Prologue: Conquer All

Death had come to the world of Lortak.

It had come in the fifty-eighth year of the rule of the Almighty Tallest Red and Purple, and the eighth year of Operation Impending Doom II. It had come aboard the 66th Fleet of the Irken Armada, the 'Starbreakers.' Spearheading this fleet was the Massive, the flagship of the Tallest. It had come to Lortak as it had come to so many other worlds, for the Irkens were on the warpath. The Irken Empire had resumed its bid to conquer the galaxy, and Lortak now lay in the path of the Irkens' crusade. On the surface, 9 billion Lortak had gone about their day-cycles, completely unaware of the cataclysm approaching their world. The brutish reptilians were now fighting for their lives, as their planet thrashed in its last throes of death.

The capital city of Korassk was aflame, and seven massive Irken drop ships hung in the sky over it, their guns pounding the spires into dust. Columns of armored Irken Elite marched through the streets, butchering all who resisted. The broken army of the Lortak wearily threw themselves once more into a fight that was already lost. All across the world, massive fires burned, from the forests to the grasslands to the cities. The Lortak fleet floated dead in space, their hulls utterly shattered by the Irkens' superior weapon systems. Irken corvettes flew over the countryside, loudspeakers blaring insane rhetoric on the superiority of the Irken race. Lines of thousands of Lortak, bound in chains, shuffled towards their new lives of enslavement. Dozens of Megadoomers climbed the enormous mountains, firing up at fortresses nestled in the peaks. Irken artillery unleashed hell on every village in their range, while grav-tanks rolled across the land, crushing the forests before them and ending all life they encountered. Lortak lay in ruins, and the masterminds of this devastation now made their way to the surface of the dying world.

In Korassk's city square, the Irken soldiers had been gathered to bear witness to the Almighty Tallests' arrival. A streamlined black shuttle alighted in the spaceport, which was under heavy guard. A ramp slid down, and two tall Irken glided down silently. One was clad in red, the other purple. The Irkens bowed down when they passed, and the two Irken slowly progressed to the city plaza. There, standing atop a broken fountain was Supreme Commander Zark, the dozens of medals studding his black uniform reflecting the glow of the fires. Zark was the highest ranked military officer in the Empire, answering only to the Tallest. Zark lived for war in all forms, and he preferred to lead the ground attacks personally, therefore the common soldiers respected him greatly. He fired a few shots from his laser pistol into the air and screamed down at the gathered Irkens in the plaza, "Mighty warriors of Irk! Your leaders have set foot on their new world, to bless this filthy planet with their great presence! They are the lights by which the beautiful Irken race shall illuminate the galaxy! They have broken the backs of Vort, Blorch, and countless others! When we fight, when we kill, when we die, it is in their name! I give you, YOUR! ALMIGHTY! TAAAALLEEEEST!" The Irken crowd roared with approval, and twin figures of incarnate evil ascended to a vantage point where they could overlook the gathered soldiers.

Tallest Purple and Red, bedecked in baroque armor in the colors they were named for, surveyed the crowd. They floated gently on their gravity belts which gave them the illusion of being even taller than they were. On the hellish horizon a megaton plasma warhead detonated, casting a mushroom cloud flickering with green flames into the air. Irken soldiers crowded on top of tanks to get a better view of their Tallest, and thousands more thronged the city square; all of them screaming in adulation of the Tallest. Red placed his hands behind his back and smiled, and all grew quiet in the plaza, save the roar of the conflagrations raging through the city, and the distant thunder of Irken artillery.

Red spoke up, saying, "My loyal, brave soldiers, today we have come one step closer to the new era of Irken rule. You have laid waste to Lortak, and you should be proud, for the galaxy shall be better for it. Tragic as it may be, these Lortak can never see the light of the great Irken race, and for that they have paid," Red paused, and Purple picked up right where Red had left off.

"The Era of Irk has begun, and we are living in its glorious baptism of fire! We shall forge the galaxy into a single, pure empire that shall last from its formation to the ending of all. This era of instability and diversity is ending, and in times of change such as these, we must have the resolve to see our destiny to its completion. Do not falter!" Purple shouted, punching his gauntlets into the air as the crowd cheered, asserting their determination. A wing of Voot Fighters screamed overhead, right on time, and the crowd cheered even louder.

"Hard times are coming, but we shall stand fast." said Red. "There are rumors of a great alliance stirring in the western fringe, but I say LET THEM COME! If you follow your orders, fight bravely, and show no mercy, we shall purge the Milky Way of these weakling races' empires, and unite the galaxy under the banner of the glorious Irken Empire. Your names shall be written alongside the names of Irk's greatest: Ursh the Conqueror, Tyrax and his Blood-Born, and Lasc the Avenger! We shall be as gods among the innumerable stars!" The crowd cheered again, but an edge of anger was building up inside the voice of the mob.

"Through the violence and horror of this war, we shall leave nothing in our wake but the foundations of our new realm. The strong are meant to rule the weak. We shall stand, and we shall wipe out these blights on the galaxy!" Purple cried, whipping the angry crowd into frenzy. "Show the filth the power of Irk! Tear down their empires! Set fire to their worlds! Suffer not for them to live!" The crowd's wrath reached a fever pitch, and bestial rage echoed in the chest of every Irken watching.

"You were born for this! You were born for greatness, for conquest! You were born to take back the stars! YOU WERE BORN TO KILL!" Irken soldiers beat their chests, stamped their feet, and screamed their hate to the heavens.

