Greetings my readers, no I am not dead, I've just had serious writer's block, and I'm not sure of the direction of my other two stories will go, or even if I will even finish them. This story how ever is just a one shot, an inescapable idea that won't release me till I let it out.
No longer wishing to waste your time, I hereby present to you…..
Cry Of Extinction
Silence.
Not the silence of a typical sort, but the silence of the result of a massive conflagration, The result of air getting pulled into a blossoming explosion. A great sphere of super-heated air that vaporizes all in its vicinity. And unfortunately for the poor souls of the Lexington, that was their fate. No time to weep for their families, or say their last good byes, or even to scream in horror. It was over in an instant, the rush of boiling air killed them in an instant, turning their ship and poor mortal bodies into carbon dust, before that too was broken down by the hellish power unleashed upon them.
Louise could only stare, shocked by the power she unleashed, but shock gave way to fright as she saw the massive shock wave expand at speeds inconceivable to her.
"Louise, hold on tight dammit!"
Saito's words jolted Louise out her shock, and she wrapped her slender arms around him just in time for the wave to slam into the small Zero fighter, causing it to spiral out of control.
"Dammit, I'll have to to crash the Zero", Saito thought angrily as the plane shuddered from the onslaught of the high pressure wind, quite frankly it was a miracle that plane didn't break apart when it first took the hit. Pulling up hard on the controls Saito managed to get the plane into a position to glide, his Gandalfr runes guiding his actions, letting up on the controls slightly, briefly allowing the battered plane to counter the gale force winds threatening to destroy it.
Seeing a flat, obstacle free clearing, Saito yelled over his shoulders "Louise hold on! I'm crash landing the plane!"
"Your What!" But before she could counter, The fighter shuddered violently as it hit the soft earth and continued to slide through the field, smoke pouring from its engine. As friction inevitably slowed the plane down, Saito quickly took off his buckle and opened the cockpit, and turned to face Louise, her small form shaking from a combination of her success with Void magic, and their near death experience from said success. With out a word, he bent down and picked her up, and jumped out of the ruined plane, and the two of them looked at sight of what Louise had wrought.
Unfortunately, they were not the only ones watching, for neither Master nor Familiar, nor the gathered Tristainian army, Henrietta, or the papacy knew what was coming.
…
Deep within the outskirts of space, a strange, almost insect like vessel picked up on a blast of energy.
The strange object began to glow purple, and with a speed never seen, seemed to phase in orbit around the planet from which the source came.
…
Almost unbidden, a strange symbol flashed, glowing with unnatural light. More symbols, unknowable to mortal beings flashed, in strange patterns, until one was selected.
The sun appeared, in its magnificent glory, glowing red and orange.
Planets, many of them, orbited around it.
But the Being manipulating did not care for those planets.
It focused on one particular world, three was its placement in relation to other planets from the sun. Two moons this planet had.
The Being scanned this planet, picking up on its language and mannerisms to make inquiries more efficient.
Assimilation linguistique complète.
Foreman 4413 awakened from stasis.
"Welcome back Foreman"
The Foreman, awakened by the Being, viewed an image of large detonation over the planets surface.
"Detonation on planet holds readings similar to Liquid Ichor event" "Initiating Surface scans"
The Being conducted a more thorough scan of the planet, picking up all relevant data and forwarding it to the Foreman.
"Tactical analysis, Level I civilization on 43.7 percent of planet surface. Indigenous civilization unstable"
Images flashed of bi-limned life forms in crude metal armor and weapons fighting each other, small settlements burning, juvenile life forms showing duress as their progenitors lied around them lifeless.
"Ichor analysis, 00.00 percent of planet surface contains Ichor."
Images of Carbon based flora permeated the landscape green in the ultra violet spectrum, in climates of nearly all temperatures.
Upon this declaration a new Being appeared, and with an agitated tone stated
"IMPOSSIBLE, THERE EXISTS NO PRECEDENT FOR ICHOR FREE PLANET TO EXHIBIT DETONATION EVENT"
After a moment of consideration, the agitated Being restated
"OVERLORD WILL BE INTRIGUED, DEPLOY TRAVELER-59 SCOUTS TO PLANET BLAST SITE IMMEDIATELY".
The Being received the order from the Supervisor, and after a few micro-cycles of calculations deliberated.
"Plan accepted, deploying Traveler-59 ground forces to detonation site. Drop ships en route, moving in at near-photon speed"
Images flashed before the Foreman, where it could view the multitude of transports converging on the planet.
"Transports through planet atmosphere, no transporter damage"
The Foreman watched as the drop ships violently crashed into the planets surface, expelling vast amounts of debris.
"Deploying ground forces, initiating securing of blast zone"
…
Awe, that is what Princess Henrietta was feeling. The great air ship Lexington, A behemoth that would have spear-headed the invasion of her country was laid to waste in an instant. A great ball of light, exceeding the sun in its intensity appeared, and the young royal was forced to shut and shield her eyes from the incredible brightness that seemed to destroy the shadow of despair that weighed her soul down. She knew Louise was a void mage, but even this exceeded her expectations.
As the seemingly heavenly light started to dim Henrietta saw that the massive blast swept away the clouds, and could clearly see the heavens above her, Halkegenia's two moons hanging in the sky.
