Invader Zim: Might of the Empire
Chapter Six: Metal Gear Irken
The vortian ship dived down into the atmosphere of Meekorb, passing over a city of pure white towers, streets, and bridges, before coming in sight the of equally bright and shiny monastery–stronghold. The irken infiltrators made a mental note of how obsessed the meekorb race seemed to be with making everything they owned white, before Aug started up the landing procedures. They had been cleared to land in the main docking bay, and had been told that an escort had already been arranged to meet them. Once the ship had neatly parked itself within the sheltered outcropping in the stronghold's walls, Tak waved the others to get into position, and checked her reflection real quick to insure that her disguise was still working.
Surrounding the landing pad were about a half dozen meekorb soldiers, who all floated unmoving in the air, waiting patiently for the door to the ship to open on its own. Soon enough, a crack opened up on the sides of the ship, revealing a staircase as well as two vortians who immediately began walking down the steps once the stairs had come into contact with the ground.
"Greetings, most esteemed allies," A meekorb with a black mark on his forehead said as he moved slightly in front of the rest of the escort. "The people of Meekorb are honored to welcome the members of the Resisty movement into our home."
"I am honored to be here," The fairer-skinned one said with a flawless smile. "My name is Kat Rell, captain of one of the few Type 34 ships remaining in the universe. We have heard that tension between the Empire and the Meekorb has risen in light of recent events, and have come baring gifts in hopes that they will serve you well should the need arise."
"The Meekorb will graciously accept any gift given from a friend, we shall have some cargo suits come by immediately and help you in in the unloading process. Until then, please follow Chaplain Orz, who has been selected to extend to you an offer of a guided tour around the facility."
"I accept this offer," Kat said with a nod, as she began to follow a gray-marked meekorb away from the landing pad. Soon after the tour group had departed, a pair of bipedal robots began to approach the now-open entrance to the ship's cargo hold, inside were two large metal crates, which the machines grabbed ahold of with their metal claws, and began hauling them off in a different direction towards a nearby temporary storage area. After both crates had been placed inside, one of the suits pressed a button on the nearby wall, closing the storeroom off.
"Okay, I think it's clear"
All of a sudden, the top side of the left crate burst open, and three irkens and two SIR units all armed to the teeth suddenly hit the ground with various degrees of coordination and grace- which is to say, Skoodge landed on his head.
"Are you quite alright, master?" One of the SIR units inquired in a voice highly reminiscent of an old British servant. Skoodge found the standard cold, uncaring tone of the SIR unit default voice to be rather intimidating, so he had picked up a personality chip before he had gone off to conquer Blorch.
"I'm okay, Chipz," Skoodge announced as he picked himself up and grabbed his laser rifle.
Commander Black put his ion pistol in its holster and took out a miniature device, which quickly began displaying a blueprint diagram of this part of the stronghold, along with a flashing red dot that was placed a few rooms away from them and down some obscure hallway.
"Alright, I got past the Meekrob security system and got us a map of the surrounding area. It looks like Tenn's recovery beacon is still active; it's broadcasting from a few rooms to the south of us."
"Huh, good thing that the Meekorb run the same operating system that we do." Larb mused as he stepped in closer to get a look at the diagram itself.
"You know, Tenn's beacon has been active for a long time even though they've had her in custody, it might be a trap." Skoodge added in after getting a good look at the map himself.
"That's a good point, I never considered that until now," Black said with a nod.
"We should split up into two groups, one to go straight for the signal, and the other to go investigate other potential holding areas." Larb suggested. "I was thinking that me and my SIR could do some digging around while you three go and take the bait."
"… Wait, why do we have to take the bait?" Skoodge asked.
"Because it was my idea. Bye now!" Larb said as he and his SIR unit suddenly bolted into a nearby air vent that was both conveniently next to the ground and big enough for Larb to crawl through and his SIR to still be able to walk through unhindered.
