Two days ago they'd reached planet Earth's rotation with the full intention of marking the planet a part of the Garshnock Empire. Even if that planet was incredibly out of the way of any kind of populated star system. According to their readings, Earth was the only planet with 'sentient' life for lightyears around.
Their Rule was expanding and quickly. It was necessary. That was the known law of the universe. You became a Galactic power or ended up as an unwilling gear in some larger empire's machine.
Captain Malak-a was glaring at the ship's readings, all red and flashing. As if someone had known exactly what to do to make it so that they were basically sitting in a metal deathtrap. No way out. No way to call for backup (not that any would be forthcoming).
The door slammed shut and Looma-r, her co pilot, flattened himself against it, out of breath. He looked terrified, all four eyes wide with panic.
She sneered in his direction. "I'm guessing you didn't take care of the problem."
He shook his head, gulping in air and crossing the room to her. Only closer, did she note the singe marks along his left side.
"What happened?" Malak-a hissed. Although she may not be a figure of compassion, she cared for her crew.
"T-there's an irken." He swallowed, eyeing the flashing systems screen. Things were only becoming more and more dire. "And one of the creatures from this planet."
"What? An irken?" The captain growled, claws curling into tight fists. "Are you telling me THEY are responsible for this...this catastrophe?" He nodded vigorously.
"They're working together."
Malak-a quickly pressed in a series of commands. Nothing worked. Nothing! Whoever had done this had a lot of experience with wrecking things.
"That's ridiculous! Irkens work with no one. They barely work with each other." Their species was violent. Raised to be natural killers. And even the ones that didn't become soldiers, were dangerous. Competitive and rude to boot.
"I know what I saw, Captain! They were communicating! They shot at me!" Looma-r gestured wildly at his burn marks. She turned to looked at him fully, examining his posterior. Either whoever was attacking them were terrible shots or... Hard pounding at the door. Looma-r had locked it at least. She growled and pulled her weapon from the holster around her waist.
"You idiot. You led them here." Voices on the other side, harsh languages that she had never bothered to learn so she couldn't reply. Her co pilot jumped behind her, shaking with fear.
"I-I'm sorry." Her rage faded from him and she directed it towards their intruders. Towards whoever had wrecked her ship. To whoever had the gall to attempt to impede the progress of the great Garshnock Empire. There was the sound of lasers, a bright, burning pink and a perfect square of metal fell into the room. She readied her weapon, not willing to go down without a fight. She saw a 'human', delicate looking, so strange. It had a grim look on its face and she raised the barrel to shoot it right in its stupid head.
Another bright pink blast. She screamed as pain overwhelmed her. Malak-a dropped the gun to hold her hand to her chest. They'd shot her. She hissed and dropped to the floor to pick it up again, only a tiny black boot kicked it out of range. She looked up to see an irken. Looma-r had been right.
Instinctively, a thread of fear pulled tight in her chest. Irkens were terrifying. Even this one, despite it being one of the smallest ones she had ever seen before. But, her natural fear was replaced quickly with anger, hatred and pride. Her people were some of the only races in their corner of the galaxy that had never succumbed to the irken menace. She refused to die to one this day.
It barked something at her, pink eyes flaring up with arrogance and rage. Beside it, the human stepped forward and placed a hand on its shoulder. She narrowed in on the action. Never had she seen irkens touch, or allow anyone to touch them. Even in battle. She waited for the inevitable rage that would follow, it would strike this human down for daring to lay a finger on it.
And yet...she saw the irken's face change. It softened, the anger dulling instead of flaring up to a new height.
And that was perhaps the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen.
Beside her Looma-r was shaking, perhaps equally as shocked. Perhaps he was just scared. The human stepped forward and she regarded it warily. It said something to the irken who replied in the same language. It nodded and watched her, equally as wary.
"Why are you here?" The irken finally said, looking incredibly displeased to be speaking their language. She scowled, disliking hearing a filthy irken using their words, anyway.
