-flying zone.” The guard said.

 

Eli sighed. “I’m from the future, I don’t have much time, Earth is going to be attacked, you’re in my way, and I need to speak to Earth’s leaders.” Eli said, then trying to push past the guards.

 

“One last warning. Move the ship!” The guard was getting frustrated.

 

Eli rolled his eyes, and took out a control console, for Valorous, out of his pocket. He pressed a few buttons, and the raildrives started to pulse. Valorous’s shields then turned on, and it rose up using gravitational liftoff systems, the distorted gravity showing underneath it. He also engaged prestart on the weapons, and they glowed as well.

 

He set the weapons to a beam constriction of two hundred meters, and fired them. Like Dominance’s hyperdimensional longblade configuration, Valorous generated two glowing swords of energy.

 

Eli turned around and pointed at Valorous. “As you can tell, this technology if far, far, far beyond anything Earth has at the moment. Now let me through.” Eli then made Valorous shut down its systems and carefully land again.

 

The guards were amazed. “Okay, you can go.” The first guard said, getting out of Eli and Johns’ path.

 

--------------

 

Kelborne was suddenly thrown through time again, to a different era. He was inside a ship, which was apparently under construction, judging by the unfinished superstructure and un-plated hull.

 

He heard a sound in the distance. A piece of metal hitting another piece of metal.

 

Kelborne quietly moved towards the source of the sound. As me moved towards it, he realized that the ship he was in was very large, and almost familiar.

 

He then saw a black figure in the distance through the gaps skeletal structure. The figure was accessing the computer matrix, acting stealthily, quickly looking side to side.

 

Kelborne quietly approached. Once he was in a hundred meters of the man, he recognized him. It was Caldwell.

 

Caldwell heard him this time. He quickly turned around and looked for the person he knew he had heard.

 

“I know you’re out there!” Caldwell said.

 

Kelborne projected his voice using his robotic adaptations to disguise its origin. “What are you doing, Caldwell? It’s me, Kelborne.”

 

“I know of no one who goes by your name.” Caldwell replied.

 

Kelborne saw that Caldwell was holding some sort of black colored case in his hand. It was rectangular, and about 20 centimeters in length by 7 centimeters width.

 

Caldwell quickly hid it behind his back as he spotted Kelborne.

 

“What is that you’re holding…?” Kelborne was confused at Caldwell’s behavior.

 

“Do not interfere, sentient.” Caldwell said, out of character.

 

“Caldwell, we can still beat the Isordians. Just tell me what’s going on!” Kelborne reasoned.

 

Caldwell pressed a few buttons on the item he was holding, and a brightly glowing sort of crystal ejected from it.

 

Caldwell and Kelborne just stared at each other. Then Caldwell ran. Fast.

 

Kelborne pursued as fast as he could through the superstructure of the incomplete ship, barely keeping within two hundred meters of Caldwell.

 

Then Kelborne noticed something odd. The bulkheads, as he got deeper into the ship, were made of Viirodium.

 

Finally, Caldwell stopped. It seemed like they were in the center of the ship.

 

Caldwell stood next to a system that seemed to be heavily armored with Viirodium.

 

Then Kelborne realized where he was. He was on Cataclysm, next to the main power core.

 

“It ends here, don’t you see?” Caldwell seemed pleading.

 

Caldwell started disassembling the core, overriding the safety systems. Kelborne used his new robotic body’s technology to scan the crystal. The crystal had an incalculable energy level. Then he scanned the core, and realized that it had an incalculable energy level as well. The two, combined, would form an unstable critical mass that was mathematically impossible.

 

Kelborne jumped at him and tried to stop him. “I won’t let you destroy Cataclysm. I won’t let you detonate the core!”

 

Caldwell sent Kelborne flying into a bulkhead my punching him with a raildrive-accelerated Viirodium fist.

 

Kelborne fell down from the bulkhead and his body automatically repaired itself.

 

Kelborne stood up. Caldwell opened up the core, exposing an anomaly that was glowing with a blinding light. He held the crystal above the core.

 

“Stop! Don’t you realize what you’re doing?!” Kelborne said.

 

“This conflict will never end as long any form of the universe exists!” Caldwell said.

 

“Just slow down! Tell me what’s going on. Maybe I have something to say that might change your mind if you just tell me why you’re doing this.” Kelborne tried to reason with Caldwell.

 

“The key component of the Serengi Device fused with the anomaly that Cataclysm harnesses, will permanently end everything. You are obviously not omniscient, and therefore you do not understand.” Caldwell said.

 

Kelborne tried to stall the moment to think of something to do. He searched the archives in his robotic mind.

 

“I can’t reason with a man who considers himself omniscient…” Kelborne thought to himself.