"…Well, we probably all shouldn't take the air vent, it would increase the chance of us being noticed."
"Don't worry Black, I have a plan that should let us simply walk down the hallways unnoticed!" Skoodge said as he went to reach for something still inside the crates that had carried them in.
A bush with a single fake white flower crudely attached to it slid along the ground, slowly making its way down the seemingly endless line off hallways when it seemed that no one was looking at it in particular
"No. Fucking. Way." Black commented from underneath their "concealment" as they inched ever closer to their destination. "How the hell is this idea of yours working?"
"Oh, I've done this dozens of times before, it was my main way of being sneaky back on Blorch. You'd be surprised at how easily people sometimes miss picking up on things that should be out of place."
"But we're inside a building for Tallest sakes. There shouldn't be a bush just in the middle of the walkway inside a building ever!"
"Look, it's working, okay? Don't question the Stealth Bush." Skoodge said as the bush stopped its forward movement momentarily as a periscope popped out of Chipz' head just enough for Skoodge to get a better look at where he was going. "So, do we turn down this hallway, or the one after this?"
"Hang on," Black took out his device again and looked at where an Irken symbol, representing them, was in comparison to where the blinking light was. "Yeah, it's the next one up."
"Got it." Skoodge closed up the periscope and began pushing the bush forward again. After passing underneath the floating bodies of the nearby personnel for nearly twenty minutes, they arrived at the doorway the rescue beacon was broadcasting behind, coming to a stop right in front of two blue-marked meekorb guards.
"huh, who left that bush there?"
"Whatever man, someone will come by and pick it up later, just focus on guarding the door."
Commander Black smacked his palm into his face upon hearing that conversation. How could no one see this as being really suspicious?
"Crap. I forgot that the Stealth Bush has one major flaw: it cannot get past closed doors." Skoodge muttered as he turned to face the others. "Now what?"
"The end of this hallway is pretty far away from the main passage, we could just try and kill them both before anyone has a chance to notice." Chipz offered.
"Seems like our best option right now," Black said as he drew his ion pistol, and Skoodge picked up his rifle and Chipz deployed a multitude of hidden weapons from his head. "On three, one. Two…"
"Dude, is that bush talking?"
"What? Bushes can't talk, maybe you should stop taking extra shifts-"
"Three!" Black yelled as he, Skoodge and Chipz simultaneously leapt out from under their "concealment" and proceed to unload generous amounts of firepower into the two completely unsuspecting guards, who were reduced to nothing more than a patch of air with a slightly elevated temperature in no time at all
"…I think we overdid it," Skoodge said as he noted that the meekorb targets had been completely dissipated.
"Eh, it's fine." Black took a look at the closed door in front of him, it had no obvious handle and no nearby number pad to put a code in. "I can't seem to find a way to open this door."
"It might require a meekorb to interface with it before it can open," Skoodge stated matter of factually. "But, since we can't do that, I guess I can see if Chipz can open it. Chipz, open the door please."
"Yes, master. It will only take me a moment."
A sudden massive wall of force crashed into the sealed door, sending the block of metal flying off its hinges and flying right through the trio of technicians that oversaw the prisoner's vitals. Fortunately for them, they, being beings of pure energy, were able to phase through solid objects. Unfortunately for them, the door was quickly followed up by a storm of laser beams, which they couldn't phase through. As the technicians dissipated into the air around them, Skoodge, Black, and Chipz entered the interrogation room.
"Hehehehehehehe, energy people got shredded… like paper, or-hehehehe- a paper cup!" A rather disturbed sounding voice echoed around the room, Skoodge turned away from the area where the technicians were and met the seriously unfocused eyes of none other than Invader Tenn.
"Tenn! You're alright!" Skoodge cheered and ran over towards where she was being suspended from the ceiling and extended a PAK leg to cut her lose. Tenn fell limply into the stout invaders arms, unable to stop her giggling the whole way down.