"None of your business, irken scum." The irken sniffed disdainfully and she heard it relay her words to the human who tilted its head to the side. A strange patch of hair on its forehead rose at the words, an annoyed glower at its irken companion.
"What is it saying?" It ignored her for a second, waiting until the human was done speaking.
"He. His name is Dib. He said, 'Let me guess. They're from another species that your people managed to piss off,huh?' And my name is Zim."
She sneered. "Like I care what you call yourself, you cog."
Zim returned the sneer. "Forgive me for attempting to be polite."
"Irkens don't know the meaning of the word. Why are you on my ship?"
"To find out why YOU are here."
"Did that really require destroying my vessel?"
Zim shrugged. "Not really. But, it made things much easier."
Malak-a curled her hands into fists, shaking with rage. "If you kill us, more will come, scum."
The human, Dib said something again. She turned her attention back to him, uneasy under his gaze. Perhaps it was how pinpoint his eyes were. Tiny black dots, surrounded by gold.
Zim sighed, exasperated. "He wants to know who you are? What your names are."
She was taken aback. "I refuse. Our names are our own, no one but those close to us might know them."
Zim threw his hands in the air. "I tried to tell him that!"
It was only now that she noticed the lack of gloves. And of uniform. He wore human clothes?
"You...you say you are 'Zim'. What is your title?" All irkens had them. Even the lowest of the low carried their title before their names. Tallest Red and Tallest Purple. Elite Scientist Blar. Invader Tenn. Table Headed Service Drone Bob. Titles were important, vital. It was their position in the machine.
She watched the irken freeze, saw him glance away, then look at the human, searching, as if asking for help. But, he said nothing. He swallowed before lifting his chin.
"I am...Zim. That is all."
She watched him warily. This was no normal irken. "You...have no title? Then you..." She thought hard. "Then what is the matter with you, little irken?"
Zim growled and went to lunge for her. But, the human stepped in his way, held him back, said some things to him that had the anger on his face dissolving again into a manageable irritation.
It was downright eerie to watch.
The human turned to her and said something in it's strange flat language. Zim sighed and began to translate, eyes looking anywhere but at her.
"Dib says, 'Just tell us why you're here. We don't want to hurt you. We're just trying to protect our planet.'"
A ripple of shock went through her and she could feel Looma-r jolting a bit with the realization. An irken...protecting a planet? With one of the members of the planet? No uniform? No title? This was way too weird. It went against everything she had ever learned or seen about the most violent, powerful race in the known Universe.
Looma-r was the one who spoke. "We-we're from the Garshnock Empire. We are to mark this planet for conquest, it will be added to our ranks."
Zim's face contorted into rage and he relayed the information to the human. She turned to glare holes into her co-pilot who wilted under it. The human spoke back, hands and arms moving all over as he talked. His face was pinched with...with some emotion. Humans had strange expressions. She couldn't quite read him.
Malak-a watched the irken wave away the human's words and turned towards them, face a mask of neutrality.
"You will not. You will leave this planet and never look back. This planet is not and will never be under control of any outside species." Zim lifted his chin again, evil eyes molten with some unnameable emotion she had never seen on an irken. "We will give you two rotations of the planet to leave the Earth's atmosphere. If you haven't by then, we will destroy you."
Malak-a opened her mouth to shout back, but he had already swept from the room. The human soon followed, shooting them one last unreadable glance.
She seethed on the floor where she had fallen before, still holding her injured hand that thrummed a new sharp pain with each pulse. Looma-r swallowed anxiously beside her.
"W-what do we do, Malak-a?"
The two of them; a human and an irken (who was either banished or defective, that was the only explanation) had managed to take down all the defensives and most of the offensives that their ship had within a few short minutes. They had rendered them all but useless, injured Looma-r and herself.
The stubborn part of her wanted to stay, to stand up to them. But, she wasn't an idiot. This wasn't meant to be a battle. They had no real choice if they didn't want to be 'destroyed', whatever that truly meant.
"We retreat. And find a different planet for our Empire."
And tell everyone the bizarre thing they had witnessed here. No one would believe it.