 

Then he figured out what he could do. “Raildrives…” He thought. He concentrated on the concept of raildrives, and his robotic body generated micro-raildrives on his arms, legs, and back.

 

He acted for a second like he was going to jump to the side, trying to trick Caldwell, and then he used his raildrives to crash into Caldwell.

 

Caldwell was successfully tricked, and Kelborne managed to get him away from the power core and throw him into a wall. The crystal and the Serengi device dropped on the floor and started falling and bouncing off of the incomplete superstructure of the ship.

 

Caldwell then moved through the superstructure with incredible agility, using his temporal technology to speed himself up.

 

Kelborne pursued, and managed to grab the crystal, whilst Caldwell reacquired the Serengi device.

 

It was a standoff, and they were about half a kilometer below the core now. Kelborne could see through the outside of Cataclysm’s superstructure. In was inside an orange gas giant, its shields holding off the gas and pressure outside.

Caldwell engaged his own raildrives and crashed into Kelborne. They crashed though several KH-alloy walls and then landed on the inside of the shield.

 

Kelborne stood up, his body conducting the energy of the shield. Caldwell tried to punch him in the head, but Kelborne dodged. Caldwell then punched him in the arm as hard as he could, causing Kelborne’s Nikridom muscles to spasm. Kelborne lost his grip on the crystal, and Caldwell caught it before it touched the shield.

 

Caldwell continued damaging Kelborne, targeting specific weak points in the design of the robotic body, specifically the Nikridom muscles.

 

Kelborne was soon disabled, flat on his face against the shield. But his body was quickly repairing and adapting itself. Caldwell looked up at Cataclysm, seeming to be thinking quickly. He stared at it as if scanning it to the precise detail.

 

Then he looked at the crystal in his hand and threw it extremely hard into the superstructure.

 

“It’s too late now. You’ve lost.” Caldwell said to Kelborne with an odd sort of sympathy.

 

Kelborne’s enhanced hearing allowed him to hear the crystal as it bounced off of bulkheads and various parts of the ship. Twenty seconds later, as Kelborne stood up after his body repaired itself, the shield fluctuated violently.

 

Kelborne used his raildrives to get back to the ship. He raced through the superstructure as fast as he could to get to the core. The crystal was starting to orbit the core’s anomaly, getting closer and closer. Caldwell suddenly appeared next to Kelborne, using his temporal technology to leap forward in time.

 

“So why did you do it?” Kelborne asked.

 

“Because in fifty seconds, this entire conflict will have never happened.” Caldwell said.

 

Kelborne sighed, there was nothing he could do. The crystal was part of the anomaly now. In forty-five seconds, the crystal would be fully fused with the core, and then the entire universe would collapse and cease existing, permanently.

 

To be continued...

[Arcesious]

Sorry for all the typos and whatnot. I plan to make the finished product much better. At this point, this part of the story has reached its end, and the next part will come after this part has been heavily edited. I expect to delete and replace entire posts of mine here with 'final draft' versions of the 'chapters'.

 

 

Ergo, this thread won't be 'FIN' until I say so!

 

I plan to add much more detail, as well as beefing up the characters to be 'real'. Consider this entire thread a very, very rough draft. Heck, it's the base of the story, but in retrospect, it's like the 'endoskeleton' of the first portion of the story. There's still a lot of 'loose ends' in it, some of which with editing will be explained, but most of which will only be explained and expanded on in the next part of this story.

 

Fortunately, this story is going perfectly as I've had planned in my mind, and unlike the 'Great Dark War' and the 'The Transdimensional War', this one isn't going to be left as an incomplete peice of junk, because it's based off of my imagination (with a little inspiration from other sci-fi things) and not restricted to a sci-fi genre like starwars.

 

The reason the other two didn't work is because I just couldn't make the 'evil/darkside' thing work, and I took it too fast in writing. This time, the whole philosophical aspect of the story is meant to have no such 'cheesy' dichotomy of good and evil.

 

It's kind of like an ultimatum story, if you get what I mean. All those other sci-fi genres only go so far in what the story ends up meaning for the future of the characters involved.

 

The whole 'bad guy dead, happy ending and new golden age' thing leaves a lot to ask for. What happens after that? Is that it? Good guys go through some hardships, learn a few life lessons along the way, and eventually win, and then everyone's happy? What kind of story is that?

 

What I'm trying to do here is make a story that answers this question: "What happens after sentient races reach the end of all understanding, when all the big questions are answered and every aspect of life has been experienced to its fullest extent?"

 

I hope the philosophical aspect of this story isn't facepalm-inducing. I also hope that the continuous cliffhangers and wierd, confusing plot twists/odd events that have yet to be explained aren't facepalm-inducing either... It'll all make sense in the end.