"Oh, you're hurt pretty badly," Skoodge remarked concernedly when he got a better look at all of the cuts and bruises she had scattered across her body. "Chipz, medical procedure #3 please."
"Yes, sir!" Chipz said with a salute as Skoodge laid Tenn gently on the ground and the SIR unit got to work. After the whirlwind of hyper-fast first aid work had subsided, Tenn was now wrapped up from head to foot in bandages, reeked of decontaminants, and had a smiley face sticker stuck to her forehead which read: Get Well Soon. Apparently some time during the first aid process, Tenn had fallen asleep, probably because the Meekorb had kept her forcibly awake for some time now.
Skoodge bent down and gently picked Tenn up and placed her on his shoulder, then pressed a certain button on the top part of her PAK, causing the continuous red light to stop flashing.
"Hey, Skoodge. She sounded a little… unstable just now," Black said as they began walking towards the exit. "Will she be okay?"
"Oh, she should be fine. She was probably just acting that way because of the anti-interrogation drugs her pack would have been giving her. They used to be standard issue in all PAKs, but apparently some rank and file soldiers learned how to… abuse the feature, so now only Invader PAKs get that addon. Itt'l wear off in a few hours."
"Right, well, everyone in the facility probably heard our little entrance, so why don't we call up the others and tell them we found Tenn. We could probably really use that present now…"
"-And this is our contemplation hall, where we meekorb spend about an hour a day reflecting on the events that have occurred." Orz said as he gestured- well, the meekorb really can't gesture, being made of energy, but you get the idea- to a room completely drenched in meekorb religious imagery existing in every way, shape, or form that you could possibly contemplate. There were finely cut statues, paintings, tapestries, even the floor, roof, and support beams were covered in meekorb letters and symbols.
"Hmm, fascinating, yes…" Kat said through a perfect mask of interest. How long were those fools going to take to rescue Tenn? They didn't have long before the assault began, and they needed to get out of here, fast.
Kat's communicator, which had been set to vibrate so that it would offer some level of silence but still be able to be answered went off, and a grin started to spread across the projection of a vortian's face. She slowly brought up a device on her wrist, and pressed the big red button in the dead center.
After spending another few minutes having the meaning behind every single item on display explained to her, A yellow marked meekorb suddenly arrived and interrupted whatever Orz had been saying at the time.
"Chaplain!" The new arrival yelled, distress clearly noticeable in his words. "There has been an attack on the interrogation room, the prisoner has been released! Also, there have been multiple reports of heavy fire coming from inside the storeroom just beyond the primary docking station! All units are to go and put a stop to the insurgents!"
"I'll be on my way!" Orz responded as the yellow-mark already began to head back to the lower level. "Well Lady Rell, I'm afraid that we must cut our tour her short. I trust that you'll be able to make your way back on your own?"
"Oh, don't worry-"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
-I'm sure I can find my way around now."
Orz could feel his incorporeal form be forced apart in places by the laser blasts. He couldn't bring the moving particles to reconnect, and his vision had begun to grow blurry.
"Urk… Lady Rell, why? Why have you done this?" The dying meekorb managed to turn himself around, only to see the vortian he thought was visiting suddenly fade, revealing a female irken.
"Long live the Empire!" She hissed as she fired another bolt of energy straight through his head manifestation, causing his existence to dissipate into the air around them as heat.
Author's note: Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read so far, and especially to Haku1013 for constantly commenting on my work. What will happen next? Will the entire team make it out in time before Tallest Red's assault on the system begins? Will Tenn eventually get off her meds? Will we learn what exactly Red's "present" to Meekorb contained? Will we actually learn what the hell Larb's been doing this entire time? Will GIR grow a mustache? Find out the answers to some of these questions next time, during the exciting conclusion of the first story arc of Invader Zim: Might of the Empire! Which should be up by this weekend if not earlier :)
Also, I love comments/critiques, so please send more of them.