She was just about to go to her friends side when she noticed an additional series of lights in the sky, streaks of ominous purple light racing down to earth, a disturbing glow which frightened her. She felt her soul clench with a dread she'd never felt before. The mysterious lights came down to the ground in a resounding boom, and a massive cloud of dust was sent into the air, obscuring her view.
"Your Majesty!"
Henrietta turned around to face her personal guard, and friend Agnes. She looked just as distraught as the princess was feeling
"Yes Agnes?"
"We need to secure the Valliere girl and her familiar as quickly as possible, the Albion army might have capitulated to us, but those lights crashing into the ground unnerve me, as well as the army". Agnes motioned to the front line, even though foot soldiers were showing a brave face, their mounts however were not.
Horses were nervously moving around, neighing, a couple even had to restrained due to nearly throwing their riders off. This was unusual, Henrietta thought, these were war horses, specifically bred and trained for combat. They did not show fear when exposed to the sound of muskets and cannons firing, nor did they easily spook. For them to be unnerved by something was telling in its own regard.
Making her decision, Henrietta ordered a group of scouts to retrieve her friend. She watched as the group of mounted scouts went rushing towards the downed dragon's raiment, when suddenly their horse's stopped in their tracks, backing away from the dust cloud, neighing loudly.
"Come on you damn beast!" shouted one of the scouts, doing his best to get the horse to move. Unwilling to move forwards another inch, the horse threw him off, and proceeded to gallop as quickly as it could away from the now glowing dust cloud.
Agnes moved her own protesting steed closer to the hill edge to watch the glowing cloud, and felt her breath hitch as she saw unearthly shapes move in it.
Out they came, both beautiful and hideous at the same time, small four legged insect like creatures, roughly the size of people, with silver coloration on their bodies, and a strange tube like protuberance coming from their center.
Larger four legged insects, their bodies bulbous, with a strange wide split down their center, and a multiple of glowing eyes scuttled behind the smaller bugs.
Silver glowing clouds followed around them, their buzzing audible to all.
And finally, several massive 3 legged monstrosities walked behind them, easily towering over most structures, the ground rumbling with each step they took. Their massive tentacle arms, each having an ax like growth, glowed an unearthly purple.
Princess Henrietta moved closer to Agnes, and worriedly asked" Agnes, what are those?"
But before Agnes could even try to figure out a response, the scout group nearest to the strange beings shouted out in fear. "Demons!" One shouted, and several of them raised their muskets at the things.
Which did not turn out to be a terribly good idea. The strange bug creatures let out a high pitch sound, and fired beams of light at the scouts, ignoring their armor, bifurcated the men, their now cooling corpses spilling out singed organs and blood. Those not killed yet tried to run, only to be overtaken by the silver swarms, their agonizing screams chilling the blood of all who heard it.
Henrietta could only stare in horror as blood pooled from their eyes and mouths before finally being dissolved by the silver cloud, which now held a blood red tinge.
It was nearly enough to make Henrietta vomit, but she steeled herself and turned around "Agnes, marshal the army, we must destroy these abominations" she declared with royal authority. Nodding her head, Agnes galloped to the front line, and ordered all musketeers at the ready.
Three columns marched up, and raised their weapons. "Cannon crews, target those larger ones!" Agnes barked loudly over the army. Multiple 20 pounder guns moved into position, targeting the quickly approaching invaders. Agnes waited on baited breath as the monsters got within range.
"FIRE!"
A cacophony of noise rang out, as thousands of lead balls, and multiple cannon balls met the encroaching monsters, taking a few down, but inflicting far less damage then Agnes would have liked.
The return fire was far more horrifying. Incalculable beams of light struck the front lines, severing body parts and killing many, splashing thick amounts of blood over the ground, while the larger creatures generating black, glowing discs, and shot them deep into the massed infantry.
The soldiers struck by the discs were incinerated instantly, and those near them were killed by the intense heat, there armor melting onto their skin. Those who survived were flash burned, terrible burn marks upon those with exposed skin, saturating the plain with the smell of burning flesh. The mages were having a better effect on the insects, and managed to down a few before they too were horribly killed.
"What have we done to suffer this Brimir?" Henrietta thought with despair as the unholy army of silver insects continued to advance.
…..
"Ground forces encountering organized resistance, archaic kinetic weaponry deployed against ground forces"
"Unprecedented, unknown energy weapons deployed against ground forces"
"Heavy losses of ground forces, advise mission abort in face of unknown capabilities Foreman"
"MISSION WILL NOT BE ABORTED" The Supervisor proclaims
The Being calculates, and responds.
"Supervisor, cannot complete objective against organized forces"
"DISORGANIZE THEM, COMMENCE ATTACK OPERATIONS AGAINST LARGE POPULATION CENTERS TO DIVERT ARMED INDIGENOUS FORCES FROM PRIMARY OBJECTIVE"
The Being receives these orders, and calculates.
"Plan accepted"
"Foreman, you must lead primary force in destroying major population centers, while secondary ground units continue to secure blast site, as well as securing bodies of indigenous species in order to ascertain unique abilities"
"Deploying additional ground forces"
"Deploying air support"
"Initiating scan of main continent" "Foreman, deploying forces to population center designated as Tristrania, destroy the city and its population".