"These lowly races look to you and HATE you, because they cannot be you! If they would give us hate, then let us return it TENFOLD! LET YOUR HATE FOR THEM FLOW! LET IT RUN FREE!" The Irkens were nearly mindless with rage now. Zark roared like a beast and fired his pistol into the air. Soldiers slammed their helmeted heads into their rifles, foaming at the mouth. Others scored their arms and cheeks with their combat knives. Discipline was giving way to bestial wrath, as the famed Irken legions transformed into a churning maelstrom of violence.

"WARRIORS OF IRK!" Red roared, as the speech reached its climax. "THE PATH HAS BEEN SET! THE GALAXY WILL BE OURS! STAR BY BLOODSTAINED STAR WE SHALL CONQUER! DESTINY BECKONS! GO FORTH!" The Irkens gave the greatest cheer yet and dashed off, sprinting to find a release for their pent up rage. A group of Elites came upon a Lortak chain-gang, and butchered the terrified reptilians before the Irken slavers could stop them. Others set to work on the fires, feeding them until they became all-consuming infernos. Tanks blasted apart the ruins that still stood, pounding them to dust. Zark stood panting at the base of the fountain, and looked up at his Tallest in awe. Red looked down at him and smiled sardonically. "Commander? Is everything alright?" he asked, smiling reassuringly.

Zark fumbled for a response. "T-terrifying, m-my Tallest. Glorious and terrifying. You're truly inspiring, Tallest." Purple chuckled at that.

"Commander Zark, that was nothing but the truth. The soldiers need to know that we are Irken, and that means we're better. We may have gone a little overboard on the extermination angle, though, eh Red?" Purple said as he gave Red a friendly punch to the shoulder.

Red grinned, and said "I got caught up in the moment, that's all. Now let's get back to the Massive, I've got a hankering for some nachos." Purple's eyes lit up.

"I'll race you to the shuttle!" He cried. The two friends took off, laughing, without a care in the world, and Zark sighed as he headed off to make sure enough Lortak were spared to maintain the massive arms foundries that would be built here after the Armada had left. No one remained in the plaza save heaps of corpses, and the silence of death settled over it.

The conflagrations spread, and massive clouds of ash choked most of what life survived the fires. The cities became overgrown ruins, and the Lortak feared to venture there. The 2.3 billion surviving Lortak were press ganged into working the factories, under the watchful eyes of 10 million Irken troops, churning out weapons of war to murder other worlds just as their world had been put down. The once-proud Lortak became bitter and cowed by their Irken masters. Small rebel movements periodically sprang up in the mountain fortresses, but these were always dispatched with ruthless, excessive force. The ashen fallout coated the environment, and the burned forests and grasslands became harsh, dead lands. This process had been repeated a thousand times across a thousand fronts, as the Irken Armada rolled over the stars in its path.

Death had come to Lortak.

Author's Notes:

So yeah. Basically, this is going to be my vision for how IZ ends. I'd just like to warn you, if you think this chapter is incredibly grim and dark, it's not going to get much nicer. On the other hand, most chapters aren't going to have intricate descriptions of genocide and enslavement either. But this is about war on a galactic scale, so you should leave your idealism at the door.

Just so we're clear, this is NOT OOC for the Tallest. The only way to consider this derailing their characters is if you ignore the context that they're out to conquer the galaxy and consider their race superior than all others. I just showed you, in essence, what they were doing in between all the times when Zim called them. The Tallest are not really nice guys, they're genocidal self-righteous dictators. They've also taken several levels in badass, I hope.

You'll also notice that I've expanded the scale at which the Irkens operate. This was for the sake of realism, as there's no way that the Armada as we see it in IZ could conquer the entire galaxy. Also note that in this fic the Irkens actually do conquer worlds in conventional ways, and do not just let Invaders take care of it. Whether or not you think this is how it happened in canon Zim is up to you, but for the sake of this story, the Irkens are actually a serious, credible threat to the galaxy.

Now for acknowledgments. First of all I'd like to thank Jhonen Vasquez for creating this wonderful show that I'm writing about. I'm not sure what else there is to say about that, so I'll move along.

I'd also like to thank ngrey651, who wrote the very good fan fiction Invader Zim: The Series. This inspired me to write my own series, although mine is going to be darker whereas his was more lighthearted. I've also received his permission to borrow a couple of elements from his story. These elements will be given credit once they appear in my story.

Now then, about the titles in this fic. They're named after metal songs. There's no other way about it. There will probably be all kinds of metal represented by the end of this, but I would like to make it clear, IT'S NOT NECESSARY TO LIKE THIS MUSIC TO READ THE FIC. It's kind of just a gimmick that I thought of and would like to stick to. And at least metal song names have depth to them. So now for more acknowledgments.

The subtitle for the fic itself comes from the song "In Dying Days" by As Blood Runs Black. The title just came to me because these are troubled times for the galaxy. Impending Doom II is going very well for the Irkens, but the rest of the Milky Way isn't going to sit back and let that happen. It's also fitting, because an Invader Zim AMV with a song by ABRB was the first thing I had ever heard by them.

The name for the prologue comes from Behemoth's magnum opus "Conquer All". Just reading the title alone should be enough to realize why it fits with the story, but it helps that Behemoth is my second favorite band in the world.

Thanks for reading all of this, and please feel free to write a review if you liked it or if you have some constructive